he stands in the middle of the pavement, lost and staring down at his map application. turn right? turn left? what did any of this mean? he purses his lips and finally pulls his eyes away from the screen only to catch sight of someone in one of the convenience stores. it’s a boy. older than him. much taller than him. with black hair and sharp features. and he’s not too sure why, but he can’t stop staring. standing outside the store, his eyes follow the worker from outside the window as he blinks. wow, he thinks. is everyone in seoul that good looking?

he’s snapped out of his daze when his phone rings though and he picks it up, only to have a very worried aunt almost yelling at him from the other line. “are you lost?! didn’t i tell you to call me if you’re lost? joo haknyeon!”

with a sigh, he begins to walk straight ahead, listening to his aunt’s loud voice boom through the speaker of his phone.

                                          ...

“there’s a pc bang nearby! let’s go there before it gets packed with other kids,” his friend says, wrapping an arm around haknyeon’s shoulder. haknyeon laughs as he tries to shake his friend’s grip off him, though as he shifts around, he spots the boy again. there’s a window dividing them once more and just like before, haknyeon pauses for a moment his eyes following the tall stranger. oh, he’s probably working today too.

“joo haknyeon! earth to joo haknyeon!” his friend says before he shakes haknyeon. “what are you looking at?” he peers over haknyeon’s shoulder before he lets out a loud oh! “you’re hungry aren’t you?” his friend asks teasingly. “they serve food at pc bangs you jeju kid. come on let’s go!”

haknyeon doesn’t put up much of a fight, simply lets the thought of the convenience store boy falter from his mind before he skips to the pc bang.

                                         ...

it’s not like he takes that route on purpose. more like he does so because it’s en route home and his friends like walking along that path. so more often than not he spots the boy there. haknyeon can’t really find the right words to describe him. he’s definitely good looking but there’s something else about him that catches haknyeon’s attention.

his friends are loud as usual as they make jokes but they never actually go inside that particular convenience store. haknyeon kind of wants to though; just out of curiosity. he simply wants a change of atmosphere. that’s all. that’s all there is to it really.

                                         ...

“do we have to? but why? we always go to the one just a few blocks from here!” his friend whines.

“yeah! plus the noona there already knows us. she sometimes slips in free treats for us,” his other friend chimes in.

“are you guys dogs?” haknyeon turns to his friends, making a face. “this one is closer to school! there are so many stores here, we can’t just limit ourselves to one or two stores, right?” he tries to make an argument, but he knows he sounds silly.

“i know why you really want to go there,” his friend says as he raises a brow at haknyeon. “you’re crushing on that part-timer there. come on, you can’t fool me. i see you making googly eyes at him all the time and shit. you’re so easy to read!”

haknyeon practically chokes on his own spit at this. him? crushing on whoever that part-timer was? he didn’t even know his name! impossible!

“you’re crazy!” he replies, eyes wide. “you know i like that girl from the class beside us! don’t go spouting nonsense man,” he shakes his head before sighing. “i just think it’d be nice to spice things up! go to a new store and all!”

his three friends eye each other before they finally give in to haknyeon’s idea, convinced.

they enter the store and haknyeon sneaks a glance (a glance!!!) at the part-timer. he squints in an attempt to read the name tag but the only thing he can read before his friend cries out with a loud “woah! they have the spicy chicken ramen here!” is ju.

he picks out ramen and a corndog for himself before he walks towards the counter to pay. juyeon the name reads. he looks at the stranger’s face before he confirms what he’d thought he already knew. he was really damn handsome. it wasn’t fair.

as he walks towards his friends, the sauce from the corndog spills onto his uniform and he frowns, pouting his lips. he could just grab a napkin to dab at the sauce, or he could just eat his corndog. he chooses the latter.

( “so are you glad that you got to see that cute part-timer, lover boy?” his friend teases.

“shut up man. i’m worried about my uniform now. my aunt is going to be so mad.” )

                                         ...

eggs. haknyeon needs eggs. he’s going to egg a school. particularly, hyunjoon’s school. he’s going to egg some school, some kids and probably their houses too. he needs eggs. when hyunjoon had told him about the problems he’d been facing haknyeon had gotten mad, red in the face. he’d never been so angry before.

he’d skipped class, decided that it wasn’t important enough for him to go to. not when he’s got other more important things to do. storming into the convenience store he marches to where the eggs are.

he grabs one carton, and then two and then three. and then realizes that he can’t carry all of them in one go before he places them on the counter. “wait,” he says, before he walks back towards the eggs and grabs another two more cartons. he’s heated and angry and he can’t wait to make those other boys suffer for what they’d done to hyunjoon.

he doesn’t even realize who the cashier is until he pulls out some cash to pay. it’s the tall, sort of good looking (very good looking) boy he’d seen before. and for some reason, haknyeon feels like he owes an explanation. he’s buying five cartons of eggs in the middle of the day when he should be in class. he probably should give some sort of explanation. “i’m planning to egg some kids. they made fun of my friend,” he says. real smooth, haknyeon thinks. he’s probably going to think you’re some weird kid now.

“can i join?” the boy’s reply catches haknyeon off guard. he blinks and furrows his brows before he actually, really looks up to take a good look at the stranger (or maybe he’s not really so much a stranger anymore).

“what?”

“let me egg them with you.”

her jaw absolutely goddamn drops when her name is called by tiger jk himself. first of all, she hadn’t expected him to actually address them backstage. just seeing him on eye-level now felt unreal, one of the industry’s leaders...he watched her perform. wow. but the moment her name came up first, followed by five others, set her heart into a frenzy. they? wanted her? for a private audition?! her eyes were wider than saucers upon hearing the details and she nearly misses the following explanation in her panic.

to prepare a performance displaying her strongest skill...it’s got to be dance, right? she’s been practicing hard enough to make her own mother worry about her wellbeing for once, and it’s all been for opportunities like this. she stumbles out of the waiting room in a daze and meets up with heejin and donghyuck almost immediately outside. they all had news to share, and yujiin’s never been more excited for anything in her life. the chance to audition for and (hopefully!) join the same company as two of her most precious friends? she hopes the universe doesn’t take this away from her.

after some quick texts to juyeon and jaemin telling them of the situation, she finally calms down enough to think. it’s got to be dance for her—but which one should she do? it’s probably best to not use something she’s already uploaded before, and it has to be a dance she’s confident in, one that shows off her best sides. then something clicks in her mind, one song standing out from the rest. she quickly searches up the video and shows it to the other two.

“i’m going with this one!”

with cheers and good lucks from her friends and family, yujin finds herself nearly dying upon entering the trc building. her heart thumps so loudly in her chest that she’s sure she’s about to just up and die right before the audition.

it doesn’t get any better on the way to the room, her palms are sweaty (knees weak, arms are heavy), and she’s barely able to focus on the trip. going over the choreography in her head, she nearly bumps into the door in her distracted state. with a sheepish laugh, she thanks the clerk(?) and knocks on the door gingerly before pushing it open.

with a greeting thrown the way of the judges, she sets her bag down awkwardly before shuffling onto the center stage. it’s much different now that she isn’t in front of a crowd, but instead in a small room with only a panel. the camera set up brings up bad memories of previous auditions, but she tries to get rid of the negativity in her mind. she isn’t acting this time, she isn’t going to be out of her element. she’s going to dance, and she’s going to do it well.

havana, ooh na-na half of my heart is in havana, ooh-na-na he took me back to east atlanta, na-na-na oh, but my heart is in havana there's somethin' 'bout his manners havana, ooh na-na

the music starts and yujin takes those brief seconds to control her breathing, calm down, and focus. she’s gone over the moves so many times already, she knows what to do. she knows she can do it, and she’s so goddamn ready to.

with a couple of swaying steps forward, the first line kicks in and she starts off strong. the moves stay on about the same level of energy, so she isn’t about to risk falling off by the end of it. plus, the dance is fun, so she’s just as happy to keep it going. into the final line, she slows down and raises her arms into the air, before kicking the verse off with a pop.

he didn't walk up with that "how you doin'?" (when he came in the room) he said there's a lot of girls I can do with (but i can't without you) I knew him forever in a minute (that summer night in june) and papa says he got malo in him he got me feelin' like ooh-ooh-ooh, i knew it when i met him i loved him when i left him got me feelin' like ooh-ooh-ooh, and then i had to tell him i had to go, oh na-na-na-na-na

she feels herself looking at the panel, but her mind doesn’t move fast enough to process any of their reactions (if they even are giving any). still, she remembers to keep her expressions intact, knowing that it’s easily one of the ways to impress. with a confident, charming, and seductive (god knows how she’s pulling off that one) smile on her lips, she hits every move perfectly. just as she’s practiced over and over in the studio, at home, and even on the way here.

she wants this opportunity.

havana, ooh na-na half of my heart is in havana, ooh-na-na

as the chorus comes back in, the end of her performance draws near. with a final slide into her ending pose, lowering herself down to the ground before rising back up again, she slowly comes back to planet earth as the music fades out. she straightens herself out and breathes out a quick sigh of relief, even if she could feel her nerves rising back to the surface again.

“thank you for your time,” she gives the judges a bow, biting down on her lower lip nervously. had she done well? did she really just zone out for the whole performance? she can barely remember how she did now, only that no mistakes stood out as particularly damning. maybe it’s actually better that she didn’t have a reason to remember anything about it.

Despite having graduated High School not too long ago, it was a little strange to be back in a school uniform. Dowoon had forgotten how heavy they were and was constantly readjusting his tie whenever the cameras were away from him. He couldn’t help but wonder why he’d been put into a school-based group. Did he really look that young?

Despite all the minor annoyances and inability at eat until the shooting was finished (at least he’d had the foresight to stuff his face at breakfast), Dowoon was having the time of his life. He was so happy to see Sakura had also been placed in his group and they’d spent some time catching up before filming, even with guilt writhing in his gut for not being able to hang out with her since they’d volunteered at the soup kitchen in December. 

He’d also made friends with Naeun, who had at least let him see the game being played properly between takes, even if he hadn’t been allowed to play it himself (He’d almost taken her up on the offer to actually play the demo version only for the director to glance over at them both just before Naeun had handed over the phone. Not wanting either of them to get into trouble, or worse; get kicked altogether, Dowoon had hastily gone back to his group, but not before being able to whisper a sincere ‘Thank you anyways!’ to her.)

The actual filming was tiring, with constant retakes for what seemed like petty reasons, like someone sitting too close to the person playing the game, people being too slow to scoot over to form the group of boys and girls or even by the sun casting a shadow over them. Though Dowoon wasn’t unused to it; he’s had photos taken and retaken of him for Samsung Medical Center’s Transplant Program for similar reasons. At least here, he was getting to express himself and have fun.

There was one part of the filming that he didn’t even have to act for. When the cameras forced Juyeon to actually play his game, Dowoon’s reactions were completely genuine. From clapping excitedly when the older boy successfully cleared ‘Gee’ to groaning whenever a string of difficult notes broke Juyeon’s combo, it came naturally to Dowoon. More than once, he’d called out ‘Great job hyung!’ in response to a particularly good move or score. God, he couldn’t wait to get his hands on the game once it was released proper.

As the two groups moved together from what felt like the hundredth time that afternoon, Dowoon shot Sakura another grin before ducking his down towards Juyeon’s screen again as ‘ACTION!’ was yelled, slipping right back into the enthusiastic student.

"Woah, so cool!”