011: 그대 한걸음만 다가와요. [10/12]
Yayyyyyy progression \o/ (For this fic and for 2Min...)
Not too much to say about this chapter other than that it takes place during (and was mostly inspired by) Dream Concert 2009, where f(x), SHINee, 2PM, KARA, and many others were all in direct contact in the backstage areas. So...yeahhhh.
Oh, and -- for those of you who don't know f(x) all that well -- I'll leave you with this mini-guide so you know who I'm talking about when I refer to these girls by given name: Soojung = Krystal (though this chapter mentions that directly, too ahahaha), Jinri = Sulli, and Sunyoung = Luna. Amber and Victoria - though they aren't mentioned in this fic (yet) are...well, Amber and Victoria. ;;
X. 그대 꿈결처럼 날 꼭 안아주죠.
[ You always hold me tightly, as if in a dream. ]
Minho spent the entire time backstage catching up with the other groups and artists at Dream Concert.
He spent nearly fifteen minutes with Eunhyuk and Donghae (and the rest of Super Junior) talking about everything from variety shows to restaurant recommendations to the latest rumors surrounding their fellow labelmates. As always, his hyung-deul were impossibly receiving, ruffling his hair and treating him like he was their long-lost member or the obedient little brother they always dreamed of
Minho loved to spend time with them, but eventually he had to say goodbye. There was only so much time he had left to kill.
He spent a few minutes with Nicole and her fellow KARA members (along with Sunyoung and Jinki, who were sharing stories about their trainee days in a little corner, laughing together like it was the most natural thing in the world), dodging Jonghyun’s interruptions and Kibum’s smart remarks about him “fraternizing with the enemy.”
But it was all in good fun (Kibum thought of Nicole like the sister he always wanted, and Jonghyun tolerated her because she was Kibum’s friend) and beside that, Minho always rather liked Nicole. She was as petite as she was plucky. They were around the same age, too. Best of all, he could even talk to her about sports - because she was something of a tomboy despite her cute image - and her opinions about the players and the eventual outcome of future games usually mirrored his own.
Minho loved to talk with her, but eventually he had to say goodbye to her, too. There was only so much time on his hands.
He finally finished talking to 2PM (Nickhun stuck to him like glue the entire time, just like the hour-and-a-half spent after the end of filming that “Idol Army” episode, chatting over shared snacks and a slew of private jokes) when a firm pat at his shoulder made him turn to see a very familiar face.
“Soojung-ah.” Minho smiled, taking the young girl’s outstretched hand and giving it a warm shake. “Or should I say…Krystal?”
“Either name works for me.” Soojung smiled right back, those pretty downturned eyes squeezed into mirthful half-moons. “How are you, Minho-oppa?”
“I’m fine - but shouldn’t I be asking you that?” He ignored Taecyeon’s catcalls and Chansung’s playful wolf-whistles in favor of Soojung’s soft tittering. “How’s f(x) treating you?”
“They’re all really nice to me.” Soojung seemed like she really meant it, a touch of sheepish affection evident in her tone. “They’re all my unnie-deul, too. I feel like I got really lucky.”
“You are.” Minho ruffled her hair a bit, making the girl wrinkle her nose in obvious disapproval and making him chuckle. “Who’s your favorite, though?”
Just as Soojung opened her mouth to answer him, a blur of black and silver ran headlong into the girl, nearly knocking her off her feet. Minho barely had a chance to move in to help when the form that suddenly appeared disentangled itself from Soojung and revealed itself.
“I’m Soojungie’s favorite,” Jinri announced, feather-light voice raised loud enough for the other two to hear. “That’s what you were going to say, right?”
“Unnie~” Soojung gave a soft whine, looking uncharacteristically disgruntled. “You’re being embarrassing!”
“I’ll stop being embarrassing if you tell me the truth, Soojungie.” Jinri’s eyes seemed to glow when she looked at Minho, the faintest sparkle visible in them as she spoke the other girl’s name. “Am I your favorite unnie or is there someone else?”
Soojung wrung her slender hands nervously until Jinri took hold of them tightly, swinging their entwined fists from side to side. It was an oddly charming sight to behold, seeing the second-youngest in f(x) meeting the maknae’s awkward stare with an obviously doting look. It reassured Minho to see his dongsaeng being taken care of so well by Jinri, who he heard from Kibum was a very mature young lady despite her youthful presence.
It made him even more reassured to see Jinri poking Soojung’s stomach and making her break into a fit of giggles, pressing soft smiles into the crown of Soojung’s hair that mirrored the younger girl’s.
“Of course you’re my favorite, unnie.” Soojung said at length, breathless trill unable to disguise the happiness in her voice. “And that’s the truth.”
“See?” Minho watched as Jinri hugged Soojung close to her chest - making the tiny girl squeal and trip over her own two left feet - sticking her tongue out at the boy. “She’s my special dongsaeng. Not yours.”
“It’s okay,” Minho chuckled, making Jinri and Soojung blink in bewilderment, “I already have my own. I won’t take her away from you, I promise.”
He left the two girls soon afterward to head to the other waiting area, where he found Taemin sitting alone with a myriad of folded paper cranes on the table in front of him and a magazine with pages missing (Taemin apparently took it upon himself to use it for his paper crafts) lying in his lap.
As soon as Minho came closer, Taemin perked up and made room on the bench for him.
“What’s this supposed to be?” Minho fiddled with the crooked end of a paper crane’s wing.
“That one’s supposed to be Jinki-hyung,” Taemin chirruped, impossibly cheerful in spite of his tired eyes. Minho knew it was because he hadn’t gotten much sleep last night, since he was too wound-up about their performance today. “His wings are crooked, but he can still fly.”
“Then I’m guessing,” Minho couldn’t help but smile when he saw a little pink paper crane with what looked like long tail feathers propped up against an even smaller green one made with sparkling paper, “these two are Kibum and Jonghyun-hyung.”
“Yep.” Taemin patted Kibum-crane’s ‘beak’ and nudged Jonghyun-crane closer to him. “They come as a pair. Can’t have one without the other.”
“Just like the real things,” Minho snorted, shaking his head-until his eyes fell upon the biggest crane of the bunch, blue and with its ‘neck’ stretched out to face heavenward. “What about this one?”
Taemin stopped playing with the JongKey cranes and grinned when he saw what Minho was referring to, brushing thick red-brown bangs away from his eyes.
“Hyung, guess what? This one’s you!” Taemin scooted even closer to the older boy, picking up the big blue crane and handing it off to him. “I took lots of time making that one. Could you tell?”
Of course he could. After all, it really did look like a lot of time was spent on making his crane - and beside that, Taemin wasn’t the type to do anything halfway. Every fold and crease was precise, and there were even eyes and featherlike lines drawn on its ‘wings’. Minho rolled it around in his palm carefully, eyes wide and marveling over Taemin’s creation.
“You really did a great job with this.” Minho watched Taemin’s expectant visage at once shift to one of pure relief at hearing the compliment. “But what about your crane?”
“I didn’t make it yet.” Taemin murmured as he laid his head on Minho’s shoulder, looking up at him through those pretty downturned eyes with a soft smile. “I was kind of hoping you could help me.”
Minho threw his head back and laughed, reaching over Taemin to rip out a multicolored page from their makeshift paper supply.
“Sure.” Minho shifted his weight to lean comfortably against the maknae, already starting to fold out the basic shape. “You want one as big as the crane you made of me?”
“…Okay!” Taemin beamed, suddenly looking much more alert and awake. “That’s a great idea~ I mean, it’ll make our cranes look like they belong together-and we can make them similar colors and everything…!”
They only had another fifteen minutes or so until they would get called out to the main backstage area to wait on stand-by. Minho knew that. He knew Taemin did, too.
But they both loved to indulge in these simple, everyday pleasures. It helped, to sit around and pass the time by quietly, to sit around and let themselves be restless, bored, ordinary boys. It helped, to be able to feel like they didn’t have to spend every waking moment living up to everyone else’s expectations.
And Minho always felt the pull of it strongest whenever it was just the two of them.
(He felt completely and utterly content with Taemin-like they had all the time in the world to waste and he would still feel at peace with the thought of forever-and he only hoped Taemin felt the same way about him.)
[ Part 11]