any way the wind blows
any way the wind blows
lu han/minseok, pg-13, general
"lu han is my chinese friend." - minseok
Minseok meets Lu Han on a hot day, a day when he and Yixing get the single non-air-conditioned practice room in the entire building and he’s almost sure that he’s sweated all 70% of that water out of his body.
“Hello.” Lu Han makes a ninety-degree bow, his voice soft and smooth. “My name is Lu Han.” There’s a subtle inflection to his name, the syllables sharper, foreign in the Korean language.
“Hello.” Minseok makes a ninety-degree bow as well, even though he’s fairly sure he’s older than the boy. “I’m Minseok.”
The employee that had accompanied Lu Han into the practice room introduces him again, this is Lu Han, he’s a new trainee, gonna be practising with you guys now. He’s Chinese. Yixing smiles a little, his eyes immediately softer, the sides crinkling. Minseok is surprised, because Kevin and Yixing’s Korean had been non-existent when he’d met them. Lu Han speaks Korean with an air of familiarity, hard-earned.
“Please take care of me.” Lu Han bows again, and Minseok nods amiably. He manages a “nice to meet you” before Lu Han is hustled out of the room again by the employee.
Lu Han’s face is something that stays with Minseok - stays with most people, he supposes, because Yixing remarks that Lu Han is really good-looking even after dance practice, when they’re heading home.
“Yeah,” Minseok agrees, and touches his own face surreptitiously.
---
The next time Minseok meets Lu Han is during dance practice - before dance practice, actually. Lu Han is pacing in the corridor outside their usual practice room ten minutes early, peering in the window in the door.
“Hey.” Minseok joins him at the door. “You can go in, you know.”
“Oh.” Lu Han blinks and laughs a little awkwardly. “I - wasn’t sure - “
Minseok smiles, pushing the door open and turning the lights on. “We usually practice here unless someone else needs the room more, so next time you can come straight in.”
“Thanks,” Lu Han says, and follows Minseok in. “Do you - is there usually a lot more people?”
“Yep, we have Yixing - the other guy you met that day, and Junmyeon, Chanyeol, Kevin. Sometimes Sehun and Jongin.” Minseok’s rattling off names before he realises it might be too much to take in, and he laughs, but Lu Han doesn’t seem fazed. He’s looking at Minseok very intently.
“Do I have something on my face?”
Lu Han blinks confusedly. “What?”
It would have been an awkward moment, but Kevin and Chanyeol come in then, Chanyeol sprawling on the floor before he notices the new figure.
“Oh,” Chanyeol says, and scrambles to sit up, “hey. I’m Chanyeol.”
“Hello.” Lu Han smiles and nods politely. “My name is Lu Han.”
“Hey.” Kevin allows Lu Han a small smile. “Welcome.”
They are all guarded; it’s a habit of trainees, especially ones that have been there for as long as they have. Trainees come and go, others come and fight tooth and nail and it’s always safe to set up defence. Kevin and Minseok are safe people by nature, Chanyeol by learning.
Chanyeol starts talking animatedly about how the rap training session that they’d just come from had been a disaster, and Minseok realises that’s really just how Lu Han’s face is during a conversation. It’s almost refreshing, because Minseok sees more trainees that aren’t all that into a conversation if it doesn’t involve improvement advice.
Junmyeon and Yixing come in then with the dance instructor, and they barely manage a quick “hello” at Lu Han before practice starts. Minseok sees right away that Lu Han isn’t used to dance; his limbs move awkwardly, stiffly just like how his own had when he first started training, like how Kevin’s and Chanyeol’s limbs still have a good shadow of. Lu Han gets a berating from the instructor, naturally, and Minseok can see his eyes hooded by his eyelids, his lips pressing closer together. The instructor ends with a stern warning for Lu Han to get the routine right by tomorrow. Chanyeol and Kevin give Lu Han a muted pat on the shoulder before they leave for rap training. There’s something about Lu Han that people take to very easily, makes people leave their guard down.
“Don’t worry.” Junmyeon smiles kindly. “He just gets frustrated very easily, I think we’ll be getting another dance instructor for tomorrow’s practice anyway.”
Lu Han manages a smile that starts out weak but fills his lips out, and nods. “Thanks.”
After vocal practice that evening Minseok makes a detour to the washroom and sees Lu Han still in the practice room looping the instruction video and testing out the moves hesitantly.
“Hey.” Minseok pushes the door open, sticking his head in. Lu Han looks up, startled, and bows, like it’s second nature. Minseok chuckles a bit.
“You’re probably loads younger than me, but you don’t have to bow, man.”
“Ah - no, I bet you’re younger than me, I’m already twenty this year - wait - twenty-one? I get mixed up with the Korean age system...” Lu Han bows his head a little sheepishly.
“I’m twenty-one! Wait, you’re born in 1990?”
“I am! You are, too? But -“
“Yeah, I get that a lot. But you look fifteen or something.”
The corner of Lu Han’s lips quirk into amusement, like he’s trying to hide it. “Well, I thought you were fifteen, too.”
Minseok grins and holds up his fist, tipping it towards Lu Han. “Cheers, then? To misunderstood kid faces?”
Lu Han’s grin takes over his whole face when it comes, one that makes the person underneath Lu Han’s shy politeness immediately apparent. Their fist bump is light, but firm, something like the spark from two stones that ignites a fire.
---
Two weeks into their friendship, Minseok’s already hanging out with Lu Han regularly outside of practice, after Minseok had looked over at Lu Han waiting for the bus in a trance while feigning with his feet as if he had an actual soccer ball and dropped the question.
That do you play soccer had led to countless missed bus stops and trains in favour of discussing favourite team stats and player stats, their own soccer experiences, and when Minseok dug out the ball at the bottom of his closet, they’d taken off from there. Aside from all the soccer, Lu Han has some sort of malleability to him that Minseok takes to easily. Lu Han is so easy to get along with, moulding himself to fit other people smooth as wax. Minseok likes that, that it's easy to jokingly bully Lu Han into paying, that he doesn't have to twist his brain into knots twice over to come up with conversation topics with Lu Han, that sometimes they are so similar when it comes to the serious, sharp edges; that sense of comradeship, that someone's in the same boat as him. Minseok likes it when Lu Han drags his limbs around even when he's obviously exhausted. There's no holding back, no effort needed around Lu Han. Minseok slides easily to tackle Lu Han on the small field they play soccer on and lands, in a heap tangled with Lu Han's legs, flopping back on the grass with Lu Han right next to him.
---
Minseok's still thinking about the evaluation session he'd had earlier that afternoon when he enters the practice room. He'd had a harsher critique than he'd expected. Sometimes it's simply that you aren't good enough; aren't as good as the other trainees. Minseok had been casted through a singing competition which he'd won runner up for, but nearly three years of training is enough to understand the abundance of talent in the company. He's not getting any younger, either; being a trainee had been a chance he'd given himself, but too many years spent in this without anything secure in sight are too many years wasted.
Lu Han catches his eye when he comes in, heading over to ask him - about the evaluation, it must be; he'd wished Minseok good luck with a ruffle of his hair before the thing. Lu Han falters, though, before he reaches Minseok - the pensiveness on Minseok's face must show - then smiles, like it's any other day.
"Hey," Lu Han says, "He's not coming today, so we just have to go through the stuff ourselves."
"Great." Minseok smiles as well as he can back, and they practise when Junmyeon hits play.
"Wanna help me pick out some new soccer cleats," Lu Han asks as he kicks Minseok's calf gently, both of them hunched over after the practice session, their legs sprawled over the practice room floor in exhaustion. Junmyeon and the rest have long left. Minseok had dithered around with his bag and Lu Han had followed suit, sitting down next to Minseok wordlessly. They haven't said a thing to each other since the start of the practice session, but Minseok's pretty sure Lu Han can already guess what he's bothered about, and he's grateful for it - he's not really up for putting the jumble of tangledness in his head into words, or listening to trite consolations. There's no pressure to explain himself around Lu Han.
Minseok shrugs. "Sure." A walk would be probably clear his head, and Lu Han has a knack for making him laugh. A laugh would be nice.
Sinchon is rowdy, distracting enough to take Minseok's mind off things, and Lu Han talks about soccer and dream holiday destinations till Minseok's excited too, for things very far away with the tiniest pinprick of possibility. Cleats shopping is a whole different ball game.
"I like this one." Lu Han holds a pair up in Minseok's face. It's black and the Nike logo is huge on the side. Not Minseok's type.
"Ew," he says, picking up another neon yellow pair. "This is better, Nike cleats wear out too often. And their contours always hurt my soles. Also we sometimes play in the dark, neon is better."
Lu Han wrinkles his nose, though he takes the other pair from Minseok to look over. "It's a nice colour," he finally concedes, though still looking rather unconvinced. "But Nike cleats do not. My old pair were solid for like three years. Adidas cleats suck, I got outrun by some teammates in school because the soles weren't thick enough."
"Sure, blame the shoes," Minseok laughs, then heads to the Nike section to pick out a good pair, support and functionality passable in neon orange. "This one, then."
Lu Han contemplates it for three seconds, before agreeing amiably, and by now the smile on Minseok's face at this is easy as pie.
---
Time moves faster than Minseok ever notices. Soon it's his three year anniversary of being a trainee. Nothing to crow about - three years of understanding that you aren't good enough. But Minseok's grown used to it; it's three years of honing skills. Three years of hard work to show for himself.
He celebrates with an extra long dance practice session, staying long after everyone's - even Yixing - left, so he's sure he's got every step down pat, till the movements come even without conscious thinking. He's giving himself a pat on the back as he makes his way down the corridor to head home when he passes a door and sees Lu Han sitting in a practice room alone.
"Lu Han?"
Minseok hasn't seen Lu Han in a day or so, but the glaze over his eyes is enough to make Lu Han look ten years older. Lu Han is startled to see him, and readies a small smile, but by now Minseok can tell Lu Han doesn't feel it inside.
"Hey," Lu Han says, "still here?"
"Yeah." Minseok comes in to sit down next to Lu Han, stretch his legs out before him and look over. "S'up?"
"Nothing much, had practice." Lu Han shrugs. "You too?"
"Yeah," Minseok says, propping himself up on his arm behind himself. "Rough session?"
It's testament to how well they know each other, with ten months of friendship, that Lu Han knows Minseok can tell he's upset. There's something about the way they work around each other - have come to work around each other - that's implicitly comfortable.
Lu Han shrugs, the way he gets when he's feeling crushed and helpless. "Yeah."
Minseok isn't one to press, especially for Lu Han, so he says nothing. Sometimes all Lu Han wants is a comforting presence.
"Sometimes I don't even know if all this," Lu Han makes a gesture with his hand, looking down at the floor. He doesn't finish the sentence, but Minseok understands. It's easy to lose sight of the things you're working for, especially when your days stretch into another and there's no break, no light in sight. He'd been the same last year, and what more for Lu Han, who'd left home to do this for himself? At least Minseok hadn't had to leave things behind, make risky exchanges. He's not quite sure what to say - he's never been one to smooth things over with airy reassurances. Debut is a shiny non-promise.
When he looks over at Lu Han, though, meeting his eyes, maybe Lu Han sees that he understands, too. A small smile turns the corners of his mouth up as he looks back down at his lap.
"You know you're doing well, right?" Minseok says quietly, grinning when Lu Han looks back up at him. It takes a while, but Lu Han returns it, a grin that reaches his eyes, this time.
They sit there for a long time, thinking about baby steps and climbing ladders, till Lu Han asks about Minseok's practice and they go off on various tangents till it's so late that Minseok has to crash in Lu Han's dorm for the night. Lu Han pulls him to his feet.
"Thanks." Lu Han grins, and Minseok's already mirroring his smile before Lu Han slings an arm over his shoulder.
---
Lu Han works enough (with Minseok's help) to get to Class A dance practice, from Class C in the span of a year. His pride, for his friend's hard work, is a lion's roar in his chest. Lu Han's eyes are bright when he enters Class A for the first time, greeting the rest of the trainees in the room before coming up to Minseok. Minseok grins and holds his hand out for a pound hug that Lu Han leans into easily, smile wide.
"Hey, hot shot," Minseok says, pretending to flinch when Lu Han punches his arm.
"Thanks, sunbae," Lu Han says, a running joke between them where Lu Han thanks him for working through dance routines with him and Minseok talks pointedly about what he's craving for dinner later. This time, though, Minseok hears everything Lu Han puts in the two words, all of his sincere gratefulness, for sticking through late nights with him, for dragging him up by the collar when Lu Han needs it.
"I'm expecting some kind of car or apartment in thanks." Minseok grins, and lets Lu Han actually punch him this time before they start practice.
At the end of practice, after the rest of the trainees have shuffled out of the room Lu Han pulls out his soccer ball from his bag and tosses it at Minseok. Minseok tucks it under his arm and heads out of the room before Lu Han catches up with an arm slung over his shoulder. Next stop: soccer field.
Today's grass seems especially earthy, the fall breeze especially refreshing, the sun especially light on their cheeks, and today's soccer game especially great. They don't usually do this after dance practice, but Minseok doesn't even feel tired today, when he finally falls back to lie against the grass, staring up at the vast blue sky with Lu Han next to him.
"That was a good game," Minseok says, and Lu Han laughs.
"Not bad," he says, pillowing his head on his hands, his arms folded behind him. "You let in more than usual."
Minseok snorts, giving Lu Han a mini glare out of the side of his eye. "You mean you were fouling all over the place."
"Hey," Lu Han grins and crosses an ankle over another, "I play clean."
"Sure." Minseok rolls his eyes and looks back up at the sky, clouds bunching and drifting. Minseok could lie here for the rest of the day, just watching the clouds and feeling the breeze on his sticky skin.
"Hey," Lu Han says after a while, pointing at the sky. "That one looks like you."
It's a mess of white, where Lu Han's pointing at. Minseok reaches over to poke his cleats in Lu Han's shin. "You, more like."
"You," Lu Han says insistently, and Minseok gives up trying to argue. This is how Lu Han wins most of their arguments, but Minseok's clearly the bigger person here. He just closes his eyes and enjoys the fine evening.
When the sun reaches the horizon and Minseok's feeling hungry enough to eat a horse, he's about to get up and suggest they find food when Lu Han asks, out of the blue:
"We're going to debut, right?" The question is nothing like his previous ones, more of a hopeful statement, something brimming with promise. Minseok cracks an eye open to watch the boundless sky, so wide it's everywhere he looks, and this time he feels almost sure of his answer.
"You bet." Minseok grins, and gets to his feet to race Lu Han to the changing room.
lu han/minseok, pg-13, general
"lu han is my chinese friend." - minseok
Minseok meets Lu Han on a hot day, a day when he and Yixing get the single non-air-conditioned practice room in the entire building and he’s almost sure that he’s sweated all 70% of that water out of his body.
“Hello.” Lu Han makes a ninety-degree bow, his voice soft and smooth. “My name is Lu Han.” There’s a subtle inflection to his name, the syllables sharper, foreign in the Korean language.
“Hello.” Minseok makes a ninety-degree bow as well, even though he’s fairly sure he’s older than the boy. “I’m Minseok.”
The employee that had accompanied Lu Han into the practice room introduces him again, this is Lu Han, he’s a new trainee, gonna be practising with you guys now. He’s Chinese. Yixing smiles a little, his eyes immediately softer, the sides crinkling. Minseok is surprised, because Kevin and Yixing’s Korean had been non-existent when he’d met them. Lu Han speaks Korean with an air of familiarity, hard-earned.
“Please take care of me.” Lu Han bows again, and Minseok nods amiably. He manages a “nice to meet you” before Lu Han is hustled out of the room again by the employee.
Lu Han’s face is something that stays with Minseok - stays with most people, he supposes, because Yixing remarks that Lu Han is really good-looking even after dance practice, when they’re heading home.
“Yeah,” Minseok agrees, and touches his own face surreptitiously.
---
The next time Minseok meets Lu Han is during dance practice - before dance practice, actually. Lu Han is pacing in the corridor outside their usual practice room ten minutes early, peering in the window in the door.
“Hey.” Minseok joins him at the door. “You can go in, you know.”
“Oh.” Lu Han blinks and laughs a little awkwardly. “I - wasn’t sure - “
Minseok smiles, pushing the door open and turning the lights on. “We usually practice here unless someone else needs the room more, so next time you can come straight in.”
“Thanks,” Lu Han says, and follows Minseok in. “Do you - is there usually a lot more people?”
“Yep, we have Yixing - the other guy you met that day, and Junmyeon, Chanyeol, Kevin. Sometimes Sehun and Jongin.” Minseok’s rattling off names before he realises it might be too much to take in, and he laughs, but Lu Han doesn’t seem fazed. He’s looking at Minseok very intently.
“Do I have something on my face?”
Lu Han blinks confusedly. “What?”
It would have been an awkward moment, but Kevin and Chanyeol come in then, Chanyeol sprawling on the floor before he notices the new figure.
“Oh,” Chanyeol says, and scrambles to sit up, “hey. I’m Chanyeol.”
“Hello.” Lu Han smiles and nods politely. “My name is Lu Han.”
“Hey.” Kevin allows Lu Han a small smile. “Welcome.”
They are all guarded; it’s a habit of trainees, especially ones that have been there for as long as they have. Trainees come and go, others come and fight tooth and nail and it’s always safe to set up defence. Kevin and Minseok are safe people by nature, Chanyeol by learning.
Chanyeol starts talking animatedly about how the rap training session that they’d just come from had been a disaster, and Minseok realises that’s really just how Lu Han’s face is during a conversation. It’s almost refreshing, because Minseok sees more trainees that aren’t all that into a conversation if it doesn’t involve improvement advice.
Junmyeon and Yixing come in then with the dance instructor, and they barely manage a quick “hello” at Lu Han before practice starts. Minseok sees right away that Lu Han isn’t used to dance; his limbs move awkwardly, stiffly just like how his own had when he first started training, like how Kevin’s and Chanyeol’s limbs still have a good shadow of. Lu Han gets a berating from the instructor, naturally, and Minseok can see his eyes hooded by his eyelids, his lips pressing closer together. The instructor ends with a stern warning for Lu Han to get the routine right by tomorrow. Chanyeol and Kevin give Lu Han a muted pat on the shoulder before they leave for rap training. There’s something about Lu Han that people take to very easily, makes people leave their guard down.
“Don’t worry.” Junmyeon smiles kindly. “He just gets frustrated very easily, I think we’ll be getting another dance instructor for tomorrow’s practice anyway.”
Lu Han manages a smile that starts out weak but fills his lips out, and nods. “Thanks.”
After vocal practice that evening Minseok makes a detour to the washroom and sees Lu Han still in the practice room looping the instruction video and testing out the moves hesitantly.
“Hey.” Minseok pushes the door open, sticking his head in. Lu Han looks up, startled, and bows, like it’s second nature. Minseok chuckles a bit.
“You’re probably loads younger than me, but you don’t have to bow, man.”
“Ah - no, I bet you’re younger than me, I’m already twenty this year - wait - twenty-one? I get mixed up with the Korean age system...” Lu Han bows his head a little sheepishly.
“I’m twenty-one! Wait, you’re born in 1990?”
“I am! You are, too? But -“
“Yeah, I get that a lot. But you look fifteen or something.”
The corner of Lu Han’s lips quirk into amusement, like he’s trying to hide it. “Well, I thought you were fifteen, too.”
Minseok grins and holds up his fist, tipping it towards Lu Han. “Cheers, then? To misunderstood kid faces?”
Lu Han’s grin takes over his whole face when it comes, one that makes the person underneath Lu Han’s shy politeness immediately apparent. Their fist bump is light, but firm, something like the spark from two stones that ignites a fire.
---
Two weeks into their friendship, Minseok’s already hanging out with Lu Han regularly outside of practice, after Minseok had looked over at Lu Han waiting for the bus in a trance while feigning with his feet as if he had an actual soccer ball and dropped the question.
That do you play soccer had led to countless missed bus stops and trains in favour of discussing favourite team stats and player stats, their own soccer experiences, and when Minseok dug out the ball at the bottom of his closet, they’d taken off from there. Aside from all the soccer, Lu Han has some sort of malleability to him that Minseok takes to easily. Lu Han is so easy to get along with, moulding himself to fit other people smooth as wax. Minseok likes that, that it's easy to jokingly bully Lu Han into paying, that he doesn't have to twist his brain into knots twice over to come up with conversation topics with Lu Han, that sometimes they are so similar when it comes to the serious, sharp edges; that sense of comradeship, that someone's in the same boat as him. Minseok likes it when Lu Han drags his limbs around even when he's obviously exhausted. There's no holding back, no effort needed around Lu Han. Minseok slides easily to tackle Lu Han on the small field they play soccer on and lands, in a heap tangled with Lu Han's legs, flopping back on the grass with Lu Han right next to him.
---
Minseok's still thinking about the evaluation session he'd had earlier that afternoon when he enters the practice room. He'd had a harsher critique than he'd expected. Sometimes it's simply that you aren't good enough; aren't as good as the other trainees. Minseok had been casted through a singing competition which he'd won runner up for, but nearly three years of training is enough to understand the abundance of talent in the company. He's not getting any younger, either; being a trainee had been a chance he'd given himself, but too many years spent in this without anything secure in sight are too many years wasted.
Lu Han catches his eye when he comes in, heading over to ask him - about the evaluation, it must be; he'd wished Minseok good luck with a ruffle of his hair before the thing. Lu Han falters, though, before he reaches Minseok - the pensiveness on Minseok's face must show - then smiles, like it's any other day.
"Hey," Lu Han says, "He's not coming today, so we just have to go through the stuff ourselves."
"Great." Minseok smiles as well as he can back, and they practise when Junmyeon hits play.
"Wanna help me pick out some new soccer cleats," Lu Han asks as he kicks Minseok's calf gently, both of them hunched over after the practice session, their legs sprawled over the practice room floor in exhaustion. Junmyeon and the rest have long left. Minseok had dithered around with his bag and Lu Han had followed suit, sitting down next to Minseok wordlessly. They haven't said a thing to each other since the start of the practice session, but Minseok's pretty sure Lu Han can already guess what he's bothered about, and he's grateful for it - he's not really up for putting the jumble of tangledness in his head into words, or listening to trite consolations. There's no pressure to explain himself around Lu Han.
Minseok shrugs. "Sure." A walk would be probably clear his head, and Lu Han has a knack for making him laugh. A laugh would be nice.
Sinchon is rowdy, distracting enough to take Minseok's mind off things, and Lu Han talks about soccer and dream holiday destinations till Minseok's excited too, for things very far away with the tiniest pinprick of possibility. Cleats shopping is a whole different ball game.
"I like this one." Lu Han holds a pair up in Minseok's face. It's black and the Nike logo is huge on the side. Not Minseok's type.
"Ew," he says, picking up another neon yellow pair. "This is better, Nike cleats wear out too often. And their contours always hurt my soles. Also we sometimes play in the dark, neon is better."
Lu Han wrinkles his nose, though he takes the other pair from Minseok to look over. "It's a nice colour," he finally concedes, though still looking rather unconvinced. "But Nike cleats do not. My old pair were solid for like three years. Adidas cleats suck, I got outrun by some teammates in school because the soles weren't thick enough."
"Sure, blame the shoes," Minseok laughs, then heads to the Nike section to pick out a good pair, support and functionality passable in neon orange. "This one, then."
Lu Han contemplates it for three seconds, before agreeing amiably, and by now the smile on Minseok's face at this is easy as pie.
---
Time moves faster than Minseok ever notices. Soon it's his three year anniversary of being a trainee. Nothing to crow about - three years of understanding that you aren't good enough. But Minseok's grown used to it; it's three years of honing skills. Three years of hard work to show for himself.
He celebrates with an extra long dance practice session, staying long after everyone's - even Yixing - left, so he's sure he's got every step down pat, till the movements come even without conscious thinking. He's giving himself a pat on the back as he makes his way down the corridor to head home when he passes a door and sees Lu Han sitting in a practice room alone.
"Lu Han?"
Minseok hasn't seen Lu Han in a day or so, but the glaze over his eyes is enough to make Lu Han look ten years older. Lu Han is startled to see him, and readies a small smile, but by now Minseok can tell Lu Han doesn't feel it inside.
"Hey," Lu Han says, "still here?"
"Yeah." Minseok comes in to sit down next to Lu Han, stretch his legs out before him and look over. "S'up?"
"Nothing much, had practice." Lu Han shrugs. "You too?"
"Yeah," Minseok says, propping himself up on his arm behind himself. "Rough session?"
It's testament to how well they know each other, with ten months of friendship, that Lu Han knows Minseok can tell he's upset. There's something about the way they work around each other - have come to work around each other - that's implicitly comfortable.
Lu Han shrugs, the way he gets when he's feeling crushed and helpless. "Yeah."
Minseok isn't one to press, especially for Lu Han, so he says nothing. Sometimes all Lu Han wants is a comforting presence.
"Sometimes I don't even know if all this," Lu Han makes a gesture with his hand, looking down at the floor. He doesn't finish the sentence, but Minseok understands. It's easy to lose sight of the things you're working for, especially when your days stretch into another and there's no break, no light in sight. He'd been the same last year, and what more for Lu Han, who'd left home to do this for himself? At least Minseok hadn't had to leave things behind, make risky exchanges. He's not quite sure what to say - he's never been one to smooth things over with airy reassurances. Debut is a shiny non-promise.
When he looks over at Lu Han, though, meeting his eyes, maybe Lu Han sees that he understands, too. A small smile turns the corners of his mouth up as he looks back down at his lap.
"You know you're doing well, right?" Minseok says quietly, grinning when Lu Han looks back up at him. It takes a while, but Lu Han returns it, a grin that reaches his eyes, this time.
They sit there for a long time, thinking about baby steps and climbing ladders, till Lu Han asks about Minseok's practice and they go off on various tangents till it's so late that Minseok has to crash in Lu Han's dorm for the night. Lu Han pulls him to his feet.
"Thanks." Lu Han grins, and Minseok's already mirroring his smile before Lu Han slings an arm over his shoulder.
---
Lu Han works enough (with Minseok's help) to get to Class A dance practice, from Class C in the span of a year. His pride, for his friend's hard work, is a lion's roar in his chest. Lu Han's eyes are bright when he enters Class A for the first time, greeting the rest of the trainees in the room before coming up to Minseok. Minseok grins and holds his hand out for a pound hug that Lu Han leans into easily, smile wide.
"Hey, hot shot," Minseok says, pretending to flinch when Lu Han punches his arm.
"Thanks, sunbae," Lu Han says, a running joke between them where Lu Han thanks him for working through dance routines with him and Minseok talks pointedly about what he's craving for dinner later. This time, though, Minseok hears everything Lu Han puts in the two words, all of his sincere gratefulness, for sticking through late nights with him, for dragging him up by the collar when Lu Han needs it.
"I'm expecting some kind of car or apartment in thanks." Minseok grins, and lets Lu Han actually punch him this time before they start practice.
At the end of practice, after the rest of the trainees have shuffled out of the room Lu Han pulls out his soccer ball from his bag and tosses it at Minseok. Minseok tucks it under his arm and heads out of the room before Lu Han catches up with an arm slung over his shoulder. Next stop: soccer field.
Today's grass seems especially earthy, the fall breeze especially refreshing, the sun especially light on their cheeks, and today's soccer game especially great. They don't usually do this after dance practice, but Minseok doesn't even feel tired today, when he finally falls back to lie against the grass, staring up at the vast blue sky with Lu Han next to him.
"That was a good game," Minseok says, and Lu Han laughs.
"Not bad," he says, pillowing his head on his hands, his arms folded behind him. "You let in more than usual."
Minseok snorts, giving Lu Han a mini glare out of the side of his eye. "You mean you were fouling all over the place."
"Hey," Lu Han grins and crosses an ankle over another, "I play clean."
"Sure." Minseok rolls his eyes and looks back up at the sky, clouds bunching and drifting. Minseok could lie here for the rest of the day, just watching the clouds and feeling the breeze on his sticky skin.
"Hey," Lu Han says after a while, pointing at the sky. "That one looks like you."
It's a mess of white, where Lu Han's pointing at. Minseok reaches over to poke his cleats in Lu Han's shin. "You, more like."
"You," Lu Han says insistently, and Minseok gives up trying to argue. This is how Lu Han wins most of their arguments, but Minseok's clearly the bigger person here. He just closes his eyes and enjoys the fine evening.
When the sun reaches the horizon and Minseok's feeling hungry enough to eat a horse, he's about to get up and suggest they find food when Lu Han asks, out of the blue:
"We're going to debut, right?" The question is nothing like his previous ones, more of a hopeful statement, something brimming with promise. Minseok cracks an eye open to watch the boundless sky, so wide it's everywhere he looks, and this time he feels almost sure of his answer.
"You bet." Minseok grins, and gets to his feet to race Lu Han to the changing room.