“Rose-unnie, it’s already past the curfew, we need to go back to the dorm,” shout Eunhee.

I shook my head, made some sweat flew around. “I’ll catch up later at one.”

“You need rest, unnie. It’s been 10 hours straight!” somehow Gain sounds angry. Jihae calmed the maknae down while I chuckled a little.

“We’ll be waiting. Be home at 1 AM, okay?” said Jihae.

“Be careful on the way back, unnie!” shout Gain while closing the door.

I nod, then the four girls left.

Yeah, my groupmates are great. They’re also very beautiful. Compared to me, I’m nothing. I’m only tall and big, so I need to tone down my body. So I kept moving like this. I like dancing anyway. And we’re going to debut in the next 6 months since one year ago when I joined the company and became a trainee. Beginning from baby steps into being a sprint runner.

I took a glance towards the clock hanging on the wall. It was past 10 pm.

Meh. Still so early even to sleep. I kept dancing into the next 2 hours.

Exactly at midnight, I stopped. Reached my limit, I fell down on my in the corner of the practice room, gulping huge amount of water. I panted like crazy, the grey sweater and black leggings I wore got soaked wet. Dang, I’ve changed clothes about three times since I came to practice about 10 hours ago, more laundry to do tomorrow since it’s a day off, I guess.

I was lying down cozily on top of my bag, humming to some songs while closing my eyes for a moment, but I felt so sleepy and tired so I decided I’d sleep for a while.

LEO’S POV

Tch, who let the lights on? Such a waste. If you’re not going to use the practice room, what’s so hard about turning the lights off?

Uff, what’s with my mood, so scruffy. But then again, it’s already so bad since the manager told me I have to practice alone to catch up on the choreography. I walked into the practice room and was going to turn the audio on, but there was someone sleeping on the floor. A girl.

I walked towards her. She covered her face with a red hat. I wonder who it was, so I slowly squatted next to her head and leaned down, took the hat off her face.

My first reaction was: wow.

It’s that girl, huh. The first trainee from overseas, the tomboy everyone was talking about, the tomboy who RAVI always talked about until he made me dizzy. So this is her, huh? It’s my first time seeing her up close, then.

“She’s like, strong, smart and polite, but at the same time, she’s cute! You got me, hyung? And.. and her cool expression when dancing naturally came out, you get that? She gets even cooler when she sweats a lot! You know Ha Ji Won at Secret Garden? She is way cooler! Hyung.. Hyung, look!”

“Stop it, Wonshik-ah. Noisy.”

“That’s Rosie Song!” Ravi whispered, pointing his index finger to someone who danced inside the practice room alone in the middle of the night. I lazily took a peek.

I saw her figure. She was dancing powerfully with elastic yet sharp movements. Then I saw her face.

Pretty.

“Rosie,” I whispered deep.

The memory when Ravi first start to rabble about her came to me. Then I sat near her, analyzing her face.

She does looks quite unique. Strong jaws, sharp chin, thick eyebrows. Her skin is not too pale too, just a little bit brighter than Hakyeon’s. What’s that, piercings? Wow, so much. And she’s quite stern, huh. Nice, thick hair. Her clothes were wet. So wet until it made her curves appear even more appealing. I could sort of see her curvy hip and.. uhm.. chest? But I can also tell she had just lost a huge amount of weight judging from her cheeks. Being sweaty made her look even better, isn’t it? No wonder Ravi secretly liked her.

I sighed. Not many girl looking like this in Korea. I’m worried about her catching cold of sleeping here in wet clothes, since she must have so many training sessions to attend tomorrow. But.. she’s sleeping so peacefully.

I squatted back and distance myself from her, then I poked her arm.

“Excuse me..” I said.

Wow, she got awake so fast.

Wait, wait, did I said wow twice just now?

She woke up and sat up in such a fast movement.

“Oh no, I overslept.. Oh!” she looked so surprised then covered with her hand. I only stared at her blankly. She blushed, and then averted my eyes, went busy with her things.

“I’m sorry, was I interrupting your activities, sunbae-nim? I should be going home,” she apologized while packing her things.

Actually, she looked kind of cute when doing that.

Ey, what... cute? Did I just said she looked cute?

“It’s alright. Change your clothes. You’ll catch cold,” I said.

She stopped mid-movement, and then she beamed a huge, teeth rich smile to me.

“You are very thoughtful, sunbae-nim. Thank you for waking me, I’ll be going now,” she said. She bowed deep, then left the room running.

I kept looking at the direction where she went, even when the door swung closed. She looked so bright until I think I got blinded without being able to say anything to her. I even neglected her intermediate-level of Korean grammar usage.

Wonshik was right. She was so polite, calling me by sunbae-nim rather than ‘Taekwoonie-oppa’ like the other female trainees do.

She’s nice.

ROSIE’S POV

WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED? DID I JUST.. TALKED TO.. LEO? THE Leo? THE Jung Taekwoon?

Oh, wow...

What the fuck did I say? ‘Sunbae-nim’? Geez what kind of nickname is that? I should have called him by his name, like Jihae and the girls normally did! It’s a once-in-a-lifetime chance, for God’s sake. I just threw it away. Great. What is this dizzy feeling, urgh. I’ll just keep running.

The night was incredibly dark already, but I’m glad that the street lamps are bright enough.

Okay, okay, I was happy. I AM happy. It’s Leo, talking to me IN PRIVATE. I got SO happy until I didn’t realize that I was running towards my dorm and not getting tired at all. My cheeks jumped up high. I smiled the whole way home.

Yeah, this is exactly the baby steps I need to take before I sprint... next to Leo.

Months passed by like yesterday’s wind. I can’t believe it’s almost 2 and a half months away to our debut performance. Our practices got even harder than before. I also noticed that me and the members are slowly receiving even more treatments to our physical appearances, such as skin treatments, make-up tests, hairdo tests, and some more photo-shoots. And as the frequency of activities in our schedule increases, we had less free time than before.

But, the good thing for me is, I get to meet VIXX very often.

Once I was on the way to vocal practice, and I met Ravi walking towards me. I smiled and bowed deep. He bowed back and beamed me a huge smile as I continue my way. I also saw Ken practicing alone. His voice was really awesome. But what makes me happy is that I get to see Leo the most in the recording room everytime I went pass it. His expression when he sang was really gorgeous. N also talked to me once when I was on the dance class, he gave me lots of useful advices.

Tonight, I was scheduled alone to vocal class. The other members were still busy with their school and college, and as I already graduate college before becoming a trainee, I have more time and power to attend extra practices. I went inside the vocal room number 4 alone, putting aside my backpack and took my iPod and earphones out. These earphones are the best and I already had them for about two years. They’re also very expensive, coming with the quality. I put them on, and then I played Gummy’s Day and Night. I sang along to it.

I was carried away with singing into the emotion of the song when someone came in. It was the piano player, Jo. I stopped singing, then I bowed down to him while smiling. He then played the piano for me and I sang again.

We were having a good time when suddenly everything went dark.

I froze.

Goddamn it... why now..?

“Ck, the light’s out again?” said Jo, irritated. “Eh.. Rose?”

I felt my energy left my knees. I fell down to the floor. My lungs run out of air. I start to choke, pant messily. Cold sweat ran down my temples. I felt my earphone fell down to the floor, but I really couldn’t think about anything.

My deep Achluophobia got my best. Fear started to lurk into my heart, and I felt dizzy.

“Rose!” I could hear Jo ran to me, then there was a loud crack. “O—oh! Oh my God, I’m so sorry--”

He stepped on my earphones, and I saw that it was broken. At that moment, I felt like something gripped my heart and squeezed it. Those earphone were a gift from my late mother before I left to Korea. But I can’t even grief properly. I fell on Jo’s laps and hands, my eyesight started to leave me.

“Help!” Jo shrieked in fear. “Someone! Please!”

Just as I was about to lose consciousness, someone banged the door open. Then I saw a small light on top of me. Too late, it was way too blurry. I could only see shadows.

“Oh my God, I’m so sorry I broke your earphone, Rose, please hold on... Oh why are you like this...” Jo cried.

“I—it’s.. okay..” I stuttered as my breath left me.

The shadow who opened the door went down next to me. The next thing I know is that I felt someone held my body up and carry me away as my consciousness left me, and everything went dark once again.

Light forces itself into my eyes. I forced my heavy eyelids open, realizing I was in a dim-lighted room. Someone had carried me to the clinic in the basement of the Jelly building.

I rub my eyes then I sat up, only to face Lee Jihae in front of me, and Jo the pianist sitting next to her.

“God, Rose! What happened? Did you faint?” she asked. I could sense her fear.

“Sorry… It’s just that lights went out,” I said weakly.

“You have some severe Achluophobia, yet you didn’t tell the company. Miss, it is a dangerous mistake,” said the clinic matron. I grinned. “I’m sorry. It had happened a few times before, though,” I said.

“It’s okay, but you were very lucky you were in that room with someone else. If we were too late to find you, I don’t even know what could happen,” she said.

“I’m truly sorry that I broke your earphones, Rose,” said Jo, his head hung low. I felt bad for him.

“It really doesn’t matter, Jo-ssi, it’s just an earphone anyway,” I put up a smile. Yeah, only an earphone from my late mother. I had to swallow the bitter pills down with a smile.

Jo nodded while apologizing once again, but I forced a laugh and patted his shoulder while thinking hard. I figured that Jo was the last person with me… but wait. Someone else was there. The shadow that saved me. And that shadow is way bigger than Jo in appearance. But I shrug it off.

**SHADOW’S POV

I was walking down the hallway through numerous vocal practice and recording room in the basement, when the lights suddenly went out. Everything was completely pitch dark. After shaking off my confusion, I immediately took my phone out and lit the flashlight application, then I found my sight again. I slowly walked to the walls, trailing it carefully with my hands to avoid hitting anything or anyone. It has always been very quiet down here so it made the aura of the hallway even creepier than normal.

But, just as I reached vocal room 4, I heard someone’s voice in panic.

“Rose—Oh my God!”

Rose?

Rose, as in that Rose? The girl Ravi always rabble about?

Out of curiosity, I increased my speed and stood in front of the vocal room number 4, just to make sure. Then the male voice screamed again.

“Help! Someone, please!”

I was frightened, shock. I wonder what happened, but then whatever it is, it won’t be good. I pushed the door open with a shocking amount of power, beamed my phone’s flashlight to the source of the voice, and then I saw the piano player holding someone on his lap.

Yeah, it’s Rose. Looks like she almost faint. I didn’t even bother why, something just moved my feet to run towards her.

“Oh my God, I’m so sorry I broke your earphones, Rose, please hold on.. Oh why are you like this...” cried the pianist. I focused on Rose’s deadpanned face. She gasped for air.

“I—it’s okay..” she stuttered.

Then she let out a short hiss. She fainted.

An unfamiliar fear crept to my heart. Suddenly I feel so scared, not wanting anything to happen to her that might damage her. I held her upper body and legs and I stood up. Her body was so light, and weirdly she smelled like flowers. But fear overcame me. I held her body close to my chest and run, carrying her on my hands as the lights in the building starts to lit again. I ran quicker down the hallway to the in-house clinic. I pushed the doors of the clinic open with my back.

“Omo! What—what happened to her?!” asked the matron in shock.

While panting in silence, I put Rose’s body on the bed and tucking her body under the blanket. Her face was very pale.

“I think she fainted when the lights went out,” I said. The matron went to check her up. Measured her heart rate, blood rate, pulse and eyes.

“She was scared,” said the matron.

I got confused. “What?”

“I’m not so sure but I think she has a deep fear to darkness. You know phobia? In some severe case, like her, the patient could suffer problems in breathing, increased heart rate, suffocation, palpitation, hallucination and even lost consciousness due to the fear,” the matron explained. “I’m suggesting this because I had read her medical check up results before, ones that she had submitted when she joined the company. Her health today is at a good condition, and her immune system is not that weak to even let her pass out due to exhaustion.”

I nodded. So Rose is physically strong, but she has a phobia of darkness. That’s why she left the dance practice lamps on when she fell asleep. I blinked.

“Alright. I leave her to you then, just don’t tell her I was the one brought her here. Say it’s you.” I said.

The matron raised her eyebrow. “Why?”

“Just do it.”

Then I went out, leaving the room while taking my last sight on Rose. She looked really weak, and that makes me feel something unfamiliar on the area of my lower stomach. I shook my head, then walked out while the matron made some phone calls and tried to wake her up.

As I walked down the hallway, I met the pianist ran to the clinic in a rush, bowing to me shortly. That reminds me of something.

Her earphones got broken? Could it be something precious for her? The pianist sounded scared when he realized he broke it. Anyway, I did see her multiple times wearing those earphones. Maybe we’re the same? Taking advantage of earphones and music just to block the noise from the outside world and lock ourselves in our own world.

I sighed. I never thought I’d think this much about some girl, let alone a trainee, until the extent that I was scared that something bad would happen to her. I made my way out of the Jelly building, and decided maybe I’d stop on a music accessories store nearby.

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DONE MY FIRST. this story's no longer a . (wut)

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