BLXE

Part Sixteen

I try to contain myself and hold my composure as I walk out of the company with the rest of the girls. As soon as we are out of sight of management, I pull out my phone and text Hyunjin.
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Min:
I DID IT
Hyunjin:
I knew you would!
Min:
I'm so happy right now.
Hyunjin:
We have to celebrate when you get back!
Min:
As much as I would love to celebrate with you, I need to sleep early tonight. We have so much to do before tomorrow night.
Hyunjin:
Oh
I understand
Min:
I'll see you tomorrow after the show ok? We can celebrate then!
Hyunjin:
Ok :)

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We get back to the dorms, all of us happy that we passed our examinations, and order some food. I get 불고기 (Bulgogi). It's one of my favorite foods.

As we're eating, Penny's eyes suddenly get wide like she remembered something, "Hey guys! Guess who I met yesterday!"

"Hey, I was there, too!" Young Mi pipes up, halfway through a bite of her salad.

"Right, right!" Penny laughs, "So we went to practice our flippy thing in the rehearsal room yesterday and when we were coming back we ran into Ryujin and Lia! You know from ITZY!"

"They were really nice. They told us that they were very excited to see our debut performance. They'll actually be there at the venue!" Young Mi adds.

"Hey! I wanted to say that part!" Penny playfully hits her and takes a crouton from the girl's salad.

Young Mi pretends to be offended, "Excuse you, miss Kim. That's wasn't very polite of you." The rest of us just watch them in amusement. Hitomi reaches over to also grab one and Young Mi smacks her hand away, "Not you too!"

"Sorry!"

"Too bad the boys won't be able to be there..." Hana says, leaning on her hand. Her phone buzzes and she picks it up, texting someone quickly.

I peak over her shoulder, "Seungmin, huh? You two have gotten pretty close haven't you?"

She nods with a smile, running a hand through her blonde hair, "Yeah, I guess so." I can see a little dust of pink on her cheeks.

How cute...

"Ooh, does someone else have a crush on one of the Stray Kids?" Penny leans over the table, almost knocking over her glass of water.

"No!" Hana tries to laugh it off, "It's not like that. He's like a brother to me or something. I swear!" Hitomi has been quiet all this time, but she was so hyper and excited before we started eating. I look over at her to see her staring down at her half-eaten sandwich, absentmindedly twirling a strand of her freshly bobbed hair in her fingers.

"You ok, Hitomi?" I ask and she looks up at me with dulled eyes.

"Yeah, I'm just nervous about tomorrow is all..." she says, which I clearly a lie.

I'll ask her about it later...

When we all peel off to our rooms, I'm still so excited and I keep tossing and turning. I hear Noodle scratching at my room door and sigh.

"Really, buddy? You wanna go out now?" I slowly get up and grab his leash, "I took you 20 minutes ago..."

The entire building is quiet and the street lights outside make a pretty view.

I tug on the strings of my hoodie and wait for him to finish sniffing around, "Alright, you little mongrel, find a spot. It's cold."

I don't know how much longer I can deal with having him here. Maybe I'll put him back with my parents. I doubt I can give him enough attention with me being so busy. All that on top of him always wanting out and us being on the 12th floor. I'll have to text mom about it tomorrow...

"Well, hey there."

I jump from the deep voice behind me. I turn and see Felix standing behind me in a hoodie and checked pajama pants.

"Oh, hi," I wave, "What are you doing out here?"

"Eh, I couldn't sleep," he says, his Australian accent reverberating off the brick walls on either side of us, "I'm guessing the little guy needed out?" He smiles down at Noodle and the dog hops over to him. Felix squats down and pets him with a chuckle.

"Yeah," I sigh, "I'm now realizing that having a dog in this building may not be the smartest move." It's quiet again, with only the subtle sound of the wind and a few moths flicking around the light by the door.

"You nervous?" he breaks the silence.

"What?"

He smiles and stands again when Noodle walks away to do his business again, "About tomorrow," he looks at his phone, "Well, later today, I guess."

"Oh," I shyly scratch the back of me neck, "Yeah, I think all of us are nervous as hell."

"That's not unusual," he nods, "But don't worry. You'll kill it." He pats my shoulder.

"Thanks," I smile back at his cute little freckled face then look down in thought.

Should I ask him about Hyunjin? I mean, he knows him better that I do. A lot of fans think they're actually a thing, you know? Would it be weird for me to-

"Hey, I just thought I should let you know," Felix looks up at me through his hair, "There's nothing between me and Hyunjin. Nothing romantic anyway. We're just like, best buds."

How did he...

He must have noticed the confused look on my face, "Yeah. I can read minds." He laughs, "Nah, I'm just joking. I'm a good guesser."

"Oh," is all I can get out through my flustered and confused state.

Is he actually joking???

"We're not completely oblivious to what our fans talk about online. And I have to admit, we are guilty of feeding into it sometimes," he laughs and tugs on his hoodie strings.

My mouth falls open, "No..." I say smiling in disbelief, "You mean you-"

"Yep. At some point we all just silently decided it would be funny to play along," he explains, still quite amused with himself, "Now, its not all acting, but as far as me and Hyunjin go, there's nothing between us."

"What do you mean 'it's not all acting'?"

He dramatically puts a hand over his heart, "Oh dear! I have said too much!"