language barrier ☆ junhui (HUGE REWRITE)

VII

"One, two, three and four. Five, six, seven, eight" The music stopped, and all you could hear was the trainee's heavy breathing. "Good job everyone! Keep running the dance over this holiday break, see you next week!" Their dance teacher announced and everyone cheered.

The Christmas season had arrived at Pledis, which meant everyone was getting a well deserved break. Well, almost everyone.

Mei was not fazed by the fact that there was a holiday break, instead, she saw it as more time to train and work harder, but everyone knew it was harmful for her to overwork herself, since she had already been doing that since she got accepted into Pledis.

"Hi Mei!" A happy, girly voice greeted her.

"Oh hi Pinky, what's up?" The other girl sat down next to Mei

"Are you coming to the company's Christmas party?" The girl happily asked, making Mei worried on how someone can be so cheerful all the time.

"I'll pass, I have a bunch of training to do, plus I have something else to work on" Pinky's face dropped, sad to hear about the girl's decision.

"What?! C'mon Mei! It's Christmas! Give yourself a little break, it'll do you good" Pinky started shaking the poor girl, hoping to get a 'yes' out of her.

"Sorry, but I can't" And with that, Mei got up from her spot on the floor and left the room, leaving an annoyed Pinky alone.

Pinky took out her phone, dialing someone's number before pressing it to her ear.

"Listen, she won't budge. You guys have to convince her, she wouldn't listen to me" She said in Chinese. The other person talked more on the other line and hung up.

Operation JuMei has started.

—

Mei was sitting in one of the lounging areas with her headphones on, until someone came up to her and started talking.

"Hi Mei! What are you listening to?" Chan said, pulling out one of her headphones and placing it into his own ear. "Woah, is that Chinese?!" The boy exclaimed, causing people to look their way.

Mei tried to get the younger boy to shut up before they caused a major scene but he wasn't having it.

"Why are you listening to a Chine- Are you learning Chinese?!" The boy exclaimed, yet again, incredibly loud, which made Mei take all her stuff and drag him into an empty practice room.

"Can you be any louder?!" Mei snapped, making the boy silent. She sighed and put her notes on the floor, sitting down next to them. Chan followed and stayed quiet, waiting for an explanation.

"You can't tell anyone about this" She said firmly, and just when he was about to protest against it, she cut him off.

"I like someone"

—

"How can I get closer to Mei? She won't even look my way ever since we started holiday break!" Jun sighed and fell onto his bed, a confused Minghao following behind.

"Maybe you should invite her to the Christmas party"

"She rejected Pinky though" He sighed again, sinking himself deeper onto his bed, wishing the earth would just swallow him whole.

"Yeah but I know for a fact that if you ask her to go to the party with you, she won't say no" Jun jumped up from his bed, making Minghao a little startled.

"How do you know that?"

"I just do" Minghao smiled, a little secret behind that smile.

—

The party was only a couple days away, even if Mei had declined Pinky, she had a small amount of regret.

She knew that this party was for everyone to get along and for the company to bond, but she knew she wouldn't be comfortable going and then visiting other companies whenever she gets the call.

Someone knocked on her room, she just made a noise, signaling that the door was open. A bubbly Minghao walked into the room and plopped down next to Mei on the bed.

"What are you so happy about?" Mei asked, sitting up straight to meet the Chinese boy's eyes.

"Because you are coming to the holiday party" He stated happily.

"What? I already said no, Minghao. No is no" She laid back down, only to be pulled up again by him.

"Okay, just you wait" He said and walk out of the room, leaving a confused Mei behind.