"I'm paying this time," Hyejin said, grabbing her card and giving it to the cashier. She took her ice cream and started to run away before the other member could catch up.

"HYEJIN COME BACK" He yelled at her, making her laugh. She slowed down.

"You're lucky we got ice cream Mark, or else I would have kept running. " She said. He rolled his eyes and they kept walking. NCT dream was in the recording studio, working on songs. All the members had finished recording except for Mark. Hyejin offered to stay with him until he finished so they went out for ice cream. They were heading back to the studio.

"Hey, so what's up? I feel like I haven't seen you in a while." He said, wrapping his hand around hers. To anyone else, they looked like a couple. But to them, they held hands like every day.

"I know you've been so busy. You went back to America before I did." She said, nibbling at the crushed Oreo topped on her ice cream.

"Yeah, it was fun. Your mom was happy to take care of us. I think I might be her favorite member." He said, smiling. She just rolled her eyes. She opened the door to the building, letting Mark go in first.

"Aww, what a gentlewoman." He said. She hit his shoulder playfully before they went into their recording studio.

"Ok so since you basically inhaled your ice cream and I'm not even close to finishing, you can go first." She said, sitting down on her chair, looking over at lyrics.

Hyejin would love getting critiques from the managers and producers and her other members. But when she was alone with Mark, she felt more comfortable. She preferred to record her parts when she was alone. Or when she was with Mark.

Mark came out of the booth, and he went to sit next to her.

"Come on, I've already recorded my part. It's your turn." He said. She gave him her ice cream to hold and she went into the booth. She started to rap but paused after a little bit.

"Why did you stop?"

"Eh. I didn't like how I started off. Do you have any advice?" She asked. He put her ice cream down and walked over to the Monitors.

"Try rapping it again, then I'll see." He said. She went over her part again but stopped for the second time.

"You don't feel anything off?" She said. He scratched his head.

"Well. It's kinda hard to explain it. You're trying to rap slow but hit the beat at the same time. You should just focus on the rap, the words your saying and express them. The beat will come naturally." He said. She smiled and closed her eyes.

She took a deep breath and gave him a quick thumbs up, indicating for him to play the music. She studied the exact words she was rapping. She closed her eyes and listen to the words draining out the music. When she was done, she took off the headset and looked at Mark.

"So? How was it?" She asked him. He gave her a thumbs up.

"That was great! And it was the last part you had to record!" He said. She stepped out of the booth and went to sit on the couch. She looked into her ice cream cup, to find it empty. She looked over to Mark, who was licking the whipped cream from his lip.

"HEY! That was mine!" She said, pushing him.

"I didn't eat it!" He said, raising his hands in shock.

"Oh please. If you wanted to cover that up, you would have at least wipe off all the ice cream." She said, before moving closer to him to wipe it off his lip. She didn't notice the look that Mark gave her, as the pad of her thumb was basically caressing his lip. She looked up at him and noticed that he was staring.

"What's the look for?" She said. He blinked and then looked away.

"Nothing. I-i just spaced out."

"Oh, you spaced out while looking at this beautiful face?" She said, arching her eyebrows. He rolled his eyes and shook his head, but in reality, he wanted to say yes. He wanted to say that he thought she was beautiful.

He walked into the booth to his record his song.

She sat there, listening to him change the way he rapped his part over 80 times. He came out of the booth to hear his part. He rubbed his eyes and collapsed on the couch. He whispered "Its not perfect" Before putting his head into his hands.

She gave him a concerned look before going to sit next to him.

"Hey. What's Wrong?" She said. He shrugged his shoulders, but his head was still in his hands.

"come on! You help me all the time. I think I owe you one." She said.

"It's not perfect." He mumbled into his hands.

"What's not perfect?"

"Everything. I'm just stressed."

"About what?"

"They put me into three different units, thinking that I will deal with all of them. Thinking that there will never be any problems with any of them. Thinking that one day I won't snap!" He said. She sighed and moved closer to him.

"You know, you might find this hard to believe but, I feel the exact same way sometimes." She said. Mark looked up at her and she noticed the tears brimming in his eyes.

"You do?" He said, voice shaking. She felt for him. She put his hand into hers.

"Of course I do! They put a girl in a group with 18 other boys thinking that I would be ok with this. I have no friends near me to talk about girl stuff! You have like 60 lines in a song and I'm usually in the back. People look at me expected to be perfect because I can handle 18 guys. I'm surprised I haven't given up yet! But yes, I understand your confusion" She said. He sniffed and sat up.

"life is hard! It's supposed to be! But Mark, I need you to stop trying to make everything perfect. Because no one is perfect. You are unique. You work just as hard and maybe more than the rest of us. You just need to be confident in yourself. And know that you have your members and your family and fans who love you." She said.

"D-do you love me?" He asked. She smiled at him and put his head in her hands.

"Of course I love you. You have always been there for me every day and I don't know what I would do without you." She said. He smiled and hugged her.

If only he knew. They both had a different definition of love. Mark believed that Jia had felt the same way, that she had just confessed. But in reality, Jia just thanked him for being a great friend.

BTW I haven't edited this so if you find mistakes.... Sorry.