#the whip does make me nervous to see what the choreo will be like based on what I witnessed from the concert version

[adridoesstuff]

Elisabeth das musical Czech production appreciation pt. 14

Die Shatten werden länger with Pavel Režný as Smrt/Death and Pavel Klimenda as Rudolf

[eastasianfeelings]

falling into the sky: chapter five — move

← chapter four: share  //  chapter six: fanfiction →

Summary: Your dance crew is backing up 5Vixx’s comeback. You happen to have a big crush on Ken. It’s kind of not an ideal situation for you, but your dance crew and the rest of Vixx make up for it.

Words: 3.1k

Warnings: none

*

The next day finds you, Hyeomi, Ahwon and Daesuk in the studio room where the auditions are being held, huddling around the table to compare notes.

“So do we know why Changyeon-hyung’s not hosting the auditions?” Daesuk asks.

“I asked Jaeeun-ssaem,” Hyeomi says. “She said it’s to remove subjectivity from the process, so they can make a decision faster because of the compressed timeline.”

“By ‘make a decision faster’,” you speculate, “she basically just means he’s too picky, right?”

“That makes sense,” Ahwon agrees. “Do we know why Ken and Hyuk were fighting over Y/N-eonni?”

You snap your head around. “Eh?”

Daesuk cocks his head. “Were they fighting?”

“Oh, yeah. They both wanted to be her dance partner, or something like that,” Hyeomi shares readily.

“Really?” Daesuk looks round at you with raised eyebrows. “What kind of situation is this, Y/N-ah?”

“Look, I don’t really know,” you say, scrunching up your nose. “Hyuk just asked if he could keep learning the back-up choreography with me and Changyeon and Jaeeun, and that got Ken’s attention for some reason.”

“Hyuk wants to learn the back-up choreography?” Ahwon’s eyebrows rise too. “Why?”

“Does he actually want to be your partner?” Hyeomi speculates.

“No, no.” You blow out a breath. “He’s just interested in the dance, I’m pretty sure.”

“I guess,” Ahwon says, a bit more skeptically.

“At the very least, I don’t think he was trying to stir up trouble with Ken on purpose.” You shrug.

“I don’t know, eonni, this kind of sounds like the start of a fanfiction,” Hyeomi says with a grin.

You snort in some water; Daesuk pats your back as you cough. “Fanfiction? Seriously, Hyeomi-yah?”

“Look who’s talking,” Ahwon says shrewdly, narrowing her eyes at Hyeomi. “You rode in with Jaeeun-ssaem again yesterday, didn’t you?”

You whip around. Looks like it’s true, based on Hyeomi’s expression. “Yah, Byeon Hyeomi.” Slowly a smile takes over your face. “What is this, exactly?”

“Nothing,” she says, in a tremendously unconvincing tone.

“It doesn’t sound like nothing,” you retort. “It sounds kind of like…”

“Forbidden love!” Daesuk says.

“Age difference!” Ahwon says.

“Student-teacher relationship!” you say.

Hyeomi jumps to her feet and shushes you all with flailing arms. “Yah, you guys! What if she walked in right now?”

You’re laughing at this point. “Hyeomi-yah, I’m happy for you.”

“You need to tell us all the details, you know,” Ahwon says.

“I will! After! Just—don’t say anything to Jaeeun-ssaem for now, okay?” Hyeomi beseeches.

Daesuk zips his lips as you and Ahwon nod. Just in time, too: the back door to the studio opens and Jaeeun walks in.

You all quickly seat yourselves along the table, leaving the middle chair open for Jaeeun. She’s looking at some papers in her hands as she walks over, which gives you time to compose yourselves.

“Hey kids.” She looks up with a smile and starts distributing the papers among the four of you. “Here are the eleven candidates’ resumes, give them a read.”

“What are they auditioning with, ssaem?” Ahwon asks.

“We gave them five boy groups to pick songs from, plus one partner dance. Speaking of—” Jaeeun turns to you. “Y/N-ah, you know the choreography to Taemin’s ‘Move’, right?”

“…Yes,” you say slowly. “Are you about to ask me to—”

“Dance with the candidates?” She flashes a smile and sits down neatly in the middle chair.

“Ssaaeem,” you whine. Hyeomi, Ahwon and Daesuk are snickering. “Why couldn’t you have told me earlier?”

“Then you don’t want to?” Jaeeun asks innocently.

“No, but now I’m worried I’ll forget something.” You let out a groan and slump on the tabletop. Being put on the spot is not your favourite thing in the world.

“Hey, we did like five million repeats of ‘Move’ when it first came out,” Ahwon reminds you.

“Yeah,” Daesuk agrees, “it’s got to be burned into our muscle proteins by now.”

“It’s chemistry that I’m looking for,” Jaeeun tells you. “So just take it easy, okay?”

“Don’t worry, eonni, if you make a mistake and the other dancer gets mad, he’s out of contention right away,” Hyeomi assures you.

“Thanks, Hyeomi-yah,” you sigh.

Jaeeun’s phone rings. “Hello? Oh, okay, send the first one in.” She hangs up and looks around at you. “All right, we’re starting.”

You sit up and watch the room’s front door open to admit the first candidate.

He introduces himself, then chooses GOT7’s “Calling My Name” as his solo. A good choice, in your opinion; the dance focuses more on elegance and precision compared to the aggressive and powerful boy group choreographies popular these days. And Vixx has never been aggressive, exactly.

Unfortunately, it’s the most soulless dance you’ve seen in a while. Jaeeun doesn’t ask him to do the partner dance; she just thanks him after two minutes and points him out the door.

As soon as he’s gone, she shuffles his resume to the back of her pile. “That was an easy no,” she says drily.

“Was he even looking at us?” Daesuk wonders aloud.

“More like staring right through us.” Ahwon shakes her head.

Jaeeun nods. “No sense of emotion. Accurate technically, but no storytelling.”

“See, eonni, you’re only going to dance with the actual good ones,” Hyeomi says to you brightly.

“Hmph.”

The next one dances to Infinite’s “The Eye”, a choreography you know Jaeeun likes, and isn’t soulless about it. You’re not really surprised when she looks down the table to you after two minutes and nods her head.

Looking back to the dancer, she says, “Next we’ll ask you to perform Taemin’s ‘Move’ as a duet, with Y/N-ssi.”

You walk over to stand next to him, give him a polite “Hello” and face the table.

“We’ll start at the first chorus,” Jaeeun says, and promptly plays the music.

As the last few beats of the prechorus lead into the refrain, you let yourself sink into the calmly slithering vibe of the song. The lack of mirror in front of you is a different sensation; it’s been a long while since you haven’t critically observed your every move while dancing. There’s some kind of satisfaction in knowing your partner’s being watched, not you.

You’re just moving into the second pre-chorus when the back door opens with an emphatic thud.

Your partner jumps, which in turn nearly breaks your concentration. But years of practice keep you going into the next step as you suppress the urge to check who’s just entered the room. As a back-up dancer, your job is to dance, no matter what happens during a performance.

Haltingly, the guy manages to swing back into the choreo just as the second chorus hits. You have to adjust your spacing to make sure his hand doesn’t smack you as the two of you travel. Right after that, the music stops.

Both of you straighten to look toward Jaeeun. “Thank you,” she says to the guy, a clear dismissal.

As he makes his exit, you whisk back your flyaway hairs, glance around at the newcomers, and nearly have a heart attack.

Hyuk and Ken are now standing behind your seat.

“What’d you think?” Jaeeun draws your attention back to her.

“Well,” you say slowly, “he wasn’t bad.”

“That means on to the next!” Hyeomi says.

“I agree,” Ken inserts confidently. “That guy fell way out of sync with Y/N-noona at one point.” He leans forward, places his hands on the back of your vacant chair and directs a smile at you. “We can do better than that, right, noona?”

“They were out of sync because you decided to run into the room during the middle of the song, hyung,” Hyuk snorts. Ken ignores him and just keeps smiling at you.

Banmal and handkerchiefs. You can do this, you tell yourself as you cautiously approach the table again.

“Come sit.” Ken pulls your chair back a little and then waits.

…Is he planning on pushing you in?? Gingerly, you turn your back to him and perch yourself on the edge of the seat. Then you’re muffling a surprised noise as he slides the chair forward with surprising strength, tucking you right into the table.

Beside you, Daesuk looks like he might be giggling to himself. Thank goodness Jaeeun’s paying more attention to the resumes than Ken’s antics or your nervous reactions. “Okay, next,” she calls out.

The front door opens for the third candidate. You’re surprised when he chooses Vixx’s “Fantasy”; you’re not sure you’d have the gumption to perform an idol’s own song right in front of them. But it turns out that he’s not bad at all.

At the two-minute mark Jaeeun calls a stop and nods at you. “Y/N-ssi.”

You move to stand. But suddenly Ken speaks, from right behind you—with shock, you realize that he’s had his hands on the back of your chair this whole time.

“Jaeeun-ssaem,” he says lightly, “was Vixx’s ‘Fantasy’ one of the audition choices?”

Jaeeun raises an eyebrow. “Yes, Vixx was one of the options.”

The candidate looks toward Ken, and you can see the moment when he realizes that he’s talking to an actual Vixx member. “Er—I wanted to show my respect and admiration for Vixx-seonbaenim,” he blurts, and sinks into a deep bow. “To express how much I would like to work with you.”

“Hm.” That’s not exactly an approving noise from Ken.

You look to Jaeeun. She’s frowning at Ken, but nods to you again. “Y/N-ssi, if you would.”

When you push back at the table, though, your chair doesn’t move.

Automatically, you push harder. The table actually inches forward.

Confused, you twist in place to find Ken’s forearms tensed and locked, his grip keeping your chair in place as he stares at the dancer.

“Er.” You look up, up, into his face. “Excuse me.”

“Hyung,” Hyuk speaks up.

Ken blinks and looks down. “Ah.” But instead of letting go, he glances first down the table.

You follow his gaze to see Jaeeun’s frown dialed up a notch. “Ken-ssi.”

“…Yes.” He unlocks his death grip around the back of the chair and steps away enough to let you stand.

The candidate seems very nervous by the time you get to him, and you can’t blame him; Jaeeun’s face is completely blank, your teammates seem to be whispering among themselves, Hyuk’s leaning against the wall looking bored and Ken’s expression is… well, foreboding, almost. You do your best to give the guy a reassuring nod before facing the table.

“You’ll be dancing the choreography to ‘Move’ by Taemin as a duet with Y/N-ssi here,” Jaeeun says. She barely waits for the dancer’s responding nod before snapping her fingers to cue the music.

To his credit, the guy doesn’t dance like he’s nervous; he slides right into the choreography with you as the first chorus starts to play. He also doesn’t shy away from looking at you when the choreo allows for or calls for it, which means the spacing between the two of you is solid and you’re in no danger of being whacked by an errant limb.

Jaeeun lets you finish the second chorus before stopping the music. “Thank you,” she says to the dancer, more politely than before, and nods him out.

As soon as the door closes behind the candidate, Hyeomi says, “He wasn’t bad!”

“He wasn’t really looking at us, though,” Daesuk says.

“But he looked good with Y/N-eonni,” Ahwon says, “he picked up her vibe and made it feel more like a duet.”

“Her vibe?” Ken echoes. He’s now leaning against the wall next to Hyuk with his arms crossed.

Your whole crew looks at him.

A little defensively, he shrugs. “I mean, being able to dance in the same style as someone else is kind of basic, isn’t it?”

“Dancing in the same style is different from having chemistry,” Jaeeun says briskly as her pen moves over the guy’s resume.

“Are you saying that he had chemistry with Y/N-noona?” Ken lifts his arm to point accusingly at the door.

“Ken-hyung, calm down.” Hyuk swats Ken’s arm down. “Ssaem’s going to make us leave if you keep being annoying.”

“I’m not being annoying,” Ken says, but lowers his arm.

At that, Jaeeun lifts her head and levels him with a stare. “You are, Jaehwan-ah, so tone it down.”

“…Sorry, ssaem.” There’s a sullen pout on his face that makes you want to stare too long at his lips.

“Y/N-ah?” Jaeeun pulls your attention to her. “What did you think?”

“I thought he was going to be nervous, but he didn’t dance like he was,” you say. “How much experience is there on his resume?”

“A lot of short-term contracts,” Daesuk says as he skims it. “Oh, he’s done a few music show festivals.”

“That’s good,” Ahwon notes.

“Put him on the shortlist?” Hyeomi says.

Jaeeun nods. “Yeah, I think so.” She sets aside his resume and waves you back to your seat. “At least that’s one.”

You hurriedly seat yourself before Ken can think to try pushing you in again. Then you nearly jump a foot in the air when he decides to lean over your shoulder and ask quietly:

“You liked him?”

That’s not his breath you’re feeling on your cheek, is it? “Um, well. He was pretty good.”

“But we can raise our standards, right? We want the best.”

“I don’t think you should talk, hyung,” comes Hyuk’s dry voice.

The faint breath disappears as Ken straightens with a sniff. “How rude.”

“Stop bothering Y/N-ah or I’ll kick you out,” Jaeeun threatens. “Next!”

The fourth dancer dances SHINee’s “I Want You”, which is a song your crew has practiced as well, so you’re a bit biased in liking it. Jaeeun looks more skeptical, but allows the guy a minute to dance “Move” with you.

After he leaves, she turns and asks for opinions again. “What did you think?”

“I think if someone dances ‘Noona, You’re So Pretty’, we should hire them on the spot,” Daesuk says.

You return to your seat and give him a high-five. “Seconded.”

“Thirded!” Hyeomi and Ahwon say at the same time.

Jaeeun huffs out a laugh. “That means we’re not hiring this guy, right?”

“Why?” Ken asks with interest, peering around Hyuk at you all. “Why ‘Noona, You’re So Pretty’?”

“It’s our song,” Daesuk says simply.

“Oh?” Ken looks to you to elaborate.

“It’s one song we all love,” you explain to him. “Both the music and the choreography.”

“Ah.” He nods.

“Ken-hyung can’t relate,” Hyuk says playfully, “he doesn’t know any of SHINee-sepnbaenim’s choreography. They’re all too hard for him.”

“Yah!” Ken rounds on him. “Why are you being so rude today?!”

“Is it rude to tell the truth?” Hyuk just grins.

“Ssaem,” Ken whines, “can’t you throw Hyuk out?”

Jaeeun doesn’t even bother answering. “Next!”

The fifth candidate introduces himself, hits a stance in front of the table with eyes closed in concentration… and then TVXQ’s “Mirotic” starts playing.

With strained patience, Jaeeun waits for a lull in the song to cut him off. “Excuse me. Excuse me.”

“Oh—yes?”

“You do realize that TVXQ was not one of the options for this audition?”

“Oh. There were options??”

Needless to say, he leaves very shortly after that.

“How’d he get on the shortlist?” Ahwon asks delicately.

Jaeeun grunts. “A referral.”

“From who? Changyeon-hyung?” Daesuk grins.

The sixth candidate dances to Winner’s “Really Really”. The group isn’t one of your favourites, so maybe you’re biased in not liking it this time. Daesuk, Ahwon and Hyeomi also have varying degrees of distaste evident on their faces. You’re happy when Jaeeun dismisses the guy without asking you to dance with him.

“Ssaem, you chose Winner as one of the options?” you ask her after the door closes.

“Yeah,” Jaeeun says. “‘Really Really’ is a weak pick, though.” She stretches and looks at the clock. “Shall we take a break? We’re ahead of schedule.”

Hyeomi jumps up. “Ssaem, is it okay if I plug my phone into the player to charge?”

“Sure, Hyeomi-yah.”

But as soon as Hyeomi’s phone is connected to the sound system, the familiar strains of SHINee’s debut fill the room.

“Yeah!” Daesuk whoops and hops out of his chair. “Y/N-ah, Ahwon-ah, let’s go!”

Jaeeun lets out an exasperated laugh as the four of you bounce around the dance floor. “Why?”

“C’mon, doesn’t watching Y/N-eonni dance make you want to dance too?” Hyeomi says brightly as she does a Taemin spin.

“Noonan neomu yeppeoseo,” Daesuk sings along at the top of his lungs.

“Namjadeuli gaman andwo,” Hyeomi continues, pointing your way.

Ahwon joins the other two dancing around you. “Heundeullineun geunyeoui mam sashil algo isseo~!”

Laughing, you swat at them. You know your voice would crack if you tried to sing that loudly while dancing.

Suddenly, Ken’s clear honey voice continues the song:

“Geunyeoege sarangeun hansunganoe neukkimil ppun…”

You look round to see him watching you all, lips curved as he sings:

“Mwola haedo naegen salmui everything~”

Before you can melt on the spot, you’re distracted by Hyuk jumping in and joining the choreo in the pre-chorus. It’s quite a sight to see someone his height and build perform the very athletic choreography, and the sweet grin on his face is just the cherry on top.

“All right, all right,” Jaeeun says, waving both her arms. “Hyuk-ah, if you pull a muscle during these auditions, your manager’s going to kill me.”

“No way, he won’t,” Hyuk protests even as Hyeomi turns off the music.

Jaeeun looks to you. “You want to grab water, Y/N-ah? You’ll probably be dancing some more.”

“Yeah, I will,” you agree. You grab your empty water bottle from the table and head for the back door of the studio.

When you step outside, a glance down the hallway shows a few people still waiting their turn to audition by the front door. You’re about to turn away and head for the water fountain when something—someone—catches your eye.

A hint of familiarity.

The person lifts their head at that moment, and you get a good eyeful of their face.

What—

Are you, maybe, actually in a fanfiction? Because that’s the boy you crushed on throughout the entirety of high school, standing in line to audition for a spot on your dance crew.

You’re frozen to the spot, trying to figure out what to do and how big of a deal this is, when the back door opens right next to you and your current crush walks out.

“Noona?” Ken tilts his head at you, eyes wide.

You look at him. You think: I am totally, unquestionably, undoubtedly, 100% definitely in a fanfiction.

*

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