"This is a song dedicated to Victory or Nothing, Hi Tech, GD seongsengnim and .. Zico hyung, for coaching me all this while. Please enjoy," Chen smiled and bowed.

The music started and Chen began to sing. This time, he was different. He sang with soul and his angelic voice seemed to enchant the audience. He was confident, he was a different person.

Zico smirked, satisfied with his coaching. He had spent the last week practically drilling Chen, from memorising the song lyrics to getting the melody and pitch right, and especially working on his confidence. Chen managed to pull through in one short week, and now, as he delivered a fantastic performance, Zico felt pleased.

Young Deuk beamed too, touched at the effort Chen had put to make up for the mistake he had caused the team. He looked around and saw the team members smiling, proud of the accomplishment Chen had made within a short period of time. Their disappointment with him seemed to evaporate as they watched his performance.

GD too, was proud of Chen. He had heard about Chen's blunder during the competition, but looking at him now, it was hard to believe that Chen had ever made a blunder.

"What do you think?" Zico whispered to Hyori, who had been dragged by him to watch Chen's performance. "You owe him one," Zico had said.

However, Hyori didn't want to be there at first because of the extreme guilt she felt. She felt guilty because Chen had loyally attended all her competitions and stuff, but she couldn't be there for him. She blamed herself (partially) for causing the team's loss due to her selfish reason of wanting to complete her project as early as possible.

Also, the biggest reason why Hyori didn't want to come was that Chen hadn't spoken to her properly the past week. She had come over to his house as soon as he got back from meeting Zico that day. She had asked him whether they could talk, but he merely looked at her before replying with a short, "I'm busy."

Then, he shut the door in her face, leaving her feeling even more worse than before.

They spent one whole week without talking to each other. Everytime Hyori wanted to approach Chen, everytime she came over, Mrs Yoon would aologetically tell her that Chen had left early in the morning and would only return late at night.

Hyori felt ish. And she still feels ish. She knew Chen knew she was there, but he made no move to show it. Hyori wasn't used to this cold treatment. She didn't like him being angry at her.

Just then, Chen finished singing. Hyori clapped weakly before turning to Zico. "I have to go," she mumbled, turning around to leave. Zico froze. She couldn't leave yet!

He grabbed her hand, a little forcefully, causing her to wince. Then, she glared at him. "What is wrong with you? Let me go!"

"I told you, you owe that kid one, so you're not leaving until he's done."

"He is done, that's why I'm leaving!"

"He's not done yet!"

Hyori looked around. Everyone around them was staring at the two of them, for their hisses had turned to loud whispers. Was it possible to feel more miserable than she already was? Yes.

Perhaps Zico had gotten stronger than Hyori, that's why she couldn't prise his hand off her arm. Tears were threatening to fall. Why was it so easy to cry these days? Hyori wasn't like that before.

"Just let me go," she pleaded, not wanting to make a scene.

"No," Zico replied, still gripping her arm.

Hyori was so frustrated at that point, her tears naturally fell.

"Zico please don't embarrass me any further," she said in a shaky voice.

From the stage, Chen saw everything clearly. He bit his lip in guilt. Was his plan too effective? It was now or never. He quickly beckoned to Luhan, who ran up, looking nervous.

"Noona's-" He began but Chen silenced him. He cued for the music to start playing and nodded to Luhan, who nodded back.

Ni jiu bie zai you yu le hao ma
Jiu jin na zhu wo de xin zang
Ai shi yi dao hen ci yan de guang mang
Lin lie de yue guang, ba yan jing guan shang

Hyori froze. She looked at the stage and saw Luhan singing in Chinese. He made eye contact with her and beamed. Just then, Chen, who was beside Luhan, locked eyes with Hyori for the first time in one week, placed the mike near his mouth and began singing in Chinese too.

Ru guo bu shi wo shi bie de nan ren
Ru guo zhe shi xi ju li mian de yi ju hua
Shao gan le jiu ba
Wo hui he ni de ai jiao huan shang hen

Hyori was confused. Chen knew Chinese? But since when? Why didn't she know?

Seeing her perplexed look, Zico loosened his grip on her arm and gently pulled her closer to him. She moved without even realising. Then came the chorus part.

Baby don’t cry, tonight
Dang hei ye zai ci liang qi lai
Baby don’t cry, tonight
Jiu dang zuo mei fa sheng guo yi yang

Ni yong yuan dou bu hui hua shang xiang pao mo yi yang
Nan dao ni bu zhi dao ma
So baby don’t cry, cry
Wo de ai shou hu ni bu fang kai

Hyori only understood the english part in the song they sang, but it was enough. At the end, Chen smiled at Hyori, a true, genuine smile. Hyori felt her heart lighten.

"Hyori noona, don't' cry," he said before bowing with Luhan before heading backstage. The audience whistled and cheered.

Hyori looked at Zico and hiccoughed, because the tears stopped as abruptly as it started. Zico chuckled before wiping her tears off with his thumb.

"Zico .. what's going on?"

"Come," he pulled her hand and led her outside. "That kid will meet us soon."

*

Sorry for the slow update guise! I had to settle some school stuffs :/ 

P.s: Hyori had stitches because she ran all the way to the venue Chen was at :D