Chapter 24: Minhyuk’s POV

            “Excited?” I asked Yun-Ae when got backstage for our performance.

            “Yeah,” She nodded.

            Suddenly, her face fell.              

            One by one, the members of N-Train began to walk in after performing. When they passed by Yun-Ae, they all stared at her. The last one that walked in stopped in front of her and looked at her from head to toe with a smirk.

            “Yujin!” I heard one guy yell from behind. 

            Suddenly, it all made sense. Her ex-boyfriend is N-Train's Song Yujin.

            How did I not piece this all together until now?

            “Oppa, I can’t do this,” Yun-Ae said shakily once they were out of sight.

            “Yes you can,” I said, placing my hands on her shoulders and looked at her straight in the eye.

            “No. He’s there. He’s probably going to be monitoring the performance. I can’t,” Yun-Ae began.

            “Yun-Ae,” I said, grabbing her in a hug before she could walk away. "You can do this," I whispered into her ear. 

            I could still feel her shaking a little bit, but the longer I held her in my arms, the more she began to relax.  

            “When we’re up there, just focus on me,” I said as I kissed the top of her head gingerly.

            “Okay,” She mumbled as I felt her arms snake around my waist.

            "You're going to be fine," I said reassuringly to her once we were in our starting positions on stage. "I promise, nothing will happen to you while we're up here. I'll make sure nothing happens to you," 

            "Thank you," Yun-Ae said with a shy smile. 

            "Anything for you," I grinned. 

            When the music came on, instantly, most of my attention shifted to the performance. Every now and then though, I snuck glances at Yun-Ae while she danced. 

            Watching her dance always left me gaping at her in awe. She dances with so much feeling and power, even though she's so tiny. And she always makes everything, even the most complicated moves, look effortless. And today's performance was no exception to that. 

            “Thank you,” U-Kwon and I said to the crowd of cheering fans as we both bowed once we finished. 

            “Good job,” Manager hyung said as he ushered all of us off the stage.  

            After every performance, manager hyung always says that we did a good job. It's only after dinner and we're back at the dorms, does he start giving us his opinion on our performance on stage.   

            A few times during the routine, I actually got distracted by Yun-Ae beacuse I would look at her for too long and miss a beat or I would mess up a move. And because of that, I knew I was going to be one of the members to get lectured back at the dorm tonight.  

            “I’ll be right back, I’m going to go to the bathroom,” I said as I pointed in the direction of the nearest bathrooms. 

            “Okay,” Manager hyung nodded. “Meet us back in the dressing room,”

            “I see you're pretty close with Yun-Ae,” I heard a guy say as I was washing my hands. “Here's my advice to you. Don't go after her,”

            Looking up in the mirror, I saw that it was Yujin. He was standing behind me with his arms crossed over his chest. 

            “Why does any of this matter to you?” I asked dried my hands off. “She’s your ex-girlfriend,” I added, emphasizing the "ex."

            “She won’t be for long,” Yujin smirked.

            “What are you talking about?” I asked.

            “Is her stupidity contagious or something?” He laughed as he stepped closer to me. “You saw how she was earlier. It won’t be long before she’s going to come crawling back to me, begging to be my girlfriend again,”

            “Shut up!” I snarled. “You know, you have some nerve to say something like that about her after breaking her heart,”

            “You’re just mad because it’s obvious that she still can’t live without me,” Yujin said.

            “She would never go back to you,” I spat at him before storming out of the bathroom. 

            Who does he think he is? Hurting her wasn’t a big enough prize, so he goes off insulting her behind her back? It’s guys like him who make the entire male population look bad.