"Have you guys seen Hyemi?" Jeno asked the next day as he sat down at their table for lunch. "I didn't see her at home yesterday."

Kyunghee and Jichang just shrugged.

"Well she didn't come to our practice so she obviously chose a different team." Kyunghee said while rolling her eyes.

"Yeah and I heard her come home late last night and she left early this morning." Jichang said with a shrug. "Not my problem."

Taeyong and Lucas set their stuff down across from them, looking expectantly at Jeno to be filled in.

"Taeyong, have you heard from Hyemi? None of us have seen her since lunch yesterday. She came home late last night and left before we woke up."

"I don't know, sorry Jeno, but I'm sure she's fine. I also told her that if she needed extra time to decide, we'd let her join us late so maybe she was just clearing her head. Hopefully she'll be joining our team today." Taeyong said, sharing a nervous look with Jeno.

"Somehow I don't think that's going to happen." All eyes turned to Lucas when he said that.

"Why?"

He didn't answer, instead, he just pointed at the entrance to the cafeteria where Jaehyun and his crew were walking in. All the older members turned and went straight to their usual table

At the back of their group, walking right next to Jaemin, was Hyemi. Wearing the signature black All Stars varsity jacket.

She made eye contact with Jeno, giving him a shy wave and dipping her head towards her brother. The two of them smiled back, sad that she wouldn't be joining them but proud of her either way.

"You made the right choice." Jaemin whispered in her ear, seeing her looking at them, "our team is gonna kill it this year."

"Yeah..." Hyemi trailed off as her eyes landed on Kyunghee and Jichang.

Both of them were glaring at her, something she'd never experienced from her two friends before. They scoffed as they saw her jacket, rolling their eyes before turning back around and conversing with Iseul.

"It doesn't seem like they'll be missing me much either." Hyemi muttered bitterly, seeing how her two friends had already moved on.

"To hell with them. Let them be jealous. You're an All Star now, baby." Jaemin said, throwing an arm around her shoulder and causing her to laugh as he led her to the table with the older members.

She sat down between Yuta and Jaemin, talking happily with Sana and Momo when she heard someone whispering her name.

"Pssst! Hyemi! Over here!"

She looked over her shoulder to see Xiaojun and the other motioning her towards them from the next table over.

"Excuse me for a minute."

She quickly stood up and made her way over to their table where they immediately engulfed her in a hug.

"I knew you'd make the right choice!" Yeji exclaimed, squeezing her tighter. "You're an All Star now! That's so exciting!"

"We're so happy for you, Hyemi! Seriously, you deserve it."

"Aww thanks guys, and sorry I wasn't in the morning classes. The team shares apartments so they had me move in with the girls today."

"No problem, I took notes for you!" Yeji said with a smile, pulling out a notebook and passing it to Hyemi.

"You're literally the best, I owe you one."

"Treat me to boba later and we'll call it even."

"Deal!" The two of them laughed as Hyemi took pictures of Yeji's notes.

"Ehem."

Hyemi turned around when she heard someone clear their throat behind her. She saw Taeyong standing there with Jeno next to him.

"Something you want to tell me, little sister?" He said with a low voice.

Hyemi nervously stood up and faced him, a small smile on her face.

"Sorry, Tae, but uh guess what? I-I'm an All Star." She said, trying to lift his mood.

He stared at her a bit longer before breaking out into a smile and pulling her into a tight hug.

"Oh, Hye, I'm so proud of you!" He exclaimed as he squeezed her.

"You're not mad?"

"Mad? Of course I'm not mad! Do I wish you had chosen my team? Sure I do, but it's your life and this is a great opportunity... even if you do have to put up with that asshole captain of yours." Taeyong said ruffling her hair with a laugh.

Jeno embraced her next, his muscular arms wrapping around her small frame.

"Black looks good on you." He said, letting her go with an approving nod. "I'm happy for you. This was the right decision."

"Thanks Jeno. We're still friends right?"

"Forever. You can't get rid of me no matter how hard you try." He said with a laugh. "So you moved out today, then?" He added, his smile falling a bit.

"Yeah, sorry about that. I moved to our dorms today."

"It's alright, I'll miss seeing you at home but we'll still hang out a lot. Plus, now that we're rivals, I'll have an excuse to totally demolish you on the dance floor." He said with a playful smirk.

"You wish! We're gonna kick your ass."

"Good luck with that, little sis, you're going down." Taeyong said, jumping into the conversation.

"Oh please, you were the one who was begging for me to join your team."

"And what else is new." A new voice added from the side, all of them turning to see Jaehyun and the others standing there. "We're everyone's first choice. The judges too." He added with a wink to Taeyong.

"Shut it, Jung."

"You're just mad that we snagged your sister for our team." Jaehyun smirked back. "Speaking of which, come on Hyemi, lunch practice."

"Oh right." She quickly stood up and grabbed her bag, waving goodbye to the guys at her table.

"Lunch practice?" Jeno asked as he watched her pack up.

"Yeah kid, it's how we stay on top." Jaehyun replied as Hyemi went to his side.

With a nod, they left the cafeteria.

- - -

"Alright, drill time. Five minutes to stretch and we'll get started." Jaehyun instructed as they entered the practice room.

"He doesn't seem to be in a good mood today..." Jaemin mumbled to Hyemi as the two of them went to the corner to stretch.

"Yeah, this is gonna be a long practice." Hyemi said with a huff.

"At least I'm not alone. I swear, I know we only met two days ago, but if you left me with Mr. Dance Dictator, I was going to kill you."

"Well, now we'll just die in this studio together."

The two of them continued to converse quietly while the rest of the team stretched and got warmed up.

"Alright, line up. We're teaching this combo and getting through pair critiques before next period, so make sure to keep up." Jaehyun barked out, the whole team quickly getting into position.

"Okay, so it goes, one and two and three four, five six seven and eight..."

- - -

Hyemi and Jaemin struggled to keep up. The rest of the team followed Jaehyun's moves exactly, picking up the choreo at record speeds, while Hyemi felt like she couldn't even remember the first few eight counts.

"Alright, that's it for today. Easy enough right?" Jaehyun said with a smirk, seeing the panic on Hyemi's face. "We have 10 minutes left so let's do pair critiques, everyone against the wall."

All the members lined up against the wall, waiting as Jaehyun scanned over them to see who would go first.

Not me, please not me. Anyone but me.

"Why don't we start with our first years. Hyemi and Jaemin to the floor."

Hyemi felt herself fill with dread as she pushed off the wall, sharing a glance with Jaemin who also mirrored her panic.

"Let's see what you got."

Hyemi let out a huff as the music started, trying her best to do the combo. She knew it was messy but at least she didn't forget any choreo and that was a win for her.

When they finished the combo, she let out a relieved breath, nervously waiting the critiques of the others in the group. Yuta was the first to speak up.

"Not bad guys, not bad. Especially since you guys aren't used to how things work here, you did much better than most first years, so good job." He gave them an encouraging smile.

"Yeah, I think if you guys just took some time to clean it and really lock down the choreo, you'd be great. Good start." Sana added. "Jae? What's your take?"

Hyemi froze as Jaehyun's cold glare landed on her, his expression obviously unimpressed.

"Where do I even start. You guys barely knew the choreo and that was obvious from how messy it was. Half of the moves were wrong and the ones that were correct looked sloppy. You made zero eye contact with your audience, you did nothing with your faces, and you lacked all forms of power and confidence. I get that I taught it fast but things move fast here. We haven't even started prepping for regionals and this is just the start, so both of you need to step it up in order to keep up." Jaehyun barked out.

Hyemi was shocked by how harsh he was, looking down at the floor in disappointment, unable to meet his eyes as they quickly made their way back to the wall.

"Hey, it's alright." Yuta whispered as she sat down next to him. "He's just being an ass, it wasn't bad at all."

"Alright, Sana and Momo, you guys go." Jaehyun said with an exhaspersted huff. "And you two!" He growled, turning to Hyemi and Jaemin, "watch them closely to see how real dancers are supposed to look."

———
I literally have some kinda addiction to writing these stories lmao. I was gonna take a break after these this one and my skz one but then I got an idea for a Jeno themed one so I'm back to writing lol.

^^ Random thoughts but I hope you're liking the story!