“So I have Jinyoung working as house manager, Mae on the sound board, and Soori and Mark up in the light booth. Does this sound right to you four?” Ms. Henan asked.

“Yes ma’am!”

“Is it really just the four of us, though? I’m not sure if I can handle being house manager and doing all the house jobs on my own…” Jinyoung said while rubbing his nape.

Ms. Henan smiled softly, “If you come across a problem just get on the mic set and call Soori for help, she knows what she’s doing.”

Jinyoung nodded, “Yes ma’am!”

“Well, the girls should be getting here any second. I’ll warn you, their choreographer can get a little… Out of hand, I guess.”

“We’ll be fine, Ms. Henan. I’ve dealt with Mrs. Lee several times as a child,” Soori chuckled.

“Alright… Good luck, I’ll be in my office if something comes up.”

~

Mark and Soori were in the light booth starting to set up the lights for the show. To be a little more accurate, Soori was adjusting the color of the lights and setting the cues as the choreographer described while Mark just sat down on a chair beside her, watching what she was doing.

“Is this all you need to do?” he asked

“For now… Eventually I’ll have to do more,” Soori answered.

“Like what?”

“Checking every practice to make sure all the lights are working and none of them have run out of energy… Sometimes we have last minute changes when Mrs. Lee suddenly has a change of mind… And sometimes we have to readjust the fresnel lights or the ellipsoidals or-”

“You know I don’t know the names of the different lights, right?”

“Why are you working here…” Soori mumbled while setting up more of the cues.

“Simple, to spend more time with you,” Mark smirked before a dancer suddenly showed up inside the light booth. She was one of the older dancers and was the same age as Mark and Soori.

“Soori-ssi, Mrs. Lee is calling for you. She already wants to make a few adjustments,” the girl said.

“Oh, okay. Mark, don’t with the board,” Soori said before getting up and going downstairs.

Mark watched her leave until the dancer blocked his view. He looked up at her in confusion before spotting the look on her face, it was one he knew all too well. He smirked slightly and invited the girl to stay with him for a little while to “get to know one another”. The girl gladly accepted.

~

“Is this even real,” Soori said flatly when she walked upstairs to find the girl and Mark leaning a little too close to each other.

Mark immediately pulled away and grew flustered, “I- No- Soori it’s not-”

“Oh god I’m sorry, I didn’t realize you two were dating!” the girl stood up and bowed several times to Soori.

“We’re not. We never were, and we never will. Don’t worry. I just wasn’t expecting to see this… Although I guess I should have seen it coming,” Soori said coldly before sitting back down on the chair and resuming her work.

“Oh- I uh… I guess I’ll see you later, Oppa?” the girl smiled.

“O-Oh… Yeah… Sure, babe,” Mark replied, a little taken aback by Soori’s words.

I guess Samuel was wrong… I guess she doesn’t like me… Oh of course not you you were about to make out with another girl right in front of her… Wait… Is she jealous…?

“Quit smiling to yourself like that. I’m growing scared that you’re thinking of ing that girl,” Soori deadpanned.

Mark smirked in response, “And what if that is exactly what I’m thinking about?”

“I know I told Jinyoung the light booth is the best place not to get caught, but make sure I’m out sick or something if you’re going to do it,” she scoffed before standing up, “I’m hungry, I’m gonna eat.”

~

For the rest of the week while they worked on the performance, it was more or less the same. Mark grew amused knowing that Soori was jealous of the other girls, and used that to his advantage. More often than not, he was found flirting with a few of the dancers, but never getting more intimate with them than leaning in too close or letting his hands grip on their waists. He was teasing them to make sure they wanted more, but he never gave in. He was too set on making Soori jealous, he got a kick out of seeing this side of her, it showed him just how much she liked him.

Every now and then, Jinyoung attempted to comfort Soori and get her to admit that she was jealous of those girls, but she would just scowl and brush it off completely. She quickly said that she had no idea what Jinyoung was talking about, and continued on with her day. Jinyoung was more than amused with how quick Soori was to deny her feelings.

Finally, it was the day of the show. Already, Soori was put in a bad mood when she entered the light booth to find another girl sitting on the table, giggling as Mark curled a strand of her hair with his hand dangerously close to her chest area, his face leaning in so close that the girl just flinch just slightly and their lips would touch.

Soori groaned slightly and slammed the door shut. “Get out. It’s the day of the show, you need to be downstairs and out of the light booth. In fact, no one is allowed in the light booth other than myself and Mark when there’s a show going on.”

The girl just chuckled, more than used with Soori’s attitude by now. “Calm down honey, I get it, you want Mark for yourself, but like you said… You aren’t dating. And you never will. Just let me have a little moment with him, he’s been hitting on me this entire time anyway, I deserve this, don’t I?”

Soori rolled her eyes, “I don’t give two s if you’re the girl he made love to last night or the first girl he made love to when he was thirteen, get out of the light booth before I kick your off the dance team and ruin tonight’s show for all your friends.”

“Tch. ,” the girl scoffed before jumping off the table, quickly kissing Mark on the cheek before scurrying downstairs.

“I actually like the girl you dated before homecoming at least ten times more than that girl,” Soori said before taking a seat in front of the light board.

“I’m not even dating her. And for the record, I haven’t even kissed her and you know I’ve been hitting on all the dancers our age.”

“Yeah, okay. Player.”

After the first performance a few dancers snuck their way up to the light booth, much to Soori’s dismay.

“Oppa!” another girl burst open the door and walked into the room like it was no big deal. Soori heaved a sigh as she hit the button for the next cue. Her annoyance spread quickly through the room and the dancer and Mark could easily tell that they shouldn’t do anything to piss her off.

The girl cleared a little before focusing her attention on Mark again, “Oppa, did you see my dance?” she asked with a wide grin, “I hope it was good… I tried to look good just for you.”

Mark chuckled lightly, sparing glances over at Soori every now and then. “O-Oh… Yeah, it was great. You looked great down there, babe.”

The girl grinned a little wider before moving closer to Mark. She batted her eyelashes and gave him flirtatious looks while playing with her hair, “You really think so? Maybe I could do the dance for you again another time… But maybe in a more private setting… I had my own version of the dance, but Mrs. Lee wouldn’t let me do it.”

“Really? I’m sure it looked great,” Mark said, trying more to sound polite rather than flirty. For once, he was rather bothered by having this girl’s body pressing up against his. He glanced over at Soori once again, almost begging with his eyes to do something as the girl gradually got closer and closer to him.

Soori was just barely able to watch as the girl made her move on Mark before she angrily stood up and threw her out. “Honestly, if another girl tries to come up, I will have a word with Mrs. Lee. During shows, only backstage workers are allowed up here. I swear if another one of you dare to break that rule I will break you,” she said before slamming the door shut and locking the door.

“Oh, now it’s really just me and you,” Mark smirked, completely disregarding the angry front that Soori was putting out.

“Honestly I will slap you to the next timeline,” Soori glared at him.

“Come on, babe… You know those girls mean nothing to me, right?” Mark smiled softly while wrapping an arm around her. Soori said nothing in response and just shrugged his arm off of her. Mark frowned slightly at her response, “Babe…”

Those girls mean nothing to you… If that’s your way of saying I mean something to you then that’s a weird way of showing it.

“Soori…” Mark whispered softly.

“Forget it, let’s just focus on the show,” Soori said, pushing the next lighting cue for the dancers. “Unless you wanna go down to flirt with those girls, then go ahead.”

“I think I’d rather stay up here with you… You did hear me say those girls mean nothing to me, right?”

“Then why do you keep flirting with them? If they mean nothing to you then what, do I mean something to you?” Soori asked while looking straight into Mark’s eyes.

Mark didn’t reply as he gazed into her eyes. After a little while, he started to lean in, until Jinyoung’s loud voice went onto the headset mic, forcing Soori to squeal as she backed away from Mark. The young red-haired man cursed and clenched his fists as his moment was once again interrupted.

“Jinyoung, what the hell!” Soori groaned into the mic.

“You realize you should have been pushing buttons up there, right?” Jinyoung chuckled.

“O-Oh… . Wait… Yah you it’s still on the right light!” she said when she realized which performance and which lights were on.

“I know. What I actually meant to say was, the mic’s been on the entire time and yes. You do mean something to Mark but I really didn’t want to be here on headset listening to you and Mark making out. Mae agrees.”

“Ugh, then turn your headset off!”

“Ooooohhhhh, so you wanted it too,” Jinyoung spoke in a teasing voice.

“I hate you,” Soori sighed before turning off the mic.

After that chat, Mark and Soori started acting a little more awkward with each other. They could barely look at each other and didn’t say much for the remainder of the performance. Mark kept cursing in his head, he wanted to bring Soori back to gaze into his eyes so he could finally take her into his embrace and kiss her, but he knew the moment had been ruined. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ta-dah~! Double update <3

I'm totally up late just to post this oh my Lord

I'M SUPER SORRY I HAVEN'T UPDATED BUT I'M HERE NOW AND THEN I'LL PROBABLY TAKE ABOUT ANOTHER MONTH BEFORE UPDATING AGAIN BECAUSE WOW ENGLISH TEACHER GO MY AND STOP ASSIGNING SO MUCH LIKE LITERALLY GO AWAY.

But yeah I'm super sorry for such a late update

I'm trying to work a little bit on the story while doing my essays and whatnot but it ain't working out too well D:

Comment Replies~

mjxxna - Thank you for reading! <3

EXOtic1994 - I know right I wish I could talk to a guy friend about anything and have him do the same with me D:

kawaiimacaron - Sorry for a late update! :c

thelillcat - How about this for some progress aaayyyyyeeee~

Joo_bear23 - YOUR FEELINGS ARE STILL GROWING? I think my feels for Mark have reached max point--

lolllypop - Thank you! <3

yying1220 - Hello new reader! <3 Thank you for reading, I'm sorry for the late updates though!

snowz28 - Hehe Jaebum is not a fan favorite apparently~ I might have to do something about that c; There are plenty of fluffy moments about to come your way don't worry about it <3

cutieee - Yoona is goddess. And Mark is ultimate bias hng. Thank you for reading my story! <3

stephv92 - I'm sorry I wish I updated sooner!

kelliejoan - Welcome aboard, new reader! I'm sorry for the late update but thank you for reading and enjoying my story! <3