When I arrived at the practice room, all of the members of my team were already there – I was the youngest, and the only one still in school. I quickly changed and hurried to practice with them. They warmly greeted me as I came in and took my place, and then we practiced for a few hours. After a bit they all excitedly started to pack up and get changed – they had all been invited to see the announcement of who would become Winner. They tried to convince me one last time to come with them, but I kindly denied, telling them that I needed to practice some more for the monthly evaluation. They sighed, but accepted that I wasn’t going to go, and then they all left together.

I started the music, and before I knew it, hours had passed by. I finally stopped the music and took a well-deserved break, leaving the room to go get a drink. The company was pretty empty, as almost everyone was at the final battle. I glanced at my watch and saw how late it was.

“Hmm, it should be over by now. I wonder what the final result was.”

I took a swig of my cold drink and then headed back to the practice room. As I was passing one of the other practice rooms, I heard a noise come from inside it. I glanced over to see the door was cracked open, but the room was dark. Curious, I walked over to the door, slowly pushing it open and stepping through. I looked around, but couldn’t see anything just yet, so I stopped and listened, hearing a sigh coming from the corner. I looked towards the area I heard it coming from, trying to find the source of the noise, and finally spotted a figure curled up in the corner. I slowly made my way over to the corner, my eyes finally adjusting enough so that I could see who it was.

“Hanbin-ah?”

He started, only just now realizing that I was there.

“What are you doing here?” I asked, and he stared up at me. I could just barely see his swollen eyes, and I immediately knew what had happened. He started to say something, but I quickly shushed him and kneeled down right in front of him, putting my hand on the back of his head and guiding it to my shoulder. He froze for a moment – not knowing how to respond – but then buried his head in it and cried.

When he finally calmed down, he pulled away and wiped his eyes, which were avoiding contact with my own. I continued to kneel in front of him, watching him intently. Finally, he got the nerve to look me in the eyes, and I held his gaze.

“It doesn’t matter.” I said, and he looked at me quizzically.

“What doesn’t?”

“The result tonight. It doesn’t matter. You’re an amazing artist, and you will get your day to debut soon enough. Don’t let this discourage you, and don’t let it discourage your team members either. You are all worthy of standing on stage, so just look straight ahead and focus on that dream once again. You piece of – I don’t even want to admit this – but you might even be a better artist than me, so don’t you dare lose hope. You need to just continue on, never looking back.”

He stared at me for a moment before suddenly scoffing and shaking his head, lowering it.

“You’re crazy – you know that, right?”

I frowned.

“Asswipe, I’m trying to cheer you up here, and you call me crazy and laugh a-”

He suddenly grabbed my arm, yanking me onto his lap as his other arm wrapped around my waist. He held me tight, burying his head in my neck, and was silent as I sat there in shock.

“Um, Hanbin-ah,” I started, but his grip on my waist tightened momentarily.

“Please,” he finally said, “just stay like this for a bit longer.”

I froze for a moment, not sure how to react, but then I nodded, wrapping my arms around him, holding him tight – his head burying itself deeper into my neck. We sat like that for a couple of minutes until he finally pulled away, not looking me in the eyes again.

I stood and turned to him, holding my hand out. He looked at it for a second, and then gingerly grabbed it with his own. I helped him up, and as he straightened out his clothing and cleaned up his eyes, I noticed something out of the corner of my eye on my shirt, and I glanced down at it.

“Aish!” I said, pulling my collar out so I could see it better. “You got make up all over my favorite shirt!”

I suddenly wrapped my arm around his neck, putting him in a head lock. He cried out in protest as I gave him a noogie, his arms flailing about behind him. I finally let him go and he backed away from me, scowling as he rubbed his head. He motioned towards me, like he was going to hit me.

“What, you wanna fight?” I asked, putting my hands up in a guard position as I started hopping from foot to foot.

“Come on! I dare you!” I started shadow boxing, trying to egg him on, but when I looked up at him again, I saw something that I wasn't expecting. On his face was the softest and kindest smile that I had ever seen from him. My hands dropped and my feet stood still and I just stared at him in shock. He suddenly let out a light laugh, and then gently shoved me, gesturing his head towards the door.

“Come on, you’d better go home – you have school in the morning, don’t you?”

I frowned at him as we started walking.

“What, and you don’t? You have to be there as much as I do. You can’t just skip and spend your day practicing – you know how Kang seonsaeng-nim gets when someone’s absent.”

He chuckled.

“Yeah, I guess that’s true. Alright, I’ll see you in class then.”

We then parted ways, giving each other a small wave as we set off to our respective dorms.