The next morning, I tried to avoid Leo. I was afraid of him showing any more affection with the risk of anyone seeing us. I also knew though if I avoided Leo too much the other members would pick up on it and really think something was going on between us even more so than they already were, and I didn’t want that either.

“Yah, are you going to eat your breakfast or what?” N scolded me seeing as I had not touched my breakfast.

“Sorry.” I bowed my head and began to pick at my food.

“Are you feeling okay? You’re not sick are you?” Hyuk asked, putting his hand on my forehead.

I shook my head. “I didn’t sleep well last night.”

“Did you have too much fun last night?” Ken teased.

Hongbin pointed his chopsticks at me. “Was it you that had the late night snack after we got back? I head someone in the kitchen when I was falling asleep.”

“I was in the kitchen last night.” Leo admitted. We all looked at him in surprise. “What?”

“Jung Taekwoon, you aren’t supposed to eat that late at night!” N tapped his head.

Leo looked at me and I quickly looked down at my plate. Stupid me, because Ken caught on.

“Did something happen between you two last night?” He asked.

I shook my head. “No. Why do you think that?”

“You two have been weird for a while now. You really think we wouldn’t notice something was going on?” Ravi said.

I looked over at N, sending him a worried look in hopes he would be able to say something to change the topic and get the attention off of Leo and me.

“Guys, maybe they’re just getting closer. Why don’t you question it when I act weird around Kyuri-yah?” He scolded the two.

“Hyung, you act weird around a lot of people.” Hyuk said, without looking up from his food.

“EHHHHH!” N leaned across the tabled and chopped the maknae in the neck.

Breakfast finished without further questioning but I could still feel the members’ watchful eyes on mine and Leo’s behaviors.

The next few days before the showcase were spent at rigorous rehearsals. By the time we showed up to the venue the day of the first showcase, I felt like I could do the performance in my sleep, however that didn’t mean things would go perfectly.

I still feared that I would choke in front of all of the starlights and I also feared that they wouldn’t like me. Those fears would fade away after I would convince myself that the fans would pay no attention to me and just be super excited to see Hongbin and Hyuk dancing and singing. But in the back of my mind, I could still see the worst case scenario happening.

I had my own small dressing room so I could get my hair and makeup done and also have some of the coordi unnies help me into my dress. It was just a simple black dress that kind of looked like what Girl’s Day wore for their “Something” performances, but the skirt tears off so that it is shorter for my performance with Hyuk. During rehearsals Hongbin struggled a bit pulling the skirt off because he was supposed to rip it off as he walked off stage and I got into position for my dance with Hyuk. Thinking of this only heightened my nerves.

“Kyuri-ssi, it’s time for you to go to stand-by.” My manager said, poking his head inside the dressing room.

It was now or never. Once this performance was out of the way, I’m sure the others would be less nerve wracking. My heart was racing as I got closer and closer to backstage. I felt extremely hot all of a sudden and my palms started to feel sweaty. Hongbin and Hyuk were waiting for me and both hugged me.

“You’ll do great.” Hyuk reassured me.

“Just relax and take a sip of water before we go out there.” Hongbin suggested, handing me his bottle of water.

Ravi’s solo stage was before ours and once the music ended and the cheers really picked up, I felt extremely light headed and numb all over. I was finding it hard to breath and I could feel the color drain from my face. My legs began to feel like they had turned to jello and I tried my best to stand still. Hongbin was the first to notice and quickly helped me stay on my feet.

“Hey, are you okay? Are you going to be able to do this?”

Ravi, who had just gotten backstage, helped Hongbin hold me up. “Try and relax. It’s not going to be as bad as you think.” He rubbed my back in an attempt to calm me down.

“I-I-I’ll be fine once we get on stage.” I took a few deep breaths and tried to stand alone.

N, Ken, and Leo had come running towards us. I made sure I was steady so they wouldn’t worry about me too. I had to do well. I had worked so hard and all the members of VIXX had put so much faith into me. I had to show everyone that I was worth all of the time spent and trust they had in me and my training. I had to show everyone that I was ready to be an idol and perform in front of thousands of people like this.

“Is everything okay? You guys are supposed to go on.” N asked, looking us all over to see why Hongbin and I were not walking out onto stage yet.

“We didn’t want to miss the performance.” Ken said and placed a hand on my shoulder. “You better not steal any of our fans.” He joked.

I smiled at him and shrugged away his hand. “I’ll try not to.” I looked over at Leo before Hongbin pulled me along to get into our positions. He nodded and gave me a slight smile. That was enough to get me onto the stage.

The fans cheered when they saw Hongbin and I take our positions and I tried my best to clear my brain of any thought process so when the music started I would be able to just fall into the motions and present a perfect performance. As I stood behind Hongbin, I tried not to peak around his shoulder and see all of the starlights who were waiting anxiously for their beloved Bean’s solo stage.

The music started and just as I had hoped, my body responded exactly how it was supposed to. All that was left on my end was to sing and keep the emotion in the performance. As Hongbin and I flittered around the stage and carried on with the performance, I felt my anxieties from earlier were kind of ridiculous. The feeling of adrenaline that I had from just being on stage and hearing the fans cheer for not only Hongbin, but cheering me on as well, really made me want to give more than my all.

Troublemaker ended and my skirt came off with ease as Hongbin stomped offstage. I glanced up to see Hyuk at the other end of the stage and Now’s music started to play. The crowd’s cheers seemed to be even louder than before as they saw their maknae showing off his manly charisma. Everything was going perfect.

As I moved with Hyuk, I thought back on all the practices with Leo. As Hyuk’s hands glided over my exposed midsection, I thought of Leo’s delicate touch. Hyuk’s physique wasn’t as strong as Leo’s but when I lean back into him, I would think Leo’s hard chest would be behind me and his muscular arms would wrap around me. My body reacted to Hyuk’s touch as it would to Leo’s and as the song came to a close, I felt my body go in for the closing move Leo and I had added to our late night practices.

The crowd had mixed reactions; there were cheers and gasps. When I had realized what I had done, my eyes grew wide and I pulled my lips away from Hyuk’s. Hyuk’s eyes shown the same shock mine probably did but he still turned to the crowd and bowed before we exited the stage hand in hand.

“Did you two plan that and not tell me?” Hongbin teased, nudging Hyuk.

I looked around and saw that Leo was nowhere to be found. I hoped he had missed the kiss, however when I made eye contact with N that told me otherwise. Leo had seen the kiss.

“You know you’re going to have to do that every night now.” Ravi told me. “It was a nice touch but once the starlights start posting about it tonight, everyone is going to be waiting for it.”

“I don’t know what happened. I just kind of did it.” I mumbled.

“Well now we know how you practiced with Leo.” Ken laughed.

I looked up at him and shook my head violently. “It wasn’t like that.”

Ken placed his hands on my shoulders. “Hey, calm down. It’s okay. I was just teasing.”

N motioned for the other members to prepare for the next stage and pulled me into his arms. “Kyuri, it’s okay. Calm down. It was just an act, okay?” He pat my back soothingly as he cooed in my ear. “Leo will be okay. No one knows about your relationship. The starlights won’t hate you. In fact, it looks like they loved you. You’ve done well.”

I pulled away after hugging N tightly. “Thank you, oppa. You’re the best.”

“Enjoy the rest of the show, okay? Because there’s an after party when we’re done.” N waved as he ran off to the dressing room to finish getting ready for their last few acts.

Even as I watched from the sidelines, I still couldn’t help but feel as if I had made a grave mistake. The fans seemed unfazed by the performance. They still cheered on Hongbin and Hyuk as if nothing had happened. And yet I still felt like I had committed a heinous crime.

After VIXX had performed their final song and taken their final bow for the night, they all rushed off stage and greeted me quickly before heading back to their dressing room to change. I waited outside the dressing room door for them. Everyone had changed out of their performance clothes and were all preparing to head over to the after party. Through the door I listened to the boys ardently talk about how well their opening night went. As we started to walk out of the arena and towards the vans, I couldn’t help but fight back my yawns. I didn’t want to miss out on the after party, but I felt my eyes start to betray me and my body slowly started to as well.

“I don’t think I’m going to the after party, guys.” I said, rubbing my eyes. “I think I should just go to bed.”

“Aw what a party pooper, Kyuri.” Ken frowned.

“You should at least celebrate for a little bit.” Hongbin said. “You did really great tonight.”

N looked at me before giving me a hug. “Don’t worry. You won’t miss much. Go ahead and go sleep at the hotel. Are you okay with going back alone?”

“I’ll go back with her.” Leo said, moving to stand next to me. He had managed to keep his distance from me since my performance with Hyuk.

“Ah, of course Leo hyung is going to take the first opportunity he can get so he doesn’t have to go to the party.” Ravi chuckled.

Leo placed his hand on the small of my back and began to lead me over to where a cab was waiting. I waved goodbye to the others before getting inside the cab.

I had scooted all the way over to the other side of the cab, leaving the middle seat open and space between Leo and me. I’m sure even the cab driver noticed the awkward tension that was going on between us. I tried my best not to look over at him because I could feel Leo’s strong gaze on me. I didn’t want to talk about the performance or the kiss with Hyuk. I just wanted to get to the hotel, go to bed, and forget that tonight even happened.

I jumped when I felt Leo’s hand on mine and finally looked over at him. “What’s going on?” I asked.

“Are you okay?” He asked. “You’re really tense.” I opened my mouth to speak but nothing came out. Leo smiled and rubbed his thumb across the back of my hand. “You’re exhausted from tonight’s show, aren’t you?”

For some reason Leo’s words weren’t making much sense so I just nodded. “Y-yeah.”

“Well you did great, and that kiss at the end…” I saw a different emotion flash across his face but he quickly replaced it with a smile. “The crowd loved it. It really showed that our little Hyukkie is all grown up now.”

“Y-yeah.”

The taxi pulled up to the hotel and Leo paid the fee before helping me out of the car. He wrapped his arm around my waist as he guided me to the elevator and then to my room. I reached into my bag for my room key and fumbled with it as I tried to open the door. Leo replaced my hand with his and kissed the back of my neck. This sent a shiver down my spine and I looked up at him as he held the door open for me to enter the room before him.

I don’t know if it was because I was tired from the performances or if I was really that oblivious to it, but little did I know that I just stepped foot into the lion’s den and this lion had been patiently waiting to strike its prey – me.

A/N: Hey readers, thank you for being so patient. I hope you enjoyed this update. Thank you for reading and subscribing. Please anticipate the next update!