Her (Not So) Secret Admirer

3. The Start

He had been close with two girls before. One was a staff, the other was a girl idol who was older than him. He liked them back then, and he knew they liked him back. He had meals with them and talked with them regularly, but he had never stepped forward and asked them to have a relationship with him. 

He didn't think he had the time, or the energy, to maintain a relationship. Rather than hurting the girl because he couldn't give her enough attention and quality time, he'd rather not be with anyone.

And he was fine. He was fine dropping a budding connection with those two girls. 

Until he met Aeri. Until she happened. 

**********************************

Mid 2020

The pandemic was in full swing. The whole world suddenly turned to a scary place. His life turned upside down. Performing as he knew it was cancelled. 

The company told him and his friends to have as many contents as possible to upload. 

"We don't want the fans to forget you."

And so that was what they were doing everyday, filming content after content. 

In the midst of the confusion, he was glad that they were still told to go to the office to practice. 

SM provided continual singing, dance and rap training. 

"It's time to improve yourself. Once the pandemic is over, you should comeback as a better artist."

Thankfully, entertainment became a staple during the pandemic. Music was something people hold on to. They had an increase of listeners in Spotify and other streaming platforms. 

He heard something that made him have a bitter after-taste in his mouth ine afternoon, though. Mark had trained Aeri for rapping, as ordered by the executives. 

He shouldn't be surprised. The company loved Mark, and his Hyung deserved it. Jeno grew up with Mark, looked up to him and basically loved him as a brother. 

But when he heard Mark trained Aeri for rapping, he was jealous. 

He was a rapper too. He also had four years of experience as well. Why couldn't he be the trainer?

"Oh, you look scary!" Jisung commented as he passed by the older guy to get some water. 

The next time he met Mark again, he asked, "Was the training ok?"

Mark, who had too many projects on his head and was tired, went blank. "What training?"

"You. And that girl. That--you know. Female trainee."

"Oh. Oh?" Mark suddenly looked at him in a sharper way. 

"Jeno-yah?"

"What?"

"Why are you asking it out of the blue?"

This was what he didn't like out of the "growing up together" part. They knew each other too well. 

Jeno had never been a curious person. He listened when people told him things, but he was never someone who'd go out of his way to ask about something. If it's not for him to know, he wouldn't ask. 

But he suddenly asked about Mark's training. More specifically, about his training session with the female trainee, which was Aeri.

"I was just--curious. You don't go to train people often."

Mark curled his legs underneath himself, and continued staring at his friend.

"She was good. Got lots of potential."