The changing room was bustling with life, it was an organized chaos of students changing into their costumes, getting make-up and hair done, chatting excitedly or getting in some last minute practice of their lines. “Daesung! Over here!” one of the make-up girls waved him over, “We need to get started, I've never put girl make-up on a guy before so I might need a bit more time.” the girl said and grinned sheepishly. Daesung hesitantly took a seat, this was going to be something. Daesung took a deep breath and closed his eyes. The girl worked her magic and in no time Daesung was transformed into a pretty decent looking girl, even if he said so himself. He inspected his reflection in the mirror, not bad, not bad. He pouted his lips and battered his eyelashes, he snorted so hard with laughter tears came out. Oo, he had to be careful not to mess up the make-up! He vacated the chair for the next victim and went to look for his cheerleading outfit. After wandering aimlessly around for a minute, a boy with a clipboard pointed him in the direction of the lockers, “Locker 45 should have it”. Daesung followed the numbers of the lockers, 7 ,8, .., 24, 25, ..42, 43. He was so concentrated on the numbers that he didn't notice his surroundings and just before reaching 44 he bumped into something. “Uhh..” someone winced. Daesung looked up and was so startled he forgot to breathe. Before him stood a boy in the midst of changing his shirt, the shirt was upside down covering his head with his hands tangled in there somewhere, leaving his upper body exposed. Without meaning to Daesung stared at his toned torso, he wasn't very muscular but he was pretty fit. His smooth skin was milky white with a touch of caramel. Daesung didn't realize he was staring until the boy finally untangled himself out of the shirt. Daesung gasped, it was Seunghyun. Seunghyun quickly covered his chest with the shirt he now had in his hand. An expression of complete surprise had taken over his stoic face, he looked kind of like someone had just punched him in the stomach. He slowly recovered and cleared his throat. Daesung's face was a thousand degrees, he smiled apologetically and pointed at locker number 45. Seunghyun moved out of his way and Daesung walked past him trying not to look, accidentally glancing at his uncovered back. It looked sturdy and manly. Daesung quickly emptied his locker and went to a more private place to change.

Daesung's bare legs were jittering as he stood with the rest of his class backstage waiting for the act of the class before them to end. They were next. Daesung watched the back of Seunghyun's neck while he thought about what he had said, he had told him to look only at him. Maybe it worked just like being afraid of heights, when you were high up the worst thing you could do was look down. So maybe the worst thing he could do now was look at the crowd. He decided to take Seunghyun's words to heart and pretend they were the only two people in the universe. Daesung focused on the place where Seunghyun's hair stopped and his neck started. His hair was shaved short in the back and ended in tiny little spikes that tempted you to run your fingers through them. Slowly Daesung managed to shut out the noise around him and focus only on Seunghyun. He imagined how it would feel to rustle his fingers softly through Seunghyun's hair, feeling the short coarse hairs tickling them. The thought calmed him down.

Showtime! Everything happened really fast, the students from the last performance came rushing by them and the music started, the boy group and Seunghyun rushed on stage. It had begun. Daesung didn't have time to panic, soon enough it was his turn and he just dove in, head first, ignoring everything but Seunghyun. There was an outburst of laughs when Daesung started prancing around in his cheerleading outfit, but the moment he started singing they went quiet. The painstaking rehearsals had paid off, it was like clockwork, a well oiled machine and everything went as rehearsed. Daesung danced around the stage like in a dream, singing his heart out, putting all his pent up feelings into his performance.

“IT'S ELECTRIFYING!” Daesung cried out at the top of his lungs, shaking dramatically as if he was being electrocuted, falling motionless into Seunghyun's steady arms. There were gasps in the audience. The boys and girls behind them began singing all in a choir “You're the one that I want”, “Ooh, ooh, ooh” and Seunghyun began to draw him in closer. Daesung was out of breath and his heart was racing. He was drenched in sweat. He felt Seunghyun's arms tighten around him as he went in for the hug. Every cell in Daesung's body was buzzing, he felt as if he really had been electrocuted and the electric current was now coursing through his body, making every part of him alert. As he drew closer, Seunghyun's scent began to fill his nostrils. It was warm and sweet, with a hint of musk. Seunghyun's chest united with his, making Daesung's heart beat so fast that Daesung began to worry that it was going to escape out of his rib cage. Seunghyun's cheek brushed against his and he could feel Seunghyun's breath on his ear, giving him goose bumps all the way down to his toes. He was filled with the overwhelming urge to kiss him, it was taking over his whole body. They were breathing in sync, in, out. Daesung was barely conscious, it took all that he had to resist embracing Seunghyun tightly and giving him a deep, long kiss. He wanted to, oh how much did he want to. He had completely forgotten that they were on stage in front of the whole school. They were in their own little world, just the two of them. The music ended and thunderous clapping erupted. The others had already begun to bow. Seunghyun gently released him, his hand lingering on his back a little while. Daesung dizzily took a bow, not fully realizing what was going on around him. Some of the students had stood up and were clapping like there was no tomorrow. They all bowed together once more and left the stage.

When they reached the changing room everyone exploded with joy. Daesung received about a thousand pats on the back but he barely noticed. His brain was foggy and his longing for Seunghyun's lips was still very vivid. Seunghyun had already changed and was heading to the exit. Watching him disappear out the door made Daesung's insides hurt. Without thinking Daesung changed into his clothes at the speed of light and fought through the crowd and out the door. His brain was working overtime trying to find something to say to him once he caught up with him. Oh! He could ask him to celebrate with him since the performance had been such a hit, that would totally be normal. How could they celebrate, think, brain, think! Daesung had almost caught up with him. Ice cream! Seunghyun was now right in front of him, “Seunghyun... eehhm..” Daesung managed to utter. Seunghyun turned around to face him. Daesung's heart rate rose and his throat tightened. His mouth was dry. He gathered all the courage he had and opened his mouth to invite him to a celebratory ice cream, but as he began to form the words a boy from the crowd squeezed in front of Seunghyun. He was smiling excitedly “Wow, that was insane!! You have some serious talent!”. The boy was really sincere and likeable, so Daesung didn't have the heart to give him the cold shoulder and watched Seunghyun give him a nod goodbye and slip away into the multitude of students. “I'm Jiyong, but everyone calls me G-Dragon. I'm in the year above you. And this is my bestie, my homie Youngbae.” the boy pulled his friend closer to introduce him, he was tiny and as cute as a button. “We should hang out sometime, we're really into music so it would be cool to try out some stuff together.” G-Dragon said and handed him a note with his info.

At school the next day Daesung was the talk of the town, everyone knew who he was and a bunch of students greeted him in the hallway when he passed by. However Daesung's courage had dissipated along with the adrenaline high so he gave up all hope of trying to befriend Seunghyun. Seunghyun was back to his old statuesque self, he didn't greet Daesung when he passed him on the way to his seat and not once did he look in his direction during classes.

The school day passed rather quickly. Daesung was stuffing his books into his bag when Seunghyun stopped by Daesung's desk on his way out. Without looking him straight in the eye he casually said “Hey, a bunch of us are going to the carnival tomorrow... we're meeting at 7, you should join us.” and walked out of the classroom like nothing had happened.