I looked around to see everyone staring at me and awkwardly laughed it off. I stood up to grab Sungho’s arm and pulled him outside into the hallway. We were both stunned to see each other and then Sungho revealed why he was here out of all places.
‘You’re a backup dancer!?’ I exclaimed. ‘For UNIQ!?’ I was sure my jaw was still hanging open.
‘Well, yeah. I’m a dancer under Starship Entertainment so I’m part of a few acts at the moment, UNIQ being one of them.’
‘Wow...’ I didn’t know what else to say. It took me a while to process what was going on. I wasn’t sure whether I was more surprised that Sungho was actually a dancer or the fact that he was a backup dancer for UNIQ out of all groups.
‘Well? What about you? You must be pretty close to them if you can be sprawled out on their couch like that...’ Sungho said, raising a brow. I timidly laughed, hesitant about telling him the truth.
‘I kinda...live next door.’ I pointed towards the door to my place.
‘You live next door?’ Sungho seemed genuinely surprised. ‘Wait, wait, wait. You live here?’  He must have been referring to the actual hotel itself. I nodded slowly. He jokingly took a staggered backwards and gasped. ‘Who are you? What have you been hiding from us?’
‘Stop that. It’s not like you asked where I lived anyway.’
‘Well, that’s true.’
‘Wait, do the others at the cafe know you’re a dancer?’ I asked him. He scratched his head nervously.
‘They don’t...and I’d rather you keep it that way.’
‘Well, I don’t see why you would need to keep it a secret…’
‘I won’t tell them where you live and who you know.’
‘Okay deal.’ I said to which Sungho just smirked. It was laughable how quickly I agreed.
We both went back inside and joined the others. I assumed all the other guys were backup dancers as well. Some gathered around in the living room to watch and play FIFA whilst others were in the kitchen chatting amongst themselves. I was suddenly nervous about being the only girl in such a big group of tall and intimidating guys. It wasn’t long before everyone was gathered around the table, ready to dig into the hotpot that was prepared. I sat at the end of the table with Sungho on my side and Wenhan and Yixuan sitting in front of me.
‘Ooohhh, I get it now.’ I exclaimed abruptly.  
‘Get what?’ Sungho said as he scooped some broth out.
‘That’s why you always left the earliest out of all of us at work. I always thought it was strange.’
‘Oh, yeah. I go back forth between dance rehearsals and the cafe all the time.’
‘Speaking of dance rehearsals, what are you doing tomorrow Chi?’ Wenhan asked.
‘I’m at the cafe til noon I think.’
‘Gooood! You can come join us tomorrow.’ He beamed.
‘Hrm, she probably doesn’t know where the Starship building is though.’ Yixuan said as he stirred up the ingredients.
‘Starship?’
‘We’re managed under Starship entertainment now.’ He saw my clueless expression and chuckled. ‘Okay, nevermind, nevermind.’
I pouted, feeling like I had just missed out on something.
‘I can take her.’ Sungho said casually. I looked at him with gleaming eyes.
‘Are you sure?’
‘Yeah, I’ll just pick you up from the cafe tomorrow since I have to go too.’

~Next Day~

Sungho walked into the store and greeted everyone. Is it time already? I quickly went out into the back to get my stuff and then met with Sungho at the front of the store.
‘Ready?’ He asked. I nodded enthusiastically as I put on my coat.
‘Where are you guys heading?’ Joowon asked curiously, leaning over the counter. Without thinking, I started saying ‘Star...’ but Sungho abruptly cupped my mouth to stop me.
‘Just out.’ He forced a smile and then dragged me out of the store with his hand still covering my mouth. He let go once we reached outside and judgmentally glared at me and I innocently smiled back at him, acknowledging my carelessness.

‘Hey, hey, don’t you think they look cute together?’ Hyojin purposely said out loud to Minny. She slyly glanced over at Joowon to observe his expression. He was standing by the counter with his hand placed on the till which was still opened and his eyes intently followed Sungho and Chi who were now outside walking off. Hyojin's dislike for the way Joowon watched Chi had been growing ever so quietly with the inevitable feeling of jealousy digging into her.
‘Chi and Sungho? No way.' Minny waved her hand in the air in rejection, 'They’re not even that close.’ She quietly chuckled at the absurdity of the idea.

‘Oh I don’t know about that.’ Hyojin said. ‘What do you think Joowon?’ Hyojin asked bitterly. Joowon looked up at her a bit dazed. He smiled slightly and then simply said ‘Who knows.

~

Bounce, come with me, bounce, come with me, b-b-b-b-b-bounce come with me~
That was the song that was playing in the cafe near the Starship Entertainment building that Sungho and I had stopped by. We were waiting around for the drinks that I had ordered to surprise the guys with. Sungjoo had been bothering me the whole way of the journey from the cafe to the Starship building. It was kind of cute but has he just been on his phone all day or something?

dazhuzi: chi
dazhuzi: where are you now?
You: around the corner
You: we’ll be there soon
You:  please stop messaging me, you're draining my battery
dazhuzi:

From outside the cafe I could heard the sound of squealing becoming louder, forcing me to look up from my phone to see what was going on. Two tall and lean guys, both with short pink and orange hair, came into the store and walked towards the counter. A bunch of girls followed behind them with their cameras out, taking photos and recording videos. They’re twins! They both sweetly smiled at me as I moved out of their way.
‘Sungho! Are you here for practice?’ One of them cried out. Sungho greeted them and they happily started chatting away. Ah, they must be idols too...
‘Miss, your order is ready.’ The girl shouted out, pushing the drinks forward on the counter. Sungho and I carried the drinks away and the twins kindly waved goodbye to us as we left the cafe and headed to the Starship building.

The interior of the building was similar to the layout of the YG building I had previously visited albeit maybe a bit smaller in size. We walked down one hallway which featured huge posters of people who I assumed were the artists under the company along the wall. There was a girl group named SISTAR, a male solo artist named K.Will, one boy group named BOYFRIEND and another called MONSTA X as well as a few other artists. I was briefly drawn to the BOYFRIEND poster and was surprised when I recognised the twins I had just seen earlier. Woah…  Towards the end of the hallway, there was one poster I couldn’t help but smile at as we passed it.

After going up a few levels, we arrived at a large practice room and were happily greeted by the guys and the other dancers.
‘Waaaah, Chi’s here!’ Seungyoun yelled out as he excitedly spun me around.
‘Ah, careful careful.’ I held the drinks out to make sure they didn’t spill everywhere. I handed out the drinks to the guys as they surrounded me and Sungho took the rest and wandered off to give them to the other dancers.
‘Chi, you'll be the first outside person to listen to our new song!’ Seungyoun cried out and then loudly slurped on his drink.
‘Should I be happy or scared?’ I chuckled. Sungjoo suddenly pulled on my cheek.
‘Happy because it means you’re special.’ He said.
‘But if it gets leaked tonight, we'll all know who the culprit is.’ Yixuan jokingly warned me, eyeing me down.
Wenhan came from behind and presented a camcorder to me in his hand. ‘Will you except the honour of becoming our camerawoman?’
‘Oh sure...what am I filming exactly?’ I asked as I took the camcorder and aimed it at Yixuan's face.
‘Anything really. You can even interview us if you want.’ He said, sticking his head beside mine to check that it was working properly. Yixuan awkwardly waved and smiled as soon as the recording began and skilfully dodged it as I started walking around the room to film the chaos that unravelled before dance practice began. Seungyoun randomly came up to the camera and kissed the lens before running off like a gagman and laughing like Spongebob (which made me crack up laughing). I also managed to capture Sungjoo riding around on a skateboard, yes in the practice room mind you, and his unsuccessful attempt to do an ollie. He coolly pretended it was successful and ran up to me for a hi-5 to hide his embarrassment. I continued walking around and saw Sungho practicing in a corner with some other dancers. I sneaked up behind him and stuck the camera in his face from the side, scaring the absolute daylights out of him. He then jokingly put me in a headlock and only when I apologised repeatedly did he forgive me and let me go.

‘Yibo, show us your talent!’ I cried out as a joke as soon as I caught him on camera for the first time since I started recording.
‘My talent?’ Yibo questioned. For a moment, I thought he was going to start dancing but instead, he clapped his hands in the air and haughtily cried out, ‘Seungyoun! Bring forth my yo-yo!’
‘Yes your majesty!’ Seungyoun played along, bowing as he walked backwards like a servant. To my surprise, he did bring back an actual yo-yo within seconds and graciously handed it over to Yibo. Seungyoun and I became the audience for Yibo’s one-man yo-yo performance with me recording everything whilst Seungyoun exaggeratedly cheered and clapped every time Yibo did a new move. We both must have assumed Sungjoo, who was walking from behind Yibo, would move out of Yibo's way as he came towards us so we didn't bother saying anything. Yibo was busily flinging the yo-yo into the air with his skillful fingers when SSMAAAACCKK, it hit Sungjoo right in the eye.
 

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The final chorus came once again and they dropped to the floor. I awkwardly tried to avert my gaze and look around the room as soon as I realised they were doing body waves on the floor, sweeping it clean with their knees.
 

Author's note: Ah is this alright? I hope it's alright! Maybe I'll come back and edit and everything later but I was just really keen to get a chapter out because it's been a while. ヽ( ´￢`)ﾉ Expect a new chapter in the next few days because I had to split up what I was writing! And...THANK YOU FOR READING! ╰(✿´⌣`✿)╯♡