(Soonyoung= Hoshi, DK/Dokyum= Seokmin) 

He’s not sure whether it’s an asset or not. His smile, that is. For someone brought up to always see the brighter side of things, Seokmin can’t help but see the darker side these days. He should be happier now, he tells himself. That he was lucky enough to debut, lucky enough to stand on stage with fans cheering him on.

Except he’s never been more unhappy.

With himself.

It’s heavy, trying to smile and still find it within him to climb towards greater heights. To force his voice to come out stronger, to push the last note even higher. It’s too early to be tired, there’s a lot on line for every member and as the main vocal he should do them proud. But right now he’s just an unpopular failure who’s dragging them down. 

Unknown Number

Trading abilities for smiles. Text for more details.

Clearly another spam message, he thinks as he lies on the cold floor of the practice room. He’d better protect his mobile number better. If only he could really trade better singing abilities for smiles. He’d trade them in a heartbeat. Smiles achieve nothing. If nothing, they’re a liability in songs which aren’t upbeat.

Almost as if reading his mind, his phone vibrates again.

Special offer!!! Half your smiles today for 50% better singing abilities.

Seokmin sits up at this. It feels like the management is pulling an elaborate trick, but when he looks around it’s a perfectly normal day with the other enjoying their well deserved break from dancing practice. An uncomfortable shiver travels down his spine, but the offer is enticing.

OK.

He hastily keys this in before flinging his phone away, embarrassment flushing his face a bright red. What the hell is he doing now? He’s not some twelve year old kid. There’s nothing this instantaneous and magical in this world, even if he wants it to exist.

The phone vibrates again. His eyelashes flutter open again, and he gnaws his lip as he brings the phone to his face.

TRANSACTION COMPLETE. THANK YOU LEE SEOKMIN. PLEASE COME AGAIN.

What the hell.

How do they know his name? He really should stop providing his personal details on those lucky draws that he never wins.

It slips his mind when he’s trying to learn their new dance, Soonyoung correcting him every three moves. He’s really a disappointment, the one holding them back at times like these.

“Raise your arm higher. Then shift your weight to the right foot. Yeah.”

“Thanks.”

Unconsciously he smiles. 

“Just do it right. I want to rest.”

And like that his smile disappears. Soonyoung clicks his tongue, but his words are true. He’s always lagging behind.

“Sorry.”

He says this many times everyday, but the sneer sounds louder and colder everyday. Fame does that to people he supposes. He used to be much nicer.

It’s not until the vocal line starts practicing that he realizes that maybe the spam message was true. For some reason his voice comes out nicely today, Like he’s always practiced hard for it to come out, he can almost smile about his form today. It’s all going well until his voice cracks at the high note.

“You don’t even sound like a main vocal. Why the hell did they even put you in, tsk. So useless”  

Even 50% doesn’t change anything, huh. Still not good enough. When they gradually leave the room, he stays behind, trying to sing properly. The fluorescent lighting remains bright even as the time runs past.

The door creaks open much later. Soonyoung steps in carefully, waving in front of him.

“It’s almost midnight. We better go back.”

“Why aren’t you back in the dorm yet?”

He asks, picking his things up and switching the lights off. In the darkness he finally feels the ache in his muscles, feels the fatigue of the day consuming him.

“Choreographing.”

“You should rest more.”

I could say the same for you. These words sit on the tip of Soonyoung’s tongue. He’d been waiting for him, listening to him sing and struggle as he refined his choreography. Except he’d had an eye on the clock, his worry growing as the night wore on. Even when the singing instructor tells Seokmin that his technique is good and doesn’t stress his throat, there is no way the practice Seokmi is putting in these days is healthy. Just because one member has cruel words doesn’t mean that Seokmin should listen and believe it. He’s been listening out for his low voice carefully, he can hear the improvement over the days, can hear how his voice trembles after he hears cutting words.

Instead he walks beside him all the way back to the dorm, trying to tell him that he shouldn’t take all the scoldings to heart, reminding him that he can go at his own pace.

Seokmin thanks him as always. But today the blinding smile he uses as armour is nowhere to be seen. Maybe he’s really tired, Soonyoung thinks as his hand sneaks behind his waist, lifting his bag to lighten the weight of the practice clothes.

Seokmin knows the truth. He’s answered the call of some telemarketer with freaky witchy superpowers and now he’s under some spell that helps him improve his singing ability. And as much as he wants to smile at Soonyoung, the edges of his lips just don’t curl right.

But the moment his watch displays 12:01, he finds Soonyoung to smile fully at him for his care.

Maybe he shouldn’t do this.  Shouldn’t deal with shady unknown numbers promising crazy things for smiles. But if this is the only way he’s going to match up, smiling is something he can sacrifice. He’d rationed it carefully. Counted how many smiles he needed to make it through Adore U, carefully calculated enough to tide him through the day with some to spare. Only smiled when he really felt happy, never smiling at unnecessary small distractions that cheered him up. Reserved enough to thank Soonyoung, to smile at members who tried to cheer him up.

Smiles were cheap anyway. Anyone could do that.

“And what don’t you understand? You’re really useless, you know.”

It still hurt. When he looked at himself in the mirror, it was as if he never improved much despite the percentage increases. No matter how much he practiced Seokmin couldn’t please him. It was better, he also knew that. But it wasn’t enough. Whatever he had wasn’t enough.

Gradually smiling was no longer a concern. There was simply nothing to smile at, nothing to be happy over. Whenever he wanted to celebrate he was always cursed at, had cold water splashed in his face.

“Seokmin looks so sad these days.”

“Yeah. Can’t remember the last time he really smiled.”

Soonyoung overhears Junhui and Minghao in their corner talking in hushed tones as he tries to put together the choreography. Something just doesn’t flow well about this part.

But what flows even worse is Seokmin’s condition these days. He practices as if he’s superhuman, long nights and non-stop practices are so common these days. A smile is so hard to get out of him these days, something that has to be wrestled out of him. Soonyoung doesn’t know what changed.

Nowadays he doesn't know where DK ends and Seokmin starts. Because it certainly feels like Seokmin is acting all the time. 

“It’s late.”

He says this softly, trying to distract Seokmin from his serious figure in the mirror.

The light-hearted jokes shared on the way home seem to be gone too. Seokmin misses them, but he can’t risk wasting an entire day of smiles in five minutes like he did carelessly one of those days. Instead he moves closer to Soonyoung, leaning into him. Even when he’s the taller one he feels like Soonyoung’s the more dependable, the one he can rely on these long and tiring days.

“I wish you’d smile more. Are you really stressed? Does he make you sad? I can try to stop him, you know.”

Seokmin shakes his head. But when he gets back to the dorm, he adjusts the number of smiles he can give, sacrificing some of singing ability. He’ll practice longer to make up for the difference.

Soonyoung looked really upset at the moment and he felt so bad that he couldn’t put on a smile for him.

Soonyoung’s had enough of it. Enough of Seokmin putting on a smile and telling him it was okay when it clearly was not. He can see Seokmin trying to act happy for him, smiling and laughing happily only for it to disappear the moment he was left alone. He’s just not happy anymore.

It hurts him so much.

He’s tried. Tried to crack more stupid jokes, tried to make things easier for him, tried to shut that stupid member up but everything doesn’t work. It’s not in his power to help Seokmin.

So perhaps he’s too desperate when he keys in the passcode to Seokmin’s phone. He does feel bad, trying to invade into his privacy. But he wants to know what’s causing him to feel down. There’s got to be something, something that Seokmin is refusing to share with him Perhaps he got dumped by his girlfriend or maybe his dog died. There’s got to be a good reason why he looks at his phone every night and keeps sighing before he falls asleep. Soonyoung would know, silently watching over him until the light from the phone faded before he let himself sleep.

Horror doesn’t begin to describe what he sees. He scrolls through his texts, eyes blown wide.

He would sincerely prefer Seokmin to have a girlfriend then be doing this kind of nonsense.

“Soonyoung, you should really go and sleep- Soonyoung?”

Pulled up by insistent hands, his texts are pushed in his face.

“What the hell were you thinking?”

His heart stop for a moment before he gathers his composure back. 

“It works. If this is all it take I can do it-“

“But I can’t.”

“Soonyo-“

He’s cut off by Soonyoung pulling him into his arms, holding him close. They’ve always been touchy, but this has to be a first. It’s warm, and he would ove this if he wasn’t so stressed by the phone in Soonyoung’s hand.

“Don’t say that.”

“But it’s true-“

Soft lips crash against him, forcing the words to die in his throat. Insistently they press against his, the tears flowing.

Just as abruptly as it started, the feathery lips leave his, a gentle pressure still remaining on it.

“God I’m sorry. Please forget that this happened. Please. But it’s true. You’re talented and handsome and you don’t need to trade your smiles for anything.”  He lets out a long sigh. “I don’t like seeing you unhappy.”

The moment there Soonyoung looks so saddened and painfully cute that Seokmin has to smile.

“What if I don’t want to forget it.”

He hesitantly glances up to see the warm smile right up to the eyes that he’s missed so much and suddenly everything seems alright again. Seokmin leans forward this time as their lips touch again, melding into each other’s perfectly.

Before Soonyoung wakes up he send the last message to the unknown number.

I’m taking all my smiles back so I can give them to someone else.

This much is enough to make him feel happy again.

When Soonyoung blearily opens his eyes to the warm hand gently shaking him awake, he’s greeted by his favourite smile in the world.

“Good morning.”

He smiles too.

A/N: Ehh it came out angstier than expected? Hope ya'll liked it. I'll try to write something less angsty next time :> ~dustie

also available on my tumblr