It had been six weeks since Eli had first dreamed about Jade and it was still going strong. It had been a little over a week since Christmas and UKISS were still in Japan. They were now staying at the dorm provided to them by their company. This morning was full with some interviews and mini-shoots for a couple magazines. Right now the only schedule left was to practice for their upcoming release. They had been practicing the dance for Alone for a few hours now.

                It was break time and Eli was just lying on the ground, staring into space. Kevin suddenly came over and laid down, using Eli’s stomach as a pillow. “You seem to be zoning out. What’s up?” Eli groaned. “I’m tired. Is it bed time yet?” Kevin laughed and looked at his phone. “It’s only 5pm. You can’t go to sleep till later. Jade can wait.” The now blonde boy giggled as Eli glared down at him. “Why are you still wearing your wig from the video?” He pulled the wig off and smiled. “I’m thinking about actually going blonde.” Eli laughed and looked back up at the ceiling.

                Kiseop suddenly ran over with water bottles and handed one to Kevin and balanced the other one on Eli’s forehead. “We need to practice more. We aren’t supposed to leave for another couple hours.” Eli groaned and rolled over, making Kevin slide off his stomach, causing a groan from him too. Soohyun came back into the room and clapped his hands together. “Come on guys, we only have a few more days till our video comes out.”

                The boys all gathered back in position and continued practicing until they were all dripping with sweat and able to do all the moves with no mistakes. Eventually they were stripped of most layers besides basic clothes. Dongho slumped down and untied the hair that he had up in a ponytail. He had long wavy hair for this concept. “Ugh!! I’m too hot!” Hoon was bent over panting. “That’s because you have a stupid amount of hair.” The maknae ruffled his hair and whined. “When will they let me cut it?!”

                The older boys all laughed at the youngest suffering. Eli chugged an entire bottle of water and wiped his face and neck with a towel. “How much longer do we got to practice today?” Hoon looked at the clock and it was a little while after 9pm. He looked over to Soohyun “Hyung, did the manager say 9 or 10?” Soohyun sat on the floor wiping his own face with a towel. “I’m not sure. Where did he even go?” Kiseop ran over to the door and peeked out; their manager had fallen asleep in the hallway.

                “Hyung!” he yelled down the hallway, nearly scaring the manager half to death. “How much longer do we have to practice today?” The manager stared at the schedule. “It says you have to practice till 9. What time is it?” He looked at his watch. “Oh, you guys were done 20 minutes ago.” Kiseop grabbed his towel from around his neck and threw it at the manager “Aishh!!” He leaned back into the practice room. “We were done twenty minutes ago! He fell asleep!”

                The entire room groaned as they cleaned up and walked numbly out to the car. Dongho was the last one in the van and he just plopped on the floor in the middle instead of sitting in a seat. “Let’s go…” he mumbled into the carpet. Hoon turned around from the driver’s seat and stared at him. “Not till you get in the seat and put your seatbelt on.” Dongho groaned as Eli pushed him with his shoe. “Hurry up. I’m gross and need to shower!” The maknae reluctantly got up into his seat.

                Hoon drove them all back to their Japanese dorm. As soon as the car shut off, Eli and Kiseop raced for the shower. They both got there at the same time and were arguing over who got to use it first. Dongho slowly walked past the bathroom door, on his way to the living room. “Just shower together and stop being noisy.” Kevin and Soohyun laughed as they walked behind the grumpy maknae.

                Kiseop just shut the door and shrugged his shoulders. “Are there enough towels in here?” He said as he checked them himself. Eli the shower and worked on making the water the right temperature as Kiseop got the towels ready. He started stripping down as Kiseop also felt the water. Eli got in as Kiseop removed his own clothes. Eli automatically washed his face and made sure to clean around his piercing. He put shampoo in his hair as he got out of the way for Kiseop to get under the water.

                “Eli, you are lucky.” Kiseop said as he was scrubbing his face under the water. Eli looked at him confused as he grabbed the body wash. “Why?” The older boy leaned out of the water so he could grab the shampoo. “You have someone to see every night, even if she is just in your brain.” Eli nodded as he got back under the shower and rinsed his hair and scrubbed his body. “Yeah, I’m still shocked that it’s lasting this long.” Kiseop nodded in agreement. “What will you do when it ends?”

                Eli stopped moving for a second. He didn’t want to think about that. “I don’t know. Just accept the fact that it was only in my brain? I don’t really want to think about it.” The other boy nodded. “We will all be here for you if that happens.” Eli smiled and nodded. “I know, stop being depressing in the shower.”

                Kiseop grinned and nodded and pushed a half sudsy Eli out of the water and rinsed his own hair. Eli laughed and threw the washrag at the older boy. “Jerk.” Kiseop grinned his dorky grin and finished rinsing his hair and moved for Eli to finish rinsing off. Eli got out of the shower as Kiseop went back under the water to wash his body.

                He wrapped a towel around his waist and blow dried his hair till it was completely dry and Kiseop was done by the time Eli finished and was sitting on the toilet wrapped in a towel as well, waiting for the blow dryer. Eli handed it to him and went to go get dressed. He shared a room with Hoon now. Hoon was sitting on his bed with his computer and smiled as Eli came in. Eli quickly pulled on a pair of boxers and a pair of sweat pants and plopped on Hoons bed. “So what are you up to?”

                Hoon pointed at his screen. “I’m catching up on an anime.” Eli nodded and went over to his bed. He looked at the clock and sighed, it was already past 11. Jade would already be waiting for him. He got under his blankets and looked over at Hoon. “Hey, I’m going to sleep. Will you turn the light off?” He nodded and reached his arm out and flipped the light switch and plugged in his headphones. “Tell Jade hi.” Eli laughed and shook his head as he rolled over to face the wall and fell asleep.

                He was suddenly standing in really cold sand and it was snowing. He instantly felt the cold and started lifting his feet frantically. “Ah! What the heck!?” He was very confused, the video set didn’t use real snow. He heard laughing and looked over to see Jade sitting on a rock, hugging her knees, next to the water stage. “At least you didn’t show up in the freezer downstairs.”

                Eli laughed and ran over to her, wrapping his arms around her and sitting on the ground behind her. “The actual set wasn’t actually cold!” She laughed as she cuddled up to him. He could feel that her skin was cold. “You’re so warm! I’ve been here for like three hours.” She explained. He kissed her gently. “Sorry. I’m here to warm you up now. Remind me to wear full pajamas tomorrow, socks as well.”

                He felt her relax against him as she laughed. “And how do you suppose I do that?” He remembered what Kiseop had said in the shower but shook it out of his mind. He laughed and rubbed her arms, trying to warm her up. “Oh yeah… So how was the first day back at work after your vacation?” He asked successfully changing the subject. Jade smiled and grabbed his hands between hers and breathed on them. He felt bad that she would wait three hours for him and still try to keep him warm. “I was talking with Elle on the way to work and said ‘I like Eli better than Cyrus.’ And Cyrus heard it since he was waiting at the café for his kpop lesson.”

                He started laughing really hard. “Good! How did he take it?” He was happy that this was the girl that showed up in his dreams. She leaned her head against his shoulder “Elle tried to explain it away by telling him what biases are and things. So he didn’t feel bad or anything. I did teach him about UKISS today though.” Eli smiled against her hair. “Awesome. Did he try anything?” she shook her head. “Nope but I hired someone today! His name is Keji and he knows a lot about kpop too. He’s a diva. It’s awesome. He is staying over at the house tonight.”

                He leaned back a bit and was confused. “You let a guy sleep over at your house? It’s a house full of girls.” He was even more confused when she started laughing really hard. “Don’t worry, I think me and him will be very good friends. I told him about us. Guess what his response was.” Eli was still very confused why some guy was sleeping in her house.

                “He was jealous I got to you first?” She burst out laughing again, making him more confused. “No! He said he was jealous of me and wanted me to tell you to tell Kiseop that he loves him.” Eli suddenly understood and started laughing really hard. “Ah I see. He likes boys. I feel much better now. I don’t think Kiseop would be all that happy though.” Jade smiled “I could always dress him up like a girl and tell you if he makes a pretty girl or not.”

                They both sat there laughing for a while. Jade composed herself “Well the good thing is that he likes attractive boys, he might hit on Cyrus and make him creeped out and go away.” Eli smiled and ruffled her hair. “I would want you to video tape that.” He noticed her smile sadly and look down. “You wouldn’t be able to see it.” He smiled sadly as well, remembering. “Yeah… Well, you can just tell me about it if it happens.”

                The two of them just sat there in silence for a while. Eli really didn’t know what he would do if these dreams suddenly stopped. He felt her shiver and he tightened his arms around her. Jade broke the silence “Why do you keep making music videos in places with no furniture… You really are homeless idols.” That was the last thing Eli expected her to say. He was laughing so hard he was almost crying. “Well, it’s not like we expected a situation like this to happen!”

                Jade smirked and sighed as she pushed him back onto the cold ground and laid on top of him. “This is much warmer.” She said smiling. Eli made an automatic grumpy face as the bare skin of his back touched the cold concrete. He pouted up at her. “Now I’m cold.” He watched her fold her arms on top of his chest and grin as she rested her chin on her hands. “I’m too small for you to lie on top of.” He smirked back. “Is that a challenge?” She pouted and he felt her drawing tiny shapes on his chest with her fingertips. “But then I will be cold.” He laughed and wrapped his arms around her. “Ok, I get it. It will be like Titanic, you will be Rose and survive and I will be Jack and freeze to death.”

                She started laughing and flicked him on the forehead. “Don’t be silly. Rose didn’t lie on top of Jack in the ocean. You are more like the door.” Eli laughed and rolled her over so they were both on their sides. “Then I don’t want to be like Rose and Jack. We can be the nameless people who clung to each other as they froze in the ocean.” He smiled as Jade moved in closer to him and he rested his chin on top of her head. She sighed. “I’d actually much rather not freeze to death.”

                He laughed and was amazed at how easily she made romantic moments funny. Eli kissed her dark hair. “You’re a dork.” She answered immediately “We can be dorks together.” He laughed again. “I’m not a dork!” he flat out lied. She burst out laughing. “Have you seen yourself on YouTube? What kind of teenage boy sings A-teens while playing with Legos?” He grinned and had forgotten about that video. “So, you’ve seen that…” She nodded. “I’ve seen most YouTube videos about you. You have a lot of fans by the way.” Eli nodded in agreement. “Legos are cool…” He said trying to defend himself.

                Jade suddenly said “Well it’s been a long time so one of us might poof soon. Don’t forget to wear warm pajamas tomorrow.” He nodded. It had been a long time. He lifted her face up to his and kissed her softly, intending to kiss her till one of them poofed. He felt her smile against his lips, and then she was suddenly gone.

                He sighed and rolled onto his back and stared at the ceiling. He would rather lay here in the cold than not be able to see her. He was probably going to be worrying about not being able to see her anymore now because of Kiseop. He made a mental note to throw something at Kiseop at some point in the day.

                Eli continued to just lay there on his back in the cold until he was woken up by his least favorite person right now, Kiseop.