In Paris, We Love
In Paris, We Love
kyuhyun/seohyun (with mentions of changmin/yoona)
fluff, romance; 4233w, pg
a/n: so it's two for aqsa (bollywoodrecord)! but seriously folks... this came out of nowhere while i was reading aqsa's " the city of love". as i've mentioned before, that fic is one of my favorites ever and we (the angst circle) have talked about a little comm project (called side_kpophet -- which is basically a fic comm where we write about the side couples in other people's fics--oh, sorry, you don't get it? well... okay, i'll explain next time), i decided to go ahead and write the first of those side couple fics tributes. this is my lucky tribute to a wonderfully written fic. i hope you guys like it!
Seohyun doesn’t know much.
She knows enough but she understands that there some things she can’t be sure of until she experiences them firsthand. And in France, she thinks, she could learn.
Paris is beautiful, in photos and in real life, but somehow it doesn’t help the unsettling feeling in the pit of her stomach. Stepping off of the airplane had made her feel queasy instead of free, and this was unusual because who wouldn’t feel a sense of refreshment after being cooped up in a plane for half a full day.
“Seohyun.” Kyuhyun is beside her before she can actually see him, the sun’s rays blaring against her sunglasses as he adjusted his bag strap and gives her an amused grin. He’s been extra nice since the tour started and she can’t help but feel a little glad about that, though it still escapes her as to why.
“Kyuhyun-oppa.” She greets back and he nods before turning to where Minho stands with the rest of the SMTOWN’s Kyu-line members, leaving her to wonder why her heart would pause a beat when his head turns a little at her direction.
She doesn’t dare dwell on it and lets herself be pulled into a line with Yuri and Donghae and eventually Yoona down towards the ramp where their zealous fans are waiting for their appearance. She doesn’t spare a glance back because if she did, Seohyun thought she might not be able to look away.
DAY ONE
Her feet hurt by the time they settle down at a restaurant of Heechul’s suggestion late that evening. Seohyun had seriously considered staying in and curling up with a book that first night but with the insistence of her members, she relented on going for a tour with the rest of the ‘family’.
The members of Super Junior are noisy when they join them at the lobby, pestering BoA with their antics as the latter rolled her eyes repeatedly and swatted at them with a foldable fan in her hand. The boys from SHINee arrive next with f(x) in tow and it isn’t long until Yunho and Changmin arrive, dragging their feet behind them as they all began to move.
The day goes by quicker than she realized and soon she finds herself sitting in front of Yoona frowning as two boys fought over forks at either side of her. Seohyun tries not to laugh as her unnie sends her a pleading look (‘Help me, Joohyun!’), shrugging good-naturedly as Yoona began to complain about Changmin and Kyuhyun stealing her food from right in front of her.
Seohyun thinks, for a moment, that it would be nice to have a brother-but then Kyuhyun takes the biggest shrimp from her plate and she quickly dismisses the idea. Swatting him on the hand with her spoon, she scrunches her face at him and all he does is laugh.
She’s almost too shocked to move when Kyuhyun links his arm with hers on the way out of the restaurant, pulling her close to his side as their group walked along the suspiciously empty Parisian streets. She hears Yoona stifle a gasp from behind her and she turns to look back only to see her friend’s arm linked with the taller half of TVXQ.
“Did you two plan this?” Seohyun asks Kyuhyun once she turns her head back, pulling at her coat with her free hand. It’s colder in Paris at night than it is in Seoul and she thinks, perhaps, it’s why people (or couples) all around are always huddled together in an almost embrace. It gives off a sweet illusion of comfort and romance under the streetlights and she ponders for a moment that this might be the reason why Paris is called the ‘City of Love’.
“Not really,” he replies, looking over to her with the same smile from the airport, “Changmin’s been trying to saddle up next to Yoona all day. I was just giving him a hard time at the restaurant just now because I thought it was hilarious how strung up he’d be if I were sit next to her too.”
Seohyun wrinkles her nose, frowning. “Do you always go out of your way to torture your friends?”
“It’s not torture if it’ll help him in the end. Besides, I have my reasons too.”
“Like what?”
“I knew Yoona would stick close to you so I stuck close to Changmin. Win-win scenario really, since now I’m walking with you.”
Kyuhyun shrugs as he says this in a non-committal way and she thinks he couldn’t have been able to pull her any closer if he wrapped his arm even tighter around hers than it already is. She tries not to blush at the fact but when his eyes doesn’t hold the teasing glint it usually has when he’s being himself, Seohyun finds it hard not to let the warmth seep in her cheeks.
She’s almost too glad to find Yoona next to her a beat later, her hand easily grasping her jacket sleeve as their foursome continued to walk in an awkward line. Yoona looks at her with a question in her eyes and Seohyun can only shrug her shoulder in response.
She doesn’t know how to answer her unspoken question because she really doesn’t know how Changmin and Kyuhyun managed to come in between them. But by the end of the night, Seohyun thinks she doesn’t mind. She is in Paris with her best friends and a boy who makes her heart pause at intervals and her cheeks blush a rosy, rosy red. She thinks it’s a good way to end her first night.
DAY TWO
The second day in Paris finds her in jeggings and a loose grey shirt and sweating profusely during rehearsals. They’d been at it the whole day-dancing and singing and moving this way and that in preparation for their big Parisian stage debut. Seohyun thinks it’s a little funny how they could have fans in a European country. She could barely speak their language and yet somehow they love and sing along with them all the same.
Tiffany is asking Sooyoung about their routine when she notices Yoona step down the stage and she’s curious enough to take a few strides and crane her neck to see where her unnie was headed. Yoona stops in front of Changmin and grabs the water bottle from his hand, laughing as he says something and tips the bottle to her lips. She catches the way Changmin watches her friend, eyes lingering longer than necessary and somehow all of Kyuhyun’s words makes sense.
“I told you he has it in for her.” Kyuhyun says suddenly and Seohyun misses her footing on the ledge. He grabs her before she can fall and Seohyun’s heart doubles in beats as her members and the concert staff scramble towards her in concern. She sees Yoona break away from her conversation with Changmin to jog over to her, worry etched across her face and Seohyun regrets being the one to break the connection between them then.
“I’m fine, I’m fine.” She says, steadying herself with her hands on Kyuhyun’s forearms and he holds her for awhile longer as her breath comes in puffs. His eyes are worried and she doesn’t want to ask or understand why so she turns away and smiles sweetly at her concerned audience.
“I missed a step while I was going down the stairs. I must be a lot more tired than I thought.” She excuses, moving away just enough from him to shoo her members’ worries away.
“Then you should go rest in the dressing room while we finish up. We don’t want our Joohyun to fall sick in Paris! That wouldn’t be fun at all.” Tiffany tells her, patting her cheeks with her hands in a motherly way before regarding Kyuhyun with a wave of her hand. Seohyun thinks none of them really noticed him until coming to her rescue and for a second there, she breathes in relief at that fact. “Hey, Kyu, would you escort her to our dressing room please?”
“No problem.” He replies and Seohyun manages to smile as he takes her arm. Neither of them says anything until they were completely out of sight, away from the crowd and their members and Yoona and Changmin stuck by each other’s side. Kyuhyun pats her head once she’s settled on the couch, taking a seat next to her without asking for permission.
“You could have seriously injured yourself, you know.”
“Hey, you surprised me!”
“You shouldn’t have had one foot of the ground then.”
Seohyun relents, her temper deflating. “I was curious.” She began, fiddling with her hands on her lap-her limbs inches from his on the plush couch they sat on. She spares him a look and her heart catches as their gazes lock a second too long before turning away. “I was curious because of what you said last night.”
“Yeah… I know.” He replies; his tone softer than usual and she laughs a little at that because she thinks she’s stuck at wanting to know if he meant it-about him and her and them-and not at the same time.
“Mind if I stay?”
He doesn’t have to ask, but she nods anyway.
DAY THREE
The first night of their concert, Seohyun finds herself blushing as Kyuhyun holds her hand in his during their performance. The feel of his hand is comforting, welcome and warm but it is different now than any of the other times before. Her heart leaps and pulls when his voice harmonizes with his and she thinks that they might be good together, both off and on and it makes her head whirl in confusion.
She’s barely out of the stage when she sways on her step and Yoona steadies her with a hand. Her doe eyes are wide with concern and Seohyun mutters about needing water to hydrate herself because of the heat in the concert hall.
“Feeling jittery, Seobaby?” Yoona asks and it almost makes her want to curl into her friend’s arms for comfort. She doesn’t know for sure from what she needs comfort for but she knows she needs it sooner or later and she tells her so immediately after a gulp of water.
“Is this about Kyuhyun?”
Seohyun starts, her cheeks flooding with heat as Yoona’s eyes widen in realization. “Shh! It’s not about-it’s-I-I don’t know, okay! Just… ‘maknae night’ tonight please?”
She sighs in relief when she nods with a smile, patting her head reassuringly and they leave to change for their next song performance. Neither of them is barely able to keep their eyes open once they finish up and come back to the hotel, muttering assurances that they will talk tomorrow night for sure.
Seohyun doesn’t mind and as she drifts off with her knees tucked under chin on her bed next to her unnie, she thinks that maybe (just maybe) Yoona understands her because she feels it too.
DAY FOUR
The second night of the concert goes smoothly and she and Yoona load up on cookies and ice cream in their hotel room the second the rest of their members head off to sleep. Both of them are wired with exhilaration-either from the performance or the sugar they’re consuming, Seohyun doesn’t know-but it’s a good kind of rush and more than anything, she welcomes it.
“So you and Changmin-oppa, huh?” Seohyun begins and laughs at the blush overwhelming Yoona’s cheeks as she shoves three macaroons at a time in her mouth. She refuses to say much on the matter of her and Changmin’s little excursion so early that morning after chewing her way out of her treat, shrugging in a nonchalant way that was too casual it’d become suspicious as she recalled the events of them getting chased out of a café at daybreak. Seohyun pouts and nudges Yoona’s knee with her foot, because she just knows there’s more to the story than she’s letting on but finds it’s almost impossible to get her to admit it.
“It’s okay to kinda like him, you know… it’s not unfathomable to like your work colleague outside of… well, work.”
“I’m pretty sure it’s illegal as far as his fans are concerned.” Yoona quips and Seohyun can’t help but laugh (and agree) at that one.
“I blame Paris.” She says a little later after they’ve consumed a tub of ice cream and waded thru a whole hour of French telenovela on TV. “It’s the atmosphere. It’s making me see and feel things I don’t usually see or feel back at home.”
“I might have to agree with you.” Seohyun mumbles, dipping her spoon back into the tub with a sigh. She thinks of Kyuhyun’s grin and sighs even louder when her heart pauses, rewinds and plays again. “Everything looks so… romantic here that it just messes with your head. I wonder how the people here can stand it here for so long. Do they fall in love constantly or something?”
“With random people on the street or the lamps itself.”
“What?”
“The street lamps! You’ve seen them, Seo, they’re like… romantic-looking.”
“I’m not sure I’m comfortable at the thought of you falling in love with an inanimate object, Yoona.”
Yoona rolls her eyes and laughs, “You know what I mean.” And Seohyun really does.
“But Changmin isn’t a random person on the street.” She says, eyes flickering towards her doe-eyed friend holding a spoon in her mouth. “You’ve know him for years.”
“We’ve known him for years, and almost as long as we’ve known Kyuhyun too.” She corrects as dumps her spoon into the tub as well before leaning back against the headboard of their bed. Seohyun’s grateful Sooyoung and Hyoyeon opted to go down at the recreational center for awhile tonight or else it’d be embarrassing to talk about this here with them so close by. “I guess it’s just a little weird. We don’t talk to either of them much. At least, not individually or on a regular basis. We have mutual friends but that’s it.”
Yoona shrugs, resigned. As though she’d given up on wanting to dissect the situation.
They don’t say anything more after that and when they pack up and Seohyun gets ready for bed, she’s not surprised to find Yoona sprawled face down on their bed already fast asleep.
DAY FIVE
The last concert performance is the loudest and most exciting so far. Everybody is jumping and dancing to the music, pumping fists into the air as she and all of their groups rush across the stage. She’s in the most hyper feeling she’s ever had in her life-skipping alongside Yuri during the chorus and playing tag with Yoona at around the bridge. The ocean of fans beneath them makes a spectacular view, different colored light sticks proudly glowing at every corner of the room. It’s moments like these that she doesn’t regret her decision to become an artist. It’s moments like these she truly loves herself and all around her.
Someone blows confetti on her face just as the song dwindles to its end and Seohyun isn’t surprised to see Kyuhyun grinning widely at her beside him. She swats him with her free hand but he catches it before she can protest and somehow, she finds herself wedge next to him in the line-her other hand grasping Tiffany as BoA and Yunho make their final remarks and the crowd goes wild.
“Happy it’s over?” he asks over the noise and she has to lean closer to hear him clearly. His breath warms the side of her neck and her skin erupts into goosebumps as she catches her breath. He’s too close but she doesn’t have the heart to move away and so she shrugs as casually as she can.
“Happy the work is over, but not happy we still have a signing event tomorrow
“Look over there.” Kyuhyun says with his mischievous eyes and when she does she finds herself smiling at their best friends at the opposite end of the line holding hands. They share a look as the two speak closely, unaware of them spying from the other side.
“They’re good together.” Seohyun tells him and he agrees; his fingers are lacing between hers before she knows it.
“We’re good together too,” he replies and her heart pauses, rewinds and plays.
It’s ages later, in the dark, that she admits she thinks so too.
DAY SIX
Kyuhyun is pissed beyond relief when both of them find out that Changmin’s gone missing with Yoona and Yunho’s car to boot. He tells her as much as he pours over lyrics he has to sing to keep the fans screaming for an impromptu performance at bay. She doesn’t like to see the annoyed crinkle between his brows but Seohyun stops herself just before she goes and does something stupid.
Like brushing his hair back and folding her hand on his cheek. Like planting a kiss on his forehead, or his cheek, or his lips.
She stops herself long enough until Kyuhyun has to go and when he does, it all but makes her run to the restroom-trying to catch her breath as her heart pounded relentlessly inside her chest.
Seohyun groans at the fact that she was acting this way now of all times. Her confusion rising over new heights she’d never wanted to ponder before. She’d battled with the idea of ‘like’ and ‘love’ before and had prided herself to actually know what it means after WGM but this-this is blurred. A grey area she was not sure she wanted to step into but can’t seem to get away from.
She dials the number before she can stop herself and heaves a loud sigh of relief once it’s picked up after the first ring. “Hello?”
“Yonghwa,” she breathes and immediately feels better as he echoes her name. “Sorry for calling so suddenly. I’m in Paris right now and forgot the time difference. It must be late there.”
“No, it’s okay,” he assures her, his voice thick with sleep but alert all the same. He coughs a bit to clear his throat and then speaks, “You okay?”
“Yeah, yeah. Just… having an existential crisis, I think.”
“It’s too early to use big words like that, Joohyun. What’s up?”
Seohyun shrugs, slumping against a wall. Music swells in the background and it takes everything in her to not look back and see Kyuhyun go up on stage. “I think I might love somebody,” she says in a rush, afraid that her mouth my shut if she doesn’t get the words out fast enough, “I’m not sure but my heart keeps pulling and my stomach feels all fluttery and ugh-I can’t-”
She’s cut off by the breathy sound of Yonghwa’s laugh over the phone. “This is not funny!” she complains, stomping her foot in a childish way that was most definitely not her. “I’m having a crisis here and since you were the one who brought up the difference between ‘like’ and ‘love’, I thought I’d call you! You’re not allowed to laugh at my pain!”
“But you’re not in pain, are you?” He asks, laughing still and she fumes even more, “I’m joking, of course, but assuming you’re feeling this way for someone you’ve sang duets with since SMTOWN started… I’m pretty sure you can figure out how you feel all by yourself anyway.”
Her heart jumps at the mere insinuation but she pauses for effect because she doesn’t know what to say to that. “And?”
“Do you hate those feelings?”
She thinks about it for a moment. “No.”
“Do you like them then?” Yonghwa asks in an amused way, stifling his laugh in even though it seemed he was clearly enjoying her discomfort.
“I-I don’t know. N-maybe?”
“Well, okay, then do you like Kyuhyun?”
“Wha-who?”
“ Kyuhyun. Do you like Kyuhyun?”
“Well, yes, he’s a colleague-”
“Not what I meant.” He laughs and Seohyun can’t help but grumble childishly in response as it dawns to her.
Ah.
She mumbles and by the thud and then long pause she hears after, she’s almost sure Yonghwa’s clamped his hand over the phone to laugh at her embarrassment.
He has the last word by the time she ends their call and her will is threadbare from hurling her phone to the wall and throwing a tantrum. She drops to her knees and buries her face in her hands, blushing heatedly as she hears the song end and Kyuhyun gives out his thanks.
The applause is still on-going by the time she stands up and Kyuhyun is there beside her, asking her what’s wrong and why her face was red. She says nothing but stares at him and he waits, and waits and-
The contact of their lips is soft but Seohyun marvels at the warmth of his mouth on hers before pulling away. His jaw is slack, his eyes unfocused, and his mouth struggling to find words but before anything else happens she does the only logical thing she can think of:
She runs.
DAY SEVEN
Seohyun’s glad their manager tells them to stay indoors on their last day that she almost reaches over her breakfast to pull him into a tight hug in glee. Her unnies grumbles their grievances over the fact but don’t really complain-most of them opting to order room service and laze while some (like Yoona) goes out in disguise for one last tour of the city.
She's managed to avoid Kyuhyun for the rest of yesterday and she wishes she doesn’t have to see him until the flight tomorrow morning. She doesn’t know what he’ll do or say when they meet and frankly doesn’t want to know. She’d rather keep to herself for a little while. Long enough to process what had happened and what she’d done while her fingers skims her lips and she remembers the ghost of his lips’ touch on hers.
The day goes by so quietly she thinks nothing of it when she opens the door to a knock that evening, thinking it is one of her members back from their covert tour. Instead she finds Kyuhyun standing in front of her, shirt untucked under a jacket and looking at her as though he won’t leave until she comes out to speak to him.
Seohyun’s barely able to take a step back before he lunges after her, pulling her wrist tight in his hands until her door is closed behind her and she’s trapped between him and the wall. All thoughts fall flat in her mind, no words able to form while he looks at her in that way she remembered him looking at her during the first night in Paris and he had his arm linked with hers. She purses her lips and worries because he’s too close and I like him I like him I like him-
Her mind shuts down at the feel of his hands cupping her cheeks as he pressed his lips in between hers. She feels warmth and exhilaration and beauty at the contact-all the way from the tip of her toes to the top of her head. Her hands move to grasp his shoulders but don’t pull away because this isn’t unwelcome at all. In fact she wants it, she thinks, she really really does.
“It’s not nice to leave a guy sputtering in a hall after you’ve kissed him, you know.” He tells her when they part, still cupping her cheeks in his hands. He presses another kiss on her nose and then her forehead before stepping back, wrapping his arms around her as she stares at him, dazed. She isn’t sure of what to say.
“You have to at least let him tell you he’s been dying to kiss you since forever.”
Seohyun blinks, relief washing over her and laughs. “I don’t know much about this.”
“Neither do I but I’m not running.” Kyuhyun tells her and she laughs again, taking a leap to step closer than ever. It’s not like her at all, but she wants to understand-she wants to know. She apologizes, tucking her chin in.
“Sorry about that.”
He holds her head up just so and grins that smile.
“It’s okay. We’re allowed to learn.”
The nights are warmer in Seoul than in Paris but it’s as beautiful and romantic all the same.
Seohyun grins with Kyuhyun as they watch their best friends kiss at the opposite end of the hallway; Changmin’s frame towering over Yoona as she cranes her neck to meet his mouth on hers, her hands buried in his hair and his wrapped around her waist.
“Told you they’re good together.” Kyuhyun says, opening the door for her as they slip into a practice room for a little date night of their own-Chinese take-out strewn across a blanket and right next to a bouquet of flowers she likes-laughing as she scoffs at him for copying her line from Paris.
She doesn’t dwell on who’s right for long though because it really doesn’t matter in the end. Instead she reaches over and takes his hand, pressing a kiss against his palm.
“We’re good together too.”
Seohyun knows that much.
kyuhyun/seohyun (with mentions of changmin/yoona)
fluff, romance; 4233w, pg
a/n: so it's two for aqsa (bollywoodrecord)! but seriously folks... this came out of nowhere while i was reading aqsa's " the city of love". as i've mentioned before, that fic is one of my favorites ever and we (the angst circle) have talked about a little comm project (called side_kpophet -- which is basically a fic comm where we write about the side couples in other people's fics--oh, sorry, you don't get it? well... okay, i'll explain next time), i decided to go ahead and write the first of those side couple fics tributes. this is my lucky tribute to a wonderfully written fic. i hope you guys like it!
Seohyun doesn’t know much.
She knows enough but she understands that there some things she can’t be sure of until she experiences them firsthand. And in France, she thinks, she could learn.
Paris is beautiful, in photos and in real life, but somehow it doesn’t help the unsettling feeling in the pit of her stomach. Stepping off of the airplane had made her feel queasy instead of free, and this was unusual because who wouldn’t feel a sense of refreshment after being cooped up in a plane for half a full day.
“Seohyun.” Kyuhyun is beside her before she can actually see him, the sun’s rays blaring against her sunglasses as he adjusted his bag strap and gives her an amused grin. He’s been extra nice since the tour started and she can’t help but feel a little glad about that, though it still escapes her as to why.
“Kyuhyun-oppa.” She greets back and he nods before turning to where Minho stands with the rest of the SMTOWN’s Kyu-line members, leaving her to wonder why her heart would pause a beat when his head turns a little at her direction.
She doesn’t dare dwell on it and lets herself be pulled into a line with Yuri and Donghae and eventually Yoona down towards the ramp where their zealous fans are waiting for their appearance. She doesn’t spare a glance back because if she did, Seohyun thought she might not be able to look away.
DAY ONE
Her feet hurt by the time they settle down at a restaurant of Heechul’s suggestion late that evening. Seohyun had seriously considered staying in and curling up with a book that first night but with the insistence of her members, she relented on going for a tour with the rest of the ‘family’.
The members of Super Junior are noisy when they join them at the lobby, pestering BoA with their antics as the latter rolled her eyes repeatedly and swatted at them with a foldable fan in her hand. The boys from SHINee arrive next with f(x) in tow and it isn’t long until Yunho and Changmin arrive, dragging their feet behind them as they all began to move.
The day goes by quicker than she realized and soon she finds herself sitting in front of Yoona frowning as two boys fought over forks at either side of her. Seohyun tries not to laugh as her unnie sends her a pleading look (‘Help me, Joohyun!’), shrugging good-naturedly as Yoona began to complain about Changmin and Kyuhyun stealing her food from right in front of her.
Seohyun thinks, for a moment, that it would be nice to have a brother-but then Kyuhyun takes the biggest shrimp from her plate and she quickly dismisses the idea. Swatting him on the hand with her spoon, she scrunches her face at him and all he does is laugh.
She’s almost too shocked to move when Kyuhyun links his arm with hers on the way out of the restaurant, pulling her close to his side as their group walked along the suspiciously empty Parisian streets. She hears Yoona stifle a gasp from behind her and she turns to look back only to see her friend’s arm linked with the taller half of TVXQ.
“Did you two plan this?” Seohyun asks Kyuhyun once she turns her head back, pulling at her coat with her free hand. It’s colder in Paris at night than it is in Seoul and she thinks, perhaps, it’s why people (or couples) all around are always huddled together in an almost embrace. It gives off a sweet illusion of comfort and romance under the streetlights and she ponders for a moment that this might be the reason why Paris is called the ‘City of Love’.
“Not really,” he replies, looking over to her with the same smile from the airport, “Changmin’s been trying to saddle up next to Yoona all day. I was just giving him a hard time at the restaurant just now because I thought it was hilarious how strung up he’d be if I were sit next to her too.”
Seohyun wrinkles her nose, frowning. “Do you always go out of your way to torture your friends?”
“It’s not torture if it’ll help him in the end. Besides, I have my reasons too.”
“Like what?”
“I knew Yoona would stick close to you so I stuck close to Changmin. Win-win scenario really, since now I’m walking with you.”
Kyuhyun shrugs as he says this in a non-committal way and she thinks he couldn’t have been able to pull her any closer if he wrapped his arm even tighter around hers than it already is. She tries not to blush at the fact but when his eyes doesn’t hold the teasing glint it usually has when he’s being himself, Seohyun finds it hard not to let the warmth seep in her cheeks.
She’s almost too glad to find Yoona next to her a beat later, her hand easily grasping her jacket sleeve as their foursome continued to walk in an awkward line. Yoona looks at her with a question in her eyes and Seohyun can only shrug her shoulder in response.
She doesn’t know how to answer her unspoken question because she really doesn’t know how Changmin and Kyuhyun managed to come in between them. But by the end of the night, Seohyun thinks she doesn’t mind. She is in Paris with her best friends and a boy who makes her heart pause at intervals and her cheeks blush a rosy, rosy red. She thinks it’s a good way to end her first night.
DAY TWO
The second day in Paris finds her in jeggings and a loose grey shirt and sweating profusely during rehearsals. They’d been at it the whole day-dancing and singing and moving this way and that in preparation for their big Parisian stage debut. Seohyun thinks it’s a little funny how they could have fans in a European country. She could barely speak their language and yet somehow they love and sing along with them all the same.
Tiffany is asking Sooyoung about their routine when she notices Yoona step down the stage and she’s curious enough to take a few strides and crane her neck to see where her unnie was headed. Yoona stops in front of Changmin and grabs the water bottle from his hand, laughing as he says something and tips the bottle to her lips. She catches the way Changmin watches her friend, eyes lingering longer than necessary and somehow all of Kyuhyun’s words makes sense.
“I told you he has it in for her.” Kyuhyun says suddenly and Seohyun misses her footing on the ledge. He grabs her before she can fall and Seohyun’s heart doubles in beats as her members and the concert staff scramble towards her in concern. She sees Yoona break away from her conversation with Changmin to jog over to her, worry etched across her face and Seohyun regrets being the one to break the connection between them then.
“I’m fine, I’m fine.” She says, steadying herself with her hands on Kyuhyun’s forearms and he holds her for awhile longer as her breath comes in puffs. His eyes are worried and she doesn’t want to ask or understand why so she turns away and smiles sweetly at her concerned audience.
“I missed a step while I was going down the stairs. I must be a lot more tired than I thought.” She excuses, moving away just enough from him to shoo her members’ worries away.
“Then you should go rest in the dressing room while we finish up. We don’t want our Joohyun to fall sick in Paris! That wouldn’t be fun at all.” Tiffany tells her, patting her cheeks with her hands in a motherly way before regarding Kyuhyun with a wave of her hand. Seohyun thinks none of them really noticed him until coming to her rescue and for a second there, she breathes in relief at that fact. “Hey, Kyu, would you escort her to our dressing room please?”
“No problem.” He replies and Seohyun manages to smile as he takes her arm. Neither of them says anything until they were completely out of sight, away from the crowd and their members and Yoona and Changmin stuck by each other’s side. Kyuhyun pats her head once she’s settled on the couch, taking a seat next to her without asking for permission.
“You could have seriously injured yourself, you know.”
“Hey, you surprised me!”
“You shouldn’t have had one foot of the ground then.”
Seohyun relents, her temper deflating. “I was curious.” She began, fiddling with her hands on her lap-her limbs inches from his on the plush couch they sat on. She spares him a look and her heart catches as their gazes lock a second too long before turning away. “I was curious because of what you said last night.”
“Yeah… I know.” He replies; his tone softer than usual and she laughs a little at that because she thinks she’s stuck at wanting to know if he meant it-about him and her and them-and not at the same time.
“Mind if I stay?”
He doesn’t have to ask, but she nods anyway.
DAY THREE
The first night of their concert, Seohyun finds herself blushing as Kyuhyun holds her hand in his during their performance. The feel of his hand is comforting, welcome and warm but it is different now than any of the other times before. Her heart leaps and pulls when his voice harmonizes with his and she thinks that they might be good together, both off and on and it makes her head whirl in confusion.
She’s barely out of the stage when she sways on her step and Yoona steadies her with a hand. Her doe eyes are wide with concern and Seohyun mutters about needing water to hydrate herself because of the heat in the concert hall.
“Feeling jittery, Seobaby?” Yoona asks and it almost makes her want to curl into her friend’s arms for comfort. She doesn’t know for sure from what she needs comfort for but she knows she needs it sooner or later and she tells her so immediately after a gulp of water.
“Is this about Kyuhyun?”
Seohyun starts, her cheeks flooding with heat as Yoona’s eyes widen in realization. “Shh! It’s not about-it’s-I-I don’t know, okay! Just… ‘maknae night’ tonight please?”
She sighs in relief when she nods with a smile, patting her head reassuringly and they leave to change for their next song performance. Neither of them is barely able to keep their eyes open once they finish up and come back to the hotel, muttering assurances that they will talk tomorrow night for sure.
Seohyun doesn’t mind and as she drifts off with her knees tucked under chin on her bed next to her unnie, she thinks that maybe (just maybe) Yoona understands her because she feels it too.
DAY FOUR
The second night of the concert goes smoothly and she and Yoona load up on cookies and ice cream in their hotel room the second the rest of their members head off to sleep. Both of them are wired with exhilaration-either from the performance or the sugar they’re consuming, Seohyun doesn’t know-but it’s a good kind of rush and more than anything, she welcomes it.
“So you and Changmin-oppa, huh?” Seohyun begins and laughs at the blush overwhelming Yoona’s cheeks as she shoves three macaroons at a time in her mouth. She refuses to say much on the matter of her and Changmin’s little excursion so early that morning after chewing her way out of her treat, shrugging in a nonchalant way that was too casual it’d become suspicious as she recalled the events of them getting chased out of a café at daybreak. Seohyun pouts and nudges Yoona’s knee with her foot, because she just knows there’s more to the story than she’s letting on but finds it’s almost impossible to get her to admit it.
“It’s okay to kinda like him, you know… it’s not unfathomable to like your work colleague outside of… well, work.”
“I’m pretty sure it’s illegal as far as his fans are concerned.” Yoona quips and Seohyun can’t help but laugh (and agree) at that one.
“I blame Paris.” She says a little later after they’ve consumed a tub of ice cream and waded thru a whole hour of French telenovela on TV. “It’s the atmosphere. It’s making me see and feel things I don’t usually see or feel back at home.”
“I might have to agree with you.” Seohyun mumbles, dipping her spoon back into the tub with a sigh. She thinks of Kyuhyun’s grin and sighs even louder when her heart pauses, rewinds and plays again. “Everything looks so… romantic here that it just messes with your head. I wonder how the people here can stand it here for so long. Do they fall in love constantly or something?”
“With random people on the street or the lamps itself.”
“What?”
“The street lamps! You’ve seen them, Seo, they’re like… romantic-looking.”
“I’m not sure I’m comfortable at the thought of you falling in love with an inanimate object, Yoona.”
Yoona rolls her eyes and laughs, “You know what I mean.” And Seohyun really does.
“But Changmin isn’t a random person on the street.” She says, eyes flickering towards her doe-eyed friend holding a spoon in her mouth. “You’ve know him for years.”
“We’ve known him for years, and almost as long as we’ve known Kyuhyun too.” She corrects as dumps her spoon into the tub as well before leaning back against the headboard of their bed. Seohyun’s grateful Sooyoung and Hyoyeon opted to go down at the recreational center for awhile tonight or else it’d be embarrassing to talk about this here with them so close by. “I guess it’s just a little weird. We don’t talk to either of them much. At least, not individually or on a regular basis. We have mutual friends but that’s it.”
Yoona shrugs, resigned. As though she’d given up on wanting to dissect the situation.
They don’t say anything more after that and when they pack up and Seohyun gets ready for bed, she’s not surprised to find Yoona sprawled face down on their bed already fast asleep.
DAY FIVE
The last concert performance is the loudest and most exciting so far. Everybody is jumping and dancing to the music, pumping fists into the air as she and all of their groups rush across the stage. She’s in the most hyper feeling she’s ever had in her life-skipping alongside Yuri during the chorus and playing tag with Yoona at around the bridge. The ocean of fans beneath them makes a spectacular view, different colored light sticks proudly glowing at every corner of the room. It’s moments like these that she doesn’t regret her decision to become an artist. It’s moments like these she truly loves herself and all around her.
Someone blows confetti on her face just as the song dwindles to its end and Seohyun isn’t surprised to see Kyuhyun grinning widely at her beside him. She swats him with her free hand but he catches it before she can protest and somehow, she finds herself wedge next to him in the line-her other hand grasping Tiffany as BoA and Yunho make their final remarks and the crowd goes wild.
“Happy it’s over?” he asks over the noise and she has to lean closer to hear him clearly. His breath warms the side of her neck and her skin erupts into goosebumps as she catches her breath. He’s too close but she doesn’t have the heart to move away and so she shrugs as casually as she can.
“Happy the work is over, but not happy we still have a signing event tomorrow
“Look over there.” Kyuhyun says with his mischievous eyes and when she does she finds herself smiling at their best friends at the opposite end of the line holding hands. They share a look as the two speak closely, unaware of them spying from the other side.
“They’re good together.” Seohyun tells him and he agrees; his fingers are lacing between hers before she knows it.
“We’re good together too,” he replies and her heart pauses, rewinds and plays.
It’s ages later, in the dark, that she admits she thinks so too.
DAY SIX
Kyuhyun is pissed beyond relief when both of them find out that Changmin’s gone missing with Yoona and Yunho’s car to boot. He tells her as much as he pours over lyrics he has to sing to keep the fans screaming for an impromptu performance at bay. She doesn’t like to see the annoyed crinkle between his brows but Seohyun stops herself just before she goes and does something stupid.
Like brushing his hair back and folding her hand on his cheek. Like planting a kiss on his forehead, or his cheek, or his lips.
She stops herself long enough until Kyuhyun has to go and when he does, it all but makes her run to the restroom-trying to catch her breath as her heart pounded relentlessly inside her chest.
Seohyun groans at the fact that she was acting this way now of all times. Her confusion rising over new heights she’d never wanted to ponder before. She’d battled with the idea of ‘like’ and ‘love’ before and had prided herself to actually know what it means after WGM but this-this is blurred. A grey area she was not sure she wanted to step into but can’t seem to get away from.
She dials the number before she can stop herself and heaves a loud sigh of relief once it’s picked up after the first ring. “Hello?”
“Yonghwa,” she breathes and immediately feels better as he echoes her name. “Sorry for calling so suddenly. I’m in Paris right now and forgot the time difference. It must be late there.”
“No, it’s okay,” he assures her, his voice thick with sleep but alert all the same. He coughs a bit to clear his throat and then speaks, “You okay?”
“Yeah, yeah. Just… having an existential crisis, I think.”
“It’s too early to use big words like that, Joohyun. What’s up?”
Seohyun shrugs, slumping against a wall. Music swells in the background and it takes everything in her to not look back and see Kyuhyun go up on stage. “I think I might love somebody,” she says in a rush, afraid that her mouth my shut if she doesn’t get the words out fast enough, “I’m not sure but my heart keeps pulling and my stomach feels all fluttery and ugh-I can’t-”
She’s cut off by the breathy sound of Yonghwa’s laugh over the phone. “This is not funny!” she complains, stomping her foot in a childish way that was most definitely not her. “I’m having a crisis here and since you were the one who brought up the difference between ‘like’ and ‘love’, I thought I’d call you! You’re not allowed to laugh at my pain!”
“But you’re not in pain, are you?” He asks, laughing still and she fumes even more, “I’m joking, of course, but assuming you’re feeling this way for someone you’ve sang duets with since SMTOWN started… I’m pretty sure you can figure out how you feel all by yourself anyway.”
Her heart jumps at the mere insinuation but she pauses for effect because she doesn’t know what to say to that. “And?”
“Do you hate those feelings?”
She thinks about it for a moment. “No.”
“Do you like them then?” Yonghwa asks in an amused way, stifling his laugh in even though it seemed he was clearly enjoying her discomfort.
“I-I don’t know. N-maybe?”
“Well, okay, then do you like Kyuhyun?”
“Wha-who?”
“ Kyuhyun. Do you like Kyuhyun?”
“Well, yes, he’s a colleague-”
“Not what I meant.” He laughs and Seohyun can’t help but grumble childishly in response as it dawns to her.
Ah.
She mumbles and by the thud and then long pause she hears after, she’s almost sure Yonghwa’s clamped his hand over the phone to laugh at her embarrassment.
He has the last word by the time she ends their call and her will is threadbare from hurling her phone to the wall and throwing a tantrum. She drops to her knees and buries her face in her hands, blushing heatedly as she hears the song end and Kyuhyun gives out his thanks.
The applause is still on-going by the time she stands up and Kyuhyun is there beside her, asking her what’s wrong and why her face was red. She says nothing but stares at him and he waits, and waits and-
The contact of their lips is soft but Seohyun marvels at the warmth of his mouth on hers before pulling away. His jaw is slack, his eyes unfocused, and his mouth struggling to find words but before anything else happens she does the only logical thing she can think of:
She runs.
DAY SEVEN
Seohyun’s glad their manager tells them to stay indoors on their last day that she almost reaches over her breakfast to pull him into a tight hug in glee. Her unnies grumbles their grievances over the fact but don’t really complain-most of them opting to order room service and laze while some (like Yoona) goes out in disguise for one last tour of the city.
She's managed to avoid Kyuhyun for the rest of yesterday and she wishes she doesn’t have to see him until the flight tomorrow morning. She doesn’t know what he’ll do or say when they meet and frankly doesn’t want to know. She’d rather keep to herself for a little while. Long enough to process what had happened and what she’d done while her fingers skims her lips and she remembers the ghost of his lips’ touch on hers.
The day goes by so quietly she thinks nothing of it when she opens the door to a knock that evening, thinking it is one of her members back from their covert tour. Instead she finds Kyuhyun standing in front of her, shirt untucked under a jacket and looking at her as though he won’t leave until she comes out to speak to him.
Seohyun’s barely able to take a step back before he lunges after her, pulling her wrist tight in his hands until her door is closed behind her and she’s trapped between him and the wall. All thoughts fall flat in her mind, no words able to form while he looks at her in that way she remembered him looking at her during the first night in Paris and he had his arm linked with hers. She purses her lips and worries because he’s too close and I like him I like him I like him-
Her mind shuts down at the feel of his hands cupping her cheeks as he pressed his lips in between hers. She feels warmth and exhilaration and beauty at the contact-all the way from the tip of her toes to the top of her head. Her hands move to grasp his shoulders but don’t pull away because this isn’t unwelcome at all. In fact she wants it, she thinks, she really really does.
“It’s not nice to leave a guy sputtering in a hall after you’ve kissed him, you know.” He tells her when they part, still cupping her cheeks in his hands. He presses another kiss on her nose and then her forehead before stepping back, wrapping his arms around her as she stares at him, dazed. She isn’t sure of what to say.
“You have to at least let him tell you he’s been dying to kiss you since forever.”
Seohyun blinks, relief washing over her and laughs. “I don’t know much about this.”
“Neither do I but I’m not running.” Kyuhyun tells her and she laughs again, taking a leap to step closer than ever. It’s not like her at all, but she wants to understand-she wants to know. She apologizes, tucking her chin in.
“Sorry about that.”
He holds her head up just so and grins that smile.
“It’s okay. We’re allowed to learn.”
The nights are warmer in Seoul than in Paris but it’s as beautiful and romantic all the same.
Seohyun grins with Kyuhyun as they watch their best friends kiss at the opposite end of the hallway; Changmin’s frame towering over Yoona as she cranes her neck to meet his mouth on hers, her hands buried in his hair and his wrapped around her waist.
“Told you they’re good together.” Kyuhyun says, opening the door for her as they slip into a practice room for a little date night of their own-Chinese take-out strewn across a blanket and right next to a bouquet of flowers she likes-laughing as she scoffs at him for copying her line from Paris.
She doesn’t dwell on who’s right for long though because it really doesn’t matter in the end. Instead she reaches over and takes his hand, pressing a kiss against his palm.
“We’re good together too.”
Seohyun knows that much.