"oh god, just kill me now," donghyuck rasped as he lay on the floor of the practice room. he rolled over onto his back and groaned loudly, holding his stomach. "why did you let me eat so much over christmas?" he whined.
mark chuckled, wiping sweat from his forehead with the hem of his t-shirt. donghyuck watched with interest, catching sight of mark's abs.
"i can't believe you have abs," he complained, his expression of admiration turning to one of annoyance. "you ate as much as me!"
"you didn't work out one bit," sanha told him, stretching his long limbs and wincing. first day back for rehearsals had consisted of three hours of dance practice, to make sure the routines were as polished as possible before dress and tech runs that would be happening soon.
"you can't talk," donghyuck snapped, "you twig."
"hey-"
"guys, shut up," xiyeon half-yelled. "we have, like, half an hour left. can we just go over married to the music one more time?"
donghyuck just groaned and chenle giggled from the other side of the room. he seemed to be full of beans, despite his cheeks being a bit chubbier from all the food he ate over christmas. but he had seen jisung that morning, so that most likely affected his mood positively.
"babes, i'm your saviour," said mr byun, pushing open the practice room door, carrying a tray of iced coffee. behind him, mr park was carrying another load of coffees for the dancers.
"mr byun, i actually love you," donghyuck said seriously, scrambling up from the floor to get his hands on a coffee.
"hey," mark protested, but donghyuck gave a sweet smile and handed his boyfriend a coffee.
"just one more hour, babes," mr byun said, pushing his round glasses up his nose as he handed out the rest of the coffees to the dancers and cast. "it's almost perfect. we'll rehearse the numbers onstage tomorrow afternoon and you'll only have to spend time in the practise room if there's anything to work on. and after that, run-though! i'm so excited!" he clasped his hands together, beaming from ear to ear. everything had been building to this and mr byun was determined to deliver and amazing school musical again, and felt blessed to have so much talent and skill in the school.
xiyeon and sanha exchanged a grin, the other cast members expressing how much they were looking forward to the show.
"alright, let me see you fabulous people perform," said mr byun, "sicheng, how are they doing?"
the chinese guy smiled, having come in to work with the dancers one last time before they started properly running the show onstage. jungwoo stood by his side, beaming.
"i'm so please with them, they have improved so much and they just look incredible!" jungwoo gushed, placing his hands on his cheeks.
"i agree," said sicheng. "okay, show your teacher the dance."
"which one would you like to see?" jungwoo asked.
mr byun grinned wider. "married to the music."
the cast rushed to leave their drinks to the side of the large room, taking their places in their starting formations for the song. jungwoo darted over to the music player, hand poised above the laptop that was plugged into the sound system. he glanced at each dancer, his eyes asking ready? several nods later, he pressed 'play' and the beat kicked in, with donghyuck looking up sharply and winking at mr byun, before lipsyncing along to his opening line. everyone was perfectly in sync, moving as one as they changed formations and the choreography moved onto the couple dances part.
mark was dancing too, donghyuck catching his eye and grinning at him. the older was filling in for jeongin that day, who had come down with a bad cold. if worst came to worst, mark figured he would be able to step in for any of the male dancers as the choreography was practically the same for everyone, other than the formations, but he hoped he didn't have to. he wanted to run a perfect show from behind the scenes so donghyuck could shine even more. (he'd only reveal that fact if he was forced to, though.)
mr byun actually had tears in his eyes as the dancers hit their ending poses, donghyuck and seungyeon in the centre. mr park passed his boyfriend a tissue, and the drama teacher collected himself before speaking.
"i am so proud of each and every one of you, babes," he sniffled. "it's beautiful, really beautiful."
"the quality is excellent," mr park agreed, and mr byun nodded enthusiastically.
sicheng crossed the room to stand in front of his students, and bowed. they all bowed gratefully in response, vocalising their gratitude to him for such amazing choreography and patience in teaching them the dances.
"you all amazing," he told them, smiling, "good show!"
"thank you, sicheng! thank you, jungwoo!" they all replied, some looming close to tears themselves. they had enjoyed sicheng's classes so much.
"i don't teach much musical theatre myself," jungwoo said, "baby ballet is about as much as i teach, to be honest. but you guys have inspired me, i want to make my own choreography for musical theatre. and if i ever start a class at the studio, i'd be honoured if any of you decided to come."
"i would!" donghyuck exclaimed, flinging his arm up. "i wouldn't miss that for the world, jungwoo-hyung!"
jungwoo laughed, getting teary. "thanks for the experience, guys. i'll be in the front row to watch the musical, i booked my ticket as soon as they went on sale. universe, fighting!"
"fighting!" everyone yelled in response, as their two dance teachers started packing up their stuff.
then a face was pressed against the window in the practice room door, and daehwi giggled, clapping a hand over his mouth. he gave a wave to jaemin, who had appeared outside. the brown-haired boy grinned in response, opening the door for the teachers to leave. renjun and jeno were there, too, with jeno waving his arms to catch donghyuck's attention.
"hey, guys!" he said excitedly, running up to them and giving them all a sweaty hug.
daehwi popped up behind jaemin, shyly back-hugging him. "hey," he said softly. "you okay?"
jaemin grinned as daehwi let go, turning to face the younger. "yeah, i'm good."
"want to hang out with us crackheads, hwi?" donghyuck asked, sneaking his arm around mark's waist. "we were gonna hang out at my place."
"sure," daehwi said with a nod.
"nice, mark's driving us," the redhead added, the six of them leaving the practice room after the ones who had been dancing gathered their things.
"how many seats are in your car, hyung?" renjun asked as they walked through the arts block.
"ah," mark said, pausing. "there's only five."
"i'm sure we can all squeeze in," donghyuck chirped, holding mark's hand tighter and swinging it as they walked.
"that's a bit illegal," jaemin piped up, but donghyuck shot him down.
"we can sit on laps, we'll be fine," he said, looking pointedly at him and daehwi.
"okay," jaemin uttered.
but, of course, it was jeno that pulled renjun into his lap as soon as they got in mark's car, leaving jaemin and daehwi to squeeze in beside them in the back, donghyuck sitting in front. as mark started up the car, putting the heating on after many protests from the passengers (mostly donghyuck), jaemin thought that going back to school wasn't as bad as he thought it might be.