[fic] the unexpected (1/?)
title: the unexpected
fandom: Infinite RPF
characters: Myungsoo/original female character; ot7
word count: ~1400
summary: Myungsoo meets a girl who is all wrong
a/n: inspired by a conversation on tumblr - mostly for the kpop alphabet gang
Written VERY quickly and rushed - I probably should have waited to post it, but I don't know when I'll have time to clean it up
[Myungsoo is my kitten baby and I love him ever so much]"Hey it's that girl again!"
"Hyung can you help me with this?"
"Aren't you listening!?"
"Hyung please! It's going to fall if you don't--"
"I wonder what she's doing here..."
"Hyung! look out!"
As if in slow motion, Myungsoo's camera bag fell off the bench between him and Sungyeol... spilling equipment everywhere. Myungsoo felt a lump growing in his chest, why did his hyung always have to be so careless? It's not like he isn't aware of his limbs, they just always seem to counter-act Myungsoo's own and then everything is on the floor.
"Look!" Sungyeol grabbed Myungsoo's arm and lifted him up by the elbow. "Isn't she hot?"
"Ya! Lee Sungyeol! What are you doing?!"
Sungyeol grinned widely at Sungjong, who was glaring down at them. "Did you see that girl?"
The maknae rolled his eyes and stooped down to help Myungsoo gather his scattered gear. "She's just an extra, Sungyeol. The make-up noonas sent me to get you, it's almost time for your scene."
"What did you think?" Sungyeol bat at Myungsoo's arm.
The younger man blinked up at him. "Her hair should be longer."
All week Sungyeol was obsessed with the strange girl with the hair that was just too short, by Myungsoo's estimation. She was all he talked about. It would have been weird if Myungsoo was paying attention or cared. But he didn't care. They were shooting a music video on-location to promote their new single - for the most part, it was a pretty lazy week all things considered. Rehearsal in the mornings and evenings and shooting during the day. Rarely a spare moment, but it almost felt like they were getting near human hours of sleep. And the sites the managers were sending them allowed Myungsoo more time with his camera. Long hours spent shooting the filming, watching the people pass by.
It was calm.
For the most part.
"What are you doing?"
Myungsoo blinked up. It was the girl. The small, stocky girl that Sungyeol was obsessed with. Today her hair was pink. Somewhat like Dongwoo's was during Infinite H's promotions. He had a strange desire to touch it and see if it felt at all like cotton candy. Even if the treat was a vague memory after all this time.
She grabbed the camera out of his hand, "What are you taking pictures of?" She paused to scroll through and Myungsoo started to panic. There was a lump in his throat preventing him from crying out, his palms immediately started to sweat. How was this happening?
Generally, Myungsoo nodded along when his hyungs complained - quietly - about their stifled lives. As idols, they had very little time for themselves, very little opportunity to meet or talk to people or date or do anything that normal 20-somethings would be doing with their spare time. They weren't even sure what spare time was. Spare time was sleeping or rehearsing or working out or studying. Myungsoo nodded along when they all bonded over a desire to have some sort of control over their lives, but the truth was - it was so much safe in the cocoon of idoldom and Myungsoo rarely thought of leaving - or any alternative really. While being an idol meant little sleep and his hair falling out and Sungyeol being sick all the time and Woohyun's weight constantly fluctuating and Dongwoo getting so thin he was almost unrecognizable ... it also meant safety and security. He didn't have to think about where he was going or what was expected, because Sunggyu was always there to tell him. And while yes, sometimes the fans got too close and it was sometimes suffocating, but they never really wanted to make conversation - or expect something from him he couldn't give. So often in social situations, he felt stuck and out of his depth.
Being an idol meant having a scripted life.
Sometimes that was hard, sometimes it hurt, sometimes all he wanted was to go home and ask his mother to fend off the world. Most of the time though, it was like being swaddled up in a warm blanket with seven of his closest friends and it was all he could ask for. Because he always knew what was expected of him.
This wasn't supposed to happen. Girls with impossibly short pink hair and black nail polish and wide smiles were not supposed to come up to him and take his camera from him. He was L for goodness sakes! There was a way about doing things and this was not it.
"God you are some kind of weird stalker, aren't you? I mean - you live and work with these guys, do you really have to take so many pictures of them?"
She was staring at him and asking questions but he just didn't know what she wanted. What could she want? Why wasn't she asking for his autograph? Why wasn't she throwing a gift at him? What was she and how was it possible that no one had ushered her away yet? Where were the managers and his hyungs and ... was she wearing yellow cat-eye contacts? No. This was not happening.
He must have shrugged or mumbled or done something to inadvertently encourage her because she smiled again and was flipping through his pictures again. Myungsoo collapsed back into the bench with a sigh. Eventually someone would notice the odd girl sitting too close to him scrolling through his camera. Someone else would take care of it if he was just patient.
Across the street, Hoya and Woohyun were flirting with the stylist-noonas. Hoya's sly wolfish smile was always so quick with everyone. While Hoya sometimes set people on edge, Woohyun was there to smooth things over. They were a perfect team sometimes. Myungsoo's fingers itched. He wanted a picture. He wanted to capture their smiles and the way Woohyun shrugged his shoulder just so...
He snatched the camera back from the weird girl and began shooting. A close-up of Hoya's smile. A shot of their shoulders just touching. They way the noona's hair fell over her shoulder to hide her blush. It was silly, but it was honest and raw. It was their lives just inches from him, but this was the only way he felt he could grasp it. Their energy sometimes left him a little breathless.
Myungsoo leaned back into the bench, handing off the camera to the girl on his left without a thought.
Wait.
He looked over at her, she was staring down at the camera - smiling.
No one ever paid this much attention to his photos - except sometimes Sungyeol. But only after much coaxing.
It occurred to him momentarily that the girl could be a crazed stalker-fan who snuck onto the set in order to write an awful article about them, or hurt them in some way. They were all warned, trained, cautioned against fans like this - fans that would ingratiate themselves and then sell their stories; convince the boys to trust them and then use that for their own designs.
Only momentarily - because the way the girl was looking down at the camera, her short hair curling out of the product that had kept it swept to the side didn't hide the soft wrinkles around her eyes when she smiled, or the slight hint of a dimple, or the blush that brought out her freckles when she caught him watching her. It almost felt normal, sitting on a bench next to a girl, sharing his pictures with someone. Almost as if she had no idea who he was, just as he had no way of knowing her and this was how they decided to communicate.
He wished she had a camera that he could snatch out of her hands in the same way. Pour over the way she saw the world the way he was allowing her.
Only not.
Only it was so nice to sit there peacefully and not think about anything but that dimple and her legs swinging beneath her and the moment. The gentle breeze, the sound of city traffic, the cool bench beneath, between them, the sun on his arms...
"Myungsoo aren't you going to introduce us to your friend?"
Sungyeol, Woohyun, and Hoya had surrounded them while they weren't paying attention. And that's when he realized what a precarious and slightly ridiculous situation he had put himself in.
"Who are you?"
The girl laughed and handed him back the camera gently, leaning in to whisper in his ear, "Wouldn't you like to know."