{ON HOLD} Perfect Together || Bang Chan

{3}

"Where were you?" Chan rushed over to EunJi as soon as she walked into their practice room. Out of worry and lack of concentration he slipped back into English. Something that didn't go unnoticed by neither EunJi nor his members.

By now it was almost 2pm, she hadn't stayed in the café too long, wanting to still have some practice time before meeting up with the guys.

"I'm fine Chan." No nickname. She could clearly see the tension, teasing would only make it worse now. He must have been really worried. "I was with Jae oppa and Jimin unni. Sorry for not texting you, I didn't know you were waiting for me." She spoke with an apologetic smile on her face. She desperately felt for giving him some form of comfort, settling on taking his hands in hers, since she had her special gloves on.

"Let's just practice." Chan muttered. He quickly turned his face away, taking his hands back just as fast. She couldn't see his face, so she didn't know what he felt, she decided to just leave him for now and talk later in private.

Besides the two of them, Felix, Hyunjin, Seungmin and Jisung were able to grasp the situation, quickly explaining it to the other members, who then got back to practice, ready to defuse the tension as fast as possible.

At around 3.30pm, EunJi stopped her own practice and sat down against a wall, taking a few sips of water and letting her body cool down a bit.

A hand, attached to a towel, came into her line of vision, allowing her to wipe off the sweat from her face and neck. She looked to her side to find Woojin sitting next to her, followed shortly by the rest of the group, forming a circle.

"You guys shouldn't stop practice because of me, especially not with the showcase coming up in a month." EunJi said, a frown prominent on her face, almost hiding her brown eyes.

"We wondered why you stopped. It doesn't look like you really need a break, noona." The voice of Seungmin cut off her thoughts.

"Oh. Yeah, I planned to meet the '97 line at 4." She laughed, it was true she could've gone for a while longer before needing a break.

Where they concerned about her? She had grown close to them through Chan, she really felt like a mother most of the times with these kids.

"You're leaving again?" It was concealed well, but the tinge of hurt could be heard in his voice.

"I'll be back around 6 or 7, okay? You'll still be here. I'll bring fried chicken as dinner." The hurt in his voice made her feel guilty, leaving her to immediately try to make it up to them.

Arriving at the arcade, their usual place, like Jungkook said it, at 4pm EunJi was unsurprised to find no one there yet. A few minutes later the Seventeen trio of the group arrived, Cha Eunwoo and Jaehyun following short after. Jungkook came quickly too, but BamBam and Yugyeom seemed to have more trouble.

"Ah, really, I should've taken those idiots with me." EunJi cursed in Dutch, knowing for sure no one would know what she said, after all they were her seniors and traditionally deserved respect, not that they always acted like it.

"Hope you weren't talking about us behind our backs." BamBam teased with a wink, walking towards them, Yugyeom by his side.

"Of course not, oppa!"

"Sure you weren't. You only use Dutch to curse on people." Jungkook called her out.

"Do you want me to curse on you?!" EunJi said, raising her voice and slapping his arm in the process.

"Let's just go in." Eunwoo laughed at them, playing peacekeeper.

After a lot of lost games on EunJi's side, but nevertheless a lot of fun, they all got ready to head out

"Anyone up for dinner?" Dokyeom asked.

"I can't. I promised I'd eat at the company." The only female of the group immediately replied. "Next time, for sure oppa."

"More like; promised your boyfriend."  BamBam laughed, showing of his teeth slightly underneath a sly grin.

"Oppa~, we are not in a relationship like that, how many times do I have to keep reminding you?" EunJi whined, she was getting so done with the constant teasing.

"Until I know who your soulmate is." BamBam replied.

"Can we join you?" Yugyeom burst through their teasing.

"Yeah, it's fine by me, I'm supposed to get the food anyways." EunJi said towards the two JYP idols, starting to walk away. "Bye oppa!" She added towards the rest of the '97 liners, left standing at the entrance of the arcade.

Meanwhile BamBam spoke up again. "You're buying food? What did you do?!" He mocked surprise. "You only buy apology food." He was clearly not done making fun of the girl yet.

"Honestly, it's not that big of a deal; I didn't text Chan I was meeting Jae oppa and Jimin unni, so he got worried. When I told him I was leaving once again, to meet you guys, he sounded really dissapointed, so I felt guilty."

"Maybe we shouldn't tag along then, it sounds as though he's jealous." Yugyeom spoke carefully, unsure if she'd be okay with that news.

"He's right, we'll get dinner with our group later. Just make sure Channie is alright." BamBam said, starting to walk out of the fried chicken place they had just arrived in, ready to go straight back to JYP, not wanting to meddle in their quarrel.

"Guess I'll see you around then, bye oppa, Yugyeom."

"Bye noona!"

Yugyeom was the only one saying goodbye since BamBam had been out of earshot already.

After arriving in the JYP building with the desired chicken, the girl went straight towards the specific training room she'd been in just a few hours previously.

"Delivery!" She shouted, immediately losing the chicken to a hungry group of boys lead by Woojin.

Leaving those guys be, she walked towards the leader, who was silently beating himself up on a specific part of the choreo in a corner of the practice room, not noticing her coming in.

"Hey." She said softly, but loud enough to scare him out of his concentration.

"Hey." He breathed out in response.

"Want to talk? You seem stressed."