Light A Flame || Hoshi

Chapter 7

"Wow, your girl sure managed to put on quite the show," Jeonghan smirked, watching everyone vacate the practice room once more.

"She's not my girl. And anyway, who comes to practice about to faint?" Hoshi growled, slightly resembling a tiger cub in his lack of ferocity.

"You do. Don't act like you wouldn't have put a bounty on her head if she didn't show up today," Jeonghan laughed, a scowl creeping up on Hoshi's face. The pair began walking in silence to the elevators; yet Hoshi couldn't lift the weight in his chest. He wanted to check up on her, see how she was doing-

No. You and her are done for. You hate her, remember? Don't think otherwise.

"Dokyeom told me about your little countryside getaway next week," Jeonghan cut through the silence.

"Yeah. You can come, if you want to," Hoshi responded half-mindedly. The elevator jolted, promptly arriving at the bottom floor with the luxurious dark lobby sprawling through the entranceway.

Hoshi's eyes wandered around before landing on an annoyingly familiar figure.

"Yep, I've told my grandma. I'm comi- sorry, hold on one second," she lowered the phone and glanced up on the pair.

Jeonghan jogged over to her. "Jang-mi! Are you okay?" he asked with an air of concern.

"I'm fine. Turns out it was an overdose on some med I haven't taken, and there's this creepy message-"

"We lost 30 minutes of practice because of you," Hoshi remarked in monotone.

She turned to face him, a piercing gaze in her eyes. "I'm sorry for your loss," she responded, her tone so flat it could level mountains. Hoshi was annoyed, no doubt. He loathed seeing her. Loathed that she got out of the scandal unscathed whilst he took the barrage of hate spewn towards the both of them. Loathed how well she danced, loathed her beautiful eyes-

You're doing it again. Stop.

"Well that's great to know." She twisted back around, hovering the phone near her ear. "Yeah, as I was saying. Next Tuesday-"

Jeonghan eyed Hoshi intently. "Let's get going. Dinner's in an hour and we gotta get to the dorm before that," he grabbed Hoshi's sweaty wrist and beelined to the van awaiting them outside.

"God, I hate this," Hoshi scowled, his face buried in his palms.

"I can see that. It's like your eyes just change when you look at her. Is it anger? Passion? Both?" Jeonghan teased.

"Some of the former. None of the latter. Wow I'm craving barbecue," he suddenly exclaimed, an uncomfortable oscillation making itself heard in the pits of his stomach.

"Dinner's on Mingyu tonight, so you can have all the samgyeopsal in the world. Or so I'm told anyway,"

"Great," Hoshi's thoughts echoed. He didn't mind the free meat, of course. But he did mind the girl that, by his own shortsightedness, he now had to see almost every day. At least he'd get some respite in the countryside with Dokyeom's grandparents.

**

"Let's dig in, guys," Mingyu rubbed his hands together, seemingly intentionally unaware of the gargantuan bill he'd have to pay after the dinner was consumed.

Plates upon plates of all types of meat precariously piled on top of each other, sounds of sizzling and chatter permeating the restaurant's private room. The very same members that were half-dead from practice a few hours ago suddenly revived and were eagerly talking and eating the night away.

In between conversations, Dokyeom slid behind the chairs to approach Hoshi. "Hyung, I asked my grandparents about it and they said they'd be happy to have us." he grinned, a faint scent of soju trailing from his mouth.