Love Letters

11: Meet My Cute Best Friend

Hoshi's POV
My heavy breathing makes me able to hear my heart beat get louder as I work on the newest routine. Right foot, pull, and- Aniyo. Not good enough. Let me try something else.
I stare at my reflection in the mirror, sweat dripping down my face while I pant, my breath fogging up the mirror. I've been at this routine for days. What can I do to make it better? I know I can do better than this but my ideas just aren't flowing. Groaning, I grab my head in frustration. Out of all the choreographies I have to worry about, it just had to be this one.
Taking a deep breath, I close my eyes, stepping back towards the middle of the room. The song replays and immediately I start dancing. I hit every motion sharp and passionately, watching myself in the mirror to make sure I'm doing it correct. That is until I notice the wrong placement of my foot. I groan and just lay on the floor, covering my eyes with my arm, letting the music continue. I hear the door open but I don't look to see who it is. Multiple footsteps enter the dance room and the door quietly closes behind them. The feet stop next to me and I hear whisper arguing. Someone groans and I hear them bend down to be closer to me.
"H-hyung?" Chan's voice fills my ears.
I hum in response, not taking my arm off my eyes. He hesitates before continuing.
"How long have you been here?" Minghao asks.
"I don't know... Maybe since five in the morning." I mutter.
"Soonyoung, it's about to be eight... at night..." Jun informs me.
"So?"
"You're overworking yourself. You need to get some rest." Minghao sternly says.
I uncover my eyes and look at the three. As soon as my eyes readjust to the light, I notice how worried they look. Out of all of the boys, we're the only group that still hangs out and stays in contact. Surprisingly, Chan never got mad at the three of us for knowing about the bet. I think it's mostly cause he's younger and the four of us have been through too much together.
"I'm just trying to make it good for you guys. I feel like I'll let everyone down if I don't make it amazing." I sit up, placing my arms on my knees.
"You'll never let us down, hyung. Even if you make an average dance, your choreography is always great. Don't beat yourself up because everyone expects you to be the best. Be the best just at your own pace." Chan smiles lightly at me.
The three of us stare at him with jaws dropped. Maybe he isn't as young and carefree as we think he is.
Minghao bends down to where I'm at on the ground and bites his lip, looking at the floor. Chan and I look at each other before looking back at him.
"S-Soonyoung hyung, if you promise to take better care of yourself, I'll join the dance team again." Minghao blurts out.
My eyes widen. A few months ago, this boy told me he'd consider rejoining the dance team again if we convinced all thirteen to get together again. Mingyu and him exchanged a few words after he had said that, making him unable to show up to our competition. Since then he hasn't mentioned joining again, neither have we gotten together to talk about Aelia like we were supposed to. But has it really come to the point that they're so worried about me that he's willing to come back?
"Jinjja?" I raise an eyebrow.
"N-ne. I miss dancing. I miss being with my friends." He smiles sadly.
"You won't back out this time?" I hold my pinkie out to him.
He tenses, staring at my finger. He sighs and nods, wrapping his pinkie around mine. He smiles, squeezing my finger tighter.
"I promise."
"Also... We've been talking..." Jun walks closer to the three of us, "We want the others back in our lives. For real this time. Last time, it didn't work out cause Seungkwan planned the whole thing." He shakes his head in disappointment.
"I'm sure if the four of us trick the ones we still talk to into coming, then we can figure out a way to go back to normal." Chan states.
I stare at all three of them one by one. The look on each of their faces all have hope and a bit of fear showing. Maybe we can get the gang back together and be happy again. Maybe I'll finally calm down and be the happy person everyone knew me as. Sure, when Momoe was here I was happy, but as soon as she was gone it was back to how it used to be before she came. And I hate it.
I stand up quickly and stare at them with a gigantic smile.
"I've got an idea."

-

"Are you sure this is gonna work, hyung? I mean last time-"
"It's okay, Dokyeom-ah. It'll be okay this time. I promise, we can get everyone here this time." I smile at my old friend.
"I hope this one turns out better. Nobody knows except us and the rest of performance team?" Seungkwan asks, twiddling his thumbs nervously as we walk down the halls.
"Ne. Minghao is getting Jisoo hyung and Jeonghan hyung, Jun hyung is getting Wonwoo and Mingyu, and Chan is getting Hansol and... Seungcheol hyung..." I explain.
"What about Jihoon hyung?" Dokyeom asks.
"We're saving him till later. If everyone agrees to even meeting here and we decide to meet again, I'll come up with a way to get him to tag along." I nod affirmatively.
"I've seen how bad hyung looks in class. His songs are... heartbreaking... I almost cry every time he has to show the class his new piece." Seungkwan frowns.
"Omo... I haven't talked to him in a while so I don't know how he's doing. Obviously not good by the sound of it." I purse my lips.
We finally reach the opening to where our usual spot was. Right on time, the other three with their pairs come at the exact same time. Everyone starts to realize they've been tricked and glare at random people around the group.
"Yah! I don't want to be here if he is here!"
"Well, the feeling is mutual!"
Everyone begins to argue and my head starts spinning, overwhelmed by my friends arguing as if we're enemies or complete strangers. Eventually, I can't take it anymore. I ball my fists, my face boiling red with fury. Angrily, I jump on top of the table and stomp my foot loudly.
"YAH!" I scream.
Everyone's eyes widen and they immediately stop talking, staring at me with pale faces. No one has ever seen me this mad, maybe only Momoe, but even she hasn't seen me this angry. It must be frightening to see one of the happiest people in our friend group act this way. Good thing though. It shut them up.
"I'm sick and tired of all this nonsense! No one should be fighting over anything. I don't care who was involved and who wasn't. The only reason you're all bitter is because Aelia is gone due to that stupid bet. Hell, if it wasn't for her, none of us would've met. The only reason Chan and Hansol are best friends is because they met through our group. Are we really gonna be ungrateful assholes?"
Silence fills the air for a few seconds before someone gets the courage to say something.
"What do you want us to do then?" Jeonghan asks, staring at me with his clipboard in his hand.
I see some things never change... I close my eyes and take a deep breath, calming down a bit so I don't go off again.
"Can everybody sit down and can we talk about this, jebal?" I beg.
"Fine... Only cause I think you're right. We shouldn't hold a grudge for this long. It's about to be nine months since she left." Mingyu sits down at the table.
The boys start looking around, wondering if they should do the same. Minghao steps forward and sits directly across from his ex best friend. Mingyu looks at him in surprise and Minghao looks at his hands.
"I didn't expect you to agree." Mingyu quietly injects, looking at his hands that are folded on the table in front of him.
"... I've missed you..." Minghao whispers.
Mingyu immediately looks up at him, staring at the boy in wonder, and that's when two others sit down. Then three more. Then the rest of the boys. A huge sigh of relief escapes my lips and I carefully step off the tables. I turn around and scan all of them. Most are tense, some are uneasy. 
Nobody says anything for a long time. I look at Jun next to me. We didn't think they would agree to sit down so easily so we didn't come up with what to do once they agreed... How should we start this off?
"I don't think school is a good place to talk about such personal events. If you guys don't mind, I was thinking we can have a meeting at someone's house this weekend and talking about... her..." Seungkwan stands up and announces.
"If this is about her, I shouldn't be here." Seungcheol shakes his head and begins to walk away.
"The whole reason we lost Aelia was cause of your stupid ass bet. Sit your ass down." Jisoo stands up, glaring at the older boy and pointing at the table.
Everyone's eyes widen at his sudden outburst, especially Seungcheol. Seungcheol gulps and slowly sits back down. Jisoo looks back at Seungkwan and his face softens.
"Do you guys truly believe we can go back to the way we used to?" His eyes show worry and sadness.
"I do. I've never had so much fun and had so many good memories with friends until I met you guys. You've all taught me a lot. I'm so so grateful for having met you all, hyungs." Chan admits.
"Chan-ah..." Hansol stares at him in shock.
"I'm willing to have a meeting." Wonwoo stands up, looking around the table for their reactions.
"If he's in, so am I." Mingyu stands up too.
Soon all of the boys are standing up. My eyes start watering. We can make this work. We can finally mend our friendship. I chuckle which makes them all look at me in confusion.
"Is my place a good setting?"