Between Spotlights

Description

Baekhyun is a novice in a professional dance company; Kai is its legendary soloist. Or at least he was, before he suddenly disappeared. But now he's back and Kai and Baekhyun can't help but cross each other in the pathways between practice rooms and darkened stages.

Warnings:

  • Super long fic, 135k words, 40 chaps, average chap length 3,000-3,500 words
  • Kaibaek-centric but with occasional bonus chaps (only 2) for other characters
  • Mature discussions and minimal content written and delivered with wit and grace (I try)
  • Realism, as in, not everything ends in the way characters initially would like (not angst, nor sad, but a little like real life)

Between Spotlights began as a birthday present to my sister BlueVIP because Kaibaek is her ship. After hours and hours and months of writing this, it's become one of my favorite ships, and I absolutely adore writing them this way. You'll also see some other ships littered throughout (including my Xiuhan OTP) and as many other BrOTPS as I can fit. 

 

CHARACTERS: 

 

Baekhyun - 20, contemporary dancer in a professional troop, dreams of becoming a principal

Kai - 19, legendary dancer before his mysterious leave of absence

 

The Dancers:

Tao - 19, fellow dancer, Baekhyun's friend and roommate

Suho - 21, Baekhyun's rival in the company

Minseok and Luhan - 24, principal dancers, friends and rivals

Sehun - 19, Kai's best friend, college student, dance teacher by night

Yixing - 23, visiting principal dancer from China

 

The Non-Dancers

Kyungsoo - 20, Kai's friend, vocal major in college

Chanyeol - 20, Baekhyun's high school best friend, college student

Jongdae - 20, Chanyeol's college roommate

Kris - 24, Tao's friend and sort-of stalker

 

Cameos: Kim Tae Hee as Kai's mother; Minzy as Baekhyun's sister; various idols as other dancers.

 

Special Thanks: to rawr27 for loving this fic enough to create this gorgeous title poster! So what if it was a bribe to write extra character scenes (which worked) lol. Thank you so much!

 

 

Here's my original, poster - a reference if you want to know how I imagine Kai and Baekhyun look like.

Author's Thoughts
ShiningRose
[1/10] This is it... It is done!
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Comments

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Rb2012 #1
Chapter 40: Just reread it again after so many years and still enjoyed it very much. The story is seriously underloved and deserves so much more.
rbdgirl #2
Chapter 6: I thought it was chanyeol:)
little_decoy #3
Can I just??? like. see people, this is why Kaibaek needs more love. *thumbs up*
kyseobie #4
i miss waiting for the updates, i love this story.. there is really a lack of chaptered, well written kaibaek, so i always come back to this one.. thank you
forsteye #5
I had read this fanfic long time ago and hadn't gotten the thought to comment until now, I am sorry huhuhu U.U
I LOVED IT, I couldn't stop myself to keep reading and pulling an all-nighter to finish this story. Super Addicting. This was beautiful, you make me can't read a cheesy-dramatic-impossible-to-happen-love-story lol.
And this is the first kaibaek fic i read, and i like your byun baekhyun
What ruined it for me was Sulay, i can't like this ship, just can't. But it is just me being biased and irrational
I just love every element, every pairing, every moment present in this fanfic except sulay's Lol
This fic is just Purr.Fect ♡
halefisha #6
Chapter 40: I found your live journal a few weeks ago, and I slowly made my way through some of your XiuHan oneshots (Xiumin is my bias too!) And I finally decided to read your Kaibaek masterpiece. I was afraid at first, fearing "real life" meant angst. I wish I wouldn't have waited. I devoured the story over 24 hours. I loved this AU so much. You're writing is beautiful! The characters are perfect and I enjoyed how not everything was perfectly fluffy, but grounded happiness. Truly "real world". I look forward to starting Beyond Spotlights.
cyd4294 #7
Chapter 40: done!
ought to finish this today since i have flight tmrw morning
and this is lovable <3
London9Calling #8
Chapter 40: Well Chingu.....this is by far my favorite fic you have ever written. I love it to pieces (and stayed up past my "reasonable" bedtime to finish it LOL). You can be an "egotistical nerd" all you want, you deserve it!

Xiuhan's push and pull was perfect (sorry OTP comment first hehe). Luhan being so blind to everything at first was so, well, LUHAN of him. Minseok playing hard to get was perfect. And a hip to show Sehun what was up. Well, that was kinda perfect too hehe.

I have never shipped Kaibaek, as I am sure you are aware. Not a NOTP I just never really thought about them. This fic made me think differently and I think a huge part of that is how well you captured their dynamic. You really made their relationship come alive. I was a particular fan of how you wove in Baek's playfulness with Kai's more reserved side. Perfect.

Taohun. Tao. The person who shall not be named. Yep, total fan here ;)

I am going to save the bonus chapter for tomorrow as a treat. Thank you for writing this and sorry it took me so long to read all of it. <333333333333

PS- I think I used the word "perfect" like ten times in my comment, but I mean it!!!!!!
brittlepin #9
Finally finished it! Ah man~ I have this weird idea in my head (idk why) that when someone says they write "real life" fics I expect angst and problems and what-not, but to my great surprise, Between Spotlights was such a wonderful and positive story!
Kai had a disability, and he mourned, but he didn't dampen the mood whenever he came in, in fact, it was REAL. I think now I'm beginning to understand better and appreciate this genre. Or maybe it's just you who's writing like this.
Kaibaek had this lovely relationship, the kind I haven't read in fics before. It's teasing and with playful back and forth pushing and it was a genuinely likable relationship. Like, something in real life.
I even had feelings for Kris' character, who frustrated me and made me scowl, and again, he was also one of those whom felt alive, no matter how small his presence was in the fic. His issues with himself and others, they ... like ... I can't think of words to articulate for him tbh. His was a character I felt sorry for and angry with.
and xiuhan omfg xiuhan. I have a feeling you put angst and struggle with this pairing and misery for taohun xD (comparing it to Wounded Pride :s)
The part which gave me FEEEEEELS was Kai's drawing D': I loved that part in the story D': I want to upload it to my twitter with lots of sad hash tags D':
btw, I read this whole thing on LJ & found the AFF link on the last chapter ~_~
It's been a good read ❤ I was going to ask you about the dance too, but the note on the last chapter answered it :D Are you still being treated for it? How's it now? :<
Btw, I like the name "Beyond Spotlights" :D goes well after "Between Spotlights" and for some reason, Beyond Spotlights makes me FEEL things after reading this fic :3
Joyless #10
Chapter 40: Well I remember that I read this dazzling piece last year, and then I'm here now, finishing what I started after a long time. There's no words to describe this masterpiece, and there's so much I want to express but I'm like 'where do I start?'. First of all I want to praise your writing, is simple but yet it captives, it wasn't tedious and kinda refreshing (?) and i feel personally connected with every character's action along all the story. I don't know what character love more, Baekhyun was the definition of perfect here, he was humble, hard-working and just amazing. Kai (or aka Jongin, bc i have a thing for his name lmao) was a really interesting character, his back story was so... idk how to said it... sad? I mean in the form of his condition, he couldn't avoid to happen, the odds weren't in his favour. The epilogue it was a bittersweet thing to me for some reason :(. I started to feel like he was my little son, lmao, ready to protect him in the middle of the story. And the other couples, sweet little Tao come here and let me love ya, he needs all the love. Xiuhan was a interesting pair, not my ship, but I think they were cute and stubborn as hELL in here, glad they're now a sickening couple lol. In other words, amazing story, I really enjoyed it. I'm going to read you more on the future hun. Hope you're really fine with your condition, lots of love and strength to you.<3 (I CANT DEAL WITH THE CHOCOLATE CAKE AND THE GREAN TEA ICE CREAM I WAS HUNGY AF WHEN I READ IT THAT PART THO)
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