His Secret

Chapter 5

The moment Jihoon returned from school, he packed towels and energy drinks for the practice session. He also cut up a few carrots and cucumbers for the members to snack on after the radio show.

Once that was done, he changed out of his uniform into an oversized sweater and long pants. That was his version of comfy-going-out clothes.

Once all the members returned from school, they quickly got dressed in similar suits and left for the salon, where their makeup and hair would be done. Jihoon, similarly also quickly took his laptop and pre-packed items and followed.

Seventeen was invited to vixxnkpop where they would promote their album and answer a few questions about themselves.

There was lots of teasing and showing off of skills before the radio show ended and the members could get back to the practice room to get ready their performance.

After giving out refreshments towels, Jihoon decided to join the hip-hop team this time to observe what they did in their team.

"Okay, the song is in the thumbdrive. Vocal team will rearrange the song but we need to write the rap lyrics the instrumental part." Seungcheol said as he plugged it into his laptop.

Jihoon, on the other hand, plugged in his earpiece and resumed composing. Since he knew what hip-hop team was doing, he would check on them from time to time.

He sat himself in the corner away from the rest and immersed himself.

After giving out instructions, Seungcheol tasked Mingyu and Wonwoo to start writing. Since he and Vernon did it last time, he would give them the opportunity.

Since it looked like it would be a while before they were done, he left them to their own privacy.

Now, he was very curious about what Jihoon was doing. He was so immersed in his own work that he didn't even look up when Seungcheol made his way there.

"Hey." Seungcheol snapped his fingers in Jihoon's face and settled down next to him. Jihoon snapped out of his concentration and closed his laptop out of shock.

"He..hey! What are you doing here?" Jihoon stammered.

"Ohh, just wondering what you're doing." Seungcheol stated simply, wondering what was so secretive in his laptop that he couldn't let others see.

"Nothing special. Are they done with the lyrics?" Jihoon asked, trying to change the topic.

"I'm not sure, want to check on the rest of the groups with me?"

Not wanting to look suspicious or unprofessional, Jihoon agreed.

"Great!" Seungcheol said as he took Jihoon's hand in his.

Jihoon let himself be pulled along, enjoying the contact. He didn't know what this feeling was. He had always been an outsider to other's relationship, prefering to be immersed in his own little world. Now, he just wanted the moment to last longer.

Seungcheol pulled Jihoon along to the other rooms to find out their progress. The vocal team had already found some of their own songs that they can mash with Woozi's. The arrangement was also almost completed. Performance team was still choreographing the dance sice it was difficult to fit 12 people.

"Let's meet at 7 for dinner. We can discuss about the mashup for the musical." Seungcheol simply said as he left the rooms to find an empty room.

"Let's sit, i want to know how you've been settling in so far." Seungcheol patted the space next to him, beckoning Jihoon to sit.

"Well, everyone here is really nice but they seem to take care of themselves well enough, I don't think they actually need a manager." Jihoon admitted as he slowly sat down.

Seungcheol chuckled. "You'll find out soon enough why we need a manager. Just know that we need you and that you can always talk to me about anything."

Jihoon sent a thankful smile and just enjoyed Seungcheol's company as they continued to talk about the little things.

~~~~~~

The time with Seungcheol passed so quickly that the next time Jihoon checked his watch, it was already 8pm.

"Hyung, aren't we supposed to meet at 7? It's already 8!! Jihoon exclaimed as he stood up quickly, dragging Seungcheol along to meet the others.

"Wa.. wait! You don't need to run!" Seungcheol said as they rushed to the meeting place.

No one was there.

"Hyung, did they leave before us?" Jihoon was confused.

"Hahahaha, they're probably still in the practice rooms. They don't know when to stop practicing until someone reminds them. Go call the performance team. I'll go call the rest."

Jihoon hurriedly walked over to the dannce practice room. Almost everyone was there, learning the dance.

"Guys, it's time for dinner!" Jihoon shouted.

At once, the members stopped dancing and they chorused "Already?!!"

Jihoon nodded as the members one by one started packing up.

Since the performance team had to change the dance a little based on the rearrangement of the song, it took more time than expected and they hadn't noticed that time had gone by so quickly.

~~~~~~

"The rearranged song has a similar beat and chords as Shining Diamonds so I was thinking of mashing it up, any disagreements?" Joshua sounded out, being the one in charge of arranging the song this time.

"Can we still add in performance team's solo? I really want to dance Woozi's dance cover." Hoshi added.

"We can add the solo, but not the dance cover. Since this is a fanmeet and not a concert, we'll cut down the musical portion and just use a mashup instead."

"We'll make this a preview of our upcoming concert, then we can perform the musical there. Hoshi, you can perform the dance cover at the concert." Seungcheol stated.

"That's fine, Woozi's dance moves are creative so it would be good to showcase them at a concert." Hoshi agreed.

Jihoon kept quiet for the rest of the discussion, wanting to hear their opinions on the mashup and trying not to draw attention to himself. After what Hoshi had said, Jihoon was worried that he could see the similarities after studying the dance moves. He would have to avoid the performance team as much as possible.