Jihoon- Woozi

Chan- Dino

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Jihoon spent his last week at school as a complete zombie. He couldn’t even work up the nerve to tell Hoshi that he was going to leave, and even if he did- he wouldn’t know where to start. Hoshi was always there for him, but at the same time he wasn’t. He smiled and laughed with him, and even fought with him (on Jihoon’s off days) but they weren’t ever really close. He was just his former dance instructor. Jihoon suddenly felt terrible, he was going to disappear from this school and nobody would even blink. He was just done with everything, he was ready to go already.

“Jihoon dear?” His mother called and Jihoon stuck his head out of his room to glance down the hallway to where she stood with her phone in her hand. “Did you check your email yet? The school sent me an email and told me that you have assignments due in your classes when you get to the new school.”

“What? Already?” He asked in disbelief. This school really didn’t play around.

“Yeah I guess so. That school is quite top notch you know.” His mom smirked playfully and Jihoon smiled back. “Anyways, I’m worried Ji. You’re going to leave a day from now. Did you pack everything?” His mom was always the type to worry about little things like that but Jihoon knew what he wanted to take to his new school and what he didn’t.

“Yes mom.”

“Your music equipment...laptop? Toothpaste?”

“Yeah mom, I got it.”

“Okay...I’m…” She hesitated for a moment and then walked forward slowly. “Jihoon. Thank you.” She whispered, a heavy grateful tone to her voice. Jihoon wanted to end the conversation as soon as possible before his mother started to cry.

“Mom, I’m fine, really. I bet the new school will be fun. Maybe I’ll finally make some friends.” Jihoon joked but his mother didn’t laugh she walked closer to him and patted his head lightly. A simple pat that told him she was proud of him, but that he was also 18 years old and didn’t need the affection anymore.

“Yeah. Get some more rest, and check your email. I wouldn’t want you to fail your first assignments.” She smiled and then turned to walk back down the hallway and to the front room. Jihoon stood at the door for a few extra seconds, just to calm his heartbeat. He wanted to call after his mom and tell her, “Please, don’t make me do this,” or “It will be difficult for me, I can’t leave you all here while Minseo is sick,” and the worst of all, “I don’t want to do this anymore. I wanted to be a normal kid, mom.” Jihoon heaved a sigh and pushed it all away like he usually did.

It was bittersweet. Jihoon was born a genius. Something that no person would ever let him forget. He would have liked to think that all of his efforts up until now were not wasted. But the only thing he gained from being born like this was free music equipment from competitions and a popular name on a music site. He was Woozi, he was Jihoon, he was the kid with the dreams, the kid who never moved up. He gained nothing, his parents lost their money. Was he a burden or a miracle? He still couldn’t figure it out no matter how many nights he stayed awake to think about it.

With a heavy heart Jihoon finally sat down at his desk and opened up his email.

Lee Jihoon,

Welcome to Pledis Academy.

Firstly, we would like to thank you for deciding to attend our school. We are very honored to have you.

You will be starting in this Academy on Monday and you will need to have a few things ready. The first is, signed paperwork. If you have already sent in the paperwork prior to your first visit then please do not worry about this. The classes you will be taking can be changed within 4 weeks of your first day at school. However, your high-priority classes cannot be changed. Due to this, we were able to gather assignments that are due on your first Monday in class to ensure that you are not behind. Here is a list of due assignments and descriptions:

Musical Performance- Must cover/have composed a solo song/rap, (or) have prepared an instrumental performance with one or two of your classmates. Please take note that your performance must not exceed the maximum time of 3 minutes. If you have prepared a song or rap, then do not fail to organize music accompaniment. (Remember, extra points for original compositions.) If you are dance students taking this as an extra class then please disregard this, as you will have your own assignments due in Dance Performance.

Music Study and Composition- Have your favorite song memorized and ready to analyze in class on Monday. It is preferred to have your own interpreted lyrics and melody downloaded onto your laptop/iPad. Take your song, mix it up, and create something else out of it. Please be creative. You can use the same lyrics and create a different tune or you can change the lyrics and keep the melody. You can even remix it and create a whole different song. It’s all up to you, make sure it is in your own style. As always, your song can be 30 seconds to a minute long, just be ready to send it in at the end of class.

Instrumental (Advanced)- Be prepared to play your chosen instrument for your teacher at the end of your first class. They will need to evaluate your abilities.

We look forward to having you,

Pledis Academy

By the time Jihoon had finished reading his assignments, he wanted to punch the nearest wall. He could feel a headache begin to form. In all honesty, he hadn’t expected anything less, but he was still disappointed to hear that they already expected so much from him. After all, it had been Saturday morning that they sent the email and it was now Saturday evening. Two days was enough time for him to get it done, but had it been someone else, he couldn’t be so sure. He wondered what kind of kids were sent to the school that he was going to attend, if everyone was the same, and if they had all been hardened into molds. Jihoon suddenly felt so tired but he really needed to get started on his work so he did, but not before he logged into his music page to talk to S.Coups.

Over the past year, Coups had really grown on him. He’d even consider him to be his best friend. Well, Woozi’s best friend. The thing is, he never told him his real name. He never even sent a picture to Coups. Everyone on the music website he signed up for was rather quiet about their lives. It wasn’t like instagram, or twitter. He never seen anyone’s faces, he just messaged people and put out his music and he was happy to live like that. Coups told him that if Woozi asked, he would send him a picture of himself but Woozi always declined. He figured that if he asked to see what Coups looked like then his friend would do the same. But Coups always assured him that he was just happy to talk to him like they always had. The only thing he knew about Coups was his interests, his hometown, and his age. And that was all he really needed. He didn’t want to know about what his parents expected of him, he didn’t want to know what his status at school was like. He didn’t want to know about his grades, or how successful or unsuccessful he had been in life. He just liked S.coups because he was a friend, and he listened.

There was a time when Coups asked what Woozi’s voice sounded like, and if he’d post a song of just his singing voice but Woozi declined. Jihoon felt like that was too personal. If he ever posted a song with his voice in it, he would distort it so that it fit into beats and melodies. He wanted his music to be upbeat, to be happy, to be used for dance. Just pure music. That’s what he liked.

S.COUPS offline

“Hey.” Jihoon messaged him and then opened a new tab in his browser to begin to search up songs to get inspiration for what he was going to perform for his class on Monday. He made a list of songs that would fit well with his voice, then listened to all of them. His mind began to construct a new song, a simple melody began to take place in his head and he hummed to the tune, he recorded it with his laptop so he wouldn’t forget it. He turned in his seat to his keyboard piano and began to play the melody over and over again, he even made little notes on the paper that sat on his desk. More than a few minutes had passed when he heard a chime. Jihoon twisted his seat back over to his computer and opened up the little chatbox.

“Hey Zi, long time no talk.” His message sounded normal but when Jihoon heard chime after chime and Coups began to send little sad emoji’s, he knew that his friend was just being weird like always.

“Hm, let’s see, that took you about 10 minutes to respond. You don’t like me anymore?” Jihoon joked, but Coups immediately began to send out weird emoji’s again. He learned to just smile inwardly and accept his friend’s odd show of affection.

“Yes, you saw right through me. Let’s end our friendship right now.” Coups followed up his message with a smiley face and Jihoon rolled his eyes. “Actually, I was just finishing up something for a project and my phone was on silent. Besides, you know I never catch notifications anyways.”

“Yeah I know. You’re such a loyal friend.” Jihoon wrote.

“Hey, can I turn on voice line? I need to rant today.” Coups said and Jihoon replied with a simple “okay.” Jihoon and Coups used voice line a lot, but it was always one sided. He could hear Coups talk all day and rant, and when necessary, he would reply to him via the chatbox. It was simple, it was easy, and Coups learned to stop asking him to voice line with him. Coups his microphone and Jihoon allowed him to connect with his account so he could talk to him but he, of course, made sure his mic was off.

A little notification “connected” showed up on their screens, Coups immediately began to weirdly rap a line from one of his songs and Jihoon laughed loudly. He shook his head and went to the chatbox.

“Idiot. You just love attention don’t you.”

“No, okay I’m serious now, I’m serious.” Coups spoke and Jihoon never got tired of hearing his friend’s voice.

“I’m working on some homework while you talk, so I’ll be a silent listener.” Jihoon typed in the box and then turned in his seat to go back to working on his song.

“That’s fine,” Coups said after he read Jihoon’s message. “Anyways, so...when I was in class yesterday, my friend Jeonghan, he kind of…” Coups hesitated and Jihoon raised an eyebrow and looked back at the screen to where Coups’ voice was coming from. It was odd that Coups ever hesitated when saying something. Jihoon waited a few seconds longer before he swiveled his chair back around to his computer to type in the chatbox.

“Jeonghan? The one that you think is pretty?” Jihoon typed and Coups sighed.

“Yep. That Jeonghan. This is still kinda weird for me to talk about, since you’re really the only person that I’ve ever told about things like this.” He hesitated again and Jihoon laughed softly to himself. It was clear to Jihoon that Coups had an interest in more than just girls when he mentioned that there was a guy in his class that he had an eye on. A couple weeks ago, Coups went on for ten minutes just to explain to Jihoon how pretty he thought Jeonghan was. It was laughable, but Jihoon knew that this was a first for Coups and so he didn’t joke about it.

“Go on, what happened in class?” Jihoon typed in order to not make things uncomfortable.

“Well, it wasn’t a direct thing. I talk to Jeonghan a lot and I consider us friends but another kid in our class came up to me and told me that Jeonghan likes me.”

Jihoon laughed hard at that and it was only because he said the last part like a shy 8 year old. He was glad that this was only a one-sided conversation so his friend couldn’t hear him. “Okay, so what are you going to do about that?” Jihoon typed and Coups groaned loudly into his microphone.

“I have no clue!” Coups shrieked and Jihoon had to turn down the volume on his laptop with a distant smile on his face, “I can’t date him because nobody knows about my preference, not only that but the school prohibits dating.”

“I see. I guess you’ll be alone forever, sorry!” Jihoon typed and Coups laughed at his response.

“You’re the worst.” Coups said but Jihoon could hear his smile in his voice. It was quiet for a moment. “I think...I don’t know. I think I might try it. I’ll have to think about it.” Coups spoke quietly, and Jihoon could hear the fondness in his voice whenever he talked about Jeonghan. It suddenly made his chest ache.

“You should. If you do decide to date him, tell me how it goes.” Jihoon typed and Coups laughed softly.

“At least I have someone to blame if everything goes wrong.”

…

Jihoon woke up the next morning with notification chimes that made his phone sound like a firework was going off right in his room. He looked at his phone and seen S.COUPS messaged you, about 10 times on his lock screen. Jihoon furrowed his eyebrows and squinted at the brightness, he quickly unlocked his phone. He had one regular text from Hoshi, so he decided to read that first.

“Okay, I swear I didn’t do anything, but some kid from my old dance academy may or may not know that you are Woozi.”

Jihoon’s heartbeat sped up quickly and he suddenly didn’t want to look at S.Coups’ messages. He took a deep breath and replied to Hoshi first before he went to see why Coups had sent him so many messages.

“Okay. What happened? Does he know who I am, or does he just know my name?” Jihoon asked and Hoshi replied right away.

“He was visiting me because I used to teach him dance when he was younger. He was looking through my phone and I have a picture of us as your contacts in my phone.”

“Okay, so how does he know that I’m Woozi then?”

“I...I have your name as Woozi in my phone. I’m really sorry! I just thought it looked nicer than Lee Jihoon.”

“Did you even try to lie?” Jihoon face palmed and sat up in his bed, he tried his best to comprehend the situation as sleep left his body quickly.

“I’m really bad at lying!” Hoshi replied.

“Okay, so who is this kid?” Jihoon asked and waited a few minutes for a reply.

“His name is Chan but introduces himself as Dino. He doesn’t go to our school though, so you don’t have to worry. Besides, he’s a really nice kid and I explained to him that you wanted to keep your privacy.” Hoshi’s message made Jihoon’s heart sink as he wasn’t even enrolled in their school anymore ever since Friday afternoon.

“Hoshi, I won’t be coming to school on Monday. I will explain later. I can’t talk right now.” Jihoon said and Hoshi just apologized to him again, not able to grasp the weight of Jihoon’s words just yet. Jihoon took a deep breath, he knew that he was safe for now. He opened up his music app and scrolled to his chatbox. It was just messages from Coups, explaining to him what kind of cereal goes best with chocolate milk. Jihoon rolled his eyes and flopped back in his bed.

He just wanted to sleep until the end of the year.

A soft knock on his door made him sit back up. “Jihoon, wake up. You need to pack the rest of your stuff today.” His Father’s strict voice was firm and Jihoon just shouted a simple “Okay” back at him.

Sleeping until the end of the year, was obviously not possible.

As he was not even capable of sleeping for a healthy 8 hours.

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