lights off | baekyeon

chapter four

19:25

—

Life went on.

Breathing heavily through her parted lips, Taeyeon bent to catch her breath. A water bottle was tossed to her by Hyoyeon and she caught it in the air, unscrewing the cap to take a long swig, allowing the water to cool her burning lungs. 

Hyoyeon eyed her, concern evident in her voice as she asked, "Are you alright? Wanna take a rest?"

Taeyeon shook her head slightly, placing the bottle down and retying her ponytail. "I'm fine." She panted, positioning herself in front of the mirror again. 

"Can you show me once more? I can't seem to get that move right." 

A frown formed on the younger's face, but she complied nonetheless. Taeyeon was hardworking, but never this hardworking. She was overworking herself, for god knows what reason. Despite knowing this, Hyoyeon let the matter slide and simply made a mental note to inform the other members about this later. There was no use trying to persuade the leader on her own, anyway. 

The practice continued into the night, and past the wee hours. Even after Hyoyeon had left, Taeyeon only allowed herself mere short breaks.

Never too long enough to think about him.

//

Donned in a simple, comfortable outfit, Taeyeon made her way down the familiar hallway. Slippers padded against polished wood flooring as her head was lowered, gaze skimming across the piece of paper that she had collected from the CEO's office. It contained their schedules for the following month, and she was glad to see the number of empty boxes largely outweighing that of filled boxes. That meant the girls were going to get ample rest, and just the thought alone made Taeyeon's heart leap with joy.

Flipping through the papers briefly, she found EXO's schedule wedged in between. It must have been mistakenly placed in there, she thought. Recalling seeing Junmyeon in the morning, Taeyeon assumed they had practice today as well, and promptly made her way to their dance practice room. 

Even from afar, she could hear the chatter and occasional shouts of excitement from the beagle line. Synchronized squeaking of sneakers against the polished floorboards, frequent pants coupled with quiet comments about the choreography here and there. A few steps away, Taeyeon realized why it was so loud — the door was open.

All of them were scattered across the spacious room. Some sat on the floor with their backs against the wall, concentrated on their phones. Others either stood around in discussion, or practiced using the wall mirror. 

Her gaze lingered on one particular boy for a second longer, and he looked up at the same time. Eyes met, breaths hitched. Still, he looked away first, and went back to scrolling through his phone. As if she wasn't there at all, and as if he didn't catch sight of her.

Just as Taeyeon raised her hand to knock, Baekhyun nudged the member nearest to him and gestured towards the door where Taeyeon was standing. Minseok threw him a questioning gaze but got up quickly nonetheless and accepted the sheet of paper from Taeyeon gratefully. Polite smiles and greetings were exchanged before they parted ways.