CAN CALL ME ARTIST
(CAN CALL ME
IDOL!)
( part 2 )
WORD COUNT 3.4K
OVERVIEW hoseok's finally made it to KM HIT, and he's less of a namjoon fanboy. but that doesn't mean that running into him won't shock him (just a note i have 0 clue about how kpop ent companies work so i made a lot of this up >_<)
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BROCKHAMPTON PLAYS LOUDLY INTO the rip-off beats headphones resting on a newly graduated boy's ears, a boy turning into a man, standing in front of the place he's going to be working at. one hand holding a suitcase handle and the other on the strap of his huge, heavy backpack, his life stuffed into these two containers now he's moving into the dorms of kim-min HIT.
this has been jung hoseok's dream. he's a trainee dancer for an idol company; he's waited for this day since he was fourteen and saw professional dancers do a demonstration at his school, and spent the next few years teaching himself to dance. he's left gwanju school of arts and now he's here, popping watermelon bubblegum as he takes a deep breath, and walks in.
the lobby's pretty; sleek blue walls, decorated with albums — some produced here, some just classics of kpop —, a lovely black marble floor, plants dotted around and a television showing a playlist of MV's. a big sign reading kim-min HIT glows above the head of a young male receptionist, dressed snappily in a suit with his hair a bright green buzzcut — oddly, it suits him —, who looks up at hoseok when he hears the door slamming, smiling as an old SHINee song begins to play.
"good morning!" he says, cheerful, standing up. "how can i help?"
"oh, um," hoseok unplugs his headphones, cursing himself, smiling softly. "yeah, i'm jung hoseok, the new dance trainee?"
the green haired man grins. "ah, great, you're on time! i'm jung wooseok, the general manager slash receptionist; any problems and i'm your man," he walks up to hoseok and shakes his hand, giving the boy a once-over. hoseok dressed nicely for the occasion, in a blue button down and a pair of jeans, his long-ish hair (shorter than college) collected up in a small ponytail, purple highlights hidden amongst the brown. "you're dorming here, right?"
"yeah — i bought, like, basics, but i can get my old roommate to bring more stuff," hoseok says, hands in his pockets awkwardly. wooseok nods. "just to, um, clarify — is there any specific idol that i'm going to be backing for?"
wooseok smiles knowingly, tapping his nose. "depends how good you are! now, follow me; you're dorming with another dancer, hope you don't mind..."
wooseok leads hoseok around the back of the building, where two large apartment block-esque structures stand. one, wooseok explains, is for dancers, and the other for idols, but they're a bit mix-matched, as some dancers also happen to be idols. he leads hoseok into the dancer's building, explaining the way the routines and rules work at KM HIT; hoseok has to be up and in the main building before eight thirty if he wants breakfast, and then he'll be practicing for most of the day, until he and the other dancers in his "unit" — essentially a group of five he'll be paired with — get a showcase, where they'll show their skills and will be picked as backup dancers for specific idols. hoseok's secretly hoping he gets someone big, like lee know or the famous double-b.
"here's you," wooseok fumbles for a key in his pocket, handing a copy to hoseok, and opens dorm number 6H, letting the trainee walk in.
hoseok lets out a gasp; he enters into a kitchen-lounge hybrid, painted in hues of sea blues and modern greys, sunshine shining in through a window. the space is small, admittedly, but it's a heck of a lot better than his old dorm. wooseok follows him as he heads to the bedrooms, which are two pretty much identical plain, square-shaped rooms with grey walls and a queen size bed in the middle, plain ikea desks, bookshelves and etc also shoved in there, and a small window lets in a nice amount of light. the bathroom is well sized, with a his-and-hers-esque sink duo and a nice size shower. the empty room, wooseok explains, is a makeshift "home studio", with recording equipment and a mirror for dancing on the end wall. hoseok gawks; this is amazing.
"cool, huh?" wooseok grins at the wide eye expression on the dancer's face. "there's food in the fridge and the communal wifi password is on the phonebook — which has every number you'll need here in it —, and your roommate should be arriving soon."
"this is super cool," hoseok says, beaming. "thanks, sir. i'm gonna work hard if these are my living conditions."
"well, keep it clean and keep it nice — we've had 17 year old rookie idols break shit before," wooseok laughs. "you've heard of neo dreamers, right?"
"of course!"
"they broke a hole in the wall between huang renjun and na jaemin's bedrooms so they could, quote, "talk to each other at night and not be lonely"."
hoseok laughs loudly, full of euphoria. wooseok says goodbye and leaves him, and the trainee dancer does a stupid little happy dance; he's made it! he's in the dorms of KM HIT, he's a dancer trainee, he's going to be a fucking backup dancer! this calls for a playlist.
hoseok's "cheery vibes" playlist blasts from a bluetooth speaker as he begins to unpack his two huge bags — taehyung will be bringing over some books and things he couldn't bring himself —, hanging clothes into the closet and humming along happily to n.flying's hot potato, still in slight disbelief. his room is quickly personalised, a couple trinkets on the ikea desk, his calendar pinned on the wall, fairy lights he found in a state of despair untangled and hung on the bedframe.
hoseok collapses down onto the bed with a laugh as RM's i believe begins to play, bringing him back into nostalgia.
hoseok's not been the biggest "fanboy" recently, having semi grown out of the kpop scene in his last year of art school. he and RM had parted ways, it seemed, although it's not like he can forget the man who influenced his life very heavily — hell, he's the reason hoseok signed up for KM HIT —, and so his songs are still saved in hoseok's spotify, his albums and posters are in the things taehyung's bringing, and RM's merch still fits him and his style. hoseok just isn't as big of a fan anymore, moving onto artists like brockhampton and khalid, and chiller k-artists like zico. but now he's signed to KMH, he'll be choreographing routines to RM and other idols, so he supposes it's rather ironic.
hoseok goes to the kitchen to inspect the food, stomach growling. he's removed his nice outfit, dressed instead in just sweatpants, shirtless torso revealing black ink tattoos taehyung did as soon as he got his hands on a proper needle set that wasn't stick n poke related. he hums along to zico's bermuda triangle as he opens the fridge, grabbing out what appears to be one of the cheap, student-y microwave curries. he shrugs — can't be worse than the shit he ate when he and taehyung hit some blunts —, and shoves it in the microwave, searching for a fork in one of the drawers. thankfully he won't have to make trips to bed, bath & beyond or ikea; everything seems to be pretty much kitted out already.
"um, hello?"
hoseok jumps from his position on the couch, curry in his lap, when the door opens ten minutes later. he pauses dean and sits up, seeing a person standing in the doorway, a nervous expression on their face. messy powder blue hair and cut features make it hard to see whether they're male or female, so hoseok stands up and walks over, smiling. "hi, i'm hoseok. you're my roommate, right?"
the person nods, eyes shy, hand on the handle of their suitcase. "y-yeah, hi, hello — sorry, i'm like, super nervous. i'm jimin — well, my friends call me min but you don't have to—" they extend a hand. "oh, and i'm a boy — i know i look very feminine!"
hoseok laughs, shaking his hand. "no worries, jimin. dance trainee?"
"yeah," he nods, fiddling with the hem of his tommy hilfiger sweatshirt, turning to close the door behind him. "i'm gonna go set up, you can go back to whatever you were doing — wait is that food i smell?"
hoseok chuckles, not missing how jimin's eyes widen — he reminds the dancer of an anime character, small and lithe and cute. "microwave pork balchao. i'll make you some, dude, go set up."
"thanks!" jimin smiles, before heading off to his room. he's quite cute, hoseok thinks, and he reckons they'll get along well... especially when he finds jimin shamelessly grooving to red velvet when he calls him for food.
∆
"JESUS christ, i am absolutely fucking exhausted."
"seungcheol-hyung, you're cute, but swear one more time and i think jeonghan-hyung will knock you into space."
"darn right i will!"
hoseok hides a smile at his fellow trainee's banter while they all get breakfast, jimin sporting a huge hoodie that hides his quote unquote "eye bags as big as my big toe" as he spoons granola and yoghurt into his mouth, hoseok himself biting into a healthy breakfast of fruity cereal. there's a lot of people in the cafeteria, but hoseok knows they're mostly trainees, seeing as idols probably cook themselves breakfast.
"oh my fucking god — is that han? oh my fucking god it's han. it's han jisung! DADDY—"
"jeongguk no! — he's younger than you oh my fucking god—!"
hoseok bursts out laughing at the pouty look on a young trainee's face, accentuated by his puffy cheeks and blush. he — jeongguk, apparently — is wedged between the two boys who had been referred to as seungcheol and jeonghan, dressed in a red t-shirt and a cute choker with a moon on it. hoseok selected a table at random, and they ended up with people jimin vaguely knows — two girls, jeongyeon and lisa, and a boy who calls himself q —, and these three.
"who do you think our units will be?" lisa asks, tying her very long hair into a ponytail, her breakfast of blueberry-dotted yoghurt half finished in front of her. jeonghan shrugs, putting down his mug of tea, his blonde hair a bit messed up.
"i don't know. i hope i get these two." he looks at seungcheol and jeongguk, who cringe but shoot him finger hearts jokingly, pulling derpy faces.
"anyone nice will work for me. i am small and very easily hurt." jimin shrugs. hoseok doesn't input his opinion, laughing with the rest of them, before standing up to go get coffee; his head's a bit muddled with everything that's happened in the last 24 hours, so he downs a cup of caffeine in preparation for the long day of training he'll have ahead of him.
half an hour later, and hoseok, with four other boys —seungcheol, jeongguk, a girl named momo and a leggy boy named hyungwon —, is warming up in front of the big practice room mirror, performing stretches. he lifts his leg up onto the pole on the studio wall and touches his toes, making sure he's all limbered up. momo's practicing some breakdancing routine, her popping and locking quite impressive, silvery hair secured back in a headband, while jeongguk and hyungwon are warming up.
"trainees!"
the voice makes jeongguk jump, then look around, as if checking if anyone saw. the person who spoke is a slender tall man with wideset shoulders and lips that hoseok would think were fake if he didn't know better. dressed in nike, he emanates an air of authority, eyes sharp and posture perfected.
"good morning, everyone," he bows, and the trainees do so in return. "i'm kim seokjin, your guider and instructor in this journey of yours — i will teach you the routines that will get you picked, the routines that will make you shine, and most importantly, what will get idols to notice you."
hoseok beams at the man's encouraging words, rocking on the balls of his feet, dirty white laces tucked inside his nikes and tickling his toes. seokjin gets them to do some basic before-dance exercises — touching their toes, doing the splits, stretching their legs —, before clapping his hands. "okay! i need a kpop song you all known the choreo to, so i can see how you dance."
"red flavour!" momo yells, making seungcheol laugh, but jeongguk shakes his head.
"just right!" hyungwon says, and seokjin points at him, looking at the others.
"yeah, i know it," hoseok says, momo and seungcheol nodding, jeongguk grinning widely. "i call jackson!"
everyone picks the member they'll dance as, despite it being a seven member dance, and they get into position, hoseok psyching himself up for the backflip jackson does at the beginning of the song. seungcheol chose to dance as mark, so hoseok hopes he doesn't get hurt when flipping.
seokjin puts the song on once everyone's in position, and the flips are executed perfectly, everyone in sync as the song goes on, seokjin watching with a contented smile. hyungwon slips onto his ass at one point, but he recovers quickly, smiling and laughing, and they continue smoothly, until the song ends and all of them are out of breath. seokjin hums, tapping his lips with a finger. "that was really good, guys — i reckon i've got some winners on my side!"
everyone smiles widely, whooping and clapping.
"have any of you ever choreographed original routines for yourselves?" seokjin asks, taking a seat in a blue plastic chair beside the sound system stuff. pretty much everyone nods, and the instructor crosses his legs, looking all of them over. "jung hoseok, chae hyungwon: you two will partner up and work as a subunit, okay? i want an original routine choreographed by the end of the week. same goes for you, momo and seungcheol. jeongguk, you can solo, is that alright?"
"sure, hyungnim," he bows slightly, making seokjin giggle a bit. "what song?"
seokjin assigns them all songs, hoseok and hyungwon's being drippin' by KM's own neo dreamers, which hoseok reckons will be cool to choreograph. seokjin spends the rest of the time exploring their own dance interests, and letting them show off; momo is a classical dancer by nature, but her hiphop routines had hoseok gaping, while hyungwon moves amazingly to contemporary routines, all graceful long limbs. jeongguk's a pop-and-lock combined with ballet, which looks amazing when he throws himself into a song, and hoseok's robotic body popping throws jaws to the ground. the trainees are grinning when they emerge for lunch, having a free afternoon to train or to explore the KIM-MIN HIT building.
hoseok decides to train after he digests a large plate of kimchi fried rice, carrying a cup of soda with him as he goes to find an empty practice room. the building meant for training is huge, with twelve practice rooms and ten studios for recording — hoseok can hear singing as he walks through the first floor, the unmistakable voices of han jisung and hwan hyunjin easily discernible through an open door (hoseok peeks in and nearly faints when jisung catches his eye, winking at him).
hoseok can't find a dance room not in use, but he supposes another dancer won't mind his presence. he goes to room 8, where there's soft music playing — guitar, maybe, and a sweet british accent —, and pushes open the door softly, an 'excuse me' already forming on his lips.
the words die when he actually looks into the room, because of who's in it. while hoseok was expecting some girl, maybe, choreographing a routine to the THE1975 song playing, instead he's found an idol. and not any idol; kim namjoon.
the for once natural black haired man is sat in the corner of the studio, his head buried in his hands. hoseok's caring instincts kick in right away, regardless of the fact that it's his once idolised favourite rapper; he runs over, full of concern, and crouches beside namjoon. "are you alright?"
namjoon visibly flinches, obviously not aware someone else had walked in. he looks up, wet and red eyes full of anxiety and fear, tear tracks staining his toasted caramel complexion that hoseok remembers obsessing over. his head shakes in answer to the question, and hoseok's not entirely sure whether to give him physical affection — he is, after all, famous and could be uncomfortable with a stranger touching him like that —, but when namjoon sobs loudly, again, hoseok's heart shatters and he just puts an arm around the idol's shoulder, letting namjoon lean on him.
"sorry, i didn't mean to walk in — i was looking for a place to dance," hoseok says, in an effort to explain; his damn anxiety makes him small talk like a stuttering teen. "do you... want to talk about it?"
namjoon sighs, elbows on his knees and his hands tugging at the root of his hair. "fuck — yeah, shit, sorry i'm swearing loads — who are you? sorry?"
hoseok attempts a kindhearted smile. "jung hoseok, i, uh, just started here."
"oh, yeah, um," namjoon's aggressively wiping away the salty residue on his cheeks, silver rings glittering. "seokjin said something, uh, about you — sorry, it's just a really bad time. really bad day."
"you can talk to me. i'm not some sasaeng that'll spill all your secrets to soompi or k-buzz or whatever," hoseok says. namjoon attempts a smile, but only ends up crying again. "anyway, um, mr kim... what's going on?"
a colossal sigh leaves the rapper's split lips, hands raking through his hair. "it's just this fucking award show — the genie awards —, they called agust-hyung and i today and told me they can't accept our collaboration with holland as a nominee for any category because of the fucking lyrics, because oh dear gay love is suddenly the biggest fucking problem ever—" namjoon chokes a little, and hoseok's surprised at how vulnerable the idol is. "and then i got a phonecall just now telling me my nan's died... fuck, it just isn't my day."
hoseok bites his lip, turning the information over in his head. he's a natural comforter, so he tries his hardest to come up with positivity. "that's... shit. i'm so sorry — this country's so backwards, it's cruel to people like you and me. they don't deserve to have you at their awards show," namjoon shakes his head, his raven hair now all messy and rumpled. "and i'm sorry about your nan... my grandad died of cancer last year. it's the worst situation to experience, i know. it's... it's shit. but it can get better, i promise."
namjoon takes a deep breath, stretching his legs out and wringing his hands. "um, thanks, hoseok," he tries a smile, eyes red-rimmed. "you're, uh, a dance trainee, right?"
"yeah," hoseok smiles, his arm still around namjoon's shoulder — he doesn't really register it, and namjoon isn't protesting either. "it was actually your influence that lead me here."
namjoon smiles, eyes sparkling. "really!?" he looks proud, and hoseok nods. "how about that... sorry you had to see this on your first day. and thanks. for listening, i mean — lot's of fans, they swoon if i'm glassy eyed in a photoshoot, but if i'm actually crying out of mental health problems, because they're so covered up by companies, they freak out and stop liking me because i'm weak or whatever. no one wants the shitty real side of the industry."
hoseok nods. namjoon's right; in south korea, mental health is seen as a stigma, the same as homosexuality, and it's rarely talked about. "you should talk about it. don't put up a fake shield. the fans who leave, they weren't your true fans."
namjoon nods, a smile hinting at the corners of his mouth. hoseok's admiration of him isn't gone, and neither is the respect he had as a fan. "thanks, hoseok..." namjoon's a bit quiet, until he speaks up. "you're gonna be in seokjin's showcase, right?"
hoseok nods. "yeah, course."
namjoon has a knowing look on his face as he smiled lopsidedly. "well, i'm definitely going to that."
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NOTES / 131118
BRUH
this took me so long and for what? but anyway it's good to be back!!!! i missed y'all!!!!
sorry about the break, i have family issues and school shit & w/e but i'm gonna try and update & i'm gonna start work on a christmas special and yeah i'm less writer's block-y. do you guys want a part three to this because they've like barely interacted??? or do u have requests (side eyes arne bc i know she's probably bursting with ideas)????
i'm going to try and update more promise!! what did u guys think of bts's stage with charlie puth? tbh i'm not his biggest fan but gukie's face when he came on uwu he's a CUTIE!!!
oh and new covers do u like bc i think they're cute af!!!
*jimin voice from the puppy interview* I LOVE YOU~ 💞💘❤
— love, jace