one

“Hanbin.”

“What?”

“Nothing, I just felt like calling you.”

He shook his head while muttering something under his breath. He dabbed his sweaty neck with a piece of face towel.

“Hey dude.” He fished his phone out of his bag. Hearing no answer from his friend, he said again.

“Kim Jiwon, I’m talking to you.” He playfully threw an empty mineral water bottle at his friend, earning his attention.

Jiwon furrowed his eyebrows. “What?” Hanbin grinned slightly. “Nothing, I just felt like calling you.”

Jiwon let out a groan and threw his cap at Hanbin. “Hey, I was just kidding. I want to buy ice cream downstairs. Care to join me?”

At the mention of the sweet treat, Jiwon finally paid attention to his friend. “Let’s go.” He got up first and head out of the practice room without waiting for Hanbin. Hanbin rushed, trailing after Jiwon. His steps stopped abruptly after he saw a pair of eyes that he was very familiar with.

Lee Hayi.

Jiwon didn’t notice that Hanbin and Hayi were looking at each other with a little smile plastered on both their faces. “Oh, hey, Hayi.” He smiled.

Hayi returned the smile and greeted them before excusing herself as she was on her way to somewhere else.

“Hanbin.” Her eyes were wide open because she didn’t expect to see him again. Not after what they had together in the past.

He stopped walking and looked up from his phone as he heard that voice, her voice. “Hayi.”

She couldn’t help but to smile when she realised the situation they were in. “So we meet again here.”

He just stared at her, figuring out what she meant. He had a small grin then. “It’s been so long, princess.”

She chuckled at the nickname, not that she didn’t like it though. “Mind if I join you since you look lonely?”

“I need someone to talk to anyway.” His grin widened as he motioned for Hayi to sit beside him.

She made her way beside him and sat down, leaving a little distance between them. They haven’t seen each other for three years anyway. Can’t just make yourself comfortable, can you?

A few moments of silence passed without them saying anything. It wasn’t awkward by the way. They just took in each other’s presence.

“I missed you.” Hanbin started hesitantly. Hearing that, she turned to look at him and smiled as bright as ever as she took a hold of his hand. “I missed you too.”

And so, they went on telling each other stories for the rest of the day. They started contacting each other again and hung out often, very often in fact. After Hayi got into YG a year later, they still kept in contact but they couldn’t see each other much as both of them were busy.

Hanbin became the leader of Team B and they had to go through another survival show with an addition of three new members.

A few months passed since the survival show started and their CEO, Yang Hyun Suk, gave them a mission of making a collaboration stage with three female YG artists. Coincidentally, Hayi was appointed to Hanbin’s team for the collab stage.

“Hey.” He called out with a big smile. He walked over to the small figure sitting on the floor of the practice room alone.

“Hey. What’s up?” She looked up at him and pat the empty space beside her, offering him to sit down.

He gladly took the offer and huffed after settling himself. “I’m done with my rap.” He proudly showed the piece of paper that he wrote the said rap on.

She chuckled when she saw the wide, proud grin on his face. “Can I hear you rap then?” She read the rap he wrote and stared at him with bright eyes, hoping he’d do it.

His lips formed a smile. “Sure, princess.” He cleared his throat for a brief moment before letting the words flow out of his mouth.

Wall, that people trapped me in

Your eyes on me is a burden but I act okay

I fell and learned how to walk on my own

Have you ever had a feeling like

Everyday I’m in a bed of thorns

I want to break free

From everything that bothers me

Let it go, let it be me

I breathe in freedom

Watch where my limit is

To everyone who is jealous

Let me say goodbye

He had a wide grin after he showed his rap to Hayi. “So, what do you think?” He was a little nervous of what Hayi would say about his rap.

“I don’t think this is good enough?” Her eyebrows were furrowed and she shook her head slightly.

Well, that was nothing like what Hanbin expected to hear.

“Really?” He started panicking because they were going to have their first recording test the next day. “I don’t have enough time to change the lyrics though.” He let out an anxious sigh.

There was a moment of silence before Hayi’s laughter was heard.

“You look so funny when you freak out.” She was trying hard to stop laughing. “Dude, you need to learn how to chill.”

“What are you talking about?” He was frowning because he didn’t get why Hayi was laughing when she said his rap was terrible before. And because he claimed, ‘I know how to chill, excuse you.’

“You still haven’t figured it out yet, have you? She finally calmed herself down but she still couldn’t take that very playful grin off her face. “I was just joking, Hanbin. Your rap was awesome, you always write great lyrics.”

His frown disappeared and was replaced by a toothy grin. “I was kind of shocked, you know. I wanted to do well in front of you.”

“Oh? And why is that, Kim Hanbin?” She had a smug smirk plastered on her face as she poked his arm. “Why did you want to do well, in front of me?”

“Because I didn’t want to look lame! Well, not when I’m with you at least.” He shrugged a little after.

“But, Hanbin, you’re the lamest person I know!” She started to laugh again. “That’s why I like hanging out with you.” She continued so he wouldn’t get upset since she knew how much Hanbin cared about his ‘image’.

He raised his brow and started eyeing her. “You like hanging out with me or you like me, hm?” He was the one poking her then.

“Which one do you think is it?” She gave him a challenging look while she scooted closer to him.

He was surprised because of her action of getting a little too close; a part of him liked it though. “W-What are you doing?” He blinked continuously.

She giggled as she stopped scooting. “I was just curious of what you’d do if I did that.” She replied carefreely.

“You’re messing me up, girl.” He shook his head to regain his self-control, as he said. “I don’t know what I’d do if you keep doing that.”

“Hanbin, don’t imagine weird things!” She slapped his arm and pushed him away playfully.

They continued to joke around, discussed about their stage, practiced and chilled out throughout the evening. They didn’t know some people were eavesdropping.

“Junhoe, come here!” He called his friend out with a whisper.

“What?” He rushed to Donghyuk because that kid looked urgent. “What is it?”

“Listen. I think it’s Hanbin and Hayi inside.” He moved his ear closer to the tinted glass door.

“Are you sure?” He looked a little surprised as he copied Donghyuk’s actions. “It is them!” He gasped, trying to control his voice.

“Wait, did you hear that?” He widened his eyes. “Hanbin called Hayi ‘princess’!”

Junhoe nodded aggressively while both their mouths formed a big ‘O’.

“I thought they weren’t close at all. Awkward, even.” Donghyuk claimed after they went to a safe place to talk about the suspicious issue, they named it.

“I know right? I thought I was the closest one to Hayi.” Junhoe blinked as he spoke. “Should we tell the others what we found out?”

Donghyuk stayed silent for a minute before answering. “I don’t think so. Maybe we heard it wrong. We should just keep this thing between us.” He finished with a firm nod.

“Yeah, we should do that.” Junhoe nodded in agreement. “Shall we continue our journey to the cafeteria?” He suggested.

“Definitely!” And so they went off to have lunch without thinking further about Hanbin and Hayi.

The members didn’t know that Hanbin and Hayi were actually very close because both of them always acted like they were awkward around each other, even they themselves didn’t know why.

‘Maybe we just don’t want to be asked about our past.’ They concluded.

+ and i'm done writing the first chapter! yayayay. but boo bcs it's a terrible chapter. ;;; i was thinking of just ending it like this, y'know? what do you think? one shot maybe? cliffhanger ey? anyways, thank you so much for reading!! subscribes, comments, feedbacks and upvotes are highly appreciated! < 3