“Does y/n seem strange to any of you?” Jihoon asked.

Chan glanced at Jihoon, quirking an eyebrow curiously.

“How do you mean?” He asked. Jihoon’s nose scrunched and he gestured towards you. Sure, you looked just like everyone else did except...  Something just seemed off.

“Oh, I suppose you’ve never seen her like this before, have you?” Chan asked. “It doesn’t really happen that often.”

“What doesn’t happen that often?”

“She’s sick,” Hansol contributed in-between shoving a cookie into his mouth. Jihoon’s eyebrows shot back up and he looked at you. He didn’t think you really looked sick. You looked just like normal you.

“How could you know that?” He asked. You stumbled over your feet a little, and your eyebrows scrunched. It wasn’t at Jihoon’s words; he knew that you couldn’t hear him. But the action was noticeable in itself, nonetheless.  You turned to Soonyoung, who’s expression had softened.

“Maybe we should call it a day. That step will still be the same tomorrow-”

“I can learn it today!” You protested adamantly. “Come on Soonyoung! Don’t give up on me, I’ve got this!”

Soonyoung sighed and turned back to his phone.

“Okay, okay, again from the top.”

“She’s more prone to mistakes when she’s sick,” Hansol commented. “And she gets more stubborn. Won’t let anyone tell her she can’t go on with her day as if nothing’s wrong. I swear, she’s been like this since high school.”

As if you could sense their words a sneeze wracked through your body, and yet somehow you didn’t miss a single step in the dance that you and Soonyoung were working on. Even without a mistake, you still looked utterly miserable.

“It’s worrisome,” Chan agreed. “But it’s y/n I guess.”

“We should take a break,” Soonyoung suggested after that run through. You didn’t look like you really wanted to, but you nodded and turned to your things which were piled in a corner. You had a large tumbler- which was strange considering the fact that you never drank anything during practice-

“Orange Juice,” Minghao supplied taking his place next to Jihoon as the group of them watched you. You set down the drink and then sat down on the ground, pulling out a thermos. “And chicken noodle soup.”

“But-”

“It’s all she’ll consume when she’s sick. Orange juice and chicken noodle soup,” Joshua explained with a nod. He looked at Hansol who shrugged.

“She’s been like that since high school.”

Jihoon couldn’t help the worried expression that fell over his face as he looked at you. You sneezed again, into your elbow, looking utterly disgusted at yourself after doing so. You paused a moment to just look miserable before returning to your soup and orange juice.

Jihoon hated to watch. Not because it was disgusting or anything, just because he didn’t like to see you so miserable. He knew you to always put on a brave face, to always keep an airy and positive attitude, but seeing you looking so... Upset? It hurt Jihoon’s soul.

“We aren’t that close to debut why doesn’t she just take a br-” Before he could finish speaking Samuel had rushed over to him, slapping his hand over his mouth. He coughed, his wide eyes peering into Jihoon’s urgently.

“Don’t say it,” he said in a hushed tone. “She’ll never go home if anyone suggests that she take a… B word.”

“So, you guys just… Let her get like this?” Even Jeonghan looked a little startled by Jihoon’s words.
“We don’t just let her. She’s a strong independent woman. Men can’t tell her what to do,” they all said in unison. That made you look up raising an eyebrow at the group of guys.

“I don’t say that that much, do I?” You asked, an amused look settled over your lips. Soonyoung tossed you another bottle of orange juice which you surprisingly caught perfectly.

“You do,” he insisted. You rolled your eyes and uncapped the lid of the bottle, getting to your feet as you walked over to the other guys. As you approached you also hooked a face mask over your ears.

“What are you guys talking about anyways?” You asked. Jihoon was shocked into silence. He wasn’t sure how he hadn’t noticed that you were sick before. You were wearing a face mask, you had been washing your hands like crazy, and the bags under your eyes were so much darker than they usually were.

It was like the realization of your behavior over the last few days- taking medicine between practices, drinking so many fluids- it made Jihoon somewhat confused. He had been so dull not to realize what it all meant.

“You’re sick,” he mumbled. Your head fell to the side, and you laughed, flashing him that bright smile that you always gave people when you were worried that someone was worried about you. Even from behind the mask, Jihoon could feel its intensity. You certainly were a powerful person.

“It’s just a little cold.”

You sniffled at the perfect time.

“You should be resting,” Jihoon mumbled. “You should be in bed, and you should only wake up for food and medicine.”

“Look, I do not need-”

“You made me go to sleep when I tried to spend every night in the studio,” Jihoon mumbled. “So, I think I should be able to force you to go home and take a break.”

Silence fell across the studio as everyone in the room waited for your response. Everyone was on the edge of their seats, staring at you with wide eyes. You looked extremely conflicted. Your hand raised nervously, to your hair, thoughtfully running your fingers through the strands.

“I-”

Your eyes scrunched shut in concentration. Jihoon could see you weighing your options, so he decided to speed up the process. He reached forward and gently took your hand in his, running his fingers over your knuckles. That distracted you from your concentration. Your eyes dropped to that hand, so he took that chance to reach forward and place his other hand on your forehead.

“You’re burning up, y/n,” he mumbled softly. His grip on your hand shifted so that he could pull you closer to him. You looked completely shocked by the words. It was kind of cute. You were really cute, even when you were flustered like this. “Come on, go get some sleep. Everyone is worried about you.”

“You’re worried about me?” You mumbled; your voice so quiet that Jihoon almost couldn’t hear it. He nodded, a small smile on his lips. You coughed and looked away from him, your cheeks turning even darker red. “Well, even though there is no reason to be worried for me, I’ll go home and take a break… If only to sate you.”

Jihoon pulled his hands away from you and smiled at you pleasantly.

“I’ll see you when you’re better okay?”

“Tomorrow,” you corrected softly. Jihoon clicked his tongue in disapproval.

“When you’re better,” Jihoon insisted. “Whether that be two days, or two weeks, I don’t want to see you again until you are completely better.”

“But-”

“Of course, if you don’t have to sleep and rest and get better, I suppose if I were to get sick-”

“No! You’re an idol,” you protested firmly.

“So are you,” he asserted, just as firmly. “So, no more double standards. No more pushing yourself to the edge of all that is humanly possible. Take a break. You deserve it and your body is literally begging you for one.”

“Jihoo-”

“How about this? I’ll visit you every day, just to make sure that you are healthy. You’re in an apartment near the dorms, right? So, I’ll just visit you at the start and end of every day.”

Once again you fell into a thoughtful silence, clearly considering your options. You opened your mouth, and then closed it, your fingers drumming thoughtfully against your thigh.

“I’ll tell you everything that happens, show you our dance practice videos to track progress and everything,” Jihoon assured, his voice soft and comforting. “All I ask is you take one break.”

“One break. And you will keep me up to date with everything,” you murmured, your voice soft.

 Jihoon nodded, and reached forward, his fingers intertwining suddenly with yours.

“I promise,” he mumbled.

You sighed, a clear sign of your resignation. He nearly sighed in relief when you slowly nodded your head, and looked down to the ground.

“Okay,” you relented. “I guess if you promise-”

“And I do.”

“Okay, okay, I’ll take a...” You trailed off, clearly not wanting to say the word. You in a breath an wrinkled your nose. “I’ll take a break.”

Every other boy in the group gasped in surprised at your words, an action that made you glare them down as you squeezed Jihoon’s hand in yours tightly. Your discomfort at the whole idea- going home when everyone else was here was pretty evident by the way that your eyes flitted down to the ground. When Jihoon looked at you it was like he could see a million thoughts running through your brain all at once.

He sighed and rested his head on your forehead, forcing you to look into his eyes. You were clearly startled by the action. Your eyes were large and round as they peered into Jihoon’s and you went so stiff that Jihoon was pretty sure you weren’t breathing.

“Wh-What if you get sick-” You tried to say to get him off of you. It didn’t work, he just stayed put, his grip on you tight and persistent.

“Go home, everything’s going to be okay alright. I’ll be there right after practice gets out.”

And Jihoon was a man of his word. As soon as practice ended and the boys were all getting ready to go out, Jihoon left promising them all he would give you all of their “get better” wishes. He stopped at a convenience store on the way there, grabbing some soup that was supposed to be good for a person when they were sick, and made his way to the apartment complex you lived in.

He had never been there before. Only knew the address after coaxing it out of you before you left. You hadn’t seemed to want him to know where you lived. Jihoon didn’t know why, it wasn’t a bad place.

Jihoon made his trek up the stairs and when he got in front of your door, he was surprised to be able to hear the sound of you inside. He could tell you weren’t resting based solely on the sounds of your floors rapid creaking, and you making small thuds on things here and there.
Jihoon sighed and tried the doorknob, delighted to find the door was unlocked.

He pushed it open, and placed a hand on his hip, giving you a glare.

You stopped in the middle of what you were doing- books in hand and a guilty expression written over your face at having been caught. You let out a nervous chuckle and smiled unsurely.

“I’m... All better?”

“Yeah,” Jihoon said sarcastically. “I’m sure.”

A pout crossed your face and you dropped down on your knees, over dramatically bowing to Jihoon.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” You exclaimed. You stopped and sat back on your feet. Your face was red. “It’s just... I’m really, really messy. I didn’t want you to see.”

Jihoon looked around your apartment, and if what you said was true, then you hadn’t rested at all since you had gotten here hours earlier. The apartment was really clean and well organized. All of the books were neatly stacked on your bookshelves and your floor was clear of any clutter and clearly freshly vacuumed.  Even the aroma in the apartment smelled fresh and... Vanilla-y?

He glanced around and noticed a small candle lit in the corner. You had clearly thought of everything.

“Sit down,” Jihoon mumbled grumpily. Shutting and locking your door behind him. “You look like you’re about to pass out.”

“I feel-” You interrupted yourself and Jihoon watched as a dizzy spell overcame you and you grabbed a counter to steady yourself. You cleared your throat and smiled. “I feel fine.”

“Sit down,” Jihoon repeated again. He wandered over to you and took you gently but pointedly by the arm, leading you over to a table. You whined at the touch but allowed Jihoon to lead you and eventually force you to take a seat.

You sat there silently and looked up at him as he rummaged through his bag of things, he had gotten for you at the store. Once he finally pulled out the soup, he set it in front of you with a spoon.

“Eat,” he stated pointedly. “Where’s your bedroom?”

You obediently took a scoop of the soup and placed it in your mouth, making a big show of swallowing it before pointing Jihoon down the hallway.

“There.”

Jihoon didn’t say another word as he turned and left to your room.

Once in your room he got to work. He piled a few extra blankets on your mattress, and he plugged in a humidifier he had bought on the way. He walked back into the kitchen and began to rummage through your cabinets looking for a large bowl. You just watched him in silence as he went through the cabinets until he found and large enough bowl.

He wandered back over to you and without a word placed a hand over your forehead. He hummed when his fingers met warm skin. Too warm. He walked away from you and turned the water in your sink on, filling the bowl he had retrieved with cold water.

Once it was full, he wandered back over to you and dipped a cotton cloth in the water. Then before you could protest, he rang it out and placed it on your forehead. You whined in protest, and tried to bat away Jihoon, but he didn’t allow it.

“You’re burning up,” he replied pointedly. “You need to take better care of yourself.”

You pouted but raised your free hand up to hold the cloth to your forehead.

“Happy?”

He was, but he didn’t say that. He just hummed and sat down across from you at the table, staring at you as you ate. For some reason the attention only made your cheeks turn redder. You cleared your throat and set your spoon down.

“I’m full,” you said, sounding a bit bratty as you spoke. Jihoon had always known you to dislike feeling restricted and being told what to do. Still, he found it quite amusing how bothered you were even just by him telling you what to do and when to do it. “What’s next, sir?”

“Change, you’re getting some sleep,” Jihoon replied softly. He rested his head on his hand and waited for your protests to begin.

“But-” You stammered for a minute over your words. “Jihoon, come on it’s so early- How can I go to sleep so early?”

“If you don’t sleep, you’ll never get better and the longer it’ll be before you can go back to practicing for debut.”

“But-”

“It won’t kill you to sleep a little,” Jihoon mumbled back. “Besides, it’ll probably be good for you to catch up on all that sleep you’ve missed over the years.”

You huffed, but Jihoon could tell that you had relented to Jihoon’s argument. You stood up and your expression softened ever so slightly. You looked a little silly- standing there with that cloth pressed on your forehead but still Jihoon couldn’t help but feel like his breath had suddenly been knocked out of him.

“Thank you,” you mumbled, your face turning redder as you spoke. “For coming here. For taking care of me.”

Jihoon’s cheeks began to feel warm, so he just smiled.

“Keep the cloth on your head while you sleep so that maybe your temperature will drop. I’ll come visit you in the morning okay?”

You nodded and wandered away to your bedroom, leaving Jihoon to wonder when he had started caring about you so much.

Just as promised, Jihoon took care of you every morning and night that you were sick. You were only ill for three days but those three days were pretty bad.

It had taken all Jihoon had in him not to overreact and send you to a hospital he was so worried about you. Luckily however, after only a few days your fever had gone away, you stopped sleeping all day and you looked immensely better than you had looked in the past.

Jihoon sighed contentedly as he knocked on your apartment door.

It was too early for him to be up logically, but here he was anyways. He knew that he had to catch you way before you got up, and he knew that you got up way earlier than they did so that everything was ready for them when you wanted it to be.

You opened the door and Jihoon was delighted to find that you were already dressed. Less delighted to find that you looked exhausted.

“Are you okay?” Were the first words out of his mouth, followed by. “Maybe you should stay home another day-”

“No, no,” you interrupted, putting your hands in the air. “It’s not that, I’m just used to sleeping a lot now. My body doesn’t want me up this early.”

You gave him a small smile.

“But I’m okay. Ready to get back into it.”

You would never cease to amaze Jihoon. The way that you were always ready to put your best foot forth no matter what the circumstance. You were always so strong for Jihoon and the other boys. Clearly willing to bear the weight of seventeen different worlds on your shoulders so that the rest of them could thrive.

“Atlas,” Jihoon mumbled softly. Your eyebrows rose in surprise, and you blinked.

“Wh-What?” You asked softly. He blinked once, and then shook his head.

“It’s just... You’re our Atlas,” he replied. “The greek god who holds up the sky.”

You laughed in surprise and gestured for Jihoon to come into your apartment.

“What brings you here so early sir?” You asked, ignoring the comparison entirely. You had a large bag of things packed on your table and you quickly shrugged it on.

“I came by to help you,” Jihoon replied pointedly. “I figured you could use some-”

“Since I was sick?” You finished for him. Jihoon looked away from you with a slightly ashamed expression on his face. “Jihoon I really am fine. You worry way too much.”

As you spoke you turned your attention fully onto Jihoon, smiling as you shrugged a second bag over your shoulders.

“Well, come on,” you stated softly. “You can follow me on my morning routine.”

The first place you stopped was a breakfast place. Everyone smiled at you eagerly as you picked up a large platter of food which you put over your other arm. Jihoon and all of the others begged to help you carry it but your response was quick and final: “What you don’t think I can handle it? Please. Leave me be.”

The next stop was a coffee shop where everyone knew your name. Jihoon was surprised to find that you got along so well with everyone that you spoke to. Not only were you willing to talk to just about everyone that you passed on your way, but you also knew just about everyone that you passed on your way.

Everyone was thrilled to see you with Jihoon: “Oh Is this the boy you won’t stop talking about? He really is so cute.”

You were hardly embarrassed to be outed in front of Jihoon, and Jihoon knew why. It wasn’t like he didn’t know how you felt. You had been rather forward about that since day one.

But he still couldn’t believe that he was the one that you decided to like.

You knew a lot of people, all of them varying levels of handsome and not. All of them clearly fawning for you hard. You clearly didn’t really notice it- Or if you did then you didn’t comment on it. You played as if you were completely unbeknownst of their feelings for you as their eyes wandered to parts of your body that they had no right to look at.

Jihoon felt his fingers tighten around your wrist and he tugged you pointedly away from the coffee store guys as soon as you had your hands on the box of coffees, they had given you.

“Oh!” You blurted in surprise. “I guess I’ll be going now! See you tomorrow-”

The guys all looked disappointed to see you go, but you weren’t disappointed to be pulled away. In fact, as soon as you two got outside, the contentment on your face was undeniable.

“What was that for?” You asked him, amusement sprinkling in your voice. Jihoon scoffed and looked away from you, his fingers just tightening on your wrist.

“Nothing,” he murmured. He tugged on you more tightly, almost not even thinking about it as he did so. “Just want to make sure we aren’t late the one day I help you that’s all.”

You giggled, and it was clear you didn’t think that was why he was holding on to you so tightly.

-

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

Jihoon watched as Jeonghan, Doyoon, Chan, and you all practiced the dance that Seventeen was going to be debuting with. You had insisted on practicing with it instead of practicing your own dance with Soonyoung.

“I’ve been focusing so much on myself recently. I need to focus on you guys more.”

Everyone was mildly annoyed at you for focusing on their debut again.

Unfortunately, when you said that you were fine you had truly meant it. You fell right back into old, honestly bad habits. You focused entirely on Seventeen’s music for debut. Only when the other boys were taking a break did you practice on your debut.

And Jihoon was particularly annoyed to find out that you were staying up almost all night in order to practice your own debut. But before he could say anything about it Doyoon had pulled him aside.

“I know it’s frustrating,” he said. Jihoon was going to play dumb, and act like he hadn’t been obsessing over you for the past few weeks, but that was pointless. He could tell in Doyoon’s eyes that he knew exactly what Jihoon had been fretting over. “You have to let her be. She does what she wants. Isn’t that what we all like about her?”

It was true. Jihoon loved how independent you were. You were so insistent on taking care of yourself and taking care of everyone around you. It didn’t take a genius to know that you wore your heart on your sleeve, and you loved being independent and depended on.

But still, Jihoon couldn’t help but think that everyone liked to have someone to depend on.

“Up late again I see.”

You let out a surprised scream, jumping right out of the choreography that you had been practicing. Jihoon laughed, and your cheeks reddened in embarrassment at how you had reacted.

“Hoshi said that I finally have the dance break right,” you explained to him, a smile flickering across your face. As you spoke Jihoon approached you, holding out a bottle of orange juice. You took it. “Now I’m just practicing facials.”

You unscrewed the bottle of orange juice, and Jihoon couldn’t help but notice that you didn’t comment on the fact that Jihoon had bought orange juice for you. You didn’t complain about how it was a waste of his money or about how you could buy your own juice. Instead, you just drank it. It warmed his heart to think you were just accepting his help now, instead of trying to fight it.

“You going to show me?”

You laughed and turned your music down.

“You can wait for my debut stage,” you responded. You leaned against the mirror of the dance room and a serious expression crossed your face. “You doing okay?”

Jihoon’s eyebrows rose in surprise.

“I’m fine,” he replied. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

You shrugged and took another swig of the orange juice.

“You’ve been distracted during practice.”

Jihoon’s face flushed when he realized where the sudden question was coming from. He had been rather distracted during practices recently, and not for no reason. He had been distracted because he had been thinking about you. Every day, all the time, he was just thinking about you. It was fine, of course. He knew the song and dance like the back of his hand. Everyone in Seventeen was beyond ready for debut. They could do their dance in their sleep, even you were ready. But he was still so worried about you. It was all he could think about.

“Have I?” Jihoon asked, pretending like he hadn’t noticed. You seemed to notice that he was hiding something.

“Seriously Jihoon, is everything okay? I’m worried.”

Jihoon sighed and nodded, raising his hands to the back of his neck.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m just...” He trailed off. “I’ve just been thinking about you. That’s all.”

Your eyebrows rose in surprise.

“You’ve been thinking about... me?”

Your face flushed with color, and a bright smile crossed your face.

“You like me so much that you’ve spent all that time thinking about me?” You repeated, your excitement showing. Jihoon rolled his eyes in aggravation at your behavior.

“It’s not that big of a deal,” he grumbled. You laughed and set your drink to the ground, rushing over to Jihoon.

“You like me,” you teased, wrapping your fingers around his wrist. “You like like me.”

Jihoon couldn’t help the small smile that crossed his lips at your giddy attitude.

“Yeah, yeah, you got me,” he said softly. “I like you.”

You sobered up a little at his serious tone of voice. Your fingers loosened their grip on him and your face deepened in color.

You seemed like you wanted to say something about those words in particular but thought better of it.

“Why so serious? You sound like me,” you said. You laughed like what he said had been a joke.

“Seungkwan wants to do karaoke and drinks tomorrow!” You said, clearly trying to redirect the conversation. Jihoon wasn’t really sure why you suddenly seemed so thrown off buy him saying that he liked you. He wanted to revisit it but before he could you were giving him a whole new reason to be concerned.

“You shouldn’t drink too much,” he warned softly. You rolled your eyes.

“It’ll be fun to let loose Jihoon! We’re going to be idols, right? Got to live a little before we can’t anymore!”

Before he could say more you turned your head away from him.

“I think someone needs me.”

It was the oldest trick in the book. To pretend like someone needed you to get out of a situation, but Jihoon couldn’t really say much to stop you as you left the room. He felt a frown settle itself on his face as he looked at the now empty dance room you had been occupying.

You had been weird since you got sick. You weren’t so obvious about your crush on him anymore. You still did the small things that showed you cared. You heard him when no one else did, you always gave him his favorite snacks and helped him with things before he ever asked for help. You even bought him little trinkets that honestly would mean nothing to him if it weren’t for the pink look on your face as you handed it to him.

“Look it’s no big deal. It just reminded me of you, okay?”

But you didn’t say it as much.

You just implied it and Jihoon was only human for letting that get to him.

He couldn’t help but wonder if there was a reason for that. Maybe you didn’t like him anymore.

“That’s ridiculous,” Minghao said pointedly as he started his stretches. “Of course, she still likes you. She’s liked you for ages.”

When Jihoon fretted over something he did it in silence. He wasn’t really the type to so openly talk about his concerns with others.

Maybe it was because you were more talkative than him and you were rubbing off on him. Maybe it was because he just liked you so much. Either way, the uneasiness in his stomach made it hard for him to hold his silence.

“She hasn’t said it to me in at least a week,” Jihoon mumbled back. “I wasn’t paying attention to it before… Maybe longer.”

Chan let out a loud sigh, rolling his head onto the mirror.

“You’re being stupid,” he said bluntly, causing Hansol to bite out a loud laugh. Jihoon shot a glare at Hansol and he shrugged.

“They’re both right. What would have changed?”

What would have changed? That was the question, wasn’t it? Jihoon hadn’t changed, you hadn’t changed either. The only thing different from now and before was how close Jihoon and you were.

When you had first begun to like him, it was because of his audition video. It was, in essence, love at first sight for you. But maybe that was where the problem was.

Sure, his audition video had been very telling of who he was as a person but an impression from a video could be different from who he was as an actual person.

Maybe now that you knew him better you had realized that he wasn’t the sort of person that you wanted to be with at all.

That night, at karaoke, you were acting… Well, weirder than you usually were. There was something in your behavior that was wrong, Jihoon just couldn’t pinpoint exactly what.

He could tell all the boys could sense that something was off, but you were deceptively charming.

“You guys are acting like you’re at a funeral, we’re supposed to be having fun! Let loose!”

Soon enough, everyone was relaxing. The attention drifted away from you and to other things like Seungkwan’s fake horrible singing and Mingyu’s sixth bottle of soju.

In the past when you had gone out with the group to do something fun you had still strictly held an air of professionalism despite the fact that you didn’t really need to be working at all times.

You never let yourself truly relax, even now that you were debuting.

But… Today was different.

Jihoon had never seen you hold a bottle of alcohol for longer than it took to hand to someone else but today you had picked up a bottle right away.

Jihoon had given you an odd look for it but… You made it a point to ignore it.

In fact, Jihoon couldn’t help but think you had been avoiding him all night.

Maybe he was just overthinking it. Maybe he was self-centered, but it seemed like you were talking to everyone but him.

You sang songs with Seungkwan that were notably non-romantic, and you danced and sang to high energy songs with Soonyoung. In fact, when you finally succumbed to everyone’s insistence that you perform a song, you chose an Itzy song… Dalla Dalla and made eye contact with everyone in the room but Jihoon.

Jihoon couldn’t help but feel, well, helpless as he watched you interact with the others. And he couldn’t help but feel concerned as you matched Mingyu in the number of drinks that you consumed.

Jihoon had never seen you touch alcohol, in fact he recalled talking to you about it once and learning that you didn’t drink at all. You didn’t like the idea of not being in control.

“Mingming you haven’t sung anything at all,” you exclaimed rushing over to the now pink boy. He looked helplessly towards Minghao, as if he would save him, and when he made no move to do so he laughed nervously.

“Oh, that’s okay I’m perfectly content just sitting here-”

You handed Mingming the microphone and pulled him up from his seat, taking his spot on the couch.

“Come on, show us those vocals!” You encouraged.

Somehow you had managed to get everyone today to sing. In the past it had really only been the same few people who were doing the karaoke, but you weren’t letting that slid today.

After a few hours, Jihoon noticed you slip out of the room. He thought that was odd. Your energy had been pretty high so far, uncharacteristically so, but he had assumed that it was because of the alcohol you had consumed. You had retired from the alcoholic beverage at this point to water, but it was clear the influence was still on you.

He couldn’t help but notice that you were seeming... More nervous.

You were closer to him now, only Joshua sat between the two of you, and your eyes were wide and focused on a singular spot on the floor. He noticed your hands were fidgeting nervously in your lap.

Joshua must have noticed this as well because he reached over to you, placing a steady hand over your fidgeting ones.

“Hey, are you okay?”

You jumped at the touch, but the smile that you gave Joshua was reassuring.

“I just have to go to the bathroom,” you said with a laugh. “I was hoping I couldn’t last through Mingyu’s ballad but... I’ll be back.”

You got up at that squeezing past the boys and out the karaoke room.

Normally Jihoon would probably just let you have your space but... He couldn’t feel like something about your demeanour was off. Before he could think over it too much, he followed you out into the hall. You seemed to not have realized that Jihoon was following you considering that as soon as you got into the hall you placed your hands on the wall, your eyes closing and your breath steadying.

“You’re okay, you’re okay,” you whispered to yourself breathlessly. Jihoon sighed and wandered over to you, hesitantly placing his hand on your back.

“You’re not okay.”

You jumped, your hand raising to your chest in terror.

“You scared me,” you said with a nervous laugh. “I thought I was alone.”

Jihoon stared at you, not really sure what to say to you. You seemed to be slightly panicked at the proximity of him to you and your eyes darted back to the karaoke room.

“Why’d you leave?” You asked. “You’re having a good time ri-”

“What’s going on with you?” Jihoon interrupted. You let out a very loud laugh.

“Going on with me. What do you-”

“Did I do something?” Jihoon interrupted again. “Do you not like me anymore? You’ve barely looked at me in the last little while I’m starting to think...”

He trailed off, his eyes flitting down to the ground. You were quiet for a few moments that felt much too long, and then you grew closer to him, hesitantly reaching a hand out to take his.

“You know how much I like you,” you said softly. “You’re one of the most amazing people I have ever met in my whole life.”

Jihoon’s eyes flickered back up to you.

“You’re kind, and determined, and handsome and you care about me in a way no one else ever has.”

“The other boys care about you,” Jihoon argued. You squeezed his hand.

“But they aren’t you.”

Jihoon tugged your hand a little, making you stumble closer to him. Your face was dusted with color at the close proximity.

“Then why have you been so weird?”

You lowered your eyes from his.

“Do you know how scary it is for someone like you back?” You asked. “Because I’ve never actually had someone like me back, and I have no clue what to do with myself now. I keep thinking that it’s some kind of cruel joke.”

Jihoon’s grip on your hand tightened.

“I didn’t ever think I would have time in my life for a relationship and... Honestly? I thought a relationship would be a waste of my time.”

You nodded slowly, undeniably understanding of his words. But Jihoon wasn’t done.

“That’s why you frustrated me so much when I first met you, I think,” he continued. “Because you are everything, I have ever needed in a relationship that I never even knew I wanted in the first place.”

You scoffed.

“We aren’t even actually in a relationship yet.”

Jihoon nodded slowly.

“Hey.”

You finally looked back up at him, your eyes widening ever-so-slightly at the sight of him looking at you so intently. Jihoon had never kissed someone before. He had hardly even thought about kissing someone. In all honestly, he had always seemed it to be unsavory.

He hadn’t understood why someone would ever want to practically swap saliva with another person. It seemed unsanitary.

But suddenly, Jihoon wanted nothing more than to kiss you. His heart thudded in his chest as he stared at you, and you stared back at him. He couldn’t quite recall a time in which you had seemed more beautiful. He couldn’t help but think how lucky he was to be in your life. He couldn’t help but think how lucky he was that you wanted him in your life for even longer.

As Jihoon grew closer to you, you grew closer to him too. Your eyes flickered down to Jihoon’s lips.

“Jihoon I-”

You were so close to him it was like you were all that he could breathe in, think about even. He wanted-

“Where is-”

You jumped away from Jihoon suddenly, the color in your face darkening at the sight of Seungcheol peeking his head from outside the karaoke room door.

Seungcheol seemed visibly thrown off by the sight of you two so close to one another.

“Oh. I didn’t realize-”

“Seungcheol I know you’re drunk but you better keep your dumb mouth shut, okay?” You exclaimed. Seungcheol laughed in surprise at your sudden high level of aggression.

“Keep my mouth shut about what?” He teased you lightly. “About the fact that you and Jihoon were going to-”

You rushed over to him and slapped his chest.

“Seungcheol, shut up.”

Seungcheol laughed but before he could tease you further you had your hands on the door to the room. You took one look at Jihoon over your shoulder, smiled, and then you were gone.

Jihoon couldn’t ever truly be mad at you, but if he was it might be for leaving him alone with Seungcheol after he walked in on… That.

“Oh my god,” Seungcheol started, his eyes full of mirth. “Does this mean...”

“Wai-”

“You finally did it!”

“No,” Jihoon denied. “I mean… Kind of? Not really.”

The disappointment on Seungcheol’s face was undeniable.

“Sorry for interrupting,” Seungcheol murmured. “But don’t be stressed.”

“I’m not stressed,” Jihoon lied. Seungcheol rolled his eyes.

“You’ve been so worried all night that you’ve barely done anything,” Seungcheol pointed out. “And she’s been so nervous to talk to you that she’s matched Mingyu in drinks.”

“Not actually drunk though,” Jihoon observed.

“Just having like a panic attack or something,” Seungcheol agreed. “But you know how she is. Every time Doyoon or I ask it’s all-”

“I’m fine what are you guys worried about?” Jihoon and Seungcheol said together. They both smiled at one another.

“She really is nice,” Seungcheol said softly. “You’re lucky.”

Jihoon nodded.

“I know.”

-

Jihoon was sitting in his studio when there was a knock at his door. He turned over his shoulder, surprised to find you standing there.

It was so late now that Jihoon had been sure everyone had gone home. You seemed to sense his surprise.

“I would love to go to sleep but I have to be here in…” You looked down at your phone screen. “Two hours to talk to your managers about your debut stage light cues.”

You groaned.

“They’re idiots. All of them,” you continued. “I gave them an extremely clear sheet of all of the light cues and despite it all I have to walk them through them all over again.”

You wandered over to Jihoon leaning over so that you could wrap your arms around his neck and lay your head against his.

“I’m still kinda drunk,” you murmured as an explanation. “I just want to be close to you.”

A small smile flickered across Jihoon’s lips.

“Maybe it’s a good thing Seungcheol interrupted us,” Jihoon mumbled. “I was going to kiss you.”

Your head peeked forward a little more, meeting his eyes.

“You know I wouldn’t have minded.”

A silence settled between them as you looked at one another, before finally you turned your attention to his computer screen.

“What are you doing?” You asked softly. He shrugged.

“Just messing around,” he replied. “There’s a lot I want to compose right now, I’m just sort of putting my thoughts into music.”

You nodded, sliding down to the floor with a yawn.

“I’m just gonna…” You trailed off, resting your head in his lap around wrapping your arms around his legs. “Wake me up when the mangers come.”

The last sentence came out closer to nonsense then an actual coherent statement, but Jihoon understood it, nonetheless.

He looked down at you, intent on making a joke about you being too comfortable with him when he realized that you had somehow already managed to fall asleep.

You must have been a lot more tired than you were letting everyone think. For a few moments Jihoon just watched you breathe, glad to, for once, see you sleeping of your own free will.

It seemed like everything with you always took some sort of huge battle. And, that aside, you were always so convincing. Jihoon forgot sometimes that you weren’t a superhuman.

He lowered his hand cautiously to your head, his fingers running distractedly through your hair.

He could hardly remember enjoying having a person this close to him. He enjoyed, of course, having Samuel close to him, but that was something completely different. Samuel was the youngest in the group, he figured everyone wanted to protect him and liked making sure that not only was he treated like just another member but also the baby he was.

But the feeling of wanting you close was different.

He didn’t just want to protect you, he felt like he needed to. He felt so helpless when you were out of reach as you so often were. You were constantly lying about how you felt and giving your everything to make others feel better. So much so that it was almost impossible to tell how you actually felt.

But having you here like this, so vulnerable, so close, Jihoon finally felt like he was of use to you.

“Jihoon.”

Jihoon startled a little, surprised to hear you speaking so suddenly. His fingers stilled in your hair, and he cleared his throat, trying not to seem as surprised as he was.

“Yeah?”

Your head turned in his lap and you looked up at him.

“Do you think things will change when we debut?” You asked him. Jihoon thought over it for a second and then nodded.

“We’ll certainly be more well known,” Jihoon replied. “You’ll probably become one of the most famous solo artists out there. Bigger than Ariana Grande.”

You scoffed.

“I’m being serious,” you replied. “Do you think the group dynamic will change? Do you think Seventeen will always be a family?”

It was then that Jihoon realized just how serious you were being. He could feel your fingers messing with the hem of his jeans nervously as you awaited his answer.

“You hear of groups growing apart the longer they spend time together. I couldn’t bear it if... I couldn’t bear it if something were to happen to Seventeen.”

“Nothing is going to happen,” Jihoon assured softly. “Not when we have the best manager on the planet.”

Your eyebrows furrowed.

“Sungsoo?”

Jihoon shook his head.

“No, you.”

You laughed softly and rolled your head done so that your face was hidden again.

“It’s exhausting managing seventeen boys.”

“Eighteen,” Jihoon reminded. “You forgot Sungsoo.”

You laughed again.

“Speaking of Sungsoo, he always gets here early,” you mumbled. You started to get up, making a sound of protest leave Jihoon’s mouth.

“You’ve been laying down for maybe ten minutes,” he stated. Your head shot up.

“I’ve been laying down for ten whole minutes?” You began to unravel yourself from Jihoon as you got up but Jihoon was determined not to let you go so easily. He wrapped his fingers around your wrist dragging you closer to him again.

“Don’t leave yet,” Jihoon said. “Stay for at least a little longer. Get some rest.”

You looked over at Jihoon, amusement painted across your face.

“Sorry, what was that?” You asked. Jihoon cleared his throat, his cheeks warming in embarrassment. “Did I hear Jihoon, big and bad Jihoon whine?”

Jihoon scoffed, looking away from you.

“If I did whine,” Jihoon started. “Which I am not admitting to, it would really just be more of a reason for you to stay with me.”

He pulled you again towards him and this time you let him.

“You should uh...” He cleared his throat again. “You should stay. Get some sleep.”
“I really do need to talk to Sungsoo...” You mumbled. But even as you spoke you got back down on the ground, resting your head against Jihoon’s legs.

“I’ll wake you up in two hours.”

-

“What are they saying?” Soonyoung murmured impatiently. Mingming shushed him loudly, his ear pressed to the CEO’s door.

“I can’t hear with you talking!” He hissed back. Jihoon glanced over at Seungcheol who was leaning on the hallway wall, looking at the two with a concerned look on his face. Jihoon cleared his throat, making all three of them look at him with the same guilty expression on all three of their faces.

“What... What are you doing?”

“Nothing!” Mingming insisted. “Do you really think Seungcheol would let us do something we aren’t supposed to?”

Jihoon looked over at Seungcheol, who laughed nervously putting his hand on the back of his neck.

“Don’t tell Doyoon okay?”

Jihoon wandered closer to the group and glanced towards the CEO’s door.

“I won’t say anything just want to be included,” Jihoon promised. Soonyoung visibly melted and both him and Mingming quickly reattached themselves to the door. Not that they needed to at that point.

“What do you mean Samuel’s parents want to pull him out of the debut? We literally debut at the end of the month what did you do?”

At first Jihoon wasn’t really sure who that voice belonged to, but after a few moments of silence he realized it was you.

“It’s not a big deal. We’ll just move on with the debut at sixteen-”

“The group is called Seventeen. Are you stupid?”

“We’ll just make a saying out of it. Sixteen members plus one group equals Seventeen.”

“Or we can actually fight this. Have you tried to keep Samuel?”

“He’s a small part of the debut-”

“He’s been here since the beginning.”

Jihoon could tell from your voice that you were upset. You weren’t really the type of person to speak loudly. Not, at least, unless you were extremely passionate about something. Video games you liked, books you’ve read, movies that were coming out.

“We aren’t going to sacrifice our debut; Samuel has been looking forward to this for years now."

And apparently, you were passionate about this group staying together.

“Our debut? You are barely an idol. If you don’t cooperate, we are taking your debut off the roster.”

There was a silence that fell between the two of you and the silence outside of the door was even thicker. After all that everyone had done to give you this debut, they couldn’t help but wonder what you were going to do.

Jihoon’s mind was racing, hoping that there was some chance that you two could come to an agreement that everyone would be happy with.

“Then I guess you just lost a solo artist.”

The door to the CEO’s office opened before anyone in the hall could do anything. Soonyoung and Mingming fell to the ground, their eyes wide as everyone looked at you. Your eyes were red, you looked exhausted. You sighed when you saw the boys.

“Samuel is going to debut,” you promised. You turned back to look at Sungsoo, who looked a lot more surprised to see the four boys standing outside his office than you were. “Don’t do anything stupid Sungsoo.”

And then you stormed down the hall.

Jihoon hadn’t had a lot of interactions with Sungsoo before. Only one where he had been initially welcomed into the company over a video call. The other boys seemed more familiar with him, but they all scrambled to their feet apologetically at having been caught eavesdropping.

“We were just worried about...” Seungcheol trailed off gesturing down the hall where you had gone.

“Is Samuel really not going to debut?” Mingming asked uncertainly.

“You’re still going to let her debut, right?” Soonyoung added. “We’ve all been working so hard for this debut to be perfect.”

“I...” Sungsoo trailed off, his face reddening. “I don’t know. You know how she is. She can be so dramatic.”

Jihoon loathed to hear anyone talk about you like that, but he didn’t personally have the gall that you had. He couldn’t bring himself to voice what he wanted to.

That you weren’t dramatic. That you were right. That you were just standing up for everyone. The rest of the boys looked uncomfortable, but they all murmured agreements, bowing their heads towards Sungsoo. Jihoon didn’t. Sungsoo looked a little surprised.

“Jihoon is there something you want to say?”

Jihoon looked at him, holding his silence for a few moments. Then, finally, he wandered away from the group, deciding he had better find you before you did something drastic. He started walking down the hall, but the further he walked without seeing you, the faster he went until finally he found you. You were walking fast, your phone pressed against your ear.

“Mrs. Kim? I’m so glad to get a hold of you. I’m calling with Pledis.”

Your voice was steady but the urgency on your face was more than evident. Unlike your usual demeanor Jihoon noticed that your fingers were fidgeting nervously. He couldn’t recall a time he had seen you so obviously stressed.

“Right, I heard that you were trying to pull Samuel out of debut... Right, yes, I know, I just... Why are you trying to do that?”

You rose your free hand to your hair, nervously running your fingers through your strands.

“Pardon my forwardness, but he wouldn’t want that. He’s better off with us then he is going to be under some other no name company.”

You paused.

“I know Seventeen doesn’t have a big name yet but when they debut-” You lowered your phone from your face, covering the microphone for a moment in frustration. Then you rose it back to your face. “You don’t know that for sure.”

You waited another moment.

“Seventeen is Samuel’s second family,” you insisted. “No, I don’t want to hear that from you. Look. Let’s talk about this more... Yes, tonight would work. No don’t worry about paying I’ll pay.”

You nodded.

“Yes, I know you just mean the best for Samuel Mrs. Kim...” You stopped again. “Yes, I will see you tonight. Goodbye Mrs. Kim.”

As soon as you had hung up the phone your breathing increased. Your chest rose and fell rapidly. You pushed your phone into your pocket and raised both of your hands to your head.

“It’s oaky, it’s okay,” you mumbled to yourself. You closed your eyes. “It’s okay, I don’t need this debut. Samuel does. Samuel matters, Samuel matters.”

Jihoon wanted to say something to you. Hell, he wanted to do something for you. Anything for you. But instead, he just stood there, until finally you turned and looked at him, your eyes wide at having been caught in the middle of what Jihoon could only assume was a panic attack.

“This isn’t what it looks like,” you said immediately. You seemed frustrated at yourself by your own words. “I have complete control over this situation. Samuel is going to debut.”

You groaned.

“Don’t tell Samuel about this, okay? Promise me. That’s the one thing I need you to do. I need you to promise not to let Samuel find out until I have talked his mom out of this.”

“But-”

“I just need one thing from you Jihoon. Can you please not lecture me and just let me do this?”

You looked desperate for any help in the situation, and Jihoon felt helpless for not being able to help fix things for you magically. He could tell you were frustrated.

“Don’t let Seungcheol come after me either okay? He’s going to kill me.”

You gasped suddenly.

“Okay and don’t let Doyoon find out. He is going to give me the biggest lecture and I...” You looked down at your watch. “I don’t have time for that today I’ve got to-”

Before Jihoon could say anything, you were pushing open the front doors.

“Okay, I’m trusting you with this. Thank you, Jihoon, I love you.”

And like that you were gone.

Jihoon stood there staring at the closing door.

Had he done enough?

Sure, on paper he had done more than he normally would. He hadn’t paid his respects to Sungsoo, and he had followed you, but he hadn’t really said anything to you. He hadn’t been able to calm you down or stop you.

“I just need one thing from you Jihoon.”

He had to help you in any way that he could.

He walked back to the practice room, where almost all of the boys were getting started. The only problem was Soonyoung, Seungcheol, and Mingming, standing talking to... .

Jihoon rushed over to them, nodding in greeting to Doyoon.

“Hey,” he said quickly. “What are we...?”

“Oh, hi Jihoon,” Doyoon responded. “I was just asking if anyone had seen our favorite trainee. Normally she is here by now...”

“Oh, you know how she is,” Jihoon replied with a laugh that admittedly sounded extremely nervous. “She didn’t get any sleep last night, so I convinced her to go home and rest.”

Doyoon’s eyebrows shot up in surprise.

“You got her to go back home and get some sleep?” He asked in surprise. “I mean, I always knew that she liked you, I think we underestimated her.”

Jihoon’s eyebrows furrowed.

“What do you mean?”

He nudged Seungcheol in the side.

“I mean... Don’t you think...?”

Seungcheol nodded.

“At this point it’s inevitable,” he agreed.

“Do you think he knows?” Doyoon asked back.

“Know what?” Jihoon asked, starting to get a little frustrated. He was glad that he had gotten the conversation passed why you weren’t there in a convincing way, but he didn’t like that Seungcheol and Doyoon were acting like they had this big secret about you. What could they possibly know about you that he didn’t?

“She’s in love with you,” Seungcheol replied. Jihoon paused, thinking back to those three words you had practically just spoken to him. He was trying not to think about it. He knew that you had probably just said it because you hadn’t been in your right mind. Surely you had just not been thinking about it when you said it.

You were so flustered, in such a hurry, Jihoon knew you hadn’t meant it.

“She’s not in love with me,” Jihoon denied.

“Right, she just lets you tell her what to do and wants to be around you all the time-”

“And almost kissed you,” Seungcheol added. All of the boys in the circle gasped and looked at Jihoon.

“Seungcheol-”

“You two almost kissed?” Mingming asked in excitement. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

“She was drunk,” Jihoon explained. “And we got interrupted and it hasn’t come up again.”

“This is huge,” Soonyoung said. “Are you two finally going to get together?”

Jihoon was at a loss for words. Were you two going to finally get together? Obviously, it wasn’t allowed under Pledis. If Sungsoo knew he would lose his mind. He would definitely take away your debut, maybe even kick Jihoon out of Seventeen.

But you were the last person to be scared of something like this. You would probably be able to talk Sungsoo out of it with a few phone calls and a heartfelt list of promises. Each promise that you would meet without any doubt.

But still, if fans found out, if other companies found out. Sure, all of Seventeen would be happy for you, but surely most of Korea would have a problem with it.

“I...” Jihoon trailed off. “I don’t know. She’s not... There’s no way she’s-”

“Look, don’t stress about it,” Doyoon said. He reached forward, patting Jihoon on the back and giving him a reassuring smile. “In due time everything will work out. Remember when you first started you didn’t even like her.”

That was true. Overtime Jihoon and you had gotten along better and better. If he had told himself when he first met you that he would grow to like you, to even consider dating you he probably would have laughed in his own face.

But now...

“We should start practice,” Seungcheol said. “Our favorite manager would not be happy if we sacrificed practice.”

Everyone in the group nodded, Seungcheol, Mingming, Soonyoung, and Jihoon all shared a look that... Luckily, Doyoon didn’t see.

And from there, it was all waiting.

All of the boys had questions about where you were, but Jihoon was able to pretty easily convince them that he had gotten you to take a break for the day. It had almost been too easy to convince them that he had any weight on what you did.

No one had figured out that something was amiss. Even though Minghao was very observant in the fact that Mingming was extremely nervous for some reason.

So, when finally at the end of the day you walked into the room with a bunch of pizzas and a large smile on your face, Jihoon felt a huge weight lift off his shoulders.

“Did you all miss me?” You asked loudly. All of the boys turned large smiles on their face as they rushed over to you. Seungcheol took the pizzas, and Samuel came right up to you, hugging you tightly.

“You’ve been gone all day! Jihoon said you finally took a break!”

You laughed.

“It’s true. Aren’t I a er? All Jihoon has to do is bat his eyes and I’ll do something I wouldn’t normally do.”

You looked at Jihoon, a convincing smile spread over your lips. Jihoon would have honestly believed that you were completely fine had it not been for what he saw earlier and the redness in your eyes.

God, you hid your true emotions so well.

Jihoon offered you half a smile, to which you seemed to be taken aback by. You visibly gasped in a larger breath of air, a nervous smile flitting across your face before you pointedly turn your attention to a different spot in the room. You stared at that for a little, your expression looking somewhat dazed.

“Today has been a good day guys. I have to go talk to Sungsoo, I’ll be back though.”

You ignored the loud protests from everyone else in the room.

“I’ll be back in a second and you guys can tell me all about how the day went. We’re so close to debut now.”

You quickly disappeared around the corner, and without thinking Jihoon jogged to catch up to you. You looked back over your shoulder at him.

“Oh hey-”
Jihoon grabbed you by your shoulders, forcing you to look him in the eyes. You laughed at the sudden touch and Jihoon could tell you were a bit uncomfortable.

“Look, I’m fine. Things worked out. I talked to Mrs. Kim- She didn’t realize how close our debut was because Sungsoo is an idiot, and...” You trailed off, seeing that what you were saying wasn’t really what he was looking for.

“And if I need a break, don’t worry, I’d take one but honestly, I’m just so happy that we for sure have Samuel for debut...” You trailed off again.

“I’m not sure what you want me to say,” you said, your voice a lot higher than usual. “Okay, is it because... I mean when I said I love you I didn’t mean- Well, no I meant it. Is that a little too soon? I do, in fact, love you, I just I didn’t mean to-”

Before you could finish Jihoon pulled you close to him. You stopped talking, seeming a little breathless as you looked at him.

“Jihoon, I-”

And before you could say anymore, because Jihoon didn’t think this usually, but he thought that in this moment, you were talking a bit too much. And normally, he didn’t really know what to do to calm you down. You were so easily stressed, and he didn’t know what to do to ease you, but in this moment, he knew exactly what to do.

He leaned in close, and before he could overthink it. He pressed his lips to yours.

You melted into the kiss. An immense relief in Jihoon’s opinion.

He had worried, for a brief second that maybe... But when you wrapped your arms around him and pressed him closer....

He felt warm, he felt happy, for just a second things made sense.

“Wait- Wait-” You pressed your hands on Jihoon’s chest until there was some distance between the two of you. You laughed nervously and nodded. “I mean this is great. Perfect even but-”

You looked to your left, and then your right.

“Not right outside of Sungsoo’s office.”

Jihoon nodded. He wasn’t sure what had gotten into him.

“Which... Speaking of      I still have to talk to him,” you murmured.

Jihoon looked past you to Sungsoo’s office.

“What are you going to do about your debut?”

You looked surprised that he brought up the topic.

“Well, you heard Sungsoo. If I helped with the Samuel situation-”

“You aren’t just not going to debut because you were helping us.”

You gave Jihoon a slightly annoyed look.

“I already made my decision, and I wouldn’t change a thing about what I did,” you replied firmly. “You guys are more important than my debut-”

And before you could finish your rant Jihoon brushed past you and into Sungsoo’s office.

When he looked at the CEO, he realized with a start that he had absolutely no idea what he was doing or what he was going to say. You rushed into the room after him, looking a little frantic.

“Jihoon,” you hissed. “Go back to the others.”

“You have to let y/n debut,” Jihoon said ignoring you completely. You looked at Sungsoo.

“Ignore him, Samuel is confirmed for debut,” you said. “I talked things out with his mom, everything is back on track.”

“Great,” Sungsoo said. He looked nervously over at Jihoon. “But your debut-”

“It’s fine if you cancel my debut, as long as Seventeen’s okay.”

“It’s not okay, think of the fans!” Jihoon protested. Sungsoo’s eyebrows furrowed.

“The fans?”

“There are a lot of people looking forward to her debut,” Jihoon argued. “What are you going to tell them?”

“Debut’s get cancelled all the time,” you replied. Jihoon looked at you, giving you a glare. You looked at him with an equally as annoyed look.

“I’m trying to help you,” Jihoon said.

“I don’t need your help,” you bit back.

“You two fight like an old married couple.”

Both you and Jihoon stopped, eyes wide as you looked at one another. Jihoon realized very quickly that you two would have a very big problem upon debuting.

If everyone in Seventeen could sense your chemistry, then so would everyone else.

“Oh?” You said, a nervous laugh erupting from your chest. You turned towards Sungsoo, clapping your hands together loudly. “Us? A couple? God we are the farthest thing from it.”

You looked at Jihoon and then back at Sungsoo, and back between them again.

“In fact, Jihoon and I practically never get along,” you continued. “They have to keep us apart most of the time.”

“Oh.” A troubled look crossed Sungsoo’s face. He turned his attention to Jihoon. “Do you want a different assistant?”

Jihoon’s eyebrows furrowed.

“No.”

He looked over at you.

“I still want her to debut.”

Sungsoo hummed and looked down at his phone. He was silent for a few moments and so were the two of you.

“1 million views,” Sungsoo mumbled. He made a small sound of surprise. “Your practice video got a million views?”

He looked at you and you nodded.

“Yeah, I guess.”

He looked away from you and nodded.

“Okay. You can debut.”

Your eyes widened.

“Really?” You asked. “I mean, are you sure because-”

“No, you’re going to debut.”

Sungsoo looked back down at his phone and furrowed his eyebrows.

“Look, I’ve got a lot on my plate right now,” he said. “Y/n, I’m going... I’m going to forward you an email of things that need to get done before debut, can you get them done... Tonight? Yes tonight.”

You looked surprised, so surprised that you looked over at Jihoon as if to make sure it was real. Jihoon just shrugged.

“Yeah, I can definitely get it done, I’m sure.”

Sungsoo was silent, looking through his phone so you took a step backwards.

“We’ll just... Go then?”

Sungsoo nodded distractedly.

“Uh huh, good luck on debut.”

Once the two of you were outside of the room, Jihoon looked at you. He worried that he had gone too far, that maybe you had been trying to get out of your debut for a reason. But when he met your eyes, he found only joy.

“I can still debut,” you mumbled. You rose your eyes to his.

“Jihoon, thank you.”

Jihoon smiled at you, relishing in the feeling of having you wrap your arms around him. Having you so happy. He could hardly believe that he was able to convince Sungsoo to let you debut, or that you were actually grateful to him for what he had done.

He knew you, and he knew that when people helped you, though you acted grateful it actually bothered you that people were giving you a hand on something that you thought you had complete control over.

Jihoon didn’t understand why you felt that way, but he still recognized the look of annoyance on your face when Mingyu helped you grab something that was a little out of your reach.

But even as you pulled away and he searched your eyes, he couldn’t see that look.

You noticed the way that he was searching you for something and your eyebrows furrowed slightly.

“What’s wrong?” You asked him. He shook his head, letting a smile cross his lips.

“Nothing. We should get back to the others, they missed you a lot you know?”

You nodded and your hand slid into Jihoons. You gave him a small squeeze and then the two of you walked down the hall and back to the others.

-

“Okay are you guys ready?” You asked. You turned from Seungcheol to Doyoon, squinting your eyes at his shirt. You reached forward and fixed his collar. “Okay I-”

You turned around and caught Hansol, brushing his hair out of his face.

“You all just- You’re going to do amazing,” you said. You turned to the rest of the boys. “You’re all going to do amazing.”

“Are you sure?” Samuel asked nervously. You nodded.

“Never been more sure of anything in my life.”

“You go on right after us,” Seungkwan said. As if they were all suddenly reminded that you had to be presentable too, everyone got close to you. Seungcheol checking your makeup, Mingyu messing with your hair, Jun checking to make sure your jewelry was on right.

You shooed them off.

“Go go,” you insisted. “You’re on now!”

Everyone started to shuffle on-stage, leaving you behind. They all wished you luck, until finally all that was left was Jihoon and you. Jihoon looked at you a smile slowly crossing his face.

“You look beautiful, you know that?” Jihoon asked. You scoffed, walking towards him.

“And you look very handsome,” you replied. You raised your hands to his collar, adjusting the hood of his sweatshirt. You weren’t looking him in the eyes, instead you had your eyes on his clothes. You raised them to his hair, which you brushed with your fingers distractedly. You huffed and ruffled his hair with your hands a second time.

Jihoon watched as the tip of your tongue popped out of your mouth in concentration and he couldn’t help but smile.

“I really want to kiss you right now.”

“Jihoon.”

Your eyes met his and your tone of voice was harsh as if you were actually annoyed by what Jihoon had said, but the smile that spread over your lips was comfort enough.

“You’re going to do amazing.”

You laughed again and backed away from Jihoon.

“Before we do something stupid,” you said. You moved your hands behind your back and smiled. “I’ll see you on the flip side.”

Jihoon nodded.

“See you.”

He took one look at you, thinking about how everything was going to change. The minute he turned around, the minute he got on stage he was actually going to be an idol and in less than an hour you were going to be too.

He worried for a brief moment that something would change in the way that you treated one another. After all the idol life happened to change a lot of people. But he banished the thought before he could really stress over it too much.

You hadn’t changed yet, and your life had changed so much already. If you were going to change, it would have happened already.

He resisted the urge to look back at you, to fall back into old patterns, to need your help with everything he did. Instead, he looked forward to all of his friends on stage and took a step into the light.

-

“Oh my god, you won’t believe what just got announced,” Rose mumbled. Her friends all looked over at her lazily, but she didn’t look up at all, she kept her eyes glued to her phone. “Rumors say that Woozi is dating y/n.”

“That again?” Selena complained with a roll of her eyes. “How many times do they have to say that they aren’t dating for people to stop making those dumb video-”

“No, but you want to know why?” Rose interrupted. Her friend Selena didn’t look interested, but Rose continued anyways. “Y/n was supposed to do a stage version of Shakira’s Hips Don’t Lie with Jung Hoseok right?”

All of her friends nodded.

“Well, apparently just a few days ago the person she was supposed to do it with changed to Woozi and when asked about it they didn’t say anything. Until, it got revealed today that Jihoon and y/n choreographed the dance together.”

“So?” Selena complained again. “That doesn’t prove anything. Maybe he just wanted to do the dance he choreographed.”

“That’s what everyone thought. Until, this video got posted.”

Everyone crowded around the phone screen that Rose was showing them and watched as footage of what looked to be Pledis’s dance room was shown across the screen. You were on the screen, stretching lazily with Soonyoung, talking about something that didn’t seem to be very important.

That was when Jihoon walked in. He walked right up to you, and while you waved at him cheerily, he grabbed your wrist and pulled you away from Soonyoung sharply.

“You’re doing our dance with Jung Hoseok?” He demanded, clearly trying to keep his voice down a little. Soonyoung didn’t seem surprised by the interaction. He just laughed and walked off screen. You, however, did seem a little surprised.

“It wasn’t my choice!” You insisted. “I wanted to do it with you, but you said it would be too risky.”

“But Jung Hoseok,” Jihoon repeated. “He’s like… One of the iest men alive.”

It wasn’t easy to tell what you did there, but it contained you looking away from Jihoon briefly.

“Don’t be ridiculous, you know how I feel about you.”

“That was before your debut-”

“And after it. And before and after every comeback no matter what idol I appear on stage with,” you continued. You sighed, loudly enough that the camera picked it up and looked back at Jihoon. Your hand touched his cheek, and while some of Rose’s friends gasped, two of them squealed and leaned in closer. “You know that I love you. You know that the only person I want to be with is you.”

“Then why-”

“I didn’t choose him Jihoon,” you insisted with a shrug. You pulled away from him and walked partway through the dance studio. He watched you, seemingly unable to keep his eyes off of you. “I told Pledis I wanted to do it with you and only you, but they don’t want to waste the choreography we did. Besides we already told the studio I would do it.”

“I know you don’t like Hoseok,” Jihoon said, stopping you in your tracks. You looked back at him.

“I know,” you said.

“I just… don’t want you to do the choreography without me,” he admitted.

Even with the cameras blurry vision of the two idols, it was obvious to see that a smile had spread across your always sunny face.

“Then do it with me. No one will know! Besides, people already ship us. It’s like fanservice,” you stated bluntly.

“But it’s-”

“Risky?” You interrupted. “And when has that ever stopped you before?”

You stood stock still, but Jihoon walked over to you with purpose. It wasn’t clear to see from that angle, but it was completely possible that the two idols kissed in that brief moment.

“I’m going to talk to Pledis.”

“Atta boy.”

The video stopped at that, and all of the girls pulled back.

Selena still didn’t look convinced.

“That could mean anything,” she insisted.

Maria rolled her eyes.

“You’re such a hater Selena,” she mumbled. “What’s so bad if Y/n and Jihoon are dating anyways?”

“You know that she’s been there since he started at Pledis,” Julia agreed. “I mean she practically comanages the group. Seventeen doesn’t go anywhere without their token idol.”

“Really?” Selena asked, surprise leaking into her voice. Julia nodded.

“Rumor has it that Y/n always wanted to be an idol but gave up on the dream. When Jihoon and the rest of Seventeen found out, they leaked those practice videos they have with her in them, and refused to debut unless she debuted as well, and, as you know, the rest is history.”

Selena seemed a little less reluctant to hate on the couple.

“It’s still not confirmed,” she stated. “And frankly it’s unprofessional.”

“Well, I like them,” Julia said certainly. “Anyone that Jihoon falls in love with is okay with me and isn’t it better that it’s an idol we know we can trust?”

There were a number of soft hums of agreement before the conversation quickly changed to other things, but it wasn’t long before Rose’s phone buzzed again. She looked down at the notification on the headline.

Two years after debut, Y/n and Lee Jihoon of Seventeen admit to a long, healthy relationship together. Pledis issues this statement about their relationship…