Pride, Prejudice, and Pretty Boys – Because “Leo” Rhymes With “Romeo”

“Hyung? What are you doing?” Sanghyuk asks, looking over from his script book in their van. He raises a bushy eyebrow at the hyung that was curled up in fetal position—almost hidden under the front row of seats—and trembling. “Are you having a seizure or something?”

Well.

Sanghyuk wouldn’t think this was weird behavior for his hyung if he was the team’s beloved and violent pet hamster, Taekwoon, shriveling up or giving up on life from embarrassment, but the hyung on the floor wasn’t Taekwoon. Taekwoon was already at the filming set with everyone else that didn’t have another schedule this morning. Everyone else except this hyung, who curled up faster than a piece of intestine on a hot grill mere seconds after cracking open his script book.

“Hyung—“

“I’m cringing; what does it look like I’m doing?” the artwork replies in a strangled voice. Sighing, he untangles himself a bit to peer up at the amused, tall, blond man sitting on the back bench. “Where do our fans even find these lines, anyway?” Crawling back up to his seat, he flicks his head to resettle his dark hair.

“Dunno . . . Maybe they write the lines themselves,” the man replies, returning his focus to his book. He flips a couple pages to skim the other hyungs’ lines. “If it makes you feel better, Taekwoon-hyung has to recite Shakespeare to the noona we’re working with . . . and N-hyung . . . his character is mute.”

“Oh, that makes everything in the world right,” Hongbin says dryly, rolling his eyes. “We’re going to be filming until I get called for military enlistment because our hamster will switch all his lines to ‘please save me,’ and whatever gooey eye contact the director asks for will end up as a close up of the top of his head.”

“At least you’re paired with Leo-hyung. I got N-hyung,” the maknae says glumly as a he turns the page he was studying to see who his partner was.

“N-hyung’s acting is pretty good, so you should wrap up quickly.”

“At least Leo-hyung leaves me alone.”

“Ah, true . . .”

And the two men sigh deeply before diligently learning and practicing their lines together.

Arriving at their set, Hongbin finds himself chuckling wryly as his prediction comes true; peals of laughter from the staff-noonas reached Hongbin long before he saw his hyung, and he faintly heard a “please save me” as he greeted some of the cameramen. Making his way to the monitor, he sees the second part of his prediction come true; Taekwoon had suddenly burst out laughing and bowed his head as the camera closed in on him. As the director called a five minute break, Hongbin smiled cheekily at the red-eared Taekwoon that was heading towards them.  The director, a man of Buddha-like patience, pats Taekwoon on the back, assuring the imposing-looking—yet surprisingly shy—man that he wasn’t doing too badly, and that it’d be over soon.

“Hongbinnie.” Taekwoon says softly, pleading with his eyes. Please switch roles with me.

“Sorry I’m late, my other filming with Hyukkie ran a little late,” Hongbin says, pretending not to notice Leo’s glassy eyes. And even though it was quite obvious by what he heard and saw just moments ago, he had to ask. “Is hyung’s scene all set?”

Leo flicks an irritated glance at the snark-god before turning to make a suggestion to the director. “Can we film Hongbinnie first? I think I need more time to learn my lines.”

No. No, don’t make me—Hongbin forces a smile—or grimace—onto his face. “Oh, I couldn’t. You’re  the hyung, after all—“

“Good idea, Leo,” nods the director. Gently, he nudges Hongbin onto the set as Taekwoon smugly settles on the ground next to the monitor, setting his open script book in front of him. “Maybe Leo can get some inspiration from watching you—“

Yeah, right. Inspiration. Hongbin shoots a dark look at the man who said he needed more time to learn his lines, and yet, the man wasn’t even reading the script book. His dark, sleek eyes were fixed on the set and the dongsaeng he’d just gleefully thrown under a freight train. I hate you, hyung. Unfazed, Leo keeps his eyes on Hongbin, and his usual grim expression carried more than a hint of amusement.

After a deep sigh and brief introductions, filming began.

Hongbin strolls through the dark set with the actress at his side, chuckling all the while and playing out the role of a wonderful boyfriend that couldn’t possibly exist outside of a script book or stage set. Or outside of a mirror-- Then, suddenly, the bushes rustled and the dim lamp lights flickered out, causing the actress to scream and clutch his arm.

He laughs, shaking his handsome head slightly and popping his dimples. Looking into those wide, round eyes, he smiles his best smile for the woman, trying to calm her down. Noticing that her shoelace was loose, he kneels and ties it for her before lightly kicking the bush to show her that there was nothing there. Getting up, he places a hand on her shoulder, drawing her close. “Byul, oppa is here, there’s nothing to fear.” And mentally, he prepared king-sized buckets for puking. And maybe for kicking or dunking Taekwoon-hyung into later—

The woman looked up at him, her eyes squinting and struggling to make out his face in the dark. “But it’s dark, and—“ She looks away, unable to see him because of her eye condition. She stares at the endless darkness that was the sky for her, unable to see the millions of little, twinkling star lights. Her shoulders droop as she lets loose a small sigh. “I hate the dark. Because I can’t even see the stars. Because my eyes . . . they’re weird.”

“No, Byul’s eyes are beautiful and one of a kind. And hey?”

The actress looks over at Hongbin as the lamp lights flicker back on, getting a little flustered over his sudden compliment.

“You’re my star, and stars are nothing without their light, right? You’ll always have me shining—“

“Cut!” the director calls. “That was good, but could we take it again from the top to get some more angles in? And Hongbin, try to look more natural and less like you want to puke – “

Hongbin glares past the director at the dark-haired man, whose head was ducked down and shoulders were quivering. Taekwoon was greatly enjoying his dongsaeng’s embarrassment and discomfort.

Enjoy this while you can, Hamtaro-hyung. Once I’m done, it’s YOUR turn. Hongbin thought, turning back just as the actress let loose and cringed from the previous take’s cheese. Sighing again, he stamps his feet twice to compose himself as the stage manager called standby.

“Ready, action!”

And so filming resumed.

Exhausted from their long day—it’d actually been three days, but who’s counting, anyway— the Vixx agents pile into their van like zombies that missed the apocalypse party to make their way to a TV station for a prerecording. Though tired, they were, for the most part, in high spirits because the filming for their fanmeet VCR went extremely well.

“Hey, Hyuk, how’d filming with N-hyung go?” Ravi asks, yawning widely and stopping himself from scrubbing his eyes and turning himself into a rapping raccoon. Feeling an itch on his eye corner, he caves to temptation and scrubs at his eyes, mentally apologizing to the stylist that would have to fix his eyeliner later. Then he shoots a furtive glance at the shotgun seat, making sure that their leader was asleep before saying more. “Looks like God finally granted your wish, eh?”

Hyuk huffs out a laugh. “I should have been careful about what I wished for . . . being a king in a kingdom where N-hyung is mute is ten times—no, a thousand times—worse than reality! For every on-screen second he’s mute, he whines for ten or more minutes off-screen, and—oh, Binnie-hyung, Taekwoon-hyung, how did your filming go?”

The taciturn man snorts, plugging in his earbuds and effectively shutting his teammates out to sleep.

“Kids, let me translate our Leo-hyung for you,” Ken volunteers. “He means to say ‘you’ll see when the VCR comes out’ and ‘why the wall of bleeping Shakespeare.’”

“Well, ‘Leo’ does rhyme with ‘Romeo—‘“ Hongbin raises an arm to protect his face as the hyung that was translated suddenly whipped a pillow at him from the front seat. Chuckling, he looks out the window at the lightening sky and purses his lips. “What else rhymes with ‘Leo?’”

“Lio?” suggests Hyuk, grinning cheekily while hiding the striped pillow behind Ravi as the main vocalist turned to glare at him.

“Gigalo? Jigglypuff crossed with Hamjji is Jig-a-Leo!” Jaehwan chimes in, flinching as Leo reached over to punch and/or strangle him.

“Guys, let’s get some sleep. And Hamjji, don’t kill Ken-hyung—“ 

// End - Because "Leo" Rhymes With "Romeo"

20160512 - apologies for any typos~ opening up the miscellaneous 1shot spill with comedy~ And feeling good because I fi~inally broke out of Leshinset . . . but got caught by Vixx-shinset >_> So nope, not done yet .________. Gosh darn it!

Props to anyone who recognizes all the "references" Jaedelle made in this installment :p 

The next 2 stories will center around N and be a li~ittle more serious :3