Chapter 9: Proof (pt.2)

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“Wow, who would have thought, that Lydia would be that kind of girl, dancing cutely for the boy she likes and all?” Hye Rin said teasingly.

They really had no shame, honestly. Yong Yee and Hye Rin hadn’t stopped teasing me since I asked them for help, and Myu Ri did nothing to stop them, secretly enjoying the scene. Every time that Thunder let us have a small break, they would gather around me, unwilling to let the golden opportunity of teasing me pass.

I didn’t know what was worse: having to deal with the devil Thunder became during practice, or having to deal with the devils the girls became during gossip sessions?

One thing was for sure: I was in hell.

“Enough with the break ladies!” Thunder said, gesturing for us to gather around him. “Now, listen. We’ll go through the choreography one more time, just to make sure that everything is in place. Remember to be energetic, but not too jumpy. Also, please try to be cuter, and yes, Lydia-sshi, of course I’m referring to you” he said, and I barely had time to  roll my eyes in annoyance before he continued: “After that, Yong Yee and Hye Rin will bring some clothes for you –I believe you wanted special outfits, isn’t that right?-, while Myu Ri and Lydia will clear the space.”

“Clothes?” I asked. “What exactly are those ‘special outfits’ you’re talking about?” To say that I was worried was an understatement: leave it to Yong Yee to choose the flashier clothes possible, and to Hye Rin to pick the shortest ones. This couldn’t be good.

“Don’t worry, Lydia~” Hye Ring said cutely, which only managed to make me worry more.

“Can’t I come with you to help you?” I said, hoping to avoid the worst.

“Over my dead body will you choose the clothing for the performance. Next thing I’ll know, you’ll be dressed in black and singing ‘This Is War’ to hyung.”

Aishh, that boy. He was a freaking tease in reality, no matter how they all claimed he was innocent. Like hell he was innocent! His eyes screamed mischief from miles away when he smiled like that. That guy was certainly a freaking tease.

…And that made me appreciate him so much more.

“As if!” I replied coolly to his accusations. “I want to make this work, remember?”

“Omo, our Lydia is such a romantic!” Yong Yee cooed, that arrogant smirk of hers plastered on her face. Who would have known that you’d come to care so much about Lee Joon?”

I rolled my eyes at her, mentioning for her to stop, while the rest of the people around us cracked up. “What?!” I exclaimed, suddenly not so cool anymore. “He is my boyfriend after all, isn’t he?”

There was a slight pause that followed my rhetoric question, before, unexpectedly, Myu Ri spoke up.

“You never mentioned him as ‘your boyfriend’ before.” She observed, her voice small and shy.

“Well he is, isn’t he?” I answered defensively, before watching her expression darkening at my tone. “Sorry”, I added quickly. “I just really have to make things right, so I’m kind of worried.” The next thing I said was as honest as truth itself could be, and it caught the girls by surprise. “I care about him.”

There it was. A statement I hadn’t confessed to any of them, except of Thunder earlier. Little did I know that, as soon as I let the words escape, they would all rise and start practicing the steps of the choreography.

Yong Yee and Hye Rin squealed excitedly at the new piece of information, before they started discussing the main points of the choreography animatedly, their determination revived. Thunder smiled at me warmly, before focusing on the girls in front of him. Only Myu Ri stayed perfectly still, eyeing me curiously. “Is it true?” she said, her eyes scrutinizing my face. I nodded, a bit perplexed by her expression. She rarely looked harshly at someone, but I could recognize such an expression when I saw one.

A small smile painted her features then, and I sighed in relief. For a while, she had scared me. “We better start working then, right?” she said, before standing up to join the others.

I studied all of them for a while, watching as they put their everything into helping me. My friends… Getting closer to Hye Rin, Myu Ri, Yong Yee and Thunder, was also a thing that I owed, in a way, to Lee Joon.

“Stop daydreaming about your boyfriend and come practice, Lydia.” Thunder said, bringing me back to reality, and surprising me pleasantly, seeing how he didn’t use honorifics to call me.

“I wasn’t!” I protested in an annoyed voice as I joined them, but the smile on my face showed that I was, in fact, not-so-annoyed.

…

“Stop biting your lips like that. This is abuse; you’re going to ruin them.”

I snapped out of my trance, thanks to Thunder’s voice, and I stopped ‘abusing’ my lower lip, which was numb now, seeing how much I’d bitten it during the past few minutes. Yet a bad habit of mine, the lip-biting when nervousness rises…

“You’ll do fine, there’s no reason to worry that much.”

I looked at him. He was smiling, and I couldn’t do anything but match his expression, because when he looked at me like that, I knew I had won a friend. “Thank you, Thunder.” I said. “But I’m still worried. Not so much about messing up the steps, but mostly about speaking to Joon afterwards… I’m not good at this. Confessing that I truly need someone… actually needing someone… I’ve never done this before.”

Hell, what was wrong with me? I was speaking slowly, almost stuttering. I’d never been that unconfident before. But then again, I’d never talked to anyone about how Joon made me feel.

“As long as your feelings are honest and genuine, everything will be fine.” He reassured me, a serious look on his face.

I felt a pang of guilt right then. My feelings were honest, I knew that. I knew that since I noticed that everything good that happened in my life, I wanted to share it with Joon. I knew it since I started anticipate every text message, every date, every touch. I knew it since I started calling him Joon instead of Lee Joon, and since I started thinking about him as “my Joon”, soon after. The problem was how my first intentions, when I still knew nothing about him, were not so pure. No matter how true this relationship had become, it had still started from a lie… right?

“Yah… Seriously, don’t be so nervous… He’ll forgive you immediately after seeing your efforts. It’s going to be okay, Lydia, don’t worry.”

I turned my attention back to him, smiling gratefully. Count on Thunder to support you in the sweetest way possible, when he wants to.

“After all, if the others pick clothes like the ones they said they will, I’m pretty sure he’ll forgive you anyway, just to date you enough to reach the skinship part of dating… Short skirts do wonders, you know?”

…And count on him to turn from angelic to devilish in 0.9 seconds as well.

“Yah!” I said. “Don’t be a ert!”

Before he had a chance to defend himself though, some voices behind him talked in his place –way too excitedly for it to be good.

“He’s right however! Lydia, I can guarantee you that he’ll take you back, despite the total that you can be at times!”

I swear, how Yong Yee could be excited even when she insulted you, was beyond me.

Hye Rin nodded in agreement –I hoped (for her own good), that she agreed with the “get him back” part, and not the “you’re a total ” one. She then started taking out of some huge bags the clothes they had picked for the “show”, and –oh God.

There was no way I was wearing that.

Cute tops, y shorts skirts and canvas sneakers. Typical “cool cute girl” look. Typical “not me” look.

Thunder laughed out loud at my expression, and soon the girls followed, even My Ri joining.

“Oh, come on~ You know I can’t wear things like that~” I whined, making them stop, expressions of pure shock on their faces.

“What?” I asked, clueless.

“Lydia… Did you just use aegyo?” Hye Rin asked.

“What are you talking about? Of course I didn’t~” I said.

“She did it again! She did it again!” Yong Yee said, snorting loudly and clapping her hands like a retard.

Soon, they were all literally “rolling on floor laughing”, especially after Thunder had stated, between hiccups, that “I definitely was ready for the cute dance now.”

I couldn’t help but join them in their laughter craze.

…

“I still can’t understand why we all had to come here. Couldn’t you come see your girlfriend on your own, hyung?”

That voice… It’s crazy how I had managed to miss it already, when it’d been just a couple of days since the last time I listened to it. But, go figure… It seemed that I had become strangely addicted to anything that had to do with him…

Joon.

 His tone was sulky, showing that he really didn’t want to be here.

A few minutes ago, Mir, the rapper of MBLAQ, had contacted Thunder, letting him know that they had convinced Joon to follow them, and that they would soon be here. The plan seemed to work perfectly, and we had carefully concealed our appearances, waiting for them to arrive. Thank God that the girls had managed to contain their “feels” when the members of MBLAQ –except Thunder of course, who was with us- made their way in.

“Don’t worry, Joon-ah, Lydia-sshi has the day off, since it’s Sunday, I already told you.” G.O responded.

Of course Joon wouldn’t want to see me. At least, not before I had completely made up my mind, not before I had clearly given him an answer. It was absolutely logical.

But no matter how logical it was, it still stung a little.

I was here to give him his answer though, so I prepared myself to appear calm and collected –something I was definitely not feeling.

They were now standing close to the center of the store. From my hiding place, there were little things I could see, but their location was clear.

We had moved some shelves to the side, to create more space in the center of the room, and were now hiding behind them, waiting for our cue.

“Oh, but where is everyone?” Seungho, the leader, said with faked curiosity, letting us know that the “stage” was clear, and the “spectators” more than eager to see the “performance”.

That was our cue. Thunder, who had quietly creeped closer to the store’s CD player, started the music, and we made our way to the center of the room quickly, in total darkness.

As the music started, a faint “Oh, that scared me!” was heard. Joon, easily scared as always…

The lights were switched on by Thunder right then, blocking every other thought in my mind, except completing the choreography decently, and taking in every expression of Joon’s –which right now was a mix of pure shock and excitement.

We were quite a view; wearing short skirts of different colors (my skirt color was blue, thankfully, and not something like the vibrant pink that Yong Yee was wearing) and matching white tops, looking quite awkward as we started dancing… They would have their show of their life, that was for sure. Now, whether it would be a comedy show or a decent dancing one, I didn’t know.

Ignoring the rest of the MBLAQ members, my eyes focused solely on Joon, as I danced around, following the quick movements of the choreography. I remembered to smile and to have fun, as Thunder had said, and I tried to act as cute as possible.

It wasn’t before long, when the refrain came up for the first time, that I found myself actually enjoying dancing. It might have been because Joon looked happy, although a bit embarrassed by the realization that I was doing this for him. Or it might have been that the song was catchy and the choreography interesting. Or that everything was going smoothly.

Nevertheless, I was having fun, I realized, as I looked at Joon, mouthing to him the lyrics that were meant for him.

“I’ll be there, right by your side, oh~ I’ll be a strength to you more than anyone else. I’ll be with you till always, just like now, forever, I’ll be there.”

A song about supporting someone had seemed appropriate back when I was choosing a song, and now, looking at Joon, I knew that my choice was correct.

The smile that I had missed was on his face, as was the slight blush I always about. His eyes were sparkling, and his attention was directed to me, showing me that he had gotten the message.

I smiled brightly right then, not for the sake of the choreography or for the sake of acting cute, but because, when Joon was looking at you like that, it was impossible not to smile at him.

“Believe in me right now.” I sang along and kept dancing. As the music came to an end, I looked at Lee Joon questioningly. Was that enough proof?

Cheers were heard around us, as the MBLAQ members showed their excitement by standing up and clapping wildly. Thunder enveloped all of us in a hug, G.O rushed to Hye Rin, Mir screamed excitedly before he was hushed by Seungho, and, in all of the ruckus around me, I lost Joon from my sight.

I soon felt his hands encircling my waist however, and I knew that he was here; I knew that it was him. He rested his head at the crook of my beck, saying, his voice full of honesty: “Thank you.” I smiled at his words, and couldn’t help but laugh, when he added playfully: “You really are the cute kind of girlfriend, in the end… You should probably call me oppa as well.”

I turned around to face him and said: “Don’t get too used to the cute act okay? And I’m not calling you oppa. Like never.”

“But whyyy? After all, you can’t just call me by my stage name… It’s weird.” He protested.

It might have been because I had just done a dance choreography that overflowed with cuteness, or because I was wearing way too cutely girlish clothes. Or because I was held by the man I had done all of this for. Whatever it was, it made me look at him and say: “Hmm… I have a better way to call you, I think.”

“And what is that?”

I leaned in and whispered in his ear. “Chang…sun”

His name on my lips gave me a weird feeling, but not an unpleasant one. He smiled and blushed, before simply saying: “I like it”.

“I like you” I replied, before giving him the last bit of proof I could.

There are kisses that are slow, experimental, sweet and almost careful not to scare the other person whose lips you are kissing. There are kisses during which you smile against the lips of the person you care about. There are kisses that manage to make time stop, to make the earth stop spinning.

And our first kiss was one of those.

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Next Chapter: Endearment

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A/N: A new chapter is up after a while... are you guys still here? If so, how did you find the chapter? Full of fluff, wasn't it? But anyway, the final countdown for this fic starts off right now, so look forward to a lot of things happening (perhaps).

I just want to remind you that you can request any chapter from Joon's POV, and that I'll happily write it!

Also, feel free to share your thoughts on the chapter, comment and/or upvote. It really means a lot when you do :) Have a nice day!