Leina’s POV:

  If I get in, I would be able to see you again.

  “Contestants number 22 to 28, please prepare to be next,” a woman’s friendly voice echoes throughout the white waiting room. The boy with frizzly hair beside me starts fidgeting more, making the whole row of chairs vibrate, and despite my own nervousness, I feel annoyed at this stranger. If Suyeon were here, I swear she would stomp straight up to him and glare at him until he stopped making earthquakes.

  Or maybe she would just pick him up by the shirt and throw him out the window.

  “Number 22 to 28, please enter.”

  I take a deep breath and stand up. After checking that my throat is still in a good condition, I pray one last time, clutch the necklace around my neck, and walk into the blue room awaiting me.

 [Flashback]

  “Sing for me again.”

  “I just finished, Leina!” He half-laughed, half-groaned. “I’m not a music box.”

  “But you sing so well,” I complained. “Even better than me.”

  “I know.” He laughed as I threw a stuffed toy at him. “I’m considering participating in the singing contest next month, actually.”

  I widened my eyes. “Jinjia?! Omo, if you win, and coincidentally someone like a star agent or something likes you – “

  “Ew, likes me?”

  I threw another toy at him, earning me a glare from the lady at the counter. “You know what I mean! And besides, who would l-like you…”

  “Leina – “

  “If you get chosen by a star agent,” I put my hands on my heart and blinked at the sky, “and you also pass his company’s audition… oh my god! You’ll be an idol!”

  “Leina – “

  “I might be able to see you on TV one day!”

  “Leina!” He grabbed my hand, but gently yanked his hand back as soon as I snapped my gaze to him. “Y-you’re not that bad, too.”

  I frowned. “But – “

  He shook his head and stared straight into my eyes, his brown pools flashing with sincerity. “Promise me, Leina. Promise me that one day, you’ll try to audition and become a brilliant singer like me, if I really become one.” He smiled. “Promise me.”

  I looked back at him, tried not to notice the faint shade of pink on his cheeks and the heat in mine, reached out and squeezed his hand gently. “I promise.”

 [Flashback End]

    Violet’s POV:

  “Take a deep breath.”

  “I – “

  “Ready?”

  “Ani – “

  “Let’s go!”

  The door of my van slides open and at that instant, screams and clicking and flashes of cameras erupt. I am still not used to this, seriously, I am still –

  “Jung In! What are you doing?!”

  “I’m being dragged by you with such a force that my arm is going to be ripped off!” I shout back at Sehun as we force our way to the door of S.M. building. “Can you at least let – “

  The door opens and I stumble in, onto the floor when Sehun gives me one last pull.

  “– me breathe?!”

  “Arra, now breathe.”

I can’t even trust my ears now because I just thought I detected a smile in his voice, but after I gulp big gulps of air and snap my head up, BAM. There it is, a devilish smile on his milky white face.

  “Oh Sehun – “

  “That’s for yesterday.”

  “Yesterday?”

  “When Ryeowook hyung asked you who you would choose in EXO on KTR and you chose Baekhyun hyung.”

  My jaw drops as I stand up and stare at him with unbelief. “Who did you expect me to choose?”

  “Me.”

  I snort. “And let the rumor of us dating that have been going on for a year burn like hell? In your dreams, Mr. Oh.” Huffing with my arms crossed in front of my chest, I start walking toward my practice room to avoid looking like a bickering couple with Sehun in front of the front counter.

  Well, we were kind of bickering, and we are a couple…

  “Remind me to refuse you the next time you ask me out for lunch, because I don’t want to risk my life being squeezed out by all of your fans again,” I shout behind my back.

  He suddenly appears in front of me, and I skid to a halt and secretly gasp. “They’re mostly your fans, actually. And you know you’ll never be able to reject me, Jung In-ah.” The smile on his face is a mixture of mischief, goofiness and knowing, which makes my stomach do numerous flips. Shoot. I look to my right to avoid his eyes.

  “Nope, if it involves running through people with flashing cameras, then I might reconsider.”

  Sehun tilts his head to his left, and his unbelievably pretty face appears in my sight. “You won’t say no.”

  I turn my head to the left. “Y-you don’t know that.”

  Smiling like this is a fun game, he tilts his head to the right. “Yes, Jung In-ah, I do.”

  Frustrated, I snap my gaze straight to him. “Is this some game you’re – “ I cut myself with a startled gasp when I realize how close his face is to mine, our noses barely touching. Sehun’s eyes are twinkling, just like every time he knows he has won an argument between us. “Se – “

  “You’re not supposed to say no to me. You can’t.” His voice is deep and low, and I realize he has wrapped his arms around my waist without me noticing.

  “W-who says s-so…”

  “Says somebody who’s about to kiss you.”

  My breathing quickens as I feel him lean in, the familiar heat and happiness boiling inside of me ready to be released, and I close my eyes as I put my hands on his shoulders –

  “VIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!”

  In just a second, I somehow end up in someone else’s arms other than the person I intended to kiss. And I don’t even have to guess to know who it is.

  “Baek oppa – “

  “Oh My Gosh Vi I have gigantic enormous great news I have to tell you right after I had just been informed I am so happy Mr. Lee actually – oops, did I interrupt something?”

  I mentally sigh, and when I pull away from Baekhyun to check on Sehun, I can’t help but burst into laughter.

  It’s not like you get to see him standing there with his arms still in the air as if hugging someone, with the look ‘What the fudge?!’ on his face every day.

  “B-Baek oppa… we were just… hahaha… n-nevermind,” I push down my laughter and wipe a few tears from my eyes. “S-so, as you were saying, oppa?”

    Leina’s POV:

  I fell in love with my best friend.

  I don’t remember when, I don’t remember how, I just remember I did.

  And he didn’t seem to notice.

  Not that it was a bad thing, though. I could still talk to him normally, laugh with him like before, and stay by his side like ever since we first met.

  We both loved singing. It was actually what brought us together on the first day of elementary school, when I was singing to myself to ease my nervousness of not making any friends. He had approached me with a cute, toothless smile and asked how I could sing so beautifully. It turned out that he loved singing as much as I did, and just like that, we… clicked. Music was the sole topic we chatted about first, but as years passed and we grew more comfortable with each other, we practically told each other everything.

  Like how I was devastated when my parents divorced when I was 10. Like how he made up his mind to become a singer when he was 12.

  Like how I broke down in front of him when I was 14, when I learned that I had to move to Canada with my mother.

  Those 7 years in Canada, never had I once forgotten about him, about the promise we had made when we were 12. And when one day, when I came across a TV show introducing a new boy group in South Korea 2 years ago…

  I still vividly remember the wave of shock and bewilderment that had made me stop breathing. I still remember how I confirmed it really was him, as a member of the group EXO, through my teary eyes in front of an electronics store.

  Because of him, I never gave up singing. Because of him, of wanting to see him again, I applied for an audition in his company after I finished college in Canada and moved to Seoul all by myself. All because of him.

  So here I am, waiting in a suffocating white room for whether it was right for me to come here or not.

    Violet’s POV:

  “Er… what’s this?”

  “A piece of paper.”

  I cut my glare to the boy beside me. “Thank you, Sherlock Oh. So observative.”

  “Look at the title, Vi.” Baekhyun points to the top of the piece of paper with his perfect white fingers, and tap twice.

  “’Cooperation… confirmed’?” I look up quizzically. “What does that mean?”

  He smiles like a kid who has just discovered a chest of hidden treasure. “It just means that, Vi! Well, actually the better definition is ‘Collaboration confirmed and you will be participating in it’ – “

  “Oh My Gosh!” I squeal with wide eyes. “You’re going to be in a collaboration song?! Like, like S.M. the Ballad or you’re just gonna feature in somebody’s solo song like Taemin oppa and Kyuhyun sunbae did in Henry oppa’s ‘Trap’?!”

  “Ne!” Baekhyun starts jumping up and down with me, my hands in his, and he looks genuinely happy. “Me and Kyungsoo are already confirmed to be in a little group – yeah I think it’s going to be a new little group but no I don’t know the name for it – and all we have to do is wait for the last two spaces to be filled!”

  We both squeal.

  “Is it going to be all boys? Or two boys and two girls?” Sehun asks out loud. I don’t know if he means to say it out loud or it was just an accident, but I mentally want to kick him when I see the words sink into Baekhyun’s brain and something flickers in his eyes for less than a second.

  Stupid Sehun, I think as I give him a pointed look and he widens his eyes and mouths ‘mianhae.’ We both know that because of what he had just said, Baekhyun is recalling the conversation we had a few months ago. He’s recalling the conversation that had made things awkward between the three of us for a while until I finally made things better.

  I watch as Baekhyun brings out his amazing acting skills again, but his previous liveliness seems to have just… popped and evaporated. Vanished. “I-I’m not sure myself. Well, sooner or later they’re gonna tell me, and I’ll tell you guys, okay?” He smiles. “I need to go find Kyungsoo right now for further… preparations. See you two later!”

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[A/N] I keep changing POVs T_T This is actually two chapters combined... coz like the next chap might be a little short and I want to make it up to you? (Wait shouldn't it be the other way around)

Is the CHANGING-POVS-BETWEEN-THE-TWO-GIRLS-FREGUENTLY-THAT-IMMA-GET-A-HEADACHE thingy annoying? OMG if it is you guise have to tell me ohkai TTTT Just wanted to... give you a long update and... yeah. /draws circles in corner/

ANYWAY, thank you all for subscribing OMG can you believe how mind-blown I was when I saw the amount of expectation when I just posted the foreword... ALL OF YOU ARE SO AMAZING /HUGS EVERYONE 32 TIMES/. Thank you for subscribing and upvoting and commenting <3<3 Hope you all will enjoy this sequel!! (Well, at least the first chapter...)

P.S. It's also present tense now, not past tense. Only the flashbacks are past tense. Trying a new thing LOL LOL OTL.

P.P.S. Some of you might have seen EXO star on Beatle's Code (and laughed your hearts out like me), and so some of you might guess that the mystery guy is *coughs* somebody who mentioned that there was a girl he used to like who transferred away... BUT IT'S NOT HIM. I actually wrote this chapter before Beatle's Code was aired so I didn't know and.. yeah. It's not him, if you know who I mean *winks*

*gifs credits to owners*