"We're here," Sunoo exclaimed. They arrived at Sunghoon's dorm room. Fortunately, they didn't encounter any students on their way, so they had no problem hiding his injury.
"Thanks," he said and leaned on the wall.
Sunoo took off his backpack while Sunghoon tried to take a few steps by himself. He dragged his limp leg trying to make it look like he was just tired because of too much dancing. Sunoo observed him and clicked his tongue.
"You're on your own now. Don't overdo it." He handed him the backpack.
"And you don't tell anyone," Sunghoon replied, but Sunoo ignored him and waved his hand at him. Then, he left in the direction of his room.
Sunghoon sighed and turned to the door. He opened it slowly. He peeked trying to see if his roommate was asleep. Lee Heeseung sat at his desk with glasses on. He was reading a script and circling something with his pen. He turned to the sound of the door opening.
"Oh, you're back. Hungry? You probably missed the dinner again. I can make some noodles."
"No, thanks. I'm too tired to eat. Just gonna wash up and go to sleep." Sunghoon answered, trying to smile. He took a deep breath and walked to their bathroom.
Heeseung nodded and went back to reading his script and memorizing the lines. Sometimes he would get too immersed in the plot and have to reread some lines to mark his part. He smiled, he enjoyed that particular musical.
It was a romance tragedy in a royal setting. A beggar boy suffers from unrequited love for his childhood friend, a waitress in the tavern. Then, a prince falls in love with the same woman. Their relationship can't be accepted by the crown. She wants to end it, but he is too stubborn, he wants to maintain their relationship and he acts selfishly to be with her. As a result, she becomes hated by the public, and her family falls into despair and poority. She decides to end her life. The boy is in a serious grief. Furious, he wants to kill the prince. Before he can even touch him, he gets killed by one of the Royal guards. Prince seeing what his selfish love has done, decides to commit suicide as well.
Heeseung chuckled reading the ending.
"Why does he want to kill everyone?"
"Who?" Sunghoon overheard him, leaving the bathroom with a towel resting around his neck. Water dropped down his hair.
"Jake, he's got quite the imagination." Heeseung closed the script, so the boy wouldn't read it by accident. "Pretend you didn't hear that."
"I don't mind spoilers," Sunghoon laughed and went to his bed. He tried to move his leg smoothly, so his friend wouldn't notice his injury. "So, what role do you have?" He asked sitting on the bed. He started drying his hair.
"Main," Heeseung answered, the other chuckled.
"Congrats." He left the towel on his head and reached for his phone. "Others?"
"Yunjin got also main, Jay is the lead." Sunghoon looked over the phone at him with his eyes narrowed.
"Who's Jay?" Sunghoon asked, but Heeseung laughed loudly seeing the boy's confusion.
"Are you living in that practice room? He's a new student, that got a scholarship. Everyone has been talking about him since yesterday. But he's amazing, you know. Like, he managed to land a solid role in his first musical." Heeseung raised his brows and complimented his new friend. "I can introduce you to him, I became friends with him."
"You can't call someone you know only for two days a friend," Sunghoon laughed. "But he does sound talented. Sure, let's meet if I have time."
Sunghoon went back to his phone. He scrolled through social media, liking his friends' posts. He saw them hanging out in restaurants, theme parks, karaoke, having barbecues, or playing games in their dorm rooms. He looked at Heeseung, Are you living in that practice room? kept on repeating in his head. He felt as if he was truly living there, instead of having any of his personal teenage life. He would never think negatively about his work until that day. What if all this effort went to waste because he got injured? He spent all his teenage years dancing. He didn't even have any friends. A gut-wrenching feeling clasped his heart. He tossed the towel on the chair, put the phone to charge, and lay down to fall asleep.
Even when Heeseung stopped reading and turned off the lights Sunghoon was unable to sleep, too worried about his leg's condition.
×
Students were gathering slowly in the classroom. Sunoo already sat at his desk, chatting the quick break before the class away with his friend.
"And here comes the best part, he wasn't cheating on her." An Yujin stopped and waited for Sunoo's reaction. "She was cheating on him, and told everyone otherwise, because she was too embarrassed. Even to me. That's why I'm not friends with her anymore."
"God, that's nasty," Sunoo commented covering his mouth.
He tried to follow the rest of the story, but his eyes shifted to Sunghoon who just entered the classroom. Since he was aware of his classmate's limp leg, he couldn't help but stare at him trying to conceal it. Every time he stepped on it, a little grimace would appear on his face.
"Hi Jungwon," the girl said looking at the boy that came behind Sunoo.
"Hi, Yujin. Can you leave us alone for a second? Thanks." He replied coldly but with a smile. She felt shivers down her spine.
Sunoo turned around with a sigh. He waited for the other to say something. Jungwon scratched his arm before speaking.
"I'm really sorry for what I said. I didn't mean, you weren't good enough. I know you're trying your hardest. I guess I was a bit too harsh on you. Will you forgive me?" Jungwon asked, while Sunoo started standing up. He stared at his face for a while before answering.
"You're my best friend. You're supposed to hate the people I hate, and I hate the people you hate, understand?" Sunoo widened his eyes. He wasn't mad at him anymore. "What's more, I can see where you're coming from, this dude has no chill. I almost passed out yesterday during after practice practice."
Jungwon chuckled at his friend's comment.
"Good to know you worked hard yesterday," he patted his back. Sunoo was still a bit sore there. "So that means you're moving back to our room?"
"Yeah, I think Ni-ki is done with me already."
Their eyes shifted to the boy sitting in the middle row, laying on top of his books. Jungwon chuckled again seeing him napping. Sunoo started laughing quietly, while his eyes moved around the classroom. Accident, they met Sunghoon's. He looked at him troubled, then he unconsciosuly looked at the injured leg and turned his face the other way.
×
"Park Sunghoon, focus!" The teacher yelled at the student. She kept an eye on him throughout the practice since he looked unstable.
He wasn't able to keep a strong core. His jumping was unbalanced, and his posture was not straightened enough. He was criticized left and right by their teacher. Sunghoon's mind would keep on replying 'Fuck me' when the sequence was getting closer to the spinning part.
It was the third time practicing this part. Other dancers left the stage, and he was alone in the spotlight. His face went blank, he closed his eyes, so he wouldn't meet the strict teacher's gaze, while he gave the poorest performance of his life.
The pain in his ankle affected his leg's muscles. He had already strained it enough after the first time of the routine, and now he was unable to continue after doing just two spins. Sunghoon dropped to the ground pathetically.
"Oh God," other students exclaimed seeing his peer panting painfully on the floor.
"Sunghoon?!" The teacher yelled worryingly, she ran up to him. "I knew something was wrong, where are you hurt?"
"A-ankle. I'm sorry, it will get better by tomorrow," he kept on apologizing and taking deep breaths in between.
"Riki, Jungwon, help him stand up." Two boys ran to his classmate, he groaned, feeling acute pain in his leg. "We will talk later, Sunghoon, but that was very irresponsible of you. You should have informed me about your injury. You need to take care of your bodies, hear me?" She was angry at the student, but worried at the same time. She waved her hand at the boys to take the other out of the room.
"Can I help them?" Sunoo took a step ahead and asked the teacher. She shook her head almost instantly and sighed.
"You stay," she answered harshly. "Sunoo, lead the rest of the practice. No slacking."
The room went silent, and the three students and their teacher left. Sunoo stood confused, but other students started whispering about Sunghoon.
Sunoo hissed with annoyance. He walked to the speaker and restarted the music.
"Practice like nothing happened," he said and went to his position.
The anxious teacher-paced back and forth, looking in Sunghoon's direction while the school's physiotherapist examined his leg. Jungwon and Riki waited near the door. They were exchanging looks, afraid of uttering a single word out loud.
"The ankle is twisted, and his leg muscle pulled right here." She showed the place to the teacher and Sunghoon by pressing it. The dancer groaned again. "He will not be taking part in the show."
"Oh God," teacher exclaimed, she hid her face in hands. She peeked at Sunghoon, but he didn't even flinch at first.
Sunghoon looked at the doctor confused. He started stuttering, unable to form a proper sentence. A wicked smile appeared on his face, he was too bewildered to understand the situation right. He was not let to take part in the most important performance of his four years' dance academy life. His chance to perform before all the famous dancers and choreographers was long gone. They meant to see the school prodigy in action. However, he was sat on the bench. He thought, he could be as well as dead.
"This is bad," Junhui said, "not even a quick recovery?"
"It would be a miracle. He can barely stand as for now. It will take months with an intensive physical therapy. Who knows if you'd continue in this state, you'd end up on a surgery table." The doctor said sighing, she crossed her arms. "Sunghoon, you dance for so many years, yet you can't even properly take care of your health."
"Y-yes," Sunghoon replied.
"I'll have to speak to headmaster about it, this is huge," the teacher covered her mouth, then she looked at the doctor.
"I'll contact your parents and tell them to get you checked in the hospital. You should get tested for any other injuries. However, there's one wheelchair right there, you can borrow it for now." She pointed at the storage room filled with medical equipment. Jungwon and Ni-ki pulled it out immediately and walked it to Sunghoon.
He looked at it, a disgust mixed with disappointment appeared on his face. He clenched his fists and jaw, then turned his face the other way.
×
Jake could tell Heeseung was tired at this rate. A constant sighing and nodding, then waiting to finish his lines. His stage partner, Huh Yunjin had a problem rehearsing her lines while he had it already memorized.
"Yunjin, do you need more time or help?" Jake asked and even though his intention was not to sound offensive or rude, a couple of bystanders, mostly prop artists, looked at him.
Heeseung put away his bottle and straightened himself.
"I'm so sorry, Jake. I will get it by tomorrow, I promise" her voice sounded genuine, so he thought he made a fool of himself to even bring this problem up.
Jake was the director, he had to address it. He tried to shake off the guilty feeling.
He went quiet for a moment, not sure how he should answer her.
"You got a lot of difficult lines, don't worry. You'll get them by tomorrow right? I know it's hard balancing school, your after school life and the play at the same time, so just do your best." When Heeseung spoke, you could feel the tension in the room being relieved. "If you need any help, let me know."
"I will!" She answered quickly, but she looked apologetic. Jake didn't blame her.
Heeseung seemed to be born with a sense of responsibility, leadership, and natural kindness. Heeseung's words were exactly what Jake wanted to say, but failed to convey. He tried to smile to reassure Yunjin, that he didn't want to be her enemy.
"Should we call it a day?" He suggested and he could see an even more apologizing expression on the girl's face. "It's already late, and don't you have practice today? Your schedule says..."
"Yes, yes, I do. I'm so sorry Jake. I will write my lines one hundred- no, thousand times to remember them by tomorrow. I promise." She was in a hurry to leave.
She packed her things into a bag, bowed to everyone, and left the room. Jake sighed and started packing his things. Water, his notebook, pencils, and script - always in this order. He looked at the stage, prop artists were measuring it, thinking about the designs. The other actors formed into the groups to chat before leaving.
"Wanna hang out?" Heeseung asked Jay that was petting his guitar in the case.
"I have work, gotta go. See you tomorrow," Jay responded with a slight smile. He waved his hand and left the room. His friend sighed seeing him go.
Heeseung sat on the stage with a script in his hands. After observing a whole scene, Jake's impulse made him walk up to him.
"Aren't you leaving?" He asked, his arms crossed on the stage.
"This part," Heeseung was already deep in thought, he showed him a sheet of the song in the prolog. "I can sing it in a higher key. I think that way it will bring this whole sensitive vibe to this scene. Don't you think?"
"Ah," he took the paper from him. "I originally intended to make it higher," Jake tried not to smile, because he remembered who he was talking to. "But you know most of the candidates for this role have lower register voice, or you know, mutation."
"You actually thought about casting someone else in this role?" He laughed, but Jake reddened.
"Your voice has an impressively wide range, so-" Jake thought he praised him a bit too much because Heeseung was smiling at him. "-that you want to... the key. Wanna try?" He quickly changed the subject before he could tease him about it. Jake pointed at the piano standing on the left.
"Fine" he answered. "Play for me."
"Why are you so annoying," He said going up the stairs, straight to the piano.
"But you know, I'm quite impressed you compose all these songs and write the screenplay yourself. That's pure genius." Heeseung sounded impressed and genuine while complimenting Jake, but the other widened his eyes. He didn't expect him to be that honest and weirdly nice towards him.
"Well, I use some old musicals for inspiration. I watch movies a lot to think about a good story. If you know the story, writing music for it is not that difficult." He sat comfortably at the piano. Jake turned pages on the music sheet and picked our beginning song.
"Then, you don't know how honored I am to be working with a genius." Jake thought Heeseung was making fun of him. He walked up to him and stood beside the piano. "Recommend me some good musicals, I might even improve."
Jake chuckled before he started playing and he quickly adjusted to the new key. He liked the new version more and even though Heeseung would never know, Jake was more than grateful that he wanted this change. A nice melody pierced his mind and he'd just smile and hum along at times. Jake couldn't believe he'd composed that. He might have been some sort of genius actually.
The song ended and they both went quiet.
"How was it?" Heeseung asked Jake leaning on the piano. He waited for his answer so impatiently it was written all over his face. It was also kind of cute. Jake couldn't help but smile.
"Better," his answer was honest and he seemed to be satisfied with its simplicity. A little, proud smirk appeared on his face.
"You're a very interesting person, you know that?" Jake thought his heart stopped beating for a moment. What was that supposed to mean? And he said it in such a soft way, Jake thought he'll fall off this chair at that exact moment. He cleared his throat.
"Is flirting with me a new way of you annoying me?" Jake chuckled irritated and took the notes. "I'm leaving." He blurted and quickly stood up. His body sort of panicked.
Jake grabbed his things and left the room. He didn't look back at Heeseung and he realized that his reaction was a bit dramatic only after. It was the first time he held eye contact with him for more than five seconds.
They were on different levels, but Heeseung made him feel special with just a few words. 'You're a very interesting person' kept replaying in his head, like an annoying parrot was sitting inside.
Jake had to admit, he liked receiving attention. He didn't know when he talked himself into thinking differently, but it was nice to hear someone so talented praise you. He hated to admit it, but Heeseung made him feel like his work would turn out to be worthy.
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