“Hi! Welcome to Pledis Entertainment! You must be Jihoon, right?”

Jihoon looked up from his phone, surprised to find you sitting at the desk. You weren’t anything special. Just a girl sitting there, with a bright smile spread across your face. He immediately put his walls up and gave you a nonchalant expression.

“You must be the secretary?” He asked bluntly. You laughed softly, the sound like little bells. You sounded so stereotypical. Obviously, smiling at him just to win over his affections right off the bat.

This was the perfect opportunity for a superficial girl hoping to win over the heart of a cute idol. If you were there from the beginning, always willing to lend a helping hand, then that would be the perfect way to convince whatever idol she decided to go after that he should date her.

The fact that the company had even let you work here was ridiculous.

“Assistant, actually,” you corrected with a short laugh. “But it’s okay, how would you know? It’s your first day!”

You got to your feet and came around the desk, bowing deeply towards him, you introduced yourself with a brush of your hair.

“If you ever need anything at all, I am your girl! It’s my job to make sure that you and all the other trainees are ready for debut just like everyone else! Under my watch, I’ll make sure that you are well-fed, happy, and completely healthy!”

Jihoon raised an eyebrow at the whole performance. Why were you so utterly... Animated? Like some kind of anime girl.

“Right,” he replied. He stuck his hands in his pockets, wondering where all the rest of the employees were. He tried not to think about it too much. They must be on break or something. “So-”

“As I’m sure you know your debut is set for the end of the year, and you’re projected to make your debut with sixteen other boys,” you started to rattle off. You began to walk off, your finger waving in the air. You clearly expected him to follow you, so he decided to humor you. “We know it’s a lot of pressure but the CEO chose you to be the producer of the group. You’ll spend this coming month getting to know the other guys and working with Soonyoung and Seungcheol to figure out what the sound of this group is going to be.”

A boy came out from out of a room and looked at you. He had round cheeks and an odd look spread over his face. When he spotted you he dropped into a pose, making his fingers out to be a gun. 

“Put your hands in the air!” He blurted. You threw your hands in the air, letting your clipboard drop to the floor.

“Have mercy!” You blurted. “I was unprepared! Doing my duties as an assistant!”

“There’s no point in begging for mercy,” the other guy responded. “It’s over for you.”

He cocked his fingers up and made the sound of a gunshot. You fell to the ground, feigning an agonizing death on the floor. Then after a moment you sat up and pursed your lips.

“That really wasn’t fair Seungkwan, I was showing around the new guy.”

“Either way, you’re out,” Seungkwan responded with a shrug. You pouted and got to your feet, brushing off your pants.

“You’ll regret this next time we all play Assassin,” you warned. Then you turned and gestured towards Jihoon. “Seungkwan, this is Jihoon. He’ll be the leader of the vocal group. Jihoon this is Seungkwan. He’s going to be the Main Vocalist of the group.”

Seungkwan made a surprised noise and dipped his head in a low bow.

“Nice to meet you.”

Jihoon nodded, bowing as well.

“And you.”

You smiled at Jihoon and gestured for him to continue following you through the building.

“We’ll see you around Seungkwan.”

“Ah, can you get the guys some apples?” Seungkwan asked. “And, we’re thinking iced coffee tomorrow.”

“You guys have got it, tell Lee Chan I’m going to check in on his ankle later, and-” You paused to dig through your bag. “Give Samuel his hairbrush. Tell him not to break this one.”

“Will do, Captain.”

Seungkwan took the brush, gave you a fake salute and then laughed, waving goodbye to Jihoon.

Jihoon wrinkled his nose.

So, to hide your ulterior motives, you were creating your own relationships with the guys. Falsifying friendships by being the perfect assistant, and a whole other level of a friend for them. The idol life could be a lonely one. So you were just trying to be the perfect assistant to make everyone love you more.

Interesting.

“Anyways, once you get to know the boys, you’ll be challenged with writing a new song.”

You pushed into a room and turned around in it as if to show it off.

“This is your studio. I’m sure you’ll spend a lot of time here so I tried to make it homey!” You said excitedly. “We’ve been eager for your arrival for like a month, and I know that you didn’t realize it but we’ve been excited for you since you first showed up for auditions.”

You rushed over to one corner of the room and gestured to a futon on the bed, decorated in a soft fluffy colorful comforter.

“We’ve got a nap area! For late nights!”

You raced over to a bookcase on the other side of the room.

“A bookshelf for inspiration in case you get lost. I didn’t know what you liked to read so I put a cumulation of all of my favorite books and of all of the other trainees' favorite books.”

You moved over to the actual studio area and gestured towards it.

“And this is where you will actually be recording!” You announced. “I don’t know much about the technicalities of what you will be doing here but I put some empty picture frames here in case you want to liven up the place with pictures of friends or something.”

You put your hands on your hips.

“I call it the Jihoon Den!” You announced triumphantly. Your face morphed into one of surprise.

“Oh! I almost forgot, mini fridge-”

You were so excited just to show him around the room it was crazy to watch. He wasn’t used to people being so excited to prepare something for him.

“Anyways, you’ll spend a lot of time here so there’s this button on the wall. If you press it then it will immediately contact me and I’ll come down the hall to help you out!”

“Yeah?” Jihoon asked. You looked surprised to see him say something.

“Yeah! I’m at your beck and call!” You exclaimed positively. “Now, to meet the guys!”

You gestured for him to continue following you and lead you into the room that the other guy... Jihoon couldn’t remember his name anymore. It started with an S...? He sighed. How was he going to learn the name of Sixteen different guys in a month? And why were they rushing this debut anyways? He couldn’t help but feel like he was being held a bit in the dark.

“Jihoon, meet the members of Seventeen!”

Sixteen boys looked up from where they were all settled in a large dance practice room. One that could only have been built in order to accommodate a large number of boys. They all looked surprised to see him.

“Oh, is that the new guy?” One of the guys asked. He was on the taller and skinnier side. Jihoon squinted at him, before coming to the conclusion that he wasn’t Korean. Chinese maybe?

“That’s Junhui! He’s Chinese!” You said immediately. “But I’ll introduce everyone first in age order, then by unit.”

So you did.

“We have Seungcheol, Doyoon, Jeonghan, Joshua, Junhui, Soonyoung, Wonwoo. then it would be you, your birthday is November 22, 1996, right? Then comes Seokmin, Mingyu, Mingming, Minghao- I know try saying that three times fast- Seungkwan, Hansol, Chan, and Samuel.”

You spoke every name like you had known them for years and years. It was a little strange. You couldn’t have been around with them for very long so how had you gotten so close to them?

“And now by unit!”

You rattled off the names again, listing first Performance Unit, next Hip Hop Unit, and finally Vocal Unit.

As you spoke, introducing each member with care, Jihoon couldn’t help but notice how much of a ragtag team of kids they all seemed to be. There was no rhyme or reason to why each person had been chosen, it seemed like someone had drawn names out of a hat.

Jihoon was startled out of his thoughts by you brushing your hand against his, and leaning in close to him so that only he could hear what you had to say.

“I know it’s a lot of names to learn, but if you ever get confused you can just nudge me and I will slip their name into the conversation to help you learn who everyone is.”

Jihoon didn’t directly acknowledge you, but he couldn’t help but think that the sentiment was very nice of you.

Even if you were likely just pretending to get him to be comfortable with you. Which, he, for one, would not let happen.

“I’m Lee Jihoon. I’m excited to work with you all,” Jihoon said, he pressed his lips into something that could resemble a smile. It only lasted for a moment but it was enough that you sharply breathed in, feigning a heart attack. As if it were some kind of act that you had done a million times before, one of the taller more awkward looking guys rushed over catching you dramatically.

Jihoon tried to hide how surprised he was by the whole action, but it was kind of hard to hide when everyone in the group was looking on in amusement.

“Oh my gosh, he’s even more precious in real-life!” You blurted out. You grabbed Seokmin’s arm and looked up at him. “You guys saw it too right? He smiled, ah he smiled.”

“Stay strong,” Seokmin encouraged patting you on your head. “Besides you can’t let him know about your crush.”

You nodded, putting on a fake brave face.

“You’re right. I have to be strong. No matter how soft that smile made me.”

You stood back up and then laughed.

“Anyways, I should get back to my post, I’ll see you guys later.”

You waved at everyone and began to leave the room. You paused when you were adjacent to Jihoon.

“The boy who caught me is Seokmin.”

Jihoon looked at you, surprised by the move. He was suddenly a little worried about being left in this room with all these strangers, but he ignored the small feeling in his gut and completely ignored what you had to say.

He waited until he was sure you were gone- you, of course, made a big deal of saying bye to everyone before shutting the practice room door behind you- and then he faced all of the rest of the boys.

These boys were his future.

The next who knows how many years of his life were going to revolve around the 16 guys standing in front of him.

16 guys who knew you and your intentions. Jihoon turned to the last guy you had spoken to and pointed in the direction you had left in.

“Is she the only assistant we have?” He asked bluntly. Seokmin laughed and nervously brushed back his hair.

“Well, you know, Pledis doesn’t have many employees,” he replied. “And she’s nice enough to volunteer to help us out for really nothing in return. She wasn’t even supposed to be allowed to directly interact with us but leaving the things we needed in front of doors and stuff was so awkward we eventually told them things had to change,”

“Oh, and you should know she has the sweetest crush on you,” one of the guys said as he walked over to Jihoon. Jihoon couldn’t remember his name, and luckily he seemed to sense that. “Mingyu, by the way.”

“A... Crush on me?” He asked uncertainly. He nodded.

“Yeah, she gets to see our resumes before she meets us, and we all watched your audition tape together... Ingenius to edit you writing a song for your audition by the way.”

Jihoon murmured thanks but before he could say more, the first guy he met walked over.

“We all thought it was great, but she stared at the camera like she had met her soulmate, it was so cute, we’ve never seen her react like that.”

“I’ve never seen her act like that,” Another guy said walking over. Jihoon couldn’t help but think he looked American... Did that make him... Hansol? “And we’ve been friends since we were kids. You’re special bud.”

He patted Jihoon’s shoulder. Jihoon frowned.

“Why... Why are you guys telling me all of this?”

“We all came in the same way,” Mingyu insisted. “I mean she’s a girl our age who volunteers at an entertainment industry. It sounds like she’s some sort of saesang. We were hoping to skip it with you. We would hate to see you crush her spirit.”

“I’m not really interested in girls,” Jihoon responded. “No offense, but especially not her, and especially not now. I don’t want to deal with her unless I have to.”

Seokmin put his hands in the air and shrugged.

“Hey, if you want to think that you can escape her charms then please go ahead.”

“I don’t-”

“Come on we have a month to “bond” with you, and an hour before she comes back and tells us it’s time to go to our places. Let’s all get to know one another okay?”

Jihoon nodded unsurely and led the boys to lead him further into the studio.

He couldn’t help but wonder what he had gotten himself into joining a company that was going broke and why he couldn’t get your bright smiling face out of his head when he tried to put names to the faces of his new group members.

It only got worse as time progressed. The better he got to know the boys, the more he had to see you. You were practically always around the boys. Whether you were bringing meals, offering up snacks and water, or just helping out another member you were always around.

Jihoon could almost swear that you were right around the corner even when he couldn’t see you.

And you were so... So nice? Despite the fact that Jihoon was making it pretty clear that he really didn’t want anything to do with you, you were making a serious effort to make sure that he was as comfortable at Pledis as possible. And somehow you were making catering to seventeen different guys seem like a piece of cake.

“Hey, guys I have an announcement!” You said waving the boys over. Everyone stopped what they were doing to look at you. All they had been doing was playing some games in order to bond with Jihoon, but he wasn’t really getting to know them all that much better. He could easily name Soonyoung and Hansol but that was about it and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t remember the Main Vocalists name.

The leader of the group walked over to you and smiled.

“What’s up kid?” He asked you. You scoffed at being called a kid but didn’t say anything about the nickname.

“Thanks to your prodding, I finally got the CEO to agree to start promoting you guys and likewise, as Samuel requested, a rearrangement of Suju’s Happiness is a great way to make your first appearance on the web.”

The boys around Jihoon all cheered their excitement, murmuring amongst themselves. You shushed them all somehow by simply raising your hand in the air. It was clear that all the guys had a certain level of obedience about them towards you that Jihoon didn’t quite understand.

What lies had you fed these guys to get them to listen to you so well?

“We just need a good filming location and a solid costume design for you guys that is easy to tell you two apart,” you announced. “For costume design, I was thinking that different colors unique to yourselves would be good predebut, that way it’s easy for people to tell you apart. Kinda like what Red Velvet did.”

“You’re so right!” The main vocalist said excitedly. He rushed over to you, a smile spread impossibly wide across his cheeks. “What color do you think I should be?”

“I can’t choose for you guys,” you said with a laugh. It made half of the group groan.

“Come on y/n. You know us better than anyone!” Seokmin encouraged. “You really should choose the colors.”

You kept denying that, but the boys were adamant, it was somewhat amusing to watch, but also confuddling as always. It was as if to them, your presence was necessary for a successful debut. But... How could that be when you were just an assistant for the company?

They really depended on you. Expected you to be able to make the decisions that had to be made for them to all be successful and you seemed hesitant to make those decisions for them.

That was also odd. A fangirl using her advantageous position in an entertainment company shouldn’t hesitate to put her own spin on a groups debut. It was good leverage to hold in case of a successful debut.

So, why were you hesitant?

“But it would be such a great opportunity-”

“Stop making excuses!” One of the Chinese members stated firmly. He rushed over to you, which seemed to surprise you.

“Jun-”

Jun hit you firmly on your forehead.

“Give us our colors. We’ll figure out the actual outfits.”

Jihoon sighed and rested his hand on the back of his neck, letting his head roll forward.

“Our concept is a boyfriend concept... Isn’t it? Isn’t that why we are such a varying group of guys. There’s someone for everyone?” Jihoon voiced. Everyone looked to him, and they all seemed to expect you to answer. That flustered you, and you nudged Seungcheol who then nodded.

“Yeah, that’s the idea.”

“Well, then we should win them over first with something soft. What about denim overalls for uniformity and boots. Our shirts under the overalls can be the different colors like y/n suggested,” he stated. Seungcheol’s eyes lit up.

“That’s a great idea.”

He looked over at you and nudged you in the side.

“You two make a good team.”

You chuckled and brushed your hair out of your face.

“Okay, okay, I’ll pick the colors, just don’t tease me,” you insisted. You sighed and pinched the bridge of your nose. “But I’m just going to take your favorites and divide it amongst you guys.”

Everyone seemed pretty excited and rushed over to you to figure out which color best suited them, it was during all of that, that someone asked the obvious question.

“How are we going to get the outfits?”

Your head lolled towards him, and you grinned.

“Come on Mingyu, I think you know how we are going to get them. We’ll just all have to go shopping!” You exclaimed, raising an index finger in the air happily. Mingyu seemed to find that answer acceptable (and kind of adorable) because it made him smile.

“We’ll go after we figure out what we want to do with the actual dance,” Seungcheol agreed. Soonyoung was the next to speak.

“For arrangements, we’ll have to rework their 13-person formations since we have seventeen. Luckily, we’re both uneven numbers, so we can easily match the triangle formations they tend to fall into,” he pointed out.

“Instead of doing the whole song, what if we only did up to the dance break,” Chan suggested. “After the dance break we could just do a remix where we introduce ourselves, and then do the chorus again and end the cover introducing ourselves as Seventeen.”

“We could always do performance unit for the dance break. That can be the official showcase of their talents. Obviously, the high notes at the beginning are perfect for showcasing Seungkwan,” Doyoon pointed out.

“Samuel should be a centerpiece in this since he is the youngest,” Dongjin suggested. The other boys hummed their agreement. The chatter, all slowly developed into a more serious conversation. What was initially just curious murmurings became something more serious as time progressed and the ideas being laid out there were all pretty good. Line distribution was coming out pretty well from vocal unit. Hip hop unit was doing a pretty legit job trying to figure out the parts they had all already decided they had, and performance unit was figuring out the new formations, the new rotations, the introduction break down.

You were there, the only constant in the chaos, taking down each and every bit of information being laid out before everyone.

There was nothing in any of this for you. Nothing at all.

He grimaced.

How did your behavior such far make any sense at all?

“You guys need a break from all this hard work. This is a great bonding opportunity at all, but you know what even better activity is on the itinerary?” You said, clicking your pen to a close after a few restless hours. The others looked at you, which made you smile even brighter. You stretched your arm out.

“I hope you guys are ready for karaoke night?”

Karaoke was a mess, but it did help Jihoon to figure out the differences between all of the guys' personalities. 

Doyoon and Seungcheol were like the mom and dad of the group. Seungcheol was strict, insisting everyone listen to him, while Doyoon was softer, and often convinced Seugcheol not to be so intense.

Most of the rest of the group was a bunch of uncontrollable crackheads, minus Joshua, and a few people from the Chinese unit of members. You somehow remained a constant mediator in the midst of all of it.

If Doyoon and Seungcheol got distracted by all that was going on then you were certain to be able to get the group under control to make a responsible decision. If someone got sidetracked by anything you were pretty quick to reroute everyone back on the right track. It made the journey to the Karaoke place all that more interesting.

Getting a room to accommodate seventeen people, hadn’t really seemed plausible, but somehow you landed it and got everyone settled in it comfortably. Jihoon sat somewhere in the center of the room with the rest of vocal unit, and you had placed yourself next to him not long after teaching everyone how to use that particular karaoke system (since no one had listened with the employees instructed them how to).

You shifted your weight back onto the couch and exhaled your relief, looking down at your phone after only a moment. Next to you was Seungcheol, who glanced over at your phone.

“What’s up? Work?”

You jumped a little and looked over at Seungcheol apologetically.

“Yeah. Sorry.”

“You’re allowed to look at your phone when you’re with us you know. You have a life outside of Pledis,” he stated easily.

Now that Jihoon thought about it, he hardly ever noticed you using your phone. Odd, considering you would just assume that a girl your age would be practically unable to peel themselves from their phones. In fact, the only technology that Jihoon ever actively saw you messing with was the computer at the front desk and a camera that you used to take pictures of everyone with during certain activities around the studio.

“Yeah, well I certainly wish I didn’t,” you grumbled in response. “I’m not going to be able to be around you guys for early morning practice. They need me to cover a shift, but I’ll bring breakfast beforehand, and I’ll come right over afterward.”

Doyoon peered over Seungcheol’s shoulder and rolled his eyes, flicking you lightly in the forehead.

“Don’t overexert yourself for our sake. We’ll survive without you for a while you know that,” Doyoon stated. He grabbed Seungcheol’s wrist and tugged him away from you. “Let’s go talk to Mingming about doing a song together.”

Seungcheol’s eyes lit up and he nodded. The two both waved farewell to you as they left for the other end of the couch. You waved to them as well and turned your attention back to your phone. You huffed to yourself and shoved the phone back into your pocket.

For a moment, you seemed somewhat upset, but it only lasted for a second, because that’s when you noticed Jihoon looking at you. You offered him a smile.

“Sorry if my presence here is kinda weird,” you said apologetically. “The guys are really excited about my crush on you, and so they really like to make me spend time with everyone and thus spend more time around you.”

There it was again. Another joke about you having a crush on him. Something about the whole thing was odd. He furrowed his eyebrows.

‘Right. Your crush on me... Is that-”

“Real? Yeah,” you admitted. “I’ve been pretty secluded in the past. I wasn’t ever so outgoing, but a while ago I decided I wanted to be more approachable. You're the first crush I’ve had since that decision, so I’m trying to approach it honestly.”

“Honestly?”

“No secrets,” you replied. “I like you. I don’t know how long it will last, but I really like you. I won’t keep that from you. If you want to like me, go for it, if you don’t just pretend like there’s nothing to it.”

“I don’t mind you being honest about having a crush on me,” Jihoon replied. He wasn’t sure why he said that. He did mind you pretending like you had some sort of crush on him. It was weird. It was unnecessary. It was selfish.

So why... Why did his heart skip a beat when you said that you liked him?

“Y/n!” Someone called excitedly. “Come here! You’ve got to do a song!”

You looked up at the person tilting your head slightly to the side.

“Oh, should I? What should I do?”

The other boy gestured you over eagerly so you smiled and patted Jihoon’s knee friendlily. 

“I’ll be back! You’ll cheer for me right?” You asked, that goofy indescribable smile spread over your lips. Jihoon didn’t respond but you didn’t seem to mind that.

It was odd to see you seem so entirely unphased by something that should’ve meant so much to you but you really weren’t perturbed in the least.

You turned away and bounced over to the other guy. Jihoon wracked his brain for a name. Something with an ‘S’, something kinda dorky...

“Boo Seungkwan, you’re a genius!” You screamed in triumph and gave him a sharp high five.

Right, that was the name.

Seungkwan looked almost shy at the pure glee spread across your lips as you took the microphone. Jihoon could tell that you hadn’t been friends with him all that long either. He still wasn’t used to your antics.

You gripped the oversized karaoke microphone in your hand and smiled wildly.

“You guys ready for this?” You asked, but you were looking right at Jihoon. He sighed and rested his head on his hand, but he didn’t look away from you.

You started singing, and Jihoon was surprised that you could sing so well. He hadn’t expected you to be a bad singer in any way, but you had some real natural talent.

The song you were singing... It was chosen pretty peculiarly.

Jihoon hated that he knew you had chosen this song just so you could sing it to him.

“Like sweet chocolate ice cream

My feelings melting now, so lovely.”

Your voice practically matched an idols singing those words so well. Jihoon couldn’t help the way that your voice attracted his attention. He couldn’t turn away if he wanted to.

“Come on you know the dance y/n!! You have to do it!” One of the other guys encouraged. Jihoon recognized him... It was a guy named... Seokmin. You just smiled at him and gave him a short nod as you hit the chorus.

“You there,” you pointed at Jihoon as you sang, actually jumping right into the choreography. “I fancy you, I don’t want just anyone. Hey, I love you.“

You moved to the center of the room and winked as you sang the lyrics. It was like you were even doing the positioning in your head.

“Yes you, I fancy you, you can be happy like a dream, ’cause I need you.”

Every time you sang those bits you stared right at Jihoon, that adorable smile matched with your oddly stable singing with your incredibly on rhythm dancing was a bit overwhelming to watch.

“Fancy you Who cares who likes who first. Fancy you, I will come to you now. Fancy, ooh.”

You kept going but Jihoon was done just staring and listening. He bumped Seokmin with his elbow, who jumped slightly at the action.

“She-”

“Oh yeah, she sings and dances, the whole shebang,” Seokmin said before Jihoon even asked the question. “She does it on the side, like as a hobby. Loves it with everything she’s got, even when it rips her apart to do.”

“Rips her apart?” Jihoon asked.

“Yeah, she gives everything to her dances. She does it with a lot of people she thinks are better at dancing than her too, so she pushes herself to perfection because she doesn’t want to be the weakest link.”

Jihoon couldn’t imagine how you would be.

You radiated confidence in your song, in your dance. Each word you spoke like you yourself had written the song. Even more, even when you messed up, you didn’t let it show that you were in any way upset. You just went on so naturally, Jihoon could barely tell the move was wrong.

It had been hard for Jihoon to imagine you doing anything seriously. Not after you had spent so long pursuing him like some idiot who just didn’t have anything better to do.

But looking at you now, executing something so well, so deliberately. Jihoon knew that you were capable of doing much more then he had ever imagined. Jihoon knew that maybe you did have a purpose pursuing him after all.

The song came to an end and you bowed overdramatically for all of the cheering boys and then, with a bounce in your step looked right at Jihoon.

“Did I do well?” You asked hyperly.

Jihoon just rolled his eyes, and looked away from you, not giving you any sort of response. You didn’t seem deterred by that, just began to bounce your personality around with the other boys.

Jihoon clenched his teeth.

Yeah, you had done really well.

But... He wouldn’t be saying that out loud.

-

“What’s on the schedule today?” Jihoon asked as he walked into the studio. One of the members... Jihoon struggled to pull his name from his memory. 

“We’re going to start learning the dance to Happiness,” the guy stated.

“And knowing how talented members like you are, Minghao,” you inserted, walking over to the two. “Then you’ll probably finish learning it today too.”

You looked over your shoulder at Jihoon and smiled brightly at him.

“Good morning Jihoon, how are you doing?” You asked brightly. “There’s a coffee for you on the table. Just like you like it.”

That’s how it went every morning. Jihoon had been here for a while now, and they were closing in on their month deadline for getting to know all the members. He needed to get to know them all soon.

“Thanks,” he mumbled and turned to go get the caffeine. At the table stood Doyoon and Dongjin. Doyoon was talking to him softly about something that Jihoon couldn’t really pick up on.

Jihoon wondered idly why everyone was here. 

A seventeen-member kpop group was... Well, pure insanity. The only reason that Jihoon had thought it would be a good pick for himself was that he didn’t always like being the center of attention, and knew that the more people in the group, the fewer people would pay attention to him.

Besides, Pledis had seemed to be going for a more unconventional group of idols, and Jihoon’s talents weren’t enough to make his height irrelevant in the idol choosing process.

This hadn’t been his only choice, but it had been his best shot at becoming an idol either way.

“So around the 2:10 mark we start to diverge from the real choreography. We form a line behind Samuel, who will effectively be the only person in the dance group that isn’t performance unit,” Soonyoung was explaining. 

Jihoon looked around and tried to spot Samuel. He was the youngest, and his hair was more auburn then everyone else. He found him sitting near Joshua and Hansol. Of course, the English line found comfort in one another it seemed.

“Samuel will take center, and the rest of us will be in a triangle around everyone, after that we will all fall back, and resume the chorus, Seungcheol will be in center for the second chorus, and then once we are done with that chorus we will all hit the audience with Aegyo and, fall into four groups of four with one group of five,” Jeonghan added. The two smiled at one another and nodded in unison

“So let’s get our starting formations!” Mingming said excitedly.

Soonyoung took this opportunity to start telling people where to stand. It was a good way to figure out who in the group were the ones most suited for leadership positions. Seungcheol, Doyoon, and Soonyoung took charge of the group like it was second nature.

“Oh and for the heck of it, y/n, stand right there in the back.”

You looked up from your clipboard in surprise.

“Me?” You blurted. He laughed and nodded.

“Yeah come on, aren’t you gonna learn the dance with us?” He asked. You seemed startled by the simple accusation.

“No! I’m just your assistant, here to make sure-”

Hansol scoffed.

“Come on, it’ll help us keep up our morale up if you learn it with us!” He encouraged. “Besides, is a little fangirl like you really just going to watch us learn a kpop dance?”

“I’m not-”

“Take your spot in the back love,” Jeonghan encouraged. “No need to argue, it’s all futile in the end.”

You pouted slightly and turned away from them so you could set your clipboard down.

“I’m going to quit,” you murmured. “I’ll quit and then who is going to tell you what to wear, and get you guys your tubes of toothpaste.”

But even as you said that you walked back into your position, obediently.

Performance unit pretty much exclusively took charge, teaching everyone the dance at hand. It was clear Soonyoung, in particular, would make a good dance instructor, as he was very collected, and explained each dance move pretty well. Minghao too was pretty good at teaching dance moves and was willing to go over them with people as many times as they needed to for as long as necessary.

Jihoon was most surprised with how quickly everyone was picking up everything. He knew they were all idols, but even you had no trouble learning the dance.

Jihoon had seen the choreography a million times before. It was a very smooth dance, complicated arm movements during the verses, that added on somewhat difficult footwork during the chorus that looked like a breeze if the right person was doing the choreography.

A glance in the mirror sure made it look like they were all doing it right.

Hours turned into a whole day of practicing the choreography, ingraining it into their brains. A day, turned into days until they were practicing the choreography every day, all day, until doing the dance was practically second nature.

I never once forgot you I thought of only you.

“Don’t forget the arm wave!” Lee Chan encouraged as they ran through the set choreography. “And if you aren’t performance unit, drop down low during the dance break!”

Then what about you? Did you forget me?”

“Can you all stop practicing for two seconds to help me carry in dinner?” You asked with a laugh. “Sure 10 pizzas may mean nothing to you guys but I can’t carry that much weight on my own.”

Seungkwan, yes, that was his name jumped to his feet and rushed over to help you. So did Hansol and Joshua.

“Please tell me you got Goguma Pizza!” Seungkwan exclaimed as he rushed over to you. You laughed. 

“Despite it being extremely annoying to order. Of course, I did.”

Everyone laughed and began to disperse to go get the newly laid out pizza.

“What did we do to deserve pizza?” Wonwoo asked thoughtfully. You got up on your tippy toes in order to pat his head softly.

“You guys just were yourselves,” you said sweetly. He rolled his eyes. “Besides, you all have been working really hard. You should be allowed to enjoy pizza.”

My tears fall from my eyes I feel betrayed.

“Jihoon! Come over here!” You called eagerly. “You have to help us settle an argument.”

Jihoon tilted his head and wandered over to the others, wondering what had you so riled up.

“So when you first met the guys, who did you think was the most ridiculous?”

Jihoon was caught off-guard by that.

“What?”

“The most ridiculous! I mean obviously, almost everyone is a huge crackhead, but who is the biggest crackhead?”

Jihoon thought it over for a moment.

“Well, I mean Seungkwan is an annoying crackhead. While, Soonyoung is equally as ridiculous, but it’s more endearing from him.”

All the boys burst out into laughter, and Seungkwan feigned hurt.

“What? You’re so cruel!” He exclaimed. Mingyu laughed just as large and walked over to Jihoon, slinging his arm around him.

“You’re fitting in just fine short stacks.”

Jihoon’s face reddened a bit, but even though he couldn’t help but smile at the nickname. He kinda liked being teased like that... It was like having a brother.

I thought of finding you. I, I don’t really know. In my eyes, you are the only one

in the world

Jihoon rested his hand on his cheek and clicked the button on the studio table.

“Remember to keep your voice softer. This dance may be high energy, but the allure is how pleasant it sounds to the ears despite how involved it is,” Jihoon reminded Samuel.

Samuel nodded from within the studio and obediently retried his part, his voice softening. Jihoon pursed his lips and nodded once.

“Good. Next is Seungkwan.”

As they switched spots, you came over to the table, setting another cup of coffee before him.

“Another long night?” You asked him. Jihoon didn’t respond so you took a seat behind him. He couldn’t help it. He smiled to himself once he knew you wouldn’t see.

I don’t have anything to say

I can’t go I don’t have tears

”Crackhead culture!” You screamed out. A different song started playing during break. Not Happiness, but a song by a young new group. Get Cool by Stray Kids.

You, Soonyoung, Chan, Hansol, and Dongjin all rushed towards one another and began to dance, you all getting a little too into it. It was even more bizarre when the rap hit, and you and Hansol went crazy screaming it at the top of your lungs and then... You did the fortnite dance with Hansol as wildly as you all could.

You ended up falling to the ground because you laughed so hard, and started doing the dance from where you now were on the floor.

Once the music had stopped everyone started to laugh on their own, which is when you noticed Jihoon looking at you. Your face reddened and you got back to your feet, disappearing into the crowd of boys... Geez... Did you have any right to be that cute all the time?

Look at me in front of you

Me, who lives for you alone

“Alright guys, go crazy,” you stated, pushing open the door to the department store. The boys all dispersed into various areas in the department store, Soonyoung taking Jihoon’s wrist in his hand as he dragged him over to an area of the store.

“What’s your color again? We should look for things together with Seungcheol so we can all get to know each other better!” Soonyoung encouraged. He waved over Seungcheol who was talking with Wonu and... another rapper in the Hip Hop Unit. He shut his eyes a moment, wracking his brain for the name. It was... Mingyu.

Seungcheol bounced over to the two and smiled brightly.

“What’s up?”

He bowed politely at Jihoon, so Jihoon did the same for both of the other boys. Despite all the time they had all spent together, it was hard to drop the formalities. Despite Mingyu’s insistence, Jihoon still caught himself bowing to Mingyu in the morning as the other boy came out of the bathroom.

You were always trying to wack it out of the guys so that everyone would get accustomed to everyone faster, and as such you were there to hit all three of them in the head for the bows.

“You’re shopping, not visiting a king. Please, guys, drop the formalities, you’re family now,” you chided softly. Jihoon caught your eye, which seemed to make you a little flustered. Your face reddened slightly. “Oh? What was that Chan?”

You rushed off in the opposite direction... Not only was Chan not that way (at least Jihoon was pretty sure that wasn’t Chan. Chan wasn’t that tall, you were headed towards Seokmin), but Chan also hadn’t said a word at all to you.

Seungcheol chuckled softly and shook his head at the behavior. Soonyoung too didn’t seem to find it odd. Jihoon sighed. He hated to ask but...

“What’d she do that for?” He asked. They both looked at him somewhat surprised.

“Do what for?”

“Get all embarrassed?” Jihoon replied.

“Oh, well, remember the other night when we all stayed up to watch anime together as a bonding exercise?” Seungcheol provided. He wasn’t completely committed to the conversation however, as he was mostly preoccupied looking through the different shirts on the rack near him. He seemed to be really liking a pastel purple polo shirt. It was rather soft looking, Jihoon had to admit.

He hummed his affirmation, so Seungcheol continued speaking.

“Yeah well, remember when you were making fun of that Tsundere character for resorting to violence over words? She overheard.”

And just like that Seungcheol picked the shirt up off the rack and held it against his chest for Soonyoung to see.

“What do you think? Too much?” He asked. Soonyoung pursed his lips.

“The polo looks fine, but you’d look better in a hoodie... Don’t you think Jihoon?”

Jihoon wrinkled his nose and pointed across the room to a hoodie of the same color with the word “daydream” written across the arms.

“Yeah, what about that one?” He suggested. Seungcheol’s eyes lit up.

“It’s perfect!”

He rushed over to get it leaving Jihoon with Soonyoung, so he turned his attention to the other boy.

“What does the whole anime thing have to do with her being so weird just then?” He asked. Soonyoung glanced at him.

“Oh, well when she hit us she probably saw you and remembered what you had said about the tsundere girl. So she got embarrassed for resorting to violence,” he explained. He too was only half into the conversation. He picked out a pastel blue t-shirt and raised it into the air. “What do you think?”

Jihoon pointed across the room at a different shirt of the same color that looked to have a long sleeved shirt underneath it with black and white stripes across it.

“You should wear that instead, maybe match it with a headband?”

Soonyoung nodded solemnly.

“That’s a good idea actually. I like the way you think Jihoon.”

Soonyoung walked away as well, leaving Jihoon alone so he tracked over to where Seungcheol had wandered, now looking for a bucket hat it seemed to match his new hoodie.

“So she got embarrassed for being violent when I had expressed some disdain towards being violent? I don’t understand the significance between the two events,” Jihoon admitted. Seungcheol triumphantly grabbed a bucket hat from the display and placed it on his head, then looked skeptically at Jihoon, as if trying to figure out what to put him in.

“Well, she wants you to like her,” he stated. “So it was just embarrassing to her for you to see her in a way you might not like.”

Jihoon was even more confused now.

“But... Why?”

He sighed and shook his head.

“Y/n!”

You popped up from across the store where you were helping Samuel into a White button-up with black ribbons hanging off the shirt sleeves. You said something to Samuel and then rushed over to Seungcheol.

“What’s wrong?” You asked, bouncing on the balls of your feet.

“Jihoon is clueless, can you help him figure out what to wear?” Seungcheol asked. You scoffed.

“Can I? I even got Diva Samuel over there to agree to an outfit, can I help him,” you laughed, waving your hand in the air. You looked at Jihoon, scanning his body for only half a second before snapping your fingers. “I saw just the thing.”

You rushed away and then came back not long after with a pastel pink sweater with black stripes horizontally crossing the shirt. It was way too big for Jihoon but looked comfortable anyways.

You pushed the sweater into his arms.

“You like to wear oversized clothes right? You can wear this and then maybe like a cute pink beanie to go with it,” you stated calmly. You looked at the shirt a second time, and then back at Jihoon and nodded.

“Yeah... That would look very cute and boyfriend.”

Two things happened so quickly that Jihoon almost didn’t even notice. Those things were his cheeks reddening into the same shade of red that Hansol’s hoodie was, and your cheeks following suit a moment later.

Then you turned and pointed at the section of the store that was most important.

“Hey, guys! Once you have your colors picked out, let’s go get your overalls picked out so we can get back to Pledis in time for dinner okay?”

You disappeared once again into the store, leaving Jihoon to wonder exactly where he was going to find a pink beanie that could help him to look... “Very cute and boyfriend”.

The time came for us to meet

You are in front of me crying with nervousness

”Hana, dul, set!” Soonyoung counted off as everyone rushed into their positions. The music began and suddenly the pressure was on.

Sure it was only practice but it still had to go perfectly or else all this effort that everyone had put into the dance would be for nothing.

You were still practicing with everyone in your own positions, but whether you were there or not didn’t matter to the boys of Seventeen. You didn’t get in the way, and Jihoon suspected that most of the boys found comfort in you dancing alongside them anyways.

Jihoon let his arms hit the air as each music beat filled his ears, letting his body move along as he had trained it to over the past few weeks flawlessly. He moved seamlessly between the other guys at each part change, none of them having any issues passing around the decoy mic and singing their parts.

Each turn, shimmy, and leg kick got easier and easier each time you guys performed the dance and this time a camera was even on everyone.

You had insisted to not be a part of this particular shoot, but everyone had insisted that after learning your own part, you might as well be in one of the practice videos, even if the only ones to ever see it were the people in the room.

You agreed to it as long as they promised to film another one right after with just them in it and they had agreed to the idea.

You had even let them coax you into buying and wearing your own pair of overalls with your own colored shirt when you had all gone shopping the other day.

Jihoon had noticed that it was easy to turn one of your no’s into a yes... He hoped that was just with the boys of Seventeen and wasn’t a common attribute of yours in the real world.

His part approaching and he led a triangle of people up to the front as he sang, the chorus’ dance coming to him as if he had been learning it his whole life.

He pointed. Once, twice, and then pulled his arms in as someone else took his spot in the center. He fell more backward, and followed as the choreography devolved into a line, a dance break, and then a jump right into the aegyo of the dance. You all dabbed and started to cheer out your names. All in age order. Ending with you shouting out your name, everyone calling out “Seventeen!” And everyone falling into units as you finished the song in organized utter chaos.

Everyone cheered, falling to their knees, so glad to have done it right, and so flawlessly at that.

You were hardly winded.

Jihoon wasn’t sure how you had been singing and dancing just as hard as the rest of them.

“Come on guys! We still have one more shot of this in the practice room and don’t forget you are busking this one too.”

Mingyu started to protest it but Jihoon zoned it out instead watching as you checked on each member to make sure they were okay while insisting that Mingyu had “known what he was getting himself into when he joined this group”. You were so... Caring.

He found it so hard to believe that he had ever thought that you had any malicious intent towards any of the members of Seventeen at all.

“Okay guys, ten-minute break and then one more time from the top without me,” you stated. You walked over and began to check the camera footage all on your own. Jihoon considered talking to you, but then Dongjin and Jeonghan called you over to the snack table for water, and he decided to head over there instead.

I dried your tears then I held your hand. I’m going to rise

and give you, whose been with me happiness 

“Okay Seventeen, this is the moment you guys have been waiting for,” you said dramatically, standing in the center of a large circular huddle. Hansol rolled his eyes.

“I don’t know about you guys, but I’m waiting for debut, not some busking event,” he stated, a large grin spreading over his cheeks. You stuck your tongue out at him.

“Hey, you know this is just as important,” you insisted. “Look, I’ve been covering pr for this event, and you’ve got quite the crowd out there ready to see Seventeen for the very first time.”

You spun around so you could look at each and every one of the members one at a time, granting them all an equal chance to see your sincerity.

“Facts are. I know you guys, you’re all freaking out inside right? Well, you don’t have to. You’ve got this, and I’m cheering for you alright? Don’t worry. You know this song. Go out there, and show the world what Seventeen has got!”

Before anyone could protest the words of encouragement you ducked out of the circle and rushed away onto the streets to get the camera set up, throwing only an encouraging word of “Fighting!” back over your shoulder.

Still, no one looked all that grim to be standing there without you.

“We’ve got this,” Seungcheol repeated. “We’ve prepared for this. We’re Seventeen!”

“Closer then friends,” Soonyoung agreed. “Thicker than thieves.”

“We’re a family,” Minghao inserted.

Jihoon felt his heart warm at the sentiment.

He had done nothing but live with his family for so long, just him, his mom, and his dad, that suddenly living with sixteen other guys was a pretty strange experience.

It had been hard to get accustomed to never having any personal space, or even a semblance of privacy, but even so, getting to know who each and every member of Seventeen was to him had been more rewarding then Jihoon ever thought possible.

He knew that even if he were to mess up today, no one would be able to tell. They weren’t focused on him alone, they were focused on all of Seventeen and all of Seventeen couldn’t mess up at the same time.

No, they were in this together. They would cover one another’s mistakes (if one were to even occur) and they were more then prepared for what awaited them in the streets of South Korea.

“Hana,” Seungcheol started to count, putting his hand in the center. A wave of hands moving to the center filled the circle of boys.

“Dul,” Soonyoung said next. All eyes were on Jihoon. He smiled.

“Set,” he stated.

“We are Seventeen!” They all cheered and turned to face the crowd before them.