2015

The first time he saw her he made her cry.

She was late.

Hanbin was tired and growing more annoyed as each moment passed.

There was only about a month left before their debut and Hanbin was waiting in the practice room for the dancer who would be in the music video for their title track with him. Manager Hyung had told him to wait for the new trainee who would meet him at 2pm.

It was now 4pm and there was no sign of her. Needless to say Hanbin was pissed. Things were very busy for iKON at the moment and his own schedule was especially packed. There was no time to waste, but here he was waiting for hours when he could be taking care of other things.

Ten more minutes and then I’m gone, Hanbin promised himself. He couldn’t wait indefinitely, and if she couldn’t be bothered to show up they would have to find a different girl to dance with him as soon as possible.

It was only two minutes later that the door slammed open and a slim figure rushed into the room with an air of anxiety clouding her. Apologies easily spilling from her lips.

“I’m so sorry! I got the times mixed up. I thought we were meeting tomorrow. Manager Unnie told me-“

She fell silent when Hanbin merely raised a hand and stared at her impassively.  He was being rude, he knew, but he continued to study her. She was very pretty, but that didn’t affect him. Hanbin was using to being around beautiful and charming women. He wasn’t surprised to see the lean dancer’s figure when he recalled that Manager Hyung had told him she was a unique, gifted dancer.  It had allowed her to enter YG when he above average age was hindrance to her audition.

“Um…” She squeaked out when he stayed silent, “Sunbae…” She flinched when his even toned voice filled the room.

“Your being late is not my problem, I’ve been here for over two hours. Do you think I have time to sit around and wait for you?”

“…no?”

“Is that a question?”

He blew out a breath when he saw her flinch slightly at his words. He tried not to roll his eyes, he was making another bad first impression, but that was nothing new. Hanbin tried to tamp down his annoyance. This wasn’t the time to stay mad. He made an effort to soften his tone and felt he halfway succeeded.

“Forget it.” He bowed and introduced himself, “I’m the leader of iKON, Kim Hanbin or you can call my B.I., whatever you want. I was born in ’96.”

He watched as she bit her lips is a nervous tic at his sudden turnaround, but she followed his lead. “Hello, I’m Han Hyojoo, the newest trainee to YG. I’m a ’93 liner. Please take care of me.”

Hanbin nodded and watched her flinch slightly when he walked swiftly to the music set up. She must be jumpy.

“Hyojoo-ssi, let’s get started. Did your manager explain to you what you need to learn with me today?” He waited for her nod, but instead received a negative shake of her head. He bit down his initial response and explained to her, “There will be seven female dancers in total to dance with the seven members of iKON, you are one of that seven and will be my partner. The choreography also includes a dance break for you and myself in the middle of the video. You will also be performing with us on music shows. The dance with the other six ladies, you will learn with them later. All I’m showing you today is our dance solo. Got it?”

“Got it!”

Pleased and optimistic after seeing her enthusiasm he moved to turn on the music, “Let’s get started then.”

Three hours later he regretted being optimistic. He sincerely wondered how she passed her audition.

“Stop!” Hanbin barked out as he shut off the music. “That is not the move, you go left not right!”

She sighed and rubbed her eyes. “I know I’m sorry I don’t know why I’m acting like this. I’ll get it to work.”

“It’s not just the moves you aren’t memorizing Hyojoo-ssi, your moves are awkward. How are we going to dance when you look like it’s your first time?” Hanbin bit his tongue again and shook his head. “Let’s take a break.”

Without waiting for her to answer he went into the adjacent studio and grabbed his phone. He impatiently waited for his manager to pick up his call.

“Ah Hanbin-ah, are you ready to come home?”

“Hyung, what am I supposed to do about this?”

“What’s wrong?

“You said this girl got in for her excellent dancing, I’ve seen middle schooler’s dance better than this.”

“Hanbin-ah, what did you do?”

Offended at his manager’s scolding tone, Hanbin rolled his eyes, “Why is it me? Why do you always think it was me Hyung? I didn’t do anything other than try to teach her to dance. Which she can’t. There is nothing special about her dance and she doesn’t look comfortable. If it’s going to be like this we should look at the other trainees or just use one of YG’s regular dancers Hyung. How is this going to work with her?”

 “Hanbin-“

Whatever his manager was going to say was lost to him when he turned to see Hyojoo standing in the now open doorway.  She was pale with one hand gripping the doorknob and the other arm outstretched holding a bottle of water.

“Hyung I have to go,” Hanbin muttered into his phone before turning it off. “Hyojoo-ssi, that-“

She turn and ran. He was so startled that he didn’t move until he heard the other door slam shut.

“, , ,” he cursed under his breath as he sprinted after her. Luckily she was standing in the hall, looking lost. He sighed and approached her only to see tears streaming down her face.

Feeling like a complete he cleared his throat, getting her attention.

The first time he kissed her was in the practice room.

High off their first music show win, Hanbin was glowing. He knew he looked like a giant dork, but he couldn’t stop. He didn’t even care. Finally, this is what we’ve been working to. Not just the win, but performing, being on stage, being recognized. Everything was almost too much for him.

Almost.

But it wasn’t, he knew himself and knew that he was born to perform. If it hadn’t been YG, if it had been a smaller company or even busking on the street, it didn’t matter. It was what he was made for. Hanbin had no doubt about that.

But it wasn’t the time to be complacent, doing so would only cause him and iKON as a group to falter.

He hadn’t noticed until they performed it at the music show, but a few points in their choreography could be fined tuned. It worked great for the music video but on the music shows, it looked sloppy. He needed to get into the studio to fix that, so instead of going home with the members he asked Hyojoo noona to meet him at the practice room.

“Hanbin-ah… why are you still being pathetic?” Bobby asked the question, laughing at him as he hung out of the window of their van.

Hanbin rolled his eyes as he adjusted the strap of his bag to fit more comfortably. “The dance doesn’t look right, it’s not good enough. It needs adjustment Hyung.”

“But tonight? Come on… it’s our first win. We need to celebrate!”

Hanbin shook his head, “Later Kimbap, later.”

Jinhwan poked his head out of his own window, “Hanbin-ah don’t work too hard. You are going to exhaust yourself.”

Hanbin smiled at Jinhwan’s face and moved closer, there was just some quality about Bobby Hyungand Jinhwan Hyung that made him happier when he was near them. He swung an arm around his shoulder, ignoring the awkwardness due to the placement of the car. “Don’t worry hyung, it won’t take long.”

“You brush me off, but tell him not to worry,” Bobby muttered petulantly as she moved back into the car.

“Who cares? If Hanbin hyung want to stay and be a loser let him.”

“Junhoe,” Jinwhan looked over his shoulder in disapproval, but Hanbin merely laughed.

“Go ahead, I won’t be here too long.” Hanbin stepped back and waved as the van pulled away.

He made his way up to the practice room and smiled at Hyojoo who was sitting on the bench holding her phone.

She looked up and grinned at him.

The smile slipped off his face and Hanbin took a step back in surprise. Oh.

There was nothing special about the way Hyojoo looked. Earlier that day she had been dressed in a y stage outfit, with full hair and makeup done. But by now she had already washed off her stage makeup, changed into comfortable dance clothes, and her hair was pulled up into a messy bun.

There was nothing extraordinary about the she looked right now.

But he was hit by a wave of desire, of need so potent that it caused his step to falter.

She looked up at him in concern when she notice the change in his movements, but the confusion on he