Dart sat there, stunned for a second before she fully processed what Heechul had said.
A cow? What kind of thing was that to say? Dart had thought they had started to get along, making Heechul like her was difficult. She would have to work harder, but it would definitely help if Heechul put some effort in as well.
As these things were racing through her head, the offended look on Dart's face apparently satisfied Heechul, and he turned back around to talk to D.O. The poor boy next to Heechul had no idea what was going on either.
Xiumin glanced between the two and looked uncomfortable as it was clear there was tension in the air. He still wasn't sure if they were joking or not. Still, Dart continued the earlier conversation and Xiumin didn't bring it up in case it made the show awkward, and the other hosts got involved.
It was known that Heechul could be 'mean', but it was always obvious he was kidding or did it in good nature. Xiumin didn't talk to Heechul much at the company, but this time it didn't seem like a joke. There was some annoyance in his words.
After Heechul's cow comment, Dart didn't struggle to look slightly disinterested or bored. She at best managed a thin smile when something funny happened because she needed to react with something at least. When she was asked a question, she would boost Xiumin up again and made the idol blush which seemed to humour the hosts immensely and made the crew laugh as well.
Finally, the chatting part of the show was over, and they moved onto the more challenging/physical side of the show. Dart continued to get laughs for hyping Xiumin up and eventually the hosts really picked on the boy for going red. She felt terrible, but he waved off her guilty looks with good-natured humour and ruffled her hair which made Dart go red herself.
Soogeun and Sangmin started to joke that Dart was an "advertiser" for the idols and asked their own EXO members if they'd rather have Dart as their partner.
To her surprise, all the members claimed they'd rather have her and Heechul death glared D.O. when he stepped forward too. D.O. laughed and stood back to try and make Heechul smile, he didn't. To the people near Heechul, they knew his annoyance wasn't for the entertainment of the show, it was surrounding him.
The crew cut this short and brought out two, large, spinning wheels. One had the EXO member's face on it, and one had famous songs from the group. Everyone stood around in a semi-circle and listened as the crew explained the rules.
The hosts would spin the member wheel and then turn the dance wheel. Whatever member they got they'd have to replace and whatever song they picked they'd have to dance to. There would be no repeats in songs or members. The original MOAM hosts only had to dance to the chorus and would have some time to learn the movements while they got ready; however, Dart would be dancing to the whole song.
The EXO members all protested when they heard Dart had to dance it all. They thought it was unfair, but Dart waved their worries away and said she would be okay.
One by one, the hosts all spun the wheel and laughed at the results.
Youngcheol replaced Chanyeol in "Electric Kiss."
Soogeun replaced Chen in "Oh La La La."
Kyunghoon replaced Suho in "Tempo."
Heechul replaced Baekhyun in "Monster."
Hodong replaced Sehun in "Love Shot."
Janghoon replaced D.O. in "Call Me Baby."
Sangmin replaced Xiumin in "Growl."
Dart replaced Kai in "The Eve."
When finally Dart's options were left, there were even more protests from the K-pop stars. This time they seemed persistent and actually worried.
"We can't make her dance that!" Exclaimed Kai, "She'll get embarrassed!"
Baekhyun was busy demonstrating to Sooguen why the dance was inappropriate. When he made the iconic 'thrust' move, Sooguen copied him, and everyone erupted in laughter.
Hodong did a mini version and laughed at his own joke while hitting Sooguen in the back hard. As usual, no one really looked at Hodong since he was just amusing himself and being loud.
Dart glanced behind her when she felt a tap on her shoulder, it was Xiumin. He spoke quietly, "Have you seen the dance?"
She hummed, "If I remember correctly, we dance on the same side for most of it." She winked, "Let's try and be very sexy, you wouldn't wanna disappoint your fans, huh?"
He turned pink around the ears, and Janghoon yelled from across the room, "Ya! Dart! Stop embarrassing the exchange students!"
Xiumin didn't say any more to Dart but kept glancing at her. The idols didn't know how this would work out with Dart dancing a very provocative dance.
___
Everyone went off with their partners to get ready in different rooms, labelled after each dance. There was a rack with costumes on which looked exactly like the clothes from the music videos or dance performances.
Kai exclaimed when he saw them and ran towards the rack in the middle of the room. "Hey, these are all the real clothes!"
So they were authentic. Who knew the companies kept all the costumes?
He smiled at Dart with his whole face, and she understood why people were obsessed with him. He was gorgeous, and his excitement was adorable. It felt a little bit awkward being in an empty room with him now she had noticed his charms.
"Are you going to pick the dance practice outfits or the performance ones?" Kai was eager for her answer and Dart had to think for a second. There were a few racks, one had MV costumes, one had comeback stages, and the others had concert performance outfits, there was even a smaller one to the back for dance practice outfits.
She assumed the other hosts would pick the MV ones and she didn't feel like wearing anything too out there. She was sure the EXO boys would get sick of changing so many times also.
"Probably the dance practice one. You're wearing a beanie in that, right?"
"Woah, so you do know the dance, at least enough to know that." Kai patted her on the back in approval and began looking through the rack with his other hand to find his outfit.
He pulled out the blue t-shirt, and everything else was attached too, even his shoes.
"You know, I'm kind of miffed my stylist took clothes out of my closet for this." Kai looked like he was enjoying himself though and wasn't actually mad. Dart would feel guilty if he was annoyed at the situation since she was indirectly the cause.
He held the shirt up against Dart and whistled. It went down to her mid-thigh and was more of a dress than a shirt.
She went to look through the other outfits, and Kai kept repeating the word cute under his breath because of how big his shirt was on her. Dart laughed and said she wasn't, she sadly couldn't ignore his comments since he kept repeating them.
"You are though. You're so small and fragile."
"Fragile?" Dart was taken aback, "That's not what I'd say."
Kai looked over, "You're tiny, though."
"Maybe."
"Not maybe. Yes, you're tiny."
Dart dropped her hands from the rack and hit his shoulder lightly, she had to admit it was higher than she was used to, but she wasn't going to back down now.
"Just because someone is short doesn't mean they're fragile."
"But-"
Dart cut him off, "It doesn't automatically mean that."
"Sorry, sorry, it's just cute how small you are. I heard Xiumin saying it yesterday too before he knew you'd be here."
Dart went pink again. That was a low blow, and Kai knew it from the smirk sitting on his face.
Xiumin spoke about her? He hadn't known she was a semi-important person... And he thought she was cute...
When Kai offered to go through the dance, she said no and urged him to go to Youngcheol's room to change for the first mini-performance. He looked sceptical by her confidence but went away when she kept refusing him.
___
Dart had thirty minutes to get dressed and go through the dance. The parts the other hosts were doing lasted maybe 20 to 30 seconds. While they were practising, they would get changed and gather in the "performance room" when they were finished. In between the songs, EXO would run to the labelled rooms quickly and change for the next song.
The aim of the game wasn't really to win, but if the EXO members messed up MOAM team would get the point, and if the MOAM host messed up, EXO would get the point. Everyone knew the game was just to get laughs from the hosts and to show off the dancing skills of the K-pop stars, so there wasn't much pressure.
Dart felt pressure, though. Her whole gimmick was her memory, and from the very start of coming to Korea, she was supposed to be dancing perfectly. That was the point. She couldn't mess up now that she was actually doing it.
She changed into Kai's clothes and thought to herself for a bit. She was sure there would be many girls out there who would be extremely jealous of her situation.
She was wearing a t-shirt from Kai and even his beanie. They were real as well, the shirt she was wearing had touched his skin.
She hadn't been thinking that way when she put it on, but now she noticed the shirt against her skin and it fluttering around her thighs. It made her skin burn a little if she was being honest.She didn't mean to get flustered, but all the members of EXO were beautiful despite her best efforts to ignore it. It was apparent they were idols, and she felt odd to be casually talking to them, even though they were human too.
Dart had put shorts on underneath her shirt because the skinny jeans didn't fit well enough. The shirt covered the shorts up, and Dart turned out sexier than she was anticipating. The beanie slid over two braids she put in her hair, and she started dancing the familiar moves to warm her body up.
The dress/shirt paired with the sexy moves was very daring, and she was ready to put on a performance. However, she really wasn't expecting to do something so out there for her second-ever Knowing bros episode.
She grabbed the oversized dressing gown on the door and hid her outfit so it would be a surprise. She stuffed the beanie into a pocket and walked towards the room she was meant to be in, she was 10 minutes early.___None of the other hosts or EXO members was there yet. She sat on benches in the corner and looked over at the cameras pointed at her.
Even if no one was there she could speak and get it put into the episode, it was weird knowing everything you did was being watched and recorded.
She swung her legs a little and asked herself out loud when everyone would get there. She had seen variety show people do that before to fill in time and the PD gave her a thumbs up from behind the camera to show she was doing well.
Dart couldn't understand how regular variety hosts did it though, she felt so foolish talking to herself.
Heechul burst in all dressed up in his outfit from Monster, and Dart let out a little yell and jumped up out of her chair and back down. Even though his outfit was covered, you could clearly see the chain hanging from his lip, exactly like Baekhyun from the music video.
Heechul suited it. A lot. She didn't want to stare, but he was the only other one in the room. Heechul tried to sit at another bench but was told to sit with Dart.
Moving looked like the last thing he wanted to do in this situation, but he listened and sat down.
"I like the chain," commented Dart.
Heechul looked sideways at her and flicked the chain waving from his lip, "It's impractical, it's going to catch on something."
"I still like it."
Heechul looked away, but Dart saw his lip twitch a little bit upwards. Maybe he liked it too? He could just say it instead of acting distant.
One by one, the other members came in, hiding their outfits but showing off their accessories.
When Janghoon came in, he complained about nothing fitting him and the same happened for Hodong. They had some clothes brought by their stylists, and the overall style was Exo-ish so they would match with the dance performance outfits.
While they all waited for Youngcheol and EXO, Heechul and Dart had settled into a comfortable conversation. Well, it wasn't really comfortable, but it was something at least.
"Hey, are you going to be okay dancing?" asked Dart out of the blue, "You have issues with your leg, don't you?"
"I'll manage." Heechul sounded like that's all he wanted to say about that topic, so Dart moved on. Well, she had just jumped from a conversation about sweets to a sensitive issue for him, so it was understandable he was a little short with her.
"Do you think this segment will get popular?"
"Who knows, though, it's probably for the best we get more active on this show," Heechul looked at the older hosts, "Watching them try will be very funny at least."
She hummed in agreement and fiddled with the beanie in her pocket. The movement caught Heechul's eyes, and he looked like he was going to ask what was hidden. He got interrupted by loud EXO music pumping from the speakers and the lights going out, so he dropped it.
Colourful beams lit up the centre stage, and the dressed-up "boy group" members came on to the stage. Dart couldn't even hold in her laughter, that's how funny the image of Youngcheol in EXO was.
She glanced sideways, and Heechul was hysterically laughing while clapping his hands. His mouth was twisted upwards, and she saw glimpses of his gums. It was adorable, but Dart quickly looked away since she couldn't be caught staring at him
Youngcheol messed up. Multiple times. And when the small section was over all the boys ran to Hodong's changing room to speed dress. Even the panic of idols running added to the comedy.
The MOAM members all performed one after the other, gradually racking up "mess up" points. The only time EXO would occur points was when a MOAM member would steal their position and confuse the whole dance (this was mainly Janghoon's doing).
Heechul's turn was right before Dart's, so the EXO boys ran, panting, out of the room and Heechul walked after them out the place to take his robe off.
Heechul was still smiling from the laughing he had done at the other MOAM hosts, and Dart liked seeing the playful side of Heechul. It seemed natural. If he was usually this full of laughter, the hostility toward her made even less sense.
The lights went out again and all the hosts, now unrobed, clapped and anticipated the group with Heechul. They came out, and surprisingly Heechul didn't mess up even once.
He even looked like he somewhat belonged in the group. Obviously, he had the boy group idol mentality. Still, Dart was secretly worried about his leg also though it wasn't her place to bother. She just remembered reading about it a lot online about how much it irritated him. Was he in pain? Should she ask? No, he'd get annoyed by her pushing.
The dance ended, and the cast and crew all stood up applauding how well Heechul had done. The chain was ridiculously attractive on Heechul, but he was quick to take it off as soon as the song ended. He was probably worried about the chain catching on something like he'd mentioned earlier.
Before he could approach Dart, EXO grabbed her arms and pulled her along to the changing room to get ready for the last performance.
She got pulled into the room, and Xiumin who was already changing by himself screeched as they came in with Dart.
"She's a GIRL!"
Kai looked down at Dart, he had grabbed her left arm and didn't seem like he was letting go. "Oh... I had forgotten about that."
"How the he-, just let her leave!" Xiumin yelled.
Kai and Chen sadly let go of her arms, and she sidestepped out of the room. She had seen Xiumin's exposed chest and was very shocked.
That thing looked rock solid. It was like a brick wall shaped into abs. How did someone so cute and adorable have a body like that? She had such conflicting opinions about that boy now.
Was she attracted to him or protective of him?
The members all ran out with Kai in the lead to make sure he could sit down before the performance. Chen grabbed her right arm again, and she had to sprint to keep up with the group's long strides.
The lights went out and cheering started again. Dart didn't hear Heechul's voice cheering, but Hodong's was very loud so that would have to do.
They all got into the starting positions with the lights pointing downwards in a circle, and the music started playing.