Writing music was one of the few things that Jihoon felt completely comfortable doing.

No matter who was around while he was doing it, no matter who saw what he was doing, he could write a song pretty easily if he just focused enough on it.

He knew what he wanted the song to be about.

Since they were going to be a boyfriend concept sort of group, it was only fitting that their first concept be that of first love. Someone who just realized that they really like someone else and wanted to scream it from the rooftops. Of course, the lyrics should be able to be reversed too. Reflect how the fans will hopefully feel upon getting to know Seventeen. Adore them, it was a little too early for them to be using the ‘L’ word.

Likewise, since the song builds up to a loud , it should start with uncertainty. Confusion. Start off whispering and build up to something bigger.

He’d written the intro.

Ayo ayo! Seventeen Yep! You Know What?

But after that... Jihoon had no clue what words to write.

The beat kept bumping in his head, pounding like a steadily beating heart, but the words that should come so easily just weren’t there.

“How’s it coming?” You asked, quietly slipping into Jihoon’s studio. Jihoon glanced back at you, amused to see you balancing numerous bottles in your arms.

“It’s coming fine,” he responded. He set his hands down on the table. He considered telling you about his issues coming up with lyrics but he decided to keep it to himself instead, not sure what you would be able to do to help him in the first place. You didn’t have any musical background, you were just a kpop fangirl.

You set one of the bottles onto the desk beside him.

“A protein shake, you guys have a vigorous workout planned for tonight. Soonyoung’s leading it so that will be fun,” you stated. Jihoon frowned. You generally joined everyone for the workouts, he was surprised that it kind of sounded like you wouldn’t today.

“But you’re...?”

“Oh, I have work,” you replied with a chuckle. “Leaving early today so I can spend more money on you guys tomorrow.”

Jihoon furrowed his eyebrows.

“What do you mean?”

“Oh... You don’t know?” You asked. You rubbed the back of your neck nervously and cleared your throat. “Since Pledis is broke they don’t really have enough money to provide for you guys. So I work overtime in order to help support everyone financially.”

Jihoon wasn’t sure what to say to that, and you seemed to sense that because you smiled.

“I’ll see you around Jihoon,” you said in farewell. And like that, just as you had come, you disappeared through the door. Jihoon could feel his heart in his chest, thumping just a little harder than usual. He sighed and picked his pen back up.

These days, I have a lot of thoughts

These days, I have so much to tell you (these days)

He looked at the words, humming them silently once, then twice, just to make sure they fit his melody.

They did.

They were perfect. The words had come out of nowhere, they were completely unexpected but they were perfect.

He tried to figure out where the thoughts for those had come from but the only outlier in the situation had been you...

Well, you and the protein shake. Jihoon picked up the protein shake and squinted at it.

He was pretty sure that if nothing else the inspiration would’ve come from you other then a drink.

He chuckled to himself.

That was odd. He rarely got inspiration for his lyrics directly from girls still in his life. Usually, it was after he had gotten over having feelings for them or something but even that didn’t explain his current predicament. He didn’t have feelings for you after all...

Or... Did he?

I feel weird, I’m not talking as much

My friends are all worried (these days)

My heart races only when I’m in front of you

So I’m sorry about my clumsy actions

The other boys never said it, but workouts and practices without you always brought the others down a bit. Jihoon could tell in the way that they worked, the effort that they put into their exercises.

Jihoon hated to admit it, but he had noticed that he happened to do the same sort of thing as well. It was, weirdly enough, harder to focus without you standing there doing the same things, encouraging everyone to keep up the hard work, and chiding anyone for not stretching enough when they had the chance.

Even so, everyone tried to keep their wits about them until the end of practice. As everyone stretched and dispersed, Jihoon noticed Chan on the ground, making a face as he rubbed his ankle. Jihoon pressed his lips together.

“Chan? Are you okay?” He asked softly. Chan looked up at him and gave him a sly smile.

“Yeah, I’m better than ever.”

He got back up to his feet and did a little jog, showing no sign of being injured at all, but Jihoon suspected that there was probably more too it than that. Even so, Chan made sure to change the topic of conversation before Jihoon could press the subject.

“We should all go to eat now that practice is over!” Chan suggested. Mingming was stretching not far from him and smiled triumphantly.

“That’s a great idea! We can go to y/n’s place and get dumplings!” He suggested. Chan’s eyes sparkled.

“Hey! That’s a great idea!”

The two boys high fived and looked around at everyone else, who seemed all too excited by the prospect. Only one person seemed to be the reason in the madness.

“Guy’s, she’ll kill us,” Seungkwan pointed out nervously. Hansol scoffed.

“Nah she’ll be happy to see us.

-

“What are you guys doing here?” You demanded, putting your hands on your hips. Even from behind the counter it was easy to tell that you were annoyed that they had suddenly shown up. “I’m off right now.”

“Are you ever truly off?” Jeonghan asked teasingly. He leaned across the counter and tapped your temple lightly with his index finger. “I bet you’re thinking about us even while you are here and how you can best help us debut aren’t you?”

You scoffed, but everyone knew by the shift of your weight from foot to foot that Jeonghan was right.

“I’m technically off,” you mumbled defiantly.

“And we’re just getting food,” Hansol stated, a smile crossing his face. “Do you work here? We had no clue.”

You scoffed again, but a short smile spread across your face anyways.

“How was practice? Everyone feeling okay?”

All the boys nodded, softly stating that they were okay.

Jihoon pressed his lips together, unable to help the way he glanced at Chan.

He wasn’t trying to expose the younger boy or anything, and honestly, he hadn’t expected you to notice, so he was surprised when he looked back at you to find that you had been watching him. He startled slightly, which seemed to amuse you.

You glanced in the direction that you must have seen Jihoon look and a frown riddled across your face when your eyes landed on Chan.

“Chan,” you blurted. He startled at being called out.

“Yeah?” He asked innocently. You pointed down.

“How’s your ankle? You didn’t work too hard on it today, did you?” You asked pleasantly. He laughed.

“Of course not-”

“Chan! If you aren’t easy on it you could permanently damage it!” You apprehended, clearly not believing him. “I know you want to debut but hiding the pain isn’t the way to go about doing that. I don’t want you participating in workouts or anything else for the rest of the week.”

“But-”

“Chan, I’m not letting you hurt yourself, you’re so close. Too close to risk an injury.”

Chan pouted and looked like he wanted to say more but at that, you looked away from him.

“Okay guys, what do you want to eat?”

They all began to order their food, one after the other walking up to you and telling you what they wanted. Jihoon took up the end of the line and waited until everyone was through ordering before he started to order food himself.

Once it was his turn, you gave him a smile.

“Can’t believe you betrayed me like this and let everyone come,” you said with a laugh. Before Jihoon even had the chance to respond however you were changing the topic. “Thanks for the hint that Chan was having problems by the way.”

Jihoon chuckled and raised his hand to his hair.

“Yeah, I still can’t believe you noticed that,” he mumbled. You giggled.

“I always notice the things you do,” you explained. “It sort comes with having a crush on you. First thing I notice in a room is you.”

Color rushed to Jihoon’s cheeks, and he let his hands fall to his side.

“Hey-”

“What did you want to eat anyway?” You interrupted him politely. “I really should finish ringing up this order.”

Jihoon repressed his urges to prode you more about your so-called crush on him and instead ordered his food. You told him the total and watched as he stuck his card into the machine.

“Hey wait you’re supposed to-”

“I want to pay for their food myself,” Jihoon responded softly. You quirked an eyebrow at him, which he mostly ignored. “I have my reasons.”

“Alright, alright,” you mumbled indignantly. “I may not understand but I won’t argue.”

Jihoon nodded once.

“But I am telling the others,” you continued, handing Jihoon a long paper receipt. “Your food should be out soon, you should take a seat with them.”

Jihoon didn’t move. Instead, he looked around the room, wondering about the place you worked at. It was small but was clearly generally a busy joint. It looked like you had all just gone through a rush considering how the other employees were rushing around stocking things and cleaning off tables. They all kept looking at Jihoon’s fellow members with curiosity spread over their faces.

You didn’t seem to mind that Jihoon was still standing there. You turned from him briefly to busy yourself grabbing all of the drinks that the other members had.

As such, your coworkers rushed over.

“Who are they?” One of them asked excitedly. They grabbed your arm and looked past Jihoon, still keeping their voices low as if Jihoon couldn’t hear them that way. He pressed his lips together and pulled out his phone to make it look like he wasn’t paying attention to them.

“Just some guys from my volunteer job,” you responded offhandedly. “Nothing special, there is just a lot of them.”

“Where do you volunteer again?”

“A pet shelter,” you lied. Jihoon was surprised by that. He would think that you would brag about helping a kpop group debut but once again, instead of meeting his expectations you were exceeding them. You were protecting the guys from unnecessary attention for as long as you could.

“All those cute guys work at a pet shelter? No wonder you do volunteer work,” One of them said dreamily. You laughed and didn’t respond, so someone said something else.

“Are you sure it’s just a pet shelter? They look familiar for some reason... Like idols?” One of your coworkers suggested.

“You’re only saying that because my friend Hansol looks like that American actor Leonardo Dicaprio,” you wrote off with a laugh. “Besides, even if they were idols there’s no way you would ever go talk to them.”

“I would talk to them... What about that one? He’s with them right?”

Jihoon didn’t have to look up to know that they were talking about him. He tried to make himself look like he was really focused on his phone.

“Yeah, that’s Jihoon.”

“Oh, even his name is cute,” the girl swooned. “I bet I can get his number.”

You chuckled.

“You’re a very pretty girl, but I suggest steering clear of Jihoon. He’s a hard egg to crack. Nearly impossible to get close to. He just started working with me, and I think he hated me when we first met.”

Three voices gasped.

“How could anyone hate you?” One of them blurted.

“I’m just saying you’ll have to work really hard to get Jihoon to feel comfortable around you. But... In the end, I think that all of the hard work will be worth it,” you stated surely. “Don’t you think so Jihoon?”

Jihoon’s lips twitched and he glanced over at you and your coworkers, feeling a little guilty at having been caught eavesdropping.

“Uh...” He wasn’t sure what to say, so he decided to just bow his head slightly. “Hello, I’m Lee Jihoon.”

“I’ll bring the food out to the table Jihoon, you don’t have to wait for it,” you stated pleasantly. Jihoon pointed at the beverages.

“Come on, I’m sure that you could use some help with the drinks.”

“I could ask my coworkers or take them a few at a time,” you replied firmly. “I know back at the pet shelter when I do stuff like this it’s just me being stubborn, but here it’s kinda my job to have a handle on things. No need to worry.”

Jihoon wanted to protest more but you had a point. Whether back at Pledis or not, it was always your job to take care of the boys, and you had been doing it for a while. Even so, Jihoon hated to see you take care of everything on your own all the time.

You laughed at the expression spread across his face and walked out from behind the counter. You placed a hand on his shoulder.

“Jihoon, don’t worry about me. I’ve been doing this for ages.”

You steered him towards the boys and pushed him forward slightly.

“Hey, guys, Uri Jihoonie here paid for the meal all on his own,” you blurted, earning the attention of the other guys. Jihoon was a little surprised by the nickname, Our Jihoon, but the other guys seemed to really like it. They laughed, and all started to say things to Jihoon but it went right over his head.

Hah. Worry about you? He wasn’t worried about you...

He just wanted to make sure that you didn’t overwork yourself and get sick or something because then who would help the guys out with everything.

Yeah, that was it... Jihoon never would be worried about you... No matter what, he was sure of it.

I still can’t control it

Please don’t play with me

Why are you keeping a front?

I don’t know, I don’t know what will happen

“So what should our next dance cover be?” Soonyoung asked softly, folding his arms over the bare wood table in front of him. Everyone at the table leaned back at the question.

“Why do we even have to do another dance cover? Jihoon is writing our music, we should focus on debut,” Dongjin suggested. That made Samuel roll his eyes.

“Oh, what so we can debut with no fans? No one knowing our name? Good one Dongjin,” Samuel said sarcastically. Doyoon smacked Samuel on the shoulder.

“Be nice,” he said. “But... Samuel is right, the more covers we do, the more popularity we will get.”

“The Instagram is up to a thousand followers after the first dance cover alone. People love you guys,” you piped up, tapping your pen against the clipboard. “The question isn’t whether or not you should do it, the question is when, where, and what to do.”

“Any ideas?” Seungkwan asked.

The group fell silent as they all began to tap their fingers on various objects around them. Jihoon was so busy trying to float lyrics and actual music through his head that he couldn’t even bear to wonder what dance cover they should do next.

“Should we keep a theme like we did before?” Mingyu asked. “Maybe we could do a different type of cover, show that we are versatile...”

“A girl group dance cover!” Wonwoo agreed eagerly. They both made eye contact, smiles spreading across their faces as they high-fived triumphantly.

“We could do Twice’s Ooh Ah!” Hansol exclaimed. “We all love that song! Most of us even know the choreography! It’s perfect.”

They all looked over to you for some sort of affirmation, but you seemed to have suddenly gotten lost in your thoughts, because you were clearly zoned out, staring across the table blankly.

Minghao nudged you in the side, which made you jump slightly. You looked sheepishly around at all of the people staring at you.

“Sorry, did we come up with a decision?” You asked. Even as you spoke, Jihoon watched your mind do a mental 360, backtracking to the conversation you’d heard, but weren’t really listening to. “Twice’s Ooh Aah, now that, that’s different. I like it.”

“Mingming, do the honors of rearranging this piece?” Soonyoung asked, pointing at the boy. He hummed, letting his head roll to the side.

“It’s not really in my job description, but yeah, I’ll humor the masses,” he stated softly. “Should we prepare more than one since this one will be so easy to arrange?”

“A y concept,” Jeonghan piped up. “Something that we can really surprise people with.”

“What’s the iest dance that we can do?” Seungcheol asked. Once again, everyone at the table turned to you. The only difference being that this time you were paying attention.

“Why are you guys looking at me?” You blurted.

“You’re a girl,” Mingyu replied. “You know what other girls are looking for.”

You scoffed.

“I think we all know that I don’t really know what “other” girls are looking for,” you retorted crossing your arms. Hansol leaned across the table and grabbed your hands, making you jump in surprise.

“Think y/n, think, that Kpop dance group you are in is full of thirsty girls left and right. I know that you know something you aren’t telling me about,” he pleaded. You scoffed and made a face looking away from him, but your gears were turning.

“y dances,” you mumbled softly. You began to tap your foot on the floor. “Exo’s Love Shot... Overdone... Taemin dances... Meant for one person... Uh...”

You trailed off, your cheeks in as you thought over options. Then your eyes widened.

“Of course.”

You whipped out your phone and opened up the youtube app, everyone began to try and look at what you were typing as you stared at the search bar.

“God... What was it called?” You mumbled, your thumb tapping the glass screen. You furrowed your eyebrows. “Is... Is History the group?”

Now it was Jihoon’s turn to widen his eyes.

“Might Just Die,” he mumbled. It was pretty quiet, honestly, he could barely hear himself but... You heard him just fine. You jumped to your feet and pointed across the way at him.

“Yes,” you exclaimed. “Oh, it’s perfect! That dance is so y. It even made me gasp! Covered my mouth and everything. Couldn’t watch it the first few times that it was played... Oh, thank you, Beth.”

Hansol poked you in the side, making you jump. You glared at him.

“What? Just don’t want you to get too excited is all... Is there someone that you want to see doing this?” He teased lightly. Your face reddened deeply and you dropped to your seat.

“Hey, you guys asked me to choose a cover for you. You don’t have to actually do it,” you stated defiantly. Then, for extra leverage, you smacked Hansol across the head. “Also get your mind out of the gutter, you guys want to do a y concept, I didn’t ask for it.”

Hansol snickered despite having been hit and ran his fingers messily through your hair.

“You’re so easy to mess with.”

“Anyway,” you said, redirecting the conversation, your cheeks still red. “History is a pretty small group... Five members if I can recall. Will you be able to rearrange that for seventeen people?”

Your question was directed towards Soonyoung, but he turned his attention to Jihoon.

“You have experience in choreography don’t you?” He asked him. Jihoon shrugged nonchalantly.

“Somewhat, why?”

“Let’s get together, rearrange the dance together,” he suggested. Jihoon’s eyes fell on you, and you caught him looking at you almost as soon as he looked. You raised an eyebrow at him, which made him look away slightly embarrassed.

“Yeah, let’s do it,” he said. He looked back at Soonyoung and gave him a smile. “y choreography? Here we go.”

He did his best not to look at you, but for some reasons, that was all he wanted to do. His thoughts were running wild. Why had Hansol insinuated that you wanted to see someone do that choreography? He hadn’t really been referring to your crush on him, had he?

And that choreography... It wasn’t very PG that was for sure. If you were going to see him do this choreography... He had to do it just as well as you would initially expect him to.

But even as these thoughts ran through your mind you couldn’t help but wonder why you were thinking all of these things in the first place. Why did he even care what you thought about him?

Why did he want to know exactly what you were thinking when you suggested the song in the first place. Geez... Was he going crazy?

So what I mean is, I want to know all of you

I’ll sing you, U Hoo, I’ll sing you, U Hoo

Even if my lips are dry, I need to say this baby

I adore you, I adore you, enough to get dizzy

“We can do their formation here like five times over? If we film this cover we can just make sure the camera sees everyone, our fans can watch for the people they really want to see,” Jihoon suggested softly. Soonyoung made a face, his eyebrows raising a bit.

“I suppose that with a seventeen member group we’ll have to give in to the idea not everyone is going to get time in center stage,” he agreed. He began to write down where some people could possibly stand, and as he did, you walked into the room.

You smiled at Jihoon and set two bottles on the workspace in front of them. Their favorite drinks. Then you put your hand on Jihoon’s shoulder, looking over their work.

“How is it coming, Uri Jihoonie, Soonie?” You asked them softly. Jihoon glanced back at you and you squinted as you looked down at the paper, completely focused on the formations. “Don’t put Mingyu next to Jihoon, it’ll just make him look shorter. You should do a radiant of tallest to shortest, putting Jihoon towards the front will even out the height difference.”

Soonyoung made a face, his pencil hovering over the paper.

“You’re right,” he mumbled. “That was a dumb oversight on my part...”

“And you don’t have to put him in the front either, just try not to put him closer to members more his height. Same with Dino. If you put him next to Wonwoo, it makes him look way too short.”

You pointed at the paper, dragging your finger through the lines of boys, and started to suggest where you thought each person should be. Soonyoung was loving every second. He nodded, his eyes widening slightly at each suggestion.

“I never knew you were so good at making arrangements y/n,” he mumbled in surprise. You laughed and shrugged it off.

“I’m not, rest assured I’m not,” you mumbled. “I just picked up a few things watching so many dance videos and dance covers... I do a lot of rearranging for my group too.”

“When is your next dance cover?” Jihoon blurted before he could think through what he was asking. You looked at him in surprise, and his face reddened a bit.

“I mean, you do your covers in public right? Maybe we could come support you sometime?” He offered. You covered your mouth with your hand and looked away from him.

“Oh, that’s nice, but you guys are so busy-”

“It’s tomorrow at 2.”

The three of them turned and looked at towards the voice. It was Joshua. You wrinkled your nose.

“Josh-” You blurted but he waved it off.

“We’ve been asking to be able to go watch you perform for ages, but you would never let us,” Joshua interrupted you. “You kept saying to wait until we were a full group, and now we are. So, we’re going tomorrow.”

You sighed.

“I suppose that would certainly make Chan feel a little bit better,” you relented hesitantly. “But you guys can’t make fun of me!”

Your face was so dark that you couldn’t bear to make eye contact with any of them. You ran your fingers through your hair and glanced down at your phone. It made your nervous smile fade. You typed something out and pinched the bridge of your nose, sliding your phone back into your pocket.

“I need to go talk to Seungcheol and Doyoon. You know to call if you need me.”

You waved over your shoulder and were gone before Jihoon or any of the others could say anything in return.

(Adore you) these days. I (these days)

(Adore you) these days, I (these days)

You didn’t look nervous.

Jihoon had assumed you would look nervous, but instead, you were totally calm and completely collected.

Your group had a small following that you had invited to come to support you guys while you performed. You were doing three dance covers at the same time for your youtube channel, apparently, and despite your reluctance to let the guys come, you were smiling and talking to fans as if they all weren’t there at all.

As if, of course, you didn’t know that they were there, which Jihoon had a sneaking suspicion you did considering what you had said before... About always noticing him.

“She’s so...” Jihoon trailed off, unsure of what exactly he wanted to say but it was fine because Jeonghan still seemed to understand what he wanted to say anyway.

“Isn’t she?” He asked. “It always takes everyone a second to get used to. Just how flexible she is. It’s like she can be anybody that anyone wants her to be you know?”

A guy called your name and you turned to look at him. You smiled at him, but it was different than the smile that Jihoon was used to seeing from you. It was still real, but you weren’t as excited to see him as he was to see you.

Jihoon watched you interact with him silently from afar, and was surprised when you intentionally seemed to dodge the guys' touches, laughing nervously every once in a while when he made a joke.

If he didn’t know any better, he would have to say that you were actually uncomfortable. He pressed his lips together and weeded through his fellow group members to Samuel.

He nudged him.

“Hey... Mind getting y/n’s attention?” He asked softly. Samuel glanced at him and then at you. He let a confused expression riddle across his face.

“But she’s talking to someone.”

“Oh, I don’t think that she’ll mind,” he assured. He turned away from Samuel and hurriedly walked away so that he wasn’t too close to the younger boy.

“Hey! Y/n!” Samuel called out, waving his hand excitedly through the air. “We came, see?”

Your fake smile morphed into a larger one. You raced forward, not saying a word to the other guy in farewell

“Look who it is!” You said excitedly. You cupped a hand over your mouth and lowered your voice. “Seventeen.”

Doyoon laughed and pointed at your outfit with a goofy smile spread over his face.

“Shouldn’t we be saying that to you? You’re the famous one right now.”

Your smile faded somewhat.

“Hah,” you mumbled. “Don’t draw too much attention to yourselves okay? I know you’ve only done the one cover, but people here might recognize you.”

“You’re really off the clock right now,” Seungcheol warned. “Stop thinking about us.”

“Y/n!” Someone called. You turned around, which made Jihoon notice that the entire group of people was gesturing for you to come back over to them. They were all dressed in shorts and skirts, their color theme beiges, blacks, and blues.

You had on a beige dress. Puffy, pushed up sleeves, a skirt that fell well above your knees, and a collar that made the dress resemble a trenchcoat. The hem of the skirt brushed against your legs with every turn of your body. It was probably one of the shortest things that Jihoon had ever seen you in.

You smiled at the person calling you.

“Sorry. One second!” You called back. You turned back to the guys. “We’re about to start, hope you guys enjoy the show.”

“Good luck!” Seungkwan called out. You froze in your spot.

“Good luck?” You turned to Seungkwan, an accusing look spread over your face. “That’s bad luck in the theater.”

Seungkwan rolled his eyes with a chuckle, which was when Seokmin piped up.

“Break a leg!”

A large smile broke out across your face. You pointed at Seokmin and winked.

“Now that’s more like it.”

As you turned to walk away, your gaze caught Jihoon’s. It was only for a mere split second, but it was enough time for a smile to spread over your lips. You seemed to think over the look quickly, and you turned away from him, a frown spread over your face by the time you thought he couldn’t see.

At first, your reason for your initial embarrassment seemed unknown. Your group started out with a dance cover of Gfriend’s new song Fever. You followed Eunha, and you did the dance well.

Jihoon had never gotten the chance to sit and just watch you perform seriously, and watching you dance truly was mesmerizing. It was clear that you really enjoyed being able to dance like that in front of people, and he could see you singing the lyrics under your breath as you moved.

Every minute that he got to know you better was another moment that he began to become more and more obsessed with you. And the less interested you seemed to be in him.

The next song your group performed was a boy group song. Oneus’ new song, Twilight. Jihoon wasn’t very familiar with the group so he wasn’t sure who you were following, but during the bridge, you got picked up and that was admittedly really cool.

Even so, again Jihoon wasn’t sure why you hadn’t wanted the guys to come to watch the performance. Nothing you were doing was crazy.

Then, after another costume change, you came back out in... Well, even less if that was possible. You had on a pair of high-waisted black shorts, high-heeled black combat boots, and a tight black crop top. You had on a long blue jacket that was sort of like a trench coat but thinner and more stylized, but your face was burning red.

Jihoon still wasn’t sure why.

You turned your back to everyone, and then the music started.

Jihoon’s mouth nearly dropped.

“Oh my god, she’s doing Swalla,” Chan hissed. Dongjin grabbed Jihoon’s arm.

“She really is, wow, they made her do a solo, and it’s this one? She must’ve been pissed. No wonder she didn’t want us to know about this.”

You stepped side to side with the beat, your face no longer showing any sign that you were scared at all. You were completely emersed in the dance. Your moves were precise, your facials perfect.

You dropped to the ground and began to do the killing move. Jihoon wanted to look away, but he couldn’t when you were doing it so well and so confidently. You got back to your feet and kept dancing, doing every move perfectly until you were to the end of the song.

You held your pose for a moment, a confident expression spread over your face. Then once the person who had been filming you waved their hand you dropped it and rushed off to where you had been going to change clothes.

When you got back you were in jeans and a t-shirt and you were swarmed by the crowd. They all began to talk to you excitedly, telling you what a good job you did. You looked extremely embarrassed. You thanked everyone politely, writing off any suggestions that you were as good a dancer as an idol and should consider making a career as one.

Once you had gotten through the crowd, thanking everyone for their support and for coming out, you made your way back over to the boys. Seungcheol was the first to have the guts to try and speak to you.

“Yo-”

You held your hand up in the air, shutting your eyes and facing your head towards the ground.

“Don’t say a word. Let’s just go okay?”

You looked up, your hand still held in front of you. The boys all nodded and they began to walk back towards the company. As they walked, Jihoon found himself walking near to you, so close that your shoulders could touch if he moved just a little closer to you.

“You did really well,” Jihoon said softly. You looked at him, eyes wide.

“Do you... Do you really think so?” You asked him. He turned to look at you and gave you a smile. It made you clear your throat and look away from him.

“Thanks, Jihoon, I really appreciate it.”

Jihoon glanced at you, a little surprised you didn’t use his new nickname. No matter how much he liked it, nowadays it was like all of Pledis was calling him it. You seemed to notice his expression and looked back towards him.

“What?”

“Well, you didn’t... You know,” he mumbled. You raised an eyebrow, a teasing smile spread over your lips.

“Call you Uri Jihoonie?” You asked softly. He turned a little red and looked away.

The two of you didn’t say anything else the rest of the walk, but Jihoon found he really liked being that close to you.

How can you dazzle so much?

You’re so pretty it’s selfish but your personality

is so humble – This is not the place to joke around

I’m announcing the fact about your charms

Is it because I like how you smile at me?

Or do I just seem light to you?

“You know what we need?”

Everyone looked over at Hansol, surprised by him suddenly speaking up. They had all just finished dinner and after a long day of practice were sort of just lounging around.

“More food?” Jun teased. “I don’t think you need that buddy.”

Hansol rolled his eyes.

“No, not more food,” he responded. He sat up. “We should start going by our stage names now.”

Seungcheol sat up.

“Oh yeah, that’s actually a really good idea,” he responded. “Everyone has decided if they want one or not... Right?”

Most of the boys around the circle nodded, which made you tilt your head curiously. Jihoon couldn’t help the way his attention fell on you, watching as you spaced off for a moment over the conversation topic and then got to your feet. You began to silently clean off the table, grabbing everyone’s plates in front of them. A few of the boys acknowledged you, even handing you their plates and thanking you silently. A few of them didn’t.

You were just trying to stay as quiet as possible, keep out of the line of conversation.

“Jihoon, is there a stage name that you were thinking of going by?” Seungcheol spoke up. Jihoon jostled back.

“Uh, I hadn’t really thought about it,” he responded. “It wouldn’t be an awful idea to go by something other then Jihoon... What’s everyone else going by?”

“Dino!” Chan announced excitedly jumping to his feet. The other boys chuckled and pulled him back down into his seat.

“I’m going to go by Vernon,” Hansol responded. “My American name.”

“I’m just going to go by Jun,” Junhui added. “Not really a stage name, but still a distinction.”

“I’m going by S.Coups,” Seungcheol piped up.

“DK!” Seokmin added.

You hit Soonyoung lightly on his head which made him jump.

“Hoshi!” He blurted. Almost everyone at the table began to laugh, which brought Seungkwan’s attention right back to Jihoon.

“Everyone’s stage names are pretty personal for them,” Seungkwan stated. “So, is there some sort of nickname that you have?”

Jihoon rested his hand on his head and tried to think back.

“The only nicknames I have are from my short time with you guys,” he admitted.

“Documentary isn’t an ideal stage name,” Samuel said with a laugh. Jihoon made a face at the younger boy, which made him shyly hide beneath his ball cap.

“What about a play on Uri Jihoonie,” Jeonghan suggested softly. Jihoon was surprised but not by the suggestion itself. Instead, he was surprised by how much he liked the idea.

“We could condense it,” he agreed with a nod. “Woozi.”

Everyone at the table nodded their agreement.

“That’s good,” Seungcheol agreed. He began to write down Jihoon’s stage name, which made everyone fall back into what they were doing before. Trying to make sure everyone knew what stage name they would do. Jihoon glanced over at you as the others spoke. You had almost collected all of the plates, but you had stopped at that point. Your face was red, your breathing even, but... For some reason, you didn’t seem calm whatsoever.

Hansol looked back at you, a knowing expression spreading over his face. He got to his feet and began to poke you in the side teasingly. You shot him a glare and did your best to balance the stack of plates you had, whispering for him to shut up and leave you alone.

Hansol relented after a few minutes and then took half of the pile of plates despite your protests. That was when Joshua looked at the two of you. He leaned forward across the table.

“Hey, y/n,” he called. You turned to look at him, your head tilting to the side.

“Yeah, Josh?” You asked. He wrinkled his nose at the name.

“Let’s say you were debuting,” he replied. “What would your stage name be?”

You shifted your weight from one knee to the other, letting the pile of plates weigh you down slightly more.

“My stage name?” You asked again. You went silent for a moment in thought, which made almost the entire room of boys lean forward, waiting for your response. You sighed.

“Hwaseong,” you replied. Mingming scoffed.

“Like the planet?” He asked. You nodded.

“Mars. Star of fire,” you replied. “When people get to know me they tend to get... Intimidated. I have a strong personality. I’m firey. Hence, star of fire. Besides, Hwaseong is pretty isn’t it?”

“You’ve put a lot of thought into this haven’t you?” Seokmin accused. You waved it off.

“Who doesn’t dream of becoming an idol one day?” You asked.

“Boring people, that’s who,” Seokmin agreed with a chuckle. You turned to Hansol and gave him a pointed look. He sighed and gave you back the pile of plates he had stolen from you, which made you whisper a thank you to him. You left the room not long after that, presumably to go wash the dishes.

Before really thinking about it, Jihoon got to his feet and silently left the room to go after you.

You were, predictably enough in the kitchen, humming softly as you washed the dishes. Jihoon came up behind you, lifting himself on top of the counter. You glanced at him, not surprised to see him per say, but you did look like you were maybe not expecting him to be there.

“Hey, you okay?” You asked. He raised his eyebrows towards you.

“Why wouldn’t I be?” He asked. You shrugged and turned your attention back to the dishes.

“You guys usually want to talk to me when something is wrong,” you replied. “The idol industry is hard, sometimes people need to talk.”

Jihoon made a face.

“I don’t need to talk. I just thought I’d come accompany you while you did the dishes.”

You stopped washing the plates and looked at Jihoon, placing a soapy hand on your waist.

“And just stare at me?” You asked teasingly. Jihoon raised a hand to his ear and hesitantly began to pull at it.

“Well, no-”

You laughed and began to wash the dishes again.

“What do you do in your free time JIhoon?” You asked softly. Then you hummed. “Or should I call you Woozi now?”

He laughed, letting his hand fall to his lap.

“It has a nice ring to it, huh?” He asked. You hummed.

“I mean not as nice as Uri Jihoonie, but, I do like the ring Woozi has to it,” you agreed. “Can you hear it? Hundreds of girls chanting your name?”

Jihoon rolled his eyes, but you ignored it.

“Woozi, Woozi, Woozi-”

“You think I’ll have hundreds of fans?” He interrupted. You nodded.

“Hundreds, thousands maybe. Seventeen is going to take the world of kpop by storm,” you responded. “I’m lucky I’m here watching you guys grow and become something that is going to be truly incredible.”

You had a small smile spread across your lips.

“I wish...” You trailed off and then shook your head, putting the last dish on the drying rack. “Well, I have work soon. I’m going to do my last rounds and then check on you guys later tonight if you need it. You sure you don’t need anything?”

“Hwaseong.”

You looked at him in surprise.

“What?”

“It’s pretty,” Jihoon responded. “It suits you.”

You looked away from him but Jihoon had a good feeling that it wasn’t because you didn’t want to look at him.

“I’ll see you after work,” you assured, your voice soft. You glanced back at him one last time. Your cheeks were rosy, your smile hesitant. “Geez, you’re making it really hard not to like you, you know that?”

Jihoon smiled but before he could say more, you had left the kitchen.

Yeh, if you’re finding a spot

Yeh, right next to me is good

Yeh, I have a lot of interest in you

Even your shoe size oh oh

“Are you guys ready?” Jihoon asked softly. The other guys nodded.

Everything had been set up perfectly. Dongjin and Doyoon picked a location. Minghao, Jun, and Mingming chose the outfits everyone would be wearing. You helped Hansol and Joshua work out the social media accounts, and now you were out there in the crowd with a couple hundred people waiting for Seventeen to perform for the second time.

Jihoon could barely contain his disbelief, and you had seen right through it. You had whooped in excitement when you saw the growing crowd.

“They’re here for you guys. All of them and you haven’t even made your debut yet!”

Your excitement was infectious, it made everyone get excited. It made everyone smile. You always made everyone smile.

This time you weren’t as involved in the dance cover. You had made it clear before that your involvement with Seventeen was only temporary. You were only so hands-on because you wanted to help everyone get to their feet. Now that everyone was starting to get to know what they were doing, you were trying to pull back. Let Seventeen manage themselves without depending too much on you.

No one said it but Jihoon could tell that a lot of the Seventeen members were worried that you would leave Pledis once they debuted.

Everyone had talked about comeback plans, and it was clear that you didn’t think that you would be a part of them.

You did have your cover group, and your job, and you were doing so much right now it was a miracle you were able to stand on two feet and support 34 others. Asking you to stay at Pledis with Seventeen forever would admittedly be asking a lot.

A lot of the members still really wanted to.

It was always just a little too eery when you mentioned the possibility that you wouldn’t always be around. You didn’t seem to sense it, but Jihoon did.

He always did. He had been around for the least amount of time and even he had to admit, he didn’t want to face the idea of a future at Pledis without you there.

Still, Jihoon and the others weren’t letting your lack of involvement ruin this PR opportunity. Chan and Samuel had suggested the possibility of purposely letting something small go wrong while there, but Doyoon had been adamantly against it. He said it would be rude to you, cruel to take advantage of your kindness like that.

“If she’s going to stay, we should convince her to stay more admirably. We can’t make her stay through deceit.”

And he was right. You had to decide to stay all on your own.

Everyone got to their spots on stage and the crowd went wild. You quickly introduced the boys and then the music started.

Jihoon thought about you throughout the entirety of the first song.

It wasn’t necessarily because of the song, but because of how cute you had been during practice for it. You were apparently a pretty big fan of the song and dance because not only did you love singing it, but you hit each move sharply as if it were second nature.

It was bizarre to watch you learn the dance because you picked it up just as quickly as any professional would.

It was especially cute when you would run in during practice just jumping into whatever part of the song you guys were on. Jihoon specifically recalled a time when you had ran into the practice room as they neared the chorus, all but screaming “I just want to fall in love” as you slid onto the ground. Everyone had started laughing as you started doing the dance on the floor of the practice room, tears rolling down your face you had been laughing so hard.

It was that kind of energy that made your presence so welcome at Pledis every day. It wasn’t necessary. The other boys were totally able to be just as energetic and crazy. You just fit in with everyone really well.

They neared the dance break of the song, and Jihoon had to stop thinking about you briefly to focus. He swung his arm as they began to face away from the audience, and then whipped back forward, moving his chest with each hit in the air, 1,2. He flipped his head as if to do a hair flip and clapped his hands, circling his hips after each clap. They shifted positions on stage as they moved their arms across their bodies, spinning, striking a pose and then jumping up into the air confidently.

Seungkwan began to hit Jihyo’s high note and as he did, Jihoon bounced over to him, hitting the note just a little lower then Seungkwan and pressing his back to the younger boys’.

The crowd went wild at that, clearly loving the energy that the boys were giving to this girl group dance.

They had spent hours with Jeonghan and Jun trying to really nail that innocent happy-go-lucky debuting girl group look that Twice was so good at giving during every performance

The applause began to die, and all the boys switched where they were standing on stage.

Twice’s Ooh Ah and History’s Might Just Die were two very different songs. While performing Twice’s song made Jihoon want to die a little inside, Might Just Die was so much more his speed, with a serious and y vibe.

He remembered how much attention History had gotten when they first released the song. Making everyone rewatch their performance video again and again for a glimpse of their abs and to get to watch them do body rolls on the ground.

He wondered exactly what you had thought when you first saw those parts of the dance. How you had reacted to it. He hoped... He hoped that you watched him do that particular part of the dance and not anyone else.

Jihoon stopped thinking about you so much as the violins started to play, and he started to move along to the beat.

The good thing about Might Just Die truly was that it was a pretty easy dance overall. It required stage breathing, sharp part changes, and smooth hip movements that would draw the watchers attention to a certain part of the body.

The real killing part didn’t happen until the song only really had thirty seconds left, and it was such a low energy dance, that the boys had plenty of breath to sing and dance it.

The real effort had been working on making sure everyone did the choreography just as y as History had back in 2015. Jihoon had had to spend a few nights up with some of the younger members, making sure they had the flexibility to perform the dance moves just right, and in the end...

They hit the part of the choreography where they were supposed to lift their shirts. Jihoon and a few others had opted to not (and they had insisted that Samuel not since he was still a baby) but when the other members lifted their shirts the girls all started to scream again. Jihoon was pretty sure he saw one girl in the audience actually fall down. He held back a chuckle and began to do the short dance break of this song. They all turned to walk back. It sounded like it should’ve been the end of the song but then the boys turned around, jumped into the air and-

The crowd noise was inescapable. Jihoon could barely focus on anything other than the crowds' cheers and getting to the end of the song.

And once he did, he and the other boys were immediately swamped with fans. All girls asking them when their debut was going to be, what the song would be like, and if they were single.

Jihoon felt a little overwhelmed, but he still smiled and friendlily spoke to everyone there.

He already had a large number of fans, there were ten maybe fifteen girls surrounding him already. They kept asking him all these personal questions, things that he realized he had never really ever liked most people asking him but now... He only wanted you to ask.

His eyes drifted over towards the other boys, all surrounded by the same amount of people that he was it seemed. The only one of them that was special was Samuel and that was because you were standing there with him making sure that he didn’t get carried away.

He was such a little player.

By the time it was all over, over half of Seventeen was in a daze.

They hadn’t even debuted yet and here they had all of these fans.

Jihoon couldn’t help it... He suddenly felt, well, unstoppable.

I’m on fire right now because of you

It’s impossible to cool me down

”Hey there Uri,” you mumbled, slipping into Jihoon’s studio. He glanced back at you over his shoulder, just humming his acknowledgment of you. You silently clicked the door closed behind you and walked over to him, peering over his body. “How is it going?”

“Sidetracks are coming well,” he replied. You smiled warmly and began to shuffle through the papers that Jihoon had sprawled over his table. You picked up one of them... The score for 20.

You stared silently at the paper for a moment, and then you started to hum.

At first, Jihoon thought that you were just singing something to yourself but... Then he realized you were humming the tune for 20.

“You can read sheet music?” He asked in astonishment. You seemed startled by his words, your cheeks pinked slightly, making him wonder if you had even realized you were humming.

“I grew up with music,” came your response. You pointed at the first few lines of the chorus. “This song is so romantic... The melody is beautiful. Anyone would fall in love with this sort of composition.”

Jihoon let his head fall to the side slightly, deciding not to comment on the way you so suavely changed the subject away from yourself.

“You think?”

“I know,” you stated with a laugh. “I’m falling in love with you all over again reading these lyrics.”

Jihoon’s mouth dropped open slightly, a movement you caught. Your face reddened even more.

“Sorry,” you mumbled. You set the paper down and walked over to his keyboard. You were silent as you looked at the white and black piano keys. Your fingers danced over them, but they didn’t press down hard enough to make the piano keys make any noise.

“You know, I’ve always wanted to write music,” you admitted. Jihoon decided not to ask about what had just happened. Your constant admissions that you liked him were odd enough, but the way that you had nonchalantly written off the confession this time was odd at best.

“Have you never tried to before?” Jihoon asked. You shrugged. 

“I have a song journal I keep on myself, but recently I haven’t had time to work on any of it.”

Jihoon turned in his chair and held out an empty palm, staring at you expectantly. You looked back at him, your eyebrows raised comedically.

“What?”

“Let me see the song journal,” he explained. You turned away from him protectively putting your hand over your pocket.

“What? No!” You blurted. He rolled his eyes.

“Don’t be stubborn,” he insisted. You continued to move away from him, so Jihoon got to his feet.

“Okay let’s do this the hard way.”

“The hard-”

Jihoon raced over to you, capturing you in his grasp. You let out a shriek, which almost made Jihoon stop his attempt at retrieving your journal, but that was when you started to laugh.

At first, Jihoon was confused, but then he realized his hands were placed on your sides...

“Are you ticklish?” He asked, a small smile spreading over his lips. Your eyes widened.

“No!” You protested. It wasn’t very convincing. Jihoon began to wiggle his fingers over your sides, and you collapsed into a wriggling ball of uncontrollable laughter.

“Please, please stop!” You gasped incoherently. Jihoon didn’t stop.

“Sorry? What was that? I can see your song journal?” Jihoon asked, completely unapologetic.

“No, never that!” You blurted back. You continued to protest for a few more seconds, and then you seemed to realize that Jihoon wasn’t going to let up unless he got what he wanted. Tears of joy rolling down your cheeks and you finally shoved a hand into your pocket, pulling out a small white notebook. You tossed it across the room.

“You win! I surrender!” You blurted as soon as the small notebook hit the floor. Jihoon pulled off of you triumphantly and picked up the small book, crossing his legs beneath him as he flipped through the worn pages.

Your laughter died down after a moment, and with a small whine, you crawled across the floor over to Jihoon, peering over his shoulder at the notebook.

It was clear enough to Jihoon that you had spent a lot of time to come up with the lyrics that were in this small book. You had some songs that were completely about being the best you you could be. In fact, all of the song lyrics at the beginning were simply inspirational.

All about embracing who you were no matter what others thought. The more recent stuff, however, was all completely romantic.

“This one looks cute,” he said pleasantly. You looked back over his shoulder frantically.

“Shut up, that one’s stupid.”

The lyrics were completely incomplete. All you had written was the line, the heart talks and what Jihoon could only imagine would have to be the chorus: I’m singing oah wah wah, I love you more than you know, always singing oah wah wah, till the sun goes down, singing on and on, you better listen closely, because baby the heart talks.

“The premise is good,” Jihoon retaliated.

“It doesn’t rhyme well enough,” you stated right back. You reached to take the notebook back but Jihoon pulled it away.

“I like it,” he said. He flipped the page and his eyes looked at the next song. “Vortex.”

“Don’t read it aloud!” You hissed.

“This one is a little angsty,” he said with a laugh. “You compare love to something that is terrifying.”

“Well, love can be terrifying, that’s the whole point. The singer is delusional to think that love will turn out well for her,” you replied with a roll of your eyes. Jihoon hummed and flipped the page.

“Look, that one is the most recent one I wrote, so you don’t even need to look-”

“I want to look at it though,” Jihoon replied, making sure to keep the songbook just out of your reach. You pouted again, your bottom lip sticking out pathetically.

“It’s not even completed. It’s stupid, came out of nowhere-”

Jihoon turned away from you, hunching over the notebook.

The lyrics were simple and cute.

Write a love song with me, nobody has to know, write a love song with me, And the two of us will grow. Closer together you and i, closer until we see eye to eye, Just imagine what we could be, if you were to write a love song with me

“This is...” He trailed off and then rushed over to his keyboard. He began to play a few keynotes, and then as if he had been holding this melody in his head for years he began to play the keys to a beat playing along in his head.

Your eyes widened and you scrambled over to him, settling yourself on the keyboard beside him. Your hands started to play the notes on the keyboard beside him, adding to the melody he had created perfectly. Then, without being told, you started to sing the words to your song. Jihoon did too.

It fit perfectly... Everything about it... The lyrics, both of your hands creating a song while dancing across the keyboard despite never having played together before... It fit perfectly.

You laughed in disbelief.

“That was incredible!” You blurted. “I mean really, that song is... Well, you made it perfect.”

Jihoon smiled at being given all the credit but still rolled his eyes.

“You wrote the words,” he said softly.

“Yeah, but you made it music.”

Jihoon didn’t want to argue with you on this one, so instead, he looked back down at your little songbook.

“What made you think of this?” He asked softly. You turned away from him on the small piano bench.

“Nothing,” you mumbled defensively. It made Jihoon suspicious. He tapped your shoulder, but you still refused to look at him, so with his index finger, he turned your chin towards him.

“What made you think of it?” He asked softly. Your face held its position, but your eyes wandered away from his gaze.

“Well, I was thinking about how you write music, and I write music...” You mumbled. “And you know how the brain just kind of works with that kind of stuff, and I kinda imagined writing a song with you...”

Once again, you had managed to completely catch Jihoon off-guard.

He knew he was just jumping to conclusions, but if you had written this love song about him, and you had been oddly protective of your notebook despite generally being quite the open book, and all of the most recent songs in your notebook had been about love did that mean that... Well, that you actually liked him so much that you wrote music about him?

Jihoon flipped suddenly back through the pages, back to a different, more thorough song.

One of the lines read...

I know it’s just a phase but it’s lasted so long, Only God knows, why I’m writing this song, I’ll be over you soon your smile and your laugh But jokes on me I guess, because these feelings, they last

“Some of these are really well-thought-out and complete... Why haven’t you done anything with them?” Jihoon asked softly. He read the words again and again. What did they mean? I know it’s just a phase... What was just a phase? Were you just waiting for your crush on him to... Go away?

“They’re not right,” you mumbled. “Half of them are like a confession, but if I’m going to just... Confess these feelings, really explain why I am feeling them, then I have to do it right.”

Jihoon went to ask you to elaborate on exactly what feelings, but just then your phone buzzed. He could feel it against his leg. Your eyes widened slightly, in a way that made Jihoon curious as to what exactly the notification had been about.

“You going to look at that?” He asked.

You chuckled nervously.

“Trust me, it’s not important,” you mumbled.

He stared at you.

“Then let me see it.”

Your eyebrows furrowed again.

“What?”

“If it’s not important. Let me see.”

You slowly pulled the phone from your pocket. You looked at the black screen, then at Jihoon, then back at it. You nervously hit the power button, and after the screen had only been on for half a second you jumped to your feet.

“I have to go, always good to see you, bye!” And without another word you had disappeared out the door.

Jihoon furrowed his own eyebrows... He hadn’t done that too much before he met you. Was he starting to pick up quirks from you? Was he getting that used to your presence?

He tried not to think about it too much and went back to his own work... But he made a mental note to write down a score for what little you two had written for your song that night.

I’m on fire right now because of you

I don’t know, I don’t know, it’ll happen somehow

Jihoon was nearly done writing this album, but he got distracted by his own thoughts. He had to write one more song, and finish the title song. Once they did that then preparations were in Soonyoung’s hands. He had to choreograph for everyone.

Jihoon sighed and got to his feet.

Maybe he’d feel like he was in less of a slump if he went on a quick walk. Got a fresh breath of air... Saw you.

He’d walked down the hall, and was surprised to hear you laughing from down the hall. Almost all the other members of Seventeen shouldn’t be here anymore, It was late, they should already be gone... So who were you talking to?

He peeked around the doorway and his eyes fell on you, talking to a guy that Jihoon had never seen before.

“Don’t be ridiculous, I’m not even a good dancer,” you said politely, resting back in your chair.

“Not even a good dancer, I saw your performance the other day! You were incredible!” The guy insisted. “You really are something when you are on stage... Do you even know how beautiful you look? How confident?”

Your face reddened visibly in a way that made Jihoon’s chest tighten. He couldn’t just stand back and watch you talk to some... Some stranger.

Well, he noted to himself that this guy clearly wasn’t just a stranger. He had seen him at that event your dance cover group the other day. The guy who didn’t make you smile right...

“Who is this?” Jihoon blurted. You looked away from the stranger, the smile on your face dwindling slightly.

“Oh Jihoon, this is my friend, Junghoon he’s a-”

“Finally taking this beautiful girl out on a date,” the guy- Junghoon apparently, finished. “She finally said yes! I’ve been asking for years.”

“It hasn’t been years-”

“We met three years ago, and I started asking you out the moment I met you,” Junghoon interrupted. He laughed. “Not that it matters, you finally agreed to go out with me!”

Jihoon was silent for a second, his eyes going from you to the over-enthusiastic boy standing in front of your desk. You looked embarrassed. You looked flustered. You looked like you didn’t really want to go out on this date with Junghoon.

Jihoon frowned. He would never understand why you made the decisions you did. Obviously taking parts in certain activities despite not wanting to partake in them, just to make someone else happy.

And what Jihoon didn’t understand even more was why his stomach was in hot knots at the thought of you spending another second with this stupid guy who clearly couldn’t even tell that you didn’t want to go out with him. He shoved his hands in his pockets.

“She can’t go out with you tonight,” he stated. Junghoon’s smile dropped, and your expression turned to one of confusion. You, however, didn’t say anything.

“What? What do you mean she can’t come out with me tonight? We’ve been planning this for like a week.”

A week? A week, and you hadn’t mentioned this at all. He scoffed.

“She has to help me write music tonight. I’m pulling an all-nighter, and she has to be a part of it. It’s her job,” Jihoon asserted. Junghoon huffed and put his hands on his hips.

“You’ve got to be kidding me. You guys don’t even pay her. She’s going out with me tonight,” Junghoon insisted. Jihoon’s expression hardened and he got closer to the guy. He may be taller than him, but that didn’t mean Jihoon couldn’t assert himself.

“She’s staying here with me,” Jihoon replied. Junghoon grew closer, and that made Jihoon notice that he was admittedly a lot more muscular than him too. It made Jihoon wrinkly his nose.

Was Jihoon your ideal type, or was he?

“She’s-”

“She can speak for herself,” you interrupted, nervously popping between the two. You smiled at Jihoon and then more effectively turned your attention to Junghoon. You placed your hands on his chest and looked up at him.

Jihoon’s fists clenched against his will.

“Hey, I’m really sorry, about this but... You know how important Seventeen’s debut is to this company. If I don’t help him-”

“You have to be kidding me! You practically live here, can’t you sacrifice one night?” Junghoon responded, his expression dropping.

“I’m really sorry, but you know how important this is to me. If Jihoon needs my help then I will be there for him. I made a promise to help these boys debut, I’m attached to them now.”

Junghoon grabbed your wrist and pushed you back a little.

“Whatever. I’ll text you I guess.”

“Junghoon I’m sorry!” You called after him, not seeming to care in the least that he had just so rudely grabbed you and tossed you to the side. Did he like you?! Because he if he did he surely wouldn’t have ever touched you like that. Even if he was mad.

Jihoon knew he should be happy that you had decided to stay with him, but a part of him was still boiling. How dare he touch you like that?

You watched Junghoon leave and didn’t bother saying another word until he was completely out the door. Once he was gone, your shoulders dropped, your hands hanging limply at your side.

Jihoon could tell you were feeling down.

But he still didn’t understand.

“Why were you going out with him?” Jihoon demanded. You turned over your shoulder, your face a dark red.

“Wha-”

“Why were you going out with him when you like me?” Jihoon continued. His face was a little warm too. He wondered idly where that had come from.

“We-Well, be-because, he asked, and I felt like I-I was bothering you pursuing you, so I just-” You swallowed a deep breath of air and tried to ease your stuttering. “So... So I thought I would give up and leave you be. Try to move on.”

“Don’t.”

You looked up in surprise, your hand moving slightly at your side.

“D-Don’t?” You asked.

“Don’t... Don’t try to move on.”

Jihoon’s face got hotter, and suddenly he wondered if he was maybe sick. He reached up and touched his face distractedly with his hand, which seemed to make you your head to the side.

Your face was still a dark red, but instead of being bothered by that, you smiled, your shaking diminishing. You closed the distance between the two and smiled up at him.

“You... You don’t even realize it yet, do you?” You asked softly, your hand gently resting over his on his cheek.

“Realize?” Jihoon asked, his eyebrows furrowing.

“Nothing.” You withdrew from him, “You should go to the studio, I’ll get you something to help you cool down okay?”

Jihoon pressed his lips together but nodded once.

“You’re right. We have a lot to write today.”

“That we do,” you agreed.

Jihoon wanted to be annoyed at the events that had transponded, but he found he couldn’t. He finally figured it out... He knew how he wanted the bridge to go.

Tell me your feelings

Don’t hold back, it’s not enough

Can’t fake it no more

Crank up the speed

Stop playing hard to get

Now let me call you