that’s the thing with fear, he supposes. the anxiety it initially gives you vanishes into thin air the moment the thing you fear happens. he thinks that’s exactly what happened, and explains the almost positive feedback he received from dowoon. he gratefully accepts the bottle dowoon passes to him. the laugh that the other male gives is contagious and he finds himself laughing along, even when his ass is a little sore from the fall. he was afraid to fall because of a lot of things - being afraid to get injured was definitely on top of the list. but now that he’s there on the floor, unharmed except for the sting on his ass cheeks, he feels a lot more comfortable now. it helps him breathe a little better now.
“what a way to get a wake up call, huh?” he jokes when he recovers from his fit of laughter. he puts the cap back on the water bottle and stands up when dowoon prompts him, too. the words ‘learn from your mistakes’ rings true at this very moment. and dowoon’s right, now that he knows and have lived through what will happen if he messes up that part, he better not let it happen again. there’s a sudden sense of epiphany, like he suddenly knows what he needs to do - where to put his foot and when he’s supposed to pause to regain his balance. is it from all the years of practice? of randomly falling flat on his ass when his balance is off? probably a mixture of both.
“oh, drinks! yes! okay, i got this!” sehoon cheers, giving dowoon a boyish, dimpled grin as he stretches his arms and legs again. there’s a surge of energy in his limbs brought about by the support dowoon gives and the inspirational drive that free good gives. but when it comes down to it, he’s glad he asked dowoon for help. he can be really scary sometimes when it comes to practice, but he always mean well. he strongly believes dowoon is one of the many reasons charm is widely known for their in-sync routines, and he’ll always be proud of that.
with a deep breath, he gives dowoon a determined nod and starts the choreography from the top. he watches himself closely in the mirror in front of him. by the time he finishes, without falling flat on his ass this time, he feels both exhausted and accomplished, so much that he gives another dimpled grin up at dowoon. “i did good, right?”
“yeah. the best ones usually hurt a bit, right?” dowoon cracks back, a fond smile stretching across his face. eh, that’s probably not a rule when it comes to wake up calls in general, but as it applies to dowoon’s, it does. realising the state his household was in as a kid hurt a lot, albeit emotionally rather than physically. but, because of that, he ended up doing something about it. getting punched in the face twice by his members over practice room disagreements during charm’s debut days did sting like a bitch, but thanks to that, he’d become an overall kinder choreographer, sub-leader, and dance captain -- or, at least, he’s done his best since to show the others how much he appreciates their hard work day in and day out at every opportunity he can, in his own emotionally constipated way.
dowoon barks out a laugh, index finger thrust out in front of him at sehoon at the same time, “hey, that got you moving quickly, didn’t it? come on.” yep, after all these years, dowoon’s decided that rewards really do work better than anything else to get the unruly bunch of them that made up charm into formation.
watching with crossed legs and discerning eyes, dowoon sits back against the cool mirrored wall and returns sehoon’s nod. he loves it when he sees that look in somebody’s eye, when their focus is so strong that they don’t even notice him and his nitpicking gaze watching them anymore. dowoon is tempted to watch sehoon’s reflection along with him, but he keeps his eyes trained on sehoon’s feet instead, waiting for that fateful moment when ... when sehoon pulls off the jump perfectly, sticking the landing without missing a beat. when the song thrums to a close, dowoon hops back onto his feet and brings his palms together in a slow clap and an all consuming smile on his face. “yeah. better than good. great.” dowoon assures him, holding out a hand to help sehoon stand. “you’re sorted. now, come on, let’s get something to eat.”
