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Jisung’s feet are killing her.
She fists Chenle’s top in her hands, wringing the silk pink material into a mess she can already hear her stylist chastising her for. “What are you doing?” Chenle hisses, swatting Jisung's hands away.
“I hate this,” Jisung groans. She stares down at the stilettos on her feet - a deadly pair of Versace heels that shouldn’t be humane for anyone to wear. On the surface, it looks gorgeous. The straps intertwine all over her legs, up to her knees. It’s a pretty light pink colour, a shade matching all the member’s outfits. Pretty, dainty butterflies hang off the straps in different places, almost teasing anyone that looks down at Jisung’s feet.
When her members first see the shoes at the fittings, they all gasp. Partly because, well - it is gorgeous, but also because everybody knows Jisung hates heels. They make her taller than she already is and she always ends up towering over most of the other female idols at events. Never mind the fact that Jisung always ends up shrinking in her seat whenever the camera pans to her. The heels are a terrible idea, Jisung figures.
Except, they’re not, since she ends up trending on Naver for her shoes and her figure and her pretty white dress that wraps around her body perfectly and her legs -
Jisung shrugs off Chenle as she reminds her of the comments. “I get it, I get it.”
“You look hot,” Jaemin pipes up. She flashes that lazy smirk she always does when she knows people are watching, tight-lipped but her insane eyes dancing with mischief. “At least three different idols are eye fucking you right now, so smile!”
“Unnie!” Jisung hisses, heat rising to her cheeks. Her eyes dart around towards the small groups of people huddled in their own plastic seats. All the other idols and celebrities are too busy with watching the performers leave the stage to care or notice the scandalous thing Jaemin had proclaimed loudly. “People are watching!”
Jaemin just throws a wink her way, leaning back into her seat. She folds her hands over the blanket on her lap, attention drifting back up to the stage.
“Jisung-ssi?”
A man with a headset bows politely to the girls, clutching the clipboard tightly in his hands. “We need you now.”
Jisung whines on the inside, but flashes a polite smile and gets up slowly. She tosses her members one last look for help before she’s whisked away by some showrunners, guiding her backstage.
They’ve performed at Gocheok before, so Jisung sort of knows the backstage layout pretty well. She makes sure to avoid the uneven ground whenever she feels it and holds onto her manager’s arm tightly for balance. Being an idol for nearly seven years has yet to hold her down on her high heeled skills, so Jisung walks slowly for the most part.
She’s already mumbling out her embarrassed thank you’s and apologies to the staff for waiting, but nobody seems to mind. Someone shoves a cue card into her hands and Jisung has about three minutes to make sure she doesn’t stumble over her words. She frowns, eyebrows knitted tightly together as she speedruns through the sentences in her script.
“Yes, Jeno-ssi,” she mouths under her breath. “It is indeed getting too cold these days. To warm up the audience here tonight, shall we watch Seventeen’s absolutely hot 'HOT' performance?”
Jisung repeats the sentence over and over again, trying to lighten up her tone cheerily.
“Hello, sunbaenim!”
She almost drops her script, flinching so hard that she accidentally curses out loud.
Jeno stares back at her, eyes already slanted into half crescent moons. The beauty mark under his eye stands out underneath his tan skin, the easy smile on his face causing all kinds of eruptions in Jisung’s stomach. Oh my God, he really does look like a puppy.
“Oh, hello,” Jisung bows back, holding the cue card close to her chest. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to swear.”
“No, it’s okay,” Jeno grins sheepishly. “I did scare you. I should be sorry.”
Jisung laughs and it doesn’t come out naturally, sounding like a choked up noise in her throat. She shifts her gaze back down on her feet, willing for the butterflies on her shoes to whisk her away far from here.
Jeno and Jisung are on standby five minutes later, positioned on the right side of the stage. Jisung can see the countless amount of guys from Seventeen gather on stage, getting into position. She holds the cold mic in her hands with a death grip, still trying to send some of her fans in the audience a nervous smile.
She puffs her cheeks up, exhaling and inhaling exactly like how her manager taught her to once. It does little to actually calm her down, her heartbeat hammering in her ears.
Jisung starts to regret this - she really starts to regret giving in to her manager when they insist on getting her to do this mini MC part of the Gayo Daejeon show. She should be back in the audience, with her members and within the safety of her little group bubble, not out here on stage with nobody but Dream heartthrob Lee fucking Jeno. The same guy that Jisung remembers drooling over with Chenle when their debut teasers dropped. They’d been sixteen and seventeen respectively, watching with wide eyes as their junior group in SM posed and smiled in the videos. Jeno was quickly Jisung’s favourite, while Chenle was pinned instantly on Mark more than the others.
He was adorable, Jisung recalls.
(“Adorable?” Chenle had squawked. “Did you not see the tree branches on that guy’s arms? He’s sexy, you dork!” The 'tree branches' were his arm veins, something Jisung had actually not overlooked.
She wasn’t wrong, but Jisung was more fixated on Jeno’s eye smile that seemed to make even her gloomy mood brighten. The chills that erupt all over her spine is equally as fascinating when she sees him laugh in the video. She couldn’t really look away.)
Jisung searches the crowd for her members, but it’s hard to spot them from so far away. She gives up shortly after, huffing as she wrings the mic in her hands tightly.
“Are you okay, sunbaenim?”
Jisung’s head snaps towards Jeno, eyes wide. “Me?”
Jeno chuckles kindly. “Yes, sunbaenim. Are you okay?”
He smiles again and Jisung feels like diving head first into the crowd. Instead, she tries to smile back. “I - I don’t know, I think I’m just very nervous.” She scratches the back of her neck meekly. “I don’t usually do things like this… Even at music shows, I’m never the one speaking.”
“Hey, I’m sure you will do fine,” Jeno assures kindly. “Just breathe, take it slow. If you get too nervous looking at the crowd, just look back at me. I’ll help you.”
Jisung falters a bit, shoulders sagging as the sheepish grin returns. “I’m supposed to be the sunbaenim.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Jeno says softly. “We all have our vices. Wanna know what mine is?”
Jisung raises her eyebrows curiously.
“Sometimes, my fans say I look like a soggy macaron.”
The huffed laugh that comes out of Jisung makes Jeno’s face light up.
They get through the introduction smoothly. Jisung doesn’t trip on any words because she laser focuses on her cue card as she speaks. She does try to look at Jeno for reassurance halfway through, but she nearly stutters when she smiles at her. Quickly, she anchors down her eyes on the camera and nothing else. By the end of it, her ears are red but she lets out a sigh of relief. She clutches the cue cards close to her chest as the staff members whisk them away.
Jeno bows politely again, the simper on his face nearly reaching his ears. “See? We did it.”
Jisung just giggles. “Thank God.”
There’s a small flight of stairs from the stage and Jisung slows down in her tracks, searching desperately for her manager. She sees her manager standing at the bottom of the stairs, too preoccupied with a phone call. Jisung gulps, looking back down at the stairs. There are no handles at the side either, which makes Jisung want to cry even more. Her feet are already stinging so much from the newly formed blisters and her heels feel like the skin had all peeled off long ago, leaving her feet completely raw.
“Sunbaenim?” Jeno breaks through Jisung’s silent dilemma. He peers up at her from the first two steps, a hand held out kindly to her. “Do you want my help?”
Jisung stuffs the squeak threatening to roll out of her. She considers not accepting his help at first, so she gingerly tries to go down on the first step. When she stumbles slightly from the sheer pain shooting up her foot, she sweeps down and takes Jeno’s hand gratefully.
He smiles back up at her again and closes his hand around hers, thumb brushing the edges of her knuckles gently. Jisung’s cheeks are pink and full of air as she panics slightly, her heartbeat thumping loudly in her ears. Jeno leads them down the stairs slowly, constantly turning his head to check on her.
Jisung’s legs burn from the attention. If it was possible, Jisung is sure her legs would turn pink too.
His hands are rough, Jisung notes on the last few steps down. They are warm and it feels so nice, because Jisung’s own hands are freezing and maybe a little bit clammy too. Jisung wipes her other hand on her dress quickly, hoping to God Jeno doesn’t feel the wetness at her palm.
If he does, Jeno makes good work of not making it obvious at all. He’s all small grins and eye smiles, even when they reach the last step.
They don’t break apart immediately, hands still intertwined as Jisung blinks at Jeno shyly. She doesn’t think when she speaks, too entranced by the feeling of Jeno’s rough skin against hers. “Your hands are so warm and nice.”
Jeno’s mouth forms a little ‘o’. “Ah,” it’s his turn to flush. Jisung feels mortified but also - a sick twinge of achievement curls in her stomach. Jeno looks so god damn cute. “Thank you?”
“Sorry,” Jisung apologises. “I don’t know why I said that.”
“Don’t be,” Jeno mutters, shoving his hands deep into his suit pockets. “I’m glad I could warm you up.”
Almost immediately, Jeno winces. “Oh my. That came out weird. I mean, my hands. I’m glad my hands could warm your hand up. I’m sorry, sunbaenim.”
It’s fun to see the tables turn, Jisung thinks proudly. She’s not sure where the surge of bravery comes from (perhaps, it’s from the way Jeno starts blushing too), but Jisung squares up her shoulders slightly.
“Actually,” she tries. “Can we.. can we drop the formalities? We've been labelmates for a while now. Just talk to me comfortably.”
Jeno’s blush only deepens. “Ah, are you sure?”
Jisung takes a deep breath and nods. “Yes, Jeno oppa.”
The honorific hits Jeno in the head immediately as he can’t stop his eyes from twinkling. Or maybe it’s all the backstage lights, but either way - Jisung decides that she really likes seeing him all smiley like this for her.
“Okay, Jisung-ie,” he nods, almost breathless.
Jisung doesn’t admit it, but the sound of her name is enough to nearly send Jisung into a coma. She attempts to hide the widening grin on her face.
🐶🐹 @jenojjis
oh my fucking god??????? HELLO????? T____T finally… a facking jeno x jisung interaction… love my main slayers together
yena @hamjjisungi
ok nobody wants to talk about how they talked for exactly two minutes after they got down the stage…. Or why jisung’s ears are so red LOL
🦋 xingxing @hotpotinjun
they look so good together…. yall mind if i get in the middle or
seeing dream live! @markno_love
people are so annoying.... can we please stop shipping male and female idols whenever they interact…….
— 🦋 xingxing @hotpotinjun
No. i think they should kiss