Chapter Text
Hyunjin's POV:
Hyunjin sighed as he swept his bangs out of his face, they were getting annoyingly long again but he couldn't be bothered to get a haircut. Last time he had shown up to school with freshly cropped hair, some random girl started shedding some genuine tears. To this day he was unsure what he should think of the visceral reaction.
He went to Seoul School Of Performing Arts, and in true art school fashion, the rules were a bit more lax than elsewhere. There was an unusual amount of Alpha's at the school, but in hindsight it wasn't really strange, after all most Alphas were made for the spotlight.
Him included. Without a doubt there was an attraction to the stage, the heat of the glaring lights, cheering crowds and bass drums that had the floor vibrating.
But on days like these, it seemed like practice was never ending. Outside, the sun was burning so brightly, it felt like you could fry an egg on the concrete. The other members of his contemporary dance class, started slowly pouring out of the studio after their teacher had dismissed them with the age-old stern warning to practice diligently.
Hyunjin too, started collecting his long limbs off the floor and trudged towards the exit. Even though the exhaustion was eating away at him, he couldn't help falling into a rather graceful flurry of steps, the second he reached the corridor, after all at this point presenting himself in a well practiced and elegant manner had become ingrained into his soul from countless hours on stage.
A light tug in his stomach pulled him toward the cafeteria at which he got a light meal to face the rest of the day with enough stamina. After gratefully accepting the second egg that the lunch lady secretly slipped onto his plate with a wink, he carried the tray outside to eat in the shade of the courtyard, before a bright voice called his name.
"Hyunjin-hyung!" A younger male with deep blue hair bounced toward him with a broad grin which flashed braces. The dimples made him appear even younger than he was, but Hyunjin was actually his senior only by a year.
"What's up Jeongin-ah?" he asked, flashing a smile in his direction. Even if he didn't want to admit it, the younger had him wrapped around his finger just like everyone else with his push and pull sort of charm, and he loved to tease him like a brother he never had. They had gotten close after Hyunjin had looked for a rather specific type of live singing for a self-curated piece. The idea was that of a rather traditional Korean performance, so he had wanted live singing, and stumbling over Jeongin and his admittedly somewhat weird obsession with Pansoori, had been a real strike of luck.
**
Funnily enough, before getting to know him, just like most other people upon first meeting Jeongin, he had assumed the other to be an Alpha. He was quite tall and lean, with an uncharacteristically spicy scent, which carried over into his manners and demeanor sometimes, so Hyunjin had been taken by surprise when the other revealed himself to be a Beta.
"Hyung?" Jeongin's voice pulled him back into the present, "I was gonna get food as well, actually I wanted to eat with Seungmin-hyung, you know the one that I sang that ballad with the other day, but he's working part time today."
Hyunjin knew about that, after all HIS usual lunch partner, Minho, was also working there right now. He shook his head over the giant crush the poor singing major had on his colleague, especially since there was now way it would ever bear fruit... After all, Minho and that annoying shrimp from music producing had been googly eyeing each other since day one and since then been constantly floating around each other in passive agressive - with an exclamation on aggressive - flirting. Sometimes he wondered just how much the both of them could tease and hint at each other, till they eventually and finally broke the tension of this annoying mating dance and just like, devoured each other or something.
Not that he wasn't happy for them, God forbid, but being in the same room with the two of them for prolonged periods of time, could probably whittle down even the most stable of minds.
Either way since they were both alone due to the weird love triangle, he agreed rather easily, sitting down with Yeongin by his side telling him about the latest and most juicy gossip their school had to offer.
"So you know that one girl in your hip-hop class - the cat alpha... '' Hyunjin nodded, there were two in that class but he knew which one Yeongin was referring to - not his cousin. "I swear," Jeongin continued, "she has the hugest crush on that OTHER one!" - that would be his cousin. Now Hyunjin started to listen more carefully. "You mean Yeji and Ryujin, right?" "Yeah, yeah!" Jeongin bounced excitedly, "She's totally gonna confess, I can SMELL it!" He laughed with a slightly mischievous glint in his eyes.
A bit concerned, Hyunjin turned towards him and asked, "What did you do Jeongin-ah?"
"Nothiiiing..." The drawn out answer coupled with the even brighter grin on the youngers face served absolutely nothing to calm Hyunjins nerves.
Then, Jeongin looked down at his phone to check the clock, giggled and pushed himself a little more close to his side as his eyes focused on a female approaching them.
It turned out to be Yeji... what a surprise.
(Recap to the morning:)
Just like every day, after getting off the train, Yeji saw her friend Ryujin waiting for her at the station. They walked towards the school while chatting about the classes they were going to have that day, until they reached the entrance. While changing shoes, Yeji found a letter in her shoebox.
It was cute, a soft pastel blue envelope, which upon opening revealed a baby blue paper with a pressed stalk of forget-me-nots in a similar shade. Yeji felt her eyes grow wide at the cute and sentimental writing, confessing a long time crush and asking her to come to the courtyard during lunch.
Curiously, Ryujin leaned over her shoulder to sneak a glance at the paper in her hands. The undertones in her previously fresh and relaxed scent took on a somewhat sour note as Yeji folded the letter before she could catch a glimpse of the sappy confession.
Giggling to herself, she tucked the letter safely into her pocket. Whoever it was that had confessed to her, she liked the cutesy way of expressing the crush, so much so that she didn't notice Ryujin's blank face morphing into a frown.
"I think someone wants to confess to me!" She fluttered her hands through the air, feeling flustered at the prospect. For a second, a look of anxiety flitted across Ryujin's sharp features but she then pulled herself together and tried to look excited for her friend, her longtime co-dancer... and longtime crush.
As the day went on, and the lunch break was fast approaching, the both of them started getting giddy, granted for completely opposite reasons and as soon as the bell rang, Ryugin could only watch as Yeji bolted towards the exit in a flurry of limbs with an excited smile on her lips.
(Back to lunch time)
Jeongin and Hyunjin watched as Yeji approached them with a bounce in her step, which visibly faltered as she recognized Hyunjin. And then she was in front of them, a confused scowl on her face and exclaimed, "Alright, so if this is a joke then it's really not cool! What is this all about?" Hyunjin raised his hands in defense and shook his head to signal that he too had no idea about the situation. Next to him, Jeongin pulled himself up and stepped towards Ryujin.
Her glare shifted towards him and immediately softened a bit. He smiled somewhat sheepishly and spoke up. "Actually I put the letter there, I just wasn't brave enough to come alone." He gesticulated towards Hyunjin, who was watching the scene unfold with wide eyes, Yeji nodded hesitantly and then asked "So what you wrote in the letter.." Jeongin shook his head, "I put it there for someone else! Uhm, actually I was just there to get the feelings across."
Yeji looked more confused by the minute, "So, who is it then?" she asked, to which Jeongin leant over and whispered something in her ear which Hyunjin couldn't understand.
She looked at him with wide eyes, turned on the spot and ran back into the building while the younger male broke into a fit of laughter.
"What did you tell her?" Hyunjin asked, but there was no answer to be pried out of Jeongins tightly shut lips.
***
Either way the next day Yeji and Ryujin were dating.
And every once in a while, when they hung out, Ryujin would still get possessive over Yeji whenever Jeongin was around to make the older female laugh.
And that was how Hyunjin found out that Yeongins matchmaking skills were on a completely different level.
On like... a scarily different level, since it wouldn't be the last time he would pull insane stunts like that. Always using his cute demeanor to get out of any trouble and somehow managing to bring people together left and right...
He said it was the red string of fate... and that he was only making things go a little faster.