Chapter Text
Sunlight just about tickles his skin when Seita's alarm goes off. He stretches his arms above his head and slowly sits up, yawning. He's got class later today, which means he can sleep in a bit, in theory. Seita picks up his phone from his bedside table nonetheless, just to make sure he isn't missing an important notification. There's just some stuff from social media, a text from his family's group chat which can gladly wait, and Hyui.
Seita doesn't know how long he's known Hyui for now. Honest-to-god, he doesn't even know how they became friends. Seita thinks it might be that they both have always preferred staying behind. They don't seek out big crowds, or the attention of people. They share JOMO, so to say. Joy of missing out.
Well, until recently. Ever since Hyui's friend So Geon, who Seita has yet to meet, dragged him to a dance competition when someone he knew was competing, Hyui has had severe fear of missing one of the competitions. Usually, that wouldn't bother Seita — technically, it still doesn't, no.
But when he told Hyui that most of his study-intense, important exam phases would be over soon, the boy jumped at the opportunity to take him to one of the events, too. And while he did agree to come, Seita doesn't get it. The love that people have for it seems a tad superficial to him, and reading what it's all supposed to mean… it just never made sense to him.
He's not made for sports, including dance, and never will be. He's not even unathletic; he just prefers calm libraries to study in alone over busy sport clubs. He thought Hyui felt the same.
He clicks on the message, and immediately regrets it. Now it's marked as read and he has to answer.
Hyuiii🍓
Still up for the dance competition? We leave at 6:30pm
im so glad you agreed to come btw
You
not like you left me much of a choice
Hyuiii🍓
lyt
see you then
Seita sighs and drops his phone on his mattress beside him. It's not like he hates going out or anything, he's just not a fan of loud crowds. Or crowds in general. Or loud places as a whole.
Right.
He takes a deep breath and reminds himself that he's doing this for Hyui. Because Hyui, his best friend, asked him to come. Because this is Hyui's, his best friend's, new passion. Dancing.
What's so great about watching people dance even?
Seita gets up with a soft groan. He's awake now anyway, and while his class only starts at ten, he can get some things done right now. Being a junior in his college means he gets to live in a single dorm, and while that's been great for the most part, it also means having to clean it and taking care of it alone.
Luckily for him, he's actually quite neat. It takes him no time to gather the laundry in a basket and put away the dishes.
An hour later, he's finally happy with the state of his dorm, so he changes into fresh clothes and sits down to revise some more. He still has one important test and one important exam coming up, and he hasn't had time to fully comprehend the amount of material he should study for it.
Because that's what Seita does. He studies. He's on his way to become the academy's top student, and he'll put nothing above that. His history professor has already referred him to a prestigious institute, and even if Seita doesn't quite know yet whether or not that's what he really, fully wants, it's clearly made for him.
So yes, he studies.
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“Seita!” Donghwa greets him on his way to the library, bumping shoulders. The slightly older boy is a biology major, though Donghwa focuses more on his actual interest, animals, than his major. He's really only studying biology because he's a natural at the topic, he told Seita before. “Excited for today?”
“The dance thing?”
“No, silly, the test. Professor Lee said– Wait, what?” Donghwa pauses, “You're heading to the show too?”
“Is just about everyone going there?” Seita shakes his head and stops walking too, “Hyui, his anonymous friend, you, who else was I not aware of?”
Donghwa blinks, confused, then snorts, “Well, it's somewhat of a big event.”
Seita frowns and turns to walk again. Donghwa quickly runs after him, asking him to wait, but he keeps walking. A big event? He never heard of the competition before Hyui went for the first time. He knows some people from their grade are outgoing enough to test all sorts of occasions to meet up, but even people he thought didn't like, or at least weren't interested in dance are going? That's so odd.
“It's not a big deal. We are all just broke students who crave entertainment without having to skip the next day's meal,” Donghwa shrugs once he catches up to him, “It's just a surprise that you're going.”
“And why's that?” Seita huffs, as if he doesn't know that himself.
“You're Seita,” Donghwa bumps his shoulder against Seita's again, “You're, like, the smartest and most studious guy here. Not gonna lie, I thought you didn't have time for going out and stuff. And the competition is such a social event too. Usually, most dancers that compete are our age, so they stay and chat with us, y'know? And you're…” Donghwa searches for the right words, studying Seita's unimpressed expression, “...introverted. Yeah.”
“Well– Hm.” Seita begins, but cuts himself off. Donghwa isn't wrong. It's true that he prefers a small social circle and calm events. He's never tried to hide how much he dislikes being forced to socialize.
At the end of the day, he's not forced to socialize. He's gonna go there with Hyui, watch the show, and leave.
Solid plan, no?
Seita and Donghwa part ways after their study session and Seita heads to his one and only class for the day, where he meets up with Yuki, an underclassman whom he bonded with over the expectations of professor Kang earlier this year.
He pops the questions right away.
“Are you going to the dance thing this evening too?”
Yuki, who barely has his stuff taken out, blinks and shakes his head, “No, that's way too much. I have a half-finished assignment due tomorrow and— Seita?”
Maybe it was an overreaction to collapse onto the lecture hall table, but he's just glad to finally hear someone say they're not going. To make him not feel like this is The Thing™ that he's been missing out on.
“Thank you.”
“For…not going?” Yuki tilts his head as his old laptop boots to life.
“Yes.” Seita folds his hands on the table and stares intensely at Yuki, who shrinks back slightly. “Everyone made it seem like a cardinal sin to not be a regular at the competition when I told them I'm going.”
“What?” Yuki snorts, “I would know that. It can't be that great if I haven't been.”
Their conversation is rudely cut off by their professor starting his lecture just then, but Seita knocks his knee against Yuki's in thanks nonetheless. Sure, his “everyone” means three people, but he's glad that someone is on his side at least.
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Hyui is, quite frankly, vibrating. He's been ever since he met up with Seita earlier, and now that they're in front of the studio, waiting in line for Hyui's unknown friend, he's close to running up the building's walls.
It's a simple building. Old brown bricks, black glass frames that have been painted over multiple times and probably have seen better days, the studio's logo on the dark glass. The logo spells out ‘Dance’ in roman letters using different poses that dancers —assumingly— hit when dancing. It's surrounded by one big circle and another, thinner one, that connects on its left side with a star. Seita thinks it's creative.
“Hyui-yah!” A voice echoes across the crowd and then a figure appears. It's a boy, about their age, with bright eyes and an even brighter grin. His hair is dyed in a very pale shade of blue and he's vibrating even more than Hyui, if possible.
“Geon!” Hyui greets the boy, Geon apparently, back. “You made it!”
“Of course,” Geon replies, then points at himself with his thumb, “Yu is performing today! I can't miss that.”
Seita uses their conversation to take Geon in fully. He's wearing a white tank top, a simple black jacket above it, and jorts. His red-white sneakers are decorated with little, drawn-on figures, and Seita can spot headphones dangling under his jacket. He's pretty, and Seita immediately shrinks back upon realizing, but–
“—and meet Seita!” Hyui grabs Seita's arm and tugs him forward.
“Oh, uh, hello. I'm Seita.”
“You're the friend Hyui's been mentioning,” Geon smiles and grabs Seita's hands, shaking them enthusiastically, “I'm So Geon!”
The doors to the studio open and Seita is saved from being forced to make awkward conversation. Hyui and Geon each take one of his sides, shoulders pressed together, and together they let the crowd pull them inside.
Once inside, Seita notices that most of the studio's lights have been shut off and half of the dance floor has been blocked by movable room separators. He's about to ask how they're supposed to fit the five dozen people here into the room and still have space for dancing, when a woman wearing branded pink sweats and a white crop steps on a stool to the side of the room and forms a funnel around her mouth.
“Hello everyone, thank you for coming! Our dancers are just getting ready. Feel free to grab a drink and head downstairs in about five minutes!” She hops off the chair and disappears behind one of the separators. Seita is just about to ask what she means by ‘downstairs’ when Geon jumps up and starts pulling him and Hyui along.
“Haru-yah! Haru-yah!”
Seita knows Haru. He graduated last year and sometimes asked Seita for advice after he noticed how often he was in the library. He even helped him prepare for an exam once.
Yet, when they make it through the crowd, with ducked heads and Seita forcing himself to not stop Geon from forcing them to walk and push people aside, he doesn't recognize Haru immediately.
He's grown a lot. Not necessarily in height, but rather, he got broader. His hair isn't dyed red anymore, but he's showing his natural black right now. He's wearing a fitted white tee with a red print on the front, the type of tight that doesn't hug his skin just yet but also leaves nothing to guess. The sweats that he's wearing are short too. Seita can't help but notice the handful of bruises where his skin is showing.
“Hey, Geon,” Haru gives the boy a small wave, then smiles at Hyui and Seita, “Hyui, hi! And— Seita?”
“You sound surprised.” Seita replies, forcing his voice to sound steady. He doesn't want anyone to realize how anxious this whole situation is slowly making him feel.
“Well, I am!” Haru claps his hands and then turns to the refrigerator behind him, grabbing four bottles of water. “Didn't know you were the type to enjoy dance.”
“You know each other?” Hyui tilts his head.
Seita shrugs. Knowing might be an overstatement. He's acquainted with Haru at best. The latter seems to think otherwise though; Haru is nodding.
“Yeah! He's the junior that helped me last year.” He turns to Seita and nudges him while handing him one of the bottles he grabbed. “You're still as smart as ever?”
Seita wants to humbly deny that, but Hyui is faster. “Seita is super smart. The smartest. I had to drag him from campus to stop him from studying!”
There's that sense of feeling exposed creeping up Seita's back again before Hyui's sentence is done. Sure, he's studious. And usually he doesn't mind talking about that. But when meeting new people he prefers…caution, so to say. Not everyone likes, quote-on-quote, nerds.
Today must be his lucky day, though, because Geon looks at him with amazement and Haru nods, as if proud. He isn't even that much older, seriously.
“Figured,” Haru grins and then jabs a thumb at Geon, “This guy over here might need your tutoring.”
Geon flushes. “I'm not that bad! And besides, I'm basically done with everything! Just one semester left and then–”
“Yap, yap, yap.” Haru throws an arm around the boy's neck, and Seita finds himself startled by their roughhousing, but judging by Hyui's big smile, this is normal.
Geon whines and twists in Haru's arms, before giving up and allowing the other to bring him down. He clings to Haru's torso and almost causes them both to topple over. Seita would like to go home now, if possible. They're drawing attention and he'd preferably not be a part of that. But then Haru lets go of Geon and they stand as if nothing happened.
“Anyway, Hyui, you're here for Tomoya, right?” Haru asks, curiously, and Geon giggles. Hyui's eyes widen and while his face remains mostly neutral, Seita can see, even in the dimly lit studio, how his ears burst into flames.
“Not just him!” Hyui protests, but the way his voice cracks gives away his true thoughts. “He just said– promised– he said he'd do a song I'd love next time and now I want to see how well he actually knows my taste!”
Geon rolls his eyes jokingly and leans toward Seita. “Me personally I think Hyui has a cru–ackh! Yah!” Geon's words get cut off by Hyui wrapping an arm around his stomach and pushing him away, but Seita got the gist.
“And here I thought you were expanding your artistic horizon by going to these dance competitions.” Seita says, nonchalantly, but Hyui instantly spins around, face heating up.
“Seita!” He whines, but before he can protest any further, a door to the side of the studio opens and the woman from earlier shouts something about the base being ready.
The crowd moves toward the door and downstairs, and the group follows.
Seita wasn't aware dance studio basements were this big, but then again this might be an exception. The room is dark, set up all around a small stage, the type you'd see in an underground bar, except it's lower than the rest of the floor. The vibe downstairs is very different from the clean studio — instead of the setting sun dripping in through clean windows, there's bright white stage lights pointing at the lowered area in the middle. There's no more of that orderly atmosphere, instead there are stickers on the wall, there's old school hip-hop playing through some speakers and every chair seems to be of a different kind.
Everyone quickly fills in the seats at the back of the room, elevated by wooden blocks or pallets, but Hyui pulls Seita along almost right up to the stage, the only thing stopping them from falling into the cavity supposedly for the dancers being a flimsy, thin net that spans around the depth and already shows signs of people ripping it at places. They stand just behind it, and Geon points somewhere into the shadows behind the opening of the stage.
"Hyui-yah, Hyui! Look!"
There's a figure standing just off to the side, right where the stage lights don't reach anymore, waving at them. Or, not them — at Hyui. Hyui grins, beaming as if he wants to take the place of the stage lights, then waves back. The figure's waving intensifies, then their arms flail around, trying to deliver a message.
Hyui squints like he seriously expects to be able to figure that out, but before Seita gets to tell him that, he turns to his friends with a big smile. "They're starting in a few minutes! Tomoya's first, then Keiju, then Yu."
How the fuck. Seita stares at Hyui in disbelief, then his gaze snaps to Geon and Haru. Haru notices his expression and breaks into a shameless laugh, nudging him.
"You should look at yourself, Seita!"
"How did he even– what?" Seita's eyes skip from Haru and Geon to Hyui, who shrugs, then back to the other two.
"We don't know either," Geon leans across Haru to pat Seita's arm in a consoling action, while Haru still giggles. Hyui's cheeks heat up again and he crosses his arms with a pout.
"Anyway," Seita shakes his head, "Are there just three dancers in this thing? Not much of a competition then, is it?"
"No, there are more, but those three we care about," Haru explains, guiding Seita's gaze to a group of dancers standing in a closed-off area behind the stage, beside the DJ console, "All of these guys work here, and most of them will probably perform tonight."
"I see," Seita says, even if he doesn't know why the three Hyui named would be special. "And how's the winner measured?"
"Usually there's not really one winner," Hyui clarifies, "It's more about winning over the crowd. The one who gets the loudest cheers at the end of the day wins, but even that's kinda up to interpretation."
"But doesn't that mean that just about anyone could win? Like someone with no real skills at all, as long as the spectators are infatuated enough?" It's a valid question, Seita thinks, so he doesn't quite get why Haru snorts in response.
"Oh trust me, these guys have skills."
"You can trust him." A new voice sounds behind them. The boys turn around in sync, and Seita finds himself trying very hard not to gape at the man behind them. He's beautiful.
Hyui spares him the embarrassment of having to ask who this guy is when he leans over to whisper in Seita's ear while Haru talks to the stranger, "That's Hwang Hyunjin. He's a super famous dancer, he does dance covers on YouTube and has, like, three million subscribers! He's also Haru's private dance teacher."
"What?" Seita looks from Haru to Hyunjin, unbelieving. He knew Haru danced, he had stormed out of the library claiming to be late for his dancing class more than once last year, but he didn't know he danced like that.
"Mhm, he sometimes teaches at the studio and apparently went up to hyung himself! He never participates in the events, but Haru sometimes does." Hyui nods, but then tilts his head. "Tomoya is better than him, though."
Seita deadpans, "You're saying that only 'cause you have a crush on–"
Hyui punches him.
Before Seita gets to retaliate though, the quiet music playing in the background turns off and the woman from earlier steps onto the stage. She announces that there will be six dancers today, then claps her hands.
"Alright then, everybody make some noise for our local star, Uemura Tomoya!"
And the crowd does, in fact, make some noise while a boy wearing a fitted black t-shirt and the same branded pink sweats as the woman runs into the middle, clapping his hands. He's wearing sunglasses and is no doubt very confident, judging by the way he hypes up the spectators first before a song starts playing. An old one that Seita recognizes as Billie Jean by Michael Jackson.
Hyui sits up a bit more, and despite the way Tomoya is throwing his limbs from the first second on, he seems unimpressed, "That's his favorite MJ song, not mine."
Haru snorts, "Are you really gonna pout because he didn't manage to find out your favorite song?"
Haru leans over Seita to poke Hyui's pouting cheeks with a grin, and Hyui slaps his hand away with a huff. For someone who doesn't have a crush, he seems quite affected by that, but Seita keeps that thought to himself.
Tomoya is impressive. Seita has no clue about dancing, but even he can tell that whatever he's doing is beyond a simple dance. He's sliding across the dance floor and using all of his limbs like they're made from water. His movements and expressions fit the lyrics, and he slows down whenever the song does, but throws himself into the next move with twice as much enthusiasm when Michael Jackson's voice breaks into a new style.
The beat suddenly slows down and for a second, it sounds as if the music is messing up — then the song switches. Still Michael Jackson, but Chicago now. There's over-exaggerated confusion on Tomoya's face for a breath, mirroring the crowd's own confusion, then his eyes find Hyui's in the crowd. Seita watches the boy gasp, "Th-That's my favorite–"
He's cut off by Tomoya winking and throwing his sunglasses off before he takes a step back to jump into the next maneuver, this time slower, sensual almost. His hands glide up his body and Seita suddenly has the need to close his eyes. This part of his performance definitely feels more private, not meant for a big stage like this.
By the time the song ends, he's panting, and Seita feels like he just witnessed a new form of art —which, in a way, he did. He watches Tomoya walk off to the side and grab a bottle of water, as if he didn't just dance his heart out.
When he turns to Hyui, wanting to ask him something that he can't really put in words yet, he just needs confirmation that he just witnessed this, the boy is blushing so much he's surely glowing red.
"Uh– Hyui-yah? You okay?"
Hyui shoots up. "Yes. Very. I'll go talk to Tomoya really quickly." And then he's gone.
Seita turns to his other side, where Haru and Geon are looking at each other with shit-eating grins. Haru notices Seita's gaze and gladly decides to spare him the embarrassment of asking what he just saw by simply patting his shoulder.
"Yeah, we were all there once."
Seita huffs, "I knew dancing can be really impressive. I didn't know…"
"And that's just the tip of the iceberg," Geon slides around Haru to sink into Hyui's left behind seat, "You haven't even seen Yu!"
"Or me." Haru adds.
"Please, Yu and Tomoya beat you while sleeping."
"Yah!" Haru shoots up from his seat to tackle Geon, accidentally involving Seita in their rough-housing, who yelps when his chair knocks with Geon's. He holds onto Haru and they almost topple over together, but somehow Haru manages to pull them back. Not like they have time to topple over, because the woman from earlier (Seita really should learn her name) steps onto the stage again, clapping.
"Alright then everyone, give it up for Tomoya!" The crowd whoops, some people even standing up to cheer. Seita claps, and leans over to Haru, "Is this where they measure the applause?"
"Yeah," Haru nods, "And announce the next dancer."
Just on cue, the woman makes a shushing gesture and the noise settles along with the crowd. "Now then, let's welcome our next candidate to the stage — Tomiyasu Yu!"
A fit looking guys jogs on stage, and bows to the woman, before turning toward the crowd.
Hook, line, sinker — Seita doesn't believe in love at first sight, but damn it if this isn't a close call.
Yu looks…breathtaking, to say the least. His hair, brown with dyed light strands, cascades around his soft face in waves, but his muscular build takes away the softness of that. Even Seita can tell that his body is honed not by working out, but dancing. His outfit, a white tank top and, just like Tomoya, branded pink sweats, hide nothing of that.
This Tomiyasu guy isn't doing what Tomoya did. Instead of hyping up the crowd, he calmly walks into the middle of the stage, waving to some people he must recognize, and then goes very still. The first beats of the song he chose, a hip-hop one that Seita doesn't recognize, begin playing, and his style immediately presents as completely different from Tomoya's.
Yu's moves are lazier, but with style, and instead of following the exact beat he emphasizes the lines of his movements. Maybe. Seita really has no clue about dance.
Then he flops to the ground, and for a second, Seita thinks he might have collapsed, but no fraction of a second later, the crowd erupts in cheers and Yu spins on the ground, building up momentum until he's spinning on basically just one hand, muscles straining. Seita stares.
The Korean language has approximately one million words, counting neologisms, slang, colloquial words and dialects — not a single one could describe the feeling rushing through Seita's veins.
Solicitation may be close. Enchantment closer.
Love at first sight isn't real. He's had small crushes at first sight before, sure, when someone was especially pretty, or kind. His heart has always been soft, easy to sway even. But love? He's never felt that sort of starstruck wow-moment, the rush of everything and that sole focus on whoever one's heart might set out its sight for.
Yu slows his spinning, a warm smirk on his face, and with the rest of his momentum, jumps to his feet.
For a moment, he pauses. It's nothing, not even a full beat, but his eyes find Seita's through the net, and twitch, just a minuscule imitation of a movement really, but Seita physically feels his world tilt.
Brown. Yu's eyes are brown, the exact shade of the sweetest chocolate, and deep, reflecting the stage light like stars in the night sky, fireflies lighting up a clearing at night. The music fades out, Haru and Geon are forgotten. Seita's world zeroes in on Yu. His movements fluid as if he's nothing but a liquid stirred by the sound of music.
The song ends too quickly and Seita finally remembers to breathe. He doesn't think he can comprehend whatever just went on inside his mind; metaphors, seriously? But as he watches Yu bow and leave the stage, friendliness and warmth radiating from him as a younger boy runs up to him just outside of the circle of the stage lights and clap his hands, he feels something in him ache. The idea of not seeing Yu again creeps up to him and he gasps.
Haru nudges him, and Seita remembers he wasn't alone. "You're okay? You look a little…dazed?"
"Yeah," Seita nods, even though that's probably the biggest lie he ever told, "Yeah, I'm okay. Just never realized dancing could be– that. Yeah."
He is the opposite of okay. He feels drunk, his mind fully wiped of the ability to think. And the worst part is that he can't explain it, not without the answer simply being whatever he just saw.
The other dances pass by in a blur. Seita claps politely when the others claps, gives a standing ovation when all dancers walk on stage and bow, watches Yu stand beside Tomoya and giggle with him about something, watches Yu clap for a Tomoya who apparently won.
Hyui returns sometime in between that, not without getting teased by Haru and Geon. Seita would have joined in had his eyes not been magnetically drawn to Yu, currently talking to the woman whom he found out is named Hwang Yeji.
Yeji pats Yu's shoulder, then turns to the spectator seats a final time, "Alright then, everyone! Thank you so much for coming and watching! As always, feel free to grab a drink upstairs or stay a moment longer if you want to chat with our dancers!"
"We get to talk to them?" Seita's voice, for some reason, shakes when he asks that.
"Yup," Haru nods, then grins at Hyui, "That's how lover boy over here got to meet Moya actually," Haru ignores Hyui's protest to look at Seita, "Wanna head down to chat?"
"Yes." Seita hopes he doesn't sound too desperate. If he does, the others don't react to it, thank the stars above; he's embarrassed enough of himself as is.
Tomoya and Yu are talking to each other about their dancing, or that's what it sounds like to Seita's untrained ears.
"Yu, Tomoya!" Geon shouts before they're even close and Seita winces, but the two just turn to look at them with a grin. Tomoya immediately makes his way over to Hyui, grabbing the boy's hand. Hyui flushes at that, and just as Geon and Yu snicker to themselves while Haru raises an eyebrow, Tomoya points at himself.
"I never want to hear your guys' teasing again."
A collective "What?" echoes back.
Instead of a reply, Tomoya faces Hyui and presses a kiss to the corner of his lips.
Chaos, utter chaos, is what Seita would describe everyone's reaction as, excluding himself here. He didn't know three people could be this loud.
Geon screeches, Haru raises his arms above his head and whoops, and Yu exclaims a way too loud "Really?". Hyui blushes, but nods. Tomoya nudges him in response.
"He came up to me backstage after my dance, quite frankly tackling me–"
"I grabbed your hand."
"–and told me to never seduce him with my dancing–"
"I said not to dance with your hands all over your body."
"–again, but I kissed him to shut him up."
"You were about to say 'sorry'. I kissed you."
"Eek!" Geon jumps up and down, then wraps his arms around Hyui, fully uncaring of Tomoya trying to push him off of his boyfriend(?). "I'm so glad you two finally acted on all that tension. It got so painful to bear witness to that."
"Only took you too long," Haru huffs, "We were so close to betting on you."
"I'm just glad I don't have to listen to Tomoya wallow on about Hyui again." Yu chuckles, giving Tomoya a half-hearted punch to the shoulder. Seita, for sure happy for his friend but unfortunately incapable of focusing on anything but Yu, feels his knees weaken at the sound of his voice. Right. Because that's normal.
"Anyway." Hyui steps out of Geon's grip and points at Seita, who was in fact not ready to have the spotlight be on him, thank you. "This is my friend Seita, you know, the smart one."
"I'm familiar." Tomoya nods. "Hyui talks a lot about you."
Seita flushes.
"Yeah!" Yu chimes in, making everything ten times worse. "He mentioned you're basically the smartest student at the academy. The one who's about to graduate with a perfect score?"
"That's too much," Seita shakes his head, "Grades aren't everything. I was way more impressed by what you guys did on stage."
Tomoya puffs his chest out while Yu blushes, "Ah, that was nothing."
"That was not nothing!" Seita instantly shakes his head. "I'm not familiar with dance at all, but even I could tell that your dancing must've required a lot of training! Seriously, I don't even know where I would start."
"I could teach you."
The group goes quiet. Haru and Geon, who were just whispering amongst themselves, giggling, blink at Yu. Tomoya's jaw drops and Hyui nudges him to school his expression in.
"Sure."
"Great!" Yu nods, beaming, all of a sudden vibrating with excitement. "You could visit Friday, after my lesson! Hyui can send you my contact so you can tell me when you're out of class!"
"What?" That was not directed at Yu, but at Seita. Hyui is staring at him with wide eyes, looking him up and down like he doesn't believe what he's seeing.
Honestly? Seita doesn't know either. He has no idea why he agreed to that. Dancing lessons? From the guy who just shook his world? That seems like such a smart idea and totally not like the worst nightmare of any introvert ever. He shrugs in response, because he really doesn't know what came over him.
The rest of the conversation flies past him, but he catches Yu staring at him when they say their goodbyes.
Friday is going to be a disaster.
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Yuki listens to Seita talk about how awful Friday is going to be for exactly fourteen minutes, then he shoves his bottle into his face. "You're acting as if this Yu guy is going to murder you."
"He is." Seita says firmly. "He's going to take one look at me and realize that not only am I the opposite of a dancer, but also that I'm uncool and not worth his time."
"Seita," Yuki groans, dropping his head onto the cafeteria table, "You are cool, otherwise I wouldn't be your friend, and more than that, you can just tell him you're a beginner."
"But–"
"No buts," Yuki cuts him off, "If I have to explain that if he's mean you should never talk to him again anyway one more time, I will throw this bottle at you."
Seita sighs and tries to focus back on his notes, when his phone pings.
Unknown-Number
hi
hyui gave me your contact
i'm yu (≡^∇^≡)
Seita stares at the message for longer than is normal — or healthy for that matter. Then, slowly, he puts his phone down and takes a deep breath.
"What's a cool way to introduce yourself over text?"
"Why?' Yuki looks up, glances at Seita's phone, and groans again. "Seita, I swear to fucking god, just reply how you'd normally reply."
"But normally I'm not interesting."
"I'm actually going to throw this bottle."
Seita quickly picks his phone back up, lest he face Yuki's wrath.
You
hi
i'm seita
i dont think I ever said that to you yesterday
Yu
well nice to meet you then seita!!!
I do think hyui mentioned you often enough for me to know your name tho haha
You
I still can't believe he did that
so embarrassing
Yu
Nah don't worry!! he was only saying good things (*つ´･∀･)つ
Seita wants to squeal. With the way he looked, he did not expect Yu to text using emoticons. How is he supposed to react normally to this? Yuki glares at him from the side, hand reaching out for his bottle.
"I didn't even say anything."
"You looked like you were about to."
You
that better be true
Anyway, i'm out of class at 2 on friday :)
Yu
thats good!!
my lesson ends at 3
you can come in at 2 if you wanna watch tho :D
my dance teacher is way better than ill be
Right. Because Seita agreed to learn dance with no further information. Why did he do that again?
You
not sure if I can make it
gonna have to grab my stuff first
Yu
oh like clothes ?
we got a lot of stuff here
if you wanna I can grab you clothes to wear on friday :D
if you prefer your own stuff id get that too tho
You
if its not a hassle
Yu
of course not!!!!
Wow, four exclamation marks. Seita stares at the message and feels a smile creep onto his face. A reserved one, technically, but unfortunately Yuki is not known to ignore what's happening right beside him, so he peeks over.
"Wow. He's down bad."
Seita flushes and shakes his head, desperately fighting off his blush. "No, what are you even– He's being nice."
"Right," Yuki rolls his eyes, "And everyone is like that to someone they exchanged, what, thirty words with?"
"Exactly. We talked for two minutes maybe. There's nothing– He's just being nice."
Yuki sighs and turns back to face his laptop again.
You
okay sure then!!
i appreciate it ^^
Yu
you're welcome ( ﾟ∀ﾟ)
───────────
It's Thursday when Hyui approaches him about another dance event. Technically, Seita was supposed to study. The next test in history will be really important for his grade.
But also, the idea of seeing Yu again makes his brain shut off anyway, so it's not like he could even hope to study with how he's feeling.
Apparently though, this isn’t a dance competition like the last event was. Tomoya told Hyui about this one. It's more a big freestyle thing where even beginner dancers participate. A lax thing, more meant for hanging out than actually competing.
They meet up with Donghwa before leaving, and Yuki, who apparently decided to tag along.
"So I'm finally gonna see this killer Tomiyasu Yu guy then, eh?" Yuki grins at him, and once more, Seita has to remind himself that this cute kid threatens him at least every other day. Seita sighs and nods.
Donghwa tilts his head curiously. "Didn't realize the dance studio was the place to find love."
"It's not– Ugh."
The other three around him chuckle, as if Hyui himself isn't the one who had his boyfriend suggest to tag along with him here to spend boyfriend-time together.
The event appears to be less frequented than the competitions. Less frequented meaning that only people who are actually close to the dancers, or dancers themselves, are here.
Haru and Geon meet them at the entrance, and Geon immediately claims Yuki as his, quote-on-quote, cute new friend to hug.
Seita remembers Hyui telling him that him and Geon are both INFPs in the back of his head, but he really doesn't see that. Yuki doesn't seem to mind too much, though, subjecting himself to his fate after a minute of Geon squeezing his cheeks while squealing. Seita's sure he isn't imagining the way Yuki's ears are burning up at that.
"Hyui!" Tomoya rushes over to the group, greeting Hyui with a quick peck and the others with a handshake. "Glad to see that you're giving the freestyling a chance."
"Of course," Geon nods, grinning, his hands wrapped tightly around Yuki's shoulders, "When Yu texted me and said Hyui and Seita were coming, I couldn't have said no!
Haru grins, "Yeah, and you'll finally see my skills too."
"Being too afraid of failing at the competitions and only taking part in the stuff where there's no winner means you don't have real skill." Tomoya sticks his tongue out at Haru.
"Yah, Tomoya!" Haru raises an arm like he's about to throw a punch, but someone catches it from behind.
"Hey now, let's not get violent now." A man appears beside Haru with a chuckle. Seita blinks in disbelief. The guy looks like a model, a freckled face carved straight out of a drawing and soft blond hair that highlights kind eyes.
"Felix-nim!" Yu, Haru, and Tomoya immediately duck their heads, and the others follow, but Felix just laughs at that and pats Yu's shoulder.
"Don't be so formal. I just came here to check in on Yu," Felix smiles at the others before facing Yu, "Don't go all out today, I know you want to, but the dance academy scouts are coming soon and if you get hurt before that, you might loose your biggest chance."
"Of course!" Yu nods.
"Good. I'll leave you to be with your friends then— Though, Tomoya, I think Minho wanted to see you. Something about discussing your lesson." Felix gestures toward a guy standing in front of the studio's windows, talking to three guys who have headphones wrapped around their necks. Tomoya immediately dips his head and rushes over.
Once Felix is out of earshot, Donghwa is the first to ask the question, "Yu-ssi, why is your dance teacher a fucking supermodel?"
"Oh, Felix-nim? He isn't really my teacher, but he substitutes for Alexx while he's out training Idols."
Haru huffs and crosses his arms, "Yeah, poor you, your usual dance teacher is out teaching the real deal how to dance, so you only have someone who trained under the Lee Minho as your teacher, how awful."
Yu rolls his eyes, "You also have someone who trained under Minho-nim as your teacher. And besides, Alexx doesn't even–"
"Uh, guys," Hyui interrupts, "Care to involve us in what you're talking about?"
Geon, who's still attached to Yuki, snickers, "They always do this."
"Ugh, well–," Haru begins, but cuts himself off by shaking his head, "It's nothing important, let's just warm up."
Haru leads them to an open area on the other side of the street where someone set up a small DJ console, with a handful of pillows set up in a circle.
A handful of people have gathered already, all looking varying degrees of dancers. Seems like Seita underestimated the size of the even, great. Some are warming up off to the side, others are lounging on the pillows, just talking. One of the guys with the headphones walks over to the DJ console and presses some buttons.
The group walks around the circle, until they're sitting perfectly in sight of the DJ console while still being able to look at the impromptu stage.
The freestyling is fun, except for the fact that there's too many other people here.
Now don't get Seita wrong, he could have kept watching Yu forever. And he does really enjoy hanging out with the others. It's easy with them, somehow.
And still, despite that, he unfortunately doesn't have much of a social battery. They're barely five songs in when he can feel himself getting drained. Hyui notices, of course, and offers to leave, but Seita shakes his head.
He swears he wants to stay. It's just that all of Hyui's newest friends appear to be the most social people on the planet, constantly inviting other people over to talk with them. At one point, they're joined by a dozen other people, and Seita just shuts off.
"Hey, you okay?" Hyui leans over, a hand coming to rest on the small of Seita's back. The warmth seeping through the material of Seita's t-shirt is nice and grounding, but nowhere near enough. He shrugs.
"I'll be fine."
"We can leave if you want."
"I don't want to ruin this for you."
"Seita…" Hyui frowns, "I much rather you be fine than watch more. It's not like this is the last time that there's an event like this."
The song changes and the circle shifts, a few younger dancers jumping into the middle. Seita watches their movements, not perfect but sure, then looks at Hyui again.
"I promise I'm okay. Just not in the mood to socialize."
Hyui stares at him for a long, drawn-out moment, then mumbles an "Okay." and sits back where he was.
Seita pulls his knees up and rests his chin on them, trying hard to focus on the dancing. He can tell they're not as good as Tomoya or Yu, but he's impressed nonetheless.
He silently stares on, not really paying attention to what's happening around him. Maybe going to such a social event really was stupid of him — he knows he doesn't have the energy, and no matter how much he enjoys being with his small circle of newfound friends, they can't really pacify his imposter syndrome by just being here.
"Hey," Seita startles when Yu leans over to him, "You seem down. Everything okay?"
Seita nods slowly, "Yeah, I'm just not made for big crowds I guess."
"I see, hmm," Yu smiles at him and Seita's heart skips a beat, "Tell you what—try to focus just on me for the next song and ignore everyone else, 'kay? Maybe that'll help."
In theory, Seita knows that that usually would never help. But usually, his heart doesn't do strange little skips in his chest when talking to someone, and neither does he usually feel hypnotized by the mere presence of someone. So he simply nods, "I'll try."
Yu grins and gets up, and Seita watches as he runs over to the big eyed guy who's currently managing the music. He taps him once and says a few words, then beams. Seita wants to take a picture of that smile.
The next song is far more hip-hop than the last, and Yu, Tomoya and Haru run to the middle. They clap each other's hands and then launch into a dance which they surely must've practice beforehand — or they're just able to read each other's minds and that's why they're so synchronized.
And Seita does what Yu asked; He tries to shut out the rest of the world and focus only on the older boy. He finds that it's surprisingly easy. Something about Yu is just really able to capture all of his attention.
Yu looks up in the middle of a complicated-looking pose and meets Seita's gaze, his face instantly lighting up in a bright grin. Seita's heart flutters, but he tries not to look into it too deep. He'd probably grin at anyone who he wants to cheer up.
God, he sounds so stupid.
Yu spins and drops to the ground, similarly to how he did at the competition. Tomoya and Haru immediately back off, not without hyping their friend up. The crowd, which kept growing over time, erupts in cheers. Yu keeps going until he's pretty much vertical, then strikes a pose and jumps to his feet straight from that pose.
"Didn't Felix say he shouldn't go all out?" Yuki leans over to whisper in Seita's ear. Seita, who's been a little bit distracted, sue him, almost flinches when he remembers his friends were with him.
"Yeah, but I don't…think he is? He did similar stuff on Monday."
Yuki's eyes widen and he turns back to watch the three dancers finish off with a move that Seita couldn't do in his most abstract dreams, before they all drop onto the ground in sync.
The crowd, once more, explodes with cheers. The DJ sends them a thumbs up but then waves them off of the dance floor. Yu flops right next to Seita, panting, "So, how was that?"
"Amazing," Seita replies honestly.
"You weren't supposed to go overboard," Tomoya leans over to punch Yu's shoulder, "I saw that stumble."
"What stumble?" Seita tilts his head. Yu just shrugs, leaning a little closer to him and away from Tomoya, "I miscalculated how much momentum I needed for that last jump, and my ankle didn't like that."
"And you stumbled."
"I didn't stumble, Moya, my ankle just…aches a little bit." Yu sticks his tongue out and turns away from Tomoya, inevitably pressing against Seita, who's definitely normal about that.
"I wasn't talking about pain, you made us look amateurish." Tomoya huffs, but seemingly decides that the conversation is over and wraps his arms around Hyui instead. Yu pushes his bottom lip forward at that, and Haru snorts and kicks Yu with the heel of his foot.
"Someone's pouting."
"You would too," Yu hisses back and leans across Seita's lap to push Haru away. Haru just snickers and drops onto his back, accepting defeat.
Meanwhile, Yu pulls his foot up a bit and rubs a finger along his ankle.
"Does it hurt a lot?" Seita shifts to get a better look at the other's ankle. He gets a whiff of Yu's cologne when he does that —sweet honey with a fresh citrus note beneath— and greedily takes another deep breath.
"It's o–," Yu pauses, then nods slowly, like he's unsure himself, "It hurts a little bit. Good thing I'm done for today."
And with those words, he lets himself drop backward, right against Seita's side. Seita is getting the feeling that Yu likes physical touch, and while he usually isn't the biggest endorser of it, he doesn't mind if it's Yu.
Hyui side-eyes him when they haven't separated an hour later, but Seita ignores his burning stare in favor of staring at Yu's phone as he's showing him videos of his dancing from a few years ago. He's seriously improved, anyone could tell.
"Oh, and look!" Yu opens a different video. "That's Haru! We were at that competition together, but only realized way later, after we met at the studio again." Yu zooms in on a timid-looking boy with curly hair, and Seita blinks.
"Curls?"
"Yeah, Haru used to have really cute c– Ack! Yah, Haru!"
Haru, red as a tomato, shakes his head, his hand still on Yu's chest, "That's my past. I looked odd back then, now I look like someone who actually knows what they're doing."
Yu clutches his pearls as if Haru saying he didn't look good back then physically hurt him, and drops his head onto Seita's shoulder, "You wound me! You used to look so adorable!"
"Did not," Haru huffs and turns away from Yu. Yu doesn't pout for long, though, just whips out his phone again to show Seita more videos. Seeing how Yu started gives Seita little hope that he won't fully embarrass himself. It lifts the anxiety off his shoulders for now, even if he's still very certain that he'll trip over his own feet tomorrow.
The event is over way too early, in Seita's humble opinion. They stay behind, though, talking a little still, and Yu stays seated against him the whole time. Only once they have to get up does he back off, only to reach for Seita again immediately to support himself against him.
"Yah, I can't believe you managed to get yourself hurt," Tomoya grumbles from where he's draped across Hyui's back, "Out of all the possible timings too."
"It's fine," Yu shrugs, "I'll put some ice on it tonight and then it'll be all good."
"Tomiyasu."
"Ah," Yu slowly turns around to a very grim looking Felix, "Felix-nim…"
"No, no 'Felix-nim', didn't I tell you not to overdo it?"
"Yes…"
"And what did you do?"
Yu makes a face, "I didn't overdo it."
Felix pinches the bridge of his nose, then sighs, "As long as you're okay to dance tomorrow. I saw you protect your ankle, just tell me nothing hurts seriously."
"Nothing hurts," Yu quickly replies, "Just a little ache."
Tomoya snorts and nudges Yu, "Right, and that's why you were acting like getting up would kill you just ten minutes ago?"
Felix raises an eyebrow while Yu's ears turn red. Seita is quick to defend him, though. "He was just showing me videos of his dancing, he could've gotten up easily."
"Yeah!" Yu pipes up, nodding enthusiastically.
Once Felix is out of earshot, Yu wraps an arm around Seita's shoulders and pulls him in for a side hug, "Thanks for chiming in there."
"It was nothing." Seita shrugs awkwardly, trying not to stumble over his feet as they head back to the other side of the street and to the dance studio.
The dancers of the group disappear inside the studio to grab their stuff while the others wait outside. Yuki can't stop himself from teasing Hyui for his lovey-dovey behavior with Tomoya today, but he stops once Hyui snaps back with a comment about how he let Geon glue himself to his back. Geon snickers and wraps his arms around Yuki from behind, pressing his cheek to Yuki's neck.
They're saved from more of…that, when Haru, Tomoya and Yu return. Donghwa is the first to say goodbye, claiming he still has to catch the bus. The others decide on a much slower return home.
Haru and Geon part ways with them at the parking lot down the street, and Yu also turns to leave.
"Do any of you need a ride home?"
"Do not ride home with Yu," Tomoya wraps his arms around Yuki and Hyui, pulling the youngest two closer to him, "He's super reckless."
"Am not."
"Are too."
Yu rolls his eyes and shoves at Tomoya's shoulder, then he turns to Seita, who can feel himself freeze. "You know how to get home?"
"Yes," Hyui chimes in, forcing his arm around Seita's, "We'll walk."
And just like that, Seita's being dragged away from the others by Hyui, who seems to have a whole lot of thoughts about a whole lot of things.
───────────
Friday brings one hell of a morning to Seita. He almost oversleeps, he spills coffee on his shirt a moment after putting it on, and his professor spontaneously decides to move around his time slot, making him late.
Seita slips into the seminar room at the last second and halfway collapses on his chair.
Through caffeine, sheer willpower, and, God forbid, luck, he makes it through the first half of the day without dying, and finally manages to catch a break once his last class is over.
2:11 pm. Seita stares at the clock on his phone like he's never seen one before. Should he text Yu that he can't come watch his lesson? Should he just hop into the next bus?
He feels like a fish out of water. Hell, in a desert even. He still has to figure out why he agreed to anything that's about to come. His mouth usually doesn't move at all, even when it's expected of him, and suddenly he's agreeing to meeting up with a stranger? If he could, he'd genuinely time travel and make himself shut up somehow. But oh well. He can't do anything about it now, can he? Texting Yu less than an hour before the time they were supposed to meet and calling everything off would be plain rude.
So, with a lot of doubt in the back of his mind, he settles on walking to the studio. It's a twenty-minute walk, twenty minutes that'll hopefully help clear his mind.
Twenty minutes later, the old brick facade of the studio greets him, and Seita's mind is, in fact, not clear. Would it still be valid to run now?
"Seita!" The door swings open and his last chance of fleeing is ripped from his hands when Yu waves at him, gesturing inside. Seita climbs up the stairs like a man climbing up the stairs to his own execution, but Yu either doesn't notice or chooses to ignore him.
"My lesson ended a bit early today, so we can just use that room." Yu walks ahead through a door in the back wall and leads Seita down a hallway that reveals just how big the whole studio actually is. The walls are all white, with big glass doors that reveal spacious rooms with mirror walls. One class seems to be going on in a studio to the far left, classical music sounding through the hallway from there. Yu whirls right instead.
The room Yu leads Seita into is a bit smaller than the front room and smells faintly of deodorant. In that same moment, a guy who looks a few years older than Yu throws his bag over his shoulder and walks up to them, giving Yu a pat on the shoulder.
"Keep what I told you in mind. See you tomorrow, Yu." The guy looks at Seita and gives him a friendly nod before disappearing through the door.
"That was Alexx, my actual dance teacher." Yu quickly fills Seita in while walking to what seems to be his own bag and crouching. "He's very strict, but never unkind!"
A flash of pink flies at Seita, and he manages to catch the clothes flung at him barely. Yu stands up again with a smile, "Turn left, and then the last door on the right is the men's changing room. I'll set everything up in the meantime."
Seita fears he looks like a fool.
It's not that pink isn't his color, no. The pink shorts with the matching pink hoodie look good. In theory. Except — he looks very clearly "not a dancer". Anyone could see that he doesn't belong in these clothes, clothes that smell faintly of honey, and it makes him feel silly.
"You look good!" Yu greets him enthusiastically when Seita returns, and Seita wants to sink into the ground as Yu looks him up and down. He doesn't really feel like he looks good; surely Yu just doesn't want him to feel bad about his appearance. With a sigh, Seita drops his other clothes into his bag and forces a smile.
"Alright then, have you ever danced before?"
"If my middle school end-of-the-year performance counts."
Yu snorts, but shakes his head. "Alright then, let's start with some warm-ups first."
Yu does the moves first, showing Seita exactly how to move his limbs. His legs protest all the stretching at first, but he grits his teeth and powers through it, which earns him some impressed gasps from Yu. Seita doesn't know if Yu is playing up his wonderment for him to feel better, or if it's genuine, but he'll just choose to believe it's the latter.
The burn gets comfortable after a while, and Seita finds he's somewhat able to adapt to Yu's moves. He stretches his arms behind his back like the other does, follows his lunges, and almost cracks his neck when he copies his neck turns, but by the time Yu calls the warm-up done, he feels strangely good.
Well. That's what warm-ups are supposedly for, are they not?
"Do you have a favorite song?" Yu wipes a droplet of sweat off of his chin. He's been going at it for however long his lesson took already, and now, Seita realizes, he has to deal with him too, despite probably being out of energy. Seita frowns and watches the older walk to a rather old-school music console.
"Seita?"
"Ah– Right. Uh, I don't think the songs I like are really that danceable." Seita shrugs.
"We'll just do some basic choreography; anything goes. It just needs a rhythm really," Yu grins, "So as long as your favorite song has, say, more than four beats, it'll be fine."
"I see," Seita nods, "Yeah, makes sense, I suppose, yeah." He pauses and thinks for a moment, but it's like every song he ever knew has been wiped from his memory. A song that he knows a bit of choreo to already might be nice, except the only song he knows any sort of choreo to is probably Gangnam Style. He cannot request Gangnam Style.
"Do you happen to know the singer Kim Seungmin?"
"Oh yeah, Felix-hyungnim is married to him," Yu tilts his head, "Why?"
"No, not as in personally, I meant– wait, what?" Seita's jaw drops, and he fixes Yu with his eyes, searching for the lie in his expression. But he just seems genuinely confused, like he's really wondering why Seita would ask about Kim Seungmin.
"Is that not public information?" Yu winces, then his left hand flies to his head to scratch it and he sticks his tongue out cheekily. "Oops."
Seita blinks rapidly. "Ignoring that, I meant to suggest one of his songs. He's my favorite singer, like, ever."
"Oh, that's why you asked…Sure!" Yu turns to the music console and the first notes of Perfume by Seungmin start echoing through the studio. Yu spins around and heads over to stand right beside Seita. "Alright, copy me."
Seungmin's voice blesses the studio walls and Seita feels himself relax, the harmonies of the song settling something within him and sinking into his bones. It helps, even if it's just a little.
So Seita does copy Yu, even if he feels like he just can't quite match him. He's always a beat late. Yu's arm swipes left, and he's still pulling out of the last position. Yu moves to the right, and Seita clumsily follows the step. The motions aren't complicated; there's a pattern to them, but despite warming up, Seita's body feels like a machine that needs oil. Meanwhile, the music ripples straight through Yu, every minuscule muscle of his reacting to the vibration in the air unrestrictedly.
"Seita," Yu chuckles and slides right next to Seita, "Stop copying me, do the move more freely."
"How am I supposed to do the moves if I'm not copying you?"
"Not like that." Yu shakes his head and stops dancing. Seita is about to stop too, when Yu wraps his hands around Seita's wrists and starts moving them along to the beat, counting under his breath. With how close he's standing, Seita can clearly hear it. "One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four…"
Somehow, that helps. It shouldn't, but for whatever reason, Yu guiding his limbs directly on beat helps. The other lets go of his wrists once Seita apparently found his groove.
Yu must have worked some sort of magic on him; Now that he's been led into the beats, it's easier to follow. He certainly doesn't look as effortless Yu yet, can't hope to ever carry that ease, but it sure feels nicer this way.
"There! Let's go! Now we're just going to repeat that a while, and then we'll change it up a bit." The sound of Yu's clap by some means manages to be louder than the music.
"Change it up? Do you want me to get a knot in my arms?"
Yu snorts, "I'll untangle you."
Seita drops to the ground, drenched in sweat, chest heaving. Briefly, he thinks that if that was basic dancing, and it knocked everything out of him like this, then maybe he should never try again.
"So? Had fun?" Yu suddenly drops right next to him, a joyous smile on his face. Seita gets the feeling that Yu, sweaty, looks way more attractive than he does right now, wrecked and questioning whether his calves have always burned this much after exercising.
If he could, he'd say that he never wants to do this again, that he's embarrassed of how he looked in the mirror next to Yu, that dancing just really isn't for him— but Yu's grin is so dazzling, and it's not like Seita didn't have fun today. Besides, the idea of not seeing Yu again, not getting to spend time with him like this again, even so much as that thought makes Seita's heart squeeze painfully in his chest.
"It was fun," Seita forces himself to sit up a bit, "I underestimated how debilitating it'd be though."
"Really?" Yu tilts his head, eyes wide, and pulls his legs up to sit cross-legged, "You were doing so well, though. And you're seriously flexible. Like, I've never seen anyone just…fold like that!"
Seita flushes.
"I'm serious." Yu's eyes beam with sincerity so bright that it makes Seita shrink back a bit further. "Everyone struggles a bit at first, that's normal. But you just managed to bend yourself into everything so well, I'm actually amazed. You're sure you've never done gymnastics or anything?"
"Very sure." Seita huffs.
"Well, then maybe it's time to start dancing. It has to be a sign, trust me!" Yu grins and claps his hands. "Same time soon?"
"Same time soon."
───────────
"Good morning, Komori-san." Seita bows his head when Hyui's mother opens the door for him, but the woman just laughs and waves him in.
"Seita, dear, come in. You really have to stop with the formalities every time we haven't seen each other in a while." Hyui's mother pats his shoulder and leads him to the kitchen. "I haven't seen you in forever! You two rarely spend time at your homes anymore, huh? Too old for your parents? Ah, what am I saying here, take–"
"Eomma." Hyui whines, shaking his head as he enters the kitchen, clearly summoned by how loud his mother had been talking. Seita smiles at him in understanding. His mother will never change, but Seita, after years of friendship with Hyui, has gotten more than used to her antics.
"That's Okāsan to you and you will refer to me as such, young man." Hyui's mother scolds, but her voice stays warm.
"Yes, Okāsan." Hyui wraps an arm around Seita's and quickly drags him out of the kitchen and upstairs into his own room.
Just like Hyui, his room is bright. Soft colors on his bed, an array of plushies assembled on the covers like an army, light furniture. It's surprisingly tidy today, but Seita spares Hyui the joke about how Tomoya must have a positive influence on him. He must have visited him recently, judging by the hoodie, one Seita doesn't know, draped over the back of Hyui's desk chair, and the hickey on his neck that Hyui is doing a terrible job of hiding. Or maybe he's not trying to hide it at all, like boasting about Tomoya's violation of his neck.
Seita never knew Hyui was kinky like that.
Seita drops onto the carpet —Hello Kitty's face— in the middle and rests his back against his friend's bed.
"You're still ready for movie night?" Hyui grins and throws a bag of chips into Seita's lap.
"Please just scroll through the program and decide on the Hello Kitty movie already." Seita huffs and pulls two blankets onto the ground next to his legs.
"I just binge-watched those with Moya last night, so we can watch something else for real." Hyui flops next to Seita, remote control in hand.
"I don't think you actually watched–"
The pillow that flies into his face is expected.
They ended up settling on a new Horror movie, but, as always, they really only complained about the stupidity of the characters. Once the credits start rolling, Seita drops his head back onto Hyui's bed. "I can't believe Yu is afraid of these movies."
"Now what kind of dance lesson required you to talk about what kind of movies you can watch and can't watch? Or did you two decide you're gonna meet at the movies next time? On a date?" Hyui stretches the last word while leaning closer to Seita, wiggling his eyebrows, which has Seita rolling his eyes.
"No, Hyui, but there's this thing called small talk." Seita nudges Hyui back to where he sat. "Now can we watch a diff–"
"Nuh uh," Hyui throws the remote onto his bed, "Tell me everything."
So Seita tells Hyui everything. He leaves out the details of how, every time Yu touched him, whether it was to help with his motions or with his posture, he burned up inside, and perhaps he leaves out how Yu's compliments had him blushing like a mad man.
Hyui seems to catch on anyway. "So basically all you two did was flirt?"
"We did not flirt? Did you even listen to me."
"Yes, I did; that's why I'm asking," Hyui grabs a handful of chips, "Or would you call all those unprompted compliments he gave you and the way you reacted something else?"
Seita raises an eyebrow. "Yes? Ever heard of being nice?"
Hyui shakes his head, then sits up fully and makes a face. "Seita, please, you sound like someone head over heels in love. Do you believe your own words?"
"I do. I guess I'm confused." Seita scratches his neck. It's true, mostly, he's confused. Hyui's reassurance feels good, and maybe there's a strange sense of hope growing within him, but he pushes it down. It can't be.
"Seita." Hyui grabs Seita's hands and runs his hands over his knuckles. "Even if you don't feel like the whole thing meant anything, you had fun, right? So you'll return to the studio and keep doing that. And then you'll dance again, and "dance" again," Hyui makes air quotes, "Which means any confusion you feel right now will just continue growing."
"I don't know. It's not that I dislike the idea of liking Yu, I just don't have the… time. I don't have time to think about any of that."
"That has nothing to do with anything I just said. Nothing at all." Hyui crosses his arms. "First, you should decide whether you like him or don't, 'cause to me you sound like you're not sure whether you're lying to yourself or not."
Seita frowns and sinks against Hyui's bed, staring at his best friend's familiar ceiling, which is much more comfortable than acknowledging his alien feelings.
He's Seita. He doesn't —shouldn't— get confused. Isn't he the one people usually turn to for help with problems? What makes this one so different?
Silence settles over the room for a while, then Hyui reaches out and squeezes Seita's hand, a strange look in his eyes.
"You're so afraid of being in love because you think you don't deserve it that you don't see how good it looks on you."