|SunMi's POV|
"Who's here?" NaHee questions as she hurries toward us. She smiles as she gets close enough to identify him.
"JongHo just thought—he thought it'd be nice if he stopped by to congratulate us on our first performance." I quickly put together an excuse.
"I'm sure the girls would love to see him—come on." NaHee grabs his arm and leads him toward our practice room. I take a shaky breath before following after them.
"Look who Sun found wandering around the hall." NaHee steps aside to reveal JongHo to the others.
"JongHo!" JuHee hurries toward him. She's always been an Ateez fan, but when she found out I was close to them, she practically had a heart attack. The tiny thing fell in love with them even more than I thought possible.
"You're JuHee, right? Sunnie told me so much about you. She's told me a lot about all of you, but I was told you're the number one fan in the group." JongHo chuckles as he hands me the bag of snacks and offers JuHee a hug.
The look on her face makes my heart ache. She told me that the one thing she's wanted since Ateez debuted was to hug just one of them once. I told her she could hug them a million times if she wanted, but she insisted she just wanted one hug from any of the members.
"I love you so much, Sun!" JuHee chirps as she pulls away from JongHo. She immediately comes flying at me trembling from excitement.
"I love you, too." I grin as she grips onto me tightly. I wrap my arms around her and rock her back and forth.
"Aera. JiSu. NaHee." JongHo points to each of the girls as he names them off. I spent a week teaching him everything I could about the girls. I felt the better he knew them, the more likely they would be to like him.
"He got tutoring." JiSu sighs as she sits down on the ground and holds her hands out for the snack bag.
"There's gummies in there for you, JiSu." JongHo takes the bag from me and quickly pulls out JiSu's gummies. He hands them to her and she gives him a huge smile.
"Your tutor did a great job. I think she needs to be paid." JiSu tears open the pack of gummies and begins stuffing her mouth.
"I can't stay long. I have to head back for my own practice, but I'll make sure to bring some of the others with me next time." JongHo slowly makes his way to the door.
"I—I'm just going to walk him out. I'll be right back." I slip away from the others and follow him into the hall.
I hear the girls soft whispers as we make our way further from them. As soon as their voices fade out, I take his hand in mine and squeeze. He glances over at me and chuckles softly.
"You've got a good bunch there. I'm not kidding. You all have a lot of potential—but I'm still worried." JongHo turns to look me in the eyes. He takes my face in his hands and runs his thumbs across my cheeks.
"You're always worried." I mumble as I avoid eye contact with him. If I meet his eyes, I'll become an emotional mess and I can't go back to the others like that.
"Because you mean the world to me. I hate seeing people saying all that stuff about you, but I can't speak up. If I speak up, it'll only make things worse. You have to do it on your own. I told you it's hard. That's why I didn't want you to do this—but it's what you really wanted, so I couldn't stop you. I loved the look on your face when you found out you got in—you were so happy—I'd never seen you look so bright before. You're always gloomy—not intentionally—it's just the way you look—I'm not good at this kind of thing." JongHo sighs as he lowers his hands and turns toward the stairs.
"I know. You don't have to say it because I know. I promise if it gets to hard I'll call you. If I don't think I can handle it, I'll back out. Right now, I'm not ready to give up. I can't give up on all of it because it's not just my life on the line. They all worked so hard to get to where they are now. They put so much energy into this—so much sweat and tears—I can't screw this up for them." I state confidently as I take his hand in mine. I turn it over and run my fingers along his palm.
"That's one of the reasons I love you." JongHo smiles softly as he tangles his fingers in my hair and leans in to place a kiss on my forehead.
"You should go. I'm sure the girls are getting worried. I should really get back to them or they'll send JuHee out after me." I mumble as I slowly let go of his hand.
"I'll text you later. You'll have to tell me how practice went." JongHo waves as he makes his way up the stairs.
"You'll be done before I will. Aera will have us dancing until next week if she gets her way." I call after him as I chuckle to myself.
I wait for his footsteps to vanish completely before I spin around to head back toward the practice room. My heart sinks as my eyes land on NaHee.
"I—I swear we—we're just friends." I swallow hard as she makes her way toward me.
"Did you really think I doubted you? Between you and me, you're not the only one with a 'friend.' I'm sure we all have someone who we're a little too close to." NaHee wraps her arm around my shoulder and leads me back toward the room.
"You're not going to tell them—right? I don't want them to be mad at me." I whisper as I hang my head in disappointment.
"Tell them what? That you and JongHo hugged each other goodbye? Isn't that what friends do?" NaHee plays up the innocent act before we even step into the room.
"Thank you." I mumble as she tugs the door open and guides me inside.