*** Chapter 11: The Wolf and The Lamb ***

Jeon Jungkook was such a brat because days after their theme park date, he still teased Jimin about what happened. He even purposely wearing short-sleeves shirt to show off Jimin’s claw marks, even when the bruises were already long gone.

As much as Jimin wanted to shove an apple into Jungkook’s mouth to shut it tightly, he could not hide more embarrassment since Jihoon blatantly said that he clearly remembered about his brother’s fear of roller-coaster and wondered why he even agreed with Jungkook to play the ride.

“Jihoon-a.. You were only nine since the last time we went to a theme park,” Jimin protested.

“I even remember things when I was still in kindergarten and dwelt into my first fist-fight with Woojinie. Why can’t I remember things when I was nine? Especially since that day I broke down from one of my most severe attacks?” Jihoon shrugged his shoulder lightly.

But Jimin turned gloomy to hear Jihoon’s words. “You remember that? Your attack?”

“Yeah,” the younger boy nodded. “I remember every single one of my attacks…”

Jimin sighed, “Jihoon-a… You can’t keep remembering those bad experiences…”

“It’s not that I want to remember it, hyung. I just have a good brain capacity to memorize things. You know that. Even if I want to forget it, it’s just there…”

Woojin non-chalantly interrupted them. “You even remember our first fight? It was in kindergarten? I thought it was in our 1^st grade?”

“Nope… It was in our 1^st year in kindergarten. That was when I know your name is Park Woojin.”

“Wow… you’re amazing…” the sparrow clapped his hand.

The Pink Sausages were then drowned in reminiscent of their childhood. But then Jimin realized something eerie.

Jihoonie… He remember things from his kindergarten years? We… We adopted him when he was almost three. Not too long before he entered kindergarten.

He… he can’t be… He was still too small to remember things… right?

“The chicken is coming…!!” Jimin’s thoughts were disrupted by Taehyung’s alarming shout from the front door.

The most handsome man in SIA was coming home from his part-time job, and he brought their dinner.

“Woah… hyung… you bring a lot of chicken…” Jungkook who stood nearest to front door helped Taehyung with his giant paper-bags.

“My boss gave me some extra. There will be enough for five of us, even with the Pink Sausages double their share…” he sent a wink to his secret lover who posed a super cute pouty cheeks which was testing Taehyung’s patience not to eat those plump cheeks all at once.

“This rich boy is freeloading on us again?” Jimin was back in his sarcastic mode with Jungkook.

The said rich boy clicked his tongue, “You don’t know where Taehyungie-hyung got the money to buy these…”

Jimin put his hands on his waist, ready to bite Jungkook, but Taehyung preceded him. “Eyy,, Kook... Stop teasing Jimin. Be thankful that he’s not kicking you out of this house yet. You know he’s so sensitive because of her period…”

Jimin could not believe his ears. “Tae… Not you too…”

Taehyung lightly winked to his bestfriend too, “You better start to eat now before those monsters finish all the chickens.”

True to the words, the youngest members of the household were already claiming a box of chicken for themselves, and their mouths were already munching.

Park Jimin literally face-palmed himself.

*******

The Frozen team was having practice in Acting department practice room. They had done with the warming up sessions, and they were starting to get into the First Act of the play. It was the earliest stage of the story where Elsa and Anna were having good time in their childhood. Usually they would need child actor to play children characters, but since this was a special play for SIA Summer Festival, Sungwoon and Jihoon would play the children character themselves.

“Jihoon-goon, you are supposed to be a five-years-old girl, try to act more cutely and innocently just like a child,” Professor Kim Dongwan was giving guidance because Jihoon looked a bit awkward. “You are famous for your aegyo, right? Come on, try to act one.”

“Ye??” Jihoon was startled. “Aegyo?”

“Uh huh…” Dongwan nodded.

Jihoon was scratching his sideburn, a sign when he was embarrassed or slightly panicked. Actually, he was not a type of boy who naturally did aegyo despite his cute look. If you asked him, he did wonder why he performed an aegyo for his entrance ceremony. If it was not for his stupid bet with Taehyung and Jungkook –he lost a game from them-, he would never winked and jeojang-ed thousands of people who attended the ceremony, which made Taehyung regretted his own request to his favorite dongsaeng to do his favorite cute acts, because yeah, the younger had become a fresh prey for all the wolves in SIA since then.

“Come on, Anna, don’t be shy,” Professor Eric from Acting dept, part of trainer team for Frozen, encouraged the boy, “You will perform on a stage, you have to be confident.”

The forty-years-old professor then gave an example with his infamous ‘booing-booing’ aegyo which literally made the students gaped in horror to see such a manly bearded man did such a ridiculous aegyo, with ridiculous fists beside his cheeks, and also ridiculous low-deep toned hoarse voice to accompany the act.

“See, Anna? Even if you are embarrassed, you have to do it anyway,” Eric commented proudly, unaware that his friends beside him were face-palming themselves.

“That’s a bad example for aegyo, but he is right, Jihoon-ssi,” Dongwan admitted. “Come on, try some aegyo. That jeojang of yours.. let me see that…”

Jihoon was scratching his side burn again, but then the students around him started to chant encouragement for him to do his aegyo. He took a glance into Taehyung, and his lover was cheering on him too.

‘That jeojang will be the death of you, Jihoon-a… Forever in SIA, you will be remembered as the jeojang kid…’

He remembered Jungkook’s remark that day. And it’s true. He would never hear the end of it, no matter what he did. So, he finally tossed aside all his pride and replayed that famous act of him.

“Sonsaengnim-deul, nae maeum soge, jeojang…” he did not forget his cute gesture and even added the double winks at the end, and the whole practice room literally turned into a craze. If the professors weren’t there with them, no one would not be able to ensure Jihoon’s safety.

“Aigooo… this kid is really cute..” now it’s Lee Minwoo’s turned to show his amazement for the boy. He was a professor from Dancing who would choreograph the whole dance sequences in the play. “Jihoon-ssi… Can you make baby sound?”

Jihoon widen his eyes in disbelief that the professor was asking him to do another cute act.

“Minwoo-ya… Stop it… Don’t you see his face is turning red?” the last professor who kept silent until then, could not help himself to stop his childish friends.

“I want to hear it too..” Eric disrupted. And Shin Hyesung, that last professor from Music dept who would be the vocal trainer for the play, could only rolled his eyes and slapped his face because he could not believe that his friends was pulling a prank on the cute boy who had stood too long in the spotlight.

“Just do it and they’ll be done with it, Park Jihoon-ssi..” Hyesung admitted defeat.

Seeing that the professor who was famous for his strict discipline was unable to stop the other cuteness-maniac professors, Jihoon gave in and did as he was asked.

He did the first cute thing that came to his mind. He curled his fingers, raised his tone to imitate those of little kids, and finally, “Kkuu kkuu kkaa kkaa…”

There was a moment of silence because all the students there, being all male, could not believe that the cute boy actually did something that was way beyond being cute and adorable. They were dumbstruck by the overload cuteness, but when they finally came to their senses, they were asking Jihoon to repeat what he did.

The spotlighted boy could not take it anymore and ran to hide behind Taehyung and Guanlin’s tall figures although they were sitting on a bench. His hands were clasped into tight fists due to embarrassment. Usually he had Woojin around to release his frustration by dwelling himself into a fight with his twin-like bestfriend. But because the sparrow was nowhere to be found in the room, of course, Taehyung sacrificed himself to be Jihoon’s punching bag. He raised his hands in front of his body, and the cute boy started punching the open palms as if he was in his boxing training.

The professors were still in amusement to see the wonder of the famous cute boy. But they knew when enough was enough, and they proceed to continue the practice. Dongwan did remind both Jihoon and Sungwoon once again to act cutely for the first act, since they had to differentiate themselves when later they would play the grown-up version of their characters.

Jihoon was busy digging himself into the ground and he never noticed that all this time, a pair of eyes was stuck on him. Well he was the spotlight for some moment ago, and everyone literally had their eyes on him. But this certain person, never could take his eyes off of the said Princess Anna.

His heart was stop beating when Jihoon showed his first aegyo, the jeojang one. And when later the cute boy mercilessly attacked with the kkukkukkakka, his heart was literally threatening to stop working at all.

Kang Daniel was always weak for everything that was cute, even when the cute thing sometimes did not make any sense for other people. But he always managed to keep himself stay composed, not showing his weakness to cuteness, although most of the time, he was dying inside. Yet this time, he was having a very hard time to sit still on his place. If the professors were not there, probably the wolf skinned-samoyed hearted super star would have launched an attack toward Park Jihoon. All he could do was laughing crazily like a lunatic while his eyes were stuck on his newly found crush.

I really need to know more about him. We’ll have much time since Hans and Anna are especially close since the beginning of the story. I’ll use it well…

Park Jihoon… You are too cute to be true…

Totally my type…

*******

Daniel’s wish to come closer to Jihoon would finally came through after another practice sessions. They had done the practices for the First Act, about the childhood of the princesses, and now they would proceed unto the next Act, where Anna met Hans and fell in love with him.

Daniel was impatient to finally reach this stage. All along the practices for the First Act, he was literally enchanted by Jihoon. He was not a fool who fell in love with one’s beauty only. No. Although Jihoon’s beauty was truly the first thing that caught his attention back then, combine it with the overload innate cuteness the boy had –although this cute boy never show it off purposely, he’s just unaware that he was born with cuteness-, Daniel could see the inner beauty that was also a part of his adorable junior.

The first thing that caught Daniel’s attention was that Jihoon was never disheartened when he was criticized. He might look puzzled at first, of course, it was the first thing that normally showed when you were being judged negatively, but it never lowered his spirit. He got up right away and he did fix his mistake to show a better performance.

Two, Ha Sungwoon who was known for his perfectionism on stage, always seemed amused whenever Jihoon was around, even when the junior was making a silly mistake. It’s as if Jihoon had his own way never to make Sungwoon angry at him. Needless to say, not many people knew their behind-the-scene story, but Sungwoon was a professional, and he wanted his stage to be perfect. Yet he could see the genuine effort from the younger boy to act better, and every time this Anna came to him to seek advice, he gladly helped him.

Three, he noticed that Jihoon was attentive to his surroundings. He especially cared a lot to those who played Olaf and Kristoff, like fetching them waters and towels during the physical training. Hell yeah, Daniel knew it well that those two were members of Bangtan, so it was obvious. He even heard about the rumor that Jihoon and that Olaf –he could not remember his name properly yet, because it’s foreign, and during practices they did use their character’s name instead of real names-, was actually dating. But then he thought, if they were truly dating, Jihoon seemed to be too carefree to be too close with other guys, i.e. that Kristoff for particular, and also Elsa and the other cast mates. Including him.

Yes, he had experienced Jihoon’s affection first hand, and he was joyful for that, even when Jihoon literally did it to the others too.

Daniel was lucky that during warm-up sessions for stretching, Dongwan often made him paired-up with Jihoon, with the logic that they’re going to have lots of interaction anyway.

“Sunbaenim, your leg seems to be in pain still. You sure your injury is healed?” Jihoon asked him one day.

“Yeah. It’s nothing. I’m fine,” Daniel answered quickly, amazed that Jihoon actually noticed when he winced a little just then.

He dropped his body onto the floor, stretching his leg and gently massaging his own knee.

“Mmmm.. Do you want me to do it for you?”

“Do what?”

“Massaging,” Jihoon made a squeezing gesture with his hands, and he did not realize how cute he looked that Daniel was literally pinching his own thigh to stop himself pouncing the adorable doll in front of him.

“I’m pretty good at massaging because I often do it for my brother and his friends,” Jihoon added, performing another air-squeezing, with a bright proud smile on his face.

Daniel was dying inside.

“It..it’s nothing...really...”

Damn you, Park Jihoon.. Don’t you ever touch me because you don’t know what I’m capable of doing to you...

“You sure?” The cute boy was unbelievably persistent.

“Yeah.. I’m good...” Daniel was truly busy fighting with his inner self who wished for Jihoon to touch him.

“You want to have some drink? I’ll get it for you...”

“No.. I’ll get it myself..”

Stop it, Park Jihoon, once again you breach into my walls... There will be no way out for you...

“Come one, sunbaenim, water or lemon juice?”

“W..water.. Just get me water...”

“Okay...” Jihoon smiled sweetly and left to get some water from the cooler box.

That’s it.

When Jihoon came back to him with two bottles of water, and offered him the one in his right hand, Daniel reached out to him. But he did not touch only the bottle. The older boy purposely grabbed onto Jihoon’s hand too, and yanked him down, causing the small figure to lose his balance from the sudden force, and without any choice, dropped his body on top of the bulky wolf.

Jihoon’s hands instinctively hold onto Daniel’s fine torso to prevent him from dropping further, but their faces, it was only centimeters apart.

Daniel could clearly see the dilated pupils of the big round eyes in front of him. Jihoon was shocked.

“Sss..ssorry.. sunbaenim... I...I do not mean to...” Jihoon tried to rise and stand quickly, but Daniel held him down.

“No.. It’s okay... You know you shouldn’t rise so soon after you suddenly fall. Your body will be shocked twice, and it’s not good for your heart and blood circulation,” Daniel gently advised.

Jihoon blinked his eyes in bewilderment.

“Jihoon-a, you okay?” Sungwoon came closer to them because he saw their awkward position.

Daniel pushed Jihoon gently to roll and sit by his side before answering Sungwoon, “Sorry, it’s my fault. He was offering me a bottle of water but I mistakenly grabbed his hand and pulled him down. I guess he’s just too light.”

Sungwoon listened to Daniel’s explanation, but he still wanted to check on Jihoon. “You okay?”

“Yeah, hyung... I’m fine...” the younger boy answered weakly.

Sungwoon offered his hand, “Come on, I want to practice with you one more time before we move to the Second Act.”

“Okay...” Jihoon grabbed Sungwoon’s hand and stood up.

“See you later, Daniel,” Sungwoon bid them farewell, which the superstar replied with a polite nod.

Once he was alone, the slick wolf wickedly grinned in satisfaction.

*******

“What was that with Kang Daniel?” Taehyung asked Jihoon when they were done with the practice. They were on their way to get some dinner before gone home, and Guanlin would tag along for the meal.

Jihoon closed his eyes as he knew that this question might come sooner or later.

“I tripped and fell on him,” Jihoon answered shortly straight to the point. He could not believe that Taehyung was interrogating him when Guanlin was watching closely.

“Ahh...” Taehyung replied vaguely, but then he was quiet, with no more reaction.

Jihoon heaved a long sigh and halted his steps. “Really, hyung.. It was nothing...”

Taehyung halted his step too. He was thinking for a moment before he turned around and faced his lover.

Apparently, the older boy had been battling with himself, because his consciousness reminded him that Anna and Hans were supposed to be very close indeed. But his egoism denied that his Jihoon was not supposed to be too close with another guy. He couldn’t believe himself that he was such a jealousy, and he actually embarrassed with the fact. If he knew it would become this way, than perhaps it would had been better if he could win the role of Hans, because compared to Kristoff who eventually became Anna’s couple in the end of the story, Hans did have more intimate interactions with Anna.

“Look, Jihoon-a, I’m sorry. I know it’s for the sake of the play performance, but...somehow... I don’t like this Daniel guy... The way he looked at you... Hmmmfff...” Taehyung tried his best to suppress his agitation.

“Spit it out, hyung... I’m not in the mood for riddles...” Jihoon was a bit tired that day he didn’t want to worsen his night by playing fortune-telling with his boyfriend.

“I think he likes you..”

“Just like everyone else like me, including the professors. It is weird to say it with my own mouth, but they all like me because of my cute act..”

“No. It’s more than that,” Taehyung denied. “I am your boyfriend, Jihoon-a, and I know it well... when someone is threatening...my position...”

“Even if he likes me that way, I would still like only you. You are the one and only in my heart, okay, hyung?”

Taehyung did not reply with any words as he could see that his lover was as upset as he was. Okay, maybe he was too much. It’s just that Jihoon was very attractive, and the fact that he could not claim him openly always made him feel insecure.

Guanlin could not stand the awkward atmosphere and lightly tapped Jihoon’s shoulder. “I’m sorry, I do not mean to interfere, hyung,” he said carefully, “but I think Taehyungie-hyung is right.”

Jihoon turned his attention to his classmate.

“You know I’ve told you that I can generally read people from their face and behavior, right?” He explained. “Kang Daniel might be a good actor and decent person, but... I do not feel safe... with you around him...”

Guanlin had never sounded more serious than this.

“He is dangerous...”

*** to be continued ***