Where are you from

It's all Junhoe's fault (but not really, he can't blame him because at first, it was a game, something to practice during the rehearsal). From all the prompts available he took the wig and, with it waving over his shoulders he told him he looked nice, walking down the room pretending to be someone else for a while.

"As a boy you are pretty but you make such an astonishing woman, hyung!" it meant nothing, it was a comment, a nice one that shouldn't have had any repercussions. But it did. 

When Jisoo hurt her arm and had to rush to the hospital, bone broken and unable to perform next week, all the members were left hanging. She was the lead actress and no other girl could take her place (they all had already roles to play so it wouldn't be fair to ask them). He didn't have any because he wasn't part of the cast. And he was a boy, too. 
"A boy so handsome that could pass perfectly for a girl". Not that it mattered, not after those words left Junhoe's lips. 

It took only a minute for Jinhwan and Junhoe to convince Seungri, their director, to leave it to Jinwoo. He would take Jisoo's place for the performance and play the role of a girl (Chaeyoung was so excited that, that same night gave him make-up set to practice and teach him the basics). Seungri also advised him to wear skirts and to go outside with the wig to get into character. Jinwoo wanted to quit right them  (he didn't, though, because acting was all his world and it sounded challenging and he wouldn't reject one. He couldn't say no either, not to Jihwan's pleading eyes and Hanbin's big smile and Seungri's soothe sigh).

It's not a big deal, he thinks, his legs are shaved and clean and they look very smooth under the soft material of his skirt. The top fits around all the places it should hang and the reflex on the mirror looks alright (the makeup is simple and his lips taste like strawberries, shade a soft pink that matches his blushing skin).

He has never thought women would have it that hard. Walking down the streets he is greeted with lust-stares and whispers he can clearly understand. Boys try to ask him out and men try to sneak hands under his . It's annoying, it's disgusting and grueling. He wants to scream and run but does nothing, he keeps pretending to not notice.

Minho isn't looking, he is too focused on his phone to watch the pretty girl he is about to stumble with. He will never regret it because she is precious, petite and delicate, with legs songs can't make justice to, eyes shining under the of the afternoon's sun, like amber and gold; he has never seen someone as pretty as her and his heart screams an unknown name that sounds exactly like her and his soul longs to be entangled with her and never let her go. It is love. And so he looks around, seeing her entering the Natural High Theater. It takes him an instant to decide, right there and right now, to get a ticket to watch the play (he buys two for moral support, hoping that Seungyoon would come with him).

A week later the face he only saw once is still drawn to him, engraved inside his eyes and so he keeps the tickets close to his heart where they belong from the moment he has laid his eyes on her by accident (and Minho believe in love at first sight, in something called fate so he is sure this is love and nothing else).

Jinwoo looks nothing like Jisoo (brown, wavy hair, features that are less round, eyes so alive that staring at them is like counting stars in the night sky) but the public doesn’t know and he is so beautiful that nobody would ever say he isn’t a girl. When he enters the theatre Hanbin whistles at him in awe and by the surprised look in Junhoe Jinwoo breathes in relaxed (he is, indeed, a pretty little girl).

“You are even prettier than Jisoo nonna, but don’t tell her!” Junhoe admits after realising that he was Jinwoo instead of a new cast for the play “ you are so convincing hyung, if you say nothing you totally pass for a girl” and after hearing it Jinwoo is reassured (even though he has already heard things convincing enough that he looks exactly like a woman, he has suffered lechy comments and inappropriate, undressing glances and he has never felt as vulnerable or exposed before and it was much worse than the wig and the heels and the fact that he was wearing a skirt).

Rehearsal goes on smoothly and it only takes Jinwoo three times to memorize all the lines and gestures and Seungri is very pleased to see how talented he is (he is a great actor that can put on any type of character, even something as complex as acting as a girl acting a role in a play).

By the time the staging is starting, Jinwoo can perfectly walk with high heels and his voice sounds an octave higher very naturally (there is an edge of roughness hidden in a corner but is hardly indiscernible and so Seungri gives him his approval to perform - not that he has any other option, Jisoo is still unable to act, a broken arm to keep immobilized and she is coming as audience today only because she wants to congratulate Jinwoo).

First act goes by quickly and, in a heartbeat it bowing time, the curtain falling and the applauses flood the room. Minho hasn’t taken his eyes away from the lead actress, following her around and, once they were bowing and she stepped to the front when her name was called, he memorized it as well as all the freckles in her precious, flawless face (Seungyoon admits that she is pretty and stops nagging at him for acting so impulsively, although he has forbidden him to go talk with her after the performance is over).

“You will scare her acting like a stalker” he has advised but most often than not Minho turns a blind eye on whatever that Seungyoon says and today is not an exception (he needs to hear her speak to him, he needs to corroborate the exact color of her dreams).

Jinwoo has never received flowers so when someone knocks the door of his dressing room (not his but Jisoo’s) he is surprised and flustered. He doesn’t know what to do or what to expect. What he isn’t expecting is to be visited by such a handsome man. He is broad and tall, with a tanned face and a perfect, white smile, soft, brown eyes that talk about days on the beach and happiness and for a split second Jinwoo doesn’t feel aligned (he feels like he belongs, somewhat, there, with him; he is no longer pretending to be someone else, he is only a human just like him, who looks straight into him as if reading his thoughts and Jinwoo wonders what they look like, if they are simple as he is, simple and innocent and naive).

She was beautiful from afar; she is astonishing up close (she takes his heart and his breathe away and Minho doesn’t know how to function anymore). She is better than words and she hasn’t said anything but Minho is already running crazy for her, to own and discover all the places below the dress, to caress the milky, silk-like skin splashed with moles that resemble chocolate sparks (Minho fights back the urge to bite because deep down he is sure that this would be very dangerous to start with).

Instead of steamy thought he fixes his gaze on her and counts all the wave of her dark hair to keep his mind distracted from other places to look at (her chest is flat but it is still inviting, tempting like a blue sky).

“Can I help you?” her voice sounds different now that he is hearing her closely but her voice is still precious (Minho mentally notes that she has, indeed, no flaws, that she is perfect just the way she is now).

“Do you wanna go on a date with me?”

Jinwoo knows that this is rude but, anyway, he slams the door in front of him. This, though, won’t discourage Minho. For two weeks he comes to his dressing room with flowers and if he can sneak a note under the crack of the door, so he does. He tells her about how beautiful she is, angelical, ethereal, unreal and Jinwoo flushes pink, his eyes tearing up because nobody has ever written him something as meaningful and deep. Nobody has ever felt in love with him in a rush of sudden, nobody has stormed on him like rain in summer, melting all the fears and regrets and this man makes him feel at ease even though he keeps on avoiding him (but the last day of the representation, after the curtain fall he leaves a note on his door for him to read).

Minho knocks and waits but today there is no answer; it’s the last chance for him to see her and there is no way for him to give up. He has looked her up and, somehow the search has ended with more questions than solutions and Minho is so confused at the moment because the Kim Jisoo that is an actress at Natural High Theatre is pretty, but this Jisoo, the one that has acted in front of his eyes, the one that has slammed the door uncountable times is completely different, utterly beautiful and amazing and talented (he wants to know her more even if she isn’t who she says she is, even if her name is fake and she is just pretending to be someone else, he will understand, he only wants to be with her somewhere that it’s not a dream).

He flicks his gaze, still waiting but there is no music sneaking out from the inside, no noises; the place is all quiet and Minho suspects that she has already left without giving him one last chance. But when he walks to the door, to snoop into, he steps into a paper instead. A paper that has nothing to do with him but that he takes with him nevertheless.

It is for him in the end.

He has managed to steal from her a few extra words but he hasn't expected to receive such a gift as a letter. He feels blessed, he feels touched, he feels like crying because she cares (she cares about his sentiments, the ones he has professed deeply and movingly again and again for 14 days straight, with flowers and chocolates and with jewels that faded in comparison with her beauty).

It’s long but he has time (for her he has eternity if needed, for her a life is not enough to contemplate, to learn all of her). She says that she is a boy and that she is sorry for lying, for confusing him to that extreme, that it was a favor. In the end, she has no intention to hurt him in any way.

He, Minho corrects himself.

Him, the most alluring person alive. He, who holds stars in his eyes. Minho doesn’t care; he doesn’t care because this person is still beautiful, because his gaze is still made with universes and his skin is still pale and he is like a fairy tale (Minho wants to become his prince, to kiss him at the end of the story, being together forever on their happy ever after).

The back door is opened and it has to be him (the one who smiles with the sun, dimples displayed and lips that promise the taste of the spring). Minho runs to him.

“I don’t care, I still like you”.

Jinwoo can’t answer to that. Not because he doesn’t like this man (this boy he doesn’t know but that he wants to meet desperately, this man who makes him feel alive) but he has been caught in the middle. He is not ready for this (he will never be ready to admit what he has done, the role he has taken in order to help Jisoo - he doesn’t repent about it, it was a challenge and it gave him such a great experience in acting he couldn’t get elsewhere).

“I’m not the girl you thought I was” he replies after a whole minute of pregnant silence, of Minho staring into his soul as if ready to take it away (Jinwoo wouldn’t mind, he likes him enough to give him his all even if it’s hurried and they don’t know each other yet, he wants an opportunity, a chance).

“I told you that I don’t care. I like you. Period”.

“I’m Jinwoo. Kim Jinwoo” he says then, walking to him, hand open, ready to shake.

“Minho. Song Minho”. His hand is firm and warm, with calloused fingers that feels out of place in between so much perfection (it hits him then that perfection doesn’t exist. But Jinwoo must be the closest one to it).

When Minho walks outside the theatre, it’s not a girl who is holding his hand excitedly, ready for a date, but Kim Jinwoo’s. And he couldn’t ask for more (he couldn’t because he is the person of his dreams).