It starts here. In the bottom of his shoes, toes wiggling and itching to break loose, all the way up to his knees, to his hips, to his fingers and elbows and shoulders and everywhere else that moves on his command. It's something he's known his whole life, something that's taken him years to become, to practice, to perfect. Even now, he is still perfecting it, this art, this craft.

It is two steps to the right, and another four to the left, and a half turn, sinking to the floor with his arms curled in to his chest, before sliding into a faster pace of all he knows by heart and by soul.

It is drawn out beats and smooth rhythms and all do and not much thought, going with the flow of things, going with impulse and gut feelings and all the right moves in all the right places.

It is something he doesn't know how to explain, and yet, it is the only thing he needs to say all the words he wants to.

He is dance. And dance is him.

And when he sets that camera on the table, facing forward, he takes a deep breath before hitting the record button, and pressing play on the little disc player he borrowed from his brother. The music flows.

And he dances.

-

"It's okay if you didn't get in," says his friend, backpack slung loosely over his shoulder as he walks, "you've got other chances."

Minhyuk just shrugs. He'd sent in his audition tape to JYP almost two weeks ago, and he still hasn't heard a single word from them. No contact, nothing. Not even an email saying that he didn't make it (which he assumes has probably happened).

But there'll be other chances. Hopefully. He's just seventeen anyway, he's got his whole life ahead of him. And Minhyuk hasn't even finished school yet. But that hasn't stopped countless others from pursuing their wants, their hopes, their dreams, even at an age younger than him.

Minhyuk files away the thought for later and concentrates on what he's going to scrounge from the fridge for lunch today when he gets home.

They've barely made it around the corner when Minhyuk's eye catches something going on nearby. Books strewn everywhere, papers all over the grass. A guy from Minhyuk's class is being stepped on. Literally.

"Hey, watch it, man," says Minhyuk indignantly, pushing the offender off his classmate. "What did he do to you?"

"None of your business," sneers the kid, and he adds, "who the are you, anyway?"

"None of your business," retorts Minhyuk, and he helps his classmate up. "Come on, let's get out of here."

"Where do you think you're going?" It's addressed to Minhyuk's classmate, who looks slightly terrified, and he nearly trips over his schoolbag, lying by his feet. "I'm not done with you yet."

Minhyuk hands his classmate over to his friend, who's still standing by the side, watching quietly, not wanting to get in the middle of whatever was going on. Minhyuk steps up to the guy, and stares straight at him. " off."

The kid is probably a year or two younger than him, but he stares back just as vehemently as Minhyuk does. "Don't tell me what to do."

"I'm not looking for a fight." Minhyuk flicks his gaze behind him, and continues, "I'll call the cops if I have to."

The kid's gaze wavers slightly, but he regains his composure, and spits out, "Fine." He trudges off, with a call of, "Come on, Jihoon."

It's only then that Minhyuk realises there's another boy standing by the bully, a chubby kid, who looks like he really doesn't want to be a part of this. But then the bully is calling his name again and Jihoon follows after with one last gaze.

Glad that's over, Minhyuk turns to his classmate. "What the was that about?"

-

Proms, decides Minhyuk after a bare half an hour of sitting at the same table, are the most boring things in the world.

First of all, there is no real dancing. The dancefloor consists of couples swaying back and forth to a dizzying rhythm, nice on the ears, but too slow for Minhyuk's taste. And second, there is no real alcohol. At all. Minhyuk snorts, fingers curling lightly around the plastic cup containing soda. How is he going to forget the stupid events of tonight?

And by stupid, he means his date blowing up on him because he told her he'd rather sit at this table than follow along mindlessly with the crowd and their so called one-step, two-step. 

Minhyuk only really took her as a favour. He spies her chatting it up with two guys across the hall and he makes a sound. Figures. 

Tapping his fingers on the table, he almost doesn't notice the music changing to something slightly more up-tempo, and he lifts his head lazily to look at the stage. He's surprised that they have a live band this year, but he guesses the prom committee wanted to go all out on this year's prom. Not like it's that outstanding, anyway.

Funny choice of band, though. A five member group, called Super Hero Idol Team. 

Now, if that isn't a load of , he doesn't know what is.

But they're not too bad. Minhyuk has eyes for the keyboardist. Pretty, dark hair, dimples. He has a thing for dimples. She bounces along to the music as she plays, a smile on her face. Minhyuk watches her play for the rest of the song, until it ends, and the vocalist says, "Thank you for having us here, we're S.H.I.T. and we hope you have a great night!"

A few laughs break out over the hall, but it's all in good nature, and the band continues playing all the way into the night.

Minhyuk manages to catch the band on their way out later, and gives his nicest grin to the keyboardist, who smiles a shy smile at him, and is ushered out by one of the band members as Minhyuk tries to signal, 'call me', holding up a yearbook and pointing at the page with the phone numbers of the graduating class.

The electric guitarist makes shifty eyes at him, and steals a jam tart from the nearest table.

-


Either his watch is half an hour fast, or he's late for work.

Most likely the second option.

Minhyuk speeds up the stairs of the subway, and jogs along the sidewalk, running out of breath a little. He knows he's probably going to be fired; his boss has already mentioned his displeasure for Minhyuk's tardiness more than once. 

to work at fast food joints. There's always someone who can replace you in this world of big-name corporations.

He doesn't see the dustbin that's been kicked aside as he weaves past a crowd, and accidentally trips over it, bumping into a person, who makes a loud yelp and falls over.

"Oh, god, I'm sorry, are you okay?" Minhyuk offers a hand to the person, who stands up and brushes some gravel off his jeans. Minhyuk stares at him. "Why are there bandaids on your face?"

"I'm an ulzzang," replies the boy, as if that explains everything. It doesn't.

Minhyuk just blinks. "Okay. Sorry for bumping into you." And then he's off again, past another corner and nearly tripping again, over a customer coming out the door.

He gets fired twenty minutes later.

-

"Come on, you know I'm not into this," groans Minhyuk, leaning against the door. "This hip hop stuff is more of your thing."

"Did I mention Prepix is performing?"

Minhyuk's head shoots up immediately. "Prepix? As in, Prepix? The kind that dances, Prepix? My favourite crew, Prepix?"

"That's the one. There'll be others too," promises his friend, and Minhyuk takes all of four seconds to decide that he's going. His friend whoops.

The next night, they're standing somewhere in some hall in Hongdae, watching a bunch of crews perform. The hall is packed with people from all over, and Minhyuk can feel the atmosphere getting more and more pumped as, one by one, the dance crews come out to perform, and it's dotted here and there with random hip hop acts, some vaguely familiar sounding, and most unfamiliar to his ears. 

And then, the group he's been wanting to see all night, appears.

He probably doesn't blink for the next five and a half minutes. Or breathe. His friend is almost convinced that Minhyuk's respiratory system has shut down, until Minhyuk starts making excited noises twelve seconds into their performance.

After that, Minhyuk swears to himself, one day, it's going to be him standing there, dancing in that spot, alongside those big names.

"And now, let's bring out our next guest performers," announces the emcee, waving his hand at the crowd, who cheers loudly. Minhyuk hangs back, since he's just here to see the dancers. "Representing Brand New Stardom--"

"Yo," says his friend suddenly, making Minhyuk turn his head away from the stage, and his attention to his friend. "I'm going to go take a quick breather. Be back in a sec."

Minhyuk waves him off, and glances back at the stage. Two enthusiastic looking kids are jumping around, rapping their heads off, and the crowd seems to be loving it. Minhyuk thinks, maybe they're not too bad. They strut around the stage like they own it, spitting out lyrics about turning around and something else he can't catch. Minhyuk's never been so good with foreign languages anyway. 

They end to a crowd of cheers, and the one with longish hair waves at the crowd, grinning wildly. A little mad-looking, thinks Minhyuk to himself, as the kid throws his arm over the other one's shoulders.

And that one shorter kid on the right has quite a long face.

-

He's just never on time for anything.

Minhyuk races a traffic light, swerves past a florist shop, and runs down another lane, taking as many shortcuts as he can to make it to practice. His dance instructor is going to kill him. Again. 

Maybe it's genetic or something, his lateness. His dad used to be late for things all the time. Maybe Minhyuk's caught it. 

Sort of like a flubug.

He waves the thought away and concentrates on getting to the studio where the trainees practice. He's still slightly ecstatic at being accepted into a major company, not as big as the others he's tried for, but still. It's been two months and still, the feeling won't wear off just yet.

Flying past another row of shops, he suddenly pauses for a while.

Minhyuk's taken a wrong turn.

He swears, and is about to turn back to where he came from, when something catches his attention. A voice, someone singing. With a glance behind, he sees a door, wide ajar, and shifts his attention to the signboard above it, still listening to the singing voice.

It's a vocal academy. Figures.

Minhyuk stands there for a few more seconds, listening to the voice. Whoever it is in there is a really good singer, he thinks to himself. He wishes he could sing like that. Full of emotion, with a range as wide as the skies, notes soaring here and there in a controlled tone...

He'll just have to practice. And until then--

Oh. Wait. Isn't he late for practice?

And off he goes again, an excuse for why he's late already perched on the tip of his tongue.

With a muttered "forgive me" to his dance instructor as he walks through the door, he gets to warming up after setting all his things down by the other trainees' stuff, and takes the empty spot next to the trainee with the tiny eyes.

"Hey, Sunggyu," he asks quietly, "Do you know that vocal academy about two blocks down?"

The other trainee glances at him, in the middle of a stretch, and shakes his head.

Well. Maybe he'll just check it out himself someday.

-

Minhyuk pretends like it isn't painful when he finds out that they don't need him anymore. That the new group they're lining up has just the right members already and that he just isn't cut out to be a part of it.

Maybe not this year, they say. Maybe not this group, they say. Maybe not this company, they say.

And so he leaves, walking out those double-doors, dragging his feet along with him and what's left of his dream.

-

He isn't really sure how it happens, but he bumps into a guy with outstanding cheeks one day, and a week later he's being introduced to these two painfully familiar kids, he just can't put a finger on where he's seen them before.

And another week later, he's shaking hands with the CEO of a company, who says with a smile, "Welcome to Brand New Stardom."

It comes in a quick blurry motion, but Minhyuk learns soon enough that everything is going to be like this from now on.

He's not complaining, though.

-

"Meet Lee Minhyuk!" announces Jiho proudly, thumping him on the back. Kyung's got his arm slung around Minhyuk's shoulders, and already it feels like home, as Jiho goes on to say, "He dances."

The kid in front of him has a wide smile and cute eyes, and he says, "You look familiar."

"Don't think we've met before," replies Minhyuk, "You're Yukwon, right?"

"Mmhmm!" Then, Yukwon's eyes light up. "Oh, now I remember! My band played at your prom a couple of years back!"

"?" Minhyuk quickly adds, "I meant, that's what your band was called, right? But, how do you remember me, we didn't even meet at all--"

"You were hitting on my girlfriend."

"Oh."

-

It takes him a while to adjust to all the new faces though they all do seem familiar in a way. He knows now that he's seen the rappers before at a show, and Yukwon from his prom ("How did I know she was your girlfriend?" Minhyuk had protested, and Yukwon had just rolled his eyes), but Jihoon and Jaehyo are new to him. He thinks.

Taeil's the last member to join, apparently he was kicked off a show and scouted into the group. Minhyuk can sympathise with him, knowing the feeling of rejection himself. Taeil's shy and quiet but with his moments too. Jihoon says that he's a singer and Minhyuk makes an "ooh" sound, as Kyung asks Taeil to sing something.

Minhyuk recognises Taeil the moment he opens his mouth.

-

He remembers Jaehyo, three months into debut, when Kyung sticks bandaids on Jaehyo's face as he's sleeping one night.

-

On some nights, Minhyuk watches television and sees the other group, Infinite, they were called now, and wonders whether that could've been him. Maybe that could've been him up there, singing those songs that fans chanted along to, receiving all that applause and cheers and screaming, receiving those awards. Maybe that could've been him crying into Woohyun's shoulder as Sunggyu, much more matured than Minhyuk remembers him to be as a young trainee back then, utters his thanks into a microphone, clutching at a bunch of flowers.

Maybe that could've been him, in that group of seven.

But then as Jiho starts making stupid noises in the late of the night, and as Kyung starts hitting Jiho with the back of the remote control, promising to hit him harder if he does it again, and Taeil doesn't bother with them, just tapping at his ipod, earphones in, and as Jihoon sits in a corner complaining about how they always make him do the laundry and Jaehyo just throws a sock at him, and as Yukwon plops down on the sofa next to him, asking what he's watching, Minhyuk realises something.

He's already got his group of seven.

They might be the biggest group of idiots he's ever seen, but they're his idiots. 

And he wouldn't trade them for all the awards in the world.

Though he severely considers it when Jiho jumps on Kyung and starts beating him with the nearest pillow and Jaehyo tries to stop them, only to trip over the table in his excitement and land on Taeil, who squeaks and runs away to where Jihoon is, with less conflict, though with more underwear.

Yukwon laughs and Minhyuk finds himself smiling too. 

Probably a good time to take a selca. Fans keep telling him to take more anyway.

He saves a picture of Kyung's foot dangling off Jaehyo's face, and another of Jiho smirking triumphantly, just for good measure.

-

They stand on stage in front of fans who scream and cheer and hold up signboards that say things like "park kyung get out of the way i can't see taeil" and "you can be the hello to my kitty jiko oppa" and "have my babies kwon oppa" and Minhyuk really doesn't understand why there are vegetables in the crowds sometimes. But they're the best fans in the world, and he loves how they support him to no end, how they buy albums and come to every fansign and say the most ridiculously amusing things, how they send him keysmash after keysmash whenever he tweets a new photo.

They stand on stage under blindingly bright lights and sweat waterfalls as they slip and move around the stage somewhat clumsily, yet familiarised by months, weeks, days of practice. Minhyuk almost laughs as Jaehyo makes the same mistake for the third time and falls into a position behind Jihoon, waiting for his cue.

They stand on stage and dance and sing and entertain because that's what they were created to do, they were created to dance and sing and entertain and fulfil dreams. Fulfil Minhyuk's dream, at the very least.

They stand on stage as seven in one, and Minhyuk thinks it's the best feeling in the world.

They stand on stage and they are Block B.

He is Block B, and Block B is him.

And there's nothing anyone could do to change that.

His thoughts get cut off, however, when Kyung steps on his foot by accident, and Minhyuk nearly swears into the microphone taped to his face, because it's all pressure and more weight than he expected.

What the  are in Kyung's shoes?

-

fin.