Somewhere between the hassles of moving from dance class to language, wufan caught the glimpse of the new trainee; the one he heard auditioned with a super intermediate level of vocal. The boy was short but the defined facial features and bones protrude here and there, and wufan understood why he passed the second round with the exception onto the third one. Wufan tried to recall the name he saw on the resume board, kim jong- kim Jongdae and couldn’t help but felt a sense of jealousy creeping inwards. Wufan turns twenty-one this year and that marks the fourth year he’d been juggling college and practices, catching the latest subway to Cheongdam-dong main building before he gets his kicked out along with his dreams.

Four long years of sweats that formed of hard work and passion, drenching him in a vague promise of fame.

He watched his sunbaes come and go, those who knew him well enough stops by to give him pats of encouragement (or it could also be sympathy, no one really could judge) and wufan watched them glorifying talents and harsh years in the form of awards and he too, dreamed for the longest time to hold the golden trophy in his own hands.

So when Jongdae stepped in the company and swoon all attention towards him Wufan can’t help but to give his attention to the new kid too. But Wufan’s attention comes in the form of staring with awkward gazes and uncomfortable eyes. He is rather sure that Jongdae is gonna leave him behind first in this race to stardom. Wufan shivered and collected his bag and walked to the classroom on the second floor, opting to use the stairs instead of the elevator.

He thinks about Joonmyun who spent six years in the company and he thinks about SM’s golden boy Jongin who by miracle hasn’t debuted in the earlier years and lastly, wufan thinks about how they are finally going to debut under M1 and M2. He wondered briefly about his own fate—

Who said something about future love fate?

Fate is short, and his raven mop of hair cuts out in an awkward angle and probably cropped too short for his own good. Fate’s face looks much much nicer up front and his smile kind of has a nice beam to it and he’s putting out a hand towards wufan’s direction.

Oh.

Apparently fate goes by the name Jongdae and held hostage to a melodious voice of tumbling apologies.

After seconds of staring, wufan woke to his conscious and rapidly shook his head and almost instantly kept still, realizing he’s losing his cool image. It took him awhile to realize that he’d bumped into Jongdae on his way to the stairs and that now said boy is offering him a hand and wufan couldn’t say no. So wufan took the hand, and it looked a lot smaller compared to his own. Jongdae’s hand is coarse whilst wufan’s is warm, and wufan considered sharing the lotion he’s been using.

Jongdae bowed repeatedly and wufan watched the shorter boy move away.

Well, if he were to live this reality for another year, then maybe he could. As long as jongdae’s warm smile will always be there to keep him company.