maybe, just this once, sunbae will notice you

Oh Sehun is young. He’s still a child, in some aspects, but he’s definitely talented, and handsome. His looks got him an audition at SM Entertainment, but it was his talent that kept him there. He knows. It seems kind of arrogant when he says it out loud, but it’s fact.

Life as a trainee isn’t as fun as he presumed. He doesn’t get to meet his idols. The pretty members of girl groups pass by him and the other trainees as if they’re invisible. And they kind of are.

His roommate, Jongin, has been at the company for years, way longer than any of the other trainees he’d met and befriended. Sehun notices how Jongin blatantly ignores the debuted idols when they pass him by in the building, but doesn’t say a word because he’s not one to pry anyway.

He’s on his bed, watching girl group music videos on his laptop after a particularly gruesome day of training, when, out of nowhere, Jongin plops himself down next to him with a small smirk on his face. “Girls Generation, huh?”

Sehun doesn’t blush, but his eyes widen like a child who’d been caught with his hand in the cookie jar.  His hand twitches and he feels the urge to close the video player, but he simply clenches his fist and looks down shyly. Jongin notices all of this and nudges Sehun with his elbow. “It’s okay, I like them, too. And I don’t judge you for liking them. Dozens of people who join the company usually do it to meet their favorite groups.”

The younger is slightly irked, because it’s not like he wanted to audition in the first place, much less with the intention to meet gorgeous girl group members. Jongin goes on speaking. “Who’s your favorite member?” Sehun shakes his head.

 “I don’t have one,” he snaps. “And frankly, I don’t feel comfortable talking – actually, what you’re doing is fanboying – about people we now work with.” Jongin lets out a dry laugh.

 “Hey, I’m sorry to break this to you, but our sunbaes will never so much as look at you until you’ve made your debut. And I don’t think that’ll be happening any time soon.” Sehun glares pointedly at Jongin and shoves him by the shoulder.

The latter laughs in amusement, before – “Right, and you’ve been here for how long again?” He ignores the hurt that flickers through Jongin’s expression and continues. “Now, get off my bed and let me sleep.” The elder complies quietly and moves onto his own, watching as Sehun closes his laptop and sets it on his nightstand.

Sehun first encounters Im Yoona by accident. It’s nearing midnight, and he figures that nobody would be practicing so late. But when he opens the door to the renowned cloud practice room, he finds her sprawled on the floor, eyes closed and chest heaving. He slowly steps back, planning on exiting quietly, but freezes when her voice breaks the silence of the room. “Who’s there?” She opens one eye and peeks at him.

He clears his throat and steps back inside, closing the door behind him. “Ah! Yoona th-thunbae…” Damned lisp. Why would you choose now, of all times, to come back? “I’m thorry, I thought nobody was uthing the roo—” She sits up and shakes her head.

 “No, it’s okay! I’m just about done anyway.” She quickly scrambles onto her feet and exits the room without a second glance at him. Sehun heaves a sigh once he hears the door close and makes his way to the stereo set on the floor in front of the full mirror. He notices a small bag next to the music player, and figures that it’s Yoona’s.

He turns around swiftly and nearly has a heart attack when he takes in Im Yoona. She’s standing barely a foot away from him, her thin lips curving up into a smile. “I… left my stuff.” Her smile widens as she bites back a laugh, watching him step aside nervously.

 “Ah, yeah, I was jutht about to —” She can’t hold in her giggle.

“Calm down,” she bends down to pick up her things, leaning against the wall once she straightens up. “Thehun, right?” She grins teasingly.

Oh Sehun blushes and nods. “Yeah, that’th me.” She introduces herself, and Sehun has to bite his tongue to keep from exclaiming he knew who she was. “Well, it wath nithe meeting you, thunbae-nim.”

Yoona shakes her head. “Call me noona, Thehun-ah.” A small grin forms on his lips and he nods.

The two of them end up meeting several times for the next two weeks. The first time is still by accident, and still in the practice room. Sehun had gone out the dorm to practice during his free time, and found her in the room again, only this time, she’s facing the mirror and moving to the beat of a slow song – Burn, he remembers.

He’s leaning against the doorframe and about to speak when she shuts her eyes and does a body wave, and his jaw practically hit the floor. Whoa. His gaze is fixed on her intently the entire time, until she turns around and places her hands on her hips as the song ends. “Sehun,” she greets him with a smile. “I saw you in the mirror.”

 “Ah, th-sunbae,” he stutters, about to spew out some half-assed excuse, when she holds up her hand. He immediately falls silent.

“Noona. Chill,” she laughs. “You don’t have to worry about me hogging the practice room again, I’ll be off.” Nodding, she gathers her things and walks towards the door, turning back when she hears the intro of the familiar song Hyoyeon had kept on loop for days.

Beep beep. Oh look, now there goes my phone. And once again I’m just hoping it’s a text from you. She watches as he moves with the beat, his fluid movements nearly flawless.  She’s not very far from him, but he’s so lost in the music that he barely notices as she drops her bag to the floor and follows his steps with ease.

He only turns to her when she laughs after nearly tripping, and blinks. “Th- Noona, are you alright? How long have you been watching me…?”

“I never even left, Sehun-ah,” she raises an eyebrow. “Am I that unnoticeable?” She feigns hurt, and he quickly shakes his head. “Kidding. Thanks for… sort of teaching me new choreography.” She pats his shoulder before picking up her things once more and exiting the room, leaving the younger male with a racing heart.

(He blames it on the fact that he’d been dancing. It’s so bad a lie even he wouldn’t believe himself.)

The next time he meets her, they’re at the bubble tea shop down the road from headquarters. He’s in line to claim his favorite chocolate-flavored bubble tea when he hears a muffled sound from next to him.

It takes him a few seconds to realize that what he’s hearing is Maybe. The song he'd danced in front of her that night. He grins when the person, a woman slightly shorter than him wearing things slightly too hot for the weather – scarves, caps, sunglasses – fumbles around her purse to silence the call.

Sehun knows how her purse looks like. He’d seen her clutching it many times before, not just their two most recent meetings. “Noona.” For the first time, he doesn’t stutter it out.

“Shh, Sehun, quiet.” She glares at him from behind her shades, quickly dropping her phone back into her bag. Sehun laughs amusedly, bringing a hand to his mouth to keep from laughing.

“Why do you not like Yoona sun— er, noona?” Sehun asks Jongin. They’re sitting on the floor of the practice room, where exactly a fortnight before, Sehun first met Im Yoona. Jongin quirks an eyebrow at the honorific – or, rather, lack thereof.

“Still have that crush on Yoona, I see.”  Sehun had been talking non-stop about her for days, and Jongin played the part of the unlucky fellow who had to listen to his roommate stuttering about the visual of a certain nine-member girl group.

Sighing softly, he stands and gestures for Sehun to follow. The younger stays quiet, ignoring Jongin’s taunt, as they walk out the room and towards the food court on the ground floor. He wasn’t exactly sure about the magnitude of his feelings for her, anyway. “I still have no idea what brought this on, Sehun-ah. It’s like you magically fell in love with her overnight.” Jongin rolls his eyes.

 “Ah, and speaking of your crush…” At Jongin’s teasing voice, Sehun’s head snaps up and his eyes quickly travel across the room, searching for her.

Im Yoona is standing mere feet away from him, a water bottle in hand, and talking to the youngest of Super Junior, mouth wide open as she laughs. She must’ve come from practice, Sehun notes how she’s wearing sweats and has her hair tied up. He doesn’t know if he wants her to notice him or not because—holy she’s coming over.

“Yoona-thun—” He starts, but is caught off-guard and mid-sentence when she presses her thin index finger over his lips.

 “Shh. Noona.” She chuckles and wraps both arms around him. “Noona, okay, Thehun?” He swallows the lump in his throat and repeats the term hoarsely, hoping to God that the blush creeping up his cheeks wasn’t very noticeable.

All good things must come to an end, Sehun realizes glumly as she pulls away and turns to Jongin. “Hi there. I think I’ve seen you around a few times?”

He stares at her for a moment before nodding. “Ah, yeah. My name’s Jongin.” He clears his throat before continuing, “S-sunbae, I didn’t know you were close with Sehun.” When she isn’t looking, he throws the younger male a dirty look, basically screaming at him to tell him how exactly he came to be friends with her.

 “Yeah, Sehun and I are pretty close,” she nods, and Sehun can only smirk as Jongin tries to hide the shock slapping him in the face. “He’s a great friend, really. And very talented, too.” She gives both of them a warm smile. Jongin nods slowly, and Yoona nudges him. “You can call me noona, by the way.” She glances at Kyuhyun and steps back, smiling apologetically. “I’ve to go. See you around, Sehun, Jongdae.”

“It’s Jongin,” the older echoes softly, but she’s already too far to hear.

Sehun snickers and shakes his head. “You were so wrong, dude. Sunbae noticed me.”

A/N: Unbeta'd. I'll fix any errors tomorrow. Just like Sehun and his excuses, this is half-assed. PMSL. Rushed and it shows. Sorry. But anyway, here ya go. Thanks for subscribing and commenting, lol. Always on ask.fm, twitter and line (all on my profile/flavors page) if you wanna reach me. Holy crap I just noticed how the song's title is Maybe and then the title for this one starts with 'maybe' too omfg.

P.S. I'M SORRY MAXINE HANNAH AND ELLE LOL YOU GUYS WAITED AND GOT STUCK WITH THIS CRAP