Dancing and Glasses
Lights, Camera, (K)drama
Taemin’s POV
I gritted my teeth before smiling (I think it was more of a grimace) at the class. “Annyeong. I’m Lee Taemin and I hope you take care of me well.”
A couple of girls, scratch that, every single one of them-except for Eunhae (who was glaring at me), were eyeing me like I was a piece of meat. I smirked though. This wasn’t something I couldn’t handle, but the hyungs were gone...oh well. Maybe that B1A4 actually are better kingkas than Key hyung thought.
The teacher smiled at me. Thankfully SHE was in her 60s so it wasn’t like my weird homeroom teacher last time...who had only graduated from college and thought we were all eligible or something...
“Very well Taemin. Why don’t you go sit in that empty desk over there next to Gongchan.”
I looked to where she pointed and saw that other maknae glaring at me. First of all, I was a lot cooler than him. I’m pretty sure I would get more fangirls in a few hours than he could (but that’s annoying so let’s skip that). Also I could do a lot better aegyo probably too. Minho hyung could probably do better aegyo...
I dropped into the seat and looked in front of me...Aish, jinja...It was her sitting right in front of me. Her mask was still on and she had pulled on a school sweatshirt with the hoodie up.
Another student with the nametag Sungjong leaned over and grinned at me. I frowned. How many good looking guys were there at this school? I knew they were talented in the arts but...this guy actually looked like a girl. “Hi Jeremy! How do you like Seoul Arts High so far?”
I frowned. “Um...sure? I don’t think you noticed, but my name is Taemin.” It looked like the guys here were going to use my popularity to get themselves the girls again... I’m sorry if I’m being too critical of everything, but this is me at school. It’s the place where you can’t trust anyone, especially if you and your brothers are probably going to control every aspect of life later on.
“Lee Taemin, please come up to the board and solve this. And Cho Eun-hae, are you okay? Why do you have a sweatshirt on?” the teacher’s voice pulled me out of my thoughts and I looked at the chalkboard.
“Oh. I was just feeling a little cold.” the bundle of jackets in front of me muttered.
I shrugged and looked at the deathly problem. Thankfully, it was some crazy formula that Onew hyung had discovered when he was in fifth grade and I knew all of the secrets that probably even the teacher didn’t know. I brought a piece of paper up to the board and did some work before detailing my method with the chalk. “So the answer is the 67.9 + the square root of 196.8. All of this is over 1930284.”
I smirked a little before turning around. I groaned a little as I saw everyone’s faces. Great, now everyone was going to think I’m some kind of genius. Oh well, it won’t happen again!
The teacher just faintly nodded and told the class to write it down. I was walking past the teacher’s desk in order to get to my seat when I saw a piece of paper that had my name on it and a few suspicious words. I dropped my calculations on top of it (thanks to minho hyung’s frisbee lessons) and scooped the paper along with it.
Everyone was still writing, so I unfolded it and almost banged my head into the desk. This was insane. I used my pencil to tap the girl in front of me. She probably couldn’t feel it under all those layers so I poked the tiniest bit harder.
She whipped around and if looks could kill, I would have died on the spot. “Yah! what do you want?”
People looked up and I grinned before holding up the piece of paper. “Message for you, gorrilla.”
I was going to have a lot of fun with this.
Eunhae’s POV
Who knew that the pea-brain could actually solve that problem on the board. I hurried to copy the process down, when I felt someone poke me in the back... It must be Taemin. He’s probably going to piss me off or something, so I didn’t turn around. Then he stabbed me with the pencil.
“Yah! What do you want?” I managed to suppress and scream to a whisper.
“Message for you, gorilla,” he smirked, giving me a piece of paper.
“We’re not allowed to pass notes, pabo!” I snorted, rejecting the paper. I was about to turn around when he shoved the note in my face.
“Trust me! You’ll WANT to read this,” he insisted. What’s his deal? Is it some kind of love letter or something?
“Arraso,” I sighed, taking the note. I skimmed over it, then a word caught my eye. Wait...this can’t be. I looked at it more closely.
Dear Faculty and Students of Seoul High,
We are training for the drama, “Not A Typical Highschool Romance.” We need to get into our role, so please help us.
For me, Taemin: My name is Jeremy, but you can just call me Taemin. I’m supposed to be a rich, stuck up, and popular boy. I get along with the guys well. You shouldn’t have any trouble being drawn to me, seeing that I’m from Shinee.
For me, Eunhae: My name is Hyoseung, and just like Taemin, you can just call me Eunhae. I’m supposed to be poor, nerdy, and nice.
Thank you for your cooperation,
Lee Taemin and Cho Eunhae
What is this stupid joke?
I ripped the paper in two and scribbled a message on the back of one piece, folded it up, and tossed it behind me. Luckily, it made it to Taemin’s desk, and he unraveled it. After a minute, he stabbed me in the back again and handed back to me the folded note.
You think I made this up?! Look at it! That’s clearly your signature on the bottom! I didn’t even have the time to pass this out to everyone! I’m guessing it’s a letter from Mr. Choi. We might as well go along with it, since it’ll help us anyways. -Taemin
I snorted. Whatever. It’s not like I’m going to go around and act like a poor nerd. Everyone LOVES me! There’s no way they’d treat me like trash!
______________________________________________________________________
Finally, the lunch bell rang, and I could get away from Taemin...except I that I was being mobbed by some crazy fangirls right now.
“Eunhae-shii! Why do you get to sit next to Taemin?!”
“You were passing notes and whispering to each other! Did you drug him into talking to you?!”
“What were you guys talking about? TELL US!!”
For the first time in my life, I was being cornered by a mob that looked ready to kill. What the heck is happening?! What’s their problem?! They didn’t even respect my personal bubble!
I stretched my neck to see over the crowd. If it was getting this bad for me, then how was Taemin doing?
He was casually laughing and talking with Sungjong and Gongchan.... Okay. This wasn’t fair. How come I get the killer fangirls and he gets the gentle guys? THIS ISN’T FAIR!!
“Yah Hyorin!” I waved my hand to catch her attention, but she just smirked at me (actually looking down at me) and turned away. I was so dead.
“Uh-One question at a time!” I laughed nervously.
Director’s POV
I sat back in my chair, watching the screen. I had a CCTV camera installed into a corner of the room, where no one would find it if they weren’t looking for it. This way, I can monitor how the character developments are going on. So far, everything seemed to be going well.
I chuckled at Eunhae’s situation. Why did she come to school with a mask? Oh wait...whoops. We forgot to give her makeup. Whatever. She’s supposed to be a poor sweet nerdy girl, so she should just get used to it.
She looked like she was stuck in an avalanche. Every student should’ve already gotten that message, and only her closest friends would stay with her... if she has any friends, that is. She was trying to defend herself against the mobbing fangirls by answering their questions, then assuring them that she and Taemin had absolutely no connection, except that they were co-actors in the drama. Despite how stupid she looks, she’s actually pretty smart. If she had told them everything that was going on, they probably would break into the apartment and then damage the apartment.... And that would’ve cost SM billions of won.
Meanwhile, Taemin seemed to comfortably slide into his role. He and the boys were chatting amicably. It was obvious that he was a bit worried about Eunhae’s situation, for what reason, I wouldn’t know. Maybe she was growing on him, brattiness and all.
“Director Choi? Do you want to eat lunch? They should’ve already left for their lunch right now, and we don’t have a CCTV installed in the cafeteria,” Mr. Kim offered from the doorway.
“They haven’t left yet. Give me a few more minutes, Mr. Kim-shii,” I waved a hand to dismiss.
Mr. Kim walked up behind me, watching what was happening.
“This setup might be dangerous, sir. What if Eunhae gets harmed in some way because of some crazy fans?” Mr. Kim asked.
“Then she’ll have to find some way to protect herself. I’m pretty sure she can defend herself anyways. It’s THE Cho Eunhae afterall,” I assured Mr. Kim, mocking Eunhae a bit.
“Oh yeah, didn’t her form say that she’s a second degree black belt in taekwondo? She doesn’t really look like much,” Mr. Kim shook his head.
“Exactly. That’s why she fits the part so much. Oh! They’re leaving the room now! Okay then, let’s go each lunch,” I stood up, stretching my legs.
Taemin’s POV
I loosened my tie as I stood in line. The stupid fangirls were still flitting about madly between me and Eun-hae. They seemed to be fascinated with me and would report back to Eun-hae to see what made her so special that I would notice her.
I don’t notice her. I would never go for those types of gorillas anyways. I like the more quiet ones that don’t wear as much makeup but are still really pretty. The ones who don’t go around bragging about how awesome they are and disgracing banana milk.
I gave my eye-smile to the lunch lady and she gave me an extra serving of food. What? I’m a growing boy and my goal is to be taller than all my hyungs...except maybe Minho...he’s a little...too tall.
It’s really weird. Eun-hae seemed to want to be with her friends, but they quickly slid down the bench so that there was no more room. Maybe giving her the note in class wasn’t such a good idea. But it will get her into character, that’s for sure.
Sungjong bounced up and handed me a lemon lollipop. “Do you want it?” I shook my head before sitting down. It was weird sitting with new people though. At Shinhwa, there was a separate table in our own room for me and the hyungs to eat. Apparently there had been this group called F4 before so we just kind of took over their main hangout space. But personally, I think all my hyungs look better than them.
Now eating with a bunch of fangirls staring at my every move...let’s just say it wasn’t the most comfortable feeling in the world.
Jinyoung stared at me over his sandwich and I felt the rest of the group look at me as well. “So you’re the famous Taemin.”
I raised an eyebrow. “I don’t know about famous...but yeah I’m Taemin.”
Gongchan smirked. “Famous just because of your adopted brothers and your dead parents. Isn’t that right?”
The fork I was holding under the table was about to snap. But I held it in and just smiled back. “I guess so. Do any of you idiots know what time lunch ends?”
“Oh oppa! Lunch ends in 30 minutes!!! Can you take a picture with me?” A girl wearing lots of purple eyeshadow and had her hair flat-ironed so it resembled sheets of seaweed was grinning at me at what was supposedly flirtatious.
“Um...no. Maybe later.” I turned back to my meal.
Baro looked up at that. “I can take a selca with you Hyorin!”
“Maybe later oppa.”
CNU leaned back in his seat. He was one of the only kingkas I had seen that wore glasses in public. “Too bad he’s in that stupid drama. If we act out against him, we get a month’s worth of detentions.” He grinned at me. “So Jeremy-ssi. Are you enjoying our school?”
I quickly excused myself and ran out of the cafeteria and prayed to every deity that I wouldn’t get followed by weird kingkas or fangirls. I didn’t really know which one was worse
Luckily, there was a dance practice room at the end of the hall, and I ducked in. No one else was in there, so I took off my jacket and relaxed. Dance rooms are a lot of fun to be in. There’s just the mirror and you, and no one’s there to judge you except for yourself.
I did a couple moves and went through a series of tuts and tried to get my sense of rhythm back. Jonghyun hyung always said that he would teach all of us to sing, and we could have been an idol group. But then the parents went and ew into a completely driven nerd and that was the end of that.
I kind of wanted to be a dancer. It was that one thing that set me apart from the other hyungs (Key was just as good, but he liked fashion better). But being an actor is apparently more fame-worthy and pays more than being able to dance. I finished my routine and turned around to see one of the sliding mirrors move.
I frowned and slid the back mirror to reveal a girl hiding her face behind a huge AP calculus book. Deja vu was in the air, but I’ve never seen this girl before.
She bowed. “Sorry Taemin-ssi.” And with that she turned to leave.
I grabbed her wrist. I don’t know why. But there was just something about this girl that seemed different. “Hey it’s okay. What’s your name?”
“Kim Minhee.” She gave a tentative smile and lowered the book. The girl definitely wasn’t the prettiest I had seen but she was definitely the most innocent. She wasn’t wearing any makeup, her hair was neatly caught up in a bun, and her dark eyes were sparkling behind the glasses she wore.
“Do you always stay here during lunch?”
“Ne. I had...well a bad experience the first day so I’ve just been staying here to do some extra studying.”
“Why not go to the library?”
“The other kids say my feet tapping is annoying. No one here really likes me.”
I grinned. “I like you already. Feet tapping? That’s the first step for dancing. Do you like music?”
Nodding, Minhee gave a real smile. “Ne. But I’m not very good at anything.”
“Do you want me to teach you?”
“Oh I don’t want to be a bother. It’ll hurt your reputation to dance with me and you probably have better things to do than to teach me.”
I laughed at her worried face. “If it’ll get rid of those girls, by all means. And you won’t be a bother. I’ve wanted to teach someone for a while now.”
“Okay then...I would love to learn!”
I set down her book on the floor and my phone to my dance playlist and grinned at her nervous expression. “Show me what you got.”
Eunhae’s POV
Oh. My. Gosh.
What is this abomination in my bookbag? Trembling, I felt around the object, not quite sure if it was the thing that I had been thinking about. Oh no.
Glasses. To make it worse, these were the exact same model as my previous pair, the awkward, overly large, squarish-round asian glasses. And the director didn’t think that defending myself from a hoard of fangirls was enough...
Did that old geezer slip it into my bag, thinking that I would wear it? Ha! He’s wrong! I’m never going to wear these hideous things again!! NOT IN A BILLION YEARS!!
Shuddering, I recalled my childhood. Wearing glasses like these had brought on sufferings that helped mold me into the person I am today, the beautiful Cho Eunhae. In a way these glasses aren’t a bad thing, but the torture that came along with it was horrible. I’m pretty kind to not treat nerds these days as I had been treated when I was a child.
Pulling out the glasses from my bag, I inspected the item. Yup, I was right. They were glasses.
“Eunhae-shii... Is that...??” a girl peeked around my shoulder.
“Ehhh?!” I swiveled around in surprise, quickly covering the glasses. “I-it’s nothing!!”
“Those are glasses!” she gasped. “The rumors were true!! You really are a nerd!” And with that, she ran to her friends to spread the rumors.
Oh shoot.
Omo! There’s Hyorin! I waved at her, trying to get her attention, but she ignored me. Again.
“Aish! What’s her problem?!” I cursed, picking up my pace. Along the way, people started whispering crazily, and I strained my ear a bit to eavesdrop.
“Did you hear? Eunhae’s actually a nerd. Apparently she’s like this now because she used to be a loser!” a girl gossiped as I walked past her in the hallway.
“Jinja? I heard she bullies nerds now because she thinks she’s helping them or something!” another girl replied.
“Wait, guys. Remember those handouts this morning from Eunhae and Taemin? Something about being and nerd and stuff? Doesn’t that mean it’s okay for us to pick on her? She’s supposed to be a nerd...right?”
And with that comment, I took off after Hyorin’s disappearing figure.
Taemin’s POV
Minhee wasn’t that bad, she was actually pretty decent. Her moves were smooth, even if there weren’t that many of them, but she stayed in beat with the rhythm and easily adjusted whenever the style slipped from one phrase to the next.
She turned around, her face slightly flushed and a few wisps of hair coming undone from her bun. “What do you think?”
I grinned. “I think you’re going to be my new practice buddy.”
“Jinja?” She grinned and shook her head a bit. “I’m not actually all that great. I used to take lessons when I was little. Could you show me what you were doing before?”
“Oh tutting? It’s easy, I’ll show you.” I demonstrated a bit and was a little surprised at how quickly she picked up the technique. But she was having a little trouble making the perfect 90 degree angles with her joints.
She gave a frustrated sigh and I laughed at the cute noise. “Here just bend your wrist like this and practice turning it around.” I caught her slim wrist and twirled it around into the desired shape. Twisting it into all these different motions, I ended up dancing a little with her.
Minhee seemed to like it, she was moving it a little on her own and putting her own spin on the simple exercise.
She caught my eyes and blushed a little before stepping away. But I actually liked the feel of her hand in mine. “Uh-uh. You aren’t done yet!” I grabbed her other wrist with a snort an--
BAM!
The door swung open to reveal that Hyorin girl leaning against the door in a way that revealed way more skin than my innocent eyes needed to see. “Taemin-a”
I ignored her and grinned at Minhee, who was staring at the ground with a worried expression. “Here Minhee, I’ll show you a demonstration.” I tried to get her to lift her face and show her grin again, but she just nodded and went to the back of the room to watch.
“Can I watch too Minnie?” her nasally voice was even worse than Eun-hae’s if that was possible. And how dare she call me Minnie? That’s 1) the name of that girl mouse at Disney. 2) only the hyungs can call me that. I have to control myself from throwing whatever’s in my hands at my ‘parents’ when they call me that. Reason? That’s one of the only memories I have of my real parents. Them asking “Minnie do you want chocolate or vanilla ice cream?” I don’t even remember what I picked but I just remember their faces and their voices, which were fading away every day.
“Minhee-ya, do you mind if this...’friend’ of yours watches?” I crossed my fingers and hoped she would say no, but she just nodded before scooting away from the Hyorin who kept scooting closer to her.
Aish it was going to happen again, wasn’t it? The last real girl friend I had made, in fourth grade, ended up getting a crowd of girls around her and acted like friends in front of me and then pulling all of her hair out once I had my back turned...I needed to protect Minhee from this somehow...
I the music and started to dance, watching them through the reflection.
Minhee was focusing on my feet, her eyes catching every step. Hyorin...I would rather not say where she was looking because it made me reeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaalllllly uncomfortable..
I know it’s for the drama and all, the way everyone’s acting...but I don’t think this is all exactly acting...
Let’s just say I went back to watching Minhee’s reactions.
Eunhae’s POV
I stumbled into a hallway and hid behind a column that protruded from the corner, eager to get away from the millions of jealous girls who had somehow gotten the idea that they could bully me.
“Where did she go!?” an exhausted girl huffed as she ran by.
“I was pretty sure she went this way...” another girl muttered.
“Maybe she kept on going!” another girl hissed, and the whole mob ran past the hallway I was hiding in. When the footsteps of sprinting girls faded, I stuck my head out of the hallway to see if the cost was clear. Then I breathed a sigh of relief, realizing that I had been holding my breath the whole time.
HOW DARE THEY DEFY ME?! I AM THE CHO EUNHAE!! I’LL SUE THEM FOR THIS!!! You know what?! I might as well teach them a lesson now! I’m going to go out there and teach them who the boss is!! ....Or maybe not.
Maybe I’ll just stay here for the rest of the day, safe and out of harm’s way. Hiding in some unknown corner or hall in the school like I did was I was a kid in elementary school.
Tears of frustration welled up in my eyes, but I refused to let them fall. Instead, I took a deep breath and walked further down the hall. I’ve never seen this hall before...
A strange beating sound thrummed throughout the hall. At first it was soft, like a baby’s heartbeat, but then as I kept on walking, the sound got louder. Soon, I could define a certain melody. It sounded like pop music... or dubstep. Finally, I located the sound, and opened the door just a bit...
Is that Taemin?! And what is he doing?! Hm, those movements look familiar...
Oh! I think this is that dance style called “tutting”! In one of those music videos I did, I worked with some group that liked tutting. They wouldn’t stop and even tried to teach me the strange movements.
I hated to admit it, but Taemin was actually pretty good. His movements captured my attention and I couldn’t look away. Then the music stopped and he turned around.
“Do you understand?” he asked, talking to people I couldn’t see. Opening to door a little bit more, I recognized that nerd girl, Minhee, and Hyorin.
“What’s she doing here?!” I hissed quietly, confused and a bit bitter at Hyorin’s betrayal. Wait, I shouldn’t be mad at Hyorin, this Minhee girl was probably the cause of all this.
Hello, Hello! We're going to get down on our knees and beg for forgiveness...wait no...we didn't update because we knew you guys would be distracted by our awesome fic and not study for exams :) haha totaaaaaally kidding! no we had lovely exams (and i think i failed math and english) but yeah..here's a super long chapter for you guys!!! Hopefully we'll update more over the break but no promises because we didn't exactly keep our thanksgiving promise...also if the world does end in the next 24 hours...we'll miss you guys!!! and thanks so much for sticking with our story!!!
keke chocolate-notes :)
*cough cough*hopefully as she says.. yeah, guys... sorry for not updating TT.TT yeah...exams !!! and now that it's break, my mom's going to make me to MORE homework (if any of you have experienced it, some asian moms like to crack down on you during the breaks...aka 5 hours of piano a day for me TT.TT)... so i apologize -before hand if we don't update regularly now.... oh yeah. THANX FOR READING AND COMMENTING!! -LOLxbox
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