Chapter Text
Wonwoo ducks to avoid another flying elbow. The concert was loud, crowded and he would like nothing better then to be back in his dorm reading a book or really, just doing anything that wasn’t...this. He had lost count of how many times he had been accidentally hit by a fan’s crazy dance move, and at this point he was pretty sure he had at least one busted eardrum.
“Isn’t this amazing?” Soonyoung yells from beside him. It was, of course, his idea to come here in the first place. Why Wonwoo let him drag him here was beyond him.
“Yeah it’s...great.” Wonwoo doesn’t even try to mask the exhaustion and displeasure in his voice.
“Oh come on, Wonwoo, you need to lighten up a little,” screams Hansol’s hoarse voice. He’s only two spots away from him and still Wonwoo has to strain his ears to hear over the roaring of the crowd. “You study too much, I’m sure one night out won’t hurt your perfect average that much.” He chuckles at his own joke.
Wonwoo lets out an audible sigh; it had already been about two hours and he wondered how much longer this would go on. Just as the thought entered his head, he heard Soonyoung squeal.
“Oh god, it’s finally time. Of course they would save her for the closing act, she is the best after all.” Wonwoo let out a sigh of relief. The her Soonyoung was referring to was Baek Jiyoung and Soonyoung was essentially, as far as Wonwoo knew, her biggest fan. The singer got up on stage and flashed a bright smile to the crowd then launched into her first song. Wonwoo could hear Hansol and Soonyoung screaming wildly in the background but he had tuned himself out. At this point he was just waiting for this all to be over. He had to admit though, the singer had a very nice voice. It was sweet but at the same time was able to effortlessly hit both the highest and lowest notes.
Maybe next time Soonyoung should take Seungkwan or Joshua instead of me, he thought. Wonwoo looks up at the stage intently for the first time that night. He honestly felt a little guilty for not trying to enjoy the whole experience more; the least he could do was be attentive for Soonyoung and Hansol’s favourite. The singer is doing a simple dance while singing, being accompanied by four backup dancers, two on either side of her. As he scans each of their faces, his breath catches in his throat as his eyes lock onto the first dancer to her right.
All the dancers are supposed to be portraying a sort of dangerous and sexy concept to fit the song in the background, and granted they all look great, but this dancer seems to have been born for it. He was dancing so intensely but effortlessly at the same time as if, even though he was only a backup dancer, he had the whole audience’s attention. When he moved his arm, or jerked his head to the side, Wonwoo’s gaze followed him. He was tall, but maybe not as tall as Wonwoo himself, with messy black hair that fell over his dark eyes. He was wearing a leather jacket, black pants and a black choker around his neck, like the other dancers but for some reason, on him it perfectly contributed to the “sexy” image that he was trying to portray.
In the midst of all this, as Wonwoo is still dazed from his incredibly good looks, the dancer’s head turns and their eyes lock. True, there are people in front of them, many people in fact, but there is no denying that his gaze is directly on Wonwoo. As he realizes this, a shiver runs down his spine and his face begins to burn up and, try as he might, he can't break the gaze of the dancer’s piercing black eyes. He feels like he’s been frozen in place. Why. Why me? He thinks somewhat wearily to himself. There are thousands of other fans here but of course being the lucky guy Wonwoo is, he decides to single him out. “Let me pick the most vulnerable looking person here,” is what he imagines is going through the dancer’s head as he continues performing the choreographed hip thrusts and body rolls flawlessly, all while remaining locked in an intense staring match with Wonwoo.
Finally, after what seems like an hour but was more likely only about a minute or so, the dancer breaks eye contact, possibly because he takes pity on Wonwoo who now feels as if he is going to faint. When Wonwoo finally gains back enough of his courage to look up, the dancer is undoubtedly smirking as if he is pleased with Wonwoo’s reaction. To Wonwoo’s relief (or perhaps disappointment), the dancer does not look back at him for the rest of the song. Just as Wonwoo is about to begin breathing again, the music starts up.
This time it’s a much slower paced song, and at some point when Wonwoo was busy trying not to hyperventilate, three of the dancers had exited the stage leaving just the singer and of course, the dancer with the piercing eyes. He hadn’t even looked at him, and already, Wonwoo can feel his heart start to race.
How pathetic are you that all it takes is one pretty guy looking at you to get your heart to race? Snap out of it, Wonwoo. He tries paying attention to the music instead of the thumping in his chest. This seems to be a slow ballad type of song with a sad and lamenting melody, and though the singer’s voice was again, beautiful, the accompanying dance was something altogether ethereal. The dancer moved with such grace and beauty, executing every move seemingly perfectly, moving his hands around his head and gripping his chest as if the pain expressed through the song was his own. Wonwoo wondered how old he was; he appeared to be around the same age as him, but to be so young and already dancing backup for a singer like Baek Jiyoung… Wonwoo would be lying if he said he wasn’t impressed. They were arriving at the peak of the song now, the bass becoming louder and faster mimicking the fierce beating of his own heart. On stage the dancer knowingly throws a quick glance in Wonwoo’s direction.
I’m ready for it this time, he thinks to himself. He stares directly into the dancer’s eyes, filled with determination; there was no way he was going to let some random guy mock him like this. But of course, things are always easier said than done, because at this moment the dancer falls dramatically down to his knees, slamming his arms onto the ground and whipping his head back, throwing the leather jacket off his shoulders down to his elbows as Baek Jiyoung hits the climactic high note. The crowd cheers and yells for more but to Wonwoo everything sounds muted. The dancer is still on his knees as bends his head back and winks seductively at Wonwoo. Wonwoo wants to scream, cry, maybe a combination of the two. He wants to hide his head in his hands and curl up into a ball. But he can do none of these things as his body refuses to listen to him and remains completely frozen in place as he feels the tips of his ears begin to get hot and spread through his whole face. What happened to not letting him push you around!? A tiny voice in his head screams at him. The dancer smirks at him again. There is no doubt now that he is enjoying this, watching him squirm. Either way, Wonwoo can still feel his heart threatening to burst out of his chest as the song finally ends, and with one last infuriating smirk the dancer exits the stage.
“That was probably the best concert of my life,” exclaims Hansol as they exit the crowded venue.
“Right?” gushes Soonyoung. As they continue to talk about which was the best performance and who had the nicest outfit, Wonwoo can only blankly stare ahead as he relays the night’s events in his head over and over. Or more specifically, the events of the last two acts.
“So Wonwoo,” Soonyoung looks at him with bright eyes. “What did you think about the performances?
“Oh...most of them were great,” He’s still half dazed at this point.
Soonyoung beams. “Weren’t they? I’m so glad you agreed to come.” Wonwoo blinks and after some time to process what Soonyoung just said, adds, “oh yeah, me too.” It wasn’t necessarily false; he may have not been paying attention to most of the show, but what he did see was...interesting to say the least.
Hansol laughs as he dodges people loitering around the venue.
“Are you okay man?” he says, gripping his hand. “You look like you're about to pass out where you stand.”
”I’m fine, I’m just-” But before Wonwoo can finish his sentence, a quartet of giggling high school students, probably still high off the excitement of the concert, ram into him from behind knocking the wind out of him. He loses his balance and sprawls out onto the ground.
“Oh crap!” One girl realizes what she had done as she runs back towards a stunned Wonwoo lying outstretched on the pavement and quickly offers a hand to help him up.
“Sorry about that.” she says cheerily, pulling him up. “It’s fine don’t worry Wonwoo’s heart drops. Somewhere in the scuffle he lost sight of Soonyoung and Hansol. Wonwoo silently curses his luck. “Dammit, why can’t I learn to pay attention,” he mutters under his breath. He looks around for a few more seconds and when neither Soonyoung nor Hansol pop out, he comes to the conclusion that this is not just one of their jokes, and begins to panic.
It’s fine, just find a quiet corner somewhere and call them, no big deal. That however, didn’t turn out to be an easy feat, as every corner of the venue’s entrance was packed with people. He heads outside and instantly feels the crisp, cool night air blow into his face. It was a welcome sensation, after being packed into a tiny event center for a little over two hours. Outside, it’s still crowded but with assuredly less people milling compared to the chaos inside. Still no Hansol or Soonyoung though. He takes one last look around the crowd and ducks through the fans into a quiet alleyway a little distance away from the main entrance of the venue where he is finally able to take a deep breath. However, the world must hate him, as when he tries both Soonyoung and Hansol’s phones, neither of them pick up. Wherever they were, it was probably too loud for them to hear their phones go off. Well, he thinks dejectedly, you truly are Jeon Wonwoo: Bag of Luck.
He lets out a sigh and slumps down the wall of the alleyway onto the cold pavement. As Wonwoo mulls over his current situation he hears an unfamiliar voice that makes him jump.
“You look lost.”
Wonwoo, in his already exhausted and moderately frantic state, whips towards the unknown voice so quickly, that he smacks his head against the brick wall, shooting a hot pain up to the side of his head. “Dammit!” Wonwoo yells in frustration. What else could possibly go wrong? Wonwoo looks towards the stranger, in order to give him a piece of his mind and lecture him on why it’s impolite to sneak up on people.
“Thanks but that’s none of your-“ Wonwoo almost chokes on his on breath for what seems like the tenth time that night, as he sees none other than the dancer, standing a few feet away with a weird, almost pained expression on his face as if he’s trying not to burst out laughing. For a moment, time seemed frozen, Wonwoo and the dancer in front of him stared at each other in silence until the dancer burst out laughing.
Wonwoo, dumbfounded continues to stare, as he watches the dancer try to contain his laughter by covering his mouth with his hand.
Wonwoo thinks this was the sort of stupid and cliché thing that only happened in dramas and books. He could picture it perfectly in his head, “Unlucky, clumsy model student meets hot-headed, sarcastic bad boy in awkward fashion!” Wonwoo hated clichés.
“I didn’t know one person could be so unlucky.” He says looking at Wonwoo with a grin.
“Ya well I’m special like that,” Wonwoo says tiredly. “Who are you again?” The dancer smirks and Wonwoo feels the hair on his arms stand up as a shiver runs down his spine.
“You know, it’s not polite to ask for someone’s name before giving your own.”
Wonwoo’s eye twitches. Seeing the dancer up close makes him realize small details that he had missed during the show. The subtle black eyeliner under his eyes, the fact that the choker was much too long for his thin neck, the light patches on his dark jeans probably from that cursed duet performance with Baek Jiyoung.
The dancer’s voice snaps him back into reality. “Anyways, I’m here for a reason even though I would love to stay and chat all day. I’m fulfilling my good deed for the month.”
The dancer reaches into the pocket and pulls out a brown leather wallet with a silver music note charm attached to the small zipper.
“Hey, that’s mine!” In all the confusion of the past few minutes Wonwoo hadn’t even realized he’d lost his wallet.
“Of course, I’m returning it to you,” he says, tossing the wallet back to Wonwoo.
“Don’t worry I didn’t steal anything.” He says as Wonwoo checks the wallet’s contents. He proceeds to laugh at his own lame joke...if it could even be called that. Wonwoo racks his brain trying to remember where he could have dropped his wallet, when he remembers the scuffle with the fan in the venue, he must have dropped it when he fell. Really, it was a miracle that anyone was able to notice such a small wallet, after all the crowds were so dense…
“Wait a minute! Were you following me?”
The dancer's eyes widen and he shakes his head aggressively is mock disbelief “Of course not! I don’t even know you! But like I said, I have a monthly quota that needs to be filled and it was an honour to fill it for someone as impressive as you.”
“What are you-” Wonwoo closed his eyes. He needed a minute. “Did you look through my wallet?”
“Well I needed to know who to return it to didn’t I?” he says cheerfully. He leans against the brick wall, then sighs and slumps down the wall next to him and turns his eyes towards Wonwoo. The dancer’s eyes were black. There was nothing special about the look of them, but he thought his eyes were special because even in just the few minutes they had been talking, Wonwoo noticed the dancer’s eyes changing each time he spoke, clearly showing Wonwoo how he felt at every moment. Wonwoo though he could probably have a silent conversation just with eye contact alone.
“It’s really amazing you were able to get into Pledis University,” the dancer said resting his chin on his knees. “I heard only the best of the best are even considered, and you’re even in the top percent.”
He knew all of this from the student card of course. The students in the top five percent of Pledis University all had indicators on their student ID’s. You know...to brag.
“You’re awfully interested in my school life.” He says meeting the dancer's gaze. I think it’s pretty unfair you know so much about me but I still know nothing about you.
“You shouldn’t have dropped your wallet.” the dancer teases. Anyway, instead of talking about me, I have something else I want to know, I saw you in the audience tonight, did you enjoy the show?
Whether the dancer was referring to the overall concert or the “show” that he put on seemingly just for Wonwoo during the last two performances, Wonwoo couldn’t say. Either way, remembering the night's events made him break out into a cold sweat. However, Wonwoo figures that he at least owes it to him to respond after he returned his wallet and all.
“Honestly, I didn’t pay much attention to most of it, my friend Soonyoung really likes Baek Jiyoung though, so I felt like I owed it to him to pay attention to the last two performances at least.”
“Oh?” The dancer looks at him attentively as if this was the most interesting thing he had ever heard.
Wonwoo thought with his wide eyes, pouty lips, and chubby-ish cheeks, he looked like some sort of cat...or maybe a bunny? Either way, it was distracting, and though Wonwoo would love to pretend as if he hadn’t even noticed him on stage, his stupid face was compelling him to tell the truth.
Wonwoo takes a deep breath. “To be honest, I noticed your dancing during the last two acts, you’re...really good.”
The dancer breaks out into a huge smile. “But of course!” he says, bowing his head like Wonwoo’s approval was the highest possible praise. “Well, it’s been great chatting but I have places to go,” the dancer said, patting Wonwoo’s leg as he stands up. “Something tells me you have people looking for you anyway.”
It took a moment for this to process through Wonwoo’s head. Hansol and Soonyoung! He completely forgot about them!” He wanted to hit himself; how long had this conversation even been going on?
“Sounds like you have somewhere you need to be,” says the dancer. Wonwoo shrugs, doing his best to act nonchalant, there was something he wanted to ask the dancer...but how could he phrase it as to not look...stupid?
“Maybe I’ll see you later?”
The dancer smiles again showing his teeth. “I have a feeling you will.” He makes a move to turn the corner of the alleyway out of Wonwoo’s line of vision. Wonwoo tries to hold himself back but…
“Wait! You must know my name since you saw my student ID, so it’s only fair to tell me yours.” The dancer’s shoulders drop as if he was relieved that Wonwoo asked.
“Wen Junhui, but you can just call me Jun.” And with that the dancer- Jun gives one last look to Wonwoo as he turns round the corner out of Wonwoo’s sight.
End Chapter One