Chapter Text
Lohen wasn’t sure how he dragged into this. His vice-president role aside, he was far too busy studying than attending these events.
Still, it did serve to keep their Dance Club afloat by some arbitrary metric of keeping the students on campus entertained so he guesses there was that benefit. Not like he wanted to like it all the same.
It was a pretty typical event but this time, it was a minor collaboration between the K-pop Club and the Dance Club. Naturally, the event ended up being settled on a Random Dance Play of student-submitted songs they would play over a speaker on the campus plaza. Random songs, mostly by the popular kpop groups that were rising in the west. Lohen wanted to roll his eyes at the fact that most of them were in accented english rather than in korean.
He watched from the sidelines, taking attendance of the dancers and participants. He tapped the clipboard with his pen, the people’s faces were starting to blur together.
“You okay, vice-president?”
Lohen looked up to see Mika there, the club’s freshman year treasurer, holding a tissue on his nose and his nose red, likely from the fall cold..
Lohen had an idea. “Actually, not really.”
Mika immediately panicked. “Oh no! Is there something I can do? Are you sick? Can I do anything to help?”
Lohen suppressed a smile. “Yes, you can. Can you take attendance of all the participants? I just want to get water.”
“Oh, okay.” Mika took the clipboard and pen sheepishly.
Lohen ran off out of sight. The crowd was larger than expected where his smaller stature could easily blend in. The camera sat very obviously front and center, a recording for later in the night where they’ll upload it to the club’s socials. Unlike the usual Random Play Dances, the songs they chose played all the way through. Unusual but the people seemed to enjoy it so the Dance Club shrugged it off.
Lohen could see some of his fellow executives enjoying the event themselves, participating here and there for a few seconds. When the next song played, he froze.
Oh, he knows this song. He absolutely knows this song.
It was one of his favorites, an aggressive dance solo but even more captivating with a partner.
Lohen gritted his teeth. He had the urge, the impulse of the thought already. Fuck it, why the hell not. As long as he was in the back, the camera wouldn’t pick up on him anyway.
It was produced in a typical rock fashion but despite the lowkey beat and slow-ish rhythm, the movements were hard yet smooth. It was the type of dance that showed off how good you were at body control and weeded out the people who faked their flexibility and joint popping.
Of course, Lohen being Lohen, he was a master at the skills needed to perfect the song.
But then the chorus came up and he knew the part he dreaded came up. The part where you required a partner. He moved to the side to move out of someone’s outstretched hand.
The next part of the chorus was coming up. As with the original choreo, you turned around behind you and immediately locked eyes with another student.
Greyish-red hair, blue ringed eyes, and a small nervous smile.
Their eye contact was instant and the unspoken agreement even clearer. They moved into position smoothly and quickly. A flutter went through his chest as they circled each other. He was nervous, Lohen could tell, but the eye contact was fierce as if challenging him.
Lohen grinned. They weaved together, Lohen crouching down to slither his hands up the other’s collarbone. He saw the faint flush creep up the other’s neck and cheeks. Despite that, his hands were certain and grabbed Lohen’s waist to allow him to roll his head back in rhythm.
They turned, back to back, their shoulders and arms brushing on each other as they patted their arms in rhythm to the beat and met into closed fists as they moved forward with confidence. Lohen tapped his collarbone, enjoying the way the other flushed further
But then the choreo turned and the stranger had his gloved hands on his chest where it decided to turn traitor and decided at that moment to beat a million beats a second. Their other hands linked together, interlaced as Lohen pressed that hand to his chest.
It’s all part of the choreo, Lohen thinks, trying not to blush.
At the words “like me”, they pointed to each other, both red in ways the other probably didn’t realize but because of the limited space, so close that their arms overlapped the space and their fingers inches from each other’s nose.
Lohen started the next movement, a fake pull of a rope before settling a hand on the other’s lower jaw. If the stranger wasn’t flushing before, he definitely was now as they moved down with the rhythm and up with the motion.
At that moment, the partner section was over and the music faded abruptly.
The other froze in place, their position still kept before they both scrambled to straighten themselves.
The other faked a cough into his glove. “Sorry, sir…”
“Lohen.” he raised a hand for a shake.
“Illuga.”
Lohen glanced at Mika who was watching him, who dropped his pen and it threatened to roll off the clipboard.
Lohen rolled his eyes at that before looking back to Illuga and putting the most police face he could. “Illuga, it was nice to meet you but I must go now.”
Illuga looked at him with a strange expression. “Go ahead. Thanks for being my dance partner.”
Lohen nodded once and left around the corner of the plaza.
Once he was out of sight,
WHAT WAS THAT??? Lohen internally screamed.
He got so caught up in the dance that he forgot he wasn’t supposed to be participating long. The executive board is gonna fire him. Oh my gods, it’s gonna be bad. But he was just participating, it wouldn’t be that bad, right? It was for one song, one of his favorites. He could afford a slip up.
–
He could not, in fact, afford a slip-up.
Lohen didn’t even register what he was looking at until the video looped itself for the fifth time. It was a clip, hand-held, like one of those corny kpop member spotlight vertical videos posted by fans after a concert.
Except it wasn’t for a kpop concert or even anything remotely as flashy. It was the handheld recording of Lohen and Illuga dancing to “Bite Me” by Enhyphen and going viral on their social media page. He opened the comment section before his brain told him better.
“OMG they’re so cute!!! <<<3333”
“And that, kids, is how I met your mother.”
“There’s no way this was random. They’re so in sync.”
“They look hot-
Lohen stopped reading after that and groaned. Was his reputation ruined? It’s literally trending for their campus and social media. Was it too late to become a college dropout when he was already a senior? Was it even worth getting out of bed today or just wait this out?
Lohen rolled over and smothered himself in his pillow.
Maybe there was a half-hearted attempt at killing himself that morning. Nobody but him needed to know that.