Gongchan sat in a chair at the edge of his bed waiting impatiently for Mina to wake up.

After Shinwoo made Mina drink a full glass of water, Jinyoung told her to take a nap to rest. Gongchan knew she was alright, but couldn’t help but feel worried. The way she looked when she dropped to the ground kept racing through his memory keeping him from leaving Mina’s side while she slept.

Outside, Jinyoung and Sandeul sat on edge also waiting for Mina to awaken from her nap.

Jinyoung looked beside him to assess Sandeul’s face. He wanted to see if the worry on Sandeul’s face exceeded his own.

Sandeul looked beside him to Jinyoung. The two made eye contact and both jerked their heads away awkwardly before pretending it never happened.

Shinwoo walked out of the kitchen with a washcloth in his hand. He entered Gongchan’s room and placed the wet washcloth on Mina’s forehead. She stirred a little in her sleep, but then settled back down and continued to peacefully sleep.

“Hopefully that cools her down.” Shinwoo says as he backs away.

“How are they out there?” Gongchan asks

“It’s a little weird, but I think they are continuing to pretend they don’t know they share the same feelings.” Shinwoo says shaking his head.

Gongchan bows his head, praying that Jinyoung can pull through and win Mina’s heart. He feels bad for Sandeul though. He doesn’t know for sure why he wants Jinyoung to win so badly. It could be because Jinyoung is the underdog in the situation and Gongchan knows well what that feels like. Being the visual in the group, he knows what it’s like to be ignored in terms of talent. He doesn’t even get the normal roles that visuals in other groups would get. Baro and Jinyoung are the ones who get lead roles in music videos, leaving Gongchan feeling like the forgotten member. Jinyoung is like Gongchan in the situation; the only one that isn’t acknowledged.

Gongchan looks over to Mina, whose eyes begin to flutter open.

“You’re awake!” Gongchan yells as he drops his body down to hug Mina.

Hearing Gongchan’s screams, Sandeul and Jinyoung ran into the room to see Mina.

With Gongchan’s body sprawled across hers, Mina could barely breathe, however, it felt nice to feel the warmth of Gongchan as he hugged her. She couldn’t deny how much she missed these boys when she was avoiding them.

“Are you feeling better now?” Shinwoo asked as he looked at Mina closely.

“Yeah, I feel rested.” Mina beamed as she pushed Gongchan off of her to breathe again.

“Were you not sleeping? Why were you so exhausted?” Gongchan asked with a pout.

Mina rubbed her nape, trying to think of a good excuse other than “the memory of Jinyoung’s kiss kept me up all night.”

‘It doesn’t matter! It’s just good that you feel better now!” Gongchan said as he noticed the expression on Mina’s face. He wasn’t sure what happened to Mina in the past week, but he could tell she didn’t really want to tell them about it.

Mina excused herself to go to the bathroom to escape the questioning and concerned looks of the boys for a moment to recompose herself.

She splashed some water on her face to cool herself off and looked up into the mirror. No wonder they asked why she was exhausted; she looked it. Her hair was a mess and her cheeks radiated pink from the strenuous running to the dorm. She looked at her phone to check the time to see that she only slept for a half an hour.

She picked up a fluffy blue towel to dry her face off before going out to face the boys again.

“Better?” Gongchan asked as he clung to Mina’s arm. He was being awfully clingy. Mina eyes him suspiciously before nodding her head. Gongchan pulled Mina away from the bathroom and towards the living room where the other boys were seated comfortably, each starting to do their own thing again.

Shinwoo sat reading a book quietly and looked up to give Mina a small smile before returning to his reading. Sandeul had already calmed down over the commotion enough to be snacking happily. Jinyoung was the only one looking uncomfortable. He was sitting on the couch next to Shinwoo not even leaning his back against the back of the sofa. He had his hands clasped together with his chin resting on top. Gongchan pulled Mina along towards the sofa and pushed her down between Jinyoung and Shinwoo. Jinyoung looked up to give Mina an awkward toothy smile before looking away abruptly.

“Feeling okay?” he asked without looking at her. This time though, he sounded like he really cared about what her response was.

When Mina wasn’t replying, Jinyoung moved his head to look up at her, searching her eyes for the answer.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Mina answered quickly to try to get Jinyoung to ignore her again. She still felt a little weird being near him.

“Maybe I can take you out a buy you dinner?” Jinyoung said with a shy smile.

Mina shook her head back, confused by what Jinyoung proposed before looking away, brushing it off as Jinyoung messing around with her like he always does.

“No thanks.” Mina said before turning her direction towards Shinwoo to ask him about what he was reading. Jinyoung watched as she talked to Shinwoo comfortably wishing he could have that kind of relationship with her. That’s all he ever wanted. It wasn’t like him to be rude to a pretty girl, not counting Hana. All this time he hoped that by being cold and distant to Mina, his feelings would diminish, and by lying about it to s, nobody would notice and it would all soon be forgotten. But each day Jinyoung looked forward to those small moments he would have annoying Mina; they were all he had with her. Even if they weren’t the sweet, romantic moments he always yearned to have with her, they were still something and he still cherished them. Actually, he found her cute when she would argue with him.

Jinyoung looked to Gongchan for his next move. Gongchan shook his hand, signaling for Jinyoung to continue talking to her, hoping that some kind small talk could get them to bond a little.

Jinyoung tapped Mina on the shoulder gently to interrupt her attention on Shinwoo.

“What?” Mina asked with poison in her voice.

“What have you been up to this week? Did you make new friends?” Jinyoung asked random questions in hopes that Mina would talk a lot while answering him so he could think of smarter and better things to say.

Mina looked at him strangely, wondering why he was trying to talk to her so much.

“I was just busy. And no, I didn’t make new friends.” Mina answered as shortly as possible.

“I have been busy too,” Jinyoung started again still not wanting to give up. “You know our comeback is soon, right? I’m really excited for—“

“Yeah, Jihyun told me all about it.” Mina interrupted him.

“Oh, you talked to Jihyun?” Jinyoung asked. He wasn’t really interested in her meeting with Jihyun, but if it helped him to talk to her then he’d ask.

“Yeah, I met up with her before coming over here.” Mina answered as she stood up from the sofa, totally ignoring the fact that she was having a conversation with Jinyoung.

Jinyoung turned to Gongchan who shrugged his shoulders in reaction to Jinyoung’s failed attempt at talking to Mina. Jinyoung watched as Mina walked over to where Sandeul was sitting and dropped his head in defeat.

“Hi” Mina said cutely as she sat down close to Sandeul.

Sandeul smiled brightly in response to Mina coming over to sit with him.

“I’m really sorry for the past week; I don’t even have a good excuse.” Mina apologized.

Sandeul flashed his signature smile that Mina liked so much. “You don’t have to apologize!”

Mina smiled back, glad that Sandeul was so understanding. He probably wouldn’t be as understanding if he knew it was because Jinyoung kissed me. Mina pushed the thought away, deciding to ignore that memory again.

“Maybe we can go out later to make up for lost time…” Sandeul suggested, interrupting Mina’s thoughts.

Mina smiled and nodded in agreement. Sandeul went back to eating, not going into further detail about the open plans he just made with Mina. He didn’t want to push her too much into spending time with him. He wasn’t the type to normal do this, but he was testing her to see if she really wanted to spend time with him.

Mina looked around happily feeling at home once again with the boys she used to live with. She missed it, sure, but being apart from them made her value their friendships even more. Gongchan noticed Mina looking around at each of them with sparkling eyes and threw a couch cushion at her to wake her up from her daydream.

“Mina, come with me to get a drink!” Gongchan chimed as he pulled her up to her feet.

Suddenly, Gongchan had a good idea. “Hyung~~~” Gongchan whined to Jinyoung. “Will you get me something to drink?” Gongchan pouted as he dropped to the floor dramatically. “I’m so tired; I don’t want to walk to the kitchen.

Jinyoung looked at the maknae in disbelief. If Gongchan was tired, Jinyoung was exhausted. Jinyoung spotted a quick wink from Gongchan, who then continued with his aegyo. Everything made sense now.

Jinyoung stood up, pretending to be annoyed by Gongchan. “Ok…” he mumbled.

Mina looked at the two boys with a confused expression before turning around to sit back down since Gongchan no longer wanted her to join him in what would have been the short walk to the kitchen.

“No!” Gongchan yelled at Mina while he grabbed her hand to keep her from leaving his side.

“What?” Mina asked looking at the boy waiting for an explanation of his sudden strange behavior.

“You have to go with Jinyoung hyung!” Gongchan answered desperately.

“I think he is capable of doing it himself.” Mina rolled her eyes before trying to break free of Gongchan’s death grip on her hand.

“No!” Gongchan yelled while trying to think fast. “I need you to go with him.” Gongchan started to pout. He was determined in succeeding with his aegyo. “You poured the water so nicely when you lived with us…I really miss it~” Gongchan cooed with the cutest pout Mina had ever seen.

“This is ridiculous…” Mina mumbled before pulling Gongchan’s hand from hers to follow Jinyoung into the kitchen to use her wonderful talents in pouring a glass of water.

Mina looked up at Jinyoung as she poured the water into a cup for Gongchan. He wasn’t doing anything to help; he just stood there gawking at her.

He and Gongchan are acting strange today. Mina finished pouring and walking towards Jinyoung’s direction. He was standing right in front of the refrigerator. As Mina inched closer to Jinyoung he felt his heart begin beating faster and his entire body went numb except for his cheeks which felt like they were on fire.

“What?” Mina asked annoyed. Jinyoung’s staring was starting to bother her now.

“N-nothing.” Jinyoung said shyly as he scurried out of Mina’s way.

Mina rolled her eyes and put the water away. If this was Jinyoung’s new way of annoying her, it was working. Though it was unconventional and not like his normal antics, it was just—if not more—annoying to her.

Mina started to pick up the glass to take to Gongchan but felt Jinyoung’s hand close around her wrist.

“Let me do that.” He said as he took the glass away from her kindly.

Jinyoung flashed a smile before walking away to give Gongchan his drink feeling confident that he just charmed Mina.

Mina stood in the kitchen dumbfounded. Everyone was acting weird today.

Hope you like this chapter~ I am starting to feel like a lot of these chapters are boring...does anyone feel the same? Maybe it is just me.
Please comment! It always motivates me to update faster! ;)