Chapter Text
Illuga was waved over by Linnea who had already settled her cream-colored bag on a booth and a plastic tray piled high in waffles.
She was eagerly scrolling through her phone while he came over, the charms ringing with every small movement.
Illuga leaned in a bit, close enough to be curious but not enough to see what she was looking at.
“Campus events.” She cheerfully clarified.
“Ah.” Illuga set down his own bag on the floor across from her and stabbed his scrambled eggs. “What’s new?”
Linnea hummed. “A new hair-style club is opening up. Some arts and craft stuff. Oh!”
“Hm?”
Linnea was silently squealing and turned her phone around for Illuga to see.
Illuga was half-way through a bite of ham when he fully read the page. He swallowed before speaking. “Dance Club event? With the Kpop club?”
Linnea nodded vigorously. “Can we go? Please? Please?”
Illuga stared at the textbooks overflowing his bag. He really needed to study tonight.
But when he looked back at Linnea who had puppy eyes and was practically begging him openly in public. Linnea was a huge kpop fan, so much so that even Illuga was dragged to learn some of it however unwilling he was.
He had to admit, there was a whole genre of music he was missing on being so closed minded but it remained something he didn’t intentionally seek out which Linnea had accepted as compromise.
That compromise being that she would flood his dms with Kpop videos and Illuga would admit to listening to them at least once and if he really liked it, she would drag him into a dance studio to learn the choreography.
His studying could wait a bit, he guessed.
“Okay.”
Linnea immediately brightened. “YES, THANK YOU, ILUGA!”
–
Illuga heavily underestimated this event. Like the events he usually attended with Linnea, he expected a few people, maybe 20, maybe 30, 50 people maximum. He did not expect this event to take place in the plaza with giant speakers on the sides, an obvious camera, and much more than 50. It looked to be about 100 people, maybe more.
Oh god, Illuga did not want to be here.
But Linnea was pulling his arm and he had given his word to at least attend fully. “Enjoy the moment” as Flins loved saying.
Linnea pulled him towards the center and Illuga carefully watched the camera as they walked, careful to conceal himself behind people so as to not be recorded.
They were already starting, loud hip-hop and rock and all sorts of popular styles of music. Some he noticed more by ear from the western radio than from the songs he learned from Linnea. Linnea was excited all the same, face absolutely enamored by the dancers who performed as she stood to take a million pictures.
Illuga tapped his foot to most of them. They were generic enough to follow but every now and then, he was surprised by how complex the choreo could get.
Linnea was on her phone, so focused she hadn’t noticed her tongue sticking out.
“What are you looking at?”
Linnea looked up, her eyes sparkled. “The submitted list. They’re playing it in order. I wanna see if I can grab a snack from a food truck and I won't miss my favorite songs.”
Illuga nodded, sharing her reasonable argument. He leaned over as she turned the phone between them. Nothing immediately caught his eye and Linnea seemed to agree.
She shoved her phone into Illuga’s hand.
“Watch my phone for me, alright? I’ll be back. With fries!”
Illuga barely could make a noise of agreement before she ran off. The list was still in front of him.
The solo song “Pop!” was playing by an artist he wasn’t too familiar with. But oh, the next song was something he was very familiar with. He glanced up at the song on the list and the song the speakers were playing.
The next song was one he was very familiar with. Oh, he would never admit it to Linnea directly but he was secretly obsessed.
A passerby seemed to notice his hesitation, looked at the song list he had pulled up, and patted Illuga’s back.
“You can dance it? Don’t be shy. We won’t judge.”
Illuga nervously laughed. “That’s not it. I just-“
Then the song played.
A large hand landed on his back and shoved him forward. He stumbled into the plaza where several others had already enthusiastically started dancing.
“You’ve got this!” The random senior called.
Illuga breathed in to calm his nerves and pocketed Linnea’s phone into his baggy pants. It’s just one song. Linnea wouldn’t be back to witness it.
So it started out as a simple song, all things considered. He was definitely out of practice but the muscle memory quickly kicked in.
A few moves here, a few moves there. He almost hit the person in front him and had to readjust his position to not hit them with the next move. They were taller with unique green hair and a capelet that barely concealed his shoulders from the cold.
But the song shifted from the verse to the chorus and Illuga stopped dancing.
He was supposed to dance this part with a partner. Or solo. It would be embarrassing if he danced it solo when everyone was partnered up though. That was the whole thrill of doing this Random Play Dance event in the first place.
But then the person in front of him turned around, their eyes meeting each other, and suddenly, they were in sync.
The other person seamlessly adjusted: to the height, to the eye contact, to the movement.
At one point, he crept his fingers up Illuga’s collarbone and Illuga fought to keep his expression neutral. Without thinking, he grabbed the other’s waist as part of the choreo and his mind wouldn’t calm down on yelling at how small it felt in his hands. There was definitely a corset underneath that shirt, the subtle hardness of material poking through.
They spun around, Illuga’s hand on their chest. It felt warm but his other hand, interlacing with him distracted him as he turned Illuga around face to face and that smirk the stranger made nearly had him fainting on the spot.
The chorus kept going. One overlapping point, one slow descent, one gentle touch on his jaws and cheek. Illuga steadied himself with a stronger than necessary grip of fists at his side, maintaining balance as he went.
And then the music cut off.
Illuga’s eyes widened. He hadn’t planned for this. He never even planned to participate in this.
He glanced into the crowd where he thought Linnea would be and she was absolutely beaming. Her second phone was up, the one with a cracked screen and a dozen camera protectors throughout the years.
“Sorry.” Illuga mumbled to the stranger.
He cleared his throat, assuming the stranger hadn’t heard him. “Sorry, sir…”
The other seemed to catch up to the moment as well. “Lohen.”
Illuga accepted the handshake out of respect. “Illuga.”
Illuga watched Lohen fidget, his eyes scanning the crowd in what seemed like anxiety or panic or maybe both.
“Illuga, it was nice to meet you,” Lohen said far too quickly. “but I have to go now.”
Why? What? But Illuga didn’t question further. At least he had some fun tonight.
“Go ahead. Thanks for being my dance partner.”
Illuga was staring at the ground, trying to force his blush down. He watched the stranger slip into the crowd.
“Um…” a voice came over the speakers. “Sorry, technical issues right now. It’ll take a few minutes to fix. Sorry about that but please be patient with us.”
Linnea hopped onto the plaza and dragged Illuga off the center. Her smile was so happy that it made Illuga suspicious.
Once he entered the sidelines with the fries and water bottle, Linnea began gushing over his participation.
“I didn’t think you would participate. Like, at ALL. That was amazing! When did you learn this song? Illuga? Tell me, tell me, tell me!”
Illuga was zoning her out. The cold water hit his throat in such a refreshing way but even then, the other half of his mind was occupied by Lohen, the stranger he barely knew for a few minutes.
Those blood red eyes, that mole mirroring his own, the messy mint hair, and gods, that corset snatched waist. Illuga was going insane thinking about it.
“Hey, Linnea!” A voice said.
“Prez! What’s up?”
“You got that all on video?”
“Yeah! Why?”
“I think it would make great publicity for this event.”
Linnea looked at Illuga’s spaced out stare and the missing vice-president of the club. She finally saw the same idea that the club president had.
“Of course!”
—
Illuga wasn’t sure what to feel.
The link was there in his dm from Linnea. Not a direct link to youtube to a popular kpop stage performance or an upcoming newbie group. It was a link to the Dance Club’s official socials.
The thumbnail? It was Illuga and Lohen, mid-action in the same plaza as yesterday’s event.
The message accompanying it was even more alarming.
“You’re trending, Illuga! ;D”
Oh god, please grant him strength.