“I don’t think I belong here,” Chanyeol says, clinging to Sehun’s arm tightly as they pull through the crowd.

“Relax, Chanyeol. As soon as we find Jongin, you can leave and do whatever clothes shopping you want,” Sehun assures him. “You’re just my backup today in case I get lost.” They continue along the street and cross the road with arms linked together, and Sehun keeps his phone out in order to glance at the directions to the address.

“You know, I can stay if you don’t want to be lonely,” Chanyeol suggests kindly.

“As much as I would like that, Jongin only gets one free ticket to hand out. If you bought one, we wouldn’t even be sitting together,” Sehun reasons. Chanyeol nods in understanding and doesn’t add more to the conversation, only giving a few surprised yelps when the wind picks up speed.

“Are we almost there yet?” He finally asks as the sidewalk opens up into a broad plaza. Sehun holds up his phone and checks their surroundings for confirmation, eventually sliding it back into his pocket and curling his hands back under his sleeves.

“That clearing of grass over there is where my phone said to go, so I guess there’s a stage somewhere over that hill,” he points out. “Do you happen to see Jongin? Once we say hello to him, you’ll be free to go, Chanyeol,” he says with a little laugh.

“Is that him over there?” Chanyeol asks, pointing to the base of the hill. His finger hovers over a boy with a similar stature to Jongin, and when Sehun sees the well styled hair, he confirms that it is indeed Jongin.

“That must be him,” Sehun comments. “Let’s go greet him, then.”

“Are you sure we should be so close together like this, though? I don’t want to make anyone jealous tonight,” Chanyeol smirks, making Sehun wish he was back to being quiet as he was on the entire walk here.

“Fine, whatever you want,” Sehun coldly agrees, untangling his arm from Chanyeol’s. The wind is blowing against them as they walk, but he doesn’t dare to bury himself into the other’s body for fear of further ridicule. He’s had enough of feeding that foolish grin of Chanyeol’s for today, anyways.

As Jongin recognizes the presence of his friends, he runs up to give each of them a large hug (Sehun’s lasted longer, let the record show). “I’m so happy you showed up!” he exclaims at Sehun. “But Chanyeol, did you buy a ticket or something?”

“No, I’m just Sehun’s for today. I’ll be leaving right now to go do some stuff with my family, but good luck with your show! I’m sure Sehun will tell me all the details,” he emphasizes.

“Thanks, Chanyeol. And have fun wherever you go today,” Jongin cheekily replies, waving a sweet goodbye to Chanyeol as he leaves. Sehun smiles at Chanyeol’s lie, knowing that he has no family affairs to tend to, but Jongin’s happiness is enough to satisfy him for the rest of the night. It was the polite thing to do on Chanyeol’s part after all, so he wouldn’t hold this over him.

“Aren’t you going to be cold performing on stage tonight?” Sehun asks out of legitimate concern, shivering at the violent winds.

“There’s heaters on stage, so it shouldn’t be that bad. But judging by what I have to do today, I’ll be sweating the entire time whether it’s cold or warm,” he smiles.

“I’ll be looking forward to that,” Sehun jokes with a roll of his eyes, and Jongin gently punches him in the arm in response.

“You should get going, Sehun. The show’s about to start soon, so I wouldn’t want you to miss anything important. I need to go prepare backstage anyways, so make sure to enjoy yourself.” Jongin boldly winks at Sehun before waving a quick goodbye, running over the hill and disappearing into its cover. Sehun sighs with admiration and follows in suit, leisurely walking over to the pit of seats with his ticket in hand.

~~~

When the show finally starts, Sehun finds himself to be in a love and hate relationship with his seating area. As a benefit to being Jongin’s guest, he gets to sit just a few rows close to the front. On the other hand, he’s surrounded by overenthusiastic girls to his left, right, front, and back, and being boxed in by strangers makes him feel incredibly uncomfortable.

“Be prepared for that,” Jongin had told him yesterday as they were talking about the performance day. “Most of the guys invite their girlfriends, so you just might be the only guy in that front section,” he said with a teasing laugh. Even though Sehun had found that an exaggerated statement yesterday, as he sits amongst these girls, he finds that Jongin was actually not joking that time. Maybe he should be flattered then, he wonders, but he decides to not delve into any deeper meaning. He was just here to support a friend.

The show is more legitimate than he believes, as the seats are crowded with about 500 people, and an entire set of camera equipment is propped up in the back to film it all. Sehun then realizes that Jongin’s “team for fun” is not really just a start-up dance crew, but an assembly of boys from a talented dance academy that promotes frequently. He doesn’t know why Jongin goes to his school instead of that academy, but all he knows is that Jongin has been definitely underscoring his own talent.

That assumption is further supported when Jongin comes out onto stage and completely annihilates the show. Sehun finds his eyes trailing him across the stage as he precisely nails his routine, and he claps even louder when he sees Jongin in the center leading the group. He feels proud on the inside that his friend has such talent, and maybe Sehun has just a little pleasure at being in the intimate front row section.

Nevertheless, that pleasure fades away when Jongin does a thirty second solo freestyle. The girls around Sehun are all screaming his name in high-pitched voices, and Sehun is thrown off guard so much that his own cheers cut off mid-performance. He feels a small flame of jealousy burning at his core and decides to throw gasoline at it, making sure that his deeper voice pierces through all the female shrieking. Sehun’s going to regret every action he makes, but he continues his shouts without flinching a bit. It was a territorial thing, he supposed.

The