you can stay|skz

|nine|

Song recommendation
Bite Marks by Au/Ra

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"JiSung—she's not going anywhere. You don't have to watch her like she's going to pull the world's best magic trick and just vanish." MinHo rolls his eyes as he circles around the couch to stand next to JiSung. He kicks JiSung's leg gently encouraging him to get up.

"Go wash up, Sung. We're out here in case she wakes up." Chan reassures JiSung and nods him toward the bathroom.

"Fine." JiSung hesitantly gets to his feet. He tosses me one more glance before making his way toward the bathroom.

"That kid is crushing hard." ChangBin chuckles as he falls down at the table near Chan.

"He's not crushing—well I mean—maybe—but he probably knows what it feels like sometimes. His anxiety gets to him, too. He's just worried." Chan tries to down play it as best as he can.

"Did the others already leave?" ChangBin gives in and leaves the topic alone.

"Yeah. JeongIn and SeungMin had a schedule together. HyunJin and Felix went to practice. We're the only ones here." Chan mumbles as MinHo moves to join them.

"I'm kind of worried about her, too. She's too hard on herself. She broke down what—three or four times yesterday? I mean the elevator was out of everyone's control. Sung seemed to do a really good job at keeping her as calm as he could. What will she do if she breaks down on stage? I—I want to debut. She works so hard for it, but I'm just—I'm worried." MinHo sighs as he rests his head on the table.

"I think she just has to feel comfortable. When she works with us she does good for the most part—with the exception of last night. I think that had to do with her being tossed into a debut group though. I have a feeling the girls she with aren't necessarily the nicest to her. She was probably worried about that." Chan defends my decision without hesitation.

"You aren't wrong. The more comfortable she is with us the looser she gets when she's dancing. She's come a long way in a short time." MinHo agrees as he glances back over at me.

"Do you know what time her lessons are? She probably shouldn't miss them." ChangBin looks down at his phone to check the time.

"I can ask her friend." Chan pulls his own phone out and clicks on HwiYoung's number.

"Hello?" The moment I hear HwiYoung's voice, I shoot upright. I take a shaky breath as I take in my surroundings. Last night is all a blur to me. I honestly couldn't tell you what happened if I tried.

"I was going to ask a question, but I feel like I'll be able to get the answer without you now." Chan mumbles as JiSung slips out of the bathroom drying his hair with a towel.

"Is she with you? The other girls said they didn't see her last night or this morning. I was freaking out. She missed our first lesson. I had to blindly cover for her." HwiYoung's voice grows anxious as he realizes it was Chan he was talking to. He hadn't saved their numbers in his phone, so he had no idea who would be on the other end of the line.

"Yeah—about that—she ended up at our place. She was on her way home with JiSung and the elevator stopped working. They were stuck inside and she had a pretty rough time with it. We couldn't carry her into her dorm—so we brought her here. She slept on the couch." Chan rubs at the back of his neck. He knows they shouldn't have brought me here, but they didn't have another option. He's right—they couldn't just walk into my dorm with the other girls sleeping in there.

"Thank god. I was scared something happened. I searched every practice room ten times when I got here thinking she stayed overnight again." HwiYoung lets out a sigh of relief. I stare down at my lap, trying to recall last night.