You and Niki have known each other since you guys were little kids, your families were close and were often together. As you and Niki continued to grow up together, you both had found your love toward dancing, both you and Niki soon finding an attraction towards kpop. This led to the 2 of you competing each other to see who would be able to become an idol first. Though, one specific argument about the said topic went a little too far and lowkey ended your close relationship with each other. The 2 of you considered yourselves rivals and nothing more, it caused a huge drift between planned projects and activities as you guys had cut off all contact with each other not too long after the argument. Time skip a year later, Niki, without your knowledge of knowing, left to Korea to pursue his dreams of being an idol, joining under a company named 'Hybe', you were still stuck on the fact that you 2 were still competing, so you too flew to Korea to audition for the same company.
Luckily you passed the audition, though, during the monthly evaluations, you soon realize that you never wanted to try and sing on stage. You worked hard to show the company that you could become a great choreographer and back up dancer as you improved your dancing skills. Fast forward another 3 years, you were finally considered as Hybe's official back up dancer and was on the pathway to become a choreographer, your determination never ending as you had faith in yourself.
You often thought about Niki though, you wondered how he was doing but was often too busy to do research on him. You heard from your family members that Niki did in fact debut under a group 2 years back. All you knew was that his group name was 'Enhypen'
———— 6 months later
You woke up to the sound of your alarm going off loudly. You quickly shut off the object before reaching out for your phone, noticing a message from your company manager-
KILA (Manager-nim)
KILA
Come to the company building by 10 am.
KILA
We need female dancers for an upcoming comeback with a kpop group.
You squint your eyes at the message before letting out a deep sigh.
Y/N
Sounds good
You rub your eyes before stumbling out of your bed. You head towards your closet as you dug in for a comfortable practice outfit, taking out a tanktop with a loose hoodie and sweatpants. You quickly change into the outfit before leaving your dorm room.
———
As you entered the Hybe building, you spot staff members roaming around the place. You quickly greet some of them before heading towards the back of the building, passing many doors on the way. Once you reached a practice room, you knocked on the door, hearing a small "come in" on the other side. You enter, closing the door behind you before bowing down to the familiar and unfamiliar faces around the room. There were about 7 female dancers, giving you the relief of the dance being easy and not as hard as other choreography's. You say hi to a couple of the dancers as you were close to some of them, being able to dance with so many idols did give you the opportunity to make lots of dancer friends.
As you and the other dancers were chatting around, you guys were quickly interrupted as the choreographer entered the room, allowing everyone to quiet down.
"Alright, seems like all the hired back up dancers are here" the choreographer, Li, says, clapping her hands together as she smiled
"Shall I show the dance?" Li adds, everyone lets out a chorus of yes's as we all nodded.
Li then went on to explaining how the concept was a vampire themed dance, most of the movements were like a ballroom kind of vibe so there were a lot of couple combos. She also mentioned how to express our movements as if we were controlling the idols, it seemed like a big part in bringing out the concept. You and the dancers were still unaware of the group you all would be dancing for, but you guys didn't care much as this was for a job and nothing more.
As an hour passed, everyone had gotten the choreography memorized and was ready to try out with the kpop group, Li complimented everyone before giving a thumbs up, leaving the practice room to fetch the k-pop members, all the dancers smiling in sweats and loose t-shirts as she disappeared from their point of view. You rested your hands on your hips as you took in a deep breath, you quickly review the dance moves yourself before seeing your friend through the mirror approach you from behind
"The dance was easy to learn, I wonder how its gonna turn out with the idols" the said friend, Aoi, says, hanging an arm around your neck as she passed you a water bottle. You give a shrug as you took a sip out of the water bottle
"The dance was a bit awkward because we didn't have the idols, but I'm sure it'll look a lot better when they try it with us" you respond, finishing up the water in the water bottle before throwing it to the side.
You and Aoi continue to converse as you guys tried doing the couple dance together, attempting not to burst out laughing with the awkward movements. As a couple minutes pass, a knock was heard from the door, you and Aoi quickly stop playing around as you guys went over to the other dancers. You all line up into a line as Li's head pops up from behind the door, a smile still on her face. She looked at us discreetly before opening the door wider, allowing the people behind her to enter the room, your eyes were averted else where as you had no intention to see who the people were, you knew it was the k-idols and wanted to be surprised when they greeted themselves with their group name
"Okay guys, greet yourselves" Li says, the idols nodded with shy smiles as they cleared their voices, they looked at the leader before bowing down
"I, 2, connect, Hello, we're Enhypen" a chorus of male voices greet. You let out a quiet snicker after hearing the group name, you look at the members as you make eye contact with a certain idol, pressing your lips tighter together as you looked at him weirdly
'Would you look at that' you think
"The group you guys will be dancing with is Enhypen everyone, surprising right?" Li comments, doing jazz hands. She earns an awkward silence as everyone looked at her unamused. Li gives a quiet cough before switching the topic
"You guys will be dancing in duos for the couple dance, obviously, so just introduce yourselves to the members and we'll decide who'll dance with who later on" Li continues, looking towards the dancers. You all nod in response as you guys approach the idols. Aoi quickly makes her way to the boy in front of her, bowing down slightly multiple times as a sign of respect
"Nice to meet you I'm Aoi" Aoi says, greeting the boy in front of her. You couldn't help but smile at her extrovert self, she was great at socializing. As you continue to admire your said friend, an awkward cough was heard in front of you, you knew who it was and let out a deep sigh before averting your eyes towards him
"Well If it isn't Y/N" the voice says. You smile sarcastically before answering
"Hello Riki" you say, Niki smiles at your dry response, he pinches your cheek before speaking once again
"I haven't seen you in ages, how's life?" Niki asks, earning a glare from you. You smack his hand away from you as you crossed your arms
"I saw you last week" you retort, referring to how the 2 of you had accidentally bumped into each other when you were a back up dancer for Lesserafim's dance performance. You made eye contact with the male before sighing
"Life was great, sadly it has to end due to me having to interact with you again" you add, doing a pout at the end of your sentence. Niki scoffs at your expression, he squints your eyes toward you before doing a careless shrug
"You and me both N/N" Niki replies, you push the boy slightly on the shoulder as you redden at the sudden nickname, he hasn't said that in years
"Who said you could call me that?! That's invalid to say in this building- wait scratch that, anytime in general!" you complain, Niki shrugs as he bends down to your height
"I've always called you that since we were kids, I don't see a problem with it now" Niki says
"Exactly! When we were kids! If I remember, we're almost adults now!" You whisper-yell. The 2 of you then start to bicker around as you guys brought up memories from the past, though, you guys were quickly interrupted as Aoi tapped on your shoulder, you looked over to her to see a unreadable expression on her face
"Uh sorry to end your conversation but I think Li is ready to tell us our positions and stuff" Aoi says pointing towards the choreographer. You clear your throat as you gave a nod. You give one final glare at Niki as he gave a smirk in response. You drag Aoi towards Li as she continued on with her announcements
"I think we should just try the choreography with us all and we'll figure out positions and steps as we see how things progress" Li explains, everyone agrees as they make their way to places Li had told them to go to. You make your way to the right side of Niki as he was laying against Heeseung, making you stiffen at the way he was watching you kneel beside him. You cleared your throat as you avoided eye contact, bringing your attention back to Li as she studied the formation as it was settling together
"Y/N, could you wrap your hands around Niki's neck at the beginning of the dance, I think that'd give a great example to showcase the controlling concept of the dance" Li suggests, you nod your head before wrapping your hands around the males neck. Niki gives a small snicker as he watches your disgusted expression fall on your face, making you roll your eyes at the said boy.
"I didn't think the day would come to you having the chance to wrap yourself around me so freely" Niki comments quitely. You clench your jaw as you looked down at the smirking boy. You tighten your grip around his neck as he lets out a loud choke, you press your lips together as you attempt to hide your laugh
"You okay Niki?" The boy beside Niki's head, you're assuming is Jake, asks, noticing how the boy yelped so sudden not too long ago. Niki makes eye contact with you as you looked at him innocently, he scoffs at your reaction before getting back to position
"I'm fine, just placed my head wrong" Niki lies. You smile triumphantly as you wrap your hands around Niki's neck again, this time Niki's hand being in between yours and his neck. You could care less as you just wanted this interaction to end, helplessly missing your bed as you just wanted to take a nap.
"Yes! I love that position Y/N! The enemy chemistry I sense between you and Niki is overflowing and perfectly matches the vibe. This is going a lot better than I anticipated!" Li mentions, now grumbling about other things. You smiled sheepishly at her not so complimented compliment as you sweat dropped. Niki furrowed his eyebrows in confusion as he tried sneaking a glance at the choreographer
"There's no way you guys have never met, whatever's going on with you 2 is too perfect to be a first interaction" Li adds, she makes eye contact with you as she waited for an answer. You open your mouth hesitantly as you averted your eyes between Niki's and Li's, trying to think of something to say before it became more suspicious to everyone in the room
"I've never talked to Ri- I mean, Niki, before in my life, its probably just luck" you stutter, trying to make it believable. Li seemed to accept your answer as she changes onto another topic. You let out a breath of relief as Niki snorted at you.
"Well played Y/N" Niki remarks. You give him a death glare as you slowly tightened your grip around his neck again
"I will not hesitate to choke you longer than before" you whisper. Niki quickly shuts his mouth as he looks away. You look back at Li as you began to listen to her directions yet again.
———— after practice
"Ah~ we're done for the day~" you say in a sing-song tone. Aoi smiled at your melodic voice as she watched you take in a deep breath
"This is the first, seeing you happy to go home. It usually takes me an hour to convince you to come home and sleep after a days worth of practice" Aoi says, laughing at past memories. You knew the exact reason why you wanted to leave early today, but there was no reason to tell Aoi so you stayed quiet.
"Actually I wanted to ask you about something" Aoi asks, you turn towards her with a curious expression, you shook your head as you smiled
"Shoot" you reply. Aoi smiles as she wraps an arm around you
"You and Niki seemed really close earlier, do you know him personally or something?" She asks. You give a thinking look as you looked at the girl from the corner of your eye, you were debating on lying or not. After a few seconds you decide to lie, you and Niki don't talk anymore so there was no point in telling her the truth
"I don't know him haha, well personally that is. I've seen him a couple times as I've come to the idol section of the building before, but I've never had a full conversation with him" you say, giving a unreadable expression as you finished your sentence. Aoi formed her mouth into an 'O' as she nodded her head. You sigh in relief as you were able to make her believe your little white lie.
"That makes sense then" Aoi nods. You nod in return as a quiet atmosphere then covers the 2 of you. You allow the silence to go on for a couple more seconds before taking it as your chance to change the topic. You guys then went on to talking about how the new choreography was like. As you guys were close to reaching the exit, you guys were both stopped by a familiar face standing in front of the 2 of you
"Niki-sunbaenim!" Aoi squeaks, she quickly bows down as she sees Niki standing by the exit with his phone. Niki looks up from the device as he gave a small smile towards Aoi, he swiftly slips his phone into his pocket before bowing back.
"Hello" Niki greets. You stay quiet and pretend to bow so you wouldn't stir up anything suspicious between you and Niki, though, you could tell Niki was trying to suppress a laugh from escaping his mouth.
"Is there a reason on why you're here so late at night Sunbaenim?" Aoi questions. Niki looked at you as he nodded slowly
"I wanted to talk to Y/N about the first step of the choreography, but we had to leave for the recording and I wasn't able to ask, I assumed you guys would be leaving soon so I waited for a bit" Niki answers, putting his hands into his pockets. Aoi starts to nod her head aggressively as she understood why the boy waited, she smiles as she looked at you mischievously
"Is that so, well I'll let you talk to her then, I'll see you later Y/N!!" Aoi quickly says bye as she runs away through the exit. You widen your eyes from her sudden disappearance as you didn't even get the chance to say bye back
"Wait!-" you attempt to stop the girl but sadly failed as the girl was long gone. You let an awkward cough escape your throat as you side eyed the taller male in front of you. A second of silence passes as you looked at the boy, anticipating what he wanted to talk about so you could leave
"Uh, you were saying about the choreography" you say to the boy. Niki comes back to reality as he too clears his throat
"Oh right, well uh, could we maybe go to a recording studio first?" Niki says. You raise an eyebrow in confusion
"Why?" You say, Niki just shrugs as he grabs hold onto your wrist. He averts you away from the exit and deeper into the company once again. You start complaining about how far the room was as you allow the boy to drag you, you knew the recording rooms were also where the practice rooms were, meaning you'd have to walk the way back to the end of the company
"Can't you tell me at the exit, my legs hurt! I don't want to walk anymore, AND I'm tired!" you complain, your eyes barely able to stay open. Niki visibly rolls his eyes as he stops. You bump into his back as you raised an eyebrow, you were confused on what he was planning to do. The boy turns around, now facing towards you, he takes your backpack as he hooks it to the front side of him. He turns back around as he bends down, moving the hoodie part of his sweater. Your face was now filled with confusion as you were looking around the room to see if there was any signs on what to do with the situation. Niki sighs deeply in disappointment with your slow progress on what to do. He scoots closer to your legs as he pressed your legs against his back
"Get on before I carry you princess style" Niki retorts, you widen your eyes as you now understood what he was doing. You climb onto his back as you wrapped your arms around his neck
"Ehe, could've told me instead of just bending down" you awkwardly laugh. Niki replies with no answer before getting up from his bent position as he then makes his way down the long hallway in front of him. He clutched onto you tightly as the 2 of you stay quiet, the atmosphere being a mix of an awkward/comfortable atmosphere. You decide to just leave the interaction how it was at the moment and rested your head on the boy's right shoulder, you turned you head inwards so your neck wouldn't be cramped up afterwards, though, you did have to smell Niki's neck as it was right under your nose. You weren't complaining though.
"Y/N" Niki whispers. You close your eyes at the sound of his voice, it was soothing to you, even if you guys were considered 'rivals'. You allow a couple of seconds of silence to pass before answering
"Hm?" You hum, your voice faltering behind. Niki stops quickly before jumping slightly to help fix you from slipping off his back, he makes his way down the hall once again before continuing on with his sentence
"What happened?" Niki asks, his voice low. You furrow your eyebrows in confusion, even though Niki couldn't see, he sure did feel it against his neck
"What do you mean?" You reply, your voice barely coming out as a whisper. Niki stays silent as he thought about his response, you close your eyes as you wait, anticipating to hear the male's voice
"What happened to us? Our friendship? Our relationship?" Niki adds. Your breath hitches at his question
'So we're talking about this now?' You think
You press your lips together as you didn't know how to answer. You lift your head from the boy's shoulder as he looked towards you. The 2 of you continue to make eye contact for a while before you swiftly get off his back, grabbing your bag from the boy's chest, now making your way ahead of him. You wanted to avoid this topic, and it was quite obvious you were trying to. You were now walking in front of Niki, clutching your bag tightly as you felt tears threatening to fall down your face. You were remembering memories you thought you had long forgotten.
"Uh Y/N, the recording studio is right here" Niki's voice calls out from behind you, you turn around to face him to see him opening a door that led into a recording studio. You cleared your throat as you entered the room, whispering a small "thank you" as the boy followed you from behind. You make your way to a small couch you found resting against the wall, settling down right in the middle so Niki would have no choice but to sit in the chair in front of the couch. Niki did just that and sat down comfortably. You looked around the room before looking back at him, waiting for the boy to say something.
"What did you have to ask" you say, fiddling with your fingers. Niki gives a nod as he now remembers why they were in the studio in the first place, the boy lays back against the chair before continuing on with his request from earlier
"Well uh, actually.." Niki says, you give a poker face at the boy as you waited. Niki looked at you with a nervous expression as he bit his lip
"I- uh, I don't have anything to ask really...." Niki adds, his voice faltering behind. You shut your eyes aggressively as you gave the boy a mental slap
'Made me come all the way here to not even ask me a question at the end'
You let out a small sigh as you yanked yourself up from the sofa. Niki looks up at you unamused as you looked straight ahead towards the recording box, avoiding the boy's gaze
"If you didn't have anything to say you should have never approached me." You say sternly. Niki lets out a scoff as he too stands up from his seat, he looks at you with a hard glance whilst crossing his arms
"I'm attempting to ask questions that weren't answered when I left to Korea 3 years ago, but it seems like the person with the answers is refusing to say anything, what the hell am I supposed to do?!" Niki says. You roll your eyes at his response, you turn your body towards him as you looked at the boy with a death glare
"It wasn't my fault you left so sudden! You know how much I tried to fix our relationship after that useless fight we had the year prior to you leaving?! You left without telling me and that hurt! I tried to lie to myself and say I came to Korea to prove I was better than you for our damn rival thingy but that was just a cover up! I missed you so damn much! I cried in my room thinking I did nothing to attempt to restore our relationship and I know damn well I did something but you didn't notice!" You exclaim, tears were now streaming down your face as you finally told the boy the truth, Niki was still in the rage of you complaining, also now processing the truth that was told. Though, his thoughts decided to take over his mouth rather than his composure
"I left because I thought I would've made you proud! You loved the thought of being an idol so I figured we could join a company together and be able to perform on stage. But that stupid fight happened and we stopped talking and all the other shit came tumbling down the moment we lot contact! I missed you, I missed you so much to the point I risked leaving my home country, my family, my friends, you, just to come and prove that I loved you! Y/N tell me what happened please, I'm begging you to tell me whats wrong so I can try to fix it!" Niki crys out. Tears were now flowing down his face as his saddened cries filled the room.
You were speechless. No words were able to escape your mouth, you had gotten the wrong idea the whole time.
"Niki! You idiot!" You cried, you fell down to the floor as you continued saying insults toward the boy
"You fool, moron, dummy, stupid" you continued to cry as you couldn't but let a laugh escape your lips.
"Why didn't you come apologize nitwit! That would've made things more easier" you complain, a pout flashing across your face as tears were still falling down your cheeks. Niki sits down beside you as he lets his head rest on your shoulder, he stays quiet as he let the atmosphere quiet down before saying something else
"Y/N, I genuinely did this for you, yes I did leave you 4 years ago but that awkward middle school relationship we had was iconic" Niki says, smiling at the memories he had stored in his brain. You wrap your arm around Niki's as you intertwine your guy's hands, sniffles escaping your nose as you too rested your head on the other's.
"I can't deny that" you say, your voice breaking apart as you looked down at the boy
"And I can't deny the fact that I'm thankful you stopped me from leaving today" you add. Niki looks up as he makes eye contact with you. The 2 of you were now really close, Niki's eyes averting from your lips to your eyes. You pressed your lips together as you had gained the habit due to many awkward moments like this one, you stay silent as you slowly pushed yourself away from the boy. Your head was stopped from moving though when Niki decided to use his free hand to pull you back down. He smiles mischievously as he looked at you
"What do you think about getting a kiss from me again? This time on the lips" Niki questions. Your cheeks redden from his question, you widen your eyes as you think for an answer
"Uh- well- I mean, I've never kissed anyone before so-"
"So I'll be your first then"
"Hey! I haven't agreed yet!-"
"But you will?"
You stammer in defeat. You knew you wanted this kiss as much as the boy beneath you wanted it. You sighed deeply as you shook your head
"But I will..."
Niki smiles happily as he gets up from beside you. He quickly crosses his legs before putting your body on top of his crossed legs, your face gives a confused look as he wraps an arm around your waist. He looks up at you and smiles
"Gimme a kiss please" Niki says in a baby tone. He does kissy lips towards you as you couldn't help but laugh at his cute action. You cup his face, pulling him close as you left a soft kiss against his lips. Smiling as you made eye contact with him once again. Niki smiles back with an adorable grin, his eyes twinkling with delight
"You're so adorable Niki" you say, pinching his cheek
"I am" Niki flexes. You roll your eyes, going down for another kiss.
——————— Next day
You entered the practice room yet again as you spot Aoi stretching at the corner of the room. You make your way towards her as you settle next to her, putting your stuff to the side before stretching with her too. Aoi smiles at you as she sees your happy expression, she laughs as she looks at you with a 'really face'
"Are you really not gonna tell me what happened right after I left you?" Aoi says, you scoff at her statement, you knew she would be curious
"What's there to tell you when nothing happened" you reply. Aoi quickly responds with an eye roll, she opens her mouth to say something else but quickly spots someone approaching from afar. Her smile fades as she makes eye contact with the person
"Oh, Heeseung-sunbaenim" you say
"Hi Y/N! Would it be fine if I borrowed Aoi for a second?" Heeseung asks, a forced smile on his face. You look between the 2 people as you thought for a second, whatever they had going on you didn't want to be a apart of. You quickly look back at Heeseung and nod
"Sure! Just bring her back in one piece" You reply. Heeseung lets out an awkward laugh as he rubs the back of his head
"I won't promise that" he says, he then grabs Aoi before dragging her outside the room. You sigh at the couple, seeing a vision of new love blossoming.
"Ah love" you say to yourself.
"Are you talking about us or??"
You look to the side to see Niki approaching you slowly, you looked around the room and was thankful to see no other dancers. You stand up from your spot as you walked up to the boy
"I wasn't, but I could be" you reply. Holding onto the boy's hands. Niki smiles at your face as he gives you a kiss on the head, you scrunch up your face as you watched him stand up straight again.
"Well, whoever it was directed towards, I'm sure they're not as important as us" Niki comments, giving you a hug, you wrap your arms around his waist as he looked down at you cutely.
"Facts 100%" you reply. Niki smiles at your reply as he pinched your cheek, you squint slightly from the impact before thinking of a question
"Oh wait actually, you know what, I don't think we should be hugging right now" you say, Niki raised an eyebrow in confusion as he furrowed his forehead
"What do you mean?" Niki asks
"I mean, you didn't really ask me officially yet so I don't we should be interacting. And as a reminder, you're still an idol" you say, pointing at Niki
"Wait- what?!" Niki says, you laugh at the boy as you let go of the hug
"I guess we'll have to wait to see what the company says~" you coo, now walking away from the boy. The boy stands speechless as he tries to process what you meant. A few seconds pass before he gasps in realization
"Wait! What's happening?!" Niki exclaims