Chapter Text
"kaiwen"
"kaiwen."
kaiwen was just about to doze off as he heard hanwen calling his name. they'd just finished practice with the tambourine team, and all kaiwen wanted to do was sleep. what could hanwen have to say now, in the middle of the night?
"what?"
"kaiwen, guess who your fans are shipping you with."
kaiwen paused to think. he never really thought he'd come off as gay. he thought he had hid it pretty well. but, honestly, no one really caught his eye. sure, zihao was cute to him, but he's been claimed by suren. anxin is cute, but he wasn't his type. xinlong... not his type either.
"eh... i dont know, give me a hint"
hanwen giggled. kaiwen looked at him, making eye contact despite the faint night light barely allowing him to see.
"he's not chinese"
now kaiwen was confused. he'd only ever had the chance to speak to the ctrainees. what an odd ship his fans have created.
"i really dont know"
hanwen giggled even harder.
"masato, the pink haired boy, in bad with junseo hyung"
kaiwen thought this was another one of hanwen's stupid pranks again. he dismissed him with the wave of a hand and turned around to sleep. but, to his surprise, the thought kept him up. "masato, huh?" he thought, as he pictured him. he hadn't really got to know all the trainees, so a faint picture of a pink-haired boy appeared in his head.
then, he dozed off, his last thought being someone he would have never thought he'd think of.
- next morning -
kaiwen got up earlier than hanwen, but later than half of the other trainees. "great," he thought, as everyone was called out to run. kaiwen was never a runner. ever since he got surgery, he couldn't really do strenuous physical activity anymore. even so, he didn't want to be a burden, so no matter how much it hurt, he just kept running. and that's what he did this morning. but, as much as he wanted to hold it in, he felt his vision blurring and his lungs aching. he was losing momentum, and just as he felt like he was about to collapse...
kaiwen saw a hand grip his shoulder from the corner of his eye. "oh? u.. okay? ni-ni k-keyi ma?" he heard a foreign accent try to mutter a few chinese words to him, enough for him to understand, but also enough for him to know this person wasn't a ctrainee. kaiwen was surprised a non-ctrainee would even approach him. he had always been closer to anxin, zihao, hanwen and the rest, because he didn't know how to communicate in korean. he looked up, catching his breath. a pink-haired man, with beautiful eyes and a mole in the middle of his collarbones looked at him, eyes wide in concern. "o-oh, yes.. can" kaiwen muttered, grinning stupidly before bowing to the man. "ma-sa-to?" he slowly pronounced each syllable, as he looked into the stranger's eyes for confirmation. the pink-haired boy smiled, quickly nodding before running off. as he ran, he looked back at kaiwen, his grin remaining plastered on his face, his hair elegantly brushing past his facial features.
"oi! kaiwen!" a ring of familiar voices sang behind him.
kaiwen knew he was fucked. he had vowed to his cteam that he'd be the last person getting into a fling. jinyu and zheyi already had something going on, jiayang was on his 5th crush of the week, hengyu's straight, jiahao was looking for hyungs to hook up with, anxin was crushing on his teammate, hanwen was secretly texting his old flings under his blanket at night, and the rest... kaiwen knew they weren't single, but it was too much to keep up with.
he turned around slowly. his whole friend group was waiting behind him, playful looks on their faces. kaiwen knew he was in for a treat today.
- 2nd mission recording day -
kaiwen was incredibly nervous. while he was backstage, he just wanted to avoid the cameras as much as possible, even though he knew he wasnt getting screentime. he just wanted some quiet.
as kaiwen walked through the rooms, he heard a familiar "yahoo!". he didn't know why it sounded familiar, but he knew he found it really cute. as he peeked through the doorway, he glimpsed masato running away, his pink hair escaping at the speed of light. he giggled to himself, wondering when masato was this outgoing.
after their break, it was finally performance time.
kaiwen wasn't as nervous anymore. all he could think about was masato's smile from the previous morning, under the warm sunrise light. he longed to see his playful grin again. bad team's stage was before his, which meant he could watch his pink-hair boy perform. kaiwen had always perceived him as a cute, innocent, almost bunny-like character. but, the moment masato came on stage with a black suit, doing body rolls, something in kaiwen shifted. he pretended not to care, but he truly couldn't take his eyes off of him. his pink hair was duller, and a sexier masato appeared on screen. kaiwen bit his lip, suppressing his smile. he couldn't smile now, he really couldn't. what if his friends were watching? he took a quick look around and pretended to clap for junseo, while he kept his eyes on masato. he couldn't believe he was falling for him.
after masato's performance was over, his team came back into the room. masato walked in first, his sweat slightly hanging off the ends of his hair. kaiwen was trying to look away, but just as he was about to turn, junseo began to dab off masato's sweat gently. kaiwen didnt 'own' masato to say, but he felt a strange feeling, part jealously? part sadness? was masato already in a fling? kaiwen looked away. he couldn't bear to look at them being lovey dovey any longer.
as kaiwen's team was called out to perform, he was confident. he wanted to make masato notice him. he was the killing part, sure, but not for the star creators, on this stage he wanted only masato to look at him and notice him, he only wanted praise from him. kaiwen snapped out of his thoughts, and focused on performing. but, at the back of his mind, he really could only think about masato, and wanted to get noticed by him.