Chapter Text
Everything was sweaty, he felt his clothes stick to his sweaty, toned, body. Breathing heavily as hair strands stuck to his face due to the sweat. He desperately drank his water in three gulps. The entire bottle finished as he set it back down onto the desk nearby. He leaned against it , his head falling back as he tried to catch his breath.
The midnight-haired, emerald-eyed man was exhausted from his dance rehearsal. He began to puff himself air by picking up his tank top and flapping it up and down against his chest. It had no effect or change. He felt like he was a puddle at this point.
“Are you alright, Dan Heng?” A long red-haired woman walked up to him, Himeko. The leader of their idol group. Ah, that’s right, he’s an idol. He had recently joined a newly founded idol group called the “ASTR4L EXPRESS”. He was quite confused on why there was a 4 in the name if there were five members involved. He just decided to ignore it and not think too much about it
“Ah, yes. I’m alright.” He gave off a faint and weak smile.
Dan Heng isn’t new to the idol industry. In fact, he was a part of a quite popular group back then. However, due to certain reasons that he didn’t want to think about, they had to disband. It's been a while since he put his body to work. It was taking a toll on him.
Himeko hummed in response. She then gave off a pitiful look. This caught the man's attention.
“Is something wrong?” He asked, confused by the expression the leader was giving him.
She just softly giggled and shook her head. “No, no. Of course not. I just feel pity for you.”
He raised an eyebrow, an even more puzzled look on his face. “Pity? For what?”
“For you.”
“But why for me?”
“You look so tired already! We just started. We have more choreography to go through with, plus the recording of the songs.”
Dan Heng’s expression slightly twitched, he wasn’t sure how much more exercise and movement he could handle. He just wanted to go to his apartment, lay down and take a large nap. His body was completely exhausted. The high-pitched squealing from a pink-haired girl didn’t help.
“AAHH!!!! I’m so excited to start the recording!!” She smiled so brightly that it blinded Dan Heng. A silver-haired girl stood next to the squealing pink girl.
“March, do you have to squeal so loud? Sooner or later it’ll be hard to differentiate you from a pig.” Dan Heng spoke in a harsh and tired tone.
March frowned, placing her hands on her hips and doing a slight tilt to the side. “Well someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed today.” She slightly pouted.
The silver-haired girl soon stood next to a silver-haired man. These two were the silver twins. Caelus and Stelle. Stelle handed Dan Heng a water bottle and Caelus handed him a towel. Stelle spoke first. “We can take a break, it’s been a while since you’ve done this, no?”
Dan Heng nodded, a bit ashamed that he wasn’t as good as he was before but he knew it would take time. “I wouldn’t want to take time away from everyone or be the reason we’re behind.” He wiped off the sweat that slicked down from his forehead and down his face with the towel Caelus handed him. He looked at the towel for a weird amount of time. A slight smile formed on his face as he thought about the past.
“Dude. It’s just a towel.” Caelus spoke, weirded out at the stare and smile Dan Heng gave to the towel he handed him.
Dan Heng quickly broke out of the trance, shaking his head and handing the towel back as he blushed in embarrassment. “Sorry, just reminiscing about old times.”
Himeko laughed at their interaction and slid into the conversation. “We won’t fall behind. We’re currently ahead of our schedule, but we do need a break and I would hate to overwork my coworkers. Let’s just call it a day and go home, how's that?” She held her hands together at a low point.
Everyone else agreed, especially Dan Heng.
He cleaned himself up a bit as he began to pack up his sports bag and personal bag. He waved bye to the rest of his colleagues. He left the studio room and began to walk down the hallway. Due to them being a newly founded idol group, they didn’t really have their own space. Their manager, Welt Yang. Rented them a space to rehearse.
As he walked down the hallway, he felt a bit curious to peek through the small window on each door. Seeing a fair amount of unique groups who were practicing their dances. He smiled, the nostalgic feeling of being a rookie idol waved over him. He hummed to himself an old song that he faintly remembers from his old idol group.
He catches a glimpse of a group that is walking down the hallway in the opposite way, he moves to the side to make room for a red wine-haired woman and the silver-haired member who accompanied her. He didn’t take note of the black-haired man who followed behind them in a combo of sunglasses, beanie, and face mask. He continued to hum the same song but he seemed to have forgotten the rest of it as he passed the group.
Yet, right when he passed the group and forgot the rest of the melody, he heard the rest of the melody in a deep low voice. The humming came from the man he didn’t seem to take notice of. He stopped in his tracks and looked behind him as he saw them walk further and further away until they walked into one of the booked rooms.
He stood there, dumbfounded and confused. The voice sounded oh so familiar, though maybe he was just overthinking it. There’s no way he could be here. There’s no way. He’s just overthinking it, that man was probably just a fan of his old group's work. He continued along his path, on his way to his apartment.
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As he reached his apartment and unlocked the door to get inside, he let out a small sigh. Disappointed in himself for how far behind he was in his area of expertise. Sure you could give him the benefit of the doubt that he’s been on break for more than a few years. That doesn’t change his shame though. He placed his bags on the couch, walking past posters of his old group that he had hung on the wall for a while now.
He stops to stare at a certain poster. One where he is sitting next to a man with long white hair, some of it tied in a bun behind him with a flower pin. He smiled at the photo, staring at the man for way too long, but who’s here to judge him? He’s in his own apartment so he can do whatever he wants.
He still feels embarrassed for being self-aware of how long he’s staring at the poster. “I wonder how he’s doing..” Is all he manages to say. He won’t deny, he was way happier back then, but he’s a new man. He can’t reminisce about the past anymore, all he can do is keep moving forward.
After a quick shower to refresh himself, he changes into something more comfortable. He goes to turn on the TV but hears a mewl outside his apartment window. Though he’s used to seeing cats around his apartment building, his apartment window was pretty high up regardless. He opens the curtains and finds a black cat walking on the railing of the windowsill. He doesn’t move though, he doesn’t want to scare the cat into jumping off onto the wrong side. He would feel terrible.
Instead he just watches the cat, making sure it’s alright, it even begins to sprinkle. He opens the window as he sees the cat sit down on the small space of flat floor beside his window. He hesitantly touches the cat, the cat purrs in response. He continues to pet it. He even picked it up and brought it inside as the rain began to pick up.
He places the cat on the floor, watching it as it walks around and explores its new surroundings. He went to his pantry, he always stocks up on some cat or dog food in case he encounters a stray. He has a soft heart for stray animals. A certain someone and him used to take care of stray animals together all the time whenever they had a chance. That seemed to have stuck with him even though he no longer speaks to this man anymore. He puts the canned cat food on the ground and watches the cat walk to the food he set up. The black cat sniffs it but pushes it away, it’s not very hungry for food it seems.
After a while, the cat jumps up back to the window and exits out. The rain had stopped so Dan Heng didn’t feel worried anymore. He decided to leave the opened cat food on his window sill in case it came back with hunger. He looked at the time, 10:48 p.m. He decided he should go to sleep rather than stay up a bit to watch TV. He has to fix and create a schedule for himself anyway if he’s going to go back on the road of being an idol.
Once he laid down on his bed, he covered himself with the covers. Grabbing another pillow and hugging it as if it were a person. He let out a sigh of regret. Why? He’s not so sure himself. He just closed his eyes and counted every single tick tick tick his clock gave out until he fell asleep.
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