A/ N: Hi everyone~ Sorry I totally forgot about updating!! The other site that I post my fic on, No Limit Infinite, has been offline for a week :( So I just naturally kinda put down my fic for a bit and thought it was okay… so I completely forgot about updating on AFF… Sorry again! I hope you guys had a Super Merry Christmas though!!! I was such a happy little clam~^^ I got Infinite's First Invasion and Evolution, and got my sister Paradise plus the poster~ It was definitely a Infinite-filled Christmas, I would say~

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Sungjong had fully expected Woohyun to say something to him, about seeing Sungjong and Hyera in the practice room so late at night. When his hyung didn’t approach him, Sungjong felt both relieved and confused. What had Woohyun been doing out of bed anyways? He’d said something about looking for someone, but who would he be looking for? And he had just seemed incredibly unnatural and weird, not himself in the least.

Sungjong’s vocal lessons for Infinite’s new promotion song, “Paradise”, were very short and brief. He had all of two lines of singing parts in the whole song, and the vocal trainer had let him off after a supposedly satisfactory tone in about twenty minutes. Sungjong knew that he could not sing at all. It was rather belittling, the fact that someone like him, who had never in his life had that sort of vocal talent, had become a ‘singer’, as his profession entitled him.  But Sungjong knew that this had been what he had always wanted, and having gotten this far, he was unwilling to let any of it slip away from him. Sungjong had been lucky enough to find a golden opportunity so rare, and he was determined that this profession, and his role as a member of the group Infinite, would pay off to everyone who had so inspired and encouraged him.

A sudden flood of memories seemed to attack Sungjong’s mind, wiping away his previous thoughts. The times he’d insulted Hyera on her unworthiness to carry on her pursued profession. The way he’d yelled at her like he was something, when in truth, he was nothing. The way Hyera sang her heart out and mesmerized everyone around her in the recording room. Then, the image of her frightful, deep eyes, dripping thick, clear tear drops from her dazzling brown eyes with the misery of fear embedded deep within them.

Sungjong had forgotten, after a day, what the sting of the nightmare had felt like. The fresh, renewed pain ripped through his insides mercilessly, and Sungjong grimaced at how the day before, he had thought the whole thing had been over, just like that. When the nightmare finally subsided, he was left with a numbness inside him that craved for one thing – to see Hyera in person. The rest of that day was a blur to Sungjong, until finally, the lights of the majority of the Woolim Company building went off and sleep overcame his two roommates, Hoya and Sungyeol. After what seemed like eternity, Sungjong was finally able to tiptoe out of his room toward the practice room, his craving for Hyera’s presence clawing at him with each step.

When two entered the practice room, both remained silent, standing some feet apart from each other.

Hesitantly, Sungjong peered at Hyera, his need getting the better of him. Tonight, her hair was slightly damp, and she wore light, comfortable pajamas. She seemed to be thinking hard about something to herself, as she bit her lower lip and her chin.

The relief that washed over Sungjong as he took in Hyera’s full form in front of him was indescribable. For some reason, what he needed to get rid of the agitation and chaos churning inside him through the nightmare of Hyera in his head was to see her in person. He didn’t know why he was this way, but the lifting of what felt to him like a binding curse, made him sigh, finally calmed.

“Alright,” uttered Hyera suddenly, catching Sungjong by surprise.

“I’ve been thinking, and thinking, and I know this might sound a little farfetched,… but I want to be clear…” said Hyera, the words spinning in her head, urgent to come out in speech. She was taking care not to look at Sungjong directly in the face, afraid she might affect him in that weird way she apparently did.

“You… you’re not becoming obsessed with me, and going through, you know, all this stuff,… just because you have a crush on me, do you?” There, she had spit it out. It sounded incredibly stupid, and Hyera peered over at Sungjong with eyes half squinting. After contemplating the idea all day in her head and after her consultation with Yejin, although Yejin had had no idea what Hyera had been talking about, Hyera had decided that it was an idea she needed to clarify. She didn’t possibly think it was something as simple and improbable as a crush, but somehow, she knew the thought wouldn’t leave her until she got it out.

The single word seemed to echo through the room. Sungjong had to let the word sink in, deep within him, bury inside him, before he realized what it meant. And even then, no tangible thoughts seemed to form in his head. In front of her, Hyera wore a nervous expression, her hair falling over her face. Sungjong practically forced himself to focus on the gleaming pupils of her luminescent brown eyes. Ever since he had realized it, this was a constant, reoccurring thought in head that he couldn’t and didn’t want to let go – her eyes were so beautiful.

“Uhmm, Hyera?” Sungjong spoke softly.

Hyera perked, signaling that she knew she was being addressed.

“I can’t exactly give you an answer as to whether what you just said is true or not, but since you asked me, can I just try something?” Sungjong mouthed his words carefully, his soft voice soothing, yet shaky.

She hadn’t meant to, but Hyera accidentally raised her eyes straight up into Sungjong’s own. She thought the locking eyes might send Sungjong doubling over on the floor in pain or something, but instead, he just stared back with quivering pupils of his own. Without a word, Hyera nodded slowly.

Sungjong took two, slight, hesitant steps toward the girl. She was so close to him that he could feel her breathing, but yet he proceeded to take one more cautious step. He was a good head taller than Hyera, and his arms wrapped around her easily. Sungjong leaned down slightly, placing his head gently on Hyera’s shoulder. Now he could fully feel her body warmth in his embrace, smell the faint scent of shampoo in her damp hair.

Shocked, Hyera stood there, dazed. His height engulfed her, and she was very protectively encompassed in the strangely long arms of Sungjong. For a long moment, she couldn’t think of what to do. A tint of rosy red crept up on her temples, very slightly. Gaining back some of her senses, Hyera tried to move away from Sungjong.

“Stay…” Sungjong whispered, holding her in place with those long arms. Now Hyera was very conscious of the boy’s chin resting on her shoulder, her own head lightly placed in the nave of Sungjong’s neck, their bodies so close together, their body warmth mingling and mixing. The red was definitely rising up on her cheeks and spreading fast toward her ears.

They seemed to have frozen in place, in time. There was a rather irksome noise in her right ear, the one away from Sungjong. It beat like a drum, quick and rhythmic. But it was also very wild in her ear, ringing all about her head. Her pulse, loud and clear in her mind, faster than ever. And then, another noise – a very similar sound, but not exactly matching the beat of her own pulse – in her left ear. This ear was pressed somewhat to the boy’s collar. It – the noise – tried to mimic the sound of her pulse in her right ear with rhythmic beats of its own, but it was always off by a bit. Not to say, it was just as quick as her own pulse, but somehow much more distressed, more in frenzy.

Two similar but different noises in her right and left ear. In her right, the ringing of her own pulse. In her left, yes it was, the unsteady heartbeat of Sungjong that Hyera could feel and hear through him. As soon as she recognized the two noises in her two ears and tried to compare them to each other, the boy unexpectedly pulled his long arms back, and Hyera was suddenly left with only one quick beat in her head and a chill to her body as it was left to combat the raw air alone. Cheeks flushed, she could strangely feel every wisp of the heat the two bodies had shared dissolve, consumed by various chemicals in the air. 

In the second that Sungjong took to back away, Hyera felt unbearably bare and exposed, standing there by herself while the other body that had been so close to hers just a moment ago stood so far away from her now. It was a frightful feeling, and the horror of being left alone and vulnerable like that threw her into instant panic. Bewildered, Hyera took off into a run toward the door, slammed out onto the corridor, and didn’t stop running until she reached her dorm room. When she arrived safely in the dorm, Hyera ducked under her covers in her bed on the floor and wrapped her blanket tightly about her, the rather ridiculous fear that of that coldness and vulnerability still getting the best of her, making her fumble around in her lying position to draw as much warmth as she could all around her. Nothing she did could earn her that warmth she had shared with Sungjong, though.

****

Be Mine! I love you~ huh~? I worry about you~ huh~? I’ll protect you, until the end~

Jiae’s eyes opened halfway. Her phone, lying next to her pillow, was flashing a blue glow around her face. The text message tone was very annoying and obnoxious, and Jiae wondered how the others were still asleep around her.

One of her hands d for the phone and clicked it on. The light shone brighter over Jiae’s face, making her squint. The screen told her two things: one, that it was 6:40am, and two, that she had just received a text message from a name saved in her phone as ‘L-sama’. She hadn’t done that. Myungsoo had taken her phone by force in order to personally save that nickname for his own number. That knuckle-head.

With one more click of the finger, the text message opened. It simply read:

‘Look outside your door.’

Jiae blinked as the black words popped out at her from the pale white and blue light. Myungsoo was back from Japan, for good this time. His last filming for Jiu was over. Good thing, or a bad thing? Why did she just ask that to herself anyway? It wasn’t like SHE was the leading actor of the drama or anything.

With a grumpy groan, Jiae got out of bed. All the other girl group trainees were fast asleep. Making sure not to step on Hyera on the floor, Jiae leaped over to the door.

At first, when Jiae pulled the door open, there was nothing in her view except the opposite wall of the hallway. Frowning, she stepped out and looked left and right. The hall was completely, utterly empty.

Puzzlement, then instant anger and bewilderment washed over her, and with a puff, Jiae her heels to go back to her room. At the movement, she felt something against her feet on the floor. She looked down. Three small items occupied the space on the floor next to her left foot.

Jiae knelt, picked up the three items, and got back up. In her hands, she looked over the items. It took a moment, but the renewed anger and frustration of being tricked – by that Kim Myungsoo! – exploded inside her.

“YAHH!! Kim Myungsoo!!!” She screamed, at no one. The hall was empty, and the door to her dorm was shut. Still, huffing with anger, Jiae turned her head up and down the halls, looking for even a trace of that wretched boy.

“Errrhhh!!” Jiae screamed again, and stomped back into her dorm. She took another look at the three items in her hand. A box of toilet paper with Japanese writing on the side. Japanese hotel shampoo and conditioner. That was what Myungsoo had brought back to her from Japan.

A snort escaped Jiae’s lips. She put the tissues, shampoo, and conditioner on a dresser, and lay back down in her bed. Her phone was glowing again. She had received another text from L-sama. It came with one simple J.

Jiae laughed to herself, a little hysterically. She threw her phone next to her pillow and closed her eyes. Sleep wasn’t very likely though, after that ridiculous surprise event from Myungsoo. Snorting even louder, Jiae got up again and went in front of the mirror. Other than the mess of hair on her head, she looked fairly herself. Gathering her hair in a neater ponytail behind her head and grabbing her phone and some change, Jiae left the dorm, headed for the vending machines.

To her surprise, on her way down to the vending machine hall, Jiae received another text.

‘No reply? How about a cup of morning coffee?’

Jiae stared at the text, gaping. The nerve of this boy! Well, there was no way he would get off with this one. Jiae quickened her pace, itching to reach the vending machine hall, itching to greet Myungsoo with a nice, hard, smack right in the head.

A row of about four or five vending machines came into Jiae’s view, and along with them, the figure of Myungsoo in grey and black sweats, sitting on the floor with his back leaning on the Coca Cola machine, holding something small in his right hand, staring at his phone, held in his left.

Crap. She needed something to hit him with. Anything. But there was nothing around her of course, just empty, clean hall walls. Right then, Infinite started singing in her text message tone again, the obnoxious noise filling the hallways, making Myungsoo look up. The boy’s lips spread into a wide grin at the sight of Jiae, and he jumped up.

“Damn ittt!!” Jiae cursed. It would have been so nice to smack him while he wasn’t looking. But Myungsoo was now strolling over to her, with the goofiest expression on his pretty little face.

“I’m back! Did you like your little present?” Myungsoo exclaimed, as if he hadn’t done anything wrong.

“That’s honestly the best you could do, huh? I really shouldn’t have expected anything more from you. I was the dumb one,” Jiae said, more to herself than to Myungsoo. She crossed her arms, blowing out hot air.

“Yah! That’s a little harsher than called for. Besides, I’m not done with your presents yet!”

“Kim Myungsoo, I don’t need more hotel shampoo and conditioner, thanks, even if it is from a fancy Japanese hotel,” Jiae retorted, clearly not hiding the scorn in her voice.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know what to buy! I didn’t know what you’d like. So here, this was the best I could do,” With that, Myungsoo the small item he’d been holding at Jiae.

 Jiae blinked wildly at the small box in her hands. She looked at Myungsoo, who looked back at her sheepishly, mouth firmly closed in a hesitant expression. Baffled, Jiae slowly opened the box.

As she took out the object and held it in front of her eyes, she caught her breath. It was a simple silver charm bracelet, with a thin chain and a small, rectangular block charm with two Japanese characters embedded on it. Held up right in front of her sight, against the hall lights, it glittered slightly, and past the bracelet, Myungsoo’s still sheepish and awkward expression.

Jiae placed the charm bracelet back in its box, closed the box, and looked at Myungsoo.
 

“I really tried hard, to think of something to buy you… but I didn’t have a lot of time to shop! And what can you buy over there that you can’t buy here anyways?? I just thought maybe a little good luck charm would be good for you…” Myungsoo blabbed on.

Jiae raised her fist and punched him in the arm. “Oww!” the boy yelped, and began to rub the spot where Jiae had hit him, eyebrows crinkling. 

“What does it say?” Jiae asked, ignoring the boy’s apparent display of pain.

“Huh? What does what say?”

“The charm.”

Still grimacing and gripping his arm where Jiae had hit him, Myungsoo replied, “Seikou. It means success. I thought it would bring you good luck, and you know, success, I guess.”

Jiae stared at Myungsoo as if she wanted to punch him again. Then, a slow grin began spreading across her face, becoming wider, wider.

“Yayyyy!!! I love itt!! Thanks best friend, you’re the best!!!” she cried, beaming, jumping up and down. The bracelet shook inside its box as she jumped, so she stopped momentarily, clasped the bracelet onto her wrist, admired its beauty for a few long seconds, and proceeded to hop again.

“Okay good! You like it! I thought about getting you this stuffed animal, but the lady at the store said it could turn into human or something crazy like that… so I didn’t…” Myungsoo added, smiling as he watched his overjoyed friend.

****

Hyera did not meet with Sungjong in the next few days, as the Infinite members had basically switched to a non-stop, full promotion preparation mode for their new song, ‘Paradise’. No doubt, she came across him from time to time, but much to her annoyance, Hyera’s cheeks would heat up every time she saw him, and the boy didn’t seem all that thrilled about seeing her either. He would just acknowledge her with a simple nod and seem in a daze, as if he didn’t really see her.

Thus, for the few days that Hyera and Sungjong did not meet in private, nothing but awkward, wordless encounters occurred between the two. But Hyera did also get to observe the arduous and frivolous promotion preparations occur throughout that time. Twice, Dongmin oppa, Woolim’s choreography director, had the girl group trainees sit-in through Infinite’s full version practice of their promotion song. The choreography itself was favorably masculine and stylish, and fitted the intense beat of the music extremely well. The various video tape observations had perfected the group’s synchronization, although amidst their busy schedules and hectic preparations, especially Myungsoo with his Japanese drama, Hyera felt that Infinite for once did not fully match up to the expectations of ‘knife-accurate synchronization’. The members knew what step needed to occur at what beat and how they needed to position themselves to match everyone else. But the complexity and emotions of the dance itself made each of them add their different feelings, resulting in a perfect formation of dancers expressing their own mood, but with the same moves.

It was all very fascinating to Hyera, and it also made her recall how she’d made a deal with Sungjong that if she helped him with his problem, he would help her with her dancing. Hyera was such, a terrible, dancer. She despised it. But help from Sungjong would no doubt boost her ability extremely. Their next meeting, however awkward it may be and however red her cheeks might turn, Hyera was determined to bring up Sungjong’s part of the bargain again.

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A/ N:  And another very bad thing… I sorta totally forgot the whole concept of school as far as the girl group trainees go… I’m sure they go to school, I just did not think to add that bit into my story… OTL … So in the near future, I may decide to awkwardly try to bring that up… or I may decide that it would just be much better if the girls lived in a school-free world or something… whichever is the case, please bear with me… I know, I’m terrible… TnT 

ALSO! If you've been noticing some odd points in the story that don't really make sense or seem like they shouldn't be there... I've been subtly (?) dropping hints about my next fic! Which should be up... soon ;P So I hope you don't mind!