Seoul Performing Arts Academy, dance studio

There was only the slightest sound in the room as the idols and trainees set their backpacks by the door and sat down in rows on the chairs set out for them. An unreadable atmosphere lingered above them.

Hyunseung and Hyuna-teacher stood leaning against the mirrored wall.

"Welcome, I suppose," the woman tapped her pen in her palm as the kids watched.

"Why is it only us here?" Ailee piped up.

"All of the senior class is in an emergency education plan upon Headmaster Ma's return," she explained. "If we left it up to her she'd flip this school 180 degrees like she did a few years ago when the senior class almost all failed. Classes will be joint, we don't care about your little rivalry."

"Headmaster Ma's back?" Myungsoo mused.

"We don't have a problem with eachother, per se," Woohyun glanced around the room, getting small nods from the others.

Of course the trainees all were comfortable with eachother. In the hallway the other class 3 students either avoided or confronted them or made some kind of snarky remark. It seemed the non-trainees all sided together. Who would've thought a year ago class 3 would get along this way?

"Good, because you're gonna help each other from now on," Hyuna pulled up a video on her computer and projected it on the wall TV. "Each week you'll meet here, have a group and solo choreography to learn, and be graded at the end of the week. By the next mid-term, if your score doesn't improve...the headmaster'll definately have something to do about this."

After the two teachers left them to themselves, there was a bit of standing around awkwardly.

Eunji's eyes lifted from her shoes and fixed on a boy across the room stretching his arms. Should she talk to Daehyun?

"Jung Eunji get up," a hand was offered to her, and she used it to pull herself up. Kikwang entered a few buttons into the stereo, and the count started for Troublemaker's debut song. "Jiyeon said she wanted to see our choreography."

"Is it fun?" Jiyeon smiled so fakely plastic could not compare. "Kikwangie, maybe you could teach me a few moves?"

"I wanna see it too!" Ailee strode over after stretching, clapping her hands excitedly. "Your debut is tomorrow, isn't it?"

"Mhm," Eunji mumbled as the music began. The rhythmic whistling led her body's movement. Was Daehyun watching too?

Woohyun who was stretching over by Daehyun turned his head to see 's face. "Don't you wanna see this?"

"Not really," the main vocalist replied, his fist unconsciously clenching. Not at all.

"Jung Daehyun, she's your friend, isn't she? Let's see it!" Woohyun pulled him on the hardwood floor over to where the others were gathered, watching the Troublemaker performance in awe.

"Eunji!" Kikwang snapped as the music slowed to an end, "You messed up at the end again."

"Sorry."

"I can do that!" Jiyeon hit replay, volunteering herself as Kikwang's partner. They were two of the best dancers in the grade, Eunji couldn't criticize. While she watched the two of them dance the same way, she didn't feel anything in her chest, unlike before. There was no twingey feeling. Actually, she wasn't even paying much attention to them. Out of the corner of her eye she watched Daehyun return to stretching with Woohyun and Myungsoo.

When the other kids picked up their backpacks at the end of class to head to the recording studio for their lessons, Kikwang occupied the doorway before the slowest one could leave.

In the empty dance studio, the two boys scanned eachother before the dancer exhaled and wiped his sweat. "Don't talk to her, and don't hang around her. She needs to focus on Troublemaker and our debut."

"Excuse me, who?" Daehyun raised a brow. He didn't like this guy. This guy who always made Eunji cry and then turned around and smiled at her like nothing happened, expecting her to smile back.

He threw the towel in the laundry basket. "Eunji's distracted. Every time you're watching, she messes up. Every time you talk, she messes up. Every time you're mentioned, she messes up. You don't think you're stopping her from doing what she wants?" He added after a moment, "That's what I thought. You don't know what she wants do you."

"I know better than you," Daehyun shot back confidently. He knew why Eunji didn't like Kikwang. He knew how the boy broke her heart. Because he was the one that comforted her.

"Do you really? Do you know you basically neglected her after your debut? I might've made her cry the other week but you're just as bad."

"I neglected her? When?"

"Exactly - you don't even know. Leave her alone if you're not gonna be by her side. I'm gonna marry her."

What? M...marry...? Daehyun was aware of the rich folk in Seoul and their arranged marriages to keep company relations healthy and strong but wasn't Eunji out of that life?

Kikwang sneered at the sight of the vocalist's crestfallen expression. "I've been her friend way before you in. You think she wouldn't accept?"

"So you haven't asked her yet." Eunji hates you, why would she accept?

"Unlike you, I'm waiting so she doesn't lose focus," the blonde-streak-haired boy chuckled, clearing the door. "So you can leave her to me, no problem, alright?"

Daehyun shouldered his backpack and brushed past him.
 

Seoul Performing Arts Academy, hallway

"Where's Daehyunnie?" Woohyun elbowed Myungsoo as the bell after acting class rang. "He skipped out of acting class. You know Park CEO told us to help him work on his acting."

"You should work on your acting too," Myungsoo replied, not looking away from his DSLR camera as he followed his friend down the hallway.

"I'm just worried, what if he takes him out like Ilhoon?"

"That won't happen, once there's a member change the public starts to suspect stuff going on. Unless Park CEO wants to deal with a bunch of press, he won't do that. Besides, you and Daehyun are the two vocals carrying B.A.P."

"For a guy that doesn't look like he's interested in a word I say...Kim Myungsoo, you're right!" Woohyun exhaled, placing a hand over his chest. "I was worrying for nothing! But still, shouldn't we look for Dae-"

"Oppa!" An underclassman girl shyly approached the two of them, and Woohyun placed a hand on Myungsoo's arm to slow him down.

"What's this, Soyeon?" He smiled, accepting the small bag the girl gave to him with a small smile.

"It's just...I heard the senior unnies and oppas aren't fond of Woohyun oppa lately...so I thought I might cheer you up and give this to you...to show that I still support you..."

"Wow!" Woohyun exclaimed as he examined the contents inside the bag. Pulling out the small pink lunch box, he bent down and smiled, "Thank you, Soyeon. Say hi to your friends for me too, okay?"

"Will you eat lunch with us tomorrow?"

"Sure."

The girl excitedly waved and skittered back to the cafeteria doorway where her friends waited for her to tell them how it went.

"Now that I think about it I'm kinda hungry," Myungsoo peered into the lunch box his friend was choosing snacks out of. "Can I have some?"

"Yah, get your own fangirls, L!"
 

Seoul Performing Arts Academy, rooftop

What if there was this really huge miracle and I married her before he could...? Nah, I'm not rich, I don't have a mansion, I-I can't do anything for her.

Daehyun shook his head and sat up on the stone bench, tossing his finished soft drink can into the trash bin.

The school's rooftop was his place to think. He'd discovered it on the first week of school after deciding the students were not worth bothering to talk to and before meeting Eunji. He liked rooftops. There weren't many in America. Well, many to freely sit on. He always got yelled at for going up there at lunch.

After debut a lot of female idols came up to him asking for his number, but he lied and said he didn't have a phone. Woohyun's advice was that if he was close to only one girl, the rest will soon get bored and disappear. He couldn't wait for Eunji to debut as well and start promoting with him so he could stick around her.

But then he remembered...his confession probably creeped her out. The only contact she'd had with him in weeks was eye contact. Right after he confessed she'd brushed it aside and raced upstairs to her apartment alone.

Tough luck, Jung Daehyun, give up on her, he told himself as he laid back down on the bench, soaking up the sunlight. She'll be happier with the other guy.

But will she? She hated that guy. Would it be okay for me to just hand her over? Maybe Kikwang was just threatening him? Testing him?

He sighed and his side, demanding an answer from the lit vending machine by the door - another one of the reasons he loved the rooftop. Quiet, beautiful, and convenient. 

Why am I thinking like she's mine in the first place? What am I? A troubled nobody she became friends with.

A familiar whining voice from the rooftop doorway derailed his train of thought. "Yah, yah, stop eating all the strawberry cheesecake! I'm saving that!"

Strawberry cheesecake? His ears were programmed to perk up.

"Hyung, I found Daehyun!" Myungsoo ditched Woohyun and his lunch box and joined the boy on the bench. "Where were you? We had to cover for you in acting class! You're lucky my acting is better than both of yours'!"

"And even then Lee Joon-teacher didn't look like he believed you," Woohyun climbed the last stairstep and shut the metal door, snickering. "If you ask me he just didn't care."

"No one asked," Myungsoo snorted.

"Oh yeah Jung Daehyun, I saved something for you!"

Daehyun was handed a plate of partly eaten strawberry cheesecake. "Where did you get this?! Do they sell it in the  cafeteria now?"

"Nah, it's from a fangirl," he waved a hand. "Dig in. It's the least I can do for you after stealing all your food during practice."

The two members watched as Daehyun scarfed down the cake in record time. Myungsoo even snapped some pictures in awe.

"Why are you up here though? What's wrong?" Woohyun helpfully threw away the plate for him.

"It's nothing..."

"It's Eunji."

Daehyun's brows raised in surprise at B.A.P's visual. "How did you know?"

The DSLR camera was passed to him, the picture on the screen closing up on him in front of a photoshoot set, gazing at something in the background by the lighting equipment...Eunji.

"When was this," he zoomed in. Eunji's face was blurry, but she was clearly laughing at him.

"Taking concept photos. You guys were betting on stuff."

"I don't need those high-tech gadgets to tell," Woohyun scoffed, crossing his arms. "It's obvious."

"It's obvious? How?"

"You look at her."

"...I look at you too, hyung," Daehyun was dumbfounded.

"No, there's a different way you look at her," he struggled to explain it. "It's that look the ladies fall for, Jung Daehyun!"

Myungsoo agreed, nodding, "I heard you got the number of a few hundred girl groups."

"I didn't keep any," he protested. "And that's not even accurate!"

"Oho, he's really waiting for Eunji, isn't he, Myungsoo!" Woohyun imitated a whipping sound, pulling Myungsoo away teasingly. "Let's leave him alone for the last few minutes. Yah Daehyunnie, don't be late for next class!"

"Arasseo, hyung!" he called back. Woohyun and Myungsoo hyung were the closest to him in B.A.P, and probably the whole school aside from Eunji, but he was still shocked at how well they both could read him. If he was that obvious could Kikwang or Eunji figure him out the same way?

Not Eunji. She's too much of a pabo.

Yes, he now admitted to himself. He liked that pabo. He just didn't know what to do with himself. 

Just as he stretched and stood to return to class with a lighter feeling, his world was brought down again with a phone call.

"Hello?"

"Jung Daehyun-ssi?" the voice spoke in mixed Korean-English, "I'm a nurse at South Memorial Medical Hospital. Your parents wanted us to inform you that your grandfather's just been admitted into urgent care. He...his days might be limited."

W H O A

This is not ok I'm seeing pictures and gifs of B.A.P in America everywhere and i'm freaking out like they're in the same country as me but so far away sighs unfair

So in the meantime I figured I might as well update, I've been busy lately with school stuff! It's almost the end of the year~! One more month and then I'll have three free months to update whenever I want ahahah

Well, come next chapter we'll be past some of these complications hopefully *teehee winks

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