As Heeseung waited in the hallway for Aera to come out of the classroom, so that he could apologize and make up an excuse for leaving, his phone buzzed with a text. 

It was his mother's secretary, telling him to come to the company party this afternoon. 

"Way to let me know in advance," he scoffed. His mother hadn't even been the one to text it to him. How long had it even been since he'd seen her?

He couldn't really remember. She was always way too busy. His father was overseas all the time, in Australia at the moment. 

Aera came out of the classroom, and walked over to him, her arms crossed and her face slightly upset. "Why'd you leave? Did you not like the presentation..." she trailed off, studying his face more closely. He tried to look away, but she cupped his face with her hands and forced him to meet her eyes. "Were you crying? What's wrong?" 

He cleared his throat, awkwardly scratching the back of his neck and stepping away from her, looking around the hallway and trying to think of something. 

"I... I was jealous. Of Sunghoon. And the fact that he got to sing to you like that," he half-lied. 

Okay, it wasn't why he'd cried, but he had been a tiny bit jealous. 

But mostly proud. He'd seen how hard they'd worked, and it paid off. The performance had been beautiful. The song she'd written and composed... perfection. 

She raised an eyebrow at him, clearly not believing the explanation. 

"I want to ask you something," he said, quickly changing the topic. "Will you come to a dance with me this afternoon? My mother is hosting a company party, and she wants me to come." 

Aera's eyes widened. "You mean... meet your mother..." 

He shook his head. "Nothing like that. There will be so many people, she won't even notice us, honest." He chose to leave out the fact that she would also probably disapprove, and that she was probably hoping to arrange his marriage to a heiress of a company. 

He'd worry about all that later. For now, he'd use any excuse he could to hold her in his arms. 

"Okay," she said, smiling up at him. "Sounds fun. I'll have to go home to get my dress, I didn't bring it with me to the dorms, obviously." 

Heeseung nodded. "Text me your address, and I'll come pick you up." 

***

A/N

Since my break is over, I'm going back to posting twice a week. But I'm giving an extra chapter before Wednesday because... they debuted!! 

So I'm posting cause I wanna know what you think. 

For me? I like it. First listen, I was... eh? I didn't dislike it, but I forgot what it sounded like the moment I exited out of the tab, which wasn't great😂 Listening for the third time, I like it better now. The MV was quite interesting... it made me really want to write that story I think I mentioned before, with all 7 members. Idk, I think they had a very solid debut, and though I'm not completely in love with the debut song yet (I like it, but I don't LOVE it), I love these boys soooo🥺🥰

Let us stay a sweet and peaceful fandom and just focus on supporting our boys (without dragging others), huh? Let our role models be Carats, they're know for being nice😂😍

Anyways, here's the link to the MV, watch it if you haven't already! 

https://youtu.be/nQ6wLuYvGd4