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When one thinks of thousands of theatre kids gathered up in one convention center, there would probably be a little audio clip that worms and wriggles its way into your brain of a bustling mess of showtunes and Shakespearean monologues piercing you right behind your left eye with perfect projection from the diaphragm every corner you turn. That’s what Seungmin had imagined when Felix, his boyfriend, first brought up the idea of them going to a “Thespian’s Convention”. He remembers the day Felix told him about it as vividly as a mother would with her child’s first steps.
Felix had come home to their tiny apartment vibrating and practically bouncing off the walls, like a pinball whose family would only be proud of it if it reached a score of a billion. “Heyyy puppy,” Felix had purred with his gremlin smile as he sat next to Seungmin. “I was talking to Ji today, and he found the craziest thing.”
Seungmin had hummed nonchalantly and fully leaned into his boyfriend’s touch, with the hidden agenda of needing protection from what he was about to hear. The last time Felix opened a conversation with ‘I heard from Ji,’ he had ended up spending 8 hours at a lab looking at bird cloacae. He decided to bite anyway, “What did Jisung find this time?”
Felix bounced a little in excitement, clutched Seungmin’s hands in his, and took a deep breath. Oh boy. “Okay so, Ji and I were visiting this new patisserie we saw last time we hung out, and when we were there he saw- oh by the way you have to try their strawberry brioche, I brought one home for you- anyways when we were there Ji saw a poster advertising a thespians convention. I was, ya know, shocked that I didn’t hear about it sooner because I had made a lot of connections that time I played the Beast in ‘Beauty and the Beast’ during college- do you remember that?”
Seungmin couldn’t hold in a small laugh, “Yes, I remember, it’s only been 3 years. I went to all the showings my courses allowed. You were amazing.”
“Aw, thank you, my puppy,” Felix placed a quick peck on Seungmin’s lips. “So, I was thinking that since Ji and I have both been in shows before and you like watching them, we should all go to the convention together! It’d be so much funn~”
War photos flashed in Seungmin’s mind. Jisung, wild theatre kids, Felix with Jisung with theatre kids, Jisung, theatre kids, theatre kids, Jisung. Seungmin had to express the horrors his mind provided, so of course, he gave a shaky, “Why not?”
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They had been in the convention for around half an hour, and Seungmin had come to realize he braced himself for… not much. Honestly. Felix and Jisung were enjoying themself luckily, but Seungmin felt kind of betrayed. He had imagined this extremely loud and flamboyant atmosphere, and was met with booths showing 3D constructions of shows that the given company had worked on, stage plays being sold for ₩29,000, some workshops and outreach programs, and some playbills and signed merch being auctioned off. Okay, well, it was still loud and big, just not to the degree he was thinking. He also happened to notice that most of the attendees were wearing black. Odd.
He turned his attention back to his boyfriend. The blonde was talking to a crowd of 8 people who got drawn in by his sunshine-blessed smile, deep voice, and magnetic personality. He doesn’t blame them, it had happened to him, too. He was just lucky enough that Felix thought he was mesmerizing as well. Jisung was quietly milling about some stalls that seemed to be giving away free pins and stationery, picking up one that had a cat with half of a face mask on, probably for his boyfriend, with a fond snicker.
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Two hours passed before they decided to stop and get some lunch. The three were munching away at a pizza they got for the table, Felix taking the ‘liberty and honor’, as he often says, to feed Seungmin a slice and wiping away any tomato sauce left over on his lips, “So, puppy, what do you think of the convention? I see you picked up a few things.” Seungmin had acquired a small bag of gifts he thought Felix and some of their friends would enjoy. He had found someone selling mini rubber duck apparel and had to snag a duck keychain for Chan-hyung, and even some items he liked. “Hmm… It’s definitely way different than how I had imagined,” Seungmin said between bites.
“Oh…? Different good? Different bad?”
“Well, I just thought it’d be brighter and a lot louder.”
“Ohf, ywah me twwo,” Jisung nodded with his cheeks stuffed to the brim with pizza. Disgusting. Seungmin voiced his thoughts. Felix simply laughed at his best friend and boyfriend’s antics.
They stayed there relaxing for a while until Felix stated he had to go to the bathroom, “Baby, do you wanna come with me, while Ji guards the table?”
“I’m not sure how effective of a guard Sungie will be,” Jisung scoffed at that, and lightly flexed his muscles. “Look at my guns. They’re super duper effective, and I would know because Minho is crafted by the gods and no one dares come close when I’m with him. I’m intimidating,” Jisung defended himself with all the smugness that the world had to offer. Seungmin incredulously turned to face his boyfriend, who was solemnly nodding in agreement.
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Seungmin was waiting outside the bathroom hallway, scrolling through some of his friends’ stories, when something caught his attention. A buff man wearing a black sleeveless hoodie and a ginger-haired guy approached a group of girls. “Hello, madams, we’re trying to liven up this place. Have you heard of the game ‘Bigger and Better’?” The muscle guy had said, while the ginger held up a tiny bag that Seungmin couldn’t quite make out. A blonde girl from the group tilted her head, “I haven’t. What’s the point of the game?”
This time, the ginger spoke aloud, his grin reaching his eyes, “Basically, it’s a trading game. You trade us something bigger and better than what we have to offer. We’re trying to see how far we can get at the end of this convention.” The girls turned back to each other, some rolled their eyes, others looked in their bags. After a moment, a girl with bright red hair spoke, “I don’t think we have anything, sorry…”
“That’s alright, thank you,” Mr. Muscles responded with an awkward chuckle.
“Good luck!” The blonde lady called out as they left.
Seungmin watched as they went from group to group doing the same spiel, and every time they had no luck. He found his thoughts came to a crossroad: ‘How bad was the item they had that nobody wanted to trade?’ and ‘How good was their item that no one could trade?’. After another rejection, the two guys were talking softly between themselves as they walked past Seungmin, possibly to try another area, when Seungmin did something that shocked himself. “Hey! What’s the game you’re offering to people?” He had called out to them. Seungmin had called out to them. Seungmin. Calling out. To strangers. Wow, perhaps being in a thespians convention had infected him with some sort of extraversion, or maybe he just felt bad for them. To his embarrassment, the pair had heard him and turned around on their heels wearing matching pairs of smiles, like those twins in the horror movies Jisung forced everyone to watch.
“Yes, hello. The game is called ‘Bigger and Better,’ where you give us something bigger and better than the item we currently have.” The ginger, who kinda resembles a fox up close, pulled out a crumbled and seemingly empty 0.4oz bag of ‘Haribo GoldbearsTM’. God, no wonder they weren’t getting any biters.
Mr. Muscle stepped forward with so much hope in his eyes, “Do you have anything for us?” Seungmin wavered for a moment. He didn’t know if he had anything; hell, he didn’t even know what possessed him to call them over in the first place. He could tell he hesitated for too long when Mr. Muscle’s face fell, and the human equivalent of a fox let out a quiet sigh. Suddenly, his brain worked, “I might have something for you. Let me check, okay?” He rummaged through his bag, trying to find the pocket where he had put the item. With an “Ah ha!” he pulled out a mini first aid kit container and handed it to Mr. Muscles. In his panicked state, he decided that there would be so much going on at the convention that it would be best if he threw together some mini first aid kits. So, you know, if any theatre kid thought they could fly like Peter Pan and leaped off of a stairwell, he could at least toss them a band-aid while they wait for the paramedics to arrive. He hadn’t actually found any use for them thus far, and he had packed two. Just in case.
He watched as Mr. Muscles examined the kit, opening it up curiously, while the ginger held up his bag of ‘Haribo GoldbearsTM’ to the kit to compare sizes. They looked at each other for a while before the ginger hesitantly said, “Well… It is bigger.” Mr. Muscles nodded his head while playing with the kit in his hands, “And it’s better too…” They looked at each other again, and Seungmin couldn’t help but feel like he had done something wrong. “Is something the matter?”
“Not exactly, just– are you sure you want to give this to us? We would hate for you to lose your first aid kit,” Mr. Muscles said with a shy smile.
Oh. So that was it. Goodness, these thespians and their dramatics. “Yeah, no, it’s absolutely fine for you to take it. I have another one in my bag anyways,” Seungmin grabbed the extra one out of his bag and showed it to them. He watched them simultaneously let out a breath of relief before the cartoonish smiles were back on.
“That’s awesome,” The ginger stepped forward and put the wrapper in his hand. “I’m Jeongin, and this is Changbin. Pleasure doing business with ya.” Jeongin walked away with Mr. Muscl– Changbin – following behind, a pink magical girl plushy bouncing off his belt as he left.
Felix came out of the bathroom soon after and rested his head on one of Seungmin’s broad shoulders, wrapping his arms around his small waist, “Whatcha got there?”
“Just a wrapper,” Seungmin looked down at the bag in his hand.
Huh.
Never mind. There were gummies in there after all.