|sixty-five|

|SunMi's POV|

"It's not science. It's not English either." JuHee scratches at the back of her neck.

"Art? Please tell me it's art." Aera grabs ahold of JuHee's hand and squeezes.

JuHee shakes her head, the answer we were all dreading is the only option. She has a math exam tomorrow.

"JuHee! You should've told us earlier! We wouldn't have hung out after the concert! We would've took you right home!" JiSu pokes JuHee in the side.

"I'll be fine. This section isn't that hard. I think I figured it out. I'll be fine. There's no need for studying—just sleeping." JuHee rests her head on Aera's shoulder. Moments earlier she complained she didn't think she'd be able to sleep and she's already seconds from passing out.

"She'll be fine. She struggles at first then she usually pulls through. Just look at that last test—that one was the hardest one for her and she still got an A on it. She's a smarty pants. We don't have to worry about her." I reach over to smooth her hair down.

"I guess you're right. She looks so cute right now. JiSu, snap a picture so we can embarrass her later." NaHee chuckles as JiSu spins around to snap a picture of our perfect maknae.

"Are you guys ready for tomorrow? You've been waiting so long for this and it's finally almost time." ChanHyuck asks as he starts down the road toward the house.

"Yeah. Today was a lot of fun and we only performed one song. Tomorrow we get to perform a ton of songs. It's going to be a dream come true." NaHee smiles brightly as she glances back at us.

"I'm excited for my solo stage." I mumble as I run through the choreography in my head.

"Your solo stage is going to be amazing. I remember how you stayed up all night for a week straight just to practice. You are literally perfect. You're gonna make MoonByul proud." Aera chirps as she glances at me supportively.

"Do you really think so?" I ask softly as I turn away out of embarrassment.

"Of course! It's a beautiful song as is, but the choreo you and Aera came up with is stunning. Your outfit, too. I was honestly shocked when you parents said they'd pay for us to rent costumes for our showcase. They've already done so much for us." NaHee chuckles as I hide behind my hair.

"You're all going to do amazing. You've put so much work into this that you have no option but to do amazing. Besides—you have quite the boss man. I'm sure he'll love whatever you do on stage. You could probably do the chicken dance up there and he'd still cry." ChanHyuck states calmly as we all burst out laughing. JuHee jumps up in shock, her slumber rudely interrupted by us.

"Yeah, I guess that boss man is kinda cool. I mean he buys us snacks." I tease as ChanHyuck glares at me in the rear view mirror.

"Didn't he buy us gifts once?" Aera asks as she pats JuHee's leg.

"Once? He bought you gifts only once. Wow. I guess that boss man thought he bought a lot more than that. He might need to check his bank statements." ChanHyuck plays along as we pull into the driveway of the house.

"He really should. I feel like someone is stealing his money. Who knows—maybe he has a secret second group somewhere and he's spending money on them instead of us." NaHee grabs onto ChanHyuck's arm as he turns the car off.

"Get inside and get your showers. Make sure JuHee gets to bed soon. I'm going to tell your boss man to spend more money on you guys. He's really slacking." ChanHyuck pouts as Aera tugs the back door open.

"We love you, boss man. Don't spend another penny on us, got it?" Aera quickly leans forward and squeezes ChanHyuck's shoulder before hoping out of the van.

"Get a good nights sleep girls. I'll see you bright and early tomorrow JuHee. I'll see the rest of you about eight, so make sure you're up and ready to go. We've got a long day ahead of us tomorrow." ChanHyuck calls after us as we make our way toward the front door.

I open the door and hold it open for the others. I watch ChanHyuck pull away before I pull my phone out. I shut the door quietly behind me and sit down on the front step.

"Hello, my beautiful angel. Why aren't you in bed? You have a lot to do tomorrow." JongHo questions softly.

"I wanted to talk to you before I went to bed. I didn't get to see you earlier." I mumble as I tug at the hem of my shirt.

"You'll see me tomorrow. Right now, you need to go to sleep. You're missing out on some amazing dreams right now just so you can talk to me." JongHo scolds as I stare down at my feet.

"Not really, I have to wait to take a shower. I'd be up either way. So you might as well talk to me so I'm not just sitting and playing video games." I try to convince him to keep talking to me.

"I will talk to you until you go take a shower, but then you have to go to bed. I'm going to see you bright and early tomorrow morning. Besides—you're not missing that much. My handsome face is in your phone. You can always just look at that. You can watch all the videos you took of me, too." JongHo insists.

"It's not as good as the real thing. Then again, that one video I have is pretty great. It'd be a shame if someone slipped up and posted it." I tease as the door opens behind me.