Chapter Text
as the end of the school year approached, keeho’s university announced an overseas music program in korea for the summer. after convincing his family to not only let him attend, but also help pay for some of his expenses, he figured nothing could really go wrong.
well, he's been in korea for less than a week, and he's already running late for his first day, trying desperately to look presentable enough to make a “good first impression” despite waking up much later than he meant to.
he finally got himself out the door, making sure he didn’t forget anything he might need and made his way to the bus stop.
he found a seat next to a boy that looked just a few years younger than him, with dyed hair and a godzilla t shirt.
“uh, can I sit here?”
the boy just nodded, continuing to stare as keeho sat down. keeho just pulled his phone out and put his headphones on in a poor attempt to ignore the other, until he felt a poke on his shoulder, forcing him to pull his headphones back down, “hm?”
“I don’t know if you would know but do you possibly know where this is..?” he asked showing a location on his gps. the same school keeho was headed.
“hey! that's actually where I’m going too! are you also doing that music program?”
“oh, yeah, a friend of mine attends there and invited me to participate this year.”
“so are you not from around here then?”
“no actually…I'm from japan.”
“oh really? I'm actually from Canada. crazy that I already met one of the other foreigners in the program, right?”
“yea I was honestly scared I wouldn’t meet many new people and just be following my friend around all summer…”
“tell me about it…I mean I don't know anyone here.” keeho went quiet as the bus came to a sudden stop, “oh, this is our stop—uh, what should I call you?”
“oh, shota is fine, or soul.”
“hm okay, soul, I’m keeho, now let’s go before we miss our stop.”
they both hurried off the bus, getting off right before the doors closed.
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if it weren’t for the confusing hallways and their troubles finding the main auditorium, they probably could have made it on time. still, they managed to be only about 10 minutes late and it looked like they hadn’t actually started anything, most of the students just seemed to be talking amongst themselves. soul immediately spotted his friend in one of the back rows of the auditorium, tapping keeho’s shoulder again before pointing at a boy with bleached hair peeking out from under his striped hoodie, a guitar case leaning against the chair next to him, clearly absorbed into whatever he was looking at on his phone.
“my friend, in the back rows, wanna sit with us?”
“why would I say no? it's not like I know anyone else here.”
soul just laughed as he made his way to where jongseob was sitting, keeho following behind him.
“seob!”
jongseob shot his head up from his phone, slightly surprised by the other.
he tried to sound serious when he spoke, “wow, took you long enough to get here. who’s your friend?”
“oh uhm this is uh…”
“—keeho. we met on the bus and he invited me to sit with you guys, if that's okay with you.”
“oh yeah, I just don't think I’ve seen you around here before.”
“I'm from overseas, canada. I'm just here for the summer.”
“well it's nice to meet you, keeho. I’m jongseob, hopefully we can get to know each other better.”
maybe keeho’s last minute attempt at making a good impression did work, he’s already met two people that actually seem interested in being his friend?
he took his seat next to soul as a few students began to start the welcoming process, they announced they were going to split into groups based on their musical strengths. obviously jongseob would be with the group of people who played instruments, but what about soul? he didn’t exactly strike keeho as a singer.
“soul, what group are you going with?”
soul explained that he wasn’t very comfortable singing, and he really enjoyed dance so it wasn’t a difficult choice for him, keeho agreed, saying he was kinda the opposite so he gets it.
the three agreed to meet back up for lunch before splitting off to their respective groups.
keeho walked into the classroom 34B, which looked to be just a run down music room. a few other students had sat down on the dusty floor, making a circle in the middle of the room. he found an empty spot next to a boy that seemed around his age, his hair looking slightly overgrown and messy. the boy lifted a hand to wave at the other as he sat down, before speaking,
“hey, are you one of the international students? I don't think I recognize your face. I’m jiung, choi jiung, by the way.”
he smiled awkwardly at keeho after he finished talking, keeho smiling back before replying, “hi jiung, I’m keeho. and yes, I’m actually from Canada, I assume you’re a student here?”
“yep, I’m a third year music major.”
“really? I am too! we must be around the same age, when's your birthday?”
he hummed, “October 7th.”
“no way. thats like, less than two weeks after mine.” keeho lowered his voice before saying, “do you think its fate…jiungie...?”
jiung rolled his eyes, “ew. jiungie? we just met and you already gave me a nickname? and said it’s fate that we met? I mean, you don’t even know me yet.”
“okay, but I know I want to get to know you better, so why don’t you tell me about yourself?
“hm. okay, keeho.”
jiung rested back on his arms while him and keeho began to talk, exchanging questions and sharing stories about themselves before they had to begin their group activities, which mostly consisted of introductions and a few vocal warm ups. the teacher said for their final activity, they could choose to sing a song of their choice, either by themselves or with a partner.
keeho leaned over to jiung, “hey, we should totally like, sing a song together.”
“you really want to sing a song with me?”
“I mean I haven’t heard you sing before, and I’d love to see you do a solo but c'mon, it'll be fun!”
“okay, okay sure, but what song are we even gonna do?”
after agreeing on a song, along with finding a good place to practice, which happened to be one of the empty studios down the hall, they used the remainder of the time dividing the lyrics and doing a few run-throughs, making sure they didn’t make any obvious mistakes. keeho also couldn’t help but think to himself about how amazing jiung’s singing was. like, wow, it was like it was all effortless for him, like the notes came perfectly out of his mouth.
after they ran out of time to practice, the group gathered back to the center of the classroom, as each duo or solo did their performances one by one.
once their turn came, keeho introduced them and the song they were singing while jiung hooked his phone up to the speaker.
jiung signaled to keeho that he was starting the music, making his way to stand next to him. although the last thing keeho expected to be doing on their first day was performing in front of a group of strangers, with a boy he met less than two hours ago, it was pretty fun, and thankfully they managed to perform well for their lack of practice.
as they headed back to their seats, some of the other students clapped, even a few cheering for jiung, who waved back and mouthed a “thank you” to.
right. people here didn’t know him. but why did jiung get extra applause? their performance wasn’t anything special and most other groups seemed to just cheer for their own friends, maybe those are his friends? and maybe they just enjoy treating their friend like a celebrity? keeho took his seat next to the other, clearing his mind from why he was stressed about his partners social status. as the next group was getting ready, he leaned in closer to jiung, noting the way he almost flinched away, and whispered, “you’re totally glad we sang together, right?”
“yeah. I had fun.”
keeho smiled back at jiung as the next performance started, putting his focus on the girl singing, covering some enhypen song.
after every group had performed, jiung gathered his belongings, but before he could leave keeho stopped him.
“hey, jiung! I'll see you tomorrow, right?”
a slight smile crept onto jiung’s face again, he really stopped him to say just that?
“yeah, I’ll see you tomorrow, keeho.”
keeho had struggled to actually find shota and jongseob, unsure if it was due to the fact his mind was continuously wandering about his new friend jiung, if he can even call him that, and the fact that maybe he should have asked for his number or anything, or the fact that this building was built like a labyrinth. after wandering the halls for what felt like forever, he finally saw two familiar faces sitting on one of the hall benches. he sat down with them as they explained they wanted to go to this cafe that wasn’t that far of a walk, inviting him to come with. keeho agreed, not that he had many other options unless he wanted to find a place to eat by himself, plus, he would never throw away a chance to get to know his new friends better.
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the cafe was pretty cute, plants lining the natural wood counters and lots of cute decor up. after ordering their drinks they found a table in one of the far corners that wasn’t being totally blasted by the sun. soul pulled out his laptop and opened some game while they enjoyed their drinks, keeho eventually breaking the peaceful silence.
“did you guys make any new friends?” keeho asked, both of them slightly shaking their heads in response.
jongseob took a sip of his drink, “well, taeyang was in my group, I mean obviously but…”
“wow seobie, are you excited to spend time with taeyang?” soul teased.
“be quiet. I barely have the guts to talk to him anyways.”
keeho, clearly confused, asked, “who’s this taeyang guy?”
“one of the popular guys at our university, he’s like the cool, really hot guitar player that everyone wants to be friends with. he’s always with his friends, intak and jiung, they’re all like, super talented.”
jiung? like, jiung he just did a singing cover with jiung?
“do you mean choi jiung?”
jongseob tilted his head a little to the side, “you already heard about him?”
“no dude, he was my singing partner, I thought we kinda hit it off…”
keeho cut himself off when he saw the look jongseob was giving him, obviously shocked that someone like keeho could “hit it off” with someone like jiung, I mean he was shocked too. jiung didn’t strike keeho as the popular type, he seemed pretty shy. maybe he was just popular because of his friends? well, he’s definitely gonna have to get to know him better, and definitely hear him sing some more.
keeho decided to ask jongseob some questions about jiung and him and soul, while soul zoned out into whatever game he was playing on his phone, careful to not ask anything to make him suspicious of his curiosity. I mean god, cant a guy be curious about another really attractive guy? he ignored that thought. he learned that jongseob and soul were both first years, having met on some online gaming platform, and that soul would be staying with him for the summer.
before they left the cafe, keeho snapped a few photos of the three of them and obviously made sure to exchange both phone numbers and social media accounts with the younger two, eventually parting ways as they went home.
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as keeho was ready to wind down for the night, he opened his instagram, checking his friends stories, taking a look at soul and jongseob’s instagrams, liking a few of their posts since he didn’t get the chance to earlier, then selecting a few photos for his post, choosing one of his favorite songs and adding a basic ‘first day’ caption.
as he continued to scroll his feed he got curious, surely jiung had an instagram account, right? and if not, taeyang must. he began by doing some basic searches, first and last names, anything that he could think of for two people he knew almost nothing about. then, he checked the followers of one of the schools, and finally, after clicking onto different profiles, he found an account with ‘choi taeyang, 01’ in the bio. thankfully, his account was public, which made it easy enough to find a post of him and jiung, and who he presumed was intak, clicking onto the tagged account, ‘1007_human’ of course his user is his birthday.
and maybe he was just acting on impulse, but he clicked the ‘request follow’ before shutting his phone.