𝐎𝐓𝐀𝐀𝐓 [𝟏] 𝐃𝐞𝐣𝐚 𝐯𝐮 || 𝐋𝐞𝐞 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟐

POV Minho

- "I'm never drinking this much again" Han mutters, stretching.

- "You didn't even drink the equivalent of one beer" Chan mocks, eyes glued to his phone. "Anyway, you guys won't be the only ones exhausted. The girls had a party too, and according to Shizuka, they're all tired."

Jeongin, Hyunjin, Felix, Han, and Changbin, all slumped in the same spot, mutter incomprehensible words, all clearly hungover. Only Chan, Seungmin, and I are relatively intact after last night's party, where Seungmin himself generously handed out drinks.

- "Letting Seungmin serve the drinks was the worst idea ever," Felix whispers, staring into space, probably rethinking his life choices.

- "He didn't became drunk easily, the traitor," curses Hyunjin, head tilted back. "I'm sure he wanted the girls to have a bad impression of us from the first training."

I laugh seeing him point an accusing finger at Seungmin, who doesn't even bother to respond, too focused on watching a video on his phone.

- "You're exaggerating, you're all friends with one of them," Chan says, referring to the friendships between the members of both groups:

Shizuka has been friends with Chan, Han, and Changbin since she was a trainee. The latter two and she are called the "evil trio" because of their facility for getting into trouble, but also for the intelligence and shemes they come up with.

One day, they swapped Hyunjin's – who also friends with the Japanese girl – shampoo bottle  for a bottle of purple hair dye. Result: bright purple hair for several weeks because they hadn't checked if it was a temporary color.

Hyunjin is also recently friends with Malee. Yeou, the blonde of the group, is friends with Seungmin and Felix after a photoshoot for a fashion show, and Jeongin and I are friends with Mi-cha.

Speaking of the girl group, the door opens, and Shizuka walks in, greeting everyone, followed by Mi-cha, Malee, Dayu, and Hae. Lastly, Yeou and Jiu enter, visibly hungover too.

- "Seven sick out of fifteen, that's almost half," Mi-cha says, placing their water bottles in a corner.

- "May I ask: Malee, why do you have a bruise on your forehead?" Chan inquires, setting his phone aside, a smirk playing on his lips.

- "Don't try to go out on the balcony after a sparkling water, if you ask me," she mumbles, tossing her bottle into a corner of the room.

- "It was hilarious to watch," Mi-cha adds, winking at me, before getting a light slap on the shoulder from her older sister.

Shizuka heads towards Changbin and Han, who close their eyes, knowing exactly what's coming:

- "Well, I'm apparently the only responsible one of the three of us," she says, barely hiding a smirk.

- "It's Seungmin's fault," Hyunjin repeats, standing up. Shizuka adjusts her long hair and helps the others get up.

- "Come on, let's start," Changbin grumbles, moving to the center.

▪︎▫︎▫︎▫︎▫︎

"We're done!" Jeongin exclaims, taking a gulp of water, before laying on the floor.

Like everyone else, I sit down on the floor, exhausted. Shizuka sits next to me and suggests between breaths:

- "We should practice more on our high note at the end."

- "We're not in sync," I add.

She nods, and I continue:

- "Can you give me some tips? I always end up out of breath at the end, and it stops me from hitting the right note."

- "Of course."

I watch her walk over to Changbin and Han, smiling as she playfully hits the latter after he teases her. I haven't known her for long, but even though we were in different agencies, we'd run into each other occasionally, especially when she visited Changbin, Chan, and Han. When her group was formed, we started seeing each other a lot more since they were also part of JYP.

Plus, their dorm is in the same building as ours, and even though they're with Big Hit, we frequently run into each other when they're not at the other agency. But even so, we never really talked until today. Ironically, our first real conversation happened just a few minutes ago. I hadn't really paid attention to her, even after my debut in 2018.

- "Get up, wimps, we have an album to record," Malee exclaims, clapping her hands.

- "And we have to keep practicing another dance," I say before taking a drink.

- "Can't we practice tomorrow instead?" Han mumbles.

Shizuka laughs before opening the door and waving us goodbye, followed by the six other members. I notice Seungmin approaching me, and I cut him off with a wave of my hand.

- "Yes, I can't hit the right note, I know."

He chuckles before taking the water bottle from my hands.

- "I'll have a talk with Shizuka about Dayu," Chan says after making sure the girls had left.

- "Why ?" Jeongin asks, still lying on the floor, staring at the ceiling like it's one of the most beautiful thing of the world.

I quickly glance at our leader and easily notice something's bothering him. He's pacing and biting his nails on one hand, the other behind his head.

- "Minho and Yeou kept correcting her, and she still messes up the dance. It looks like she's not even trying!"

- "Shizuka will know how to explain it to her," Hyunjin reassures him, seeing his dejected look.

Our collab is set to release in a few days, and it's only the first day of joint practice, and he's already stressed out. He asked the trio of songwriters – Shizuka, Malee, and Yeou – to come at least seven times to check the instrumental and line distribution. Changbin tried to explain that the girls have a busy schedule with their upcoming album release – with our collab in it – in a few days, but he can't stay calm.

His perfectionist side pushes him to give his best for our group, but also for other groups. He's afraid the collab won't be "good enough," and that it'll affect the girls' comeback.

- "Come on, let's get in position," I exclaim, snapping out of my thoughts. "Jeongin, leave the floor, you can kiss it later."

"Shut up, please."

I raise my eyebrows, and he lifts his hands in a peace gesture.