DAHLIA - Xu Minghao

Chapter 4 - Happiness Suits You

"Stay with the feeling like I do,
Just feeling like I do."

***

     "She's Korean. She doesn't understand us." Meilin overheard Junhui tell Minghao the next morning, as she was picking an outfit to wear to lunch.

     "How do you know?" Minghao hissed back, glancing at her. Meilin had her back turned, humming an unfamiliar tune quietly. She was looking between the hangers lazily. Her hair was still messy from her sleep, and pajama tank top was twisted a bit at the waist. She showed no sign of eavesdropping into their conversation. She didn't seem to have even heard them at all.

     "No way a foreigner could become so fluent in Korean this quickly. I've been here for over a year, and I still struggle a lot. She has been here for only a few months. She only talks to Korean members, which must mean she speaks it well." Junhui reasoned, and Minghao nodded in agreement. At that moment, Meilin turned around and sent them a pointy look, which Junhui returned by nodding at her politely. Her eyes lingered for a moment before she broke her stare and walked away, slamming the door.

     "100 percent sure?" Minghao asked, and Junhui just hummed.

     Meilin made her way to the bathroom, shaking her head. She hurried to get dressed and do her makeup. She wore light-wash shorts, with a white tank top and an oversized blouse. Half an hour after going inside the bathroom, she came back out, having fumbled with her hair for at least ten minutes. In the end, she gave up, and left it down, scrunching it so the little bit of natural wave she had would appear more. It wasn't much, but it was better than completely straight.

     Seungcheol and Mingyu were already waiting for her in their room, Junhui and Minghao now nowhere to be found. Meilin smiled at the boys as she grabbed her stuff, and they made their way outside together, meeting Jihoon and Wonwoo in the kitchen. The five of them left immediately, to avoid others tagging along.

     Seungcheol, who had insisted on paying for the meal, took the group to a cozy place nearby that Meilin had never been to before. They sat down at a table near the window, looking outside to see if anything interesting was happening. Meilin saw a couple of girls from her class, and quickly turned away. She didn't want any rumors spreading at school, before the year even started.

     The entire time while eating, Meilin felt strangely comfortable. She talked and laughed openly with the boys, even with Seungcheol, who had dropped the strict leader attitude for a while. She found out Mingyu was the only extrovert at the table, and after observing him for a little while, she understood why. The way he talked and carried himself was very unlike the rest of them. Meilin also found out she was very similar to Jihoon, personality-wise. When Wonwoo revealed that she wrote songs too, Jihoon got really excited, and he told her to show him her lyrics that night. Meilin, although nervous about the idea, agreed.

     Before she realized, two whole hours had passed, and it was time to go to the company for afternoon classes. Meilin quickly got changed in the locker room, switching her shorts for oversized joggings. She kept on her tank top and blouse, however, since those were comfortable to dance in.

     Meilin first attended her English class with Jihoon and Jihyun. The other members had less advanced English classes, and therefore were in another room, with a bigger group. After an hour of English, Meilin and Jihyun bid their goodbyes to Jihoon and made their way to contemporary class — Meilin's favorite class. She didn't share it with any of the boys, since the company liked to separate boys and girls when it came to dancing. Something which, in Meilin's opinion, was complete bullshit. Especially now that she trained with a boygroup.