[PG] Daydream [EXO] (1/3)
Title: Daydream
Author: airplanewishes
Fandom: EXO
Characters: Chen/Suho, Kyungsoo/Suho
Genre: Romance, Friendship, Fluff
Rating: PG
WC: 16,440
Summary: Suho was the daydream and Junmyeon was the dream.
Notes: Another side-story, the last one, to Someday Dream, but can be read alone. :)
Thank you to my beta, khrysallis1106 for her patience! ily forever ♥
Daydream
One ring. Two rings. Three rings. Jongdae fidgeted with the zipper of his dark blue hoodie and shifted from foot to foot as he waited for Kyungsoo to pick up. Suddenly, a spotlight lit open right on his face and he raised an arm to shield his eyes from the bright light. Glancing to his right, he heard his manager yell at the technician to turn it off. Almost immediately, an apology echoed back towards them accompanied with the light being shut down. Jongdae puffed his cheeks out as he sat down on the edge of the stage, pushing tech rehearsals to the back of his mind, still fiddling with his hoodie’s zipper.
“What?” a groggy Kyungsoo finally answered.
“Kyungsoo!” Jongdae greeted excitedly. “It’s me! Jongdae! I was just-.” Kyungsoo groaned and Jongdae could hear some rustling in the background. “I didn’t wake you, did I? I mean, it’s almost 10 in the morning.”
“It’s two in the morning, Jongdae,” Kyungsoo yawned.
“Oh,” Jongdae’s eyes widened, startled at the thought. “That’s right. Sorry. I keep forgetting about the time difference.” He bit his lip in worry for a bit before brightening up again. “But you’re awake anyway so why not talk to me!”
There was some more rustling and Jongdae could imagine Kyungsoo sitting up on his bed and leaning his head back on the headboard, rubbing his eyes like he always did when he was sleepy.
“What’s up?” Kyungsoo asked. “How’s it going over there?”
“I’m starting rehearsals in a bit, for my show this evening,” Jongdae shared, swinging his legs.
While Baekhyun, Lu Han and Kyungsoo made a living with styling celebrities, designing and creating clothes, and making delicious coffee and pastries respectively, Jongdae made a living creating a dream.
Jongdae’s job was to be Chen.
Chen was a person, an identity, designed to make everyone, all the people in Seoul, fall in love with. He was attractive, charming, and oozing with sex appeal. His songs, the melodies and lyrics, were designed to draw all the women in to adore and imagine him as their own (whether it be as their significant other, son, friend, it didn’t matter). He was created to fill in the empty spaces of people’s hearts.
It seemed to be quite an effective marketing ploy. His songs had been soaring on the charts from the first time he’d released one. He sang song after song, attended show after show, and milked it in. And now, Chen was making waves, not just in Seoul, but across the world as well.
It had been almost two weeks since Jongdae left Seoul for some shows in Los Angeles. When his management had found out that he apparently had a lot of fans in the US, they immediately arranged a tour for him there. It had been an exciting experience so far. He was halfway through the tour and he couldn’t wait to get back home. It was lonely. He liked having shows and everything, but he really didn’t have anyone to talk to. Even his manager was too busy making sure his shows got off without a hitch that they could barely talk.
So he made sure to always bother his friends. But, out of Baekhyun, Lu Han and Kyungsoo, Kyungsoo was the most accommodating. He remembered Baekhyun blatantly ending the call when he called him. Lu Han, meanwhile, made it a point to turn his phone off in the wee hours of the morning. Kyungsoo really was the nicest of his best friends.
Jongdae stared at the empty audience seats. “How’s everything back there? How are you?”
Kyungsoo sighed. “Fine,” he answered simply. “Nothing really exciting has been happening so you’re not missing anything. It must be nice, though, being there. It’s almost like you’re on vacation.”
“Almost,” Jongdae hummed. “I can’t wait to go home honestly,” he admitted.
“How’s that choreographer of yours?” Kyungsoo suddenly teased, clearly more awake now than a couple of minutes ago.
Jongdae never really expected to meet anyone who would interest him, much less in LA, where he’d be leaving after a few weeks. But he did meet someone in the form of the choreographer that his management had hired for his US tour. Suho was a bit taller than him with dark hair that fell just before his eyes, very pale, but pretty skin, and the most beautiful smile he’d ever seen. Jongdae couldn’t help but wonder if the gods were testing him.
Jongdae blushed despite himself. “Oh, you know. He’s my choreographer,” he answered nonchalantly. “He’s too busy for me and he’s here in the US so I don’t really see why I should even start-.”
“It’s just a date, Jongdae,” Kyungsoo cut him off. “You’re not going to marry him. Stop thinking about the future too much.”
“You’re one to talk,” Jongdae shot back. “You’ve been moping for years about-.”
“Stop,” Kyungsoo cut him off.
“It’s true!” Jongdae insisted. “You’ve been asked out by a gazillion guys and yet you refuse to go out with anyone who isn’t named-.”
“Don’t say it!” Kyungsoo practically screeched.
“Jongin.” Jongdae smiled satisfactorily.
But he frowned and stared at his phone before putting it on his ear again. The dial tone hummed merrily into his ear. Kyungsoo had hung up on him. He now knew that he had no nice friends. It was just a joke, and one that he’d been telling him for ages. Maybe Kyungsoo was missing Jongin more than ever. He wondered whether he should call back and apologize. If there was one thing they all hated as friends, it was Kyungsoo being upset with them, because Kyungsoo took care of them so well. It just wasn’t fair that they made him mad. That, and the loss of Kyungsoo’s cooked food was a devastating one.
The call would just have to wait. The sun wasn’t even out in Seoul yet. He’d just apologize when Kyungsoo was in a better mood.
Feeling contended, he got up and pocketed his phone.
“Oh Chen,” his manager looked up when Jongdae joined him backstage. He put a hand on the shoulder of a really fair male slightly taller than him. “You and Suho should go through the choreography of your opening song.” He shot Jongdae a look when he opened his mouth to say some sort of protest. “You’re almost ending your tour and you’re still struggling with it.” He tapped on his tablet and turned to go. “Tech will start in an hour.”
“Sorry about this,” Jongdae apologized to Suho as they moved to the center of the stage. “I really should have gotten this right by now.”
Suho merely smiled at him and Jongdae couldn’t help but feel enamored by it. Jongdae had always been surrounded by stuck up and harsh people, who only saw imperfections and things he should improve on.
The first time he met Suho, he smiled at Jongdae and he couldn’t help but think about how it was the nicest and most sincere smile he’d received in a long time. Even his friends didn’t smile at him that way.
“Are you hungry?” Suho asked, bringing Jongdae back to the present. “There are other ways to go through the choreography.”
“I’m pretty sure the only way is to actually dance it,” Jongdae stated, but he shrugged. He smiled when Suho laughed. He really liked Suho’s smile and he’d never admit this to anyone, but that particular smile made him feel special, made him feel all giddy inside. He didn’t care whether Suho smiled that way with everyone. As long as he smiled that smile his way, too, life was good. “But I never say no to food.”
“Let’s go then,” Suho said, taking his hand in his.
-
“So did he kiss you or did you kiss him?” Lu Han munched at some crackers so loudly at Jongdae had to cringe and flinch away from the phone. He could almost imagine Lu Han spilling crumbs over the phone’s mouthpiece.
“Oh my god you’re disgusting!” He heard Baekhyun grab the phone from Lu Han. “You’re on speaker, Jongdae.”
“Does it matter?” Jongdae asked, ignoring the commotion. “We kissed.”
Jongdae could still remember how they stumbled out of the restaurant, the night cold but not to the point of freezing. Still, they’d clutched their jackets closer to their bodies. Jongdae remembered looking at Suho, his handsome profile half doused into shadow from the moonlight, and felt that sudden urge that he had to kiss him. So that was what he did. He stopped walking and grabbed Suho by his collar, pressing his lips against his. It wasn’t as smooth of a move as he would’ve liked, as he’d accidentally bit Suho’s lip, which sent Suho laughing.
“Of course it matters,” Baekhyun interrupted his trip down memory lane. “If you guys kissed, like you kissed him and he kissed you back then all is well. But, if you kissed him, and he didn’t kiss you back, then that’s an entirely different story.” There was a pause. “So which one is it?”
Jongdae found that he couldn’t actually remember. Because after Suho started laughing, the mood was gone and they just resumed walking back to Jongdae’s hotel, both still laughing.
It wasn’t entirely a loss altogether. They had been going out almost everyday after that night. So he supposed that those dates counted for something.
“Well,” Lu Han considered. “It seems it’s going well. You guys have grown pretty close from what you’ve been telling us.”
“Yeah,” Jongdae agreed. “That’s why I said that it didn’t matter.”
“Just…” Lu Han hesitated and Jongdae already knew what he was going to say. “You’re coming home in a couple of days…”
“I know,” Jongdae abruptly answered. “I know. Of course, this isn’t a big deal. Just, you know, something to pass the time. Nothing serious.” He laughed rather awkwardly, because he knew that it was obvious that he was lying through his teeth.
“Why is it that we can’t find decent guys enough to actually stick around?” Baekhyun started whining. “Seriously! We’re all hot and amazing. Surely, there are some guys who’d love to be our boyfriends.”
“Yeah,” Jongdae chuckled, relieved that they dropped the topic. Sort of. “Except Lu Han’s hogging them all.”
“I do not!” Lu Han vehemently denied. “For the record, the guys come to me and not the other way around. Besides, if they wanted you, they would’ve approached you and introduced themselves to you and-.”
There was a loud screeching and Jongdae could only guess that Baekhyun had gotten up from where he was perched and had gone and chased Lu Han around the apartment. He heard a lot of thumps and clanging and even glass shattering.
“Come back here, you bitch!” Baekhyun screamed.
Jongdae ended the call because he knew that it would be pointless to rack up the amount of his phone bill due from listening to his friends kill each other.
He sat back on his seat and traced the mouth of his coffee mug with his fingertips. Lu Han’s words echoed in his head. He was coming home in a couple of days. In the beginning, when he’d been talking with Kyungsoo, all he could think about was getting the shows over with as quickly as he could. He loved doing shows abroad and pleasing international fans. But nothing beat being in Korea, being in Seoul, and being with people who actually knew him and actually cared about him. And yet, now, there was a part of him that was unwilling to go back. All because of one guy he barely knew, who made him feel like he was truly something special.
“You look so serious.”
Suho slid onto the empty seat across from him and smiled the smile that always entranced Jongdae.
“Just thinking,” Jongdae answered honestly.
“About what,” Suho chuckled.
“You,” Jongdae responded teasingly.
Suho slowly leaned across the table towards Jongdae. “Have I ever told you that I find it very hot when you have your serious face on?” he asked, his words on Jongdae’s lips.
“No,” Jongdae shook his head, smiling, as they kissed.
“Well,” Suho continued, nibbling on Jongdae’s lower lip. “It’s very sexy. It’s one of the things I’m going to miss when-.”
Jongdae leaned towards him and ate his words as he initiated the kiss this time. He didn’t want to talk about leaving and missing him. Not yet. He didn’t want to think about how he was going to incredibly miss the smiles that Suho directed at him.
-
All good things truly came to an end.
Jongdae put on his best smile as Suho pulled away from their hug. Suho was smiling as well, in a different way, but Jongdae didn’t put it to heart. They both knew what they were getting into when they started…whatever this thing was between them.
“Thank you,” Jongdae said because he didn’t really know what else he could say.
Gratitude was the only thing he could feel and offer Suho. Los Angeles had become a fairytale land for him. But even fairytales had endings and Jongdae had to wake up from it.
Later on, when he was thousands of miles up in the air, he feigned sleep and allowed a few tears to escape from his eyes.
-
“Are you crazy?” Jongdae hissed, slapping the black folder shut. He glanced around furtively and felt relieved when life went on around them unperturbed.
Kyuhyun burst out laughing and Jongdae couldn’t help but make a face at him, despite being covered up with dark shades and a scarf. Kyuhyun was wearing a cap and a high-collared jacket himself. One would think that two Hallyu stars would be more careful about going out in public, and together, too, for that matter, but Jongdae and Kyuhyun could care less. As long as they managed to hold people off with their disguises, anyway.
“It’s harmless,” Kyuhyun promised him, taking a sip of his coffee. “People go through dating services to look for their one true love all the time.”
Jongdae bit his lip as he pondered Kyuhyun’s words. It had been a little more than a month since he’d gotten back from his US tour, which meant that it had been five weeks since he and Suho had parted ways. The thirty-five days of not talking gnawed at Jongdae’s heart. It had been Jongdae’s idea to not exchange contact information, not even email or Facebook, because he couldn’t see the point in it. Relationships that exist in the same city break up all the time. How much more with long distance relationships? Jongdae blinked and backtracked a bit. He didn’t even know if what he and Suho had was called a relationship.
“It’s just a suggestion,” Kyuhyun spoke when he’d noticed how serious Jongdae was staring at the black folder. “You don’t actually have to-.”
Jongdae flipped the binder open, surprising him. “Let’s check out the merchandise.”
Maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea to start putting himself out there and dating other people. He was pretty sure that Suho would do the same.
-
Jongdae was going through the compositions he’d written but hadn’t released, wondering which ones would be appropriate for the new album he was planning for, when Lu Han came flouncing in, taking over the couch in his apartment.
“I’m bored,” Lu Han announced. He shifted in his comfortable position in the couch for what seemed like the nth time as he blankly stared at the flashing images on the television. “You’re boring.”
“Too bad for you,” Jongdae said.
“If I’d known that you wouldn’t even so much as look at me, I would’ve gone and annoyed Kyungsoo instead,” Lu Han pouted.
Jongdae lifted his head and looked at Lu Han, pointedly. “It’s nice to know I’m third choice,” he stated, an eyebrow raised. “Where’s Baekhyun?”
“He’s busy with fitting for Siwon,” Lu Han grumbled like a child.
“And you’re not at work because…?” Jongdae indulged Lu Han. Because if he didn’t, Lu Han would just whine more and too much time would be wasted.
“I’ve decided to take the afternoon off,” Lu Han shared. “I can do that, you know, since I own the label and all.”
Jongdae put his pen down and straightened up, frowning at Lu Han. “If Baekhyun’s fitting Siwon, shouldn’t you be there as well? It’s your clothes that he’s fitting,” he narrowed his eyes as Lu Han bit his lip uncomfortably. “Okay, I’m going to ignore you now.” He decided that he had better things to do than to delve into what was going on in Lu Han’s mind.
Lu Han huffed at this but stood up and decided to look around, searching for something to occupy his time, rather than just waiting for Jongdae to finally say a word to him. He looked through the bookshelf, thinking that maybe Jongdae had some celebrity gossip magazines he could devour. He was sorely disappointed because Jongdae never owned those kinds of magazines. He huffed in irritation and suddenly noticed a black binder nestled in between two thick music books. Curiously, he took it out and sat down on the couch to flip through it.
“Jongdae, what’s this?” Lu Han asked as he saw photo after photo of different women and men. It was like a lookbook of some sort.
Jongdae looked up from his compositions, eyes widening a bit when he saw what was in Lu Han’s hands. “Uh, that’s something from Kyuhyun,” he honestly answered.
“What is it?” Lu Han pressed. “Are you going to do some modeling?” His eyes then widened and he immediately stared at Jongdae when he finally saw the first page of the binder, which he had accidentally skipped the first time around. He was quiet for a bit and Jongdae waited for the unleashed questions to begin. “Is this where you’ve been getting all those dates?”
Jongdae sighed and put his pen down. “Yes,” he admitted. “Kyuhyun mentioned something about me going out and dating and so I did.” He shrugged and smirked. “They have the best service, that much I can say.”
Lu Han bit his lip. “Jongdae,” he began, not quite sure how to phrase his thoughts. “You’ve been going out a lot.” He closed the binder and placed it on the living room table.
“So?” Jongdae agreed.
“At the rate you’re going, you’re probably going to go out with all of Seoul,” Lu Han told him pointedly.
“That’s impossible,” Jongdae rolled his eyes at him, poised to return to his work. “Is that why you’re here?” he then asked, pen pausing in its movements. “Kyungsoo put you up to this, didn’t he?”
“I wasn’t going to say anything,” Lu Han stated defensively, frowning. “Your problems are your own and even if Kyungsoo looked so worried about you, I didn’t think it was my business to meddle.”
Jongdae scoffed and Lu Han looked affronted.
“Yet, here you are,” Jongdae snickered.
Jongdae knew that, sooner or later, one of them was going to talk to him about his sudden interest in dating. It actually made him wonder what took them so long. He figured that Kyungsoo didn’t want to meddle too much and was too nice, or scared, to actually ask him about it. Baekhyun was probably too busy, or just too caught up with his own problems. But he knew Lu Han wouldn’t be able to help himself. He was always the bold one between all of them. He guessed that was why people were attracted to him.
“At the very least, you’re going to start dating more than I do,” Lu Han seriously contemplated.
“Another impossible thing,” Jongdae responded, shaking his head.
“A very possible thing,” Lu Han corrected him. “I date people up to weeks, even months at a time. You date a different person everyday. Sometimes, you even have two dates in a day.” Lu Han peered at him curiously and Jongdae merely rolled his eyes at him.
“It’s fun,” Jongdae insisted. “You should try it some time.” He nodded towards the black binder. “You should go through that. There are many interesting hot people to meet on that folder. And you can choose by race, too, or by specific features or-.”
“I do not need a folder to choose a date for me, thankyouverymuch,” Lu Han quipped. “Although, Kyungsoo could probably use this.”
Jongdae snorted, his attention already back to his work. “Kyungsoo would never go for that,” he assured him.
“Baekhyun?” Lu Han pushed thoughtfully.
Jongdae looked up and met his eyes, a smirk growing on his face. “We can work something out, I’m sure,” he suggested.
“Let’s plan on it,” Lu Han wiggled his eyebrows. He leaned back on the couch and watched as Jongdae wrote down notes and words on his music sheets.
Jongdae felt relieved when Lu Han seemed to have dropped the topic. Maybe he had been dating too much for one person. But, somehow, it brought a certain excitement into his life. He found that meeting new people everyday, even if he didn’t really intend on getting to know them further, was fun and exhilarating.
“Jongdae,” Lu Han suddenly spoke again, voice soft. “If you’re dating because you’re trying to look for…something that isn’t around, you’re just setting yourself up for more heartache.”
Jongdae stiffened, his hand tightly gripping his pen. Trust Lu Han to always speak his mind so candidly. But Jongdae kept his gaze averted.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Jongdae muttered.
-
Jongdae watched in amusement as Kyungsoo went about his work, flustered and annoyed. If he were asked to choose one reason why he always went to Kyungsoo’s café, he’d pick annoying Kyungsoo as his best one because it was the most entertaining reason there was.
He chuckled as Kyungsoo tripped on air, almost sending the scalding cup of coffee straight into Minseok, his one and only staff member, who dodged and caught Kyungsoo’s hands just in time.
Kyungsoo breathed deeply and smoothed down his manager’s (and owner’s) uniform and stepped on the counter to glare at Jongdae.
“Can I help you?” Kyungsoo asked him bitingly.
“Is that the way to treat your customers?” Jongdae waggled a finger at him, which, of course, just made Kyungsoo even more irritated, which was, of course, what Jongdae wanted.
“I think I like it better when you were in the States,” Kyungsoo decided, punching in Jongdae’s order even if he still hadn’t actually said it aloud.
“But that would mean you missing me,” Jongdae blinked innocently at him. “And then your phone bill would skyrocket and then what would you do?”
“You’re the one who kept on calling, Jongdae,” Kyungsoo reminded him with an eye roll, “and during ungodly hours at that, to talk about things like your sweater or your uneven shoelaces or Suho-.”
Jongdae cleared his throat at once and whipped out the black binder. “So I was thinking that you should really give this a chance!” he gleefully insisted. He waggled his eyebrows as he opened it and flipped through it.
Kyungsoo looked contrite. “Jongdae-.”
“So will you?” Jongdae asked dismissively.
“You know I won’t,” Kyungsoo sighed, letting his apology go. He then stood up straight, a smile forming on his face and Jongdae had to raise an eyebrow. “Besides, I think I’ve started seeing this guy.”
“Which one? Are you sure he actually exists? Because being with imaginary Jongins do not count as dating,” Jongdae seriously reminded him.
“Shut up,” Kyungsoo slapped his cup of coffee in front of him, making the liquid slosh out of its container. Jongdae had to step back as he laughed. “For your information, he does exist. His name is Junmyeon and he hit on me first and asked me out first.”
“Junmyeon?” Jongdae wrinkled his nose. “He sounds ugly.”
Kyungsoo sputtered indignantly. “I have good taste in guys!”
“Hmm,” Jongdae mused. “Except we can’t really say since the only guy you’ve been with is-.”
“If you say his name one more time, I swear I’m going to stab you with this pen,” Kyungsoo promised him with a deadly glint in his eye as he gripped the pen they kept under the counter for signatures.
“You can’t stab a Hallyu star,” Jongdae said the last bit in a whisper so as not to attract attention to them. “You’d go to jail faster than I can say-“
“Jongdae!” Kyungsoo growled.
“-Jongin.”
Jongdae immediately stepped back as Kyungsoo lunged at him, his pen slicing through the air more than once. He decided that he should leave before Kyungsoo realized that it was easier to stab him without the counter between them and turned towards the door, almost slamming into a customer. He muttered an apology but stopped almost immediately when he heard the customer speak when he’d reached the counter.
The male was slightly taller than Jongdae and was wearing a dark blazer with a pair of dark jeans. But then the male had dark red hair and Suho clearly had beautiful black hair. Jongdae mentally smacked himself. He was seeing things that he just wanted to see. Of course Suho wasn’t in Korea. He was a million miles away, in Los Angeles, probably in the arms of someone he was happy with.
Jongdae pulled his cap lower over his face and pulled his jacket tighter around him. The sun was high up in the sky and the weather had been warmer than it had ever been during the year. But Jongdae had never felt colder.
-
The words in Jongdae’s new single made his throat feel raw. It was another sure instrument to make his fans even more in love with him, another hit. The notes were in his range, the tune was melodious, and the lyrics heartwarming and romantic, three things that Jongdae’s voice normally captured great and imparted wonderfully with his presence. But that just wasn’t the case this time.
Jongdae had always written his own music. Sure, he’d had co-writers and co-composers in all of his albums. But everything went through his hands and his voice. Everything that he didn’t write 100%, he made sure that he had edited and had sung on his own. He never wanted to release anything that didn’t reflect who he was as a person, something that every fan of his seemed to want to have a piece of.
This song, though, Into Your World, was all by him. He had written it the moment he’d come home from the US, in the confines of his apartment, when he’d refused Baekhyun’s invite to come out and have drinks with them. He’d snuggled in his bed, covers wrapped around his waist, legs tucked under him and had written words that he guessed could have only come from the sadness and loneliness that he’d felt in leaving Suho behind, something he’d seriously contemplated not doing just to be able to stay with him.
He’d never actually admitted this to anyone, not even himself. No matter how many times Kyungsoo gave him a knowing look, no matter how many times Baekhyun talked about it in circles, and no matter how many times Lu Han had pressed him about it, he’d never said that he missed Suho or that he was sad about leaving him behind and ending what could possibly have been the great love story of his life. Because he didn’t even want to admit it to himself, didn’t want to face it, didn’t want to admit that his heart was a tiny bit broken. He really liked Suho and the thought of not seeing him anymore really gutted him.
That was probably why he found this song so hard to sing. Because it kept on reiterating what he felt each time he sang it. Because he did find his heaven and wished he was strong enough or brave enough to leave everything behind just for him.
The music stopped and his manager opened the door to the recording booth.
“Everything okay?”
“Yeah,” Jongdae assured him. He really needed to get his act together. It was too late for a song change, especially since everyone in management seemed to like this particular song more than his older ones.
“Okay, good,” his manager smiled. “I’ve asked the choreographer and the back-up dancers to come in for a listen. Just so they get a live feel of you singing. I hope you don’t mind.”
“Of course,” Jongdae said, his eyes shifting to the glass in front of him, separating him from the tech booth. “It’s not a...problem.” He furrowed his eyebrows and immediately shot his manager a questioning look.
His manager beamed at him as if he was doing Jongdae a big favor. “I managed to contact your dance team during your US tour. The management thought they did a really good job and complemented your style so they’re going to be here for the rest of your new album promotions,” he explained.
Jongdae swallowed nervously as his manager closed the door and returned to the tech booth. He replaced the headphones over his head and tried to concentrate. His mind was filled with questions. Suho was here. Why was Suho back? How long had he been back? What was going to happen now that they’d seen each other again?
He swallowed once more, gulped back down the questions bubbling up in him. As he started to sing, he looked up and inadvertently met Suho’s eyes.
Jongdae almost forgot how to breathe when Suho smiled.
Part 2