Fifteen to twenty minutes later, when I walked off the shower with a towel hanging low on my waist, I froze on the threshold. Hyung was still lying at my bed with his hands tucked behind his head, which still rested on the pillow, his eyes trained directly towards my naked torso. Suddenly I felt a great need to cover up but resisted the urge—I mean, it wasn’t like Do hadn’t seen me half naked before. We couldn’t really fuss about privacy while changing clothes between songs backstage. 

“Took you long enough,” he stated, a hint of annoyance dripping through to his voice.

I shrugged and headed to my walk-in wardrobe only a tiny bit faster than intended. For a short minute I stood there, door closed behind my back and heart pounding like crazy inside my chest. How the hell was I supposed to pull this off? Being in love with him in secret while my heart performed crazy cartwheels everytime shit like this happened? Meanwhile juggling acting for fanservice and being his good friend as well? 

I couldn’t wait to focus more on Mint. Fanservice had got to be easier with Tae—I had no feelings towards him whatsoever. Plus as far as I knew Tae was as straight as an arrow, so he wouldn’t develop any towards me either. No need to make things complicated.

Luckily wiggling my way into some super tight-fitted jeans worked wonders for being frustrated, and I was able to calm down a bit. Though after that I wasn’t sure about what to wear as a top. There was a possibility we would make a brief appearance in front of the fans when reaching the venue for tonight, so it had to be something sexy. Yet it also had to be comfortable, since I’d be in it through soundcheck and all that. I tried on one sleeveless shirt, but quickly tossed it straight into the trash bin—it showed too much of the ugly scar I had on my shoulder. There wasn’t really a point in keeping clothes I would never wear. 

I settled on a fairly loose, black satin button-up. Leaving the top and bottom two buttons unbuttoned, as well as the cuffs, I decided I was good to go. 

Stepping back to the main room, I headed straight to my accessory drawer—trying my best to not notice Do-hyun while I was at it. I hunted down a bunch of rings, a necklace, bracelets and proceeded to put them all on. It took some time to get used to the weight and feel of them again as I hadn’t had to wear that much stuff on me for a great while. Then again that’s how we were supposed to dress in public from now on—wearing too many accessories—so maybe it was about time to get used to it. I had to get used to it. 

Meanwhile Do had appeared behind my back out of thin air. He surprised me stiff as he reached over and grabbed a pair of earrings off the jewellery stand on top of the drawer. I could feel his breath on my neck—that’s how close he was. It made me shiver. It was damn hard to focus, but I still tried anyway, sucking in a breath through my teeth. 

The earrings he chose were one of the fan gifts from back in the day—long silver chains with teeny-tiny domino pieces attached to the ends. A rush of nostalgia washed over me. 

“Put this on,” Do-hyun hummed into my ear softly, causing another shiver run through me from my neck all the way to my tailbone. He handed me one of the two earrings while placing the other on his own ear. 

For a hot second I wondered if I should. I knew if they were caught in even one photo, the GRiD Crew would analyze the living hell out of them and we’d already be the couple of YouTube in our first week back at it. Although, that was kind of the goal now, wasn’t it?

I ended up grabbing the earring and putting it on. But feeling a bit mischievous, I also added a bright mint colored, braided faux-leather bracelet on my right hand. It made Do glance at me questioningly, but he didn’t say anything. 

Finally ready, I turned to face him, opening my arms open wide to ask his opinion.

“It’s alright, I guess,” he said, giving my mint green bracelet a final side glance. “Now let’s get me presentable,” he continued, grabbing my wrist and dragging me out of my room.

“But, hyung, I’m hungry,” I pouted, not quite sure that seeing Do-hyun half naked again was a very bright idea. Yesterday had been quite enough for my mental health already.

Do-hyun bluntly ignored me though and led me straight to his room. It was meticulously clean, almost as if he didn’t even live in it. Even his bed was so precisely made there wasn’t a single wrinkle. Of course, he nearly didn’t live in it—it seemed like he had grown more attached to my room. I still wasn’t sure if I was okay with that or not. I sighed at the sight and headed to his closet. 

It was as, if not more clean and organized as his main room. Shelf after shelf was filled with neatly folded clothes in mostly dark colors. I was sure I could've never lived like this. I couldn’t even begin to imagine the hours he must’ve put into organizing all of it. Careful to not make a mess, I started digging through his clothes.

This exact scene had been a pretty common occurrence in the past, considering the fact that Do couldn’t style himself for shit. It took me a while to get familiar with his new closet though. The previous one had been a lot…less. Less everything. 

Eventually, I threw him a pair of simple black jeans and a white tank top paired with an equally white oversized t-shirt. Hyung complained that he would get the white shirt dirty in no time, but I tuned the whining out before heading to his accessories. 

If possible, Do-hyun had even more jewellery and accessories than I did. Plus they were very different compared to mine. Where mine were light both in terms of color and weight, his were more of the statement kind. Another thing that proved we were the polar opposites whatever came to style. I picked him a long pendant, a studded belt with chains and few black studded bracelets. But when I reached for the glass showcase where he had his rings on display, he stopped me.

“I’ll pick those myself,” he said, dismissively.

Oh well, I guess he was still obsessed with rings to this day. It had totally slipped my mind, though it did make sense. He had always been like that. I sat on his bed to wait for him to be ready. It didn’t take him long.

“Hot-damn, you both look fine,” Tae hollered as soon as we entered the living room after that. 

Do shrugged. “I know.”

I, on the other hand, blushed a bit and ignored them, walking over to the kitchen part of the open-concept space. I hunted down some ingredients, hoping to stuff my face with some sandwiches—only to end up losing one to Chris, who sneaked one from my hand as soon as I had it ready. 

I was only able to chomp down barely one piece of bread when Jiwoo stormed in, her red hair styled into bouncy curls. Looking overly energetic, I might add. And somehow too cheery. None of us were able to do much else than blink at her blindingly bright appearance. 

She crossed her arms and squinted at us upon noticing us staring her like she had lost her mind. “Don’t tell me you haven’t seen the news!”

Tae shook his head in disbelief. “We never do before big gigs. You of all people should know that.”

“Right,” she said, now pinching the bridge of her nose with the tips of the fake nails she was sporting. They were so long they sort of freaked me out a little. “I forgot.”

Getting slightly annoyed, I opened my own mouth. “Noona~, just spit it out. You already started anyway.”

She sighed, gathering herself. “"Contrast" MV hit 10 million views on YouTube.”

We became dead silent. 

“Already,” she added, trying to make the point come across. 

None of us still muttered out a word. I guess we all somehow froze. 

“The sales are going good as well. At this rate, we might hit Billboard Hot100! Aren’t you excited?”

It was Chris who recovered first. “Well, damn.”