“Yah!”

Jongup appeared behind you, wrapping his arms around your shoulders and resting his chin on top of your head. “What are you reading?”

You attempted to move out of his hold enough to look back at him but he firmly held you in place and whined, “___! Stop moviiing. I'm tired.” You didn't have to see him to know he was pouting so you stopped squirming.

“You didn't answer me.”

“What was the question?”

“What are you reading?”

You sighed and held up your book, revealing your homework to the persistant boy behind you. “Some of us have homework,” you quipped. “How was practice?”

Not long after the encounter at the soccer field, you found out that Jongup was a trainee for TS Entertainment. Since that day, you continued to see him around the area and as much as you tried to avoid him, you couldn't hold out for long and you two became quick friends. He was set to be debuting sometime in the next year or two, but the company was still trying to get all of the details worked out.

“Fine,” he answered, moving to take a seat on the bench next to you. You were meeting at your usual spot, the soccer field. He turned so he was straddling the bench and watched you, his arms folded over his chest. You glanced at him, not saying anything when you saw him staring at you and turned your attention back to your math homework. This was a frequent habit of his and after a while you stopped questioning his motives and let him go out at it. If he was going to stare, let him stare.

“Have you been eating?” He asked suddenly and wrapped his hand around your arm, squeezing gently as though he were checking for muscle. You glanced at him once more, opening your mouth to answer but before you could he began to speak once more. “Are you hungry? I'm starving. Come on.” He stood up without waiting for an answer and stretched his arms up over his head, groaning when his back popped and relaxed his arms down at his side before turning to look at you expectantly.

“I really need to finish this, Jongup.” You answered, looking up at him from your spot on the bench. You knew you sounded cold and you honestly didn't mean to, but these kind of conversations were frequent as well. After your fateful meeting at the soccer field each day, the two of you had been almost inseperable for the months to follow. You saw each other almost everyday through summer, but now that the new school year had begun the only time you two could see each other was after school—if Jongup didn't have practice, that is. He was always asking you if you had ate, if you felt well, and was always complaining about how small you were. He was constantly trying to feed you something and if you so much as sneezed he was off to the market to buy out the entire store's stock of Dayquil and Vic's Vapor Rub. It's not like you didn't appreciate the thought behind it all, you just weren't sure what to do with all of the attention.

As you turned your attention back to your math book, Jongup snatched the book from your lap suddenly and stood back with the book up in the air. You scowled at him, standing up and moving to stand in front of him, reaching up for your book.

“Stop trying to be funny! I need my book!” You got on your tip toes and stretched your arm up as far as it would go, but he lifted the book higher out of your reach. He smirked, looking down at you.

“Only if you go somewhere with me,” he answered.

You glared at him, your eyes narrowing dangerously though it only made him smile. “Come on. It won't be that bad. I want to show you something.” His eyes gleamed with excitement and you couldn't help but feel a bit interested.

“.... Ohh.. fine.” You stated defeatedly and dropped your arm back down to your side while he held your book captive. He grinned down at you and grabbed your bag, moving around you to shove the rest of your books and belongings inside before shouldering it and grabbing your hand, pulling you along behind him as he did so often.

~*~

You stood next to Jongup, taking in your surroundings with your eyes wide. How many people can you fit in one building?! There were bodies everywhere. You didn't even know that this kind of place existed!

Jongup had lead you to, what looked like, a run down car garage. However, when you entered the shabby place it was filled with people, some older and some the same age as yourself. Everyone was dancing, jumping, shouting; it was complete insanity. There were speakers that had been mounted up on the walls and someone had rigged a few black lights and strobe lights to the walls, as well. In the center of the room, you could see a large group of people gathered around what looked like another group of people, but you couldn't really see what they were doing.

Jongup glanced at you and noticed you watching the chaos in the middle of the room and grabbed your hand suddenly. “Let's go watch!” He shouted over the music and you let him lead you through the masses of people before reaching the middle of the room. Your eyes widened as you watched two dancers go at it at the center of a large ring of people. Jongup pulled you to the front of the circle so you could watch and stood behind you, resting his hands on your shoulders while watching the dancers over your head. He grinned at a group of people standing on the other side of the circle and nodded to them in greeting. You glanced up at him and then back at the boys across from him and recognized a few as the boys that would frequent the soccer field along with Jongup.

Suddenly, you felt Jongup's mouth move against your ear as he leaned down to speak to you, his hands still resting on your shoulders. “Isn't this awesome?” He had to shout over the music in order for you to hear him. “I used to dance here before becoming a trainee!” You turned your head and grinned at him to show that you heard him before returning your attention back to the scene before you. Jongup can dance like... that? You knew that he had to be good in order to be recruited by TS Entertainment, but you honestly had never seen the boy dance before. You'd never really thought to ask for a performance—he always looked so exhausted after practice that you figured he'd had enough of dancing while he was there.

You turned your attention to Jongup suddenly and motioned for him to dip his head down so you could speak to him. When he did, you put your mouth against his ear and shouted, “Let me see you dance!”

He pulled back and looked down at you, grinning. “You have to dance with me!” He shouted back. Your eyes widened and you shook your head vigorously.

“I don't dance!” You shouted back. He shook his head, grinning still and stepped around you. Before you knew what was happening, Jongup joined the two other dancers in the middle of your makeshift entertainment ring where he transformed into a completely new Jongup that you had never seen before. You watched him in amazement as his body moved with the music, his previous demeanor diminishing entirely. You stared in awe at his acrobatics, clearly entranced by his pure talent and never once took your eyes off of the boy in front of you.

He finished off with a spectacular move that you're pretty sure he invented himself and joined the others as they cheered wildly for him. He grinned triumphantly and hurried over to you, pulling you into a tight hug. “Yah, did you see?! That was-- .. ah! Wow, it was awesome.” He pulled back to look at you, his hands still on your sides. “I looked cool, right?”

You shook your head and hugged him again, wrapping your arms around his middle. “You definitely looked cool.”

He smiled boyishly and hugged you back, resting his cheek on top of your head momentarily before letting go and grabbing your hand, pulling you over to a makeshift snack bar to grab you both some water. You took the bottle of water he offered you gratefully and the two of you found a place to sit while you let him rest after his impressive performace, sipping from your water bottle idly as you watched everyone else around you dance. Not long after taking a seat, Jongup leaned over to speak.

“I'm going to find the bathroom. Will you be alright be yourself?”

You gave him a look, your lips pursing slightly. “What am I, five? I'll be fine.”

He rolled his eyes, despite his grin and shook his head before standing up. “I'll be right back.”

You nodded as you watched him hurry off to find the bathroom and took another drink of your water, observing your surroundings. You spotted a couple nearby who seemed to be in the middle of a very heated makeout session and you directed your attention somewhere else quickly, your cheeks tinting pink.

Right at that moment, two boys—they looked to be around nineteen or twenty—took a seat on either side of you. You blinked at both of them, unsure of why they were there and awkwardly stood up to walk away. However, you were pulled back down immediately when one of the boys grabbed your wrist and jerked you back down to your spot, extending his arm out on the back of your seat. “Leaving already?”

You glanced at him nervously. “Uhm.. I'm actually waiting for someone-..” He interrupted you.

“Well let us keep you company until they get back.”

“I'm already back.”

You glanced up quickly when you heard Jongup and sighed in relief upon seeing him. You quickly got up, bowing slightly to the two guys before hurrying over to Jongup who put an arm around your shoulders protectively while he glared at the two men who were previously surrounding you. You watched one of the guy's holding his arms out in a “what?” gesture and quickly grabbed Jongup's shirt before he could say anything and tugged. “Let's go,” you mumbled and lead him out of the underground dance club in a hurry.

~*~

The two of you walked down the street in silence. Neither one of you had said anything since leaving the garage and you were almost to your house. You glanced up at Jongup carefully.

“I'm sorry...” you said quietly. He blinked and looked at you quickly. “What? Why are you sorry?” He sounded alarmed.

You shrugged. “You look angry.”

He sighed and stopped walking, watching you while he waited for you to stop. He watched you for a beat longer before grabbing your wrist and pulling you against his chest, his hand cradling the back of your head and resting his cheek on top of your hair. You frowned. “Jongup--”

“Please. Just... a few minutes, okay?” He sounded breathless and his voice shook slightly. He hugged you closer to his chest and didn't say anything else. Your brows furrowed in confusion but you didn't answer and wrapped your arms around him in return. You felt him relax in your hold and the two of you stayed that way for several minutes in silence.

It was a strange feeling, but you felt a wave of protection when you were like this with Jongup.

You hoped that he wouldn't let you go any time soon.