22 |twenty|

"What'd you guys talk about last night? MinHo came home and was kinda quiet." ChangBin asks as he hands me a donut.

"Nothing really." I shrug as I gladly take it from him.

"We just talked about normal everyday things." MinHo picks up on my desire to keep it under wraps. He hands me my hot chocolate before nodding towards the couch.

"That makes me think you talked about the complete opposite. Did you talk about world domination or something?" ChangBin narrows his eyes at us suspiciously.

"They talked about JiSung." HyunJin spills as he slips in the room.

"Shut up he's going to be here any minute." MinHo spins around to slap him.

"Relax, I knew she was the surprise so I made him take the stairs or wait for the elevator to come back, whichever he was feeling up to." HyunJin shrugs as he grabs his designated drink from the carrier and plops down in Chan's chair.

"What exactly did you talk about?" Felix leans in, suddenly interested.

"Can I tell them?" MinHo turns to me for approval. I sigh, but nod in agreement.

"Them dating—I feel like it's going to happen sooner rather than later, but she's kinda worried about it." MinHo explains as my eyes remain glued on the door. The moment the doorknob turns, I'm placing my hand over his mouth to shut him up.

"It will. I say give it a week. She fits in so well with us it's almost like she's been part of the crew for years." Chan agrees as he leans against the wall beside me.

"Okay—quiet now. He'll be here any second." I finally object to the conversation. I can't stand my heart racing anymore. The thought of him walking in while they're talking about it has me on the verge of a mental breakdown.

The sound of soft footsteps echo down the hall. My hands begin to tremble just slightly. What if he overheard them? What if one of them bring it up without thinking?

"Relax. Sound proof walls." Chan taps on the wall as he looks down at me.

"What the hell is this surprise—" JiSung stops mid sentence as he steps into the room. He immediately spins around and walks back out the moment he lays eyes on me.

"Go get him." Chan chuckles as he nods MinHo toward the door.

"On it." MinHo chuckles as he sets his drink down and gets to his feet.

"He's such a baby." ChangBin chuckles as he shakes his head in amusement.

"If you catch him off guard he shuts down for a second. He's fine, just a little confused." Felix reassures me as he nudges my shoulder.

"He's not wearing makeup—that's his problem." HyunJin states matter of factly as he props his legs up on the table.

"I wouldn't be shocked. He can be really self conscious sometimes." Chan sighs as he forces HyunJin up out of his chair.

"I come bearing more gifts!" MinHo pushes the door open dramatically before shoving JiSung inside. He steps in followed closely by SeungMin and JeongIn.

"These gifts kind of suck. I liked the original gifts better." ChangBin groans as SeungMin kicks him in the leg.

"They're a pain." SeungMin groans as he sits on the arm of the couch beside me.

"Here, I brought it with me." JiSung mumbles as he pulls something out of his bag and hands it to Chan. He does everything he can to avoid looking at me.

I didn't mean to make him uneasy. He has work to do, if I'm a problem I should go. HyunJin notices my hesitation and reaches over to place his hand on my knee. He shakes his head and smiles reassuringly.

"Felix, you're up first. Let JiSung sit in your spot." Chan motions for Felix to make his way into the recording booth.

JiSung hesitantly makes his way toward me. He slips passed Felix and falls down next to me. He stares down at his lap, too afraid to make eye contact with me.

"Lighten up a bit, you're probably scaring her." ChangBin slaps JiSung on the back playfully.

"I—uh—you should've slept longer." JiSung mumbles as he turns his head toward me. His gaze lingers on something in the opposite direction, but at least he's acknowledging my existence.

"I'm going to the practice room. This place is a little too crowded. You wanna come with? I can teach you one of our dances?" MinHo hops up and reaches his hand out for mine.

I set my drink down and take MinHo's hand in mine with a smile. JiSung glares at MinHo as he leads me toward the door.

"Wait for me!" HyunJin hurries after us as we slip into the hall.

"I will honestly be shocked if JiSung—" MinHo gets cut off by a slamming door.

"Wait for me!" JiSung calls after us. His hurried steps echo through the hall.

"Which dance do you want to learn?" MinHo asks as JiSung manages to catch up.

"I'm not sure. Which one is the easiest? I don't know how my knees and ankles will hold up." I sigh. I've always loved dancing, but I could never actually take classes or anything because of my pain.

"School life is probably the easiest. If we take it easy though, you could probably do most of them. Slow and steady wins the race." MinHo chirps as he wraps his arm around my shoulders.

"Side Effects?" HyunJin leans forward to meet MinHo's gaze.

"I don't know. That one may be a bit too hard for a starter. I mean—she'd probably get it eventually—but not within the allotted time we have." MinHo shakes his head in dismissal.

"Back Door?" JiSung asks as he tries to join in on the conversation.

"That one could take awhile, too." MinHo mumbles as he tries to run through every choreo they have in his head.

"We could always just work on one part today and finish it later. I'm sure we'll see her again, besides, she won't be able to put too much into it all at once. She's fragile." HyunJin chuckles as he ruffles my hair.

"I'd say Levanter, but she'd probably have a rough time with the floor parts." MinHo removes his arm from my shoulders as we approach a room.

"We could always go with a TWICE song first. If she catches onto that quickly we could always do one of ours after." JiSung offers up a good option.

"That's actually a really good idea. We could do one of their easier dances first." MinHo nods in satisfaction as he tugs the practice room open.

"I kinda wanted to learn HyunJin's Billie Eilish dance." I mumble awkwardly as MinHo moves toward the speakers.

"It's kinda hard. I can work on it with you though if you want. There are parts on the floor though—we could start in the middle though." HyunJin begins planning out the possibilities in his head.

"We can do that one later. Right now—I wanna see you guys dance to Easy. I really like that one." I use the wall to support myself as I attempt to sit on the ground in front of the mirror.

"I think we can manage that." MinHo looks from HyunJin to JiSung.

"I'm down." JiSung nods happily. He's clearly relieved I'm not working with HyunJin. He'd been tense when I was talking about it.

"I didn't bring a hair tie." HyunJin groans as he looks at his reflection. He runs his fingers through his hair before spinning to face the others.

"HyunJin." I catch his arm and tug him back toward me. I unzip my bag and pull out one of my hair ties.

I motion for him to kneel down so I can tie the top of his hair back for him. He kneels and leans his head back slightly. I delicately take his hair in my hands and evenly pull the top back. I tie it up for him before tightening it and dropping my arms.

HyunJin turns to smile brightly at me before scrunching his nose up and rushing towards the others. JiSung glares at me momentarily before returning his focus on MinHo and the speakers.

"Ready?" MinHo asks as he and the others prepare themselves.

I nod enthusiastically as I settle in for the performance of a life time.

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