At the gate of the building, an unexpectedly large group of girls had gathered. Sungjoo nudged me to the front and whispered from behind, ‘Just move past the girls, go to the entrance and we’ll be right behind you.’ As soon as the girls saw us, they dashed to us and in an instant, we were surrounded with phones and cameras being shoved into our faces. I did as Sungjoo had told me and walked through the crowd. It was strange that I got through so easily at first until I realized that, well, of course it was easy…they were after the people behind me. I diligently made my way to the entrance and turned around to see how the guys were doing. I hadn’t quite thought about how popular or well known they were as so-called idols until today. The crowd of enthusiastic fans took photos of their every move and screamed out the guys’ names at the top of their lungs. Seungyoun and Sungjoo, without their face masks, freely smiled at some of them whilst the others just waved. Eventually they made it to the entrance, all of them with at least a gift of some sort and several cards in their hands and Yixuan let us into the building with his pass. Seungyoun kept walking backwards whilst waving at the fans at the door until we turned the corner and Wenhan pulled him back.
‘That was quite the sight.’ I said as we were walking down the corridor, passing several office rooms.
‘It’s usually not that intense…maybe it’s because they knew our manager is away?’ Sungjoo raised his eyebrow.
‘Yeah maybe…’ Yixuan
‘How would they know that?’ I asked.
‘They know everything.’ Sungjoo whispered creepily into my ear. He chuckled as I recoiled from him, flustered.
One by one, they all started heading in different directions and Sungjoo and I were heading up the stairs when someone called out from below us.
‘Yah! Kim Sungjoo!’ Two guys jogged up the steps and tightly hugged Sungjoo as if they hadn’t seen him for years. They were both tall albeit just a tad shorter than Sungjoo and had good-looking faces with a fair complexion. Sungjoo was ecstatic to see them as well.
‘Chi, these guys are my good friends Seungyoon and Jinwoo.’ We all greeted each other with a bow.
‘This is my friend, Chi from the US. She lives next door to us.’
‘Woah, the US. That’s really cool.’ Seungyoon exclaimed, flashing me a cute smile.
‘Nice to meet you Chi.’ Jinwoo gently shook my hand before returning his attention to Sungjoo.
‘It’s been ages man. Come on, let’s grab a drink.’ Jinwoo asked. Sungjoo seemed hesitant at first but then nodded happily.
‘Hey, can you let the others know I’ll join them in a bit?’ Sungjoo asked me. ‘The practice room we’re in is just down that end over there.’ I nodded and bid the guys farewell as they went back downstairs, chatting and laughing away.

I found the others gathered in a large and brightly lit practice room with a mirror wall and polished floor. I was so fixated on seeing Yixuan and Wenhan discussing something in the corner that I was startled when Seungyoun came from the side, casually liding by on a skateboard. Why is there a skateboard here in the first place?
‘Chiiii, you’re finally here. Where’s Sungjoo?’ He asked.
‘He’s getting drinks with these guys named Seungyoon and Jinwoo.’
‘Ah, I see.’ Seungyoun nodded. ‘Well, I guess it must’ve been a while since they’ve last seen each other.’
‘So, are they part of some group? Seungyoon and Jinwoo I mean.’ I asked out of curiosity. Seungyoun went on to explain that they were in a group called WINNER, one of the new groups under YG, who came from a reality survival TV show. He also mentioned that Sungjoo knew them from his trainee days under YG and that he was supposed to even debut with them at one point. I didn’t want to ask why that didn’t happen.
‘But he’s with us now, you hear me!?’ Seungyoun cried, shaking my shoulders. ‘No one can take him away from us!’ Seungyoun eyes glistened whilst his lips trembled exaggeratedly. Yixuan chuckled and pinched Seungyoun’s cheek, pulling him away from me.
‘Of course not!’ Yixuan exclaimed. ‘Whoever wants Sungjoo has to go through me first.’ I laughed at Seungyoun who shuddered violently at Yixuan’s cheesy remark. Wenhan then came over and reminded them that they had a brief meeting to attend.
‘We’ll be back real quick Chi!’ Wenhan said before leaving, practically pushing the other two out of the room. It was only a few minutes later that Yibo entered the practice room.
‘Um, where is everyone?’ Yibo asked before taking a sip from his water bottle. I was so mesmerized by how prominent his Adam’s apple was that I nearly forgot he had asked a question.
‘Sungjoo is grabbing a drink and the others went off somewhere but they’ll be back soon.’ I quickly replied.
‘Hrm, I might start warming up then.’ Yibo started stretching. ‘Can you turn on the music for me?’ He asked, glancing over at the table with a laptop on it.
‘Which song?’ I cried out, scrolling through the playlist of songs.
‘Ah, Busta Rhymes’ Twerk It.’ Yibo cried out. I nodded, puzzled over the song choice. As soon as the music started, I could feel the atmosphere in the room change. I just sat down on a chair in the corner and watched Yibo. It was as if he was in his own world, void of other people and it was just him, the music and his movements. I had forgotten about the upbeat song playing in the background and instead focused on his powerful yet controlled movements, every step matching with the beat of the music. He came to a stop when the song ended and quickly took a sip of water.
‘That was amazing!’ I beamed, enthusiastically applauding. He was at a loss for words at first but then he said thanks and smiled.
‘How long have you been dancing for?’ I asked.
‘Since I was born.’ Yibo said coolly, before shying away from his embarrassing remark.
‘I was a bit worried though.’
‘Why?’
‘I thought you were going to start twerking.’ 
‘I can twerk if you want me too.’ He then bent his knees, stuck his out and widely grinned at me.
‘No no, it’s alright.’ I held my hands up and waved them frantically.
‘Hrmm, come, I’ll teach you our perfume dance.’ He pinched my sleeve and pulled me into the middle of the practice room.
‘Perfume dance?’
‘It’s just a dance we do for our song Falling In Love.’
‘Well I don’t know about me dancing…’ I said hesitantly.
‘Fine, I won’t teach you then.’ Yibo’s face crinkled with annoyance. A sense of guilt filled me when I saw him pout. This damn kid’s got me.
‘Okay okay, teach me.’ I assured him as I stood beside him, keenly awaiting his instructions. 
‘Alright then…’ He reluctantly said. ‘So imagine you are spraying perfume onto your wrists…’
Step by step, he demonstrated the dance slowly for me to follow him. It wasn’t an incredibly hard dance so we got through it rather quickly and although he was very precise, he was very patient with my awful lack of dancing skills. It only got more difficult when we started dancing at the actual speed of the song. We ended up resting on the floor and letting the music play in the background. 
‘You're not too bad. Maybe it’s because you were taught by me.’
‘I’m very sure it’s because of that.’
Despite his initial cold or indifferent exterior from when I first met him, I was starting to think that it just took him longer to open up to new people than the rest and that he was just as playful and outgoing as the others. As we chatted away, the rest of the guys entered the room and saw us sitting on the floor.
‘What have you guys been doing?’ Seungyoun asked curiously.
‘She has something to show you guys.’ Yibo said. I glared at him. 
‘What? No I don’t. What!?’ I exclaimed, getting flustered. Before I knew it, all of them except Yibo were sitting on the long bench.  
‘Whooo, go Chi!’ Seungyoun and Wenhan cheered.
‘Why are you so worried? You were taught by the best remember?’ Yibo grinned mischievously. ‘Come on!’ He quickly got onto his feet and pulled me up with him.
The music started playing and the members sang their parts whilst sitting as if it was a real performance. Once the part nearly came, Yibo counted me in with ‘One, two, three, four…’ and we started dancing what we had practiced earlier. I unintentionally looked right at Sungjoo as I was dancing and could feel his intense gaze watch my every move. I quickly looked away and saw Seungyoun and Wenhan enthusiastically waving their arms in the air with excitement. I couldn’t help but laugh out loud. Once the song ended, they all started cheering wildly. Seungyoun stood up on the bench and started aggressively pumping his fist in the air.
‘Looks like we've found UNIQ’s official sixth member.’ Yixuan exclaimed.
‘I resign as the Korean leader.’ Sungjoo raised both his arms and looked over at Yixuan.
‘Me too, Chi will take care of the position of Chinese leader as well.’ 
I looked over to Yibo who gave me the thumbs up and smiled brightly.

~

I spent the rest of the day with them just sitting in on their dance practices, touring the production rooms and filming the occasional madness that went on with a camcorder they gave me. Time flew by and it was now late at night. We all stood outside of the back entrance and waited for Sungjoo to drive by with the van so we could head off to dinner.
‘Leaddeeerrr, please buy us some dessert later!’ Seungyoun whinged as he slung his arm around me.
‘Aaackk you’re heavy!’ I tried pushing him off but failed as he put more weight on me and roared with laughter.
As my eyes wandered around after escaping Seungyoun, something near the gates caught my eyes. Due to it being so dark outside, I wasn't quite sure if I was seeing correctly. It seemed like there was a person crouching behind one of the bins near the gate. Their face was hidden by a hoodie and also by a phone they firmly held up in their hand. Unknowingly, I slowly moved towards them, unable to say anything. Suddenly, Wenhan came from behind and stood beside me.
‘What are you looking at?’ He asked, trying to look into the distance with me. At the sight of Wenhan, the person quickly put their phone away and disappeared into the darkness. I shook my head.
‘No, nothing.’ I replied quietly. At least, I hope it was nothing.
 

Next Chapter Preview:
I shoved the phone into my pocket and started heading over to the bakery. When I was about to turn a corner a block away, a deep voice cried out from behind. ‘Excuse me!’ I turned my head to see a guy steadily jogging over to me. He had a large camera dangling around his neck and held a smaller polaroid camera in his hand. I was on guard, not sure what to expect. 

Author's note: Thank you so much for reading as always! This might be my favourite cover image so far hehe. I have a few ideas of where this is all going so do look forward to it! Don't leave me yet! (〜￣▽￣)〜 Also, for those who are curious, here's Yibo's dance to Twerk It. (◍•ᴗ•◍)❤