Blueberry Jellies | Seongjoong

15

"Good morning everyone, I'm here with Park Seonghwa today!" The interviewer sitting beside Hongjoong cheerfully anounces to the one of the large cameras staring at the two of them.

He starts to worry more now that he is on live television. Seonghwa's career is in his hands.

He's watched every single interview of Seonghwa's before, so he tries his best to copy it. "Hello everyone! I'm Seonghwa and it's lovely to be here right now!" He tries his best to sound excited, hoping his smile doesn't look too forced.

Luckily for him, he's acting well as no one notices anything off.

The interviewer asks a few more questions, some generic and easy and some about his upcoming world tour. Either way, Hongjoong was educated enough to answer everything confidentally and he grew more and more confident with each question.

At last, the dreaded question came. "As you probably know already, a video of you dancing became viral a few days ago. Some fans argue that you were purposely trying to be funny while some people accused you of being extremely drunk. To clear up any misconceptions, what's the actual story behind that clip?"

Hongjoong's heart beat speeds up again. He was half expecting this question but his mind suddenly goes blank and he forgets every line he learned off. He knows Seonghwa has quite the reputation for his outstanding dancing, so that video caused much more discourse than he ever imagined. People on the internet really argue for no reason sometimes he thinks.

He straightens up his expression again, trying to look confident. "Ah, there have been quite a few misunderstandings behind that clip." He laughs awkwardly, forcing the interviewer to laugh along too. 

"I wasn't drunk, I can't afford to drink at this crucial time before the tour." He starts off, trying to avoid answering the question directly. The interviewer nods understandingly, waiting for him to continue.

"I wasn't trying to be funny intentionally either." He drags on. To his disappointement, the woman beside him anticipates his final response, not giving him much more time to avoid the topic.

"That day, I'd been practicing for too long and was quite dizzy. My doctor advised me to take a short break from dancing but when my fans asked me to dance, I couldn't refuse and let them down. Unfortunately, it ended up being incredibly messy so I apologise for that." He reluctantly says. He feels like the real Seonghwa would say something similar and hopes he didn't just add fuel to the fire.

He visibly relaxes when the interviewer smiles. "I understand, make sure to take good care of yourself for your fans! Thank you for explaining." She smiles while shuffling her script. Hongjoong lets out a subtle sigh. Finally, the hardest part is over.

"Speaking of dancing, why don't we watch the powerful choreography of your newest song right here? That's right, you'll get to see his new song performed live for the first time on our show!"

Never mind, the hardest part has actually yet to come.

The red lights on the cameras suddenly turn off. "You did a great job, thank you! You have five minutes to prepare for the stage before we go back on air." She explains. Hongjoong nods before immediately searching for Jongho's face in the crowd of staff.

To his despair, a group of stylists and makeup artists crowd around him. Without waiting for another second, they start patting his face down with makeup tools. A man grabs his jacket and tries to help him take it off, holding a change of clothes in his other hand.

Hongjoong yelps and jumps away from the group, leaving them confused but stressed. "I need to talk to Jongho, sorry." He quickly apologises before dashing away. He finds the brown coconut hair and relaxes a bit.

"Jongho! I can't do this!" He hisses into Seonghwa's manager's ear. "What are you talking about? You were doing so well! Plus we already advertised that you'd be performing." He tries to push Hongjoong back to the group of stylists.

Hongjoong's heart sinks further. "Please, I feel really unwell. What do you expect people will think of me if I throw up while dancing on live television?"

Jongho bites his lip nervously. "You really feel that sick?"

Hongjoong nods and grabs his stomach in pain for extra effect. "You don't think you can even try?" He suddenly flashes puppy dog eyes, catching the other boy off-guard. He curls over a bit more and shakes his head.

"Fine, I'll talk to the staff and try to explain the situation. Get into the car and I'll bring you to the hospital as soon as I'm done talking to them." He groans, reluctantly walking past Hongjoong. "You're such a pain sometimes." He adds under his breath, before straightening up and approaching the director.

Hongjoong feels quite guilty, but he can't mess up again after making an excuse for last time.

Still curled up and pretending to feel extremely sick, he rushes past everyone and out the door. He finally makes it out of the building and takes a deep breath, delighted to be out of that suffocating situation. He hops into the car and patiently sits, waiting for an angry Jongho to arrive.

He unlocks Seonghwa's phone, hoping to find something to take his mind off things. A message pops into his notifications from an unknown number, and although he feels like he's intruding, he opens the message.

XX-XXX-XXXX
Hello Seonghwa! I'm a huge fan and want to
check up on you <3 I hope you don't block
me too, your number was so hard to get TT

Hongjoong shivers violently. It's a stalker fan.

He feels his blood boiling. Who do these people think they are, leaking and spreading Seonghwa's number? His fingers itch to type back a furious reply, but he holds back. Instead, he simply blocks the number. It must get annoying with so many people messaging him all the time.

Before his anger can develop into pure rage, he looks out the window and sees Jongho wearily walking back to the car. Hongjoong's anger quickly simmers down into guilt.

Jongho gets into the car and starts to drive. "Did you eat something expired? Why would you suddenly feel so sick?" He asks, sighing loudly afterwards.

Hongjoong doesn't dare lift his eyes from his lap. "I-I don't know." He mumbles quietly. "I don't actually feel sick anymore."

Suddenly the car pulls over to the side of the road. "You don't feel sick?" Jongho asks just to be certain. Hongjoong simply nods sheepishly in return. Jongho frustratingly slams his fists onto the dashboard.

"Do you know how much they complained to me because of your decision? They were not happy at all, and I had to take all of it. In fact, I even had to argue a bit because I was actually concerned about your health but in reality you don't feel sick after sitting for a few minutes?" Jongho complains, making sure to not let his voice get too loud.

Hongjoong flinches. "I'm sorry."

Jongho opens his mouth to shout more, but after hearing the apology from Seonghwa, his mouth closes up again. He wasn't expecting an apology. He turns back to the steering wheel and starts the car again.

"We're going back to your house now. You're not allowed to go to the practice room today, Yeosang and Yunho called me and told me to ban you from practicing for the day. They want to treat you to dinner before your tour starts."

Not them again Hongjoong thinks. He stays silent in response, glancing at the date on Seonghwa's phone. The tour is starting in only two weeks.

He sits and bites his lip, remembering how suspicious Seonghwa's two friends were of him the last time he switched bodies with him.

If being kind and timid wasn't the right approach, he mentally prepares himself to show off a stronger image this time.

A/N
At first (while writing about people on the internet overreacting over something simple like Seonghwa dancing badly) I thought it was a bit over the top and unrealistic, but then I remembered the whole thing that happened in 2018 (?) When Jennie from blackpink got a lot of hate for dancing "lazily" so I guess it makes sense that people can throw hate in a nonsensical way 👁 Especially now that people are figuring out that she actually had an ankle injury :/