"He's not perfect. You aren't either, and the two of you will never be perfect. But if he can make you laugh at least once, cause you to think twice, and if he admits to being human and making mistakes, hold onto him and give him the most you can. He isn't going to quote poetry, he's not thinking about you every moment, but he will give you a part of him he knows you could break. Don't hurt him, don't change him, and don't expect more than he can give. Don't analyze. Smile when he makes you happy, yell when he makes you mad, and miss him when he's not there. Love hard when there is love to be had. Because perfect guys don't exist, but there is always one guy who is perfect for you." –Bob Marley
Miyeon eagerly nudged me in the elbow as we walked to a café for lunch. Dongwoo and Jaesoon were talking ahead of us, nonstop chatter from both ends. As it turned out, they had a lot in common. But Jaesoon was still nervous, and we could both tell. She kept wiping her hands on her pants discreetly.
"So, how has your morning been so far?" Sungyeol asked with a smile. He looked like he was up to something.
"It was pretty good," I didn't want to mention learning Infinite's dance.
"Guess what dance our choreographer wants us to learn?" Miyeon smirked.
"Which?" Sungyeol asked, as interested as can be.
"Your 'Before The Dawn' dance!" she said excitedly.
"Really? Wow, that's awesome," Sungyeol seemed more flattered than I expected, "How's it going so far?"
"It's difficult," both of us said without hesitating, then I continued, "But we're having a lot of fun with it."
"That's the most important part," he smiled. I melted.
When we sat down inside, Sungyeol and Dongwoo convinced us to sit all the way in the back, as long as there was a view of the window. I wondered what that was about. Dongwoo didn't seem as mischievous as Sungyeol, but there was a slight smirk on his face like he was hiding something. I pushed it out of my head, and Dongwoo continued to talk but now they were talking in front of everyone. They talked about dancing, mostly, and then about old school music. Miyeon joined in to talk about rap, and Sungyeol and I just talked about his day.
"Did you have a busy morning?" I asked.
"Yes, but the rest of my day is done," he smiled, "We've been doing a lot of work lately. I wish they'd let us sleep and have us do it in the afternoon…"
"I totally agree," I pouted, "I don't want to work in the morning anymore."
"So how often do you guys have practice? Couple times a week?" he leaned on his elbow.
"No, every day except Sunday," I blinked, "Most of the time, we get in at about 9 or 10 and we don't get out until 6 or 7."
Sungyeol's eyes widened, "Wow, those are long days for a trainee group!"
I shrugged, "Are they? I don't really know…" I trailed off. Sungyeol's eyes went back to normal and a smile played at his lips.
When food came out, Dongwoo and Jaesoon were quiet for once. Dongwoo ate like he'd never seen food before and I knew Jaesoon was thinking the same thing. I had barely started my plate when Sungyeol practically dropped to the floor. He was ducking so low under the table, he eventually got out of his chair and pulled on Dongwoo to do the same.
"One of the managers is outside, get down!" Sungyeol said in a loud whisper. Dongwoo did. Jaesoon blushed, because Dongwoo was resting his chin on her lap to see out the window.
"Do you want your food?" I asked without looking under the table.
"No, we'll be back up any minute now," Sungyeol chuckled, then pat my thigh, "Thank you though."
"He doesn't see anything," Dongwoo said. Jaesoon swallowed and looked at us for silent advice. I just shrugged discreetly. Miyeon was really smiley and kept trying to get across her excitement without saying anything. I finally understand something she mouthed when I lip-read "you two are going to get married." I choked on the sip of water I was taking and laughed. I managed to keep the water down, but it stung the inside of my nose. Jaesoon and Miyeon laughed at me for my watery eyes and silent laughter, but they decided not to try to hide their laughter.
Sungyeol and Dongwoo resurfaced, and Sungyeol said quietly, "That was a close one."
"We had to sneak off to come eat lunch," Dongwoo explained.
"When I asked manager about having lunch with a friend later, he told me no. But I couldn't just ditch you like that," Sungyeol took a big bite of his food.
"You could've just texted me a raincheck," I said, "You're going to get in trouble now!"
"Are you kidding?" Dongwoo laughed, "We're always in trouble."
"Yeah, but what happens if they find you?" Jaesoon asked, concerned.
"They take us back to the dorm," Sungyeol shrugged after swallowing, "Not like they're going to beat us."
Miyeon was the only one who seemed to get a huge kick out of their escape, "How did you guys get away?"
Sungyeol smirked, "Dongwoo and I purposefully left our bags inside, and everyone was in the car waiting for us. So we snuck out the back, then I texted Sunggyu to tell him we would be back at the dorm later. I'm guessing they pieced together what happened, because the other members are texting us where we are."
"Aren't you going to tell them?" I asked, hoping Hoya would escape and meet us here.
"No way!" Dongwoo laughed, "They would betray us and tell the managers where we are!"
Sungyeol chuckled, "That's why I was a little late… Sorry, little one," he ruffled my hair.
I put my hair back where it should be, "Little one?"
"You're the youngest one, but that's just a guess…" he flashed a smile at me and I felt it float into the pit of my stomach and make whatever was in there flutter uncontrollably.
"She's our little one," Miyeon hooked her arm around my neck protectively, "Get your own."
"So, you are the maknae!" Sungyeol smiled, "And Miyeon, you must be the leader."
"Actually, Song-E is the leader," Miyeon seemed flattered that he confused it for being her, "I'm just the rapper…"
"Not JUST the rapper," Jaesoon nudged her, "Give yourself more credit."
"Do you sing as well?" Dongwoo asked.
Miyeon shrugged and nodded, "Here and there."
"She's being humble," Jaesoon patted Miyeon's arm, "She's a great singer, too."
"She's a triple threat like our Hoya," Sungyeol observed.
Miyeon laughed, "That's taking it too far. I'm always the last to learn our dances."
Jaesoon cracked a smile, "But once you get them down, you're better than you give yourself credit for."
"You know what that means?" Miyeon asked, "It means I'm good enough to get by without anyone noticing how actually terrible I am."
"That's not true," I said, "If you're terrible, so am I."
Miyeon teasingly shrugged, "Maybe we're both terrible."
Jaesoon rolled her eyes, "You're both great. Now hush." Dongwoo was staring at her and smiling. I wanted to know what was going through his head so bad. I discreetly watched him and Jaesoon interact for the next 20 minutes, but then we had to go. We tried to pay, but Dongwoo and Sungyeol split the cost of the whole bill between the two of them.
"Thank you," I said, "You didn't have to do that."
"I was the one who asked you to lunch," Sungyeol smiled, "it would be rude not to pay."
As soon as we stepped outside, though, someone grabbed Sungyeol. Dongwoo screamed and ran up the other direction towards our building. Sungyeol closed his eyes and whined.
"Stop doing this!" the man who grabbed Sungyeol said.
"Jinhwa," Sungyeol tried to reach out to me, "Help me!"
"Excuse me," Jaesoon said to the man, "We need his help to get back to our building."
The man stopped, loosened his grip on Sungyeol, and asked, "Where's your building?"
I recited the address of the mall a few blocks from our dorm, which was the opposite way of our building and the man looked as lost as we pretended to be.
"Please, let me go help them. You can follow us in the van if you want," Sungyeol struggled for the man to let loose.
"Fine," the man let go, "Don't try anything funny."
Sungyeol nodded and took us the opposite way of our building. Once the man had gotten back in the van, he began to give out directions.
"When we turn this corner up here, run until we get to the cell phone store, then make a right. It's not a street, so he can't drive up there, and if we're lucky there won't be any open parking spots. Then we can call Dongwoo and try to meet up back at your building."
"Would it be easier just to go back to your dorm?" Miyeon laughed.
"No, we want the whole day to ourselves," Sungyeol smirked, "You guys think you can do it?"
Jaesoon scoffed, "I'm almost positive that Jinhwa and I can outrun you."
"And Miyeon?" Sungyeol asked.
"Not so sure about Miyeon," Jaesoon teased.
"YAH! I can run when I have the adrenaline!" she defended quietly. As if he was going to hear us from inside the van. The corner was getting closer, and my heart was racing. It felt like we were criminals as this van creeped behind us scarily. We turned the corner and booked it about halfway down the street, made a right at the store like Sungyeol said. Jaesoon was in the lead, followed by Sungyeol, and I trailed back with Miyeon, but she eventually gained her confidence and we caught up to the two ahead of us. We heard shouting from behind us, and when I looked over my shoulder, it was coming from the van. The man hadn't even gotten out yet. We were in the clear. Once we got completely out of sight and back on the original course to the building, we slowed down. I couldn't stop laughing. Sungyeol snaked his arm around my shoulders.
"Thanks for giving him that fake address, it was wise thinking."
"Sure thing," I said, looking down at his hand on my arm as he pulled me to his side for a quick squeeze. Miyeon made a heart with her hands discreetly. I shook my head with a silent laugh.
"Jaesoon, call Dongwoo," Sungyeol still hadn't let go, and he reached in his pocket, "He thinks I'm caught so he wouldn't answer. But if he sees a number he doesn't recognize, he'll know I'm still with you three."
Jaesoon dialed the number Sungyeol recited to her, and Dongwoo was quick to answer, "Hey, it's Jaesoon, we helped Sungyeol escape. Where are you?" she immediately started laughing, "Okay we'll just meet you there. Yes. Yeah, we're getting closer. See you soon."
"He's already at your building," Sungyeol guessed. Jaesoon laughed and nodded. Sungyeol chuckled, "He's ridiculous."
"He was still out of breath," she laughed, "He's so CUTE!" she let slip. She quickly covered her mouth.
"OH? IS HE?" Sungyeol laughed, "Don't worry, if he hasn't figured out there's something between you two yet, he's stupid. We all see it, right ladies?"
Miyeon nodded enthusiastically, "All afternoon."
I laughed, "I didn't know you were even paying attention to them."
"Oh, I was," Sungyeol smiled, "I noticed when Dongwoo introduced himself to her first. He was obviously crushing."
I couldn't help but giggle, "Jaesoon, you hear that?"
"I hear you, okay?" when I looked at her, her skin was redder than I've ever seen it. Not just her cheeks, but her entire face, and even her arms. She was hardcore blushing.
When I looked back at Sungyeol, he was smiling at me. He quickly cleared his throat and dropped his arm, looking ahead. I smiled to myself and looked forward as well.
We met Dongwoo just inside our building and he was all smiles, "You made it!"
"Jinhwa gave manager a false address for the building so he won't find us for a little while. Wanna go shopping?"
"What time is it?" Dongwoo asked. All 5 of us checked our phones, and at least three stomachs dropped. It was 2:35.
"We have to go!" Miyeon screeched, "Thanks for lunch!"
"Jaesoon, wait," Dongwoo cleared his throat, "Can I keep your phone number?"
Jaesoon blushed again, "Of course." Dongwoo smiled and waved her goodbye.
"It was nice meeting the two of you," Sungyeol said to Miyeon and Jaesoon, "I'll be in touch, Jinhwa. Tell your manager I'm sorry for getting you back so late!"
I waved them both goodbye and rushed for the stairs. The elevator would probably be at the top level, and we only needed to get to the 3rd level. The three of us ran hard until we busted through the doors of the recording room we were to be in. 2:37.
"You're late," our coach said.
The three of started shouting out-of-breath apologies and bowing. Our coach just rolled his eyes and started lecturing us. Song-E was there, but she looked like she just got there so she was being lectured too. Jiyoon was in the corner, shaking her head and smiling. When our coach looked to her for her approval, she turned stern and nodded, but we knew she didn't mean it.
"Now, let's get started," our coach sighed, "I want you girls to try something new today."
"We're trying lots of new things today," Jaesoon smiled, "What is it?"
"I want you four to try to write a song to the track I'm going to give you. It'll be like a homework assignment. Would you rather work as one group, two teams, or individually?"
In unison, the four of us said, "One group."
The coach smiled, "I figured. I'm going to play the track for you, and you can get started. I want either one verse or some sort of hook by four." He played the track for us. Jiyoon bobbed her head to it, but there was a hidden feel to it that it felt like all four of us could feel. Our coach left a copy of the track for us to listen to at home and left us to go to a meeting. Jiyoon sat at the table in the back of the recording room and did some manager-y work.
"Do you guys feel like this song is hiding something?" I asked out loud.
"Like some sort of sad feeling?" Song-E asked, "Yeah, I can hear it."
"We should rearrange it," Miyeon chuckled, "We can write it to this beat right now, but Jinhwa has her guitar at home and we could rearrange it to go off that other feeling."
Jaesoon nodded, "That's a good idea. You up for it Jinhwa?"
"Yes, definitely," I nodded, "But let's focus on the chorus for now."
For the next hour, we played with lyrics and three-part harmonies. Song-E and I split the chorus in half, because the melody repeated twice. Miyeon sang the high harmony while I sang and Jaesoon sang the low. When Song-E sang, it was reversed. It turned out to be extremely affective because the sound of Jaesoon's voice and Song-E's voice went really well together, and the same with Miyeon and my voices. We played around with different lyrics, and different themes in general. The actual melody of our chorus, however, never changed. By four, we had reached our final chorus and had started the first verse. When our coach was back from his meeting, he listened to our chorus without the track. He frowned slightly. He must've caught on what we were up to.
"This could very well be a fantastic ballad," he said when we finished, "and the lyrics are very beautiful, and so is the harmonizing. But this song—"
"It has something hidden. It has a sad twang to it," I defended, "We want to rearrange it when we get home."
"On piano?"
"Guitar," Jaesoon answered, "If you hate the idea, we won't be taking up your time with it so it's not like it'll hurt anyone."
"If I hate the final product, you don't get to use your lyrics, either," he was waiting for us to make the deal.
"And if you like the final product?" Song-E asked.
"We'll go from there," he said vaguely. We didn't have much to lose, so we agreed. It couldn't be too hard.
When we got back to the dorm, I finally checked my phone, hoping for a text from Sungyeol. Instead, I just had two from Dongwoon.
( Sorry. Don't be mad at me. I'm not perfect. )
( Can you come over later? )
I sighed and texted back.
( Our voice coach gave us "homework." We're writing a song, but the four of us want to rearrange it. I don't know if I can make it tonight. )
He instantly texted back.
( I really want to see you, little maknae… )
There went my heart. I had this weakness to him that I couldn't break. And after hurting his feelings today, I wanted to make him happy again. I shot my idea out to the group.
"Woon wants me to come over later," I treaded softly.
"Well I thought we were going to rearrange the song and finish it?" Song-E said in her leader-voice.
"I know…" I sighed, "I just feel bad."
"You want to make things right," she said, "I get that. Is he home now or do you just want to go over there around like 7?"
It was only 4:30, and two hours should be enough for me to at least write some basic chords for the song and get in a good chunk of lyric-ing.
"No matter what," Jaesoon said, "We can't write a good, final draft of a song in one night. We're almost better off not trying to work on it for more than a couple hours."
"I agree," Miyeon said, "Songs take a while to perfect."
"Let's go work on the music then," Song-E said, "and then you can go over there, okay maknae?"
I nodded.
( Okay, big maknae. Gimme a couple hours, I'll meet you at your place. )
I could almost feel him smiling successfully. I hated that he had this hold on me. But he was my best friend. It wasn't just that, though. He was more like… well, we were different than best friends somehow. I just wanted him to be happy. No, not just that. I wanted to be happy, too, and he was the person who made that happen. In a way, I really—well, he really means a lot to me.
"So, how did things with Gikwang go?" I remembered to ask Song-E. Thinking about Dongwoon reminded me of the two of them.
She instantly blushed, "What do you mean?" Then I remembered the other girls didn't know they had a slight … burp in their relationship.
"Why are you blushin', unni?" Miyeon asked and poked her arm.
"I'm blushing? I thought I was just hot," Song-E laughed. She looked at me with true happiness in her eyes. Something good must have happened, and she was about to say it. Say those words, Song-E, the ones we all want to hear. "I'm glad you asked, actually… Because Gikwang and I decided to try this whole… boyfriend-girlfriend thing."
I'm positive all of Seoul heard our squeals.