Red Yarn: Chapter 07

             The next day passes by in a blur for Kyungsoo, and before he knows it, students are already setting up their booths outside for the winter festival after school. And while everyone is running about like crazy little ants in panic mode, Kyungsoo is calmly walking his way over to the drama room to go grab his props. A group of running students suddenly bump into his shoulder, accidently pushing him over to the other side of the hallway. One of the students at least had the decency to apologize for bumping into him before following after his classmates into the nearby cooking classroom. Apparently someone had forgotten to grab the box of cooking oil for their food stand stationed outside.

            When Kyungsoo enters the practice room he sees several students who were still inside trying to gather up the remaining costumes that were left behind. He turns his attention away from them and quickly goes over to his corner to get his props. He tries to carry as many of them as he can, but it proves to be a difficult task since his hands are quite small. One of the props slips from his hold and Kyungsoo frets that it will break, but an unknown hand luckily reaches out for it just in time before it does.

            “Ah, thank you.” Kyungsoo says as he tries to see who it was that had helped him by peering over his props.

            “No problem, Kyungsoo.”

            “Oh, Baekhyun? What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be with Joonmyun-hyung and the others over at the auditorium already?”

            Baekhyun shakes his head and takes some of Kyungsoo’s props to lighten up his load, “Joonmyun has everything handled over there already. He told me to come here to see if there was anything that still needed to be taken over there.”

            “Oh, okay.”

            Kyungsoo and Baekhyun then leave together and make haste to the auditorium. Joonmyun wanted everyone to be there early just to make sure that they had everything all set and done before show time, so they needed to hurry. Once they entered the room, Kyungsoo was surprised to see that everyone looked rather excited. The winter festival wasn’t really one of those big spectacular events the school had during the school year, so it was a shock to see everyone so hyped up like this.

            A girl suddenly runs past Kyungsoo, nearly knocking him over, but Baekhyun nudges him back up to keep him from actually tipping over. This makes the owl-eyed boy huff in annoyance. Everyone seems to like bumping into him today. C’mon, he’s not that small and unnoticeable. Kyungsoo gives Baekhyun a small thanks of gratitude before placing all of his props onto the stage area. Joonmyun then comes skipping over–like, literally skipping over–to the both of them with a fantastical smile stretched happily across his face.

            “Finally, you’re both here!” He exclaims.

            “Whoa, aren’t you just a happy bundle of joy?” Baekhyun says to Joonmyun with a chuckle.

            Joonmyun continues to beam, “Why, of course, Baekhyun. I have this really good feeling for today’s show. I can’t wait!” He then skips away making both Kyungsoo and Baekhyun cringe at how everyone could practically see unicorns and rainbows fly off the guy.

            “Well, let’s see how long your ‘good feelings’ for today’s show last.” Baekhyun mutters under his breath. He’s a bit worried about his plan with Jongin tonight. Joonmyun and the others have put so much effort into this production that he hopes everything will go smoothly and not ruin the actual play.

            “What was that, Baekhyun?” Kyungsoo asks with blinking eyes. He didn’t catch anything the other had said.

            Baekhyun shakes away his thoughts and smiles, “Oh, it’s nothing, Kyungsoo.”

            Kyungsoo eyes Baekhyun judgingly, but he questions the eyeliner boy no further. They then split to their separate ways in order to help the other students prepare for their performance.

            As Kyungsoo sets up the last of his props into their rightful places on stage, it makes him feel proud of himself seeing how his hard work has paid off. He has to admit that the props actually look pretty nice. The craftsmanship wasn’t top notch for sure, but it was decent enough, according to Kyungsoo’s standards anyway.

            “Wow, Kyungsoo. These are really good!”

            “Oh, thank you.” Kyungsoo says as he turns himself around to see the deep voiced individual, who was none other than Park Chanyeol.

            “If I was the one in charge of making these props, they would end up looking like crap.” Chanyeol laughs in which Kyungsoo immediately smiles right after.

            So it’s true, Kyungsoo thinks to himself, Chanyeol really does have a knack for making someone feel light and happy with just a simple laugh or smile. Kyungsoo doesn’t really know much about him other than that he is Jongin’s best friend, who had a strange tendency to stick to Baekhyun like bacon and eggs. He kind of creeps the owl-eyed boy out with his occasional eye twitches and crazy wild orange hair, but who doesn’t get kind of creeped out by Chanyeol from time to time. If you’re not creeped out by him, even by a little, then something must be wrong with you, or at least that’s what Jongin says because even he himself gets creeped out by his own best friend sometimes.

            “You can’t be that bad at making things.” Kyungsoo says.

            “Oh, but I am.” Chanyeol laughs again.

            “Maybe…You are a bit clumsy.” Kyungsoo states with a chuckle, which takes Chanyeol by surprise. He actually heard Do Kyungsoo laugh.

             Chanyeol feels a sudden shudder go down his spine, “B-burr. Hey, is it just me or did it just get colder in here?” He asks with an unsure laugh.

            “Um, no, not really.”

            “I swear it…” He trails off on his words as he looks away from Kyungsoo and sees Jongin glaring at him from afar with a not so happy look on his face. Hmm, no wonder why it felt cold. “Ah, nevermind, Kyungsoo. It’s just a little puppy who’s jealous that I have his master’s attention is all. Well, good luck with the performance, ne?” he says with a thumbs up towards Kyungsoo, who has no idea what the curly-haired boy had just said to him, “You know, you’re lucky Joonmyun decided to change your roll to a butler instead of a maid at the last minute. I can see a certain someone having a nosebleed if you were in a maid outfit.”

            Kyungsoo stares at Chanyeol with big round eyes still not understanding a single word he was saying, “Huh, n-nosebleed? What are you talking about?”

            “Trust me, Kyungsoo. This certain someone would definitely have a nosebleed if he saw you dressed up all frilly and whatnot.” Chanyeol then smiles mischievously and whispers the next part into the smaller’s ear, “He’s like that, but he doesn’t like to say it out loud.” This makes Kyungsoo’s already wide owl like eyes pop out a little more than usual. At this point, Kyungsoo thinks Chanyeol might as well be talking alien language.

            “W-what?”

            “Well, see ya.” Chanyeol waves to him happily before scampering off somewhere.

            It was Kyungsoo’s turn to shudder. That was just too freakishly weird. He didn’t really think too much on it though since Joonmyun was hollering at the top of his lungs for everyone’s attention.

            It’s almost time for the play to start. All the student performers were now frantically rushing about trying to put on last minute touch-ups to their makeup and costumes. Joonmyun skillfully dodges a few of them, clutching his precious clipboard closer to his chest as he takes a quick peek out from the heavy red curtains that separate the stage from the seating area outside. Students and other guests were already sitting down, casually chatting amongst one another. He breathes in deeply and smiles. There were quite a lot of people–more than he actually expected, really. He knew convincing Jongin to play as the Prince would be worthwhile. It definitely brought in a lot of the girls from the neighboring schools to come out to watch, which was a good thing. It meant they were probably going to get a lot of profit that they could use to save up for their school’s end of the year trip to Jeju Island.

            “Alright, you ready everyone?” Joonmyun asks once all the student performers were finally ready and huddled together in a circle.

            Everyone cheered and pumped their fists into the air, a ‘fighting’ leaving their lips as they did so. Joonmyun smiles as he fixes the tie around his suit and turns his head to his secretary, Lay, who was stationed at the edge of the stage with a microphone ready. He nods his head and Lay begins the introductions to the audience.

            While everyone is still cheering amongst themselves, Jongin is on the sidelines trying to calm his heart down by listening to Lay’s narrating of the play’s opening lines. His stage fright is really starting to overpower his emotions, but he suddenly thinks about dancing and how he’s done that plenty of times in front of an audience before, so he begins to feel a bit more relaxed now. The collar of his costume is also itching him like crazy, and he just wants to rip it right off, or at least adjust it, but there’s no time for that since he hears the opening music play in the background. He takes a sharp intake of breath, looking downward to make sure that his red yarn ring was still wrapped comfortingly around his pinky finger. He quickly kisses it for good luck. The curtains are now being drawn, the limelight lighting up his perfectly poised face. He then takes a step out onto the vast stage with Baekhyun confidently following after him. The play has now officially begun.

                It’s finally up to the halfway mark of the play. Lay is announcing to the audience that they were now having an intermission and to come back in fifteen minutes for the play to continue. Kyungsoo is glad. This butler suit is really starting to suffocate him. He feels like he’s being cooked in an oven, so finally being able to the top part of his costume to cool off was refreshing.

            “BOO!”

            Kyungsoo dramatically clutches his chest, “Yah, Baekhyun, what is wrong with you?”

            He laughs, “Sorry, sorry. I just wanted to see your eyes bulge out.”

            Kyungsoo frowns and Baekhyun just continues to laugh, until he was interrupted by the panicking and out of breath student director, slash, student body president, Kim Joonmyun “Oh, Baekhyun there you are. Have you seen Jessica? Anywhere? At all? Please tell me that you’ve seen her.”

            Baekhyun shakes his head, “Nope.”

            Joonmyun quickly snaps his head over to the other male, “Have you seen her, Kyungsoo?” Kyungsoo also shakes his head, “Krisus, where is she? We start in five minutes!” Joonmyun then runs off to ask the other students, hoping that they’ll know where she is.

            Baekhyun smiles, “Well, that’s our cue.” He then grabs Kyungsoo’s wrist and drags him over to the makeup area.

            “Wha…? Baekhyun. Wait. What are you doing?”

            “Your makeup looks a bit ruined Kyungsoo-ah, let me fix it up.”

            Kyungsoo struggles to get himself out of Baekhyun’s grip, “What are you saying? I’m playing as the butler. I don’t need any makeup and you know that.”

            Baekhyun doesn’t respond and sets Kyungsoo into one of those black fancy like swivel chairs and forces him to stay put, “Just hold still and let me do this, okay?”

            “Didn’t you hear Joonmyun? We only have like five minutes, Baekhyun. We need to head back.” Kyungsoo tries to get up from the chair again only for Baekhyun to push him back down.

            “That’s plenty of time for me to do this. Now stop squirming!”

            “No!”

            “Yes!”

            “Baekhyun!”

            “Kyungsoo!”

            “Yah, don’t you dare put that eyeliner on me!”

            Jongin fidgets on stage, trying to stall out the scene as best he could until Joonmyun could find Jessica backstage. Act III scene ii was coming up and she was nowhere to be found. Jongin has no idea what’s going on, nor do the other students, who fear Joonmyun might have grey hairs by the end of the night if Jessica doesn’t show her face. What the hell is she doing?

            The audience still hadn’t caught on that something was wrong so it was a good sign for now, but the student performers were really starting to worry. Baekhyun suddenly appears on stage and begins to sing out his parts like nothing’s wrong, convincing Jongin that maybe they had found Jessica, and that the play could continue to commence like normal. He was still unsure of what was going on, but he decided to just go along with it, trusting Baekhyun that things were alright.

            As the first part was coming to a close, Baekhyun begins to walk off the stage, not before passing Jongin with a sly smile and a strange twinkle of his eyes. Jongin momentarily looks at his hyung in confusion before dismissing it to resume his acting on stage.

            Once Baekhyun knows he’s out of the audience’s sight, he rushes in between his classmates backstage in order to find Kyungsoo, who was apparently trying to hide himself in the deepest darkest corner he could find. The older boy immediately grabs onto Kyungsoo’s arm and pulls him quickly towards the stage, ignoring all of the younger boy’s protests.

            “I-I can’t do this, Baekhyun! Please, let me go. Why are you making me do this? Joonmyun-hyung is going to kill us! Baekhyun! Baekhyun, are you even listening to me? Baekhyun!”

            “It’s going to be fine, Kyungsoo. Here.” Baekhyun gives a rather hard tug on the other’s wrist making him stubble a little on his feet and dress. “Take these.” He shoves a pair of flats towards Kyungsoo, “That way you don’t actually break a leg out there. Oh, and take this too.” He hands a small Bluetooth like device over to him, “It’s a microphone that will alter your voice to sound like a girl. Apparently our sound tech guy can be useful sometimes when he’s not trolling around.”

            Kyungsoo looks at the items in his hands for a second before looking up pathetically, “Baekkie hyung…” Maybe doing some aegyo will convince the other to let him go.

            “Aw, don’t give me that look, Kyungie. It’s not going to work on me and you’re ruining your pretty little face.”

            He sighs in defeat. Aegyo never ever really did Kyungsoo justice.

            “Please, don’t make me go out there.” He tries one last time.

            “Look I know you’re scared, but it’ll be worth it in the end. Just let me do my fairy-godmother magic on you, okay? You’re prince is waiting for you out there so it up like the man I know you are behind all that squishiness of yours and stop acting like a whiny damsel in distress!”

            Kyungsoo has no idea what he’s saying. He might as well group him together with Chanyeol and label them as the Kings of alien gibberish.  

            Once Kyungsoo reluctantly puts the flats on his feet and places the Bluetooth like device in his ear, Baekhyun smoothes out Kyungsoo’s wig and pats him on the cheek before gently pushing him up to the stage. He feels like a mother finally bidding her daughter–technically son–goodbye.

            As Kyungsoo takes his first steps on stage he can hear his heart thump louder than the music playing in the background. Jongin’s back is turned towards him, but just looking at him like this already makes Kyungsoo feel like he’s going to explode. What will Jongin think of all of this once he notices that it’s me? He thinks. He looks out to the crowd. What if they realize that the Princess is now a totally new person? Throughout the whole play the Princess is kept mute til this part when the Prince and Princess have their duet, so it wouldn’t matter about the voice just the appearance, but it seems it might not matter since the room is kind of dark for anyone to really notice it’s a different person anyway.

            A new track is now playing in the background, Jongin’s voice mixing in along with it, and his back is still facing Kyungsoo. Jongin is slightly nervous because he’s still not sure if they had found Jessica backstage. Everything they worked hard for will be ruined if she doesn’t show up right now, at this exact moment. He lets out the last note, closing his eyes tightly, and waits for Jessica’s voice to join in with his, but once he hears that first note come out he knows for sure that it isn’t Jessica who's singing. If it wasn’t her singing then who?

            He turns his head around so fast he thinks he might have snapped his neck, but that doesn’t matter right now because his one and only princess is standing before him.

            Kyungsoo’s face is timid as he sings. His cheeks covered with a small tinting blush that begins to blossom more and more the longer Jongin continues to stare at him. He opts to look at the floor, but it doesn’t stop the blush from spreading itself all the way up to his ears.

            Jongin is completely mind-blown at Kyungsoo’s appearance. It’s making him feel weird things in his chest. So this is what Baekhyun hyung was planning all along. He should have known. He doesn’t complain though because this is perfect.

            Jongin smiles wide after recollecting his jaw back. He then sings along with Kyungsoo’s altered girl voice, which slightly amuses him. He really wants to hear Kyungsoo’s own voice, but this is an exception. It’s still beautiful either way. He then walks forward and gently pulls Kyungsoo into his embrace. When he intertwines their fingers together he can feel how much the other was trembling. Kyungsoo tries his best to lock his eyes elsewhere–out to the audience, his feet, or Jongin’s chest, as long as he didn’t make eye contact with the younger boy he figured he would be okay.

            “Oh. My. Krisus!” Joonmyun clutches his clipboard hard against his chest as he stares at the two singing on stage, “What on earth have you done, Baekhyun!”

            “Chill out prez. You’re being too overly dramatic. I think it’s lovely. Just look at them.” Baekhyun says a bit dreamily at the end.

            “Where. Is. Jessica?” Joonmyun seethed.

            “Oh, c’mon relax. Kyungsoo is doing fine. You’re the one who wanted him to play as the Princess first anyway.”

            “Yea I did, but that doesn’t change the fact that I know he won’t do the kiss scene!”

            “Yah, have some faith in our dongsaengs, yea? I’m sure Kyungsoo will pull through.”

            Joonmyun just groans and looks back to the two still singing on stage, clutching his clipboard a bit too tightly in his hands.

            This is it, Kyungsoo. This is it. His conscious screams. He can feel Jongin’s stare digging deep into his soul. It’s completely overwhelming him. What do I do? What do I do? Oh, god, what do I do? He’s starting to panic now. Even though the words of the song come out smoothly from his lips his whole body is trembling. He doesn’t know whether it’s from nervousness or excitement. He knows he’s going to have to kiss Jongin soon.

            Everything is now going in slow motion when Jongin stops them and leans him back. All the girls in the audience are gasping, eyes getting wider with every passing second. Kyungsoo does his best to hold out his last note with Jongin; his eyes closed in embarrassment. The note then begins to get softer and softer in a decrescendo until there’s nothing but their quiet breaths mixing in together. Kyungsoo finally gathers up his courage and slowly opens his eyes. The first thing he sees is Jongin’s tender smile. He looks up to his eyes and is amazed at how gentle and soft Jongin was looking at him. It was so loving.

            It’s in this moment Kyungsoo knows that he likes Jongin–like a lot. Especially they way he holds him safely in his arms like this, and how he looks at him, and speaks to him, and sings to him, and dances with him, and everything else that is Jongin. It seems so illogical to Kyungsoo. He’s never noticed Jongin like this before now, and yet somehow he’s found himself falling hard for him in such a short time.   

            “Kyungsoo…” Jongin whispers quietly so no one else can hear, and places his forehead down on Kyungsoo’s own, catching the older’s attention fully, “Be my princess.”

            That line was the same one that Jongin used the day when they almost kissed for the first time. Maybe Jongin actually did like him all along. Maybe this whole time he wasn’t asking Kyungsoo to play as the Princess just because they needed a replacement, but because he genuinely wanted him to be a part of the play because he liked him. Maybe–but, what if he’s wrong? Aish, to hell with it! Kyungsoo thought. He grabbed both sides of Jongin’s face with determination, looking briefly at Jongin’s plump lips before pulling him downwards and pressing their lips against one another. This took Jongin by surprise, but nevertheless he smiled as he molded his lips to better fit his together with Kyungsoo’s. Kyungsoo felt extreme and complete bliss. Who knew that kissing Jongin would give him such fluttering feelings? It was a sweet and passionate kind of kiss at first–with their adrenaline rushing and all–but Jongin turned it around and made their kiss much more subtle and gentle. Kyungsoo kind of regrets not letting Jongin kiss him that first time when they were alone in that practice room now.  

            They eventually part, Jongin smiling ever so wide with Kyungsoo following after his example. Kyungsoo then nuzzles his nose into Jongin’s cheek and shyly whispers a quiet, ‘I’m yours’ against it.

            Meanwhile there's the sound of a clipboard snapping. “Um, I think Joonmyun hyung just fainted.”

---

A/N:

/Peeks out from behind a wall.

Uh, hi, everyone. I kind of went on an unintentional hiatus on your guys. I hope you all will forgive me. A lot of things have been going on in my life so it has been really difficult for me to write and update. I blame most of it on college. I had a summer session if you were wondering.

I also really have no words for this chapter. It’s really crapply written. I might end up rewriting it. I am not satisfied with this at all. Even though I proofread it a couple of times there are still a lot of transitioning problems, and grammar problems, and that fail kiss scene. /sighs/ I can go on and on. I am so extremely sorry. Inspiration for this chapter was really low for me, but I felt like I really needed to write it out in order for me to just get it out of the way and hopefully gain back some inspiration somehow. If you found this chapter somewhat enjoyable I’ll think of it as a miracle that I at least did something right.

Also, thank you so much for waiting patiently for an update. I cannot promise you when I’ll be updating. It probably won’t be soon, but I can say that the next chapter will definitely be the last one. Again thank you for sticking with me this far and I hope you guys will stay with me all the way to the end. It means a lot to me.

<3 dububrit-on