Kyungsoo: Picture Perfect
Kyungsoo walked into the studio room where you’d been waiting for a recording session.
You were at this point collaborating on a song with the EXO star, being a singer yourself, and today the schedule called for a filmed dance practice.
“Hey,” he smiles, nodding in your direction.
“Hi, Soo,” you wave back, smiling.
He sets his backpack down on the floor against a wall, pulling out the tripod stand where the camera would be set. He sat criss-cross on the floor, carefully setting up the camera and attaching its lens.
“Are you sure you don’t need help?” You look over his shoulder as he finished the last of the set up.
“C’mon, you know me,” he teases, making sure the camera was on and set to record at any given moment. “Do me a favor and go stand over there, let me test out the quality focus.”
You obey and skip to the center of the room, plopping your feet on the floor and rehearsing a few moves of the choreography.
“How’s this?” You say, outstretching your arms and pulling a quick cartwheel across the room.
He laughs. “It’d be fun if that was part of our choreo,” he says, jogging towards the center of the room when he finished and pulling a cartwheel of his own after you.
“Okay,” you say, excitedly garnering your first position at the center. “I’m ready when you are, my lover!”
Kyungsoo coughs and lets out a loud laugh.
“What did you just say!?”
“You’re my lover now, apparently! Haven’t you been sneaking all over social media!?”
He blushes slightly, and you knew the answer to your question.
“I guess it’s gotten pretty public, huh?” He says, rubbing a nervous hand behind his neck. He hoped his face wouldn’t redden so obviously.
“Yeah, but I find it pretty cute that our collab suddenly went from being a fun song showcasing our vocals together to being… an all-out relationship speculation fest! Those shippers are wild and so quick to spread things.”
“Trust me, the boys won’t let me live it down,” he mutters, thinking back to Baekhyun’s non-stop teasing about you being Kyungsoo’s alleged new romantic partner behind closed doors.
“And it doesn’t help that the pictures they caught of us grabbing coffee together twice seem pretty convincing,” you say, finishing the last of your leg and arm stretches.
Kyungsoo laughs nervously, trying to focus on his own stretching before the rehearsal.
If only it didn’t sound like you were taking it as a fun little joke, he thought quietly to himself.
“Ready?” You say happily, standing in front of him with your back facing his chest.
First position, right, he nervously wraps his arms around you, as the choreography called.
The first practice round goes rather interestingly, with a few awkward poses here and there in between transitional moves. When you finish, you both gather around the camera to watch the recording.
“Uh,” you say, looking closer at the camera.
Shoot, Kyungsoo thinks, knowing what’s probably already going through your mind.
“This was okay… but some of the moves are a little…”
“…awkward,” he finishes your thought, noting how far and distant he was from you at certain points throughout the choreography.
You look up and smile at him. “It looks like you’re trying too hard to debunk these rumors about us being a thing.”
“I mean, it’s best if we don’t—”
“Nonsense,” you say, placing the camera back on the tripod and pressing the record button.
“Come here,” you say, outstretching your arms and placing his hands into yours. “Have fun with this choreography, Soo! The whole song is about being in a fierce relationship with another person.”
He follows you back to the center of the room and you stand in first position again. When he wraps his arms around you, you tug at his arms to get closer to make him get closer.
“Don’t be shy with it, Soo. This is art, after all. We have to convince our audience of the performance’s message!”
The shy boy smiles and allows his hands to relax against your waist.
The second practice goes much smoother than the first. There are only less than a handful of awkward steps here and there, but it’s a greater improvement than the prior.
“See, Soo? This looks much more… intimate!” You smile down at the camera whilst replaying the second practice round.
He nods and shifts his gaze from the camera towards you.
He can’t help but wonder if he’s struggling to separate the intimacy of the dance, with some sort of a personal connection to you…
“One more time?” You look up, smiling.
“Let’s do it,” he says, this time reaching out to place your hands into his.
This is what had slowly pulled the boy closer to you. The way you loved your job, the way you gave your strongest efforts into any project, song, and choreography arrangement. It was the way your enthusiasm could fill a room when you submitted yourself to outpouring the best vibe into a project. Not only that, but the way you could make just about anyone comfortable around you.
Especially Kyungsoo.
He felt very comfortable around you in and out of practice, always looked forward to your small coffee dates (though you couldn’t really call them romantic dates, but more of friendly ones), and always looked forward to performing the new song you both had worked on.
Outside of being co-stars, you’d also grown much closer than you’d anticipated, and he couldn’t help but sometimes wonder if you’d grown any sort of romantic interest in him as he had towards you.
He wrapped his arms around your waist at first position, this time pulling you slightly closer than the last.
“Oh, wow, Mr. Loverboy,” you look up, sticking your tongue out at him.
“The message of the song is pretty intimate, so I won’t hold back this time,” he smiles down to you, feeling a surge of bold assurance overtaking him.
For this practice round, Kyungsoo lived up to his word. The choreography felt a lot more intimate than any of the previous practices you’d had to date.
He spun you firmer, swayed his hips against yours smoother, and towards the bridge of the song, his mouth actually made the slightest bit of contact against your neck.
You loved it all.
You loved having a fierce partner who could really pull off a gorgeous, convincing performance. A performer with passionate vocals like his, and now a fierce and shameless dancer to play alongside of you.
Many things about the boy dancing alongside of you fascinated your interests, from the way you grew close as co-stars to the way you grew even closer as friends.
Could he possibly be.. the person I’d always dreamed of being with…?
He most definitely has met all my personal qualities in a strong friend and more.
…
I wonder.
The final move of your choreography arrangement consisted of both you and Kyungsoo hitting a harmonizing high note as you fall back into his arms, landing inches away from his face.
Needless to say, this was played out flawlessly.
The song ends, both you and Kyungsoo are leveled eye-to-eye, your smiles only centimeters away from each other.
Then, he does the unthinkable.
He smiles.
And it is the kind of smile that catches you so off-guard, you can’t help but feel your face flush with reddening heat as you giggle your way out of his embrace.
“Soo, gosh, I think that was our best performance yet!”
You still can’t stop smiling and gushing over the boy’s perky smile replaying over and over in your head. As you make your way to the camera to rewatch the video, your smile immediately fades almost instantly.
“What’s wrong?” The boy asks, jogging up behind you.
“You’re not gonna believe this… it wasn’t recording.”
“What!?” The boy’s eyes widen tremendously at the thought of the best performance having gone to waste.
“I’m sorry, I guess I didn’t—”
“That’s okay,” he assures, smiling down at you. He takes the camera from your hands and presses the record button firmly, making sure the camera was rolling surely this time. “Who says we can’t do it beautifully again?”
You smile as he holds his hands out for you to take, and you accept. He leads you back to the center of the room and you assume first position as you knew before.
It may sound impossible, but this practice round was miraculously funner and more synced than the last. It felt as if you both had finally found your own personal click with the song in and out, and were finally getting to truly showcase it for what it was meant to be.
The last few moments of the song came in several unexpected surprises. Kyungsoo had once again delivered his end of the final choreography beautifully, and when you met face-to-face again for the dance finale, you impulsively did the unthinkable.
You kissed him.
He didn’t pull back, didn’t make a fuss.
Instead, he gently wrapped his arms around you and kissed you back.
What am I doing!? You think, wanting to pull away from his soft lips but not daring to.
The initial shock hit Kyungsoo for a second, but he didn’t jerk back. He felt as if his manifested thoughts had miraculously turned into reality.
So long I’d been wanting to do this, he thought, but I never guessed what you felt in return.
I’m happy.
Eventually, you pull away first.
“I—I’m sorry—” you stutter, not knowing how to react at the sudden impulse of actions.
The fond boy smiles softly.
“Don’t be,” he whispers.
“But—”
“You did what I’ve been wanting to give you for a while, but could never find a way to,” he admits shyly, cheeks completely flushed.
Oh, you think, not knowing what else to say.
Did I just kiss Do Kyungsoo?
And…
Did Do Kyungsoo just admit that he likes me!?
You turn towards the recording camera and gasp, hopping over to turn it off.
“I guess we can’t post that,” you say flatly. He laughs, taking the camera away from you and studying the video.
“Crop the end, that’s all. At least we waited more than a couple seconds,” he teases.
You reach for your water bottle, still processing the last five minutes of your life.
“Uhm, Soo?” You dare yourself to make eye contact, searching for any signs of possible concern or regret coming from his end.
Surprisingly, he doesn’t seem scared at all.
In fact, he seems a lot more relaxed that he had been all evening.
“Yes?” He smiles at you fondly.
“Uhm… nevermind,” you mumble, turning your attention back to your water bottle.
“Hmm,” he ponders, walking up to you after putting the camera stuff away. “I’m not gonna pretend like nothing happened, but we can keep it a secret.”
“What if I cost us a scandal?”
The boy looks up to the ceiling, then back down to you.
“I think you’ve forgotten we’re supposedly already in a scandalous secret relationship,” he smirks.
You giggle at the realization that you, in fact, are.
“I have a proposition,” he says, holding his hand out towards you. “How about another scandalous coffee date, but this time, you’re my secret lover for real?”
You smile warmly as you place your hand in his, letting him lead you out of the practice room and out to a very familiar and delicious coffee shop near by.
