2017/09/04, D-200

The night in Seoul during the autumn time was just perfect for an outdoor party. She had to give credit to Yeri, Jaehyun and Johnny for holding this belated birthday party for Joy on the rooftop of the company building.

It’s half past ten already and many had gone back home or to their dormitory. The ones left behind, including the usual crowd consists of the former 96-00 rookies in RV and NCT, gathered in a semi circle enjoying a relaxing jam session of music.

The host Johnny set the theme of tonight’s performance as “another gender + another genre”. They all had great fun especially during the chaotic girl group dance cover by NCT, which had them all laughing tears. She was never the impromptu type so, when it came to her turn, she picked up the guitar and sang a ballad cover she did way back in the pre rookie days.

Fantastic Baby Cover by Wendy
https://youtu.be/7u1LV0a4uGA

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He seldom mixed with his hoobaes, not to mention hijacking their gathering out of the blue. But when he heard from Suho that a party was thrown for Joy and knew she would be present, he immediately volunteered to join and his eagerness raised Sehun’s eyebrows.

He recognized her soothing voice the moment they stepped out of the stairwell at the rooftop level. Since their first duet stages in July, they had plenty of chances to see each other for the past two months, often work-related and sometimes initiated by him.

Just two weeks ago, he dragged Sehun to go to RV concert with him and congratulated her personally at the backstage. Last weekend, after the celebration dinner for the A-Nation concert in Tokyo, he sought her out for drinks.

But despite his multiple attempts to hint here and there about his interest in her, he frustratedly found himself friend-zone by Son Seungwan. Her sincere and bubbly nature frustrated him more than ever for she was very determined to be ignorant to his attention in their every encounter.

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When the trio from the sunbae group turnt up and wished Joy happy birthday, the two maknaes in RV greeted their oppas enthusiastically (they had been very grateful to the trio because they spared their valuable time to show up in their concert two weeks ago), while the members from the maknae group NCT stood up immediately greeting their hyungs formally.

She greeted the new comers with a nod while she continued her performance. Thanks to the seniority of Irene and Seulgi in the company, the elder members of RV and EXO members were familiar enough to skip some formality in some private occasions. She laughed at the rigid reactions of NCT seeing their sunbaenims and predicted the party was going to end real soon.

In this kind of gathering, she could easily expect the presence of Suho, who proud himself to be the social butterfly in every occasion, and Sehun, who followed his hyungs like a lost puppy in almost every occasion. But she wasn’t so sure about Chanyeol. Though he often bought the hoobaes meals, he never stayed more than the time he need to drop off the food.

She therefore was genuinely surprised to see him making conversation with Johnny. After her ballad cover, which was well received with cheers and applause from her friends, she was even more surprised to find him walking towards her to take the stage.

“Listen,” he mouthed, looking into her eyes with an unusual intensity as he gently took the guitar from her hands. Confused by his gesture, she returned to her seat by Yeri’s side and wondered what would he mean.

The little crowd cheered for their sunbaenim harder as he adjusted the position of the guitar and played a few testing tune. His stage presence was out of this world as usual drawing everybody’s attention on him. She held her breath with anticipation and sensed that something was going to become clear to her.

...A look, a gesture, any expression
Is useless, none of them work
I don’t think you have any instincts
How much more can I express my feelings
One day I started to like you, you idiot
How can you not know how I feel
How much longer are you gonna dully
Treat me like a friend
That isn’t what I want...

Signal Cover by Chanyeol
https://youtu.be/1L8hsJ984bQ