Stay - Yang Jungwon 양 정원

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐑𝐓𝐘-𝐄𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓

After playing more games, we all finally went to the practice room to start our 23-person version of Into the I-Land. As everyone filed into the practice room, which was relatively large, it started feeling very crowded.

"Chae, can you see anything?" Jay asked as I took off my sweatshirt.

I frowned, "What do you mean?"

Nicholas laughed, "I think Jay means you're shorter than anyone, so..."

My face fell, "I'm average height! Leave me alone!" I complained, knowing there wasn't much I could do to defend myself. He wasn't wrong, if I had been in the far back, I probably would have had a hard time seeing the mirror.

"It's okay, noona, they'll put you in platforms, I'm sure," Niki said teasingly, patting my shoulder.

I glared at him, "You do realize Yaja time is over right?" Earlier we played Yaja time upstairs and Niki had great fun just calling me Chae or Chaeri the whole time.

Niki grinned, "I just did! Sorry~" He cooed before running off to bother K.

The intro for the song started and we all fell into sync. It was so fun seeing us all dance together. The only time we ever got to dance like this was during the trainee camp. I was honestly still surprised that I still knew the dance.

"Wah! That was so good!" I laughed, hugging Taki. Suddenly there was the sound of a piano note. We all looked around confused as Fake Love started playing. But the Fake Love unit quickly started dancing to it.

Of course, I Need U started afterward. Jungwon and I laughed as Daniel fell to his knees right before us during the bridge. Lastly, it was DNA and the whole unit showed us their dance break. All our previous dance signs were on shuffle.

We basically spent the next couple of hours practicing Into the I-Land together. Even though it wasn't even the test performance, this was the one I was looking forward to the most.

━━━━━━━ •♬• ━━━━━━━

After saying goodbye to the thirteen boys, which was a little emotional, I was with Jungwon in a smaller practice room. We were going to work on Calling again, focusing on the verse since chorus practice was saved as a group.

"Jungwon?" I hummed quietly as I sat on the ground to stretch.

"Chae?" Jungwon said in the same tone, sitting down across from me.

I frowned, "Are we... you know? Dating?" I asked. Ever since Geonu asked if Jungwon and I were actually dating now, I honestly couldn't get the question out of my head.

Jungwon's eyes widened a little bit. I guess he was a bit taken aback, "I mean... aren't we?" He said hesitantly. "I thought—"

"Well, you never asked me," I said with a small shrug.

"Oh..." Jungwon's shoulders slumped a little bit. "Well, I guess, do you want to?" I hesitated. Of course, I did. But I wasn't sure if it would be a good idea during the survival show, especially if we're going to debut. "Chae?" Jungwon looked at me with worry, "If you say no, I won't be upset," He said quietly, but he seemed a little hurt at the idea.

"No, no, I want to, I do, don't worry about that part," I said with a small smile, lightly nudging Jungwon with my foot as I continued stretching. "It's just you know how dating is in the industry."

Jungwon shook his head, "I don't care about that. You're worth it," He said casually.

I let out a small laugh, "Ah, okay, thank you. But I am being serious, I don't want to risk, you know, anything we are, be a reason why we might not be able to debut."