Sehun groans aloud, thrashing his body wildly right after dropping himself onto the ground. He faces Jongin with a bored expression, sighing when Jongin meets his eyes with ones that harbour the same emotion. Sehun crawls a little closer to Jongin, laying right beside the other. Jongin leans a little to Sehun, legs tucked underneath him in a cross-legged position. 

They survey the dance room in silence. The high soundproof walls, the studio lights screwed into place from above, the polished floor, and the huge floor-to-ceiling lengthed mirror. It’s sophisticated, fitting for Seoul University and its title as one of the country’s best tertiaries. To think that Boa allowed them this enormous space to practice for the upcoming Representative selection. Jongin can’t thank her enough.

“We have the choreography settled—or mostly you did—so what’s next?” Sehun has to push the question out of his chest. He wants to go over the main plan once again, making sure there aren’t any plotholes or mistakes that can grab Jongin by his neck and devour him senseless. 

“Next should be practice. Then outfits. More practice.” Jongin’s head hangs low as he stares at his wiggly fingers. “Are you sure this is going to work? I don’t think it will.”

“I’m pretty sure this is going to work. As long as the both of us pulls our own necessary weight and practise enough, it’ll be fine.” Sehun waves Jongin’s concern away solely because he knows Jongin’s not going to lose. Somehow, someway, he’s convinced the outcome will be in Jongin’s favour. “Our idea isn’t the most original one yet, but it’ll be the grandest stage they’ll see.” 

“You sure?” Jongin frowns, a slight pout making its way onto his lips. 

“Yes, I’m sure. You’ll win.” Sehun smiles.

“Yeah.” Jongin shoots a carbon copy of that smile back to Sehun. “We will.” 

“And only if you guys get up now to practise.” The door swings open, revealing Chanyeol who’s stepping in with his usual boyish grin. He seems to be in a cheerful mood for a reason Jongin wants to know. 

After him comes Baekhyun and Jongdae. Jongin and Sehun both raises a hand to give them a lazy wave. Jongin makes a sound of surprise, however, when Johnny and Jaehyun comes in too. Sehun hears Johnny’s voice and cheers for him weakly, still lying on the floor like he’d lose his life if he wasn’t doing so. 

“Great! Everyone’s here! We can finally tell you what we have planned to win this thing.” Jongin pulls himself up from his position on the floor. He lands a hard smack on Sehun’s chest, making the latter groan way too dramatically from the minimal pain. “Get up.”

Sehun groans in protest, curling himself around Jongin’s feet. Sehun’s voice bounces off the floor as he faces it, “No.”

“Seriously, get up.” Jongin bends down and pokes Sehun in his side, emerging a yelp from the latter. Sehun tries to contain his laughter with Jongin’s endless jabs but ends up roaring out a fit of pained but tittering noises. Seeing that, Jongin can’t help laughing along, finding the way Sehun worms around amusing to him. “Get up.”

Sehun tries to swat Jongin’s hands away but when he discovers that he can’t, he grabs one of Jongin’s flying wrists. He pulls himself up, still trying his best to block Jongin’s free hand with his free hand. Sehun fails in wiping his grin away but maybe he can go for Jongin’s. He still remembers Jongin’s weak points, eyes zeroing on them. With the needed force, Sehun pulls Jongin closer and lightly blows up from Jongin’s neck to his ears.

Just as easily as the brawl had started, it ended with Jongin letting a sound in the middle of a whimper and a squeak out as he violently blenches away. Jongin’s face turns red almost immediately, as he pants. He shoots daggers as glares at Sehun who’s grinning like a madman. Sehun folds his arms over his chest, still preening at the fact that he managed to stop Jongin. He then turns to everyone in the room, casually announcing their theme for the Representative thing. 

“We decided to focus on our strengths which is dancing. Jongin’s a ballet dancer, and I have experience with dance in general. It’s a long shot, seriously, because it’s not easy to pull off hip hop and ballet. We do have a trump card if it appears funny or bad.” 

Jongin softens his glare when he backs Sehun up with more information regarding the choreography they spent two consecutive nights on. Jongin’s going to start off with ballet, transition to hip-hop while Sehun comes in and they’ll end it with a not-too-hard number in complete sync. 

“If it appears bad, we’ll just say that’s how we wanted to portray our friendship with each other,” Jongin bends down to adjust his shoes, all the while explaining more to his friends about this. “It’s a little last minute since we haven’t really focused about this for quite some time, but two weeks is enough practice if we do it every day.” 

The whole team agrees with the idea, calls it genius, and requests for a demonstration of how far they’ve come. Jongin excitedly bounces at the idea of showing his friends what he’s created. He pulls Sehun by the arm into position before giving Johnny the cue to start the music. Johnny’s the closest to the audio player anyway. 

Jongin glances down at his ballet shoes, taking a deep breath as the music flows in. He takes a deep breath in, looking straight at Sehun as he makes his first move. There’s a set of moves that will normally earn him points in a ballet competition, and if he messes it up it’ll be a huge downfall for him. But this isn’t a competition and no one else in the room has any experience in ballet. 

It’s the first time they’re going to execute the whole entire performance without any pauses. Jongin’s heart beats a little too fast and he fears it’ll jump out of ribcage anytime soon. Jongin dances around Sehun as planned. Their eyes stay locked on each other. Only when Jongin’s moves slowly transitions into a sharper one as the music does too, Sehun steps in. It becomes much more vigorous now, more boastful. Jongin’s thoughts briefly questions when Sehun picked up on dancing. 

When they finish off with both of them sitting on the ground with their heads facing each other, any noise in the room dies down. Jongin grins, panting. Sehun mirrors his action.

Jongin pushes himself up almost immediately, facing his friends. “How’s that?” 

“That was honestly the most amazing thing I’ve ever witnessed,” Baekhyun’s voice booms. 

It’s as if that was the commence of the rain of praises both Sehun and Jongin’s receiving. They gather around the two, explaining which part’s their favourite. Jongdae could not stop talking about the intro, the ballet section. Jongin could only shyly grin at that. 

“You’re getting a little rusty, though,” Sehun cuts in. He eyes Jongin emotionlessly, no mercy in giving his criticism. 

Once the music fades away, Jongin lifts his stare up from the ground to look at the crowd. Everyone’s clapping for him, the applause bouncing off the walls at a deafening volume. Jongin grins before folding his physique in half in a respectful bow. He scans the crowd to look out for his parents. 

He invited them to watch him and he really wished his father would come. Disappointment wasn’t something unfamiliar to Jongin, but it hits him hard in the chest when he doesn’t see his parents anywhere in the crowd. His expression falls, the life in him drains away. But before he could return backstage, someone screams his name and claps even harder, standing up. 

Jongin’s body stiffens in excitement. He spots Sehun somewhere along the middle row, screaming his name again. Jongin’s lips gradually stretches wide into a grin. 

That’s right. If everyone stands on the other side of him, Sehun would still make his way to stand next to him. Jongin’s really lucky. Lucky enough to have someone he loves. 

Jongin tenses up almost immediately. Of course. He feels stupid assuming no one in the room could tell if he had made a mistake or not. Sehun’s been to almost every ballet competition Jongin’s participated in. Sehun was the number one reason why Jongin even decided to compete against people. How can he forget? 

“I haven’t danced since last year,” Jongin says with a grimace. “I’ll get better.” 

“He’s doing fine. Don’t be so hard on him,” Baekhyun tries to defuse the situation when he sees how Jongin’s expression shifts into a negative one. He was relishing in everyone’s praises just a moment ago but now he looks like he just lost everything he owned.

“He can do so much better. I’ve seen him in his best state and that wasn’t it.” Sehun shakes his head with a smile. “When Jongin does his best, amazing can’t even describe him accurately.” 

“You’re the best!” Sehun exclaims, pulling Jongin into a tight hug. “I’m so proud of you.” 

The little grin Sehun shoots him causes Jongin’s heart to skip a beat. He draws out a slow breath as the woozy sensation in his stomach bulldozers up his throat. Jongin nods, slowly, as a small smile blooms upon his lips. He doesn’t know how else to respond to Sehun’s praise. 

Jongin hurriedly claims he has to use the restroom before running out of there. Unbeknownst to him, Chanyeol decides to tail after him. To say he was surprised to come out of the stall only to see Chanyeol would be an understatement. Jongin curses under his breath in shock, a hand clutching his chest. 

“What are you doing?” Jongin asks.

“What about you, Jongin?” Chanyeol shoots back with a sigh. “You were blushing, you know?”

“Whatever.” Jongin lets out a mocking laughter. He doesn’t even have to ask to know what Chanyeol’s talking about. It’s all the other talks about nowadays.

“You’re funny, you know that?” Chanyeol raises his brows for a second, emphasising on how he thinks Jongin’s strange. Because the funny he’s talking about isn’t something to laugh at. 

“What do you mean?” Jongin frowns.

“It’s not a good idea…” Chanyeol his lips once. It’s like preparing himself for what he’s about to say. “I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to like Sehun.”

“Why’s that?” Jongin snorts. “It’s not like I’m doing anything about it.”

“Exactly!” Chanyeol exclaims. “I really feel like this will impact you a lot more than you’d think. I don’t think it’ll be a case you can just shrug off anytime. If he doesn’t like you back or if you don’t want to do anything about it then… then it won’t end well.”

“I already knew it won’t end splendidly, Yeol! I know! As much as you want it to, I want it a lot more!” Jongin runs his hand through his hair, breathing heavily after admitting to himself and Chanyeol just how much he likes Sehun. “I can’t stop liking him that soon nor can I get him to like me back. How do you think I feel?” 

Chanyeol goes silent at Jongin’s outburst. He’s never really been this grumpy in the presence of his friends but now that he is, Chanyeol realises just how serious Jongin is. He blinks a few times before bringing a hand up to pinch the bridge of his nose. Chanyeol sighs as his eyelids slide close. 

“You’re right. I’m sorry.” 

          Jongin had asked Sehun if he minds inviting everyone back to hangout. Sehun said he didn’t mind and that’s how everyone ended up squeezed in Jongin’s living room. Romeo instinctively plops on Sehun’s lap, eyeing Jongin who’s sitting next to the former with excitement glinting in his orbs. Jongin scowls and Romeo looks away with a whimper. 

“He loves you more than me now,” Jongin mumbles, reaching out for Romeo either way. 

“Of course. I treat him good.” Sehun speaks as if that was the most well-known fact in the world. 

When Johnny pops open a can o