Before long, a whole hour had passed, and that concluded my dance training for the day. Jihoon didn’t even show any signs of leaving his seat, and it was unnerving. Once the clock legitimately struck 9AM, he cleared his throat, effectively catching both Taeyang’s and my attention in less than two seconds.

“I understand your concerns that I’ve been too strict about practicing, but I’m sure you know that this stress is for the better, Minkyung.” He said, narrowing his audience to face just me as he spoke. Biting on my bottom lip, I nodded respectfully, not wanting to meet his eyes. “Now, Youngbae,” Jihoon faced my trainer, “please do not step out of your place like that ever again.” The ice of his voice was comparable to the worst of Korean winters. “…Other than that, good work.” He stalked out of the room with those last words, and I suddenly let out a breath I hadn’t even noticed I was holding.

“I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who’s made me feel so tense.” I said quietly, holding my chest as I tried to remember how to breathe normally.

“It’s okay… he makes everyone feel that way.” Taeyang sympathized with me. I felt guilty in a way. He was still trying to comfort me after he had gotten the harsher words from our chairman. “If it helps any, I don’t think I’ve ever heard sunbaenim tell a trainee good work, especially not on the first few days of training.” He said, giving me a reassuring pat to the shoulder.

“Really?” I questioned, finding it hard to believe that the chairman had any bias for me considering the string of events since I had started my training.

“Really really.”

“Ah- Taeyang…” I said to get his attention. “Thanks for defending me like that earlier.” I couldn’t bear to let the incident go without a proper thank you. “It got you into trouble too…” I scratched at the back of my head as I looked down at the wooden floors by my feet as I felt bad about the whole ordeal.

“Don’t mention it.” Taeyang shot me his brightest smile, and I swore it was contagious. A smile of my own grew onto my lips.

“Ah, I’m almost late for vocal training.” I glanced at the clock on the far wall, furrowing my eyebrows. I had enough of being caught for arriving late and incidents of that sort, so I quickly gathered up my dance bag.

“Hurry! But be careful still; don’t make your stomach hurt again or anything like that.” Taeyang called out to me as I was nearly running out the door way.

“I won’t, I promise!” I said back with a smile before getting on my way. So many people had warned me before that training was going to be gruesome every day, and my trainers were going to be ruthless, but so far, Taeyang was really proving them all wrong. And I couldn’t be happier about it.

Just as I was rounding the corner to get to the vocal training rooms, I heard some voices talking. I abruptly stopped and hid behind the corner as I saw a familiar figure in a suit. Peeking out I could make out Jihoon in the distance, and it was the imminent fear that I had of the chairman. I wasn’t sure if what I was seeing was really true or not though, as I rubbed my eyes a couple of times when I thought I saw Jihoon just freely laughing and smiling. He wasn’t alone of course, but instead, he was talking to the unmistakable idol, Lee Hyori.

As much as I thought getting the cold-hearted chairman to laugh was impossible, it seemed to only make sense that he’d be showing this side of him in front of such a pretty lady. Were they… together by chance? You couldn’t blame me for wondering really. My question went on unanswered as they left as quickly as I had come. After they walked a safe way’s away down the hallway, I came out of my hiding place and quickly barged through one of the vocal training rooms. I was already three minutes late according to my watch.

“Minkyung! What did I tell you about being late?!”