Rays of sunlight peeked through the half-closed blinds, illuminating the entire living room. The bright beams danced along Daphne’s eyelids, eventually causing her to wake up. She yawned loudly and slowly sat up, rubbing her eyes groggily.

“You are so lucky you don’t have school today,” Scarlett remarked coldly from the kitchen counter, stirring her coffee sourly.

Still feeling somewhat fatigued, Daphne took a while to register what Scarlett had said. Daphne eventually took a look at the time and was surprised that it was already two in the afternoon.

“What time did you go home yesterday?” Scarlett questioned, venom dripping from her every word. “And why didn’t you pick up my phone calls?”

Daphne hesitated slightly, not knowing what to answer. She knew that she was in a very bad place. Whatever excuse Daphne could conjure up in the next ten seconds was reason enough for Scarlett to turn into a nagging mother.

“Er...” Daphne began apprehensively, avoiding Scarlett’s gaze. “Hm...”

“Daphne, you idiot!” Scarlett criticized. Daphne held her breath for the worst, knowing that Scarlett was just getting started. “Do you have any idea how worried I was?! I stayed up until two in the morning for you without a single call back!” Daphne opened to interrupt, but Scarlett continued to go off, her words racing out of . “I didn’t know what you were doing! What if you got or got lost or got hurt?! Daphne, how can you be so stupid?! I knew doing this dance thing was a bad idea. I just knew it! I--”

“Scarlett Alicia Prewett!” Daphne screeched loudly enough to stop Scarlett from talking. With the knowledge that Scarlett would explode at any second, Daphne chose her words with extreme caution. “Will you please...let me talk?”

Scarlett stared at Daphne in disbelief, completely speechless. Daphne had never screamed at Scarlett before. She didn’t know whether to continue her rant or let Daphne talk, but Scarlett knew better than to argue with her best friend, despite of her deflated pride. After inhaling and exhaling slowly, Scarlett calmed herself down, massaging her temples and then folding her arms in defeat.

“This better be good, Daphne Eun Mi Park.”

“Okay...honestly, after practice, I just tried getting my homework done but I was distracted by this guy--”

“Ooh, a guy?!” Scarlett squealed happily, forgetting her anger towards Daphne. Scarlett ran up to Daphne, sitting beside her on the couch. “Details, woman!”

Daphne couldn’t help but laugh quietly to herself. Scarlett always had a huge infatuation with the opposite . Boys were basically Scarlett’s entire existence; she tried her best to jump at every given opportunity to talk about them, so it was no surprise to see Scarlett's resentment towards Daphne dissipate away so quickly once Daphne brought up a boy.

“Scarlett, it was nothing! He was just curious why someone was in the practice room so late and he asked me a lot of questions, which is why I stayed for so long.”

“Was he cute?”

“Not really,” Daphne admitted. As she said this, she pictured Yoseob’s dorky smile, causing her to smile as well. “Well, he’s more baby cute than anything. He’s not necessarily hot.”

“Good enough reason to pounce on him! Get it, Daphne!”

“Oh my God, Scarlett...”

Scarlett laughed but her expression abruptly turned dark as she suddenly remembered something. “Daphne, are you sure you can handle all of this? This was just the first practice and you’re already behind work. I don't want you to die, you know!”

“I’m fine,” Daphne tried to relieve Scarlett from her worrying. “I’ve got this under control. You don’t have to stay up for me, all right? If I never need anything, I promise you’re on speed dial.”

“I really hope you know what you’re getting yourself into, Daphne.”
 

“YAH, YANG YOSEOB,” Doojoon bellowed when he woke up, prodding Yoseob, who was in the bunk next to him, in the ribs. “You have a lot of explaining to do!”

“Hyung...” Yoseob rolled over, covering his head with his pillow. “It’s too early for this.”

“Yeah, hyung,” Dongwoon, who was in the other bunk next to Doojoon, commented, “let us sleep.”

Doojoon rolled his eyes at his group mates’ laziness, continuing to poke Yoseob aggressively. “Yah, where were you last night? I had to make up some bull excuse for Jiyong hyung to believe me! Do you know the trouble we would’ve gotten into if he didn’t believe me?”

Yoseob reluctantly gave in and sat up in his bunk, blinking drowsily at Doojoon. “I was with a noona.”

“A noona?!” the Beast members immediately all sat up in their bunks with widened eyes, surprised to know that Yoseob was with a girl at such a late hour.

“Yah, what were you doing with a noona?!” Junhyung said from the bottom bunk, knocking on the wood above him to call Yoseob’s attention.

This sounded absolutely absurd to the other members of Beast. Innocent, cute, visual maknae Yoseob with a girl? What did he know about girls? From his lack of participation whenever the topic of girls came about, the members concluded that girls were one of the last things on Yoseob’s priorities list, which is why this came out as a total surprise from all of them.

“Was she pretty, Yoseob?” Kikwang asked with a erted smile, resulting in a punch on the arm from Junhyung. “Ow!”

“Babo...”

“Yah, let Yoseob explain,” Hyunseung said, trying to bring some common sense into the conversation as he, Junhyung, and Kikwang all climbed up to the top bunks to talk more cohesively with the other three members.

Yoseob thought back to Daphne, which wasn’t entirely difficult since he had been thinking about her the entire night. He could picture the way her eyebrows furrowed with frustration every time he asked a question and the way her messy black ponytail still magically looked elegant around her shoulders.  Finally, he replied with a shy smile, “Yeah, she was pretty.”

All of the guys excluding Yoseob whooped and cheered including Doojoon, who must have forgotten his anger, for he was raising his hand towards Yoseob, waiting for a high-five.

Doojoon looked at Yoseob curiously, wondering why Yoseob was leaving Doojoon’s hand in the air. “You’re not gonna high-five me?”



Yoseob eventually gave Doojoon a half-assed high-five, shaking his head as he did so. “You guys, it’s not like that! She’s really nice.”

“Aww, does our girlfriend Yoseob like her?” Kikwang teased with a baby voice, causing the other members to chortle.

“No! I’m just saying she’s nice. Besides, I only met her for a night--how can I like her? We are friends.”

“Well, what’s her name? What was she doing in the Cube building, anyway?” Hyunseung asked with curiosity.

“Daphne,” Yoseob said. He paused for a moment in order to recall her last name, scrunching up his nose as if that could aid him to remember. “I think her last name was Park. Park Daphne. She’s a new back-up dancer and she was trying to do homework after practice which was why she was staying up so late.”

“Daph...ne?” Dongwoon repeated with confusion, scratching his blonde head. “American?”

Yoseob nodded in silence, while his other group mates began cheering once more, shouting things like “Introduce us to her!”, “Don’t keep her to yourself, you know!”, and “Let us teach you how to court her!”

Yoseob forced a smile, regretting his decision to tell the guys about Daphne. s were great people, but talking to them about girls was overwhelming at times, he always thought. Granted, Yoseob was never really experienced with girls, but he always had enough respect to never objectify women, which was why he always opted to stay mute whenever the members openly talked about them. He felt that the majority of the guys had a different way of approaching girls than Yoseob did, making him feel a bit uneasy.

He wasn’t sure whether or not he felt any attraction towards Daphne. Yoseob liked her personality from what he got to see of it, and he couldn’t wait to get to know her even more, but his mind was nowhere near the thought of getting into her pants. He just wanted to get to know her, figure out her life story, and cherish her as a friend--that was really all he wanted: a friendship.

A/N: Merry Christmas, everyone! I hope everyone received what they wanted for Christmas and then some. :) ! Thank you to everyone reading, commenting, and subscribing!