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"You need practice," Rui starts without preamble, striding into their living room like he's on a mission, and nothing and no one shall stop him.
Hyun looks up from the diary he's writing in and stares at Rui blankly, "Eh?"
"Practice!" Rui plops down next to Hyun on the couch, throwing his hands up in the air like Hyun did some great wrong that he must now correct.
"Practice…what exactly?" They just got back from the European concert tour and each of them were given three days off to go home starting the next day - and it being the afternoon before the "big break" and they all worked their asses off in Europe, Wumuti had also basically given all of them that afternoon off as well, to go buy souvenirs and to pack.
In other words, none of them are supposed to be doing any "practice" right at that moment.
Rui stares at Hyun.
Hyun stares back.
Rui huffs. "Aegyo. You need aegyo practice."
"I- I need what now?"
"Aegyo!" Rui throws his hands up in the air again, like he couldn't believe what Hyun just said. "Your aegyo needs serious work! Your expressions are too stiff! You are cute but you are not utilizing it! We must get you to use your charms properly!"
Hyun spends a moment processing that Rui just said he's cute.
"Look," Rui continues, pulling one leg up so he's sitting sideways on the couch, looming over Hyun and looking incredibly serious in a weirdly unserious way. Hyun scoots away just slightly because Rui's lowkey kind of scaring him. "I've seen you being cute with Muti-hyung, but for some reason when you're in front of fans it's like you forget how to do it. You need to practice aegyo so that you can pull it out just whenever and wherever and charm the pants off our fans!"
"I-uh," Hyun thinks for a moment what Rui just said and - well, he does have a point. "Huh. I guess that's a good idea."
"And since I'm such a fantastic and nice person, I've prepared some materials for you to study." Rui nods to himself after saying so, and then pulls out his phone, rapidly tapping it until suddenly, ping! from Hyun's pocket. Hyun pulls his phone out - a message from Butterfly ♥. He taps the message, it's a 5 minute long video. He taps the video.
Rui's face appears in full definition on the screen wearing the look he had on a couple of days before - cute natural makeup, his favorite blue waterdrop circle lenses, straight bangs perfectly framing his face, sweet pink pout, and adorable pastel pink and blue nails. And before Hyun can fully process what he's looking at, the Rui on his phone suddenly starts making a series of aegyo faces at him. There's even cutesy music going with it and cuts to different poses, like he must've taken the video days earlier and went through rounds of editing to make it into what Hyun's watching now.
Hyun is unsure what is happening - his brain has ceased to function.
"...Huh?"
"This is your study material," Rui nods emphatically. "While you're home, practice! I will test you when you get back!" After saying so, Rui bounces up and without looking back, takes rapid strides until he disappears behind his room's door.
Hyun stares after him. Then he looks down at the still playing video, now on its second loop. So cute. His face explodes into heat - Rui is so cute. He quickly closes the video and puts his phone away. And he sits there on the couch in silence, one hand on his diary, the other hand on the pen, face as red and hot as a flaming cheeto.
Meanwhile, as soon as Rui closes the door behind him, he throws himself onto his bed and buries his burning face into his pillow.
Ten minutes later, Wumuti walks by the still blushing Hyun in the living room and raises an eyebrow. Then she opens the door to her room and observes Rui, kicking and flailing in bed silently.
Wumuti wonders what she did to deserve this.
***
Hyun flies home to Gwangju the next day as planned on the mid morning flight, mind still on that video sitting on his phone. He hadn't dared to watch it again since, but he certainly still remembers how adorable Rui looked while making all those cute faces. Then he thinks about what Rui had said - about him needing aegyo practice, and truly the dancer wasn't wrong.
He arrives home in record time since Gwangju isn't that far, and thankfully the combination of his parents and both his sisters coming to greet him distracts him well from the cute face in his phone.
Mid afternoon, Hyun sits on his parents' couch after eating probably the most food he had eaten in one sitting since pre-debut. He is absolutely going to need to go for a run later, maybe a 20km to work off all the food he just ate. While working it's easy to maintain his diet because Hyun only ever has to say no to himself when faced with temptation - but at home, he has not just his parents, but also his two older sisters to say no to, and you just don't say no to his sisters.
His parents are taking their afternoon nap and his two sisters are cleaning the kitchen after the huge family meal they just had. He was going to help, but his oldest sister had given him a single look, and he knew immediately to skedaddle and get out of their hair.
Without anything in particular to do, Hyun's thoughts naturally slip back to that video burning a hole through his pants pocket. He eyes the closed glass kitchen door and the blurry figures of his sisters, then he pulls his phone out of his pocket, sets the volume to low, and opens up Rui's video again.
Within seconds he can feel his face start to heat up.
Rui is just so cute! Each aegyo face he does is so perfectly framed, each pose precise but with a feel of spontaneity. He never looks awkward or weird, unlike Hyun himself, and he thinks Rui must've been born to look adorable.
Except that's not completely true - Hyun remembers Rui talking about practicing his facial expressions over and over again to get it right. For their performances, for aegyo, for poses, he practices in front of the mirror to show off his best side, and Hyun thinks he's so cute and pretty no matter what he does. But Hyun also gives credit where it's due - Rui practiced and his hard work paid off.
Which, Hyun thinks, is probably why Rui said he needs practice. He's absolutely correct. As a trainee Hyun only focused on dancing and singing and the expressions that go with those activities. Without "fans" to see him, he never thought about other things that idols have to do, like doing aegyo on camera. Aegyo had always seemed so…unsuited to himself.
But now watching Rui making cute faces at him for a third time now, his face red but eyes unwilling to move away, Hyun wonders - could he be cute too? Rui said he's cute, he just needs to practice aegyo so that it's not awkward. Hyun's face burns a little more at the reminder that Rui called him cute.
"What is our baby brother watching that's making his face so red? It's not porn is it," comes a sudden voice from right in front of him.
Hyun squeaks, drops his phone and it lands face up on the floor, showing to the world exactly what he was watching.
"Oh my," a second voice from his right, "are you allowed to have videos of cute girls on your phone like this?"
"Also, aren't you gay?"
"!!!!!!!!!!" Hyun makes a panicked screeching noise, snatching up his phone and swiftly turning off the screen. "That's not a girl! That's Rui! Teammate Rui!!"
"Oh oops, sorry, sorry! Didn't recognize him just now," from Hyun's middle sister.
"It's okay," Hyun mumbles. He's not surprised they don't recognize Rui in this video - most of the videos and photos they've seen recently have been Rui in various wigs and full face of makeup - they probably don't even know what color hair he has now under the wigs. They both are married with kids and have busy lives - it's not surprising that they don't know every detail of what XLOV is doing or look like at any given time. Well, except what Hyun's wearing and doing - that they know very well of course.
"So," Hyun's eldest sister says, sitting down on the couch next to him on the right. His middle sister plops down to sit on his left. "Tell us about why you were watching a video of your very pretty teammate acting cute and why you were beet red."
Hyun feels like maybe he made a grave mistake by watching that video in the vicinity of his sisters.
"I have a legitimate reason!" Hyun yelps. He sinks deeper into the couch as his two sisters, twin smiles of innocence on their faces, loom over him. "Look, Rui-hyung said I need to practice my aegyo because I keep freezing up on stage, and he's just- he's just nice enough to give me references on how to aegyo, that's all!" He turns the video back on and shoves it in their faces as if somehow that's going to make the whole situation less embarrassing. Like a 'see, I'm not being a complete weirdo, me watching this video is entirely normal and innocent,' not that either of his sisters buys it.
They watch the video together, Hyun desperately hoping for the couch to swallow him up, and his sisters making noises about how adorable Rui is and how good he is at aegyo, and how they need to take some tips to use on their respective husbands.
"Your Rui-hyung does have a point though, Jinhyung-ah," Hyun's eldest sister says after the video ends and starts looping again. "We watched your last showcase, you know."
His middle sister nods, "yeaaaaaaah that was…interesting. To say the least."
"We also saw some videos from your Europe concerts."
"Oh yes, those too. You definitely need practice."
"Noonaaaaa!!!" Hyun buries his face in his hand. His middle sister cackles while his eldest sister giggles demurely - Hyun should've remembered that while his two sisters spoiled him rotten as a kid, they also had a lot of fun ganging up on him.
Hyun sighs as the laughter quiets down. "You're right, and Rui-hyung's right too. I really need to practice these expressions. There's only so much more I can get away with, I need to be able to perform well in this aspect too. But…" he looks down. Learning aegyo should be trivial compared to all the things he had to do for XLOV's choreography, but somehow it feels more daunting. Being cute isn't something that can be forced - some people just aren't suited to be cute.
The two women exchange a look over Hyun's head.
"Jinhyung-ah - you know you just aegyoed at us not even a minute ago, right?"
Hyun looks up at his oldest sister in confusion.
"Yeah, and you acted cute to us all the time growing up - why did you think we spoiled you so much? You were so cute." Hyun's middle sister suddenly sighs, looking into the air like she's remembering a younger Kim Jinhyung who apparently acted cute toward her to get what he wanted.
Hyun narrows his eyes at his sisters. "What are you even talking about?"
The two stare at him blankly. "You. Acting cute. At us," answers his middle sister.
"I so did not!" Hyun exclaims, feeling affronted.
"Oh you so did," his middle sister retorts back.
"I did not~~!" Hyun whines.
"There! Right there! You just whined at us in a super cute way!"
Hyun freezes. He realizes - she's right, he can feel his mouth sticking out in a pout, and he has somehow shrank himself so far into the couch that his two sisters are now towering over him. He hears a noise and turns to his elder sister - only to be faced with a selfie mode phone screen, showing exactly what his face looks like. Hyun not only was pouting, but his eyes were also big and dewey, looking up cutely through his lashes up at the phone.
"Do you see, Jinhyung? You are plenty cute," murmurs his eldest sister. She taps the side of the phone and snaps a picture of him at that moment, then pulls the phone back and happily sends it into the family group chat.
Ping! from Hyun's phone. He opens the chat and taps on the new photo.
Well.
Hyun thinks his sisters might be on to something there.
Later after his sisters had left for their respective homes and the house settled down for the night, after Hyun had gone on his long run and showered and changed into pajamas for sleep, he examined his photo again. It's not perfect, he's not magically turning into an aegyo expert, but he does have to admit that there's something there. His pout stuck out a little too much, his eyebrows were a little too scrunched together, but overall the effect isn't too bad.
He pulls out his stand mirror. In the dead of night and in the privacy of his childhood room, Hyun thinks this is as good a time as any to start practicing.
He starts out with a pout. Doesn't look quite right - he watches Rui's video and finds a frame that fits the image he's thinking of, and after a moment of admiring how cute Rui is, he sets about moving his mouth so his pout is more similar to hers. Hyun wants his mouth to stick out but not overly forced, and looks more softly pouty instead of like he's trying to smooch someone who really doesn't want a smooch.
Once that looks about right, he tries to get his eyes to look big and round, but no matter what he does, it's just not coming out right. He can't even get his face to look like how he looked in the photo his sister took earlier in the afternoon. He moves his arm so the mirror is above him, but even then he's not getting the effect of that photo. Hyun frowns, annoyed and feeling hopeless and irritated, but mostly feeling upset that at this rate, Rui's not going to be impressed with his progress when he gets back.
Hyun tries to not think about why Rui's opinions matter so much.
Finally after too long trying and failing to make his face move properly, he closes his eyes and tries to imagine his sisters there, trying to channel the feeling from that afternoon. Hyun remembers them giggling over his head, teasing him about watching Rui, his middle sister roasting him about how red his face was - and his eyes snap open to look up at the mirror, and he just…whimpers. It's a tiny whimper, but he definitely heard it come out of his throat. His mouth also moves naturally into a small pout, and his eyes look up at the mirror, looking soft and wide, like he's being so wronged. And most crazy of all - he saw himself shimmy his shoulders.
???
Hyun is so disturbed by what he just witnessed that he promptly throws the mirror back into his suitcase and dives into his bed, eyes wide in the darkness. What did he just see?
It takes a surprising amount of time before he can fall asleep.
The next day Hyun wakes and wonders if he dreamed it all. But then he decided, no, that wasn't a dream, and he really should make good use of whatever that was last night because it's the best progress he had made thus far. And if he's hoping to try to impress Rui when he gets back…
Hyun once again tries to not think about why he wants to impress Rui.
He spends some time in the morning reviewing Rui's video - not for anything nefarious! Just to get some more references! He practices with the mirror again, this time having a feel for how his face should move in order to get the eyes to look large without looking as wild as back during the UXLXVE showcase. He finds another pose from Rui's reference video that he thinks he can do - two hands curled up framing his mouth, making his cheeks puff up and squishy, and makes his mouth curls up cutely, like a cat. He decides this is relatively cute and safe and less likely to backfire on him.
For the rest of the trip, Hyun would dedicate each morning after waking up and each night before sleep to learning a new aegyo pose. He practices in front of the mirror, and sometimes he feels so awkward, so embarrassed, but he keeps his eyes on the mirror and reminds himself that feeling awkward doesn't necessarily mean looking awkward. Sometimes as unnatural as his face feels, it still comes out looking surprisingly cute.
He tries one of his practiced aegyo looks on his sisters - his middle sister starts cackling, but thankfully at least his oldest sister's reaction is much more positive, telling him how cute he is. And then they both start to pinch his cheeks, saying how they haven't seen him being this cute since he left for Seoul to become a trainee.
Hyun decides to stop testing on his family, because his cheeks might be bruised by the time he gets back to Seoul.
By the end of the short vacation, Hyun feels confident that he has at least one aegyo pose down as his ultimate attack, along with a few others that he feels pretty good about that are a little more tame.
The real test, however, is Rui. Now that their vacation is over and he's coming back to Seoul, Hyun can feel his phone burning a hole in his pocket again, because suddenly he realizes that Rui is going to know that he spent the entire past three days watching the dancer on repeat and practicing his aegyo exactly like how Rui had asked.
If that doesn't scream whipped, Hyun is not sure what does.
When Hyun steps back into their apartment, the first thing he sees is Rui's shoes, the same sneakers he wore out the day they all left for their respective flights. Second is Rui himself, sitting on the couch and staring right back at Hyun. Rui's got his phone in his hand, likely was searching up himself on social media again, and must've looked up when he heard the door unlocking. He's in a tank top and cardigan, loose sweatpants, and his favorite black beanie - his favorite at home clothes.
The two stare at each other, and Hyun feels his face start to heat up almost immediately - he was literally just thinking of Rui and his cute video burning a hole in his pocket!!!
Hyun clears his throat, "Oh hey, you're back already." He turns and quickly pulls his luggage into the entryway and closes the door behind him. He keeps his burning face down as he swaps out his outdoor shoes for indoor slippers - it somehow feels like he was just caught doing something naughty.
"Yeah, just got back an hour ago," Rui answers, "no one else's back yet. Haru said his flight isn't gonna land til evening, and Muti-hyung's still in office."
Hyun nods, remembering the only one who couldn't go home was Wumuti whose flight back to his home town would've taken almost 9 hours one way, and Wumuti had decided it just wasn't worth it when there's still so much work to be done. One day Hyun hopes Wumuti can take a longer break and go visit his family properly - but before that can happen, they need to hustle and get somewhere in their careers.
"I'm just gonna…go put my stuff away," Hyun says, feeling so awkward suddenly, pulling his suitcase behind him and almost running for his and Haru's door. Putting everything away didn't take long, their home visit was so short that he really only brought souvenirs for his family, so the suitcase was practically empty on the way back.
And now that's done, Hyun realizes - he probably should just go face the music. It's also probably better to do it now when neither Haru nor Wumuti are home - less likely for anyone to walk in on his embarrassment. It's not a bad thing that he watched Rui's video on repeat, Hyun reminds himself, considering Rui gave him that video to practice with, so it's perfectly okay that he was watching it so much. Yes, of course.
Hyun takes a deep breath and opens his door to head into the living room again. Rui's still sitting on the couch, phone in hand, but he's staring into the air like he's thinking hard about something.
Hyun clears his throat and Rui jumps, dropping his phone into his lap.
"Rui-hyung," Hyun starts, sitting gingerly down next to Rui on the couch, leaving an appropriately sized gap between them.
"Y-yes?" Rui squeaks, then he quickly clears his throat. He turns sideways on the couch, pulling a leg up to face Hyun easier. "Yes?"
"I thought about what you said before we left on vacation," Hyun continues, rubbing his nervous palms on his knees, "and you're right, I did need the aegyo practice."
"Right. Right! Of course I'm right."
"And well, I followed your guide video," Hyun's voice cracks a little here, but he quickly clears his throat and recovers. He keeps his face aimed forward - the next part he can't possibly look at Rui when he says it. "And I practiced a lot while I was at home, so, um, I was thinking I can show you what I worked on, and you can, uh, judge. Me. Or something. Maybe." And then before Rui even has a chance to respond, Hyun suddenly blurts out "Or maybe not! I know you're busy, and we're still on break technically, so you don't have do anything, we don't have to do anything, and in fact you probably don't want to see anyway, and, and, just wanted to tell you I totally watched your video and practiced a lot, and-"
"No! No, I mean, yes, I definitely want to see your aegyo- er your practice results," Rui quickly interrupts, voice rising, then trying to come down to normal like he didn't almost throw himself on Hyun to keep him there. Hyun looks like he's half a second away from bolting. "Right, um, yeah I want to see your results!"
"Right," Hyun deflates a little. They sink into silence for a minute, then Hyun takes a deep, fortifying breath, closing his eyes to focus and remember the feelings he had during his practice at home. "Right, here we go," he mutters under his breath.
And then suddenly, without warning, he turns sideways to Rui, lowers himself and sinks almost halfway down on the couch, leaning into Rui's space so far that his face is almost level with Rui's chest, and then he just…looks up. The doe-like eyes open wide with the sweetest looking pout, and a little whimper leaving his throat, along with the cutest "Rui-hyung~" Rui has ever heard in his life.
Rui just…freezes.
Hyun shimmies his shoulders and whimpers again, bringing one hand up to his cheek and tilting his head slightly, another sweet "Rui-hyung~" leaving his mouth.
Rui's face explodes. He abruptly shoves a hand against Hyun's face, pushing him back and then bolting straight up out of the couch.
"Great job!" he squeaks loudly, voice so high that it sounds like he's trying to sing Extancy, "excellent, really, truly, you've mastered the aegyo, um, keep it up! I'll test the rest later!!!" And then he makes a mad dash for his room's door.
Hyun stays frozen against the back of the couch where Rui had shoved him, completely stunned by what had just happened.
"Also I want a recording of your progress!" came Rui's high pitched squeak from behind his door, "for research purposes!"
Five minutes later Wumuti steps into the apartment and finds a still frozen Hyun, limbs akimbo and looking dizzy and stunned, unable to even respond to Wumuti's greeting. She raises an eyebrow.
She then goes to her room, opens the door, and observes a kicking and flailing Rui screaming into his pillow.
Wumuti frowns. Seriously, she wonders, what did she do to deserve this?
***
Later Hyun does indeed record a video for Rui - including music and editing and all the works that Rui had put in his original video. Neither mentions to anyone else that they now each have a video of the other in their phone, and no one shall ever know how many times they each pulled out the video to watch "for references".
They also start a semi-regular aegyo study group, with Hyun watching and learning from Rui, and then turning the aegyo back on Rui for "grading."
If both of them come out of these "study groups" with red faces and an increase in heart rate - well.
Some things are just no one else's business.