i was enchanted to meet you.

there i was again tonight,
forcing laughter, faking smiles
same old tired, lonely place
walls of insincerity, shifting eyes and vacancy
vanished when i saw your face.

or: enchanted, by both taylor swift and owl city, but make it ivantill.

Notes:

hello im back?@???!!.!

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Work Text:

Ivan sighs, looking around the party with hidden disdain. The clothes he’s wearing are borderline choking him, the tight black-sequenced top almost itching his neck. He waves a gloved hand towards Sua when he catches her eyes. She merely turns back to Mizi after nodding in acknowledgement.

He sighs slightly. Social events were always the worst part of being an idol.

He vaguely thinks about how he could be at home right now, writing up a new album, instead of being here.

He looks towards his side, where he sees Luka simply standing. His blonde eyelashes flicker over his clear eyes with every blink. Luka looks towards him as well, raising a brow, as if to ask “what?”

“When do you think the event’s ending?” Ivan asks. He feels like a kid asking their mom on a road trip if they’re there yet.

“Manager said we’ll be picked up at 10.” Luka answers. Ivan nods and looks towards a passing waiter. He indulges himself and picks up a flute of champagne.

“Ivan!” A past producer calls him. He turns to look at Luka, if only to use him as a scapegoat, but the blonde is no longer where he was. “What a lovely night it is, you shouldn’t be spending it alone!” The man laughs.

He forces a smile, and raises his flute of champagne. “Truly, it is a great night. I take it that you’re offering to accompany me?”

He ignores the man’s pleased blush. “Why, it sounds like you’re suggesting something, Ivan. I do hope you be careful with that pretty mouth of yours.”

“I’m simply stating a fact.” He takes a sip of the drink. Sweet. “Why don’t you introduce me to your friends?”

“I fear there’s no need to introduce you,” The man says, but puts his hand on Ivan’s back nevertheless. “You’re the talk of the town!”

He forces out a laugh, and soon finds himself being introduced to different types of people. He quickly categorizes them into “possible business-partners” and “not worth noting.”

Although, the seconds pass as if eons, as slow as the sands of an hourglass. The walls of the fancy hall seem boring after the minutes that pass by with him staring at it, and he regrets his decision of interacting with a group. Their faces blur with unimportance and his ears ring with their incessant chatter. Nonetheless, he keeps a smile.

He turns to place the now empty flute of champagne on a passing waiter’s hold, and he catches sight of blue eyes.

Immediately, the blurred faces of irrelevant people blur even more, and the insincere walls had blown away. He only sees the other man.

His face was soft, as if the marble of the revered greek statues, and chiseled as if a potter had taken hours, years, eons, just to carve the face out. His hair is a shade of white that makes every other seem bland, and with every move Ivan’s eyes make he catches a new shade — it was as if his hair held every color in them. His eyes are an electric blue, almost, with a depth that could be compared to the ocean. It held promise in them. It held electricity. It held magic.

If someone asked Ivan what he thought of the boy, one thought would take a forefront in his mind — it was that the boy is enchanted.

And Ivan was enchanted to meet him.

He blinks in surprise when he notices that said boy was already in front of him, his silhouette from across the room not doing him justice. He was even more breathtaking up close.

He also finally recognizes him — he was Till, a rising musician his age.

He opens his mouth to greet him, but Till quickly turns around and snatches a flute of champagne. The tips of his ears are red, accentuated by his white hair.

Ivan blinks. Was he trying to play it off as him simply going over to get champagne? He cracks out a genuine smile for the first time that night.

“It’s a bit sweet,” He offers, once Till takes a sip. The other’s eyes widen, and closely misses choking, if Ivan’s judgment were anything to go by.

Till quickly recovers though, to the disappointment of Ivan. He finds cheer in the pink of Till’s face again, though.

“Weren’t you taught that it’s rude to surprise someone who’s drinking?” Till snaps.

“Weren’t you taught you’re not supposed to down champagne like it’s a shot of tequila?” Ivan quickly bites back.

Till rolls his eyes, ignoring his comment. “The champagne isn’t even sweet like you said. You shouldn’t go around lying just to start conversations.”

“Aw, that’s cute. You think I wanna converse with you.”

“Why else would you be here when you looked like a dying sunfish while surrounded by those big-shots?”

“Well,” Ivan smiles cheekily. “Maybe because I took pity on the boy who came over to talk to me and then ditched last second, pretending to get champagne.”

Till blushes from the roots of his hair to his neck. He splutters, “Don’t flatter yourself!”

“Hmm, no thanks.” Ivan smiles just to piss the other off even more.

“You were cuter when you weren’t talking.” The other promptly says, and Ivan almost laughs in triumph.

“You think I’m cute, pretty boy?” He smirks, raising a brow.

Till splutters again, “N-No—” But stops for a second, as if registering something. Then, he gains this glint in his eye, and he smirks back at Ivan. “You think I’m pretty?” He shoots back.

And at that point, Ivan couldn’t help himself. He feels his cheeks warm, as if caught red-handed, but he lets out a genuine laugh for the first time that night.

Being with Till, talking with Till — it was exhilarating.

They retire from the center of the hall and end up leaning on the window sill, Till by his side. The guy was talking about his childhood, how he formed a love for electric guitar and music. Ivan listens and clings to every word he says, watches every vowel pour out his lips. He smiles a soft smile.

And the night, he finds, is flawless. At that point, he’s forgotten all about the annoying social event and annoying big-shot producers and annoying big-shot musicians and annoying idols and everything else that was annoying. All that’s left of tonight, at least to Ivan, was Till.

Ivan was in the middle of talking about how he joined his current agency when Luka pops up.

“The event’s ending,” Luka provides, as if he hadn’t ditched Ivan to fend for his own awhile ago. “Our vans are here to pick us up.” He says, eyeing Till.

Ivan hums, and waits a beat without moving. Luka gets the memo.

“I’ll go first, then.” Luka turns, leaving the two.

“Was that Luka?” Till pipes up with a starstruck tone. Ivan stamps down a fit of jealousy. It’s too early for him to be feeling this way.

“Yeah, he’s my senior. We’re from the same agency,” He says with a smile.

“That’s cool, honestly.” Till grins. “Anyway, aren’t you leaving?”

“Yeah,” Ivan nods, pulling out his phone. “But if you don’t mind, can we exchange private accounts?”

Till’s eyebrows reach his hairline, but he doesn’t decline. With Till being pretty famous in his own right, he expects the PR mess it would lead to if they suddenly started following each other in their public accounts.

Ivan leaves the event flushed, smiling slightly, with a pleased glow to his complexion (and a new follower in his private account). He ignores the blinding sea of lights that were the paparazzi’s cameras, and promptly enters his van.

He wonders if Till knew just how enchanted he was to meet him.

But Ivan couldn’t simply sleep after such an exhilarating experience. He sighs and turns in his bed, finally out of the uncomfortable turtle-neck he had to wear, and stares at the ceiling. Outside, the city lights slowly dim.

He hums out a melody subconsciously, as he thinks back to Till.

He reaches out for his phone, and opens Till’s private account. ‘It isn’t stalking,’ he reasons with himself. ‘Just me doing some… research.’

He finds himself ordering all the books that he saw by Till’s bedside, all out for shipping already. He smiles a dumb-struck smile. All the books were classic romance novels, it seemed, and he couldn’t stop grinning at the adorable idea of Till sitting in his bed, nose scrunched up while reading.

When he finds that he’s scrolled far enough to reach Till’s highschool photos, he exits the app and opens his notes.

He starts writing his new album.

Ivan 🎤🎶 @ivan_KR
Good morning everyone! I hope you all have an Enchanted day. (*^o^*)
901 Retweets 109 Quote Tweets 59.9k Likes

View 369 Replies:

sooong ‼️ sua's lovr @songggg123

replying to @ivan_KR

did bro just promote his new album without outright promoting it? slay king

(An animated opening ends, and the cameras roll to see IVAN on the ground with cats around him.)
IVAN: Hello viewers! Oh— this little one’s feisty, haha—!
(Staff comes in to help a kitty off of IVAN, and the man nods in lieu of appreciation.)
IVAN: Thanks! Ahem, as I was saying, I’m Ivan from XXX Entertainment, and I’m here at XXX Studio to talk about my newest album!
(Ivan looks around conspiringly, before he looks into the camera and cups hands around his mouth.)
IVAN, [whispering]: Although I’m really here just for the kittens.

WHAT’S YOUR NEWEST ALBUM, ENCHANTED, ABOUT?
(The camera zooms into Ivan, who strokes a white cat as he thinks about his answer.)
IVAN: Well, it’s pretty self explanatory, I figure. It’s about all the little ways magic finds its way into our lives, even if we’re not outright aware of it. It may not be in a traditional sense, but I think magic’s just around us, surrounding us.

WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO WRITE THIS ALBUM?
(Ivan chuckles and the camera zooms in to see his slightly pink cheeks. In the edited version that airs in televisions, there are pop-up texts exclaiming at how cute the idol was.)
IVAN, [chuckling]: Hmm… I guess you could say I was quite the magical encounter, earlier this year. I’ll leave it at that~