Not Your Lover (2PARK✔️)

Step Ten: Stepping

Roller Coaster by monsta x, no i'm not sorry for using another mx song, they're my favorite artists and you can suffer

the mood for this chapter is a lot lighter than previous ones, and i think this song, plus the carefree video, really reflect that. plus i needed a better excuse to stare at my seven infants without seeming obsessed. (back to this chapter though, it's a lot of random events thrown together because i was getting bored with pure angst)

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I don't get to see Jihoon or any of his members for a few days. I'm surprised to find that our two groups rarely practice together, joining forces only when we have a show like today. 'Music Cue', the low budget public television version of 'Music Bank' has only been airing for about a month, and I don't think it can last much longer with the poor ratings it gets from regular 'Music Bank' viewers.

Rather than hyping a specific track or artist for a week's time, you watch one live performance and vote within a set number of minutes, everything instantaneous and terrifying. Even the audience that shows up for sound check seems out of sync with us emotionally.

Our total gathering of eleven stands around awkwardly between sound check and the live shooting, meandering between waiting rooms and the backstage area. I'm the only one here who hasn't been on a televised program yet, and I'm sure the group can see my nerves plain as day. In fact, I'm positive.

"Woojin," Soeun sidles up to me, bumping her hip into mine playfully. "Settle down already, you're going to pace a divot into the floor."

Her fresh blonde locks still smell of the hair mask she had Kijung run out to buy yesterday, nearly a mirror scent to baby powder. Jin Ye approaches on my other side, poking up at my fresh blush. I'm still not used to how forward they act around me, trying their very hardest to make me uncomfortable. They're quite good at it.

"You should sit down for a little while," Jin Ye says softly, nudging me towards the pair of couches where most of the other guys have sprawled themselves onto. This is the only waiting room we've found with enough sitting space for nine men.

"Babe, leave him alone." Daewon, with a small glare towards Jin Ye, waves me over to sit beside him.

"Babe?" I ask quietly when I've found my place against the cushions. "If you two are dating, then why does she keep-"

"Because she's angry with me," he mutters, pulling his phone from his pocket.

"But she's been acting like that since we met," I point out cautiously.

"Yeah, and she's been angry with me since we met." He sends another glare towards the brunette across the room, though she misses it completely with her chin in her hand and her eyes closed. "She caught me sneaking Kijung some soju two weeks ago, and she's been scolding me for being a horrible role model ever since. She won't even touch me-"

"Okay, uh," I stand up suddenly, realizing that I really don't want to hear anything about his relationship with our groupmate. "I've gotta use the bathroom," I announce, glancing around the group as if for permission. Only Daewon and Jihoon glance up at me, both waving me out without a word.

I feel my shoulders tense up as I stalk down the long backstage hall of the recording theater, the walls a bleak white filled up with posters of other artists that have performed here over the years. I pause at a few, one for a larger group called Wanna One, the members not looking particularly special.

"'One divided by 'x' equals one,'" I read aloud, the sentiment cute, but the angry looking members ill fitting. I move along, stopping for an NCT127 poster for their Japanese mini album, and at the end of the hall for The Boyz latest comeback from September.