Work Text:
Prologue
Has everyone’s life always been as simple as it looks? Does everyone catch the same sight every morning? The blinding light, the orange of the skies the moment your eyes open; the brown of the soil on your jog, the whites and yellows in your breakfast, the glimpses of pinks and purples of the flowers lining the pavement perfectly contrasting the blue of the clouds on your way to work. Do we associate work with colors? Maybe its one color, like yellow for an office person burdened with tasks, who keeps jotting them on sticky notes. Maybe it’s a plethora of colors like for someone who works as a photographer, capturing all the memories out there. Do we all see lunch as the same white, reds and greens? How about the washed out colors of sunset spanning into the darkness of the night that leaves eventually, for us to catch the same sights again. It’s probably the same for all of us, but we all perceive and appreciate it in a different way.
Kwon Soonyoung's life has always been colorful, he has Synesthesia, he perceives music as colors, and he has learnt to appreciate every single one, but dare I say he is biased to shades of Orange and Cinnamon, most preferably together. His life has always been loving, be it his parents doting on him for being the youngest child or his teachers for hailing him as the brightest. No, it had not always been a happy story for him, but his experiences have ascertained him that Happiness is simple. Even now at the age of 24 he has one resolution, and that is to be happy.
Soonyoung’s happiness lies in practicing his hobby. If there is one thing he has enjoyed all his life, it’s dancing. He first fell in love with the art form at the teeny age of five, at the time when he spent his time dancing to bubbly children songs. His love for dancing only grew as a teenager when he began to explore more of it, when he fell in love with SHINee. Soonyoung’s parents have always been supportive of his dream; they truly believe their child is a star as he regards himself, HOSHI.
Hoshi, is a mononym he uses for his YouTube channel where he usually posts dance covers and it was up to the liking for a lot of people, but the channel really picked up pace after he started posting his original choreographies. Hoshi takes pride in his dance, but is as humble as a person can be. His day job is of a convenience store cashier. One would never imagine a person with over a million subscribers to live such an ordinary life.
For Soonyoung, the world is an inspiration; he is endowed with the gift of noticing the tiniest things in his day to day life and utilizes it in his art. The way the flowers bloom in spring, the way they fall in autumn or the street lights flickering at night, the way his legs move when he sits on the couch at the convenience store when there are no customers, he could make a dance move from something as ordinary as walking on the street, he is just naturally that creative and immensely hardworking.
Not everyone in the world is as gifted as him, but some are just meant to be nature’s most unique creations.
Lee Jihoon for instance;
He is the only heir of one of the richest, if not the richest families in their country. One would visualize him to have run into all the jollies the world has to offer. On the contrary, his life is wildly differing from a person who comes from money and power. Jihoon is a really simple man too, believe it or not, even though he is full of riches, his only true wealth is his original compositions, his family, friends and well-wishers.
Jihoon is regarded as a child prodigy; he has always been a true star. The way his slender fingers glide over the complex instruments, only to unintentionally guise it as an effortless task to the onlookers. The way his soft, mellow, tuneful and rich voice can cause a person to tremble.
He is one of the very few people who sing with their whole body, so soulful, one would lose their mind to it. Nobody has had the pleasure to be bewitched by this sight except for Seungcheol and his parents.
Jihoon has always been an introvert, not many times has he felt the need to engage in social conversations, and although it maybe regarded as one of the reasons for him coming off as grumpy and disinterested, he is anything but. In reality, he is just shy and a man of few words.
Jihoon’s inspiration comes from his ability to see soulmate bonds, his songs usually revolve around the concept of love, a majority of songs are tear-jerking because he has closely seen the tears at the end of some strings, some fractured and some so healthy it gave him hope.
His life at the age of 24 is solely dedicated to creating music and that’s what he does, as WOOZI, the most sought after genius when it comes to composing and producing music.
While Soonyoung is a Synesthete who appreciates all colors, Jihoon has never really enjoyed them as much, not because he is incapable of doing it, but for him, the color wheel hides behind innumerable red strings seemingly entwined, yet truly detangled, always contracting, however, never to the point of tear, but most importantly intangible.
°°°
Christmas has always been Soonyoung’s favorite time of the year for the sole reason that everything about it, is so him. It’s the season of holidays, of being joyful, everyone around is happy, lights go twinkling about, melodies floating in the air at all times, it’s a wonderland of red, green and white.
It also means New Year is right around the corner, which means a plethora of activities and events await him. One of his most favorite ones is the Christmas event organized by YouTube called YouTube Confab. Its YouTube’s take on Secret Santa.
The event is strictly on an invite basis, all the YouTubers doing well on the platform receive an invitation from YouTube to participate, and following confirmation of your participation, you receive a subsequent mail with the name of another YouTuber.
The gist of the event is to collaborate on a video, combining the contents of both the YouTube channels and uploading it on the 25th of December, 12 am KST. The video with the most number of Interactions within 24 hours wins a gift.
Needless to mention, Soonyoung is immensely looking forward to receiving his co-content creators name in the email. Last year, he was pleasantly surprised and thought he got extremely lucky, to have received his best friend’s channel. He choreographed their most viewed video, till date on their channel, MY I. They ended up winning the trip to Paris and Soonyoung happily left it to the two Chinese boyfriends to enjoy their all expense paid honeymoon. Junhui and Minghao still talk about that trip until today.
It’s one of Soonyoung’s favorite choreographies, but truth to be told, any song coming from WOOZI instantly becomes his favorite song and the choreography for them by extension become his favorite. Soonyoung has a sliver of hope each year hoping he sees that name in his email, however the whole world is aware that WOOZI isn’t social, and wouldn’t willingly participate this year as well.
It wasn’t every day that he loses focus like he has been losing today, but again, not everyday is his mind completely occupied by the thought of a certain someone.
Soonyoung sighs as he works on stacking the cereal boxes in their designated slots. It’s not his job, but he’d rather do it at once than watch Mingyu struggle with it for two hours and leave him no choice but to help him anyway. Mingyu is not a bad co-worker, he’s just too clumsy to be working in a convenience store, but hey, he is blessed in the height section and that surely helps around here.
“Hyung, did you receive your email yet?” Mingyu enquired from the counter.
“Mingoooo, it’s too early, I sent in my confirmation last night, it’s going to take time to process.” Soonyoung replied, sighing.
“I think you’ll get DK this year, it’ll be so cool to see you guys collab, his vocals and your performance. What do you think Hyung?” Mingyu’s enthusiastic voice boomed in the almost empty convenience store.
“Yah, your crush on DK is showing. Should I be concerned for my sweet Nonu?” Soonyoung jested on his way out of the storage room with more boxes of fruit loops.
“I think you should be concerned about me more, it’s always those damn books when it comes to your best friend!” Mingyu huffed folding his hands over his chest, a strong pout threatening to spill from his lips, if it weren’t for the bell at the door chiming.
“It’s okay, I’ll get you DK’s autograph when I meet him.” Soonyoung patted his back once he got back to the counter.
“Oh! There is an order to prepare. Can you do it for me? I need to leave early, Chan needs my help with his school program today.” Soonyoung requested, printing out the receipt to go with the delivery.
“Okay Hyung, 2 packs of instant rice, 1 Kimchi Ramen and 3 cokes, got it. See you tomorrow! Enjoy Hyung!” Mingyu bid him goodbye.
“Don’t have too much fun with the cats, they are capable of scratching and biting but hey, you do like cats too much for being a puppy, what can I say?” Soonyoung laughed and exited the store, bells chiming indicating his departure.
°°°
Jihoon usually doesn’t have to look too hard for inspiration, he has a muse, and that does wonders to his creative thinking, but same couldn’t be said about his productivity, for his muse also serves the purpose of being his biggest distraction. These days his mind is stuck on a more romantic track as against his recent upbeat uploads that made the whole of internet groove to his tunes.
He was wrecking his brain in fixing his music when Seungcheol stormed into the room, requesting him to use his laptop for uploading his new video. He was skeptical at first, but he didn’t question his friend’s request.
“Jihoonah, did you respond to the YouTube Confab Event mail yet?” Seungcheol asked amidst trying to complete his upload.
“Hyung, you should know me by now.” Jihoon groaned as he continued tapping the paper, clicking his pen, and swinging his legs trying to put words to his melody.
“All right, I’m done! Thank you for trusting me, remember that you love me too much to kill me.” Seungcheol’s deep voice reverberated in the closed studio, before he left, hearing the usual “Hmm” as a reply from Jihoon.
°°°
“Chan-ah! Pinch me.” Soonyoung dropped on the practice room floor with lilili yabbay blasting in the back.
“What happened?” Chan asked concerned at the state of his Hyung.
“Check the name in my email!” Soonyoung whispered in his dumbfounded state.
“Um SoundOfCoups? Hyung, I don’t understand?” Chan asked still confused at the unexpected reaction from his Hyung.
“The other one.” Soonyoung muttered, still pretending to be dead on the practice room floor.
“WOOZI.” Chan was equally stunned.
°°°
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YouTube Confab
Horangie Hoshi
To Me
Hi, this is Hoshi, I received your contact details through YouTube for the year end YouTube Confab event! I’m looking forward to this collaboration! Hope to hear back from you ASAP.
P.S: I’m a huge fan of your music. Not to mention, I’ve uploaded dance performances to almost all your songs, I just want you to know that it’s an honor for me to get this opportunity to collaborate with you. I hope this doesn’t scare you in any way, I am not obsessive fan I swear! But I really love your music!
(^～^;)ゞ
-Hoshi ☆ﾟ.*･
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Jihoon expected his day to be as per usual, after Seungcheol left him be, but that thought bounced out of his head as soon as he opened his first notification. Jihoon was rendered speechless. His mind went blank, and his heartbeat sped up, almost beating to the BPM of Adore U. Jihoon had to take a seat and had to try and calm himself down before he entirely claimed himself to be crazy for imagining things.
He exchanged several deep breaths before doing the first thing he felt that was needed to be done. He dialed his most frequently contacted number and waited for the person to pick up. As soon as the call got through, he very calmly said the only words running in his head “Fuck You!” before disconnecting the call. That didn’t calm his nerves so he dialed it back again, and hung up within 5 seconds of the call getting connected but not before saying “Fuck You!” again.
He was greeted with an explanation, which appears to have been pre formulated, considering the speed at which he received it.
“Jihoon-ah, don’t be mad at me, I know it was wrong for me to enroll you without your consent, but now that it’s done, I’m really hoping you received his name, because I believe this thing that you have going on is getting out of hand. This seemed like a perfect chance to resolve it. Just try to go with it. Please.”
Jihoon was too shook to formulate a thoughtful reply, and as if the heat of the moment melted his brain he accidentally sent an automated reply. Jihoon’s face turned several shades of red in embarrassment.
°°°
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Re: YouTube Confab
WOOZI. Today
to me
Okay.
WOOZI
Universe Factory
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Soonyoung face turned the same shades but because his face couldn’t take the heat because of feeling acknowledged. He can swear he has never been so flushed because of a single word, ever.
He went about his day getting teased by his co-workers and his friends alike. WOOZI was a mystery to everyone except his parents and friends, for all he knew he could’ve checked out his bills at the convenience store, crossed him while walking on the streets past his practice time, seen him on Sundays in cafés he had frequented with his friends.
Soonyoung wonders if WOOZI is as bright as he perceives him to be. When he hears adore you, his mind thinks pastel shades, but then he listens to fear, and his mind shifts to dark green, when he hears hug, he thinks of purple, the color of his blanket, his mind imagines blue when Pinwheel plays and yellow when he hears Holiday. Is WOOZI any of these, or is he completely different?
Soonyoung being the ever enthusiastic individual didn’t waste anymore time and decided to ask whether he would prefer if they stuck to discussing over SNS or meeting up was an option. He proposed both the scenarios in order to obviate any awkwardness.
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Re: YouTube Confab
Horangie Hoshi. Today
To WOOZI
WOOZI-ssi, I was wondering about how we would be going about with this team work.
I will leave it up to you to decide whether we could meet up or you would rather restrict this to online conversations.
Whatever you reckon would deem fit for the collaboration.
Hoping to hear back from you!
-Hoshi ☆ﾟ.*･｡ﾟ
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The response was instantaneous and undeniably confuting his conjecture.
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Re: YouTube Confab
WOOZI. Today
To me
It would be better to meet up and discuss this in person rather than over emails I suppose. I would certainly prefer any uncrowded places, preferably at non peak hours too. If you have any places in mind, let me know Hoshi-ssi.
WOOZI
Universe Factory
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Soonyoung’s stomach had manifested butterflies, no, an entire zoo, at the thought of meeting WOOZI in person.
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Re: YouTube Confab
Horangie Hoshi. Today
To WOOZI
Woozi-ssi, I hope your weekend looks good for a meet up at the Sunday Morning Café. Afternoons are relatively free of people. 4 pm would be the best time.
I’ll attach the location on maps below.
See you then.
http://maps.nv.SjJ9JhWjMsDsVC
-Hoshi ☆ﾟ.*･｡ﾟ
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Re: YouTube Confab
WOOZI. Today
To me
See you then, Hoshi-ssi.
WOOZI
Universe Factory
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°°°
Sunday Morning has been Soonyoung’s favorite place ever since he discovered it accidentally through Joshua’s YouTube account where the male posts café Vlogs of his popular café. This café surely houses a heavenly ambience, the one that relaxes you instantly and lifts up your spirits. He has met a fair share of people in this café for the first time, but that’s the thing about first meetings, they’re nerve wrecking, there’s no way around it.
There is no set thing running in Soonyoung’s mind when he arrives at the café, his mind immediately perceives pink, lots of pink and specs of gold, they’re playing Fallin’ Flower in the café again.
His fingers twirl by themselves, trying to keep up with the song. He is a ball of sunshine and unmistakably looks like one today in his yellow t-shirt almost entirely hidden by the white fur padded jacket, black pants with black shoes, awaiting his companion. The Café is almost empty as expected save for Joshua and his employees.
“Jisoo Hyung, long time no see?” Soonyoung waved as he greeted his Hyung after making his way to the counter.
“Hi Soonyoungie! Who did you get this year?” Joshua immediately asked trying to get the word out of him.
Soonyoung wasn’t going to fall for it, he had no intention of spoiling it like last year, “I’ll tell you if you tell me.”
Soonyoung had full intentions of continuing the conversation, if it weren’t for a customer entering and going straight to window seat without looking around that forced Joshua to go back at his duties
Soonyoung was taken aback with the newest male in sight, he could sense that he was at least a head smaller than him, warmly wrapped in winter wear from head to toe in all black, his cheeks were pink probably due to cold and Soonyoung would be lying if for a fleeting moment he didn’t pray to the heavens for him to be WOOZI.
Soonyoung rechecks the time and it was still a good half an hour to go so he was completely sure that it could not be him. That was until he hears the man speak.
“Hoshi-ssi?”
Soonyoung’s cheeks stained pink as he makes his way to the coffee table occupied by the possible love of his life. He balled his fist and chanted You can do this Soonie! Don’t be awkward! In his head repeatedly until he reached there and said “Will make you remember this picturesque day in the future.”
“You did not just quote the lyrics of Healing!” WOOZI said in his gentle voice that could put a nightingale to shame. Soonyoung just had to embarrass himself in front one of the person he admired the most.
After a long moment of Soonyoung cursing himself internally, WOOZI invited him to take a seat. They sat in silence for a couple of minutes, keeping to themselves, secretly catching their breaths.
Their silent thoughts were interrupted when another person entered the almost empty café. “Joshuji~” Jeonghan greeted his boyfriend and gave him a quick kiss before Joshua chastised him for PDA in front of customers.
“Oh! Soonyoungie is out on a date today?” Jeonghan teased with a smirk gracing his tilted head, being entirely aware of the predicament both the males are in just with a single glance at them.
“Ah, Hannie hyung, we, uh we just met, it’s not what you think it is.” Soonyoung’s hand pointed at the air between them and made it to his nape in order to curb the embarrassment at hand.
“It’s okay Soonyoungie, have fun!” Jeonghan smiled before escaping behind the counter to the pantry.
“Ah, WOOZI-ssi, would you like to order something?” Soonyoung enquired, trying to start a conversation to avoid answering WOOZI’s questions regarding this exchange.
“Not unless they offer Coke.” WOOZI’s replied in his soft voice, and Soonyoung can guarantee, he would battle the world alone if WOOZI asked him to in that voice.
“Oh um, then should we leave here? I know a place that sells coke nearby.” Soonyoung smiled his sunshine smile and who was WOOZI to say no to that.
They made they way out of the café and Soonyoung lead their way to the convenience store he worked at, the walk was pretty short and gave them the change in environment to lose any awkwardness they felt.
Soonyoung asked WOOZI to buy anything he likes and he returned with a pack of instant Ramen and two cans of coke. Soonyoung grabbed his favorite tteokboki and sat besides him, both of them facing the cold winter land through the walls of the convenience store.
During their meal Soonyoung asked WOOZI to address him as Soonyoung rather than Hoshi, since he was more used to getting called that in real life.
WOOZI in turn revealed his name is Jihoon, and would love for the favor to be mutual.
With their stomachs full, both of them had small talks about this and that, which never really lead to them talking about their channels or the purpose of their meet up, but none of them seem to be complaining.
Soonyoung ended up settling the bill, after convincing Jihoon that he in fact worked at the very convenience store, and that he had an employees discount or something which was totally not a thing because Mingyu looked more confused than ever when he said that.
They made their way out of the convenience store and braved the cold of the winter to take a walk around as per Soonyoung’s request. Soonyoung never really thought he had an actual legitimate crush on WOOZI up until today happened. He had convinced himself that he was just another fanboy.
He saw Jihoon walk a couple of steps ahead of him and took the chance to get a good look at the his new found crush. Jihoon looks cute, that’s all he could think. Jihoon was clad in his black hoodie and padding jacket, hands covered in gloves, muffler wrapped around his neck and his cute ear muffs protected him from the cold. Soonyoung was just admiring the view when Jihoon suddenly turned back and asked him a random question.
“Hey, do you know how to skate?”
“Like roller skating? I did, when I was 12 or something, why?” Soonyoung replied speeding up to match his steps with Jihoon’s.
“Ice-Skating?” Jihoon added.
“Ah, no I never tried it, what about you?” Soonyoung replied instantly.
“There’s a rink here, it looks good, want to try it?” Soonyoung wasn’t expecting Jihoon to ask him that, but hey, remember how Soonyoung thought earlier that he’d do whatever if Jihoon asked? that theory is true apparently.
So here they are, sitting at the bench right outside the ice rink, Soonyoung sweating his body due to his withheld nerves while Jihoon got them their correctly fitting ice skates from the counter.
“Jihoon, I don’t think this is a good idea…” Soonyoung suggested nervously.
“But you said you wanted to try it just minutes ago.” Jihoon pouted, and that’s that, he is going to skate today, even if he falls on his butt a hundred times he is doing it. The nerves in his body together with the butterflies in his stomach is not a good combination, Soonyoung learnt instantaneously when the fall count turned 1 immediately after he stepped on ice.
He was too embarrassed to get up, but Jihoon chuckled at him and gave him a hand.
“You’re already doing better than me Soonyoungie! Taking the first step is the most difficult, but you did it with such ease.” Jihoon encouraged him to try.
“Okay, look at me, hold on to the edge and try to balance yourself. Don’t tuck your knees out, fold them in.” Jihoon helped and Soonyoung followed his instructions, struggling to find the right pose.
“Ah, how do I explain, okay, stand like Anime girls do! Don’t laugh!” Jihoon whined when Soonyoung wouldn’t stop laughing at his explanation.
“Okay, that’s good, now remember, keep your feet shoulder width apart, it’ll give you a good balance, and try to bend your knees slightly so they’re parallel to the skates.” Jihoon further explained.
“Give me an example Jihoon,” Soonyoung teased, not expecting him to actually give him an example.
“Um like how you bend your knees in the chorus of your highlight cover, during the standing part? Exactly that much.” Jihoon replied and Soonyoung was stunned.
Soonyoung tried to follow his instructions but who is to blame him for falling on his butt for the second time that day. His mind was occupied by the fact that Jihoon has watched his videos, and could single out one particular move. Soonyoung didn’t know what to do with this information.
Once Soonyoung was back on his feet, Jihoon encouraged him to walk slowly while still keeping hold of the edge.
It took an entire round and a half around the huge ice rink for Soonyoung to stand perfectly on his ice skates and Jihoon’s face bloomed into a wide smile communicating how proud he felt.
“Let’s try to walk, shall we?” Jihoon asked skating in front of Soonyoung.
“What do you mean? I’m not letting go of this Jihoon!” Soonyoung huffed and stood his ground.
“Soonyoung what’s the point if you just stay at the edge, it’s more fun out there in the middle. Come on, I’ll help you.” Jihoon tried to coax him into trying it out and let’s just say his voice is magic.
“Look at my feet, once you balance yourself on the skates, to move forward, you need to use your right skate to push off the ice, shift your weight on your left skate, balance there for two seconds and put your right foot down. See it’s simple!” Jihoon demonstrated and Soonyoung seems lost.
Soonyoung tried and failed at least 4 times and is now concerned for his butt.
“You’re getting there Soonie, just flick your ankle in and don’t forget to rise up when you put your right foot down. Here give me your hands.” Jihoon offered to take his hands and guide him around the rink.
Soonyoung immediately hopped on the suggestion and fell on his butt for the 7th time before he finally locked his hands with Jihoon. Jihoon glided him around the open rink while humming and appreciating Soonyoung’s progress as they go.
“You’ll get a hang of it; it’s a lot like dancing, all about balance. Remember to align your shoulder with the knee your putting the weight on, and you’ll be fine.” Jihoon smiled as he tilted his head up to look at Soonyoung.
“Just so you know; I’d rather dance to hit 5 times in a row than do this.” Soonyoung groaned as Jihoon guided him, back to the entrance.
By the time they were done, both of them were too tired to remember the motive of their rendezvous.
They fooled around the Christmas Carnival for the rest of the evening and Soonyoung left for home with a tiger plushie upon Jihoon’s insistence but not before exchanging phone numbers. Soonyoung was still not over how comfortable they got with each other in half a day, but he wasn’t complaining.
°°°
Both Soonyoung and Jihoon were eager to talk to each other and constantly kept in contact through out the day via texts and sometimes emails when Jihoon sends him snippets of his songs.
After a week or so, Soonyoung realized they completely forgot to discuss their Confab video so he decided to shoot a text to Jihoon to call him at his free time to talk regarding the same. Before meeting WOOZI, he had come up with a couple of ideas but is as confused as ever now.
“Jihoon, how did you get into Music?” Soonyoung decided to ask Jihoon on call that night, in order to get a better perspective so that he can think of better ideas.
“My parents made me learn instruments since a very early age. Why do you ask?” Jihoon enquired.
“Hmm, I just thought it’ll help me think better. Is there anything interesting you remember that we can use?” Soonyoung questioned.
“This is going to sound so weird, but promise me you won’t be creeped out.” Jihoon sighed and asked for his word before continuing.
“Jihoon, my first words to you were your lyrics, not even a greeting, I don’t think you need to worry about being weirder than me.” Soonyoung laughed.
“Okay, so the reason why I got into composing music was because I wanted to repay someone….. someone from my highschool.” Jihoon slowly said the words waiting for his reaction.
“Oh, tell me more?” Soonyoung probed with a blank mind, not expecting the pit he is about to fall in.
“So, Um a little premise, I can see the red strings of fate.” Jihoon mentioned it as if it’s a very casual thing and not a rare one in a billion odd.
“Oh, wow, I didn’t expect that coming. Do you see mine too?” Soonyoung asked eyes twinkling at the thought of someone existing on the other side of the string for him.
“Hmm, yes, I can. Should I continue with the story or-? Jihoon asked, not wanting to talk about Soonyoung’s string.
“Yes please, tell me more.” Soonyoung’s excitement was through the roof.
“So, you know how there are a lot of people right, so I usually stick to staying inside, because most of the times, all I can see is red. It used to hurt me when I saw strings break in front of my eyes and not have the power to do anything.” Jihoon explained further.
“I’m so sorry Jihoon, I didn’t know it’s that hard.” Soonyoung’s concern was evident, but Jihoon continued.
“I know, it was unavoidable when I was at school and I started hating the color red, I stated avoiding people at school, and that lead to me being outcast at school and I changed my schools often, until I enrolled…….at Pledis High.” Jihoon mentioned the last part slowly, giving Soonyoung time to digest the information.
“We went to the same school?” Soonyoung was now so confused because he knew almost everyone in his school that was the same age as him; he was just that social, so why can’t he recall Jihoon.
“Don’t think too much, I told you, I stuck to being alone. Anyway, so one day, I was in the music room, practicing the instruments, I tried singing a song, and no I didn’t sing back then, so imagine my surprise when a boy walks straight in the practice room and proclaims that I need to sing more, because he likes Red, and he sees Red when I sing.” Again, Jihoon gave him a couple of seconds to process this information.
“Wow, that’s wow.” Soonyoung was stupefied; his jaw was threatening to drop down to the floor.
“I didn’t know what to think, I saw the boy again the next day, but this time he was performing and all I could see was him. I don’t remember seeing red because I was so focused on him. Then I decided to make music, so he can dance to them one day.” Soonyoung could hear Jihoon’s fond smile.
“Did he?” Soonyoung asked in a tiny voice. He was almost about to cry, upset at the thought of Jihoon creating music for a specific person that wasn’t him to dance to.
“He did, he still does. He’s my number 1 fan boy, I was always so blinded by his existence that sometimes I failed to notice the red string of fate hanging loose between us.” Jihoon recalled his memories fondly.
“That’s so cute.” Soonyoung muttered, still not getting over the fact that Jihoon made songs specifically for his soulmate and he kept on making dance covers of them.
“Jihoon, I think I should apologize, I didn’t know you made them for a specific person, I wouldn’t have made use of your songs if I knew.” Soonyoung apologized, feeling as if he has lost purpose in life.
“You know, I only spoke to him once in highschool. I was at the park on a weekend, skating with our butler, when he approached me to tell me that he remembered me from music room earlier. I wanted to say thank you, but I embarrassed myself when instead of thanking him, I replied with 'do you know how to skate?'” Jihoon’s laughed resonated through the speaker of Soonyoung’s phone.
“And, what did he say?” Soonyoung asked, still very much invested in Jihoon’s story.
“He didn’t, but he told me he wanted to learn it some day when he danced well enough that he can cut hours on dance practice. You could say I was floored, right then and there. That day I decided I will do at least two things in life, make songs for him to dance to, and teach him skating.” Jihoon whispered his last sentence and Soonyoung’s mind was too clouded with thoughts running wild.
“Soonyoung, are you there? Do you want to say something?” Jihoon asked, hoping he has taken the hint, so that he’d be spared of further explanation.
“I have Synesthesia.” Soonyoung blurted, not knowing what to say.
“Yes, and I tried to teach you how to skate.” Jihoon supplied hoping at least now the man will take the hint, but the line met with silence for 30 seconds too long.
“Oh my god, Soonyoung, you went to Pledis high, you dance, you have synesthesia, and I tried to teach you skating, what’s not clicking?” Jihoon groaned.
“Please don’t make me spell it out for you more than I already have!” Jihoon’s voice was muffled as if he dropped his head on a pillow.
“Jihoon, I can’t believe this. It’s too good to be true. I need to get Wonwoo to pinch me.” Soonyoung yelled after a long pause, still not ready to accept anything.
“Believe me Soonyoung, you’ve been the Wind of change in my life.” Jihoon teased and Soonyoung blushed a shade deeper than pink.
“Jihoon I know what we’re gonna do for our YouTube Confab. Wait, oh my god! Is this fate’s way to get us together?” Soonyoung squealed like a hyper teenager.
“No, I don’t think so, it’s Seungcheol’s way.” Jihoon laughed.
“Hm?” Soonyoung hummed, expecting an explanation.
“You got him first right? He switched out my name with his for you, well YouTube did when he withdrew, but it’s all on him. I’m kind of glad he did now.” Jihoon explained the event, and they both laughed.
“Let’s click a picture next time, I’ll draw the string on for you.”Jihoon suggested, fondness very evident in his voice.
Soonyoung gasped, “You can do that?”
“Only if you say that you’re a hamster in your next video.” Jihoon teased and Soonyoung pouted for a whole minute before giving in, just once.
Soonyoung’s magnificent idea was to film them ice skating to an original composition, but Soonyoung didn’t know how to skate and Jihoon refused to reveal his identity, so it’s safe to assume their YouTube video titled “Skate with the Wind” stood no chance of winning against, Seungkwan's History of K-pop combined with Vernon’s rap.
That didn’t dishearten them in any way, because their next video titled BOYFRIEND’s TAG on WOOZI’s channel trended worldwide even though WOOZI's face was nowhere physically seen in the video.