Chapter Text
The flashes of light. The roar of the crowd. The sea of flowers around his feet.
As Park Minhyuk stared out across the crowds of people in the stalls and the stands of the theatre, he finally felt content with all of the hard work and pain he had put into perfecting his craft. All of the sleepless nights, the worries and the doubts were whisked away, leaving behind only pure, unadulterated joy. It was exhilarating. He finally felt as though he could breathe properly, like a fish in water. Completely at home and at peace.
At twenty-four years old, his first opening night as principal dancer of the Korean National ballet was over but in the young ballerino’s eyes, life had only just begun. The adrenaline was still coursing through Minhyuk’s veins and he could no longer contain his grin.
He had really done it.
Minhyuk quickly turned to the left, sparing his friend Myungjun, dressed in a ridiculous costume for Cinderella’s step-sister, a wide smile as he too basked in the euphoric shouts of the audience.
He couldn’t believe it was over already. The heavy red curtains descended from up in the rafters and finally shielded the exhausted cast from view.
A collective sigh was released and Minhyuk smiled weakly at his partner Seoyun, who danced as Cinderella and in Minhyuk’s eyes was the epitome of elegance and poise. It also didn’t hurt that she had helped him not get his completely lost on his first day at the company although she did actually tease him mercilessly for years to come.
All of the dancers eventually began to filter off and Myungjun pranced over to Minhyuk and Seoyun, copious flowers held in his arms that he had scooped of the floor, which was littered in hues of pink, white and yellow. His frilly pink dress bore a very accurate resemblance to an overzealous cupcake, but to be frank in Minhyuk’s opinion, that suited him quite well.
“My fabulous little darling, these are for you, “ he thrust them into Minhyuk’s arms with a cackle, who blinked in surprise as Myungjun slung his arm around his shoulders “, well it would be nice if you were capable of saying anything?”
Myungjun shot Seoyun a grin and she laughe, shaking her head.
“I think he’s still in a state of shock. Knowing him, he’s not gonna come out of it anytime soon, right Minhyukkie?” Waving her arms in front of Minhyuk did nothing to wake Prince Charming from his stupor and Myunjun just snorted, slapping poor Minhyuk squarely between the shoulders.
“Hyung!” He spluttered indignantly, promptly stumbling and dropping the flowers; Myungjun just looked on with a hint of amusement.
“Ahhh your vocal cords function now, shocking. I was starting to think you’d gone mute.” He deadpanned, idly twirling a lily between his fingers before.
“It's just a bit scary y’know hyung, so many people came and so many were watching and they were watching ME…”
The two long time friends were the only ones left on the stage as Minhyuk scrambled to collect the remaining flowers, rambling to Myungjun who was watching on, a proud smile lingering on his lips.
“But honestly, gotta say that was the best night of my life.”
Minhyuk’s smile was so pure and hopeful that Myungjun’s usual sharp tongue died on his lips as he offered his hand to the principal dancer and pulled him up.
“No doubt it was.”
…………………….
“Oh my goodness, is all the glitz and glamour all too much for you?” Myungjun had successfully managed to drag Minhyuk to his dressing room with Seoyun’s help, when she found him still trying to coax Minhyuk away from the stage.
Backstage had always been principally ruled by hectic and manic chaos, but Minhyuk was still in some sort of a daze, his mind still a little hazy and blurred from the happiness. He almost bumped into at least fifty people on his way to his tiny dressing room, muttering hurried and bashful apologies as Myungjun and Seoyun shared knowing smiles.
It was a cosy room with rows of dressing tables and mirrors pushed up to one side, colourful makeup pallets and hairsprays scattered haphazardly along the surface.
Costumes from previous acts were hung up in the corner and all of their used shoes were lined up in neat rows. Head-pieces hung from the lights around the mirrors and the whole room was bathed in a warm glow. Dancers chattered left and right, combing the gel out of their hair, wiping of makeup and pulling on regular jeans and t-shirts.
Seoyun bade them both goodbye as she made her way to the female changing rooms with an elegant wave of her hand. And when she left Myunjun turned to Minhyuk, who finally looked as though he had come back to normal. However as he opened his mouth to speak, a stage assistant hurried up to him.
“Mr Park, sir, sorry to intrude…” the stage assistant mumbled, with a blush high on his cheeks and eyes downcast, staring at his toes.
He seemed a little star struck, avoiding the inquisitive gazes of both Minhyuk and Myungjun. The flock of dancers in the room continued without paying him much heed.
“Yeah, of course, how can I help you, umm…”
“Jaehyuk, ahh yes,” the young man seemed to snap out of his stupor as he sheepishly looked up to face the two dancers. “There’s a young member of the orchestra asking for you both, he’s really tall, plays the violin…” Jaehyuk carried on rambling a little.
Myungjun having been surveying this exchange with a large amount of amusement, placed his hand on jaehyuk’s shoulder with a smile, who immediately fell silent. He looked a little scared, to be honest.
“Yes, sorry about him, he’s a friend of mine, you can let him through. I’m sure Minhyuk will be happy to see him, right Minhyukie?” Myungjun flashed the starstruck boy one more dazzling smile and lightly pushed him out of the door.
“Thank you again,” the overzealous cupcake called after him and Minhyuk raised his hand in a little wave as the boy almost shot out of the door. The room erupted in warm laughter. Being starstruck by the sweet, disarming Minhyuk and crazy overdramatic Myunjun was something the rest of the dancers in the company could agree on.
“He looked so nervous! That’s so sweet aww,” Myungjun chuckled as he began to take of the frilly pink tutu he was dressed in, layers upon layers of chiffon and delicate lace.
Minhyuk let out a little sigh and grinned to himself, taking of his shoes and placing them neatly in his bag.
“I’m still not used to people being so nervous talking to me, it’s kinda weird! I mean, he literally looked almost petrified, I feel mean, like…”
He was cut of by an almost unholy screech as a blur zipped past Myungjun and engulfed Minhyuk in a throttling hug.
“Minhyuk, you were awesome today! I can’t believe that was your first show, you looked so professional.” Sanha held onto the shorter dancer so tightly, Minhyuk couldn’t even breathe. After extracting himself from the violinist’s death grip, Minhyuk smiled and sat down on one of the spare chairs in the room.
It was getting quite late so most of the other dancers had already bade their goodbyes and trudged home, leaving the room with only a light buzz of conversation. Sanha was still dressed in his orchestra attire, looking rather out of place in his tux.
“You were great too, playing first violin, it’s impressive! Remember last time? You were so nervous!” Sanha smiled bashfully as Minhyuk pulled him down to sit next to him.”You didn’t have too much trouble with the section you were worrying about, right? You said the runs were really hard.”
“Yeah, it was fine, I practiced enough…” he trailed of, a content proud smile on his youthful face.
“Hey, you didn’t even acknowledge your other hyung!” Myungjun sauntered over once again. Dressed in regular attire and with his layers of makeup washed off, he looked a lot younger. A lot more innocent. Personally, in Minhyuk’s opinion this was obviously inaccurate but…
I digress .
........
After bidding his three friends goodbye, Minhyuk sighed contentedly and made his way to the train station, the icy tendrils of his breath curling up in front of him and steaming up the glasses he had donned after finally taking out his contacts. While being necessary for the performance, the young dancer still found that they irritated his eyes slightly. He shivered. The first December snow would surely fall tonight.
Coat pulled tighter around his slight frame and gloves slipped on his hands, Minhyuk hurried down the stairs onto the platform. Avoiding bumping into people was no longer an issue at this late hour; most commuters had already returned to their warm homes and expecting families. Minhyuk was alone with his thoughts.
Maybe he could have meat for dinner tonight, some beef, to congratulate himself on his performance, he wondered. Something warm and hearty. Or maybe a stew? Minhyuk contemplated while idling, waiting for the delayed train. The toes of his beat-up trainers scuffed the concrete.
If he wanted beef he would need to pick some up from the 24 hour store across the street from his apartment. It wasn’t something he bought often.
Could he be bothered?
While lost in his meandering train of thought, the train pulled into the station. Metal doors slid open smoothly and Minhyuk hopped on, relishing in the light and heat. It was quiet, save for one austere looking lady periodically turning the pages of a well worn book, held delicately in her veiny hands.
The Great Gatsby .
Sounds old Minhyuk thought to himself.
The warmth of the carriage was most welcome; he could feel himself thawing as he took a seat by the frosted-over window. Snowflakes were already sticking themselves to the pane and swirling about outside, painting the city an opaque white.
I’m going to have to shovel snow tomorrow. Great.
Traffic lights and cars blinked past him in a rainbow-hued blur; the remaining few figures still out scurried about like ants, some pulling out umbrellas to shield themselves from the flock of snow descending upon the city. The boughs of the trees lining the streets sagged with the added frozen weight.
He finally got of the train, a half an hour commute later. The freshly fallen blanket crunched under Minhyuk’s inadequate footwear as he trudged home, soaking through the red canvas and freezing his already sore toes.
Great. Great...
As he climbed the stairs up to his abode, Minhyuk cast his eyes over across the street to the tailor’s across the street.
The cream-coloured shutters were draw tightly at this late hour but he could see all of the beautiful, exquisite skirts and suits, extravagant costumes and elegant dresses. As beautiful as the ones that had been worn on the stage that night. The flowers pooling around their feet. If he closed his eyes, Minhyuk could still hear the cheers. He smiled.
Chattering gusts of wind halted Minhyuk’s dreamy reminiscence and reluctantly with freezing fingers, he unlocked the door with the correct code and let himself in; all prospects of food had been forgotten, his weary body moving of its own accord, collapsing into his bed almost immediately. Fatigue weighed him down and he didn’t move a muscle, arms laying limply by his side, eyes hazily staring up at the ceiling, drooping with the weight of the past day.
Street lights cast a dull yellow glow over his room and spots of light danced behind his heavy lids. From between his tangling eyelashes, Minhyuk could still make out specks of dust on his ceiling along with a smattering of cobwebs in the very corners. He was oh so tired.
Oh so very tired.
…………………
Minhyuk realised then that you can’t be on stage everyday.
Once the beautiful notion of this magical fairytale had worn off, Minhyuk was abruptly brought back to the harsh reality of everyday mundane life. While this beautiful gem of an experience was still very alive and fresh in the dancer’s mind, he had to deal with the fact that not everyday would he hear the unanimous word of appreciation that was a stranger’s cheer. Not every day was a performance. It would lose its novelty. Would it not, if that were so?
Some days he would just be back in the practice room with his friends and colleagues, until his feet bled and head pounded. Ballet would always be exhilarating with or without the stage, but as Myunjun would most likely say, Minhyuk missed the pizzazz.
After the Ballet had had its run during the festive period, both the corps and principal dancers returned to their regular schedule, Minhyuk included. Back to normal. The weather, however it seemed had not received the memo.
One day in early February, Minhyuk had some difficulty with the ice in front of the entrance to his apartment and was running a little late to morning practice. Nothing too drastic, but it was enough to give the dancer the jitters as he hurried to de-ice the front steps before the complex.
He was up so early that he was the first to leave and therefore also the first to slip, giving himself a nasty bruise to add to his already growing collection. The cold weather was not pleasant to dance in, so Minhyuk wasn’t particularly fond of it anyway. The hazardous slip-and-slide in-front of him was only fueling his distaste.
Once he finally deemed the stairs safe, Minhyuk grabbed his bag up from the concrete floor and dashed to the station. It’s okay to be late once, he told himself in an attempt to comfort himself. Their teacher today was quite harsh when it came to punctuality and was adamant that everyone always arrive right on time. It didn’t matter to her whether or not you were the principal dancer.
Oh well.
When he rushed into the studio after hurriedly changing into his practice clothes and shoes, he found the majority of the dancers stretching or already at the bar, going over technique and testing their turn out and flexibility.
Myunjun was already sitting in box splits and offered Minhyuk a wave and a grin, calling him over. Teacher was still nowhere to be seen. He breathed a sigh of relief.
“Where have you been, mister?” Myungjun leant his body forward, collapsing in half completely as he surveyed the flustered looking Minhyuk with amusement.
The younger brushed it off with a begrudging smile, regained his composure,sighed, sat down next to Myunjun and went down into a pike with natural ease.
Minhyuk wasted absolutely no time in releasing the floodgates of annoyance that he had been building up for the past day. Everything from the weather to the incessant buzzing noise his heater made during the night had been aggravating him like a continuous itch.
Yesterday was supposed to have been a lovely relaxing day off, but his thoughts of unwinding had been mercilessly crushed by a series of truly unfortunate events.
“God, I’ve had an awful morning!” He complained, head already resting on his knees, voice slightly muffled.
“Doesn’t explain you being late, dumbass,” Myunjun tutted, a teasing smirk plastered on his features. He laughed at Minhuk’s attempted look of disdain and he turned away, “I waited for like fifteen minutes, was the train late? Did you sleep in because you were watching Jimin fancams late into the night at ungodly hours, like last week?.”
Minhyuk just rolled his eyes and turned away, continuing to reach forward until his calves were pleasantly aching.
“Shut up, you tiny twerp, you thirst after him too,” was all he managed, facing away from Myungjun in mock offense.
“Harsh but true!” Myunjun just chuckled at Minhyuk’s weak attempt to rile him up, “well, honestly same, these past couple of days have been kind of crap.”
Myungjun stood up and leant forward on the bar, stretching out his shoulders.
“Actually scratch that, really shitty would be more accurate.”
“Tell me about it. Can’t catch a break, I must haves one of that shitty luck.” Minhyuk huffed in exasperation and they shared a rueful smile.
Mutual complaining seemed to also be a mutual language between the two best friends; any sort of meeting likely ended with one bemoaning their tragic domestic situation to the other and the other providing some semblance of attempted moral support.
Last winter Myunjun’s dryer broke and Minhyuk didn’t hear the end of it for six god damn weeks.
They liked to feel sorry for themselves way too much and the back and forward banter was always quite cathartic.
Ever since they met all those years ago, Minhyuk a bright eyed, eager teen and Myungjun a slightly less mature twenty something, they had formed a strong bond over complaining about all of the stupid shit that went on in their busy lives. It was nice.
“If it helps Yuki ran away?”
Minhyuk was jerked back down to reality and turned to Myungjun.
“How in the hell is that supposed to help? That’s just unfortunate. It’s not going to make me any happier, ” Minhyuk deadpanned, Myungjun pouted as he began to do battlements at the bar.
“My little furry cuddling machine is gone, what is my single ass supposed to do at night now?!”
“I don’t know, buy a body pillow. That furball is a menace is a monster, she’s never liked me!”
Minhyuk was still slightly miffed that Myungjun’s cat had never taken a liking to him.
“I’m just going to ignore that, besides, she’ll come back, my princess loves me too much!” Myungjun stood in a elegant fifth position, hands framing his cheerful face.
Minhyuk allowed himself a little chuckle, eyes scrunching up into slits. His hair had been getting a little too long and was now falling into his face, obscuring his vision. He hurriedly tied it into a messy ponytail while Myunjun continued his chatter.
“Anyway have some, I don’t know, perspective?” Myungjun shrugged, “What’s the worst thing that happened to you then, my special snowflake?”
“Well first of all, I ran out of rice, which is honestly just stupid.” He tightened the elastic in his hair.
“I really should have gone to the store,” Minhyuk sighed in frustration and then chuckled at his own stupidity.
Myunjun let out a burst of laughter, all of the dancers’ head snapped in their direction almost immediately.
“What kind of Korean person runs out of rice, my boy you’ve hit an all time low.” Myungjun shook his head in mock sympathy as he stage whispered to avoid any more attention.
Minhyuk huffed in reply as he began to stretch out to go into splits. Some other dancers entered the room and waved at the two and Minhyuk shot them a disarming grin with a wave. Despite his unfortunate incidents, his mood was slowly changing for the better. Mid lunge he turned back to face Myungjun.
The light was finally filtering through the tall windows as the sun rose, bouncing off of the practice mirror, straining Minhyuk’s eyes.
“The worse thing is that is that this is just a sample of my shit luck.” He giggled.
“You ran out of rice, how tragic!”Myungjun cackled.
“It is tragic and I also fell over this morning!”
“You’re a ballet dancer where the hell is your coordination?”
“No where apparently and now my ass hurts.” Minhyuk was straining to try and stay standing without toppling over from laughter.
“Wow.”
“Shut up.”
The rest of the day continued with light banter and more practice, the teacher eventually arrived and they began to train until their muscles and joints screamed and ached. The Cinderella season was now over and now was the time for many more shows to prepare for, with Minhyuk centre stage once again. So many new sets to learn!
Eventually the principal dancers were separated and went to practice partner work together after a quick lunch.
Minhyuk was treated over his deliciously steaming beef stew to a complete dissertation as to why Yuki was a precious angel.
Minhyuk, now alternatively dubbed animal hating twat, was informed that he was without a shadow of a doubt incorrect and that he would suffer severely in the fiery pits of hell. Myungjun would valiantly defend that furry menace to his grave.
He sighed.
Once again it was time to go home and Minhyuk popped into the grocers on his regular route and picked up some vegetables and tofu, along with an extra sack rice and bottle of mirin. He payed quickly and hurried home, bracing the biting cold. Spring should come soon.