The two of them arrived at the practice room earlier than expected, though the rest of the candidates had reached earlier than them. Winter was pleased to see that the room had been decorated with fairy lights and Christmas wreaths in celebration of the festive season. She had only just entered the room when Yu Ri pounced on her like a giant cat.

“Oh my god! Where have you been?” Yu Ri shrieked anxiously in her face. From the corner of her eye Winter saw Moon Bin walk towards s, who were isolated at a corner not far from her. “Did you know how worried I was when I realised that you weren’t to be found anywhere yesterday? I sent you so many text messages…” The members were asking him something. Her heart jumped in an anxious hurry, hoping they hadn’t noticed that Moon Bin and Winter had arrived together.

She could hear MJ’s cheerful voice as sharp as glass, “Yo! You came in with a girl?” The members gave Moon Bin questioning glances.

“It’s nothing,” Moon Bin brushed them off as he took a sip from a bottle of water.

“I saw it too!” San Ha piped in. “It’s rare for you to be so close to a girl! Is there something that we should know?”

“You know, I think I might have seen you with a girl yesterday,” Rocky added, raising his brows. Winter’s throat went dry in an instant as she watched them nod their heads in unison. She saw the muscles in Moon Bin’s back stiffen—

“Are you listening to me?” Yu Ri demanded, her furious face covering Winter’s  view.

“Wha—sorry, what were you saying?”

“I said I was worried about you,” Yu Ri said each word slowly and deliberately as if she were speaking to an elementary school kid. “Where on earth did you go yesterday? I couldn’t find you during the dance party.”

“Oh, I wasn’t in the mood to dance. So… I-I went home early! Sorry I didn’t tell you earlier. I was just so out of it yesterday.” Winter bit her lip. She didn’t like lying, especially not to people that she cared about. But this was a secret that had to be kept. If anyone knew about her living with Moon Bin, she could only imagine how angry he would be—Winter looked over Yu Ri’s shoulder but she could no longer hear what the members were talking about, though they seemed to be conversing in a merry tone. Moon Bin, on the other hand, had his back facing Winter, so she couldn’t see how the conversation had affected him. , she thought, I hope we haven’t been discovered!

“What are you looking at?” Yu Ri asked, turning behind towards Winter’s line of vision.

“Nothing!” Winter said hastily, only to find Yu Ri looking at her with her eyes reduced to tiny beads.

“You’re really strange today, you know that?”

“I know,” Winter admitted. She gave Yu Ri the expression that spelt I-can’t-really-tell-you-the-reason. Thankfully, Yu Ri only shrugged in answer and did not pursue the matter. Afterwards, the both of them shared about the night before in a much lighter tone and it was only fifteen minutes later when Mr Go entered the practice room and everyone fell silent.

“Nice to see that you’re all doing well after the long break,” Mr Go chirruped, his face split into a brilliant smile. “As you all know, I will be announcing the assignment for the second task today, so let’s get down to business immediately. Since the festive season is drawing near, the second theme would be… Christmas.” It seemed as if everyone had been expecting it, because the room erupted in a buzz of excitement. Yu Ri looked at her with glittering eyes. I-LOVE-CHRISTMAS, she mouthed. ME-TOO, Winter mouthed back. “All of you will form into pairs and perform a vocal performance surrounding the theme of Christmas. Now in order to prevent the overlap of any song, we will draw lots to see who you end up pairing up with. Now if you could pass this along…” It was the same white box with a slit in the middle that Winter was familiar with. After picking balls from the box, Winter and Yu Ri decided to open theirs at the same time. Much to their delight, both of them were to perform the sa