kang daniel

i should be happy being in a class, right?

right?

but why do i feel like i'm in extreme amount of stress right now?

the thing about a class is: ong seongwoo has already been here first. and by that, if he didn't have trouble socializing (which i pretty sure he had it under control because who would miss out the opportunity to be friends with ong seongwoo?) he should at least be an acquaintance to everyone here right now, so that means this people i'm socializing with are ong seongwoo's friends. of course we can't leave him out of the topic because i'm also his friend— well was, but you get my point.

okay then. i'll try to keep him away from the topic as i can.

i am currently sitting at a circle of people who i admire; noh taehyun, kim taedong, kim namhyung, and ha sungwoon on the left side and my b-class friend jinyoung, sangbin, youngmin, and seongri on my right. from what i am observing, this seems to be the circle of people who are.. legal? as the a-rank trainees are mostly little kiddies who are somehow more talented than the majority of the trainees.

well technically, the majority of these people are my friends; but the ones with highest authorities are the people i'm still not that close to, mainly sungwoon and taehyun. we shift in an awkward manner, waiting for anyone to start speaking.

"so daniel, you're from mmo?" sungwoon finally starts the talking, him constantly have to fix his strands of blond hair from blocking his sight.

my posture straightens. "yes, hyung."

"then you must be friends with yoon jisung?"

my eyes brighten at the mention of someone familiar. "yeah, we're really close. why, are you close with him too?"

"no, but i constantly see ong hang out with him and he seems to be a nice guy." he smiles brightly.

why is that asshole haunting me though i could clearly see him sitting at the other corner of the room..?

"ah.. yeah.." i smile back cautiously. "i could introduce you to jisung-hyung, if you want."

"and i can introduce you to ong in return."

"there's no need, really." i raise my hands in reassurance. "i personally know him myself."

wait what

what the fuck did i just say—

"what, ong?" taehyun grins in excitement. for once i am questioning why these two people favor ong a lot, it's like he had put a spell to these clueless, important people.

a spell that certainly doesn't work for me anymore.

daniel, you know yourself.

"yeah, we um.. spent our trainee days together." more like us eating chicken and consume tremendous amount of alcohol every week, constantly feeling bad for ourselves, him trying to cheer me up by pulling a few kisses and in some occasions.. leading the both of us to my apartment overnight.

well, it's not like that's my favorite part—

for heaven's sake, daniel.

first lesson of the day: remember to bathe yourself in holy water.

"so did you come here with him?" youngmin is now the one asking, with one arm on.. who's the name of that redhead brand new music kid again? oh right, woojin. youngmin looks genuinely interested to the topic, one that i'm not that fond of.

"uh.. yeah." i reply with a lump on my throat. hey, at least that's the only lie i have made up today, as the couple of sentences i said earlier were things i confess to satisfy taehyun & sungwoon curiosities. "we planned on joining produce 101 together, him going with the help of fantagio, of course."

"speak of the devil, the kid's just right there." sungwoon points to the corner of the room, where ong and little woojin are sitting. "ong!" ong, who was having a conversation with woojin, waves back and gestures that he's going to go there soon.

second lesson of the day: don't tell lies.

it's not long until ong joins into the group, dragging woojin (who didn't look quite convinced) in with us. taehyun embraces him with a hug, probably the two haven't congratulated each other for remaining at a class. he also pats woojin's head. "what are you doing here, kid? this is the place for older boys."

woojin scowls. "i know. why am i here anyway–"

"because!" ong holds the kid from going anywhere and pulling him over for a forced hug. "because you want to be here with me, isn't it right, woojinie?"

the kid scoffs, but he kept his grounds and elaborated with him. "yes, i love you hyung. ong-hyung is my favorite hyung from now on. yay."

"how about me, woojinie?" youngmin pleads with a disappointed face.

"hey! hyung too." seongri joins in too.

"is it because hyung's got a scary face?" sangbin responds with a failed attempt of puppy dog eyes.

"you've forgotten your b-ranked hyungs so fast, we're so disappointed." jinyoung frowns.

an unwanted silence fills in the empty spot. it was not long for me to realize that the ex b-ranked trainees had their eyes on me. i raise an eyebrow. "what?"

"you're supposed to continue...?" youngmin whispers, but his voice was loud enough for woojin to hear.

"ah! yeah." why did lose my conscience? i've never done that in a middle of a conversation. "you said i was your favorite, ong— fuck." i hit my head a couple of times, fully aware of what i just said.

third lesson of the day: ong seongwoo is dangerous. stay away from him.

instead of weird looks, the group cracks a laugh at my mistake. "daniel-ah, are you having trouble memorizing names again?" seongri says playfully as he ruffles my hair.

ong looks speechless, and i personally am starting to relate. woojin only exchanged glances to the both of us, enjoying the heartwrenching scene that looked like it came out of your favorite drama.

"by the way ong-ie," sungwoon continues the topic as if nothing has ever happened. "daniel said that you're friends with him before this show even started. is that true?"

ong gave me a confused look before answering. "yeah, we were— are, friends." he smiles. um, why is he being so normal about this? "i just haven't seen him for a long time."

"but he said that you plan to go to the program together. wouldn't you need to meet if you've planned it all together already?"

"t-together?" ong gives me a more confused look, and i gave him a gesture to just cut it off.

but no, he shook his head back at me and eyed on woojin instead.

"uh yeah!" woojin starts talking. "ong-hyung didn't plan—" his sentence was cut off by me hitting him with a water bottle. "ow!"

i then gestured at him to cut it off.

but ong sends a different signal, asking him to continue.

woojin ends up groaning at the ongoing cold war between the both of us, setting up a conclusion. "they haven't meet each other for long, but both of them had thoughts to join produce 101. daniel hyung posted his thoughts on sns, receiving a response from ong-hyung that he also planned to join the program. in that way, the two planned on joining together without even meeting face to face. there," he turns to ong. "happy?" he turns back to me. he sighs once more before sitting back down.

the boys are surprised by woojin's sudden remarks, but they laugh it off anyway. "you seem to know a lot about them, woojinie." taehyun chuckles.

"yeah, they're both my favorite hyungs." woojin responds with a sarcastic tone. "consider them a couple, they argue a lot but keeps bringing me into it. god bless me, this is exhausting."

did he just call us a couple?

"ongniel," youngmin giggles. "that's cute."

oh no he didn't.

—

long chapter with lots of grammatical errors, so please forgive me. i got tons of ideas but a very little amount of spare time.

i know this isn't that important (and you might consider me as an 'attention-seeker' after you read this) but i'm kindly requesting you not to mention the other jonghyun on my stories when i clearly mean nu'est's jonghyun. it's not that i don't want another fandom to barge into the comments, no— it's just that it's a bit uncomfortable for me as i myself is a shawol and i'm also taking my time recovering to what had happened. the broduce fandom apparently is the way to keep me from grief but getting reminded of him again only because i'm writing a different person with the same name as him, with people keep bringing his name around when they're fully aware of which jonghyun i'm talking about (it's not that i don't want to write about him anymore though, jr's a fun character to talk about) is a bit.. discomforting for me. so please, talk bling bling jonghyun anywhere other than in this story or any other works of mine, ok? if you want to talk about how beautiful he is, just talk to me in pm :) sorry for being overdramatic , and hope you enjoyed this chapter.

- yuehwa