The sun was at a forty-five degree angle, creating long shadows of the trees and sporadic playground equipment. The swings squeaked back and forth with the help of the breeze and the sound of giggles filled the air. As it was the beginning of October, the breeze was still much appreciated and cut through the lingering summer heat and the overpowering smell of mulch.
Seungmin sat on a wooden bench, desperately trying to hold onto a piece of paper and keep his textbook open at the same time. He put his arm over the book and stuck his pencil in his mouth. He looked around for some way to weigh down the book, but with the path being paved and everything else being covered in mulch, there weren't any good solutions.
Giving up, he took the pencil out of his mouth and shut the book on the paper, only to screech and open it again to see the paper and multiple book pages creased. Sighing heavily, Seungmin straightened the pages and held them in place as he shut the book again. He placed it in the backpack by his feet and grabbed his pencil pouch.
It was turquoise with a spiralling zipper. If he unzipped it, it became one long line of fabric with orange teeth. It reminded him of a weapon, and Seungmin liked that. However, instead of unraveling the whole thing, he just unzipped the top and put his pencil away before zipping it back up. He dropped the pouch into his backpack and returned to just sitting on the bench.
Not knowing what to do without some sort of paper in his hands, Seungmin wiggled his fingers aimlessly until he spotted his phone in the mesh pocket on the side of his backpack. He extracted the device and clicked the home button, mildly acknowledging the time. 5:15.
Seungmin clicked through his regular apps, not surprised that nothing was happening. Locking it, he flipped the device around and around in his hand and crossed his legs while staring at the ground and thinking about how bored he was.
A particularly loud scream rang out from his left and he looked up just enough to see Hyunjin and his cousin rolling around on the ground, getting mulch all over them.
Well it looked like today was gonna be a bath day.
Seungmin sighed and checked the time again. 5:20. He sat up stiffly, head tilted, and eyes squinting slightly. His mouth opened and closed as his normal unaffected face returned.
"Yo, Hyunjin. It's 5:20." He called out to the boy giggling on the ground while Jeongwoo laid across his stomach and Kkami licked his face.
Hyunjin quickly sat up, eyes wide as he scrambled around, grabbing Kkami and simultaneously trying to remove the mulch from his clothes.
"Why didn't you warn me? I'm sorry, Jeongwoo. I have to go." Hyunjin bent down to the child's level and patted his head. Jeongwoo pouted.
"Okay, Uncle Jinnie. See you next week?" Hyunjin grinned at the boy and scrunched up his nose.
"Of course! Kkami say bye!" Hyunjin picked up the dog's paw and waved with it. Jeongwoo waved back, also saying bye.
Hyunjin stood up and ruffled Jeongwoo's hair one last time before walking to the edge of the park. He turned back once to see Seungmin packing up and throwing his backpack over his shoulder before taking Jeongwoo's hand and leading him in the other direction. Hyunjin smiled sadly and once again began to make his way out of the park, texting Felix that he'd be at his house in about fifteen minutes.
Hyunjin ran, jostling Kkami in his arms. About ten minutes later, he was ripping his front door open. He carefully put Kkami down right inside the door and shut him inside before running to Felix's.
It didn't take long before Felix's form came into view. The boy was leaning his back against the metal fence, phone in hand, tapping rapidly with both thumbs. Hyunjin panted and slowed down. Felix looked up and smiled. His lips were more pink than normal and Hyunjin mildly wondered if he was wearing lipstick.
"Hey, Jinnie!" Felix pushed his phone into his back pants pocket and grinned.
"Hey, Lix. I like the headband." Felix's style was a little more sporty than usual. He wore a white headband with a black stripe right through the middle. It perfectly swept his blond hair back and matched his white Adidas t-shirt and straight cut, black athletic pants. The only thing that didn't quite match were his ragged pink sneakers he wore every day, but that wasn't important.
"Thanks! It was a gift from Binnie! By the way, he says hi."
"Does he now?" Hyunjin wasn't sure how to respond. Changbin hadn't talked to him at all today.
"Huh?"
"It's nothing. Tell him hi back for me, okay?" Felix nodded, immediately getting his phone out and typing the message. After that was done, Felix returned his phone to his pocket and reached out for Hyunjin's hand.
"Shouldn't we go?" Hyunjin wrapped his fingers around Felix's hand and nodded.
As they entered the studio, they were greeted with the smell of new floor wax and an overwhelming amount of dark grey walls.
Felix signed them in at the front desk computer, claiming Hyunjin as his guest and waiting until the screen returned to its original state.
They walked down the narrow hallway, passing various classes that were already in session. Each had a different style of music coming from inside. Hyunjin's emotions were pulled in many directions as he passed fast-paced hip-hop, slow instrumental, and sentimental lyrical. Their class was in the third room on the left, an explicit pop song coming from inside.
Felix pushed open the door and the music got exponentially louder. Hyunjin resisted the urge to cover his ears.
Most of the people in the room were stretching while the instructor reviewed her notes. Beyond the loud music, it was peaceful and full of smiles. They had made it just in time.
Felix pulled Hyunjin to the left where Jisung was sitting in the corner, laughing at Minho who was freestyling to the current song. Felix's sharp tug made Hyunjin slip on the newly waxed floor and have to do a wobbly run to regain his balance. This caught Jisung's attention.
"We haven't even started yet and you're already struggling?" Hyunjin glared in return as Felix hugged him to keep him upright.
"What is this?" Minho reached up and plucked something out of Hyunjin's hair and held it up to the light, "wood?"
"It's from the playground." Hyunjin grabbed the mulch out of his hand and threw it in the direction of the trashcan.
"Oh, right. The dog." Minho said in a monotone voice.
"The dog? The dog!?! Do you not care at all? I should divorce you!" Jisung stood up, pursed his lips, and hit Minho in the back of the head.
His confidence didn't last long though, because one look at Minho, and he immediately cowered behind Felix. Minho bent down to eye level with Jisung, hands on his knees, and smirked.
"What was that, Babe?" Jisung grabbed Felix's hips and gave Minho innocent eyes.
"What? I said nothing. What are you talking about?" He tried to whistle, but failed miserably.
"Uh huh," Minho straightened back up to his full height and let out a dry laugh, "we'll see about that."
Minho licked his lips and casually began to walk forward. Jisung squeaked and ran in the opposite direction. Minho just continued to walk calmly as he watched Jisung flail and trip over his own feet. Soon Jisung's back hit a wall. Jisung's eyes got wider every step Minho took towards him.
At the last second, Jisung sprinted away from Minho and flung himself behind Felix again.
"Uh uh, not this time." Felix grabbed Jisung and pushed him out towards Minho. Jisung fought back, but was about as strong as Felix, so it didn't appear to make any difference.
Minho looked on for a few seconds, one eyebrow raised and mischievous smirk present, before taking action. He took a few swift steps forward and grabbed Jisung by the waist, lifting him directly into the air. Jisung's legs wiggled around like a beetle as he yelled incoherent phrases. Minho spun Jisung around a few times, the captive eventually letting out a loud laugh.
Minho let Jisung down, but didn't let go of his waist. The couple swayed side to side like attached penguins until Minho leaned over and gave Jisung's neck a sloppy kiss. Jisung slapped his neck and pulled away.
"Ew! What the heck?" Jisung rubbed his neck and wiped his hand on Minho's jacket, "you're disgusting."
Minho's smirk never left his face as he turned to the front of the room where the instructor was asking people to space out and get ready for their warm-up.
"I hate him." Jisung scowled and stood on the other side of Hyunjin to be as far away from Minho as possible.
"He just gave you a kiss, what's the problem?"
"Just a kiss? Did you see that?" Jisung shuddered, "he knows I don't like things like that."
"Maybe that was the point." Hyunjin shrugged, starting to bounce on his feet as he imitated the instructor. Felix was doing the same to Hyunjin's left.
"I don't care!" Jisung's voice was choppy due to his aggressive bouncing.
"You'll get over it." Jisung shook his hands and his head as he bounced, sticking out his tongue a little to show his annoyance.
Hyunjin laughed quietly at the orange-haired boy and continued to mirror the rhythmic moves of the instructor through timed lunges, shoulder rolls, and body twists.
As the class wore on and they got to the actual dancing, Hyunjin realized he was not prepared. Sure, they were just practicing the same choreography from last week, but that didn't make it any easier.
After thirty minutes, they were given some individual practice time. Hyunjin stared at himself in the mirror and clenched his fists. He could do this!
Or not. Maybe it was a bad idea to focus on a spinning move.
Hyunjin staggered about and dropped down to the floor to clear the fuzziness in his head. Jisung snickered. Hyunjin flicked his head up to send a glare at Jisung, but immediately groaned and put his head in his hands. After a few deep breaths, he looked over to his left.
Felix and Minho were hardcore concentrating and almost had the entire choreography down. At this moment they were moving perfectly in sync, their mouths slightly open and their eyes radiating seriousness.
The song excerpt stopped before looping like it had been for the entirety of the class. The two experienced dancers paused for a break, so Hyunjin gave them a small round of applause. Felix smiled and crashed beside the boy on the floor, putting his head in Hyunjin's lap.
"How's it goin', good lookin'?" An amused smile forced its way onto Hyunjin's face.
"Mm, not so bad now that you're here." Hyunjin leaned close to Felix's face and used both of his hands to mess up his sweaty, blond hair. Felix giggled and pushed Hyunjin's chest away. Hyunjin pulled back and booped Felix's nose.
"You want some water?" Felix nodded enthusiastically and sat up.
Hyunjin stood up slowly, pausing halfway to recover from the exhaustion induced dizziness, walked over to the small communal water dispenser, and filled up two paper cups of water. He trudged back to Felix and handed one of the cups over before falling back to the floor.
"Alright! Last run! Everybody up!" Hyunjin groaned and chugged his water. Felix tried to stop hyunjin's cup, but it didn't work out.
"Don't do that, you'll get cramps!" Hyunjin waved him off.
"I'll be fine." Felix hummed in uncertainty and stood up along with the others.
The last run went alright. At least Hyunjin stayed on his feet the whole time and ended with everyone else. That was more than could be said about the first week.
As they made their way to the second half of Dance and Dinner, Hyunjin linked his hand with Felix's and pouted.
"What's wrong, Jinnie?"
"I don't want this day to end." Felix let go of Hyunjin's hand and instead wrapped his arms around his waist.
"It's okay, Jinnie. We'll see each other soon." Hyunjin pouted even more.
"But tomorrow..."
"What about tomorrow?"
Taehyuk and I decided to have our first family outing on Saturday. We'll go to the park and have a picnic! I remember how you used to love those! We can bring the frisbee too!
"It's nothing," Hyunjin shook his head and smiled, "promise you'll text me tomorrow?"
"Always!"
Hyunjin nodded, his smile saddening as he directed it to the ground.
Tomorrow would be a test in ways he couldn't even imagine.
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I love listening to songs where it's obvious the artist was smiling while recording it.