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Preparations are ongoing for the festival. They’re both busy. Seunghee and Jeonghan both treat their groups as top priority. A performance will always be their main concern, whenever and wherever it may be.

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In one of those busy days, Elkie is to drop by Seunghee’s apartment for a copy of a song. She’s with her driver and she’s riding on her suv. She’s supposed to be alone but on her way, just around the area, she sees her three oppas walking down the street from somewhere and stops at them to say hi. The suv stops by them and the boys instantly know it’s her. She rolls down the glass window and greets them.

“Oppa!” Elkie says. “Where are you guys going?”

Minhyun answers, “We’re dropping by the arcade to kill sometime.”

“Okay…I’m going to see unnie. Why don’t you come with me instead?” she asks.

Dongho replies, “I think that’s a nice idea. We haven’t been to Seunghee’s new apartment yet.”

“Yeah, at least we should know where to find her,” Jonghyun adds.

“You guys, we’re just gonna bother her. Aren’t we gonna-“ Minhyun is cut off by Dongho’s whistling.

“Don’t tell me you don’t want us to know where she lives and keep it all to yourself?” Dongho says, with a hint of sarcasm.

“Are you two going out with each other? You’re supposed to be telling us these things! We’re a band you know?” Jonghyun accuses.

“Of course not. Ah... If you want to go then let’s just go,” Minhyun obliges just to cut off their imaginations.

Elkie just giggles at the car, she loves how her cousin is being picked at. It’s not a common scene and she’s enjoying it. Maybe she should pick on him regarding Seunghee some time. With this, Minhyun loads the suv, the two boys follow, and they unexpectedly tag along with her.

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When Seunghee opens her door, she’s surprised to see all four of them together.

“What in the world…” she mumbles.

“Hi Seunghee-ya,” Dongho says with a smile.

Minhyun is just frowning beside him, Jonghyun waves at her and Elkie is smiling too.

“I’m here to copy the song unnie, and they tagged along unexpectedly,” Elkie explains.

It’s a surprise cuz she hasn’t really cleaned the house yet. There are plenty of unwanted things around.

“Wait a sec, you guys wait here for five minutes. I’ll be right back,” she utters and shuts her door at their faces.

Elkie has an idea why, she smiles to herself while the boys are just puzzled.

“Maybe she needs to tidy things a little,” Minhyun murmurs.

“You said something?” Dongho asks.

But Minhyun stays quiet after that. He knows Seunghee better than them. She’s a neat freak and she probably thinks her already tidy place is a little bit messed up for her taste so she got back in to fix it all. He sighs about it, she’s too much to handle.

In a few, Seunghee is back to them after opening her door, “Well, come on in guys.”

Her team enters her apartment all amazed. It’s simply neat. For a small space like this, it’s probably the neatest they’ve been. Dongho sits on the couch relaxed.

“Wow, I forgot you were this meticulous,” Dongho remarks.

“Wish my girls were all like you,” Jonghyun mutters.

“Girls?” Seunghee notes, “Ah… you know the word karma? It’s gonna get to you in time.”

Jonghyun just laughs it off.

“I’m sure oppa’s ready for that,” Elkie says. “Here’s my flash drive unnie.”

Elkie hands Seunghee the flash drive and Seunghee starts working. Seunghee is sitting on the couch with her laptop on her lap and Minhyun is beside her. Elkie, Dongho and Jonghyun sit across them.

“How about we listen to the other demo songs for a while? I need your suggestions guys,” Minhyun utters.

“We’re working? I thought we’re just gonna kill time here!” Dongho complains.

“Come on, it’s for the band,” Minhyun stresses.

Being the leader he is, they all just submit to his request. He’s all about the band, yeah, and because he’s like this that they’ve come this far. So they just oblige.

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After an hour, they’ve settled some new arrangements on a song and are all ready to go. It’s almost time for them to go to the restaurant. They walk out of Seunghee’s apartment chatting about the new arrangement and coincidentally, while Seunghee and her friends are still by her door, her neighbor’s door opens and Jeonghan, together with Seungkwan and Soonyoung all step out of the room together also talking about something.

Seunghee and Jeonghan’s eyes meet, as well as their friends who are all strangers too, except for Seungkwan and Elkie.

“Anyounghaseyo,” they both greet each other.

“Anyoung Elkie-ssi,” Seungkwan cheerfully greets.

Elkie smiles at him with a hand wave. But aside from the friendly air around Elkie and Seungkwan, there’s another air that suddenly engulfs the area, pressure. Seunghee can feel it, it’s between the boys and presumably Jeonghan and his other friend Soonyoung. They are looking at each other sharply, as if some conflict is present when there clearly isn’t any need for it and she doesn’t understand it.

Minhyun only has his eyes stuck on the person who greeted Seunghee, and that is Jeonghan. He knows this is the neighbor she’s been frowning about lately. This person is robbing her attention and he has always wanted to see him ever since she first talked about him. Jeonghan is just returning the impression they’re giving him, most especially Minhyun.

To break the ice, Seunghee finally speaks up, “Ah, guys, this is my neighbor Jeonghan-ssi. His group’s also performing at the festival. So we’ll be seeing them there.”

“Nice to meet you. Hope we support each other on this coming event,” Jeonghan says.

“I’m Minhyun, and these are Dongho and Jonghyun and Elkie,” Minhyun introduces them.

“This is Soonyoung and that is Seungkwan,” Jeonghan states.

Jeonghan and Minhyun has introduced themselves but the way they look at each other denotes something more. And it feels heavy. Seunghee can instantly tell they’re not on the same wavelength. The predictable conflict between a boy group member and a band member will always be present. The difference in music genre greatly affects the harmony.

“We’ll see you in the festival Jeonghan-ssi. Come on guys, let’s go,” Seunghee pushes the others to go as Elkie waves Seungkwan goodbye.

Seungkwan smiles at her and waves the same. Seunghee turns back to Jeonghan and smiles one last time before taking the stairs down the building. Jeonghan just bow to her in reply. As the other group leaves the premises, Jeonghan silently ponders on it. Minhyun was trying to intimidate him, wasn’t he?

Then Soonyoung mutters something, “Those guys are familiar…”

“Can we get a sponsor like Elkie-ssi? Or maybe a lady manager,” Seungkwan utters.

“Ah!” Soonyoung recalls, “They were the ones who almost picked a fight with Yuta the last time I was with him and Sana-ssi. Good thing they didn’t recall my face.”

“Really now? You were almost in a fight?” Jeonghan utters surprised.

“Ah, that was months ago. They probably forgot about it. It was minor thing,” Soonyoung explains.

“You’re lucky,” Jeonghan states. “And about the manager thing. Let’s focus on the performance, Seungkwan-ie,” he adds.

“Yeah…” Seungkwan mumbles.

Jeonghan is still hung up on the intimidation thing about Minhyun. It was probably just him cuz these two doesn’t seem to care. But whatever that is about, he doesn’t like it and he won’t just bow down to him.

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Coordination with the organizers is a must. Three days before the actual performance, the performers are called to rehearse batch by batch. Tomorrow, SMDJ will be rehearsing with five other groups. Surprisingly, it includes Jeonghan’s group S3 and learning about it puts a smile on Seunghee’s face.

“Who’s S3? What a short name. It’s easy to forget,” Dongho remarks.

“Well, it’s easy to recall. Like Samsung S3,” Jonghyun contradicts.

“They’re unnie’s neighbor’s group you guys,” Elkie butts in.

Upon hearing that, Minhyun quickly glimpses at Seunghee and he catches her smiling to herself.

“Hey you, what are you smiling about?” he says, trying to knock her out of it.

Seunghee disregards him though and tries to mock him, “Nothing oppa…”

Minhyun frowns and he knew it’s about the neighbor. Why does it make him tick? It’s starting to really annoy him now. The thought that Seunghee is getting closer to that flower boy neighbor of hers.

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Jeonghan passes by the bakeshop again tonight. He hasn’t given Seunghee the sweets he promised and it’s really way past due. She has to accept this tonight. If not, it’ll take him a few days again after the festival. And he really wants to see her tonight, cuz tomorrow they’ll be on the same ground at the event. He’s looking forward to hearing her sing.

Luckily, yet again, he meets Seunghee at the corner of the street on the way back to their apartments. She’s carrying her keyboards on her back and it looks kinda heavy. She smiles at him as she sees him. Fortunately, Minhyun isn’t around and didn’t walk her home cuz of some errand.

“We meet often these days Jeonghan-ssi,” she says.

“Yeah,” he says.

They walk together now, it’s a few blocks away to their place and the sight of her is making him feel uneasy. She can’t be carrying this stuff around can she? What’s the use of those well-built men around her? It strains him to see her like this.

“Are you okay? That looks kinda heavy,” he utters.

“It’s okay, I carry it all the time,” she tells him, relaxed.

But she really looks like struggling. It’s a little long as if it’s almost hitting the ground. Therefore, whether she likes it or not or asking for her consent, he grabs the handle and picks it up from her back.

“Pardon me,” he says as he takes it.

“What? Wait, Jeonghan-ssi!” she responds.

But he has already taken the bag from her and secured it over his back.

“Give it back to me Jeonghan-ssi,” she asks him with an upset face.

“I’m sorry, and maybe you can let me do this to make it up to you,” he answers.

She sighs, “It’s not necessary. And that’s a different thing. Come on, give it back.”

“Here,” he hands her the bag of sweets instead. “You can take this instead.”

She sighs and gives up.  They’re almost at the apartment anyways. She takes the sweets and walks with him. “Why are there stubborn guys like you?”

“Who else does this for you?”

“Minhyun.”

He pauses and she walks ahead. So that guy is really a threat, isn’t he? He follows her soon and starts a conversation.

“Have you seen the list tomorrow? We’re rehearsing on the same batch,” he tells her.

“Yeah,” but she pauses and looks at him, “But how did you know our band’s name?”

“Seungkwan told me.”

“Hm…”

“What time are you going tomorrow?”

“About 7AM, call time’s 9 right?”

“Do you want to go together?”

He doesn’t know why he said it, but he already did. It momentarily makes him uncomfortable, as she looks at him quite surprised.

“Well… I don’t know. Maybe,” she mutters.

She’s a little distracted about what he said. One, he picks up her bag and now he’s asking her if she wants to go together to the rehearsals tomorrow. Isn’t this event paving a new path for them?

“I just thought we can go together seeing you carry this thing around. This isn’t actually light,” he remarks.

It makes her giggle a bit, he’s just being honest, “Well, thanks. Alright. Let’s go together tomorrow. That keyboards actually does make my back hurt a bit if I carry it a lot.”

He gives off a smile and tells her, “I think you have to buy some spare so you won’t be carrying this thing so much.”

“I’m still saving for it. I have it covered. And hey, thanks for the sweets.”

“I’ll buy you some more until you forget about the incident.”

“I think I still remember all of it. Just joking.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll buy you as much as you want.”

“I was just joking!”

They converse like that until they reach their apartments. And it feels great for both of them. They’re somehow growing closer now, they both know it. And they actually look forward to the days to come. Cuz in a matter of time, they know, everything between them is gonna change. Soon.

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TO BE CONTINUED…

Published: 09/08/17