Yugyeom.
Words: 3,549

The place was crowded by the time Hyunju arrived. The sun was almost set, casting a lengthy shadow over the set up stage. The large banner hung above the stage read ‘Youth Performing Arts Festival’. A large crowd of varying age had gathered in front of the stage, eager for the concert to start. The mc had appeared, welcoming the audience. A loud opening music was put on, driving the crowd wild. A group of teenagers, most likely from middle school made an opening performance with a powerful choreography. Hyunju would have personally enjoyed the concert, but she couldn’t be at ease.

She was dressed in her usual varsity jacket and ripped jeans, and decided to let her hair fell free today. By the time the opening act finished, the mc arrived again, making some speech and introducing the next performer. Hyunju wondered why she was so fidgety anyway? It probably had to do with the slight worry about Yugyeom knowing that she was coming. Of course, she didn’t tell him that she was coming, but she was nervous about what would he think if he saw her in the audience?

Would he think that she liked him?

That was not far from truth, but Hyunju didn’t think she would want him to know.

It had been over an hour, but Yugyeom hadn’t appeared. Hyunju almost forgot the fact that Yugyeom would be performing so she had been enjoying the concert until the mc appeared again.

“I know you guys have been waiting for them!”

The crowd went louder.

“I can’t hear you!”

Hyunju screamed along, even though she had zero idea who would be up next.

“Say it with me! Got7!”

The crowd chanted the name, Got7, over and over again. Louder and faster as they went.

“Ladies and gentlemen, GOT7!”

The crowd went totally wild as a bunch of guys in black filled up the stage.

Hyunju’s eyes widened. She spotted her cap right away. It was on the tallest guy among the performer.

Yugyeom.

So this was the crew that Yugyeom was in? Hyunju did have interest in Yugyeom’s dancing, but she didn’t follow him enough to know that he was in this crew, which was the most anticipated by the audience.

Their dance was no doubt the most outstanding compared to the previous performers. A strong choreography, accompanied with hardcore hiphop beat. At one part of the performance, Yugyeom even outshone s with a solo dance break. Maybe it was the loud music pumping her heart, When he was on his way to return to his position, his eyes roamed the audience, and then they made eye contact. Yugyeom pointed to Hyunju and then winked with a mischievous smile.

The audience probably had no idea, but Hyunju was almost sure that he was pointing at her, even though she wasn’t that close to the stage.

Her cheeks heated up. She didn’t know what to feel about that.

The concert finally ended. The crowd started to disperse, but Hyunju stayed glued to her spot. She slightly scratched the side of her head, thinking if she should go and find him. That would make her look desperate. Maybe she would just ask him to return it on another day.

“Hyunju!”

Hyunju was in the middle of turning around to leave when someone shouted her name. When she looked back, Yugyeom was running from the stage, waving at her with a big smile on his face, her cap still on top of his head.

She sighed. She was totally not ready for this. Hyunju took a deep breath while staring at the ground, and then looked up again.

“Hyunju!”

“Hey,” Hyunju put up a small smile.

“I’m so glad you came. You saw me, didn’t you? I was really cool, huh?”

Hyunju scoffed. “Whatever, give me my cap back.”

“Oh, this? Well-”

“Hey, Yugyeom! Come on!”

One of his dance crew members were calling him. They looked like they were about to move somewhere.

Yugyeom craned his neck to the back. “You guys go ahead! I’ll join you later!” Yugyeom shouted back and then grinned at Hyunju. “Hey, let’s join us. We’re going to that restaurant I talked to you about it last week. I’ll introduce you to my hyungs, they’re really funny.”

“No, thanks. My cap, please.”

“Oh, Hyunju, come on!”

Hyunju rolled her eyes and decided she would just tiptoe and reach for the cap herself. She stopped midway when Yugyeom caught her wrist, staring deep into her eyes, there was no trace of his bright smile just now left across his lips.

“When I said I want to know you, I really meant it.”

Hyunju was taken aback for a while before she was back to her senses again. “Let go of me!”

Yugyeom let go of her and smiled apologetically. He realized that she was still not that comfortable around him, let alone meeting his friends.

“I’m sorry. Let me buy you coffee at least?”

At the mention of coffee, Hyunju softened up. She loved coffee, she could never say no to it.

“Thanks.” Hyunju smiled a little once Yugyeom handed her cup of Ice Americano. She was secretly glad that she didn’t have to join the dinner with Yugyeom’s crews. For always being perceived as unfriendly and scary by everyone, it could get nerve-wrecking to be friendly to a group of strangers all of a sudden. For that, she was thankful toYugyeom. Just, she didn’t know how to express it without being awkward so far.

Yugyeom suggested they had the drink at the café for a while since he was still tired after the performance. He was glad she agreed to it instead of leaving him right away.

“Come to think of it, this is much better than the ddukbokki I talked to you about.” Yugyeom said.

“You don’t have to make feel better.” Hyunju smirked a little, eye-ing him accusingly.

“For real!”

Cue loud stomach growling.

Hyunju raised an eyebrow. “I think you should join the dinner with your friends. You must be tired and hungry.”

Yugyeom grinned wider.

“What?”

“I’m just happy that you’re concerned for me.”

“I’m serious. I’m going home anyway, you should go too?”

“What? I thought we’re going to hang out.”

“I’m tired.”

“I’ll walk you home, then.”

Hyunju rolled her eyes, grunting. “Stubborn, aren’t you?”

“Stubborn is my middle name,” Yugyeom grinned proudly.

“Huh, I can tell.”

-

Yugyeom was lying in his bed, contemplating on how to keep meeting Hyunju. He already returned her cap, what else can he do to make her keep seeing him?

Yugyeom kicked his blanket, his mouth spewing curse to the air.

“Ah… Forget silly tricks. I’ll just get direct with her… That’s her style anyway.” Yugyeom nodded to himself. “Well… I’ll get her to like me a bit more before that.”

-

This past week had been weird for Hyunju. She was a bit busy with an upcoming assignment submission, so she didn’t even went out much, let alone updating herself on Yugyeom. But Yugyeom had been coming every single day without fail. The first day, he gifted her a brand new moleskin sketchbook, the next day a cup of coffee in between her classes, and then some chewing gums and chocolates. He kept appearing and brought her little things.

“Hi, Hyunju!”

Hyunju closed her eyes and threw her head back. She’s in the middle of the library, at one of the pc stations.

“What now?” she whispered back to him.

“What a coincidence! This is for you!” Yugyeom put a bun on her table, and then quickly waved her goodbye and ran.

Hyunju sighed. “This is it!” Hyunju picked up her bag and followed Yugyeom out of the library.

“Hey, Kim Yugyeom! Wait!” She hastened her steps and grabbed on his arm right after they left the library.

“Oh, Hyunju! Do you have anything to say to me?”

“Yeah,” she rested her fists on her waist, “I do. What’s this?” she waved the bread he gave her just now in front of his face.

“Ah,” Yugyeom let out an awkward laugh, “I just happened to have extra bread on me, and it just happened that you’re at the library, so-”

“So, a few days ago, you just happened to have an extra sketchbook, and extra chocolates, and just happened to pass by my faculty even though it is actually on the fourth floor and yours on the ground floor? People are starting to say things about us. What games are you playing?”

Yugyeom cleared his throat. He fiddles with the hair on the back of his neck, stalling for a little time. “I just want to be nice to you.”

“Why do you have to be nice to me, exactly? You don’t have any reason to be one.”

“Why do I need a reason to be nice to someone?” 

Hyunju was taken aback. Well, he had a point. But he was making her feel uncomfortable. And it felt like he was being invasive, which in turned caused her to be defensive instead.

“Well, I don’t like it. Stop it.”

“Why? Do you hate me?”

“It’s not that-”

“Then, do you like me?”

“Annoying, aren’t you? No! I don’t like you!”

“Lie! Then why do you made lots of drawings of me?”

“What?” Hyunju was speechless at the revelation.

“I-I mean…”

“Did you see my sketchbook?”

“Well, it was…”

The change on Hyunju’s expression scared Yugyeom. She had never looked so serious and hurt.

“Why are you looking into my things without permission?!” Her voice raised a drastic pitch than before. Yugyeom mentally kicked his own after looking at her reaction.

“I’m sorry, it was lying around and I just… I really didn’t mean to, but...”

“I really hate it when people touch my personal stuffs! Don’t ever appear in front of me again! What a pain!” Hyunju turned around and stomped away.

“Hyunju, wait!” Yugyeom wanted to chase after her but slipped and fell down. Turned out his sneakers were torn, the sole came off from the toe cap. He had been using those shoes for practice everyday, no wonder it was so worn out.

Hyunju stopped when he heard him yowling in pain. It felt like something stabbed her in the chest when she saw him falling and in pain, and that his shoes were torn, but she decided to ignore him and walked away.

-

Business had been slow today, Hyunju kept getting sleepy on her part time work. She looked at her phone, which, of course had no new messages or the sort. She realized that she didn’t even have Yugyeom’s number even after that much interaction.

“If people knew, they would just call me stupid.” Hyunju sighed, resting her chin on the cashier counter, one hand fiddling with her phone. Why would people know anyway? No one wants to be her friends. They were all scared of her, and they all thought she was incapable of being kind. Well, can’t blame them all the way.

One thought lead to another, and she was finally thinking of him. He was the only one who saw her past that wall. Honestly, he didn’t do much to get yelled that bad. It must have hurt him. Or maybe she scared him, since he didn’t bug her at all these past three days since then.

“Sheesh, Kim Yugyeom. Even when you’re not doing anything, you make me feel bad.”

Hyunju walked home with heavy steps that night. She stopped by a display window and stared at a pair of shoes. They were bright neon green, a pair that she had eyed from months ago. It was the reason she took up part time job in the first place when she was already so busy. And then her eyes caught a poster pasted at the wall next to the shop.

A dance competition.

She wondered if Yugyeom is participating in that?

It was lunch hours at the campus. Hyunju was on the way to the cafeteria when saw Yugyeom coming from the opposite way. He was with his friends. They made a brief eye contact, which Yugyeom quickly ended. He was pretending to be chatting with his friends, but his head hung low.

Hyunju was a little disappointed, but she didn’t know how to react either. She kept her gaze low as well as they passed each other. She felt his arm grazed her slightly. Hyunju paused in her track and turned around. Yugyeom was getting further with his friends. Hyunju dug into her bag, and found something that wasn’t originally there. She pulled out a pack of chocolate with a little post it on it.

‘Forgive me?’

Hyunju laughed in disbelief. “You’re an idiot.”

That evening, Hyunju paid a visit to the dance studio on ground floor. As expected, Yugyeom and his crews were there. They were practicing hard, they didn’t even realize that the door was slightly opened. It always made her smile when she saw him working hard. Hyunju also spotted the same dance competition poster she saw yesterday, pasted on the studio wall. They must be participating. Hyunju decided that she didn’t disturb them for the time being and then left quietly.

-

It was the day before the competition. The crew had just arrived early morning at the practice room. The older guys had gone straight to the changing room while Yugyeom fiddled with the computer, putting on their playlist and getting the sound system ready.

“Hey, hey, Yugyeom! Come here! Come here! You should see this!” It was suddenly noisy at the back.

“What? What?” Yugyeom went to the changing room right next to the practice room.

“Here! Take a look!” A senior student who was also part of the crew showed him a paper bag on the bench, a small card attached to it.

Yugyeom read the card as he took out the box inside the paper bag.

‘I’m not sure if it fits your taste, but I think it will look good on you.’

When he opened the box, a pair of bright neon green shoes came to sight. The guys howled loudly and made a big deal out of it.

“Yah, Kim Yugyeom!” One of them ruffled Yugyeom’s hair. “Oh, look at this! This is expensive stuff! Do you have some affair with some older career woman, huh?”

“What the hell!” Yugyeom playfully elbowed him.

“You should wear this on the competition tomorrow!”

“Ah, but I’ll stand out too much then.”

“What are you talking about? You’re the main anyway. Imagine how awesome it would be during your solo break.”

“Yeah, wear it, Yugyeom!”

“Should I?” Yugyeom grinned.

-

It was the day of the competition.

At back stage, the guys gathered together, chanting their team mantra, getting rid of any nervousness they had. Yugyeom had put on his new shoes. Even though the name of the person who gifted him the shoes was not written anywhere, he had a strong idea who it was. He hoped she would be here today. Yesterday, he did dropped by her house and left a chocolate in her mailbox along with a note, telling her about the competition today.

He really, really wanted her to be here to watch him.

As expected, the crowd went wild when his crew got on stage. Yugyeom’s crew, Got7 was easily one of the crowd’s favorite, given their reputation and their consistent top notch performance. Yugyeom was very immersed in his performance, that he couldn’t see the audience that well. He didn’t know if Hyyunju was there or not. When their performance ended, the crowd cheered loudly and applaused. His eyes quickly scanned the hyped audience. His heart skipped a beat when he saw her, right there in the middle of the crowd, smiling and clapping her hands. Yugyeom immediately beamed.

His team won first place. The guys were ecstatic and were already picking bars to celebrate their victory.  However, Yugyeom was a little restless. He kept trying to find the opportunity to slip out of the celebration, but it was hard to do so when he was always the highlight of the group. While they were walking towards a bar, Yugyeom typed a short message, waiting the right time to click send and slipped out of the group.

To one of his crews, he sent,

‘Smthg came up! g2g’

Hyunju was standing in front of the display window which had the neon shoes. She looked at the shoes with longing eyes and let out a soft sigh.

“Forget it. It doesn’t suit me. It looks better on him. He needs it much more anyway.”

Hyunju was about to turn around when suddenly-

“Wait! Wait! Stay there Na Hyunju!”

Hyunju looked around and saw Yugyeom running towards her. He was panting, his hands on his knees when he was next to her. He held up his palm, signaling her for a moment until he caught his breath. Hyunju realized he was still wearing the neon shoes.

Yugyeom finally stood straight again, towering over her.

“Why are you leaving so quickly?” Yugyeom said, still a little short of breath.

“Well… I got here after I finished my part time job, and I’m kinda really tired now…”

Yugyeom briefly looked at the shoes on the display window and then back at Hyunju.

“The shoes are nice. They are really comfortable too. How did you know my size?”

Hyunju looked away, fiddling with her hair. “What are you talking about? Ah, anyway, congrats, for winning. I’m going back now.”

Yugyeom quickly went to her side and followed her pace. “Hey, come on. Don’t pretend like you don’t know. You bought this for me. I just know it.”

Though not denying him, Hyunju was still being quiet.

“Why did you have to spend this much? How am I going to repay you?” Yugyeom cleared his throat, as there was no response from Hyunju. “Um… You’re… Not mad at me anymore?”

“Well… I feel bad for yelling at you. Sorry,” Hyunju stated blandly.

Yugyeom’s grin widened. Ah, she’s so cute when she’s not being scary. But even so, she’s still cute anyway.

“But these shoes are too expensive for an apology.”

“You’re so noisy. Just think whatever.”

“I want to apologize too. For looking through your sketchbook. I shouldn’t have done that, I’m sorry.”

Hyunju sighed. “Ah, why do you have to bring that up? Forget it! Forget you ever seen anything.” Hyunju looked away. Her face was probably blushing right now. Her cheeks felt hot. Damn it.

“How can I forget? You’ve been watching for me for so long. Do you know how important that is for me?”

“I don’t know. Whatever.” She muttered, pretending like it didn’t matter.

Yugyeom grabbed her hand, and then dragged her aside where there were not much people around.

“I was so busy these days, practicing for the competition, that’s why I couldn’t get to see you,” He told her.

“I didn’t ask.” Hyunju was about to step aside but Yugyeom stopped her, holding her shoulders in place.

“Are you avoiding me?”

“Why would I do that?” Hyunju muttered.

“Do you hate me?”

“Ah, what now?”

“Then do you like me?”

Hyunju was too shocked at the direct question that she was tongue tied at the moment.

“Kim Yugyeom, you!”

“I like you, Na Hyunju.”

Hyunju searched his eyes, looking for the truth. It all sounded too good, she thought she was dreaming. Yugyeom took a step closer towards her. Hyunju stepped back, but her back immediately hit the wall.

“Whenever I think of you, and all your sketches, it makes me want to work harder. You… really motivate me. And I think I really, really like you. I cant stand it when you were mad at me.”

“Are you crazy? There are so many girls out there-”

“But you’re so special. You’re different than any of them. And I like you. Ah!” Yugyeom threw his head back, but he was laughing nonetheless. “How many times are you going to make me say I like you? It’s embarrassing!”

Hyunju put her hand on her chest. It was racing so hard she might faint. She slightly flinched when Yugyeom touched her face. His hand was so gentle, caressing her flushed, warm cheek. When she looked up, she found herself unable to tear her gaze off him.

“Can I kiss you?” Yugyeom asked.

“Huh?”

“You didn’t say no.”

Hyunju found herself to be very shy in moments like this. If he was other guys, she would have cursed him and slapped the back of his head. But she was just frozen stiff right now, she didn’t even know she would react like this around him.

Slowly, Yugyeom bent his head, inching closer to her until their lips finally meet. His lips were soft and sweet, and he was very gentle. When he pulled away, he looked at her, smiling softly. He was a little shy, but there was mischief in his eyes.

“Look at you,” Yugyeom gently pinched her cheeks, “You can be really cute too.”

Hyunju chuckled, pushing his hand away. “What the hell…”

Yugyeom grabbed her hands and intertwined their fingers together. Yugyeom walked her home with their hands like that that night.

A/N: I'm really sorry to my requesters. Took me so long to get this done. I didnt even proofread or edit much so the writing is quite bad. Even though you guys might not read this anymore, I'm still going to finish the rest of two requests cuz they are some good prompts. I really enjoy doing them and taking requests but I guess that's all. I cant take requests anymore. I just dont have enough time anymore :'(

Well, if you guys really want to, maybe you can pm me your requests. If it sparks some ideas in my head, i might want to write it for you! Anyway, thank you so much for reading and I;m really sorry to those who waited :(