“You’re just too clingy for me!” He yelled harshly.

   “W-what? In what way – what are you even saying?” I pleaded.

   “You’re following me around everywhere! You need to relax. I’m sorry I can’t keep up with you – go find somebody who can put up with your neediness.” He spun around, ready to leave the door.

   “Wait!” I put my hand lightly on his shoulder, but he just shook it off. He didn’t even turn around to look at me as he said sharply, “What?”

   “What does this mean? Are we…?” I could feel the familiar tingle around my nose, telling me that I was about to cry.

   “What do you think it means? I never took you for stupid, but maybe we should add that to the list, along with paranoid and needy. It means I’m breaking up with you. We’re done.”

   I stood there, frozen to the ground, as he stormed out of the dance practice room. I stared at the necklace clenched in my palm, with a pendant depicting half of a heart. Two halves of a whole, you had said.

   “Two halves my ,” I muttered, my voice cracking. Tears blurred my vision as I stood there for an immeasurable amount of time, watching my tears fall onto the necklace.

---

   My eyes flashed open as my ceiling focused into view. A dream. Taking a deep, calming breath, I rolled over on my side, my head swimming. More like nightmarish replay.

    It’s been six months already. Forget about it, _______. Forget about the things he said. You’re different from what he said – you know that you were never clingy or needy! Stop being insecure!

   The logical part of my brain was saying that, but my heart was honestly, still sad. Closing my eyes, I imagined his face – smiling his kind, handsome smile. The smile that he shot in my direction so many times, before everything went downhill.

   Myungsoo…

   *Bleep*

   Jolted out of my daze, I looked over at my table, where my phone screen was lit up with a text message. Groggily getting out of bed, I shuffled over to see what it said.

   Jinyoung: Good morning! Ah, I hope I didn’t wake you up. Are you still up for hanging out today?

   Glancing at the clock and reading 10:30AM, I sighed. The dream about Myungsoo had started off my day badly, making me feel kind of down. But then again, Jinyoung made me smile often, and spending time with him the past two times was definitely fun.

   Me: I actually just woke up, keke. I’m up for it though! Have you eaten?

   Jinyoung: I just woke up too, embarrassingly enough. Is your hair a mess, too? Let’s go get something to eat? I know a pretty good café near the library.

   Me: My hair is always beautiful! I wake up naturally gorgeous…but yeah, food sounds nice!

   After texting me the address a couple of blocks from my house and making plans to meet up in one hour, I decided to shower, brush my teeth, get changed, and try to forget about my dream.

---

   “Is everything alright?” Jinyoung looked down at me worriedly.

   “Huh?” I blinked, realizing that I had started spacing out. “Ah, yes, of course.”

   “Haven’t fully wakened up yet, I see,” he said, smirking at me. “I’ll get us some coffee and food.”

   “No!” I blurted. “You already bought me the latte before. I’ll pay tod-“

   “Shh, I’m the one who asked you to come out, so I pay. Let me.” Shooting a quick smile at me, Jinyoung slid out of his chair and made his way to the cashier.

   I looked around at the small, dainty café, with its pale green walls and cute wooden tables. The entire shop smelled like a mix of flowers and green tea, which relaxed me. Deciding to push everything Myungsoo-related to the back of my head, at least for now, I decided to just relax and have fun.

   “Ooh!” I said appreciatively as Jinyoung plopped a plate in front of me. He had gotten us both breakfast sandwiches and lattes. “You’re spoiling me, but thank you ~” I smiled.

   “I’m the tool, remember? Eat, eat, eat. I have plans for us today.” He took a big bite of his sandwich as I silently admired the way his hair looked in the sun, streaming in through the open window of the café.

   “Really? What’d you plan?” I grinned excitedly. I wasn’t sure if this was a date – I mean, I was pretty sure it wasn’t, but we had never made it clear, either.

   “I have to drop by somewhere first – a dance studio. My friends went there early morning, and they’re going to be practicing there for awhile. I just want to order some take-out for them.”

   “It sounds like you’re the mother hen,” I giggled. “Your friends dance?”

   “Yeah, we all do.”

   My eyes widened. Looking at him across the table, I tried to imagine his lean body break dancing, tutting, doing a body wave…

   I almost choked on my sandwich. Coughing, I took a few sips of my latte as Jinyoung laughed at me. “You’re a dancer?” I wheezed.

   “Why do you look so surprised?! Do I not look the part?”

   “No, no – it’s just really strange. I’m a dancer too! Or, well, I used to be. Are you talking about the studio by the subway station?”

   “Yeah, that’s the one!” He grinned, leaning forward. “What do you mean, you used to be?”

   “Ah…I stopped a couple of months ago. It didn’t feel right anymore.” Smiling wistfully, the relaxing café suddenly seemed to shrink around me. Myungsoo had been the reason that I stopped dancing.

   “Oh, I see...to me, dance is the only thing that does feel right.” He replied. Inspecting my face, I could tell that he caught something that was off, but couldn’t tell exactly what. “Let’s go then? I’m just going to buy their food. Wait for me outside, kay?”

   I waited outside for a couple of minutes before Jinyoung stepped out, hitting my head playfully with the take-out box.

   “Hey!” I protested and began fixing my hair, to his amusement. As revenge, I quickly kicked his shin.

   “Hey!” He repeated after me, reaching down to rub his leg. “For a person so tiny, you’re so feisty!”

   “It’ll be your face next!” I joked, walking ahead.

   He caught up with me quickly with a few strides of his own and then increased his pace so that he was walking ahead.

   “Are you challenging me?” I said bravely as I sped-walk ahead of him.

   “I’m challenging your stubby legs.”

   “My legs are not stubby!”

    By the time we reached the studio which was only two blocks away, I was practically full on running while he was sprinting. Somewhere along the way, it turned into a race, and we both burst into the doors of the studio, laughing and out of breath.

   “Behave!” I playfully scolded as we both composed ourselves.

   “________? Is that you?” said a voice towards the corner. Looking over at the receptionist’s desk, I saw a girl with blunt bangs and long brown hair, sitting in front of the computer.

   “V-Victoria? Is that really you? I…it’s been…” My words stuttered as I rushed to get them out. I ran over to the table as Victoria ran out from behind it, and we collided in a flurry of hair and arms.

   “Baaaby!” she squealed. “You haven’t visited in forever. Ages and ages and ages! How’re you doing? Did you change your shampoo? You smell like flowers instead of strawberries. Did you cut your hair? Oh my, stunner right heeereee!” Letting me go, she whistled seductively as she leaned into my ear. “Who’s the hottie?”

   “What hottie? You mean – oh God, Vic!” I attempted to flick her forehead playfully, but she quickly flew away from me. We had been friends for too long – around four years – and she knew all my tricks and quirks.

   “Do you always abuse your friends?” Jinyoung spoke up from behind me. Turning around, I watched as he sauntered over, smirking.

   “Only my close ones,” I winked. “You should be grateful.” I nudged him with my elbow. “Vic, this is Jinyoung. Jinyoung, this is Victoria, the owner of the studio.”

   They exchanged hellos, bowing respectfully to each other. “I’ve seen him and his friends come here to practice often, but we’ve never actually met,” Victoria said politely. “Your friends are actually upstairs, I think.”

   “Yeah, we came to drop off some food for them,” I gestured towards the box of food that Jinyoung was holding. “Do you know what room they’re in?”

   “Should be 201. Or 202. Something like that.”

   “You’re the receptionist, shouldn’t you know?”

   “I’m a receptionist, not a robot. You’re not worth the walk back to my desk to check.”

   “Your desk is two feet away.”

   “What’s your point? YOLO.”

   We burst out laughing, poking fun at each other. “Alright, alright, we’ll head up then.” Smiling at Victoria, Jinyoung and I waved at her before heading towards the staircase.

   Sneaking a peek behind me, I saw Victoria wink at me and then pretend to at Jinyoung’s back.

   “You are so vulgar!” I mouthed at her, halfway between shocked and amused.

   “You guys seem like really good friends,” Jinyoung observed.

   “What, surprised that I’m so popular?”

    “No, surprised that you have friends.”

   I gasped, pretending to be offended as he chuckled and led the way. I hadn’t been to the studio in awhile, but Vic and I slipped back into our own ways easily. Maneuvering through the halls with ease, I smiled as I ran my hand across the familiar smooth, blue walls.

   “You come here with your friends often?” I questioned.

   “Yeah, usually every weekend. I just skipped out this one time. Feel lucky.”

   “Lucky that you skipped out on practice?” I tilted my head, confused.

   “No,” he responded, stopping at room 202 and knocking three times on the door. “Lucky that I’m spending my precious time with you.”

   I swatted his arm lightly, pouting. “It should be the other way around!” I said as the door opened, and he held it for me.

   “Yah, guys, help, I’m getting abused here,” he said as he stepped into the room also.

   I looked around the room, seeing a couple of boys panting heavily, sweating and standing in the middle of the room.

   “Well, well, it’s the ditcher!” cried one blonde boy.

   “Should you really be talking to your hyung that way?” panted another boy, with floppy dark hair, taking a swig of water.

   “The blonde one’s Gongchan, and the nice one’s CNU,” said Jinyoung, pointed at the boys who just spoke.

   “And who might you be, pretty lady?” came a voice behind me. I spun around to come face to face with a boy with a handsome, but mischievous face. Surprised by his closeness, I stepped backwards, my back bumping into Jinyoung’s chest.

   “Ignore that one,” said Jinyoung rolling his eyes. He put his hands on my shoulders and spun me away from the boy. “He’s Baro.”

   “Don’t be like that, Jinyoungie!” whined Baro.

   “Yah!” a fourth boy stepped up and stood beside Baro. “Be nice, you’ll scare her off. Hey, I’m Sandeul,” said the boy, sticking his hand out in my direction.

   Giggling, I took his hand and shook it. “Hello ~ I’m ______, nice to meet you all.”

   “We come with peace offerings,” said Jinyoung, holding up two hands, one of which was holding the take-out box. “Food.”

   “Food!” cried CNU.

   “Food?” gaped Sandeul.

   “Oh my JESUS!” exclaimed Gongchan.

   “YOU ARE THE LORD HIMSELF!” yelled Baro.

   Laughing, I stepped aside as the four boys crowded around Jinyoung, almost tearing apart the box. “Yah, yah! Take it!” Jinyoung said, stuffing the box in Gongchan’s arms and stepping away. He shot me an apologetic glance, but I just smiled at their close friendship.

   Hearing a toilet flush, I turned towards the small bathroom door, which was attached to the dance practice room. A tall, lean boy stepped out, zipping up his fly. “Did I hear somebody say food?”

   He looked up, and I locked eye contact with a pair of dark brown eyes. We both seemed to freeze, taking each other in.

   It was Myungsoo.