It was Saturday and the twelve boys are back to their weekly dance classes. While some of them were in front of the mirror, practicing some dance routines, the others were talking with each other and sprawled out on the studio’s floor.

   “So,” Baekhyun grinned as he sat crossed-legged beside Chanyeol who was lying flat on the floor, his arms and legs spread wide as he stared at the ceiling. “How did it go yesterday? What did you do? How was Jinri? Is she alright? She didn’t have an attack, did she? I hope not. Did you two have fun? What time did you go home last night?”

   “Baekhyun,” Kyungsoo, whose back was leaning against the cloud-painted wall, chuckled. “Slow down.”

   Joonmyeon, who was within earshot, chuckled at the sequential questions.

   “I’m sure you want to know the answers too, Kyungsoo-ya.” Baekhyun playfully stuck his tongue out. “You too, Joonmyeon-hyung!”

   Joonmyeon chuckled a “maybe” while Kyungsoo smiled and just shrugged a shoulder. He noticed Jongin coming his way towards him and he immediately got a bottle of water for him wrapped in a towel that he could use to wipe off the forming sweat on his forehead. The bronzed boy was one of those who were dancing early in the morning.

   “Thanks,” Jongin smiled as he opened the bottle and drank the water. He sat beside his hyung as he wiped his sweat off.

   “Good timing, Jongin-ah!” Baekhyun said, “Chanyeol was just about to tell us a story.”

   “Was not!” Chanyeol whined as he turned his back on his best friend and tried to curl up despite his long limbs. He wasn’t in the mood to tell anyone about yesterday, at least not now, let alone with Jongin listening.

   “Oh yeah,” Jongin nodded, remembering that Chanyeol forced him to stay at home so he could spend the afternoon with Jinri. “What happened? Is she alright?”

   “Yeah, she’s fine.” Chanyeol mumbled. “Nothing much interesting happened yesterday, okay? We just talked and hung out is all.”

   “What did you talk about then?” Baekhyun asked, grinning, and the taller would have glared at him if he weren’t facing the opposite direction.

   “Stuff,”

   “What kind of stuff?”

   “We didn’t talk much or anything.” Chanyeol mumbled.

   “Yah!” Baekhyun nudged Chanyeol on the back with his foot causing the latter’s white t-shirt to get a dirty print from the shoe. “Why aren’t you making any sense today, giant?”

   “Ugh,” Chanyeol groaned and sat up, his hair sticking up here and there because of lying down. “You know I brought my guitar yesterday, right? So all Jinri and I did were jam and.. yeah. According to her, she’s fine.” He turned to Jongin, “and she was worried about your health so it was a good thing that you took a day off yesterday.”

   Jongin rolled his eyes.

   “Yah, you don’t roll your eyes on me, I was just telling the truth.” Chanyeol stuck his tongue out.

   “I’m not rolling my eyes because it’s the truth; I’m rolling my eyes because of how you said it. Jinri would never say I’m taking a ‘day off’.” Jongin defended, creating air quotations at the last two words.

   Chanyeol just made a face.

   “So anyway, that’s all you did?” Baekhyun asked, raising his eyebrows. “Like.. ask her how she is and then just jammed?”

   “You know..” said Chanyeol, starting to look distant. “I told her how we all miss her and stuff that’s why she has to get better already. I saw how she looked after I said that, as if telling me that she won’t—” He stopped and lifted a corner of his mouth up in a wry smile. “Well, anyway, I told her she will get better. Then again, even if I said that, I know she doesn’t seem convinced about it.”

   Baekhyun was quiet for awhile. He looked at Jongin, Kyungsoo, and Joonmyeon and the look on their faces looked as worried and scared as he was.

   Sehun, who had been listening to them all the time, also felt worried for Jinri. He clenched his jaw, Jinri..

   “Sorry,” said Chanyeol and then he grinned to get rid of the heavy atmosphere around them. Being all gloomy really wasn’t his thing anyway, “but we’re going to visit her later, right? We should cheer her up so that her mind wouldn’t be filled with negative thoughts and all. I heard it stresses the heart so we should make Jinri happy,”

   Kyungsoo smiled at what Chanyeol said and nodded, “You’re right.”

   Chanyeol pursed his lips and smiled and then he looked away to bite his lips. He contemplated on whether or not he should tell them the confession part. He wanted to because they were his friends and he’s open to them pretty much about anything but he worried Jongin might get mad at him. “Screw it,” he mumbled, pouting his lips like a fish. I won’t find out if I don’t say anything, Chanyeol noticed that Jongin was about to get up to continue practicing. “Wait,” he quickly said. “One more thing..”

   Jongin looked at Chanyeol and when he saw that his friend was looking directly at him, he blinked but quietly settled himself down beside Kyungsoo again. Baekhyun and Kyungsoo were paying close attention as well.

   “Uh,” Chanyeol gulped and scratched his head, ignoring the fact that three pairs of eyes were already boring into him. “I-I kinda sorta like um..” He sighed and just said it to get it over with. “I told Jinri I like her.”

   Jongin widened his eyes at what he heard. Kyungsoo looked at his dongsaeng with his natural big eyes and Baekhyun.. Well, Baekhyun..

   . . .

   “Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeh?!” He exclaimed, animatedly moving back a little. Baekhyun’s sudden outburst made everyone turn to look at him with curiosity.

   Chanyeol facepalmed.

   “Baekhyun, keep it down.” Joonmyeon shook his head in disbelief.

   “What’s up?” Jongdae asked, taking a seat next to Baekhyun.

   Chanyeol felt himself pale. Not Jongdae, he’ll tease the hell out of the giant if he finds out! And if he teases the hell out of the giant, everyone will know! The only people who knew he had feelings for Jinri were his group of friends and Chanyeol intended to make it stay that way. “It’s nothing,” he said. “Baekhyun’s just overreacting.”

   “About what?” Jongdae blinked.

   And for the first time in his life, Chanyeol couldn’t come up of an excuse.

   “Hey, ssaem!” Jongin hollered when he saw their instructor step inside the dance studio.

   “Just gather up,” said Hwang-ssaem as he rolled his eyes.

   Saved, Chanyeol faced Jongin and placed his palms together, silently thanking him for the distraction. The latter just nodded his head in acknowledgment.

   Once gathered, Hwang-ssaem looked at each of his students and his gaze stopped at Jongin. “I need an explanation about what happened last week,” he said.

   “What’s there to explain?” Jongin asked, “You saw it yourself. Jinri’s sick and she’s confined,”

   “And the invitation? The performance?”

   “We planned it,” Jongdae was the one who answered straightforwardly. “We also asked Jinri’s mom to take part of it. It’s true that the performance was meant to make the patients in the hospital happy but we also did it for Jinri. We wanted her to watch, we wanted to bring the performance to her. But.. we never..” He slowed down. “We never thought she’d actually show herself.” He looked at those who originally knew of Jinri’s condition.

   “We’re sorry, Hwang-ssaem,” said Chanyeol. “We just wanted to make Jinri happy. What happened to her after.. Nobody wanted it. We’re all as worried..”

   “You could have at least given those who didn’t know what’s going on a heads up,” Hwang-ssaem pinched the bridge of his nose. “You could have at least told me what’s happening.”

   “Jinri didn’t want anyone to know her condition,” Sehun stepped forward. “It was only I who originally knew then Chanyeol-hyung saw it for himself. Baekhyun-hyung and Jongdae-hyung followed us and Jongin found out because of Jinri’s mom, could you blame us for not telling?”

   Hwang-ssaem intently looked at Sehun and sighed, “How is she?”

   “She’s doing fine,” Jongin answered. “Look, why don’t we just stop talking about this, alright? If you want, you could go visit her with us later.” He rolled his eyes.

   “And maybe go see Mrs. Choi as well,” Yifan added, smirking, and received a playful nudge from Joonmyeon. Some of them snickered.

   “Y-Yah!” Hwang-ssaem widened his eyes, his cheeks flushing lightly. “J-Just—warm up, you rascals! I have a new choreography to teach you!” And with that, he walked out of the dance studio.

   When he left, everybody laughed.

   “The look of Hwang-ssaem’s face was priceless!” Jongdae guffawed, slapping his knee.

   “I swear he likes Mrs. Choi, I’m telling you guys.” said Yifan.

   Jongin shuddered at the thought, “That would be really weird.”

▢ ▢ ▢

“Nice to be back, isn’t it?” Soojung asked with a smile while she helped Jinri fix the blanket over her lower half of the body.

   “Yeah, the ICU makes me feel suffocated.” Jinri lightly giggled, “and only a good amount of visitors are allowed inside. Here in my room, we can all hang out together.” She looked around her original hospital room and smiled. Although she missed her room at home, she guessed this is better than the Intensive Care Unit.

   “When are you gonna be discharged, kid?” Amber frowned as she plopped on the bed beside Jinri with Qian hissing an “Amber!” in the background because of what she was doing. “We miss you already and you’re missing out on a lot of classes and stuff,”

   “Sehun still gives me some notes,” Jinri pouted. “And I study them.”

   “I don’t think that’s going to work this time, Jinri-ya.” Sunyoung stated, “You’ve missed out on a lot of tests too and our teachers are starting to wonder where you are. We couldn’t even give them a straight answer.”

   “Which reminds me,” said Soojung, “Do we have a teacher who knows about your condition?”

   “Hwang-ssaem,” Jinri blinked.

   “I mean aside from him, of course.”

   “Gyojangnim,” said Jinri.

   “The principal,” Amber repeated, nodding. “Well, since he knows, maybe he can make an exemption for Jinri? And then he could tell our teachers to just make special exams for her once she comes back.”

   “But that would mean Jinri’s gonna have to study all the notes and stuff,” said Sunyoung.

   “We all know Jinri can manage, right?” Qian smiled and looked at Jinri who was nodding.

   “Yeah but well, I mean she just came back. Wouldn’t that stress her out then?”

   “Then maybe we could tell the teachers to give her some time until they give her the exams?” Amber suggested.

   “Aish!” Soojung exclaimed, stomping a foot. “Why are we talking about school anyway? Can we please just not? We’re here to hang out with Jinri—not talk to her about tests and whatnot.”

   The other three laughed.

   “By the way,” said Jinri, looking at Soojung. “How’s Taemin-oppa? I haven’t seen him in awhile.”

   “He’s been busy the past few days,” Soojung answered, pouting. “It’s their finals week. I miss him so much even though he calls me every night to say good night.”

   Sunyoung squealed, “Such a cute love story!”

   Soojung smirked at her and turned to the rest, “You know, I haven’t told you guys. There was one time waaay back when Sunyoung-unnie and I were out shopping, we happened to bump into Taeminnie and Ji—”

   “Hold it!” Sunyoung flushed, covering Soojung’s mouth. She knew where this conversation was going and she knew exactly what Soojung was going to say. “Shut up, Sooj. Aheh, it’s nothing, guys. D-Don’t.. Don’t mind her.”

   “Yah,” Amber grinned, sitting up. “What is it?”

   “Are you two hiding something?” Qian squinted her eyes at the two.

   Soojung removed Sunyoung’s hand and said, “She is hiding som-mmpf!” Sunyoung once again covered .

   Jinri giggled, “Oh, come on, Sunyoung-unnie~ What is it?”

   Sunyoung pouted, “I-It’s nothing. It was just um, a simple crush is all.”

   “You have a crush on Taemin?!” Amber widened her eyes.

   “Wha—No!” Sunyoung exclaimed.

   “It’s Jinki-oppa!” Soojung quickly announced after successfully removing Sunyoung’s hand on once again.

   “Jinki who?” Qian asked and they all saw Sunyoung blush.

   “Jinki-oppa?” Jinri blinked, tilting her head to the side. “Ah, I think I met him once befooooore, way before I met Taemin-oppa. He’s one of Minho-oppa’s friends too, right?”

   Soojung grinned and nodded, “You got it!” She said, “Maybe I should tell Taemin about it, unnie? So we could arrange a blind date for you two,”

   “Sh-shut up!” Sunyoung covered her face.

   “Sunyoung and Jinki, kissing in the tree~” Amber started. “K-I-S-S-I-N-G! First comes love then comes marriage—”

   “Amber!” The girl being teased whined and playfully hit Soojung’s arm. “This is all your fault!”

   The others chuckled.

   “Well,” Jinri said, deciding to save Sunyoung from embarrassment. “Did you and Taemin-oppa do something last Saturday?” She asked Soojung.

   “Yes!” Soojung squealed, “Although it isn’t really the appropriate time since the day before that, you.. you know.. yeah.” Her smile turned to a frown. “It was hard going on a date and stuff thinking that a close friend of ours is in danger..”

   “I’m sorry,” Jinri frowned and looked down. “I ruined it, didn’t I?”

   “Of course not, silly!” Soojung smiled again, “Yeah, maybe we couldn’t help but worry about you and stuff but we told ourselves that you’re a strong girl and everything’s going to be fine once you’ve rested enough and see? You’re back to your old room, that’s a step! We trust you, Jinri.”

   Jinri’s frown turned right side up.

   Suddenly, they heard a little commotion outside the room. It seemed that someone, or a group of people, was running in the hospital’s hallways, as if panicking or something. The girls thought it must have been an emergency so Sunyoung went to the door to see what’s really going on. But when she does so, she was met by guys towering her.

   “Chanyeol?” Jinri blinked.

   Chanyeol had his arms spread wide and behind him were their friends and it was as if he was trying to stop them from barging in. Actually, no one really expected for the door to open. When the boys found out that the ICU room where Jinri was supposed to be staying was empty, they panicked and frantically asked the nurses where she was. When one informed them that she was back to her old room, they all hurried towards it. Chanyeol had his arms wide like that because they all almost passed by the room due to panic and fast running.

   “Hi,” Chanyeol greeted awkwardly.

   Sunyoung stepped aside as Jongdae ducked under Chanyeol’s arm and made his way in.

   “Hey, Jinri!” He greeted enthusiastically.

   The rest followed and soon, Jinri’s room was crowded with four girls and twelve boys.

   “We’re going to get in trouble if a nurse finds out about this,” said Amber as she looked at each and every one of them. Some of the boys occupied the sofa; the others on the small dining set, and the rest were awkwardly just standing.

   “Don’t worry, some of us are just dropping by.” Yifan lightly chuckled and turned to Jinri. “Hey,” he greeted.

   “Hey back,” Jinri grinned. “It’s nice to see you all again.”

   “How are you, Jinri-ya?” Zitao asked.

   “I’m good!” The girl answered and spread her arms wide. “This is an improvement; I’m back in my room.”

   “Once you get out of this place, bake us some cake again, okay?” Minseok grinned.

   Jinri giggled, nodding. “Of course, sure.”

   Kyungsoo approached her. “Get enough rest, alright, Jinri-ya?” He said, “We wouldn’t want what happened to happen again. We’re really sorry,”

   “You’ve got nothing to apologize for,” Jinri answered with a gentle smile. “It happens..”

   “Jinri! Jinri!”

   The addressed looked at her other side and was greeted by an excited Baekhyun.

   “You know, Hwang-ssaem taught us a new choreography!” He said, “It was so cool. While Kyungsoo lied on his back and his feet up, Joonmyeon-hyung had to climb over and step on his feet and balance himself! Same goes for Minseok-hyung and Zitao! We can’t wait to show it to you!”

   “We’re not going to show her anything,” Jongin spoke up. Everyone looked at him with thoughts like “What the hell are you talking about?” “Why are you saying that to your girlfriend?” and etc. But Jongin just kept his gaze on Jinri’s, “She’s gonna have to get to the studio and see for herself.” He walked towards Jinri, his hands deep in his pockets, and bent down to her eye-level. “That’s why recover as fast as you can. I’m sure you’re going to like the new choreography,” he smiled.

   Jinri looked at him with wide, innocent eyes. She blinked and smiled back, her cheeks flushed with pink. “I will,” she said. “I will, Jongin.” And in that moment, it seemed like they forgot that they weren’t alone in the room until Jongdae had to break it with a..

   “Kiiiiiss!” He cheered and the others choked on their own spit. “Kiiiiiiiiiiss!”

   Yifan smacked the back of Jongdae's head while Qian took Jongin by the ear and pulled him away from their dear friend.

   “Alright, the way you two are looking at each other is just..” The Chinese girl shook her head when she let go of Jongin who immediately rubbed his ear.

   “They’re in love, let it go.” Amber rolled her eyes.

   Jinri blushed, “Y-Yah, stop embarrassing me..”

   “Careful, someone might get jealous~” Baekhyun sing-songed.

   “I wonder who that could be,” Kyungsoo blinked innocently, tilting his head to the side.

   “Aish, guys. Shut up and spare,” Jongin shook his head.

   And they laughed, ignoring Chanyeol whose face and ears were red as a tomato while the rest stood clueless inside the room.

   That’s pretty much how the two group of friends spent their afternoon with Jinri, just hanging out and joking around inside the room, keeping Jinri company and out of stress. That’s what they wanted to do for her anyway: to keep her happy. There is no way they’re going to let time take her away from them. If it’s possible, they’re going to fight for Jinri to live. One of them already had a solution but that person doesn’t have any intention on revealing it to anyone. Ever.

   Jongin, Sehun, Jongdae, Baekhyun, Chanyeol, and Soojung were the only ones left with Jinri when the night came. That’s also when the door opened once again revealing Mrs. Choi with Hwang-ssaem behind her. The boys widened their eyes, completely forgetting that their dance instructor went with them supposedly to visit Jinri. But their shock expression turned into a mischievous one, a smirk visible on each of their faces, when they realized he was with Mrs. Choi.

   Hwang-ssaem wasn’t insensitive enough not to feel the look his students were giving him and he resisted the urge to smack each one on the back of their heads. He just ignored them and went directly to Jinri, asking her how she was. Taemin also caught up with everyone, informing them that his final examination week was finished and he can finally hang out with them. Minho happened to visit her that day to check up on her too and seeing as everyone was complete, he decided to stay for awhile. That pretty much sums up their Saturday: with several teases directed to the teacher by his students here and there, a confused but happy and contented Jinri, and a dinner with the people she loves the most.

AUTHOR’S NOTE: I hope this is long enough to your liking. ; ; ♡ And I hope you also liked the update. I don’t know what I’m putting in here anymore but after a chapter or two or idek, there are going to be more revelations so.. /shrugs. I took up my Masteral’s exam last Monday, by the way, and I really hope I passed. :/ Anyway, how have you been, guys? I missed you all. Hope you’re all doing fine. : ) Kbye~