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Doyoung throws his bag on the ground and rolls up his sleeves. If the company wants him to dance for the next collab, he has no problem with that. He just needs to learn the choreo first, which shouldn’t be too hard. While Doyoung may not be the top dancer in SM’s company, he could still seduce a crowd with his moves.
About two months ago marked the release of his first full solo album, and one month since promotions ended. Now, his manager had booked a collaboration for Doyoung with some other artist, he wasn’t told who yet, and given a video of the choreography he’d need to learn along with the song. It was a smooth tune that had a soft feeling, it fit Doyoung’s style well as he mostly wrote ballads. Doyoung was recognized in the company for his unique voice that melted any listener’s heart, so singing collabs, osts, and other things as such were usually given to him. He may not be the most popular singer out there or even in the company, that title was saved for Inseok, but he was definitely well known and wasn’t unpopular. After his release of his recent album, his popularity had been growing exponentially as well.
Doyoung sighs and shakes his head, pushing his wavy black hair out from his eyes. He quickly finds the file and presses play, stepping back and copying the movements he’s already watched throughout the week. Everything goes smoothly so far, besides some of the faster parts, but Doyoung observes one move at a time, copies it, checks it in the mirror, then adds it on with the others. Once the second person enters the choreo, he stops the video and rewinds it to the beginning, taking it from the top. As he runs through it all, he sings out his lines to practice keeping a stable sound.
“You’re doing it wrong.” Doyoung freezes. He hadn’t seen anyone when walking into the practice room, but as he turns back to the resting area, he spots a tiny scrunched up figure tucked in the back corner of the couch. Music sheets are littered around and a laptop sits in front of the person, earbuds hanging down from it. Doyoung squints, and as the person positions upright, he knows exactly who it is.
Lee Taeyong. The jewel of SM, admired by his fans, the staff, the general public. Popular for his intense visuals, elite rapping skills, and absolutely badass dancing style, Lee Taeyong was someone Doyoung did not want to run into due to his inferiority. This kid had it all. Doyoung was indeed impressed by his talents, who wouldn’t be, but he doubted someone could be that close to perfect in real life. The dude was scary, and Doyoung held a bit of resentment for him. Even though there wasn’t an exact reason for his feelings of dislike, they were there. Right now, after being rudely interrupted, if Doyoung couldn’t hold back his tongue at the guy he might get into real trouble.
“Excuse me?” Doyoung asks, he unfreezes and pauses the guide video. Taeyong shoves his papers aside and sets his laptop on the couch, rising and walking over to Doyoung.
“Here, I’ll show you.” Taeyong stands next to Doyoung and presses play on the recently paused video, he follows along extremely well for his first time seeing it. Which is impressive, but Doyoung feels a bit salty about it as it’s his choreo to learn, not Taeyong’s. Is he trying to show off and rub in his dancing skills?
“I see,” Doyoung lies. He copies exactly what the older just did, but halfway through a dance move in which he circles his chest Taeyong bursts into laughter next to him. It’s a strange sound, kind of like the boy is choking on air, and makes Doyoung wonder if he’s actually choking. A very small part of him wishes he is. Doyoung furrows his brows and frowns. “What’s wrong?”
Taeyong breathes in and controls his laughter, apologizing at the same time, “Sorry sorry, It’s just that you only used your left chest on this move.”
“What? No, I used both sides.” Frustration begins to build up in Doyoung, he didn’t ask for help but Lee Taeyong decided he was just going to walk on over, offer unwanted help, then make fun of him. If this guy didn’t leave him alone soon, Doyoung might actually storm out of there.
“I’m not kidding! Here.” Taeyong taps him and motions for Doyoung to watch, Taeyong does the exact same move. Moving his chest out and circling it, but he doesn’t do it all the way. “Ah, it’s harder this way, I don’t know if I can replicate it for you. Just try again.”
Doyoung holds himself back from saying anything, instead clenches his teeth together. Maybe if he satisfies the pink haired boy then he’ll go away. He does the dance move again, thoroughly making sure to completely puff out his chest and bring it back around. Taeyong claps beside him and makes some kind of weird congratulatory noise Doyoung’s never heard a human make before.
“If you do it like that it’ll look really cool,” Taeyong coos. Doyoung looks over and properly exams him, he didn’t have much interest to look before but now it was inevitable. He’d run into Taeyong a couple times since joining the company, I mean they worked in the same building so it was bound to happen. Up close he truly was quite handsome like everyone said, even more so than all the pictures of him online. It honestly took Doyoung off guard a little to be that close to such a naturally beautiful man. Despite the strongly scary persona Taeyong displayed on stage when he rapped, here he was buried under a large grey hoodie with some doodles all over it and medium blue sweats. He wasn’t even wearing any shoes, just some socks with cartoon characters on them, the whole thing truly was a confusing sight to Doyoung. Taeyong’s messy bubblegum colored hair didn’t make it any less confusing either. Everything was just so opposite from what he’d seen of Taeyong out on stage.
Doyoung snaps out of his trance, remembering where he is, and responds half-heartedly, “Thanks.”
“Should we run through the rest?” Taeyong asks in a cheery tone. Right now Doyoung isn’t in the mood for his enthusiasm, how is this guy so chill with just interrupting his practice like this?
“Don’t you have your own work to do?” Doyoung looks behind Taeyong at the couch covered with scattered papers and an overheating laptop. He watches as the older looks back as well and frowns.
“I guess I do need to finish what I was doing,” Taeyong slowly trudges over to his stuff and begins to collect it all up. He also slips his sneakers on which are placed next to a backpack on the floor. There’s too many papers though and Doyoung wants him to leave faster so he strides over and helps stack them. After neatly piling several up, he hands them to Taeyong who thanks him and shoves them into a binder. Doyoung smiles to himself as the pink haired boy tucks the laptop away in his backpack and closes it. He continues to smile as Taeyong looks up and pretends the grin is for him.
“Good luck on learning your dance! Keep up the good work,” Taeyong advises. He waves a little to Doyoung while exiting the studio and Doyoung gives a little wave back filled with joy at seeing him leave. Once Taeyong was truly out of the practice room Doyoung makes a scoring motion and turns back to the media player. He happily skips over to it and rewinds to the beginning once more.
The rest of his practice time is spent running through the individual choreo parts and previewing some of the partner moments. As much as he hates to admit it though, the pointers Lee Taeyong had given him do help. They improve his speed in a few areas and yes, he does end up using his full chest for that one move. That boy was really something, Doyoung didn’t expect him to be that chill in real life, but then again no artist’s persona was exactly the same as their actual personality. Whatever, Doyoung doesn’t want to think about Taeyong anymore, it makes him upset, so he switches over to singing. Early in the week he memorized all the lyrics and took notes on their meanings while highlighting main points. Now thanks to all his previous work he only has to put the notes along with the lyrics. He spends the rest of the day alone in the practice room, and that is just how he wants it.