pairing: BaekLay
length: 1341 words

Baekhyun held a water bottle to his mouth, feeling the cool liquid cascade down his dry throat. His vocal trainer had praised him for hitting those lovely high notes he had spent the entire weekend practicing after hearing Jongdae and Minseok hit the same ones during their own practice sessions for the upcoming evaluation to be held among the male trainees.

Kyungsoo and Jongdae had been consistently ranking number one in terms of vocals for the past three evaluations that Baekhyun had taken part in since entering the company, so he knew he needed to find some sort of edge to make himself stand out as well. He didn’t think he could ever beat Jongdae’s range. Heck, he didn’t know if anyone in the company could. Well, now that he thought about it, Ryeowook and Kyuhyun had larger vocal ranges than Jongdae did. They were the true singing gods. But aside from those two, Jongdae was the most versatile yet.

So Baekhyun wanted to steal the spotlight from Kyungsoo by singing the notes in the upper register that the other vocalist couldn’t. Baekhyun prided himself on his falsettos, which he could sometimes best Jongdae in, and knew that if he wanted to secure that number one spot in the evaluation, he needed to showcase his strengths to their full potential. He didn’t have a rich, smooth voice like Kyungsoo’s and his tone was more nasally than Jongdae’s. So he and his vocal trainer had been working on his upper register and lightness of his lyric tenor voice, since both Kyungsoo and Jongdae were more specialized in the lower and mixed registers.

These thoughts ran through Baekhyun’s head as he walked around the company building, not sure if he should find an empty room to practice his singing some more now that his lesson was over or if he should find Chanyeol after the younger boy’s rap lesson ended so they could walk to the bus station together. It was almost dinnertime, but that meant nothing to Baekhyun nowadays. He ate whenever he felt hungry, since most of his day was packed with lessons and practice. There was no time to adhere to a normal person’s eating schedule, so he didn’t even try to count the hours until his next meal.

On the way to the room where Chanyeol’s lesson was being held, Baekhyun skipped through the hallway since it was completely empty. Most people were either gone or in the occupied practice rooms, diligently working. The practice rooms being used all had their doors tightly shut, to prevent any noise from disturbing people in the hallways or in other rooms. Baekhyun counted five out of eight rooms being used as he continued down the hallway, feeling light and refreshed from a job well done.

As he turned the corner into another hallway, the trainee could hear the faint blaring of music being played, which he found strange. Baekhyun quickly noticed that only one room was being used in this hallway and that its door was slightly open, which accounted for the unexpected sounds entering the vacant hallway. The energetic male slowed down to a walk as he cautiously stepped towards the practice room in use, curious to see who had carelessly forgotten to close the door all the way.

Peeking through the crevice between the door and the doorframe, Baekhyun spotted a boy his age dancing like there was no tomorrow. Upon closer inspection, he recognized the male to be another trainee named Yixing. His complex body movements were fluid like a snake's, yet still clean and sharp as a knife at the same time. It was certainly a sight to behold. Baekhyun couldn’t stop his mouth from falling open as he watched the older male dance in time to the music, hitting every step perfectly in succession. The vocalist didn’t think he would ever have as much control over his own body as this boy did, no matter how much he practiced. If he could be a fraction of the dancer that Yixing was, Baekhyun would already be very proud of himself because this trainee had some serious talent.

Baekhyun hadn’t even realized that he had been gaping for so long until a light voice jolted him out of his thoughts. “If you’re just going to stare at me and you’re not here to practice, then you should leave.”

“What?” Baekhyun couldn’t believe that this angelic voice could speak such firm, harsh words. He had spoken to Yixing several times before, greeting him whenever they passed by each other in the hallway or conversing with him when they sat with the same group of trainees in the cafeteria. But the older male had always been very polite and easygoing then.

“You’re a distraction.”

Once again, that short statement pierced straight through Baekhyun while he continued gawking at the dancer, who had an emotionless expression as he stared back at the vocalist. But now, Baekhyun wasn’t staring at the other trainee because of his flawless dancing. The younger male had never encountered someone so unabashedly verbal about being adverse to an audience before. “Am I?”

“Yes.”

Ouch, Yixing didn’t even try to sugarcoat his words. The dancer’s face was blank while his chest slowly moved up and down underneath the white tank top he was wearing that was drenched in sweat. Baekhyun realized that the other trainee must have been preparing for the dance portion of the evaluation when the music looped and he recognized the tune playing through the room’s speakers. The vocalist cringed as he thought of his own chicken-like attempts at the assigned dance. At least he was way better than Jongdae and Chanyeol were. Those two looked as if they were constantly flailing about with no control over their bodies whenever they practiced the dance.

But Yixing’s performance just now completely blew Baekhyun’s dance endeavors out of the water. He made everything look so effortless and impeccable, even though Baekhyun knew this dance was definitely one of the more difficult ones they were being tested on. The vocalist suddenly felt inspired and invigorated to execute this dance as well as Yixing did. If he could place first in the vocal portion and rank in the top half for the dance portion, Baekhyun knew he’d be well on his way to officially debuting as an idol.

So he just beamed at Yixing and said, “Well then, I guess I’ll practice with you. You’re okay with that, right?”

The other boy didn’t answer. All he did was turn around and inaudibly count the beats under his breath before jumping into the dance routine once more.

Baekhyun assumed that his silence meant yes, since the dancer had been so vocally adamant about the younger trainee leaving earlier. Yixing not saying anything probably meant he wasn’t opposed to the other trainee being there now, right? So Baekhyun slipped off the light gray sweater he had been wearing and tossed it onto the floor by one of the walls. He stepped towards Yixing, but soon found himself transfixed once again by the dancer’s flowing moves before he could get very far.

“I thought you were going to practice?” Yixing stopped in the middle of his routine when he noticed Baekhyun gaping at him for the third time that night in the wall mirror’s reflection.

“Oh, right. Sorry,” Baekhyun answered sheepishly, faintly blushing at how easily he had gotten sidetracked. But Yixing’s dance skills were just that captivating. It was hard not to get lost as those flexible limbs moved every which way with precision and power. The vocalist quickly shook his head to clear his mind before stepping beside Yixing and copying his movements as the two of them danced together in the practice room.

Baekhyun wasn’t looking at Yixing, since he was so concentrated on trying to emulate the other trainee’s flawless movements. So he missed the small smile on the older male’s face, who was stealing side glances at the vocalist while they powered through the dance routine as one.

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