Your smile at nine and how it lit up something inside me I had thought long dead.

---------------------------------------------

Her name is Soojung.

As luck would have it, she is in Sehun’s English class, and she speaks the language “better than the TA”. And that was supposed to be it, because okay so Sehun sort of knows her but what was Jongin supposed to do with that? He didn’t know anything about her, didn’t know why he was suddenly interested in a stranger — didn’t know if he actually was interested in the stranger or not. 

But Sehun is his best friend and more often that not knows where his mind’s at. “I can introduce you to her, if you want,” he says as he highlights stuff in his Economics textbook, back turned towards Jongin. “I mean, okay, maybe I’ve only exchanged three words with her. But I only sit like two seats away from her, so I can… y’know. I can figure something out.”

Jongin doesn’t exactly trust his friend’s matchmaking capabilities. The last experience had consisted of him dragging Jongin and the girl together and saying, “Jongin, Sohyun. Sohyun, Jongin… Bye!” and running off. So maybe that was back in high school, but still.

“Look, I know what you’re thinking, but that was in ninth grade!” Sehun says indignantly. “I’ll figure something out. Trust me.”

“Y’know, I never even said I like her or anything — ”

“Dude. You were staring for five minutes and and when she accidentally made eye contact with you for 0.3 seconds you hid behind a tree.” He scoffs, affectionate. “You’re such a dork.”

Jongin throws a pillow at him, effectively slamming his face against the textbook. 

Even though Jongin looks like he could play the part of the campus heartthrob, the truth is that he’s painfully shy. He finds it difficult to speak up in class, to start conversations, to make eye contact with pretty girls who make his heart palpitate. So when Sehun casually informs him that he and Soojung are having a study date over coffee and he’s dragging Jongin with him, Jongin is Not Ready.

“I’m not doing this, Sehun. I just — I can’t — when did you even get to talk to her? When do you even talk in class? When do you ever talk to strangers — ”

“Why don’t you just admit that I’m getting better at this matchmaking thing and thank me for being a great friend? Look, this isn’t even for English, it’s for Finance 1, and I know you took that last semester. So you can help her. And you can look smart. Am I good or what?”

“I can’t even look at her from ten feet away. What makes you think I can sit in front of her?”

Sehun rolls his eyes. “Can you please get a hold of yourself? Stop being so embarrassing. She’s a normal human being. So she’s sort of pretty. Get over it. Meet her once and move on.”

“She’s not just sort of pretty…” He stops talking when Sehun gives him a pitiful look. “Alright. You know what? I’m not gonna stand here and let you judge me like this, Oh Sehun. What’s wrong with admiring her from afar?”

“What’s wrong is that that’s all you ever do, so, y’know, for once… You’ve never liked someone like this. So give it a shot, okay? I know you don’t really know her yet. Maybe you’ll like her when you do. Maybe you won’t! Whatever. It’s just one study date. It’s no big deal.”

So Jongin does end up going with Sehun. 

It doesn’t actually go as badly as it could have, what with all three of them being generally introverted people. Jongin was initially a little intimidated because it seems that Soojung isn’t shy the way he is, but a little more… aloof. Reserved. When Sehun introduces them to each other and Jongin stutters over his name while shaking her hand, Soojung regarded him coolly with a small smile and a slightly bemused look in her eyes, so when she says her name quietly, it doesn’t come across as shy.

Jongin walks her through a chapter about budgeting and Soojung takes notes dutifully, but when they take a short break, he notices her eyes immediately wandering outside to a couple of street dancers.

Sehun notices, too. "Do you like dance, Soojung-ah?"

"Well... up until recently, not particularly," Soojung replies, not taking her eyes off the dancers. "It's just, I'm a fine arts minor, and I've been considering doing a series of paintings based on movement. So I've just been researching different types of movement, and dance is winning so far."

There's a beat of silence, before Sehun blurts out, "Jonginnie's a dancer, y'know." Soojung turns her head slowly to look at Sehun, and Jongin is grateful she didn't choose to look at him because he can feel his face beginning to flush. "I mean, just. If you need a model or something."

Soojung does turn to look at Jongin then, her eyes thoughtful. "Are you?"

"Uh. Yeah. Sort of." Jongin fidgets. "I'm in a team."

She bites her lip. "Well, if... if you really don't mind. It'd be really helpful for me. I can't help but feel Sehun just sort of threw you out there..."

"No, no! I'm fine with it. I can do it, it's fine." Sehun snickers and Jongin kicks him under the table. "It's just... what do I have to do, exactly? A certain kind of dance?"

"Well, I can tell you more once I've finished thinking everything through, but. Basically, I'd like to explore the different emotions conveyed through different types of movement, so I was thinking maybe you can just dance however to some songs that have really different moods." She gives a little shrug. "That's... it, basically."

"Why don't you exchange numbers now," Sehun says and while Jongin loves his best friend, he really needs to learn a thing or two about subtlety.

But Jongin has to admit that Sehun has gotten a lot better at matchmaking. Despite everything, Jongin still leaves the study date with Soojung's number and the promise of a 'next time'. And even though he knows that the 'next time' is still, technically, a sort of study date, he tells himself that it counts.

'Next time' takes place in an empty art studio. It's not too vastly different from the dance studios Jongin is used to except that the wooden floors are unpolished, there is no mirror filling up any of the walls and there is no barre.

"I thought about the dance studio, but I'd be too afraid to get paint on anything. And it's easier for me to get permission to use this room, obviously," Soojung says as she pushes her long hair up into a high bun. She's only wearing an oversized chambray men's shirt, it seems, with the sleeves rolled up. She sort of looks like she just rolled out of bed but Jongin thinks she looks absolutely beautiful. "And besides, I didn't want you to start looking at yourself in the mirror and get all self-conscious. I want you to... focus on the emotion, and focus on the dance."

Jongin nods, getting up to his feet and pulling off his hoodie. "Okay," he says, walking to the middle of the room. "What's the emotion for this song?"

"Um... I'm going for, like, carefree happiness. Unbridled joy. Just..." She shrugs a little and smiles. "I don't know. I'm sorry. I have no idea how to direct you, exactly. Just... y'know, feel the music. I trust you."

"Alright." Jongin stretches, quickly. "I'm ready when you are."

Soojung turns on the music, and Jongin listens for about five seconds before letting his body go. Fortunately for Soojung, this is something that comes naturally to him anyway. He forgets his surroundings and focuses on his movements, feeding off the bright, positive vibes that the music exudes. He pauses when the music stops, a little out of breath, and only then does he look at her.

She hasn't touched any of the paint, he notices, her paintbrush pristine. She was just sort of standing there, frozen, head tilted to one side, mouth open a little bit. Then she blinks, and her expression morphs into a wide, radiant smile.

And wow, holy , that smile. Jongin is completely thrown off. It almost doesn't suit her, what with her normally aloof and reserved manner, but it makes Jongin feel as if his insides were lit on fire. She doesn't say a word, but she doesn't have to. If his dancing made her smile like that, he's gotta be doing something right. So when the next song begins, he doesn't hesitate to throw himself into the dance and normally, it helps to focus just on his own movements. But he finds that the image of her smile in his mind fits perfectly with the emotion he was supposed to convey.

//

a/n.

this is somewhat unedited but i just wanted to sort of... start the story, i feel like the previous chapters are too introductory

it's 2.30am so i'm not really functioning anymore but i hope you like T_T