After multiple rounds of soju, some wild stories and a toilet-bowl bound Mira, the four finally deemed their double date satisfactory enough. Jang-mi had left to go check on Mira whilst the two idols sat around the kitchen island, both incredibly drunk.
"Today was great," Hoshi leaned back into the chair.
Dino lay his head down onto the counter, closing his eyes in satisfaction. "Hyung?" he mumbled.
"Mhm?" Hoshi said, pouring himself some more soju and drinking it whilst awaiting Dino's question.
"How do you know that she's the one?"
Hoshi paused mid-pour, contemplating the question. He leaned back further and sighed.
"I mean, there's no way to truly know, is there? If you ask me, there's no such thing as 'the one'. You could have dated 5 different people and thought all of them were gonna be endgame at some point. It's just about how you feel. I love spending time with her. I love her laugh, the way she dances. None of these things qualify her as 'the one' - but I think if you're fixated on finding your soulmate out of the crowd, there's a higher chance you'll find a sasaeng or something instead."
"So you're saying I should break it off with Mira?"
Hoshi spit out some soju. "Chan, you're an idiot. When have I ever said that?"
"I don't know. I think she's the one," Dino innocently replied.
"Then- then why would you even- okay, forget it. I know brains were never your strong suit."
"And I thought you were the affectionate drunk type," Dino huffed.
"With Jihoon, yes. You, however, are not him. Though you may be similar in height," he remarked.
Dino stirred. "Hyung, we've had this conversation before! I'm literally-"
"8 centimeters taller than him, yeah, yeah. Alright, come on. We have practice tomorrow afternoon and I'd rather not repeat what happened during that one Hot rehearsal," Hoshi pat Dino on the back, urging him to get up.
"Mmh. I'll drive," the younger grumbled.
"If you want to crash into some speeding truck and die, then sure. Come on, I'm calling you two an Uber."
**
The next morning, Hoshi awoke to the sound of clanging cutlery and plates hovering above his face. He gingerly opened his eyes, a blurry outline slowly forming into his girlfriend holding a bowl of soup.
She set it down on his bedside table, taking a seat on the bed herself. She was already fully dressed and seemed ready to go. She leaned down and pecked him on the forehead.
"Good morning," Jang-mi said.
"Wha- eugh," Hoshi responded, an intense migraine crashing down onto the front of his head.
"I made hangover soup. I think you should probably get up," she suggested, checking the time. "Practice is in an hour."
"Thank you, love. And you're right, let's go. We shouldn't be late-" he waned mid-sentence, watching as her smile dropped into a reserved expression.
"Oh."
She pressed her lips together in a tight smile. "Yeah. It's alright, I know you can forget sometimes. I should get to work myself. Love you," Jang-mi said.
"Love you too. Have a nice day," he called out as she was leaving the room.
**
Hoshi walked into the dance studio, cap pulled tightly over his face. He dropped his bag off to the side and began stretching, soon being joined by an equally out-of-it Dino.
"Did the two of you get plastered last night?" Joshua approached them, holding his phone.
Dino crinkled his nose. "How could you tell?"
Joshua chuckled and gave over his phone. "Well, if you were sober then I'd think you'd remember this," he stated, showing his Weverse app to the two of them.
Tiger's Gaze: Hi Carattttt how was your day ㅋㅋㅋㅋ I hope it went well!! Horanghae! 🐯
1.28. 23:42
@hoshi1010: it was good!! i love you hoshi HORANGHAE!
Tiger's Gaze: YES! HORANGHAE!
@meanie2015: oppa can you say horanghae to me? it's my birthday!! <3
Tiger's Gaze: HAPPY BIRTHDAYYY! HORANGHAE!
@su_min12: can I also get a horanghae? ㅋㅋ
Tiger's Gaze: sure! EVERYONE GETS A HORANGHAE!
Seungkwan: Do I get a horanghae?
Tiger's Gaze: ...
Carats' Flower: Doahaeee Carat!
1.28. 23:53
Tiger's Gaze: Nooo! Only horanghae!
@kimbapkidding: this is not the Booseoksoon comeback I was expecting
God of Maknaes🏆: Guys
I love carats so much
Love you guys a lot
Like a lot a lot
1.29. 03:12
Wonwoo: Dino go to sleep
God of Maknaes🏆: No hyung i'm talking to carats ㅠㅠ
Tiger's Gaze: horanghaeeee
Jun: Wonu I think you're telling the wrong guy to go to bed LOL
General Leader: Okay all of you need to wrap it up
THE 8: i should pick up meditation again
Joshua: Take me with you 🙏
Almost became a kendama Guinness World Record holder: wow this is crazyyy
Tiger's Gaze: Everyone, go check out Spider
1.29. 04:02
26 year old Kim Mingyu: Hasn't the song been out 3 years?
Tiger's Gaze: Still a masterpiece
Woozi: Honestly, second that
God of Maknaes🏆: Guys go support Wait too!
Tiger's Gaze: Yah go make your own promo post
Jeonghan: Dino nugu aegi?
God of Maknaes🏆: I'm going to bed
The two stared at the messages in utter silence before Dino burst into laughter, his voice ringing melodically across the dance studio with his mouth wide open in a grin.
"What? What is it?" a few others gathered around to check through the comments and see what made Dino so happy.
"Oh no, it's not the comments. Just the selca Coups hyung posted."
"Hey, you-" Coups began aggressively pointing at him, Jeonghan and Joshua holding him back before he could begin decimating their youngest.
"Okay Coups hyung, we need Dino alive for the performance unit rehearsal. They're giving us 3 hours to go figure out the Back 2 Back choreography until we need to teach the other dancers so I'd be glad if a quarter of our team wasn't 6 feet underground until after that," Hoshi curtly said.
"Aww, thank you for preventing my murder, hyung," Dino approached, hugging Hoshi from the back.
Hoshi shrugged him off awkwardly. "Consider it a thanks for saying yes to Jang-mi's suggestion. Was Mira fine?"
Dino cocked his head to the side. "Fine. Nauseous but we got through it."
Dokyeom suddenly appeared between the two, resting his arms around each of their shoulders. "Aww, you two went on a double date? How sweet," he smiled, first to the left at Dino then right at Hoshi.
The performance leader coughed unnaturally loudly. "Okay, thank you members! We have. To. Go. Rehearse." he enunciated, slowly but surely pushing Dokyeom and the rest out of the room, finally taking in a breath after he was sure they were gone.
Minghao's slight giggles began pealing as the studio went quiet. The four quickly assembled down the middle of the room and began figuring out the choreography.
"How about a hip thrust here?" Dino suggested, demonstrating the move.
"Yah, what is it with you and hip thrusts? Is 'I don't understand but I love you' not enough?" Minghao lectured, complaining a little.
Jun snorted. "If it was up to you we'd all be spinning on the floor right now."
"Or waving around nunchucks," Hoshi added.
"Or backflipping."
Minghao looked up briefly, mumbling something in Mandarin.
"Can someone remind me why we're dancing in front of giant diamonds, again?" Dino asked, panting heavily from their runthrough.
"Well, hiphop are getting a whole monster house and vocal are flying like fairies so I guess we get diamonds," Jun shrugged, gulping down a bottle of water.
Minghao wrapped his arm around Jun, hugging him from the side. "Aah, this is so tiring," he said, displaying his fatigue by resting his head on Jun and huffing into his neck.
Jun awkwardly pat the top of his head, the pair quietly conversing in Mandarin to the side. Dino quickly pulled Hoshi out of earshot and began talking.
"You know, after that conversation, I started paying more attention to that manager. He seems so much more weird recently, like, he didn't even have our weekly schedule on hand when main manager noona asked him for it. Isn't that the literal baseline for managing a group?"
Hoshi shrugged. "Honestly, I wish I could tell you right now what's going on and punch that man straight in the face, but we have to be strategic about this."
"We could recruit the rest of the group to help?"
"Absolutely not. We tell Seungkwan and Dokyeom, they're gonna blab about it 3 seconds after they find out."
"Aren't you the one that spoils every comeback before we even begin working on it?"
Hoshi pat Dino's head. "It's called drip marketing, Dino-ssi. You could learn some things from me."
"I'm good. So, we rope in them two?" he asked, glancing at Jun and Minghao, both of whom were sprawled on the floor, exhausted and sweaty.
"Sure, I don't see why not. Myungho can be pretty discreet when needed, and Jun will help a lot too. We'll figure something out after practice."
After the short break they all reconvened, running through the dance one more time. Halfway through, Hoshi paused the song, the others halting in their positions.
"I don't know. I feel like it's lacking a certain flavor here," he demonstrated, earning understanding nods from the others.
"I did say we should add the hip thrust," Dino dismissively said.
Finally, Minghao relented. "Okay, you get your hip thrust. How much longer until we can go?"
"3 runthroughs and a full breakdown of the formations for the dancers and camera crew," Hoshi stated.
The other 3 grumbled. Hoshi looked on at them, grateful for his amazing, albeit quickly tired, members. It was in moments like these when he realized his happiness in this life he chose.
"From the top in 5, 6, 7, 8.."
a/n: hi hello omfg the track samplers for the new album are insane. i'm feeling a resurgence of vocal unit in this one ngl and the title track sounds crazy good too. i love seventeen comeback season.
the usernames in the weverse portion are just translations of their current ones (and a nickname for hoshi bc it fits better than just his name which he has on rn) if that needs any clarification.
hope you're all doing good! not much else from me, except that a few chapters might be going out less frequently since im gearing up for final exam season but i'll do my best to keep updating.
bye bye everyone, see you next time! <3