♪ Laughter Like Chimes ♬ TaeHwi

Noh Taehyun

I can't sleep. I lay on my bed in pitch darkness with my eyes opened wide and my mind reeling with thoughts. I can already tell that sleep is not going to be an option tonight, which is quite sad considering it was a pretty hectic day, as all days are now beginning to be like since the start of Produce 101 Season 2.

With a pitiful sigh, I swing my legs over the bed and tip-toe my way over to the door. Being as quiet as I can manage, I twist the knob and pull open the door. Squinting at the light pouring from the outside, I grab my rubber shoes and exit the dorms. If one cannot sleep, one can only make most of the situation. So, I make my way to the practice room.

It is a rather cold night and very isolated too. One would think that lots of trainees would be up and pulling all-nighters since the performance is in two days, but apparently I seem to be the only one awake at this hour. With my hands stuffed in the pockets of my hoodie, I start thinking about how to polish my group's movements the next day. Certainly, Ed Sheeran's "Shape Of You" is a great song to choreograph. I'm quite proud of my contribution to the team. I wonder if the national producers will too?

Just then, an unknown object lunges itself onto my back, sending me hurling forwards and, unfortunately, downwards in an alarmingly uncontrollable velocity. I let out a masculine-very masculine and not at all shrill and high-pitched-scream, as one would if they were in my shoes, as my body makes contact with the soil that is previously under my feet. My ears pick up a laugh greatly resembling the chimes that I loved listening to during my moments of solitude in the music room of my school. Of course, that was a long time ago. I don't have the slightest idea as to why I had that sudden blast from the past... no, I think I do.

"Hyung, are you okay?" asks my assaulter between chuckles. He is clearly enjoying my pain, but little does he know that the pain is much greater than what he sees. A week ago, I would have liked company in my rather lonely walk to the practice rooms. However, now, I'd rather be alone than spend more time with him. He makes me so confused, and I don't like that one bit.

I know who he is only from the way his laugh reminds me of chimes. I know who he is only from the scent of raspberries that overwhelmes the fragrance of the lawn and the soil. Only from the sound of his voice, I can tell that it is Lee Daehwi who decided to pay a visit to the practice rooms at the same time I did.

"Hyung? Are you alive? Hyung?!" Daehwi shakes my arm in panic. I hum in response. "Yes, yes, don't worry. You didn't kill me, Daehwi."

He lets out a relieved sigh. "Thank god. Don't just lay in silence! You worried me!"

"Daehwi, can you please get off of me?"

"Ah, sorry."

He obeys immediately, solving only one of my problems tonight. I get up clumsily, brushing the grass and soil from my clothes in a vain attempt at getting them clean if not to stall the conversation I will undoubtedly be having with Daehwi afterwards.

"Are you on your way to practice too? Can I join you?" he asks, voice full of innocence and anticipation.

I look up-a big mistake-to wide brown eyes and ruffled black bangs and slightly chapped pink lips with their corners turned up in the faintest shadow of a smile. His head is tilted in the smallest angle which makes him look all the more cuter. I just want to take his face in my hands and bring our foreheads together and see his beautiful eye smile in that close proximity and tease him with the way my lips are so close yet still out of reach. I can just take him all in, in all his baggy t-shirt and loose sweatpants, but I probably look as weird as the thoughts residing in my brain right now so I only nod my head in the hopes that whatever he asked (I can't even remember) is a yes-or-no question.