"Kick his unnie!" Jiyeon screams from the sidelines.

Jinhee laughs through the ringing in her ears as she salutes her, “right you are leader!”

Across the practice hall, Hoseok is in deep discussion with Jimin and Jungkook, heads bowed and speaking in rapid fire whispers. Every now and then one of them gets a little to loud and snapshots of satoori slip out; it’s adorable, even if it does make it a little hard to keep up. 

"I think it’s gonna be a while before we get started," Jinhee says, plopping herself down next to Jiyeon, "I feel like we should be discussing battle tactics too,"

"Why? You’re better than any of them without trying," Jiyeon sticks her nose in the air quite on purpoose, "battle tactics are for people who can’t win by brute force,"

"Yeah but the whole point is brains winning over brawn,"

"Sometimes an opponent is too strong for any amount of brains," Jiyeon flashes Jinhee a wicked grin, "besides, those three have barely got a brain between them,"

The pair of them break into peals of giggles as the boys break their formation and Hoseok steps out into the centre of the floor, 

"I’m ready!"

"We’ll see about that," Jinhee jumps up to meet him in the field, "Jimin, you handle the music,"

Jimin just barely manages to catch the ipod she throws him befor eproceeding to fumble with the wire that connects it to the speakers. Jinhee can practically hear Jiyeon rolling her eyes. 

"Ahh, noona it’s not too late to back down you know," Hoseok is beaming ear to ear, but Jinhee knows him too well to really believe he’s that confident, 

She smiles as sweetly as she can manage, “no, it’s not, you’re free to go any time!”

"BURN!" 

"Jiyeon please…"

Jimin finally get’s the right jack plugged into the right hole and with very little warning the music starts. Jinhee settles back on her heels and nods to Hoseok, 

"You first"



"I don’t get it," Hoseok takes an almightly slurp of his milkshake. They’re alone now, sitting on the steps of the practice building enjoying the privacy that can only be found at 4am. 

Jinhee shrugs, “it’s not a big deal,”

"But it is, it’s a huge deal. I get people telling me how talented I am every day and I get to travel all over the world to dance and I just…get all this attention. But you’re so much better than me and you’re let out once in a blue moon to remind people that female idols can dance too,"

"It’s not just me Hoseok, loads of female idols can dance,"

"Then why don’t they," Hoseok looks equal parts confused and frustrated, 

"Because…" Jinhee knows why, and she’s thankful that so far she hasn’t been hampered by the same handicaps as so many of her peers. It’s all so obvious to her that sometimes she forgets that not everyone gets to see things from her perspective, 

"Hoseok have you ever tried walking in heels?"

Hoseok shakes his head

"You should give it a go sometime,"

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"Everything," Jinhee looks him straight in the eye, "walking in heels is hard, running in heels is impossible, and dancing in heels…"

Hoseok frowns, “so girls can’t dance because they have to wear heels?”

"Basically. I mean look at SNSD, they could only pull off the I Got A Boy choreo wearing flats,"

"So why don’t companies just ditch the heels?"

Jinhee shakes her head, “they can’t Hoseok, the heels are all part of the image, and the short shorts, and the y winks, and the submissive iness. If you want to do well you can never stray too far from the basic formula,”

"It’s the same with all idol groups though," Hoseok snorts, "we’re all just variations on a theme,"

"Maybe, but don’t pretend the spectrum of success isn’t smaller for me"

A taxi passes them by at a snail pace and Hoseok tenses. Jinhee has watched him become increassingly more paranoid about fans since debut, and with good reason. Bangtan have plenty of them, it’s not at all unreasonable to expect that some day some of them will start crossing certain boundaries.

"Do you….can we go inside?" he breathes

Jinhee looks up at the barely black sky and wonders how long it will be before the sun begins to rise, “we should probably go home Hoseok,”

"No way I’m going home yet,"

"Aren’t you tired?"

"Of course, but I’m never gonna be better than you with that attitude,"

Grinning, Jinhee chases him back into the building, “you’re never gonna be better than me at all”