#;collab

there’s a boy who he guesses is around his age across the room, and ten notes that he’s seen him around the building a few times before, though never spoken to him. it takes a mere moments hesitation, before he pushes himself up and makes his way across the room to try and start a conversation.

“uh... hi, i wondered if you’d like some banana milk? i’m ten, by the way, what’s your name?” he’s too tired at this point in the day to worry about whether the boy is his sunbae or or hyung, and about being nervous of judgement, so he simply holds out the banana milk box, his own clutched tightly in his other hand as he smiles. 

accepting the milk box and introducing himself as ‘jihoon’, ten takes this as the cue to sit beside him and ask how his practise for the evaluation is going. he learns that he’s also being evaluated on singing, and they discuss their song choices. 

“at this point i don’t even know if i can feel anything more than annoyance for the song i picked anyway.” ten comments with a short laugh, sipping on his banana milk and tilting his head as he watches jihoon inquisitively. 

they hit it off, and by the time ten decides to go through his practise once more then head home he’s hoping he gets to see jihoon again, and ask him how his evaluation went, curious as to what the small boy would sound like singing a song like ‘gashina’. ten says goodbye with a one armed hug and a friendly pat on jihoon’s head, “see you again soon, yeah? we should hang out sometime. good luck with your evaluation!”

and it’s something he looks forward to, between practicing for this song along with the practice with the trainee boys for theirs. he think about it day and night, and come performance day, he’s so, so very happy.

and nervous, because there are a lot of people watching and he wonders if everyone just knows. he isn’t subtle, even yeri could tell just by the smallest things (small, woohyun claims but they’re probably bigger signs than he thinks).

practicing with mijoo is easy. it comes naturally to sing the lines with her. everything is easy and comfortable and woohyun finds himself relishing the time spent– but come performance day, he’s scared he’s going to forget his lines altogether. breathe in, breathe out, he has to do this another time today, to perform with the other trainee boys, so this should be easy enough;

but he isn’t performing the first time with the boys– he’s performing first with mijoo, in front of countless of important people, and that’s what makes his heart beat the most.

and he’s so focused, so entirely lost in the thought of performing he jolts when fingers find his own. his head swivels to stare down at the hand wrapped around his, and he follows the appendage up to the warm smile, plastered on mijoo’s face. his heart skips a beat, and the tips of his ears tinge pink.

“oppa, it’s okay!” she murmurs, and woohyun swallows thick, smiling despite himself as she beams up at him. “we can do this!” her hand clasps his encouragingly, and woohyun grips back, shoots her his trademark boyish grin and nods his head. she continues and woohyun leans in automatically to listen to her. “just breathe, and relax! just tell yourself we’re back at the practice room again. we’ve done this before, it’’ll be okay!”

that helps a little bit, but not much. he does his best to think back to the times in the practice room, but each and every time there had been something– he was either too busy blushing at her smile, too busy being involved in her voice, or the way her lips would curl and her eyes would crinkle when she laughed, or how cute the knit sweater looked–

puppy love at it’s finest.

“you’re right,” he breathes, nodding his head. he swallows once more. “we got this.” he shoots at her, smile widening, before he lets go of her hand, wiping his sweaty palms on his pants. he lets out a soft exhale, straightening his form– and as their feet take them to the stage, woohyun doesn’t drop his smile, energized alone by mijoo’s attempt to ease his worries.

the familiar melody of the songs, the tinkling of bells that begin it make woohyun feel alight, shoulders relaxing and settling in familiarity. he smiles down at the crowd, swaying to the beat, the christmas spirit settling into his bones—into the rhythm. he tries to forgo his nervousness and instead focus on the better parts; christmas time had always been his favorite, and he was surrounded by people he adored—sharing a stage with a girl he was convinced he could grab the stars out of the night sky and place in her eyes.

mijoo starts it off, sings with a voice he’s always enjoyed, adored—and he hums and sways, smiling softly to himself, his fingers adjusting on the microphone. he crosses his eyes over the crowd with a hum, and when her voice ends and his turn begins, he lifts it up to his lips, falling into the melody and feel of the music.

"i have no choice but to say a difficult farewell,” he begins, voice falling into rhythm, just like they had practiced. “i can’t think about anything at all, so i just turn around.” their voices begin to melt together, in a pretty ring and harmony that makes his heart skip beats. what he would give to do this all the time, to sing with mijoo with no worry at all, with no obstacles, nothing to hold them back. “please wait a little for me, because being able to love again is still too overwhelming for me.”

woohyun sings with passion, the softest smile on his face. and he distracts himself from the song to look at mijoo, his smile softening even more as he watches her, standing next to her on stage—in front of all these people.

it’s a dream come true for him.

the song is albeit sad, lyric wise—but the beat and melody makes his heart light up as he continues. “please think of me, of the days we spent together since sometime last winter, until tears fall from the longing.” his voice holds the proper notes, hits the proper tunes, because singing with mijoo comes natural, because all his hard work, all his care and adoration slips in to impress and not disappoint a girl he’s come to cherish and want to keep a smile on her face for all of their days.

he readjusts his clammy grip on the microphone as mijoo begins to sing more, and he turns his body to hers, and slowly walks on the stage, keeping his eyes solely on her as they move together. he lifts his microphone to his mouth as he sings—“because i can’t forget that day, that image. i can’t think about anything at all, so i just wait.” their voices mesh together once more, and he steps close, stands in front of her with all the confidence he can muster.  “please wait a little for me, if you can wait until i’m able to understand. it’s not such a long time.”

the chorus begins again, and he allows for his smile to cross his face again, lets his voice carry on with the emotions of this performance, of this situation, of his holiday spirit and his happiness for performing with her.  the verses come like clockwork, and when they sing the notes together, their voices rising higher and higher with pitch, perfected adlibs meshing and separating into their own parts; woohyun puts his all into it, lets everything bleed forward and out because he could live in this moment forever. “please think of me, of the days we spend together since sometime last winter-- until tears all from the longing.”

it’s heart-stopping, hearing their voices mesh together and mix into a pretty melody woohyun is sure he’ll think about for days. his throat tightens with the thought, but he pours it into his voice, all the emotion that’s threatening to spill over. “please wait a little for me, me. if you can wait until i’m able to understand, me-- if you wait for me.”

“if you wait for me, it’s not such a long time. think of me, please think of me. wait for me-- of the image of me standing alone in the snow.” he reaches out for her hand, turning his attention to the crowd as he sings, holds her hand as they sing together. the last few lines of the song he spends singing with her, swaying in place as their voices mix into something pretty—and the last few na na nas have him grinning with gusto, and when the last final tinkling’s of the song begin to fade, woohyun inhales deep.

he grips her once more, and then lets go, bowing as he smiles and blurts out his thanks.