Chapter Text
a commonly know fact about the campus’s unlikely couple, is the fact they aren’t official. ask just about anyone who attends the university and they will tell you they believe the odd pair are dating. yet ask the pair and they will tell you they are simply the closest of friends.
kwon soonyoung, a junior at the biggest arts university in the country, is most known for his overly outgoing and fun personality and his amazing dancing.
xu minghao, a sophmore at the same university, is known for quite the opposite. he is, despite the quietest male you will ever meet, the sassiest and the smartest student around.
it’s fairly clear the two are polar opposites yet the duo can’t help but attract. having met through their shared love of music and dance the two quickly became inseparable.
granted soonyoung more often than not went the hip hop route while minghao stayed closer to contemporary and modern dance, they respected one another’s styles. now you may be wondering how exactly they became close despite their styles and personality.
well i will let minghao explain that.
~ Act 1 ~
“you will be trying this dance with a partner of your choice! and from everyone we will choose 10 pairs to preform in the school event next month!” the dance instructor exclaims looking around at the large dance class.
this is the first time all the classes have been put together, two male classes and two female classes all pushed together in the studio.
minghao would be lying if he said he was excited. he was never great with new people and the fact he would most likely have to dance with a female didn’t help. granted he’s done it plenty of times in the past for other performances but it’s what happens after the performances. by the end a lot of the girls he often worked with would catch feelings and he’d have to break it to them he was not into girls.
with a heavy sigh minghao scans the people around him for a partner that would hopefully not make the whole experience weird. he watches as people team up smiles and conversations filling the open spaces around him. that’s when he sees it.
he sees what has to be the prettiest male he’s ever seen. minghao can feel how his face heats up upon realising who he’d been staring at. the kwon soonyoung.
an upperclassman dancer from the other male class minghao often watched in his free time. now as weird as it sounds it was rather normal for underclasses to watch upperclassman and learn from them. now though, if minghao could just work up the courage to ask, he could partner with his beautiful senior.
“hey, want to partner up?”
minghao jumps, nearly screaming when he sees soonyoungs smile. ‘was he talking to me?’ is all minghao can think as he stares soonyoung down in surprise.
“uhhhh.” minghao blinks a few times trying to figure out if he’d imagined soonyoung asking to partner up. he can feel the room quiet down around him almost as if they were all waiting patiently for his reply.
“so? does that uhhh mean yes?” soonyoung teases smile growing wider. minghao can definitely feel his cheeks heat up, he probably looked like a tomato.
“oh, um i, yeah yeah, ok uhh, sure i can be your partner.” minghao stammers pulling his eyes away from the older dancer, mentally slapping himself back into commission.
“great!” soonyoung exclaims walking off and completely ignoring minghaos clear turmoil.
the room seems to fill for minghao once again, and he can’t help but hear soonyoung talking with another student.
“good going soonie you scared the sophomore~” minghao wants to groan at the dancer teasing soonyoung. god he should have been paying attention.
“that was pathetic.” minghao flinches hard, nearly screaming for the second time now thanks to his friend.
“vernon, your going to give me a damn heart attack one day.” minghao complains with a whine, covering his face.
“well, maybe you should always be on guard.” vernon shrugs casually, bringing the older to roll his eyes.
“you suck.” minghao groans in his accented english, rubbing his hands over his face.
“you swallow.” vernon jokes in far better english. the comeback sends minghao into a panic, a deep blush covering his face. yet before minghao can punch vernon in the arm their instructor grabs their attention with a loud whistle.
“alright everyone if you’ve found your pair i need you guys to space out with your partner so we can start practicing!”
“this isn’t over asshole.” minghao hisses in his broken english and he walks away towards where soonyoung had been standing.
“you know i’m your favorite!” vernon waves teasingly with an oddly blank expression that could scare any man.
minghao rolls his eyes at the younger, looking over and meeting soonyoung’s eyes. whatever confidence he had to make eye contact quickly diminishes as he startles lightly and turns away, putting his entire attention on the instructor.
“so up here we have two demonstrators, the show is unlike what many of you are used to. it’s more so a swing style, there is an empty section in the routine though, for you and your partner to add in your own ideas and styles. once the competition rolls around the best routine will become the one the 10 pairs will dance! now let’s get to work!”
the rest of that day was spent watching and learning how to walk with a partner without holding on. which minghao was grateful for as he knew he’d manage to embarrass himself in front in such a large group of dancers.
the class has ended pretty quickly and soonyoung promised to keep in touch with minghao so they could keep working.
and keep working they did. soonyoung, as minghao has learned, is a very passionate and quick learner. which in this situation was great as they had learned the first half of the routine without too much issue but now they were stumped.
during one of the duo’s personal practices the two decided to show off their styles of dance, thinking maybe there was a way to mash both.
minghao watched as soonyoung showcased a small piece of his. minghao was definitely impressed to say the least but as he continued watched he realised just how fast pace a decent portion of the dance was. soonyoung was a hip hop dancer after all, so it made sense.
when it was minghao’s turn to showcase he realised his mistake in letting the older student go first. he could feel a lump grow in his throat as he connected his phone, pulling up a song he’d used for one of his senior projects in high school.
once he got his phone connected he kneels down untying his shoes to take them off.
“you know i don’t recommend dancing in socks.” soonyoung comments too casually for minghaos nerves.
“oh, well so i’m more of a modern and contemporary arts dancer. it’s, well, it easier to convey the story without shoes.” minghao explains, shaky hands removing both shoes and then socks. he neatly places them aside try to swallow down his anxiety of being made fun of.
“really? that’s pretty cool. i don’t think i’ve watched any sort of contemporary pieces?” soonyoung smiles, doing a little wiggle of excitement that is both too cute for the younger to handle and too much pressure for him to hold. he didn’t want to disappoint his crush now.
“yeah, well it’s not exactly the same as most dancing.” minghao chuckles anxiously as he grabs a small piece of paper and steps in the middle of the floor.
soonyoung watched with curious eyes as the younger sets up. he watches carefully as the male takes in a deep breath and gently closes his eyes. soonyoung can tell the younger in nervous just by the breath he released and how much his fingers seem to quiver.
soonyoung has never been one to judge, especially on something he himself is passionate about, such as dance. he watches in wonder has the younger dances, each step more powerful than the last. emotion building along with his confidence.
in a hypnotic manner he watches the younger spin and leap around the studio painting out a story he could not word. a story that captivated him, left him wanting to know more and more. he’d never seen anyone dance as the other had, no one could exceed that emotion.
by the time the younger had finished the studio had become quiet, the only sound being that of minghaos lightly puffing for air as soonyoung was utterly speechless.
what seemed the break the silent trance was the sound of soft clapping. minghao whips his head to the door behind him and watched on as dancers he now knew as soonyoung’s friends jun and naeun stood at the door. jun was watching with a impressed look carefully clapping as his dance partner, naeun, was doing the same with a bright smile on her lips.
“woah! i really like your dance!” naeun exclaims excitedly giving minghao a big thumbs up.
shy now minghao simply bows to the two new arrivals and decides to cover his tomato red face.
“yeah! i really liked it myungho~” soonyoung swoons in a way minghao can’t tell if he was being serious or teasing.
“i’ve never seen anyone dance like that, so much emotion~ i really liked it~” soonyoung drags out the words as he launches himself on the younger and nearly smothering the blushing sophmore. wow the world truly wanted him to suffer at the hands of his far to cute crush, grand.
“god i like you too much for this.” minghao utters in chinese as he pushes soonyoung off, the elder giving him a confused look as he hadn’t understood what the younger had said.
yet the world is most definitely not done torturing him as he hears two loud gasps from across the room. the gasp having caught minghao’s attention he turned to jun who has an evil grin on his features, naeun looking surprised in a more thrilled way.
the look on the males face said it all and minghao can feel himself pale. “junhwi? you okay?” soonyoung looks to the dancers clearly looking for some kind of explanation of the duo’s outburst.
“you like him? woah that’s some juicy gossip.” jun smiles slyly as he speaks to minghao in chinese. he was blackmailing him.
“if you say anything i’m going to kill you and then myself.” minghao deadpans looking between the two dancers still speaking in his mother tongue. jun laughs throwing his head back before righting himself; giving a thumbs up and a wink. naeun simply gives him a look giving a similar thumbs up.
“when did you and junhui become close?” soonyoung asks with a careful grin. “never.” minghao replies deadpan expression giving away nothing. to be fair he had only met jun once and was utterly unaware of the man’s ability to speak chinese, naeun as well.
“hmm, well just so you know junhui only speaks chinese around his friends so that makes us all friends now!” soonyoung concludes getting puzzled looks from the other three dancers who, in the end choose to ignore the comment.
after that the practice went rather smoothly, both duets staying on either side of the studio while they worked. junhui had given minghao a few knowing glances when soonyoung would do anything particularly flirtatious or close contact. the looks made minghao nervous but he never let it show.
he didn’t need junhui knowing he’d won.