Title: Thank You. (1/2)
Pairing: HoSu
Rating: G
Genre: Fluff.
Summary: Where Yunho and Junsu are best friends. Maybe more than just best friends, and they go a long way before they debut.
A/n: My supposingly very first HoSu. OMG. I have never, ever write so carefully, and write with so much love in a oneshot. Ever. I write with love and passion for my every work but this..this is different. HoSu is the very pairing that introduced DBSK-couples to me, and i wonder why it took me more than a year to write on them. =x
I love this oneshot very much, and i hope you will enjoy reading, just like how i have enjoyed writing this. <33
I will appreciate greatly, any feedback♥
PS: LJ is being a total bitch for waving my post away as too big and refused to let me squeeze my oneshot inot one post.
“Thank you . . .”
* * *
His heart is drumming, excited and nervous at the same time, and then the door opens. He refuses to be seen clutching onto the hem of his over-sized shirt with a tight fist, and so he balls his hands by his sides carefully, trying to look as causal as possible. But he never knows; his set jaw betrays him.
The man leads him into the crowded dance studio in easy yet firm strides. Half of the eyes turn to follow the newcomer, the other half keep their eyes on the mirror and on their feet, wasting no time in perfecting their moves.
The young boy follows closely behind; his eyes never wander, though curiosity is killing him. He stops when the man stops to mumble something low to a rather short yet sturdy man. That man is the only one with his back to the mirror, and instincts tell the young boy that he would be the instructor.
When finally finishes, the man turns to the young boy.
“He will teach you all you will need to know.”
Without waiting for a response from the young boy, the man turns and walks out of the studio, without a backward glance.
The short and sturdy man now scans the young boy from head to toe with calculating eyes.
Yunho tenses, his fists clench tighter. He will not consider the glint in his new instructor’s eyes to be friendly.
Then with a seemingly resigned smile, his eyes leave the young boy and then he claps his hands sharply to grab the class’ attention.
The boy is then left buried amidst the crowd, trying to keep up with something the rest have been learning for the past two months.
“You’re new?” He looks as young as he is. Well, everyone looks about his age. But he feels half-relieved, because someone is finally talking to him.
The young boy nods, and then he initiates a hesitative smile.
The other young boy grins immediately. His fringe is long, curving his jaw lines perfectly, sharpening his features and milky cheeks.
“My name is Kim Junsu.” The boy named Kim Junsu sticks a hand out, squinting his single-eyed lids into a happy line.
“What’s yours?”
“Jung Yunho.” The young boy, who now has the name of Jung Yunho, returns the friendly gesture with a wider smile, but not too wide because he never likes his crooked and funny-looking teeth. Speaking of which, Yunho realizes Kim Junsu has the smile of a bright angel. His entire face seems to light up upon the casual smile, and Yunho can see his straight teeth well enough. He envies that, but feels slightly less inferior when he sees that the teeth are yellowish.
He wonders does he smoke to have teeth like that. Yunho smokes, but his teeth are never that yellowish. That is perhaps a God-way to cover up for the crooked part of his teeth.
“Hi, Yunho sshi. I’m here for almost a year, and there are some longer ones than me but.”
Yunho initiated the exchange of smiles makes Junsu develops a better feeling for the boy. In fact, he likes him immediately. Looking around him, he leans forward and drops his voice into a whisper.
“But, you have to be careful around here. Some are nice, but competition is tight. So try not to boost too much around here, even if your voice or dance are really good. They think a newbie should act like a newbie.”
Yunho can almost see Junsu rolls his eyes. He nods solemnly, taking in each and every word as important guidelines and advices.
“So you better stick to me in here, you know, to play safe. Being careful will never go wrong. I was once almost cornered when I first joined just because I was honest with my superb voice and dancing skills.”
Yunho smiles uncontrollably when being tugged along by the arm through the dispersed crowd. He has never met someone so innocent and defenseless with his words and acts. Especially to a stranger like he.
“You can join my clique, we are all nice people.”
Another bright and defenseless smile.
“Thank you . . .” Yunho flashes a genuine smile lightly in return.
And then abruptly, Kim Junsu stops and turns around. “You . . . get in here by . . .?”
“Dancing.” Yunho answers softly.
“Dancing? How good are you?” Junsu tilts his head to a side.
Yunho opens his mouth, and hesitates. Okay, he thinks he is very good in dancing; he has the First Place in the SM Dance Competition to prove that. But isn’t one supposed to be modest in here?
“How good?” Junsu presses on when Yunho is not answering, a slight edge to his squeaky voice. Oh yes, Kim Junsu has a squeaky voice. Almost husky, if given more years.
Did Yunho sense from this boy . . . competition?
“Wait, how old are you?” Kim Junsu pops another question out of nowhere. He needs to get the facts right, or else he would start acting like the older over here, which he is very accustomed to, especially towards his best friend, Hyuk Jae.
This time, Yunho smiles wide and deep.
He has the confidence he is older than this Junsu boy over here.
* * *
“. . . five, six, seven, eight. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven . . . . . .”
“Wait, hyung, I did not get three four five six.” Junsu whirls on his heels and pushes his brows together; beads of sweat rained his smooth and milky skin. “Show me again, how did you do that whirl and glide. . .”
“All right, watch carefully.” Yunho whirls back to face the mirror, and then steps his right foot out on the tip. “Move when it’s two, and then you have to dive a little forward before you go for three . . . like this . . . and then remember to push your shoulder out . . .”
Staring into the mirror, Junsu bites on his lip and follows suit.
“No, not on five. You’re only supposed to stick your shoulder out at six, and so you have to rotate it at five . . .”
Junsu tries again, and stumbles.
Yunho stables him on the shoulder before he has the chance to trip. Sighing with a smile, Yunho rubs on his shoulder cap gently. “Let’s take a break, Junsu. We’ve missed our lunch, and I guess you’re just tired and hungry.”
“But I’m still a little groggy with the four five six and ---”
“After our lunch, Su.” Yunho squeezes his shoulder lightly, but his command is clear. Ever since Junsu started calling him ‘hyung’, Yunho has treated him more than a friend.
He has treated him as a brother he never has.
“I’m famished.”
Which is not entirely a lie. They have been practicing for three hours straight, and he knows Junsu won’t dare to go for lunch unless he gets the steps right. Usually, Junsu will indeed master the five groups of eight beats within two hours, sometimes lesser than an hour and a half, but apparently not today.
His friend seems exceptionally drained today, and a little . . . unfocused.
They walk over to the other end of the studio, and slide their sticky bodies down the wooden wall. Yunho hooks a big plastic bag with two fingers and searches inside, scooping out two plastic lunch boxes. Handing one over to Junsu who is wiping his sweaty face with a pale yellow towel, Yunho taps the pair of wooden disposable chopsticks on his chin thoughtfully.
“What’s with you today? You look totally unfocused.”
Junsu flings his towel over on his shoulder, and bows his head over the lunch box.
“Junsu?”
“I was just . . . thinking.” Finally speaking, but he sounds reluctant.
Yunho only nods. Though their friendship has become closer and tighter over the past four months . . .
“So you are going to catch the 10pm bus today?” Junsu breaks the uncomfortable silence with a summoned smile, shoving one big chopstick of rice into his mouth.
“. . . Yeah.”
“You have to remember, or maybe I will remind you later on. You almost missed the bus yesterday . . . you can’t get home if you missed the 10pm bus, right?”
Yunho has traveled all the way down from his hometown to Seoul, just so to train under SM Entertainment to debut as a singer. He has rented a one-room flat an hour’s bus journey from the company building. Once he missed the 10pm bus, there will be no way of getting back.
Oh. He can, if he walked instead. If he was fast, he could reach his rented flat within six hours.
But today, he needs not care about the 10pm bus. In fact, he no longer needs to. That is because, he is so broke that he was kicked out of the cheap and inaccessible one-room apartment. He has been sleeping under the nearest bridge from the company building, which still requires a good forty minutes walk.
Yunho fidgets a little, bending his head over his lunch box like the previous Junsu. “. . . Yeah, remind me later on.”
Silence floods between them.
“. . . Hyung?” Junsu peers under Yunho’s long bangs, his brows a pretty furrow. “You’re hiding something from me.”
Though it is a mere four months, Junsu knows well enough on how Yunho will touch his nose whenever he is feeling shy and nervous, or how Yunho will shift his weight a couple of times over a sentence, whenever he is lying, like now.
Yunho jerks rather visibly, and then he keeps his head buried, eyes lowered.
“No.”
It is an answer which comes too quickly to be convincing to one’s ear.
“. . . You no longer live there, right? Uh? Hyung? Stop keeping from me, what is it?”
Yunho makes a terrible mistake. He raises his hesitative orbs upon Junsu’s urgent questions filled with concern.
He can never, ever resist his dongsaeng’s innocent and genuine gaze.
“Where are you living now?” The younger boy presses on, displaying not the slightest intention in giving up.
“. . . The bridge . . .”
He cannot make himself to continue further. He feels ashamed having to confess to another being, especially someone younger than him, that he is penniless.
Junsu does not speak for a very long time. So long that uneasiness grows bigger and bigger in Yunho like a bursting balloon.
He whips his head up when he hears his dongsaeng’s next line.
“You’re coming with me.”
* * *
Go on to the next part: Thank You (2/2)