Jung Hoseok's favorite time of the year was the annual award ceremonies at the end and the beginning of each year. He enjoyed watching other idols perform, and secretly loved going up on stage to receive those generic awards with his group.
That's why, he was filled with surprise and excitement when he was invited to participate in the SBS Daejun opening act in a short cameo for a hip hop dance. Jimin was also invited for the contemporary dance part of the opening act, which was no surprise to Hoseok.
Apparently the event's staff took notice of both their impressive dancing and their booming fame and thus contacted their agency. His manager told the two main dancers of the invitation and the two of course obliged. His members congratulated them, each of them encouraging the two to do their best and put on a great stage for the fans. And then there was Taehyung.
"Ooh, get some!" He hollered, after finding out there would be a collaboration with a female idol.
The deep voiced vocalist ended up getting cursed out by Hoseok and kicked in the groin by Jimin immediately after.
Though, perhaps the worst part of this participation for the event was that a practice was scheduled to be at 12 AM, two days before the actual event. On other hand, this time was nothing compared to the monstrous times that his group's dance practices took place. They would practice from 10 pm to 7 am in the morning at times. Hoseok just hoped that his partner would be able to get the dance down quickly so he leave.
And he would soon find out.
The studio was a long drive from the dorms, and he given a ride by his manager. Hopping off the car, Hoseok found himself standing in front of the designated studio, more normal looking than he thought. A wave of nausea suddenly washed over him, realizing that he had to talk to a stranger. The last time Hoseok had to meet someone new on his own would probably be when he first met his group members almost a decade ago.
Out of habit, Hoseok pulled the sleeve of his jacket, revealing his Gucci watch, and looked at the time.
11:48 PM
He was quite early, and it seemed that the dance practice for the contemporary act still hadn't finished. He'll just wait inside then. Straightening his coat, he pushed open the heavy glass door and entered the building.
"1, 2, 3, A muffled voice came from inside the practice room, which Hoseok immediately recognized as Jimin. "There, there perfect!
Glancing through the glass door, he distinguished his band member as the pink haired taller boy standing in the back in the mist of the other idols, instructing them. An intangible kind of charisma radiated from JImin, which Hoseok thought only resided on stage. Was the kid always like this? He had really grown up.
Not wanting to disturb their practice, Hoseok too it upon himself to take a seat on the chairs in the hallway, across the dance room. Then he noticed he wasn't alone.
A silver haired female, with her long hair tied up in a ponytail and tucked under a snapback, sat in one of the seats. Seeing Hoseok she immediately got up to greet him.
"Hello, I'm Moonbyul from MAMAMOO," she bowed. Hoseok noticed she had quite a low voice for a female idol. He was expecting someone bright and chipper. He was quite thankful that it wasn't though as he had quite a short temper for those type of people. Especially at 12 in the morning.
Though, he had to say that he was also quite taken back by Moonbyul.
Memories of their most recent performances was still fresh in his mind, of a charismatic, girl-crush Moonbyul with heavy make up. And that Moonbyul was actually this soft-faced, calm reserved female currently standing in front of him.
"I'm looking forward to working with you," she continued.
Though, it wasn't as if Hoseok didn't like this side to Moonbyul. He did the same and introduced himself as well.
"I'm Bangtan Sonyeondan's-" Hoseok paused, hesitant on whether or not to give her his stage name or real name. "J-hope."
"J-hope ssi," Moonbyul called, getting her tongue familiar with the name.
She offered a hand to Hoseok, and he took her hand to shake it. He noticed how small her hands were, or was it that his hands were quite large? His hand completely enclosed her hand.
Hoseok felt warm, finding the moment to be cute and his lips formed a small smile, his eyes curling into half moons. She reciprocated his smile, her nose crinkling. He found her smile to be cute.
"My group is huge fans of your latest song."
"Oh," Hoseok responded. She's quite nice too. "Really?"
"Yes," she nodded. "They sing it everywhere, nae pi ttam numul."
And she wasn't a bad singer either. Wasn't she a rapper though?
Moonbyul sat back down in her seat, comfortably crossing one leg over another, and Hoseok took his place two seats away from her. Hoseok found himself scooting one seat closer to her, laughing as she did a simplified version of the BST dance.
"Ah, also J-hope ssi, I can understand the hype around your group's latest album, I've given it a listen," Moonbyul confessed. "The songs are great."
She hummed "hey mama" softly, to which Hoseok softly sang the next stanza. The two laughed quietly.
Hoseok felt extremely flattered and decided to return the compliment. "I'm a fan of MAMAMOO too."
Moonbyul's face seemed to light up at the news.
"There was a moment in time where I couldn't stop replaying Delcamonnie," Hoseok confessed. "Another member of mine, V-"
"Ah, I know him, Wheein was talking about him the other day."
"Mm, he's been a fan since the Piano Man days." Hoseok responded. Inwardly, he mentally apologized to Taehyung for exposing him.
The two continued to compliment each other back and forth and then move onto more extensive topics like their favorite artists and bits of their own personal lives.
Time passed by like it was nothing and Hoseok didn't regret coming too early. He learned many things about her, and most importantly, realized that she was a few months older than him. She was a noona? A pleasant, fuzzy feeling spread within him, reddening his cheeks, as he came to the thought.
For some reason, Hoseok really enjoyed talking to her. He didn't know if he ever enjoyed himself this much when talking to a stranger. His previous anxiety towards meeting new people was long gone with the continuing conversations he held with Moonbyul.
Though, he did remember to the time when he first met Moonbyul through emceeing for Inkigayo. It was awkward as hell, mostly due to Taehyung acting so skittish since Wheein was near him. Back then Moonbyul didn't a word to him cause she didn't need to and he did the same.
Now, when they weren't restricted by the stifling 95-ers, Hoseok was able to get a few laughs here and there with Moonbyul.
Call him insecure, but at first he was worried she would be weirded out by him or think of him as boring. Luckily, it seemed that she also had a mutual feeling of enjoyment to their small talk. She gave great, genuine reacts and was very empathetic with him. He wasn't sure if it was because they were congenial as they were both idols in the entertainment industry, or it was simply because she had a great personality.
Given more confidence, Hoseok thought it would be nice to make more idol friends outside his group. Just as he was about to ask for her number, he was interrupted.
"Hyung," Jimin called, cutting Moonbyul and Hoseok's conversation short. "The practice room is ready for you to use. Sorry, we went a bit over time."
"Oh, already?" Hoseok said, looking at his watch.
12:48 AM
"Wait a minute, fifty minutes over is a bit?" Hoseok said teasingly.
Jimin smiled sheepishly, clasping his hands together. "I'm sorry hyung but I really wanted to get this one part's timing right."
"Nah, it's fine," Hoseok replied.
"So shall we go?" Moonbyul asked, rising form her seat and gathering the things she brought.
Hoseok nodded his head, also getting up, and gestered Moonbyul to go ahead first. She smiled and thanked him, briskly walking ahead. Jimin kindly held the door open for her, his eyes following Moonbyul as she entered. When Hoseok followed behind her, Jimin stopped him with a hand to the rapper's chest.
"Taehyung was right," Jiminn whispered, leaning into Hoseok's ear. He discreetly pointed a thumb towards Moonbyul, who had her back turned towards the two. "Go get some."
Normally, Hoseok would kindly tell the younger to fuck off, but instead, his face flushed a deep red, tongue tied. Jimin, who was actually ready to run for his life because he knew of his hyung's temper, was suprised. The younger simply laughed and patted Hoseok's shoulder. "Wish you good luck, hyung!"
Jimin quickly ran off to the safety of his manager's car, leaving behind the currently fazed Hoseok.
"J-hope ssi!" Moonbyul called from inside the room. "Hurry up, we have to get the choreo down by two."
Fanning his face in attempt to cool both his anger and blushing face, he scurried over to Moonbyul swearing to himself that he would jump Jimin in his sleep tonight. Averting his focus to the task at hand, he found his new aquaintance disentangling cords and trying to move the boombox out of the way. He ran over to lend a hand, carrying the stereo for her.
"Hey, before warming up, why don't we show each other some moves?"Hoseok asked jokingly, already quite comfortable with the female. Moonbyul laughed, then paused, wanting to actually show a cool side of her to her new friend.
"Okay, I'll turn on some music."
"Oh wait, you're actually going to do it?" Hoseok laughed, but was already flipping on his phone and going through his playlist. "What song."
Moonbyul hummed, thinking. "Just something slow and cheesy."
"Slow and cheesy?" Hoseok asked. "What was that song that your group likes?"
"Besides BST," Moonbyul said, playfully doing the simplified version of the choreo again to which Hoseok laughed. "They like Work by Rihanna."
"How is Work a cheesy song." Hoseok wondered. He went over the song in his head. "Work, work, work."
"Oh, it is one of the best songs for slow and cheesy dancing. Trust me." Moonbyul reassured with a smirk.
Hoseok immediately turned on the song, the heavy bass strumming through his body and his foot began tapping along with the beat. The studio was pretty nice with its boombox system.
"Okay, leggo." Moonbyul said out of habit. She rolled up her sleeves and steadied her snapback. She snapped thrice, swaying to the beat.
One.
Two.
Three.
She rocked her body the music, hitting every beat smoothly, and then abruptly busted out some classic Michael Jackson Bad Criminal moves. Hoseok chuckled, loving her little performance. She didn't dance like normal female idol.
Hoseok wow-ed loudly when she finally finished dancing, clapping his hands. Most would attempt to look cute dancing like that, but damn was Moonbyul smooth and classy. The body rolls and amazing footwork that impeccably matched the heavy bass music awed Hoseok. He didn't think even he himself would be able to pull off something like that.
The two spent most of their scheduled time in the dance studio fooling arround and dancing to their favorite songs. Time passed by like a blur for the two of them.
"Hey don't we have to practice?" Moonbyul remarked, as the sudden memory of the original intention of attending this dance studio had popped into her head.
2:27 AM
Hoseok cursed, remembering the point of attending this studio. He scrambled to turn off the Chris Brown song playing, and quickly searched for phone for the BGM that the staff had sent to him for the dance.
Luckily, the two had already memorized the choreography beforehand and was prepared. All they had to do now, was practice it together.
Hoseok gulped, his Adam's apples bopping down then up. The dance was quite intimate and required a teeny bit of grinding. Moonbyul, on the other hand, didn't seem to be the least perturbed.
"Okay, let's start," Moonbyul urged. "Leggo."
Without her cap, which she had taken off ages ago during their freestyle dancing session, Hoseok could see a bit of sweat glistening on her temples, and her bangs cutely stuck to her forehead. Her cheeks were slightly flushed, a pink tinge glowing on her soft cheeks. Hoseok felt a jittery feeling in her chest and he cupped his heart. Calm down Jung Hoseok.
Moonnbyul went over the boombox and deftly switched on the music.
"Okay," Moonbyul said, stretching her limbs out. "You memorized it right?"
Hoseok nodded his head, flashing her a thumbs up. "Yep."
She smiled. "Great."
Moonbyul then took it upon herself to initiate the dance, moving closer to Hoseok, waiting for the music to play out and replay to the beginning again, Moonbyul stood still for a second, before swiftly shifting into dancing her short solo.
Hoseok was still impressed with her dancing, even after watching her for the past hour or two. He wouldn't say she was the best dancer he has ever seen, but it surely became one of his favorites. The male dancer waited for the right timing to jump in to his part, tapping his foot to the beat. At one point of Moonnbyul's solo, she grabbed her groin and subtly thrusted her hips. Hoseok, catching her, held his breath and tried to keep his mind clear of Rated R thoughts.
Fluidly, he hopped in and easily found the right position to synchronize his dancing with hers. A few beats late, he found them to be a tad too close. Trying not to look down, Hoseok looked anywhere but Moonbyul as she danced in front of him and rolled her hips on his front.
It took every ounce of his self retrain to not groan and focus on the task at hand. Despite being dressed in the most casual and unsexy clothes, the way she rocked those hips tempted Hoseok in unimaginable ways.
After a few more torturous moments of practicing the choreo again and again, and being body to body with each other each time, the two finally finished perfecting it in the nick of time.
2:59 AM
"It was great working with you, J-hope ssi," Moonbyl said to Hoseok thankfully, patting his back in an affable manner, who was currently sitting down on the floor and stretching out his slightly tired body.
Hoseok blushed, the feeling from the previous activity still residing within him. Moonbyul offered him a hand, and this time, lending him a hand to get up from the floor. He took it, and for a moment, the two stared into each other's eyes. Her soft clear brown eyes pierced him, purifying what felt like his entire being and he felt like his insides had been reduced into mush. Moonbyul smiled and scrunching her nose cutely and displaying her bunny teeth. Hoseok was starting to adore that smile of hers , yearning to see it more. His heart, which he previously thought of as impalpable by women, beat furiously in his rib cage.
Not a single word was further exchanged between them and the only sound that could be heard was the soft tick of his watch, quietly echoing the empty dance room.
3 AM
Jung Hoseok fell in love.