Melodies

11

Aelia's POV
A couple of days later, Chan had his dance performance. I was really impressed with his skills. He's one of the best dancers I know and he's the youngest of the fourteen of us. They don't announce the winners till the next day so we've all been anxiously waiting for the results. Chan asked me to go along with him to see the scores on the board. If he loses, he knows I'll be the one to comfort him.
"Wow! First place won by a lot!"
"He must've been really good!"
"I saw him perform! It was amazing!"
Chan grabs my hand and pushes through the crowd to the front. We make it to the front and Chan looks at me.
"You look for me." He closes his eyes, hiding them behind his hands.
My finger scans the names from the bottom, up the list. My finger stops when I see Chan's name and I quickly look at him. I hug him tight and he jumps in surprise.
"You won, ChanChan! You did it!" I squeal in excitement.
"I think you're more excited than me, Aelia." He laughs, hugging me back.
"I'm so happy for you! You deserve it! My cute boy~" I press my cheek to his, smiling big.
"A-Aelia!" He groans in embarrassment.
"Let's go tell the others!" I grab his hand and pull him out of the crowd.
People stare at us as we run off, probably wondering if we're brother and sister or dating by the way I acted. I pull him all the way to where we sit at lunch. Joshua notices us first and points to us.
"Chan! Aelia! Where'd you guys go?" Vernon asks.
"Chan won!" I scream, jumping on Chan's back.
"Aelia's overly excited for me." He groans.
"You're like her child, Chan. Of course she's happy for you." Mingyu ruffles his hair.
"We're all Aelia's children." Seungkwan laughs.
"Wait, who's the father then?" Chan asks.
"I am." More than half the boys reply.
I face palm as they start arguing over who it is. Someone sits next to me and I look over in surprise. Jihoon smirks at me then looks back at the boys.
"Those idiots... Don't they realize you're a single mom?"
This makes me laugh. He smiles at me and I look back at him.
"In all seriousness..." he pauses, "Seungcheol would be the dad."
"Shut up!" I hit his arm, making him chuckle.
It's quiet as we continue staring at the group of angry birds. Mingyu stops arguing for a second and looks over at me. His eyes land on Jihoon next to me and I look at Jihoon.
"Mingyu is staring at you." I whisper.
"I know... I don't know why though..." he whispers back.
"He's probably wondering why you're not in this 'dad' dispute." I smile.
"I can easily be the dad if I wanted to but I don't want to be the one in charge of these crazy knuckleheads."
"Who said I wanted to be the mother?"
"The day you decided to become friends with each and everyone of them."
"What about you? You're part of this group."
He stares at me for a while before replying.
"Was it a mistake to meet me at that audition?" He asks, his voice softer than usual.
"Jihoon, I told you. You were my inspiration. If I'd never met you, I probably wouldn't be here today." I look down at my hands.
It's quiet for a few seconds before he talks again.
"The Eiffel Tower is coming over." He mumbles.
I look up to see Mingyu coming over. I snicker when I realize he called Mingyu that nickname. Mingyu stops when he gets to us and sits extremely close to me.
"Hey, Aelia." He smiles at me.
"What happened?" I raise an eyebrow.
"What do you mean?" He looks at me in confusion, tilting his head for effect.
"I mean you came over here with a cheeky smile. You either want something or you did something."
"Who says I want something or did something?"
"Mingyu, I've known you for almost two years, do you really think I won't know these little things about you?"
"Fine..." he grabs my hands and smiles.
I look at Jihoon out of the corner of my eyes and he shrugs.
"Aelz, let's go on a friend date."
"A friend date?"
"Yes! Please!"
"Okay." I shrug, "We haven't done one in..." I look at the ground, thinking.
"About a year." He nods in disappointment.
"Oh my god! Okay. Let's go this weekend?"
"Okay! Don't tell Seungkwan or Minghao though." His eyes wander next to me.
Mingyu gives off a satisfied look before hugging me and walking off to Wonwoo.
I hear Jihoon get up next to me and I look at him.
"Jihoon? Where-"
"I need some fresh air." He walks off.
"But we're outside..." I whisper, watching him walk down the corridor, his hand running through his hair.
"What's wrong with Jihoon?" Soonyoung sits next to me.
"I don't know..." I frown.
"Don't worry, saeongseon. Maybe he just needs some time to cool down his thoughts."
"But... about what?" I look at him with a sad expression.
"He'll be fine. You know how he is."
I bite the inside of my lip. Why has he been like this lately?