𝖷1 𝖨𝗆𝖺𝗀𝗂𝗇𝖾𝗌 𝖺𝗇𝖽 𝖲𝗁𝗈𝗋𝗍 𝖲𝗍𝗈𝗋𝗂𝖾𝗌

9. Meeting X1

"Everyone this is Jiah," Minhee gives me a brilliant introduction. His hands rested on my shoulders, maybe to keep me from running.

Each boy's eyes were on me.

Suddenly my sweatpants and T-shirt didn't feel like the best wardrobe option.

"Hey everyone. It's nice to meet you all... in my house." I didn't know what to say.

Hey, thanks for coming over and moving my furniture around. I'm sure cleaning up afterwards will be a treat, but don't worry.

One of the older boys approaches me first.

"I'm Seungyoun," he smiles at me with a bright smile. I felt a little better as the mood of the room lightens. He points to a tall man off to the side. "That's Seungwoo."

The man, with more mature facial features than the others, gave me a polite smile and nods. "Thank you for letting us into your home." Clearly someone of authority here because he gave one sharp glance at the others and they all quickly introduced themselves.

"Yohan." Goofy smile.

"Wooseok." Perfect bone structure.

"Junho." Mischievous eyes.

"Eunsang." Cutely timid.

"Hangyul." Playful smirk.

"Dohyon." A child.

"Hyeongjun." A puppy?

My eyes tried to keep up with the voices in this speed round of introductions.

Seungwoo clears his throat harshly to get the attention of one of the boys who didn't introduce himself. The boy was focused on his phone.

"Yeah, Yeah," he looks up at me for a second, "hi, I'm Dongpyo." Then went back to his phone.

"Sorry. We're hoping it's just a phase." Seungwoo apologizes for the boy.

I nod my head in understanding.

A short silence consumes us. Getting more awkward by the minute.

Minhee decides to take charge of the conversation. He steps in front into my line of sight, previously staying to the back.

"Seungwoo is kind of our leader. He keeps us in check." Minhee explains gesturing towards the man.

"Not 'kind of', he is the leader." The guy, Hangyul, butts in. "Remember we did a whole voting thing and everything."

"How can you remember, you were feeling up invisible walls and blowing up invisible balloons with Dohyon and Seungyoun the entire time?" Eunsang adds on, he had a bright smile showing off all of his teeth.

"Hey, you were laughing, the entire time," Hangyul defends himself with a chuckle.

"You were playing with my shoulder too," Junho puts in his two cents worth. A soft smile making its way to his face.

I laugh out loud from the way these guys argue about. Not exactly what I thought they were going to be.

"Okay, I don't need to hear about you guys feeling up, blowing and/or playing with anything." My comment earns a round of laughter from the group.

Minhee grinned and sighed from what I believe to be out of relief. Maybe he had been nervous that we wouldn't get along.

"Anyways," he began, "Seungwoo, Wooseok, Junho, and Dongpyo are vocalists. Dohyon raps."

My eyebrows rise in surprise. I turn to the seemingly young boy.

There was no way.

"You rap?" I question him. He gives me a shy nod.

"You'd be surprised. Looks can be deceiving," Seungyoun says to me.

"Hyeongjun, Eunsang, and Yohan can rap and sing when it's necessary. However Seungyoun is the real all-rounder of our group," Minhee further explains.

Seungyoun started off smiling sheepishly at the compliment but then full on beamed.

"All-rounder?" I didn't know what that meant.

"Meaning he can sing, rap, dance, produce, compose, write lyrics—"

"Drive his band mates insane," Wooseok adds to Minhee's list.

"Ah, I see," I say with understanding, "a man of many talents."

Seungyoun smiled at me then looked away. Almost as if my comment made him blush.

"Hangyul sings too but his main talent is dancing. He, along with Hyeongjun and Dongpyo, help create our choreographies."

That covers about everyone... except one.

"And what do you do?" I ask Minhee, holding my arm behind my back. I stare at him expectantly.

Minhee's eyes flutter around the room before landing on me.

"Well, uhm, I'm a vocalist," he says quietly.

He was getting shy all of a sudden and it kind of weirded me out.

Kang Minhee was a lot of things but insecure wasn't one of them.

I chuckle softly.

"I've never heard you sing in my life." I refute.

Before Minhee can respond, Seungwoo goes in to say:

"Well, you will now, because we need to keep practicing."

I stood off to the side as they all got into their starting positions. My eyes wander to Minhee with curiosity. He looked nervous.

A speaker turns on and the music begins. Minhee's eyes harden. It's almost as if a switch had been flipped. His cool expression caught me off guard.

I hope he's good.