Chapter Text
Ever since Seowon stepped into the studio and he got acquainted with everyone, there was someone whom he had dreaded having to see everyday for the next few months. That man’s name was Kim Jiwoong. Everybody admired that man and would sell their kidney just to have five minutes alone in a conversation with him. He had an entire segment in the second episode all to himself about how sexy he was and how everybody wanted to see what was underneath his shirt. He almost got kissed by Jongwoo! Everybody on Boys Planet knew that Jongwoo had fallen in love with Jiwoong and it made Seowon’s blood boil.
“What are your opinions on the trainee Kim Jiwoong?” One of the interviewers asked Seowon after the Star Level Test performances.
“He’s… definitely an interesting guy… He’s very captivating.” Seowon tried to pick his words out as delicately as he could to refrain from getting the fans and other trainees upset with him.
As the show progressed, Seowon did his best to avoid the extraordinarily popular man. However, he would catch Jiwoong’s eyes some days. He would notice Jiwoong laughing at some of the jokes that he would make. In fact, after K-Group’s performance of Back Door, Jiwoong came backstage and winked at Seowon, giving him the urge to vomit all over himself.
During the first elimination, all of the trainees were getting their makeup done and putting on the gray suits with hints of blue or pink depending on the group you were in. Seowon had just finished tying his blue tie and was perfectly prepared to walk onto the stage confidently. However, someone stopped him, it was Jiwoong.
“Seowon, you didn’t tie your tie correctly.” He said it smoothly. Seowon jumped from the sound of his name being called by a familiar voice.
“Oh,” Was all Seowon managed to sputter out. His tongue was dry and it felt as if he was swallowing rocks when he forced himself to speak the next time. “Sorry,”
“Can I tie it correctly?” Jiwoong asked. Seowon’s heart sank. He wanted to refuse the service, but there was something that he desired a little bit. Maybe he just wanted attention, or maybe he wanted to show Jiwoong that he has transformed into a more mature person from the last time they encountered each other.
“Yeah, fine.” Seowon risked sounding extremely sarcastic and rude, but he didn’t think Jiwoong noticed.
The next two minutes were unbearable for Seowon. Jiwoong guided him to a full body mirror. Jiwoong’s chest pressed against Seowon’s back. Seowon could feel their legs brushing next to each other. Jiwoong placed his foot in between Seowon’s feet. He placed a hand on Seowon’s shoulder to balance himself and then he began to untie his tie. Seowon’s skin was crawling every time that Jiwoong moved his hand’s positioning. The first attempt was a failure and Jiwoong had to attempt to tie it again.
“I’m so sorry…” Jiwoong said with a whisper of a laugh leaving through his mouth.
“It’s okay,” Seowon said hastily as if it would make the experience end sooner.
Seowon kept on staring at Jiwoong’s pale and thin fingers as they played with the teal colored tie. He decided to gaze up at the mirror to see if Jiwoong was progressing any further. Unfortunately, he got distracted from that task when he suddenly looked in the mirror and saw the perfectly defined man already staring back at him. Jiwoong smirked at the occurrence and it made Seowon all the more upset. Seowon wished that Jiwoong took what happened in the past more seriously instead of pretending like all of it never happened. Seowon just wanted to talk to him.
“All done!” Jiwoong announced with finality. He slammed his palm down onto Seowon’s shoulder and patted it a few times before strutting off without batting an eye. There was a very strong urge in Seowon’s body to claw his eyes out with his fingernails.
♠♥♦♣
“I swear his face practically shrieked ‘I’m better than you Seowon and I’m going to debut in the final group, and you’re obviously not.’ Woonggi, he is overflowing with narcissism and hatred against me.” Seowon was complaining to Woonggi in Woonggi’s dorm which he had casually let Seowon stay in for the past few days. “And with our next mission coming up, I guarantee you he’s going to attempt to sabotage me.”
“You said all he did was tie your tie…”
“But it’s not about that! It’s about the subliminal messages he’s sending me through his aura and his eyes… Those eyes are classified as weapons in some countries, I bet.” Woonggi cackled out loud and plummeted his face into his pillow.
“You’re making it sound like he has a crush on you, that’s all.” Woonggi said through the pillow which came out muffled for Seowon. “Why are you so obsessed with him anyway?” Woongi asked. “I mean, everybody thinks he’s extremely attractive, but you’re making it sound like you were almost thrown in jail because of it.”
“I don’t think Jiwoong is attractive!” Seowon yelled, prompting the two neighboring dorms to poke their heads in.
“Stop lying to yourself Seowon. You’re probably just jealous.” Jongwoo giggled and Woonggi had to restrain Seowon from lashing out and beating up Jongwoo.
“I mean, Jongwoo has a point. Matthew and I were making up conspiracy theories about how someone could look that gorgeous and we came to the conclusion that when he was younger, he accidentally drank some potion that turned him into some sort of demigod that rules the world of sexiness. The other day I overheard some trainees in their dorms talking about how much money they would pay to have sex with Jiwoong. The most money I heard was 14,000,000 won.” Haruto rambled on for the next few minutes about his everlasting fantasies with his idol, Jiwoong. Everybody glared at him until he finally managed to get the hint. “Yeah… seriously though, why do you hate Jiwoong?” Haruto asked in an attempt to change the subject.
“It’s really nothing, don’t even worry about it.” Seowon mumbled.
“Oh, we’re gonna worry about it, sweetheart.” Jongwoo protested. “Just tell us, we can understand… kinda… only if it's, like, really heinous.”
Seowon groaned and threw his back onto the bed and almost hit Woonggi in the process of it. “Okay! Fine! We went to the same grade school.” The entire room froze. Seowon could see the pure shock in their eyes as they widened more.
“What?!” Everybody simultaneously exclaimed. Even the people nearby that hadn’t really been paying attention had stopped everything to listen to Seowon.
“It’s not that big of a deal! We just had some issues in the past.” Nobody had collected themselves yet. Their mouths were still gaping and their eyes were still bulging out of their sockets. “None of you better mention this to Jiwoong.”
Some people were able to manage out a “Sure,” but otherwise everybody remained in their positions and incapable of saying anything.
Seowon groaned with disappointment in himself for revealing the news that he wished nobody on the show would ever learn. Now there were ten people that knew the secret and he knew that the rumors were going to spread. Seowon didn’t trust anybody in the room (besides Woonggi), he knew the line of people it was going to run through.
♠♥♦♣
The next morning, while all of the other trainees were enjoying their breakfast, there was one table in particular who couldn’t eat. It was the table of Seowon and Woonggi. Everyone that sat there was interrogating Seowon about what happened in the past. However, Seowon refused to give them any more answers because he knew the gossip would spread like a wildfire.
There was one man who Seowon had his eye on, it was Jongwoo. Jongwoo was sitting next to Jiwoong and murmuring softly into his ear as if it was fragile and would shatter if he made a sudden loud noise.
Jongwoo had seemed to notice Seowon glaring at him and refrained from laughing into Jiwoong’s ear. Seowon had never felt rage before, but he assumed that this experience would be the closest he would get to it.
“Earth to Seowon…” Jay said as he waved a hand in front of Seowon’s face to gain his attention.
“Yeah, what?” Seowon snapped back.
“Dude, why have you been staring at Jongwoo for like twenty minutes.” Keita started. “I mean… I saw that way you kept eyeing him during their Back Door stage… Don’t tell me you have a crush on Jongwoo!”
“What are you talking about?”
“Ugh, nevermind.” Keita rolled his eyes and disconnected from the rest of the table.
Seowon turned to Woonggi. “Look at those two. They’re gossiping like they’re teenagers. If you gave Jongwoo a pink outfit, he would perfectly resemble Regina George. I bet they’re talking about me right now. Out of all the people that had to hear that I attended the same school as Kim Jiwoong, I wanted Jongwoo to be the last.” Seowon rambled, disgust engulfed his eyes. “I mean, you saw him practically eye-fucking Jiwoong ever since he stepped into the studio on the first day. And, like… Oh my God! I can’t do this!” Seowon quickly buried his head into his hands. A pink hue flourished through his skin.
Woonggi was confused and turned around to see what Seowon got all flustered about. There was nothing in sight that could have caused Seowon to get so disturbed. “What happened?” Woonggi whispered.
“Woonggi, you need to save me. I can’t do this anymore. I’m literally going to forfeit from this show.” Seowon whined as he gripped onto Woonggi’s arm and looked up to him with a fake tear shining in his eye.
“You’re so dramatic!” Woonggi exclaimed as he smacked Seowon off his arm. “What happened?! I wanna know!”
“Okay, but prepare yourself because this is one of the most treacherous things that has ever happened to me!” Woonggi stayed quiet in an attempt to get Seowon to share the story quicker. “So… Oh! I can’t even say!”
“If you don’t tell me right now, I am going to stand up on this table and announce to all of the contestants that you and Jiwoong attended the same grade school.” Woonggi threatened, knowing he would never do something like that.
“Oh my God! Fine! When I was looking at Jongwoo whispering with Jiwoong… Jongwoo whispered something and it made Jiwoong throw his head back laughing and then he seemed intrigued and probably asked questions to Jongwoo because after Jongwoo said the next thing, Jiwoong turned his head and made eye contact with me and gave me a menacing smirk! His eyes screamed all of the words out to me. It was like he grabbed a permanent marker and wrote it on his forehead. All his eyes told me were ‘I can’t believe you’re so obsessed with me that you’re telling everyone that we went to the same school.’”
“Well Seowon,” Woonggi sighed. “That is the most delusional thing you have said during this entire show and I kind of applaud you because that was a clever stretch. So clever in fact, you might be right.”
“I don’t want to be right!” Seowon complained.
“That’s the first time I’ve ever heard you say that…”
“Ugh! I’m leaving!” Seowon slammed his hands down on the table and wandered off to the bathroom. He felt bad for leaving so abruptly and complaining for the entire duration of everybody’s breakfast, but he was always extremely bad at handling his stress. It seemed all Jiwoong was doing was causing Seowon more stress, and Seowon had to find a quick way to solve the problem. However, that was way easier said than done.