Chapter Of My Youth

Chapter 2

Minju would be lying if she didn't admit that she was still excited. After she had gotten the confirmation from her manager that she would be the new Music Core MC, her and her members immediately burst into a fit of squeals.

"Congratulations Minju!" Chaewon had hugged her tight, "you have been wanting this since you first heard you were being considered as a candidate."

"Don't miss having us around too much though," Yujin had added teasingly, "I'm sure you're completely dreading getting some time away from us."

This of course had been true, once she was being considered, she could not stop hoping and dreaming that she would become a new MC. While not necessarily hoping for time away from her members, being an MC had a lot of benefits. It was another job that would gain her and her group even more exposure. It would give Minju a chance to build connections and learn more in the industry. Overall, it was an opportunity that could not be passed up.

"That and she gets to MC with two good looking guys." Hyewon added. At this the girls all giggled, starting to tease Minju.

"You get to work with Chani! I loved him in Sky Castle." Yena praised while Nako and Hitomi nodded brightly.

"And Hyunjin from Stray Kids! He's very popular for his visuals these days." Yujin teased.

Minju blushed. There is no possible way they knew, right?

"Okay everyone that's enough. I feel like Minju has had enough embarrassment for the hour." Eunbi, the oldest and ever respected leader came to her rescue. "Let's get back to our stretching, but congrats again, Minju." She said giving the younger one a sweet and quick hug.

As everyone got back into stretching, Minju got lost in thought. Her members mentioning a particular boy had shocked her quite a bit. It was obvious that Hwang Hyunjin had absolutely no idea who she was, but she knew much about him.

The two actually had gone to the same high school. He was in a grade ahead of her. Her other co-host Chani had also went to school with her, but she did not see him much due to him being two grades ahead of her. One of Hyunjin's members, Jeongin, was born her year and went to the same school as well, so she actually had her fair share of interactions with him. Hyunjin was a different matter though.

She had first come across him randomly at school. She would see him from afar talking to Jeongin or just walking down the halls and was immediately smitten with how handsome he was. She knew she wasn't the only one. From what she could tell, he was very well liked by others. He was always surrounded by people and seemed very nice and polite.

There were instances where Minju would be walking down the hallway with her friends, or heading to the library, and Hyunjin would always hold the doors open for them if he happened to be in front of them or leaving. He would, of course, do this for anyone, but Minju was captivated by the fact that he did it for HER.

The first time that had happened, she let out a shy, "thank you" mustering all of her courage to make eye contact with the boy that enchanted her. She had looked over and knew that her cheeks were probably instantly coated with pink hues, but she could not take her eyes off the handsome boy with his height and black hair that framed his beautiful face perfectly. He had responded with the most kindest smile. His eyes became even prettier and Minju found herself smiling too at how naturally captivating he was. He had said a polite, "your welcome" before continuing to go on his way.

Though not much, since that encounter, she was completely entranced by him. She would watch him from across the courtyard, laughing and enjoying his time with his friends. She would see him reading and studying in the library with his headphones in. Sometimes on her way to the bus stop, she would see him and Jeongin walking together. This of course was before his debut.

Officially once Stray Kids had taken the world by storm, it became a lot harder for her to catch glimpses of him. His busy schedule made it so he wasn't at school as often. If he ever was, he was always surrounded by people and on the occasion that he wasn't, he stuck close to Jeongin. Girls paid even more attention to him, if that was even possible. Girls always found way to compliment his dancing, or his new hair, or the stage outfits he had worn in a particular performance. Minju was always too shy to go to him and say something though.

Minju had better chances seeing hyunjin by watching him online in videos than she did in person. Once she was on produce 48 and had a chance to actually debut and be known to him, Hyunjin was already on his way to graduation and her small high school one-sided love had come to an end.

Since her debut and busy schedule, she did not have much time to give him much thought. She had already graduated herself since then and became a grown and hard working woman. However, the mention and thought of seeing Hyunjin again and actually talking to him made her sad school girl crush resurface.

Minju promised herself to remain professional. He had no idea who she was anyway and it was best that she did not embarrass herself or dwell too much in the past. With that, she closed off her thoughts and continued her practice with her members.

It was finally time to rest for the day. After a busy schedule and a quick shower, Hyunjin was in the living room of his dorm. He sat on the couch on his phone as Jeongin watched some drama on tv. He had finally remembered to search up his new co-host. As he searched Kim Minju online. He realized three things.

One, she was younger than him. Only by a year, but that still gave him and Chani the responsibility to look after her well. Two, he recognized her from her performances. He could indeed remember some of her parts in Izone's live stages and performances. However, he could not help but feel he had seen her somewhere else. He had watched parts of produce 48 with his members, or random recap clips online, and could vaguely remember her, but he felt as if he had seen her somewhere else.

Three, she was very pretty. He could tell she was indeed a visual with her soft face, big eyes, and pretty hair that framed her face nicely.

However, her familiar face bothered him. Upon searching more, he found that she had gone to the same high school. She was also born the same year as Jeongin, so he went ahead and asked him if he knew her.

"Kim Minju?" Jeongin had asked. "Yes, one of my friends had this huge crush on her in high school, so sometimes my group of friends and her group of friends would hang out at lunch or break. Why do you ask about her?"

"Oh, she's going to be replacing Mina as my new co-host for Music Core." Hyunjin had responded. Perhaps he had seen her hanging with Jeongin at some point in the past and that's why she seemed familiar. "Was she really popular back in high school? I don't really remember her."

"Well, kind of I guess." Jeongin said. "Like she didn't really get more popular until her last year because of produce 48 and Izone and stuff, but you graduated the year before so you don't remember."

Hyunjin nodded. That made sense. She probably wasn't well know around school when he was there, so he feels less bad about not remembering her.

"She was popular with boys though. I always heard boys taking about how pretty she was. She was also quiet, shy, the well-mannered type. I guess other guys liked that about her. I guess she was kind of cute, but she was never my style." Jeongin added.

At this Hyunjin just had to tease Jeongin. "Your style? Hmmmm with how you're speaking so much about her, I think she might have a sweet spot on you?"

"What? NO!" Jeongin complained. "That's not what I meant, I just thought I would add what I knew of her since you're suddenly so curious about her." Jeongin started to defend himself. "Maybe you're the one with a crush on her."

At this Hyunjin let out a laugh. "Okay, okay, I'm sorry. I just wanted to know more about my co-host. I'm sorry I wanted to have some fun and tease you." With the topic dropped he put down his phone and watched some tv with Jeongin before bed. He didn't want to admit that he was slightly more excited to met Kim Minju than he thought he would be.

Yay chapter 2! Thank you so much to those of you reading. I hope it's not too terrible so far. Again this is the first ever fic I'm writing so any encouragement, suggestions, or comments are appreciated. Also, I'm very sorry for any mistakes. I type these chapters out really fast so room for error is probably really high. I'm going to try to update a new chapter every few days or so since college doesn't start back up for me until next month. The next chapter should be hyunjin and minju finally meeting so please stay tuned!