between this and that, and all of you

pairing: vernon x kyla

word count: 972

short summary: In which in between years of training Hansol thought he was tired, until he met the small mystery that was Kyla who unintentionally rekindled the fire that could’ve died within him.

nana's notes: I honestly just wanted to write what could have been their interactions pre-debut, and how Vernon would react to Kyla being so young yet already far away from her family

 

Hansol was there when Kyla first joined the company. It was somewhere in March and he barely turned fifteen and she was on her way to reach twelve. He remembered thinking she was too young to become a trainee and that she’d probably quit within two weeks but then his mind drifted to Junghyun who’d been a trainee since she was nine, and Samuel was right there training beside him, so he immediately shook off the thought.

The first time he took a proper look at Kyla was approximately three months after that when they coincidentally took the lift at the same time. Her hair was tied up in twin ponytails and she was carrying the standard pink school bag elementary kids those days would. At that time, Hansol had so many questions to ask.

‘Are you living with your parents?’

Hansol’s family are all living in Seoul, even if he’s half American.

‘Aren’t you scared?’

Going for training used to be scary and mentally taxing for Hansol. He knew no one at first, and he was lacking.

Ting.

He looked upwards and, ‘Ah, we’re here already?’

He didn’t miss the prompt bow Kyla gave to him before hurriedly stepping out of the lift and running in the direction of the changing rooms. Hansol had to actually suppress himself from letting out a silly grin and finally sighed.

Kyla honestly had the most captivating pair of eyes he’d seen in a while.

 

Two years later Hansol wouldn’t be imagining that they would sit in front of each other in one of the separate vocal practice room; loose musical sheets in between them as Kyla tried the hardest she can to follow his instruction. Hansol tried his hardest to concentrate too, but it was all in shambles when he took in how much the younger had grown. It wasn’t as if Hansol himself was an adult watching a child growing, but two years ago Kyla’s fingers was short and chubby and those small legs had allowed her to stand only at the height of Hansol’s shoulders.

And he wasn’t even tall at the time.

Now those short fingers had grown slim, and Kyla was admittedly tall for her age.

Damn, Hansol hated himself for sounding like an old man looking over his granddaughter when they literally had only seen each other properly for less than three times throughout the two year period.

“Sunbae-nim, can you look over this part again?”

Right.

Yesterday Bumzu hyung had called him and asked if he could teach one of the girl trainees the basics of rapping because she had taken an interest in it. What chances could it be that said girl was Kyla?

“Uh- yeah, give me a minute,” he ran one hand through his hair while the other took the sheet Kyla was holding. Personal interest aside, Kyla really had a nice voice for rapping, he noted. He fidgeted a bit when he caught Kyla staring intently at him from the corner of his eyes.

Grabbing his pencil, he circled some of the words and drew a line next to the last word.

“If you look at the rhythm at this part it goes slightly a half a beat faster so I think you need to change these words to one syllable words,” he explained, focused. “And then at the end the music goes empty for a while so it’d be nice if you can continue this just a bit more.”

Kyla nodded and immediately corrected whatever that was needed.

If Hansol was to be honest at that time, Kyla didn’t really know how to ride the beat and her vocalization needed some further training, but he felt the passion in her; something the Hansol from two years ago had when he first learned how to rap. Two years later and Hansol was tired, but being there with Kyla somehow re-ignited the spark that almost died.

By the time they wrapped their session, Hansol had only managed to ask only two significant questions he’d been meaning to ask since they first met but to him, that was more than enough to paint a bigger picture about Kyla.

To his surprise, Kyla did move to Korea alone without her family when she was twelve, and lived with her grandparents since. She goes back to LA any two weeks during summer holiday but Hansol couldn’t help thinking how strong and determined the younger must be. ‘Aren’t you lonely?’ he had asked but she only smiled and shook her head at that.

“I want to be singer.”

Hansol had to pause from whatever he was doing at that time because that was a phrase he hadn’t told himself since a long while.

“Ah, that actually sounds cringy,” she had chuckled shyly before continuing, “-it’s fine because other unnies are always taking care of me.”

Hansol smiled at that because Kyla seemed so, so genuine with her interest in training.

They finished packing up and Kyla thanked Hansol once again for sparing his time. Hansol picked his bag and gave Kyla one last look before exiting the room.

“Kyla-yah?”

“Yes?”

“I guess it’s fine if you want to come to me again if you have any questions about rap, or anything. Or maybe if you want to talk about LA- I guess,” he awkwardly placed one hand at the back of his neck.

Kyla seemed surprised for a moment as she just stood there; eyes slightly widened and small lips hanging slightly apart, but immediately broke into a shy smile afterwards.

“Thank you, sunbae-nim.”

 

As usual, please give PrisTeen lots of love!

xx, nana

disclaimer: I do not know for sure when Kyla started her training though~