Chapter Text
SyubSyub-hyung~ (13:01):
When am I allowed to steal my boyfriend back
You’ve had him the whole day
HOBIHOBIHOBI (13:08):
?
Hyung he’s like
Literally been there for an hour
He’s also my best recruiter
I’ll buy you lamb skewers if you let me keep him for the rest of the day
SyubSyub-hyung~ (13:11):
Deal
Jung Hoseok liked to believe that he was a man of great patience, understanding, love and respect for his fellow classmates and members on the dance team. He understood that one needed to strike a delicate balance between school work and practice, as both were equally important. Most of his team had promised that they would focus on both school and practice, and that they wouldn’t let dance get in the way of their grades.
He was universally adored by most people who knew him. At least, the people who weren’t his close friends adored him. If asked (and pressed, out of earshot), his best friends would tell him that while Hoseok would give you an arm and a leg if you need it, he won’t hesitate in letting you know exactly what he thought if you were being a dumbass.
For all of his patience, understanding, love and respect (et cetera, et cetera), there were a few things that made the sunny smiles disappear.
One of them was standing in front of him.
“What do you mean you failed a class.”
The sophomore standing in front of Hoseok was cringing. Hoseok knew that when he was mad, he could come across as intimidating and downright scary (Yoongi said once that he looked bitchy, but Yoongi was an asshole and Hoseok preferred to think that he didn’t look bitchy). Hoseok fought the urge to snap at the kid. He knew that Minsoo was struggling with his grades, but he had still allowed him to participate because the kid had begged.
And now one of his better dancers won’t be eligible to perform for the dance competition they had already started choreographing.
“I’m so sorry, Hoseok-hyung,” he said, his voice quavering.
Hoseok was about to rip into Minsoo when he felt a clap on his shoulder. The lithe dancer turned to see his co-captain, Jaebum, standing there with an arched eyebrow. He had opted to style his hair for once, the bangs raked back with product so the eyebrow was noticeable. Hoseok sighed and allowed the other to take over talking to Minsoo.
The (slightly) older man was talking to the sophomore quietly as the ruddy haired brunette stalked over to where he had tossed his practice bag. He was already thinking of how to re-work the choreography to fill the gap. Hoseok liked to keep the dancers balanced and feature each in different sections. Minsoo was good; good enough to fill the gaps in the wings and be part of the center when it came to the hook. It was going to be very difficult unless one of the weaker dancers could step up and learn another’s part.
“Problems?”
Hoseok crinkled his nose at his favorite hoobae, and the third of the trio of leaders, as he pulled a bottle of water out of his bag. “The worst. Minsoo failed a class.”
“I thought he failed two?” the shorter man asked, his brows furrowed in confusion.
This bit of information only made Hoseok groan more, causing Jaebum to shoot him a dark look from across the room. The dance team was good enough that they consistently went to nationals and placed top three. After the fourth win, the university took a good, hard look at the academics and instituted the policy that all athletes had: keep the grades up or you’re ineligible for participating until the following year. It was unnecessarily strict, but the year that they decided that this was a good idea was the same year that half of the team failed classes.
“Jimin, we’re so fucked,” Hoseok moaned. He leaned his forehead against the wall. He did his best to keep his voice from turning into a full out wail, but it was so damned hard.
“It can’t be that bad, hyung,” Jimin replied. Hoseok could hear his full lips pursed in thought briefly as he thought about all of the issues that had plagued the dance team in the last few weeks. “I mean, sure, Jaehyuk broke his ankle, and Dongil got that concussion… and didn’t we have another person fail a class?”
“Don’t forget that we had three members graduate, including Shownu-hyung,” Hoseok said glumly. “We still need to evaluate the freshmen, let alone the sophomores and juniors who joined this year. The showcase may be enough for them, let alone the competition.”
“Speaking of evaluating, why are we calling it an ‘audition’ when we let anyone in? That just scares a lot of people away.”
“Don’t air quote me, Jimin,” Hoseok whined.
“You’re not even looking at me.”
“I can hear you air quote me! Respect your elders, brat.”
Jimin rolled his eyes and ruffled his dark brown hair. The kid had gotten it dyed fairly recently and showed up with two more piercings in his ear when the term started. When Hoseok met Jimin three years ago, when they were in the lowly rungs of the dance team together, he was a baby faced, pure and innocent soul. College had jaded the both of them, along with certain bad influences by the name of Kim Namjoon and Min Yoongi. It was only the dance team’s strict hair color policy during competition season that kept Jimin from letting Yoongi try truly outrageous colors on him.
There had been talks of crimson once, but Jaebum had flat out said no.
“Let me see what you have blocked out and we can go from there?” Jimin wheedled.
Hoseok resisted the urge to give in. He wanted to wallow in despair on his own and he didn’t need Jimin’s bright, shining optimism to ruin a good wallow.
“Hyuuung.”
Hoseok sighed. He hated it when Jimin pulled out the aegyo. He wanted to kick whoever taught the sweet faced asshole how to manipulate other people through sheer cuteness.
Oh wait, that was him.
“Fine,” Hoseok said petulantly as he pulled out the notebook that contained all of his brainstorming and ideas. “Fine. You can take a look at the stupid choreography and then tell me what I already know.”
Hoseok watched Jimin’s expression as the younger man listened to the track that Jaebum and Hoseok had picked out with the help of their advisor. He trusted Jimin with his whole heart when it came to dancing, as Jimin was one of the few dance majors on the team. The younger was recently promoted to the freshman dance leader, which mean that he would be dealing with the complete newbies. He would be good at it; he was far more patient than Jaebum and Hoseok combined and had a solid technical foundation that he caught mistakes early on before they developed into bad habits.
He watched as the optimistic look on Jimin’s face slowly turned into thoughtful concern, and then as crestfallen as Hoseok felt when he realized that the choreography that he and Jaebum had worked on so hard unraveled with all of the issues that had cropped up.
“Even if we can find just one or two people, we would be fine,” Hoseok said. “I can rearrange the formation at the bridge, but right now we’re not balanced.”
Jimin gnawed on a fingernail thoughtfully as he brought the music back to the part Hoseok was talking about. He nodded, seeing what the older man was talking about.
“Hyung, did you do this for the current comp team?”
Hoseok flushed. “Yeah, actually. It was easier to do it that way since I knew who was going to be on there for sure.”
Jimin clucked his tongue. Hoseok knew that it was a bad habit to work ahead so far in advance, but he was excited about the song. “We should probably look at this again after evaluations, because you never know who may have gotten better.”
“But what if we’re stuck with the current comp team?” It was hard not to be pessimistic, but he was being pessimistic.
“Are we going to be able to get someone to the level that we need? What about a first year?”
“Maybe if JB or I do private sessions with the more promising ones,” Hoseok replied, shaking his head. “I don’t want to get into the habit of using freshmen though. The two of us were exceptions, but even then we had a rough time of it.”
It was their predecessor, Minseok, who had instituted the policy where freshmen didn’t dance in the competition. The showcase for the school festival was one thing, but the competition required traveling and extra practices that they didn’t like to burden first years with. Hoseok had been asked to dance for the competition their first year – his history in Gwangju had helped cement that spot for him – and Jimin as well.
It had been hell during the last part of the year, but between the threat of academic probation and the large number of intelligent sunbae who were willing to help him, he managed to eke by in his classes and not fail. They repeated the process for Jimin, and swore never again.
“We’ll figure it out, hyung,” Jimin said. “Come on, we need to make the schedule for the fresh meat.”
Hoseok took in the broad smile that attracted others like flies to honey. He had known Jimin for long enough that he was almost immune to the flirtatious mannerisms and charming satoori lilt that Jimin used to give himself just a little bit of extra something.
“Just don’t try and sleep with all of them,” he finally said with a sigh.
Jimin sniffed indignantly at Hoseok’s reference to his reputation of being a play boy. “I don’t sleep with all of them,” he said. “Just some of them.”
“Yeah, well, we don’t need people getting into arguments because they’re jealous, fucker.”
~*~*~*~
Hoseok got back to the apartment that he shared with two of his best friends in the whole wide world relatively late. He, Jimin and Jaebum had spent too much long picking music for the School Festival pieces and they had lost track of time. He caught a faint whiff of kimchi fried rice in the air and hoped that someone had saved him a plate of something.
He followed his nose and found the younger of his two roommates standing in front of the stove, bare chest and a pair of soft flannel pants slung low on his narrow hips. Hoseok blinked at the sight of one Min Yoongi wielding the spatula with expert ease.
It wasn’t that Yoongi didn’t know how to cook. It was more of the fact that Seokjin preferred cooking because that was what he did. Hoseok cleaned, Seokjin cooked, Yoongi scared everyone else away and made the coffee. It was perfect.
Except for the fact that there was one person that Yoongi didn’t manage to scare away and that was Kim Taehyung.
Incidentally, Taehyung was perched on the counter, watching his boyfriend stir-fry the canned meat product that had been diced up expertly.
The younger man lit up when he saw Hoseok, fairly hopping off the counter to tackle hug the dancer. Hoseok smiled at the exuberant display of affection. He liked Taehyung; it was impossible not to. Jimin had befriended him almost out of nowhere – Hoseok suspected a bar but both Taehyung and Jimin were fuzzy on the details – and he had been around since, especially since he had joined the dance team when Jimin did. He even got through Yoongi’s normally stone cold barriers and asked him on date after they danced around each other for months.
To everyone’s surprise, Yoongi grunted an agreement. That was nearly a year ago and they were still together.
“You’re back late, hyung,” Taehyung commented, a faint note of accusation in his voice.
Hoseok winced. “Yeah, I know. Sorry about that Taetae. We just got news about some stuff at the club and it’s not good.”
“Not good in what sense? Did you have another person fail?” Yoongi asked as he added the kimchi into the pan.
The dancer nearly wanted to groan again. The music had distracted him enough that he could forget the issues, but goddamn Min Yoongi had to bring it up again. He glowered at the skinny, shirtless man with soft brown hair.
“Don’t glare at me,” he chided as he stirred the contents of the pan around. “You’ll get wrinkles.”
“How did you know?”
“Jimin. That kid gossips worse than an old maid, and you were also yelling at this in your sleep last night.”
Taehyung chuckled in his honeyed baritone as Hoseok stuck a tongue out at Yoongi before grabbing one of the bottles of beer from the fridge. When Taehyung reached over to grab a sip, Yoongi’s hand shot out and smacked his boyfriend’s hand. The younger turned his large doe eyes on the elder, looking almost injured at the action. Hoseok was glad that Taehyung didn’t actually go through with his short-lived crush on him (not that Hoseok would have allowed it), because doe eyes were one of his weaknesses.
“You’re a terror when you drink, Tae, and a lightweight,” Yoongi said. “Classes start tomorrow. Do you really want to be hungover?”
Hoseok watched with amusement as the two bickered affectionately. It was really Yoongi reminding the young man three years his junior that no, showing up hungover was a terrible idea, but wait hyung it’s fun to drink with Hoseokie-hyung.
When the two of them had started dating, it baffled everyone. Yoongi was quiet, liked to be in his room than large crowds, was literally a cat and had a list of vices a mile long. He also had a reputation of scaring people off with just a look (which Yoongi found to be unjust. It was one time and the whole thing had been blown out of proportion). Taehyung was affectionate, talkative and thrived in a rambunctious atmosphere. He was so popular, many people had gifted him presents during his birthday in freshman year. Their crew didn’t have to buy sweets for a week straight.
But for some reason, it worked. Hoseok didn’t quite understand it, but it worked. The harsh edges around Yoongi’s personality softened and mellowed with Taehyung’s whimsical nature, and Yoongi grounded the kid. Hoseok had decided early on that he liked the Yoongi that was dating Taehyung, and actively encouraged it.
That, and it meant that his coffee stash didn’t disappear nearly as quickly. Having a cuddly significant other who had the internal body temperature of a radiator meant that Yoongi actually went to bed at a reasonable hour.
And Yoongi stopped smelling like cigarettes. That was one of the vices that Hoseok had tried to get Yoongi to give up on. It only took Taehyung saying “hyung, you taste like an ashtray. That’s gross,” after their first kiss to get Yoongi to quit cold turkey.
“Oh, when are you guys hosting the first year evaluations?” Taehyung asked abruptly.
The guy always had a habit of changing the subject like that, and it was something that Hoseok had gotten used to in the time that they had known each other. “Probably Thursday and Friday night,” Hoseok replied as he sipped his beer and took the plate that Yoongi offered. “JB has the details, but I’m pretty sure it’s those two days. Good job on getting so many people to sign up, though. If half of them show, we’ll have a good number.”
Taehyung mumbled something around the large spoonful of rice he had shoved into his mouth. Hoseok nearly laughed when he caught Yoongi’s exasperated expression. The elder had been trying to drill manners into his boyfriend for the better part of three months to no avail.
“I said, I have a friend of a friend of a friend who’s interested,” Taehyung repeated, shooting a dark look at Yoongi’s disapproving expression. “He heard that I’m dating the roommate of one of the co-captains and asked me if I knew details.”
“When on earth did you even find time to talk someone about this?”
“I have my ways,” Taehyung replied, smiling that oddly endearing smile.
Hoseok chatted with the other two about the upcoming classes that he was excited about, and the ones that he had been dreading. Despite wanting to follow his dreams of doing music or dance, he ended up taking a practical and sensible major in the form of biology in hopes of possibly becoming a doctor. Taehyung’s major was game art and design – lord knows that kid played enough video games that he could give a critical analysis about why the designs were amazing or terrible – while Yoongi was in his first year of grad school for music production and composition.
It was late enough that they caught Seokjin wandering back into the apartment after a late night study session at the library. Hoseok eyed the clean cut brunette as he inhaled the last plate of fried rice Yoongi had saved specifically for him.
“God, I needed that,” Seokjin groaned dramatically. “The term hasn’t even started yet and the worst professor in the world already assigned homework. Homework.”
Hoseok listened to Seokjin’s complaints with one ear as he pulled out his phone. There were a few messages sitting in his inbox, and he cursed quietly to himself.
JAAAAAAAAAAEBUM (23:06):
What’s your schedule this term?
I forgot to get it from you
So we can maybe organize private rehearsals for some of the newbies
Also don’t forget your tripod for auditions
The dancer rolled his eyes. He didn’t need to be reminded to bring his tripod. The last time he forgot they had gotten terrible footage and he wasn’t likely to repeat that mistake again. He tapped reassuring words to his co-captain and opened the next message. It was an unknown number, and he didn’t remember any of his friends changing their numbers, or if he gave out his number recently.
He frowned. Maybe he did a few nights ago? God, it had been so long since he had gone out that he basically ignored everyone in favor of dancing. There were some people making the bedroom eyes at him, though.
Unknown number (00:05)
Sry for the late text
Jimin-hyung gave me ur #
Told me to introduce myself
Evaluations are on Thursday rite?
Im Jungkook
~*~*~*~
Hoseok beamed as the first years filed in for their evaluations. Nayeon, one of the members in the competition team, had gotten them all to fill out forms with basic information and their experience while they were all waiting for the session to officially start. He counted twenty and felt a thrill.
He, Jaebum and Jimin were sitting at a long table with Taehyung manning the camera and computer to download the clips as things went. They each had a stack of papers that they could use to jot down thoughts as they watched the first years, but the videos were often the most helpful part.
Evaluations were a necessary evil. This was when the team leaders could see how everyone moved, how quickly individuals picked up the choreography and if there would be any issues. It also gave the first years a chance to mingle together during the free practice.
All in all, it was usually the most tedious three hours of Hoseok’s school year.
Nayeon carried a bundle of fabric with ties sewn on them – similar to what idols wore during rehearsals – and started passing them out to each first year based on the stickers she had stuck on them.
One of the first years caught his eye as they got the jerseys on themselves.
He was standing near the edge of the crowd. Hoseok only got a glimpse of him before the kid pulled his hoodie off, revealing a broad expanse of golden skin and elegant back muscle as the shirt underneath rucked up. When his head re-emerged from the fabric, Hoseok’s mouth went dry.
Large, round eyes and a straight nose, high cheek bones and fluffy, soft hair. The well-shaped mouth quirked in mild annoyance as he untangled the ties of the number tag that Nayeon handed him. He tied it off with quick efficiency, shaking off the shy offer of help from the petite girl standing next to him.
He had never felt such a deep sense of want just from looking at someone before.
He hoped that no one actually noticed his temporary loss of composure as he pinched himself in the thigh. Hoseok had his own policy of not dating hoobae after a particularly messy fall out when he was a sophomore nearly unraveled the whole dance team.
“Right, welcome to evaluations,” Jaebum said once everyone was situated. “My name is JB and I am one of the captains of the dance team for this year. This here is Hoseok, who is my co-captain, and Jiminie over there will be your best friend for the first term. The pretty lady who passed out the jerseys is Nayeon, and she’ll be teaching you the choreography that you guys will be performing for us tonight. Don’t worry about being perfect, but show us who you are.”
There was a round of quiet applause as Jaebum finished his spiel and sat back down. Hoseok nudged him playfully. The normally laconic young man was getting better with public speaking every month.
“Hey, hyung, did Jungkook get in touch with you?” Jimin whispered as Nayeon started teaching them the choreography that they would be performing.
“Oh, yeah, he did. Which one is he?”
“Number thirteen.”
Hoseok did a quick scan of the numbers.
Oh no.
“You’re sure. You’re absolutely sure.”
Jimin frowned. “I grew up next to the kid, and he’s taller than I last saw him, but yeah. He grew up hot, though. I wasn’t expecting that.”
Hoseok was about to reply when Jaebum shushed them. Whispers carried and they didn’t want the first years to get distracted.
He refocused his attention on Naeyon. She was teaching them the chorus to an older kpop song that most people have heard at some point. The choreography looked easy, but it required a lot of confidence, in addition to timing to get the feeling right. It was sensual and had enough variety that the first years were going to have a time.
After she taught them the whole set, Jaebum stood up and split them off into different groups, roughly based on ability but primarily based on height so not one person stood out for that reason. The freshman had an hour to work their way through and practice, and time to ask questions, before they spent the last hour performing it in front of everyone.
Hoseok knew that he should be watching everyone. He would normally make notes about body awareness and who had potential, which Jimin had an eye on fundamentals and techniques. He was humming as he jotted a few things here and there that stuck out to him on his clipboard.
His eyes kept drifting towards Jungkook.
The kid had already taken charge. Hoseok narrowed his eyes as he studied Jungkook mark the choreography with his group. From the looks of it, he had taken charge to make sure that everyone knew what was going on (and to make sure that a stray limb wouldn’t hit anyone). When one of the guys asked how to transition from what Nayeon had called the “push push” move to a step out, Jungkook demonstrated slowly, and corrected when the guy didn’t shift his weight onto his supporting foot.
If anything, he would be a good addition as someone to help the others. They always needed sub-unit leaders to help polish the choreography, as Jimin was only one person and couldn’t catch everything.
The hour flew by faster than he realized and when he looked down at his clipboard, there was embarrassingly little written down. He was normally the one who needed more paper because he wrote so much. Jaebum caught the blank page and furrowed his brow in confusion. Hoseok shrugged and made a face. The other’s mouth pulled into a sympathetic smile before turning his attention back to the newbies.
“Okay!” Nayeon called out brightly. “Practice is over. Please send up one representative from each group to draw a number for the order!”
Hoseok smiled as he watched his friend explain what was going to happen next. She was medium height, her head coming up to maybe Hoseok’s nose, with a lithely muscular build from her years of dance training prior to college. Hoseok knew that she was much stronger than she looked, and was part of Jaebum’s aerial tricking subunit in addition to the competition team. Her lines were pretty, her movements were sharp and she looked good on stage because she always brought it.
It didn’t hurt that she was a looker, too. Hoseok didn’t miss how most of the guys were staring at her as she move elegantly across the floor. Little did they know, she could break most of them with her pinky.
It was getting late enough that Hoseok was tired, even with the amount of coffee that he drank. The first three groups blurred together to him as they did their best. It wasn’t about who could do it perfectly, but seeing overall progress. Most of them were doing well enough that Hoseok was excited for Jimin. The freshman group dance was going to look awesome if they worked at it a little longer.
The fourth group was the one that had Jungkook. Hoseok tried not to perk up a little bit when he saw the guy, but it was difficult.
When the music started, he could see why Jimin told him to make an extra effort to get in touch with Hoseok.
He was stunning.
No, Hoseok was letting his dick blind him a little bit. There were small movements and stage presence matters that Hoseok wanted him to work on, but he was good. Really good. He hit every movement at the time he was supposed to, and rolled through the sensual parts of the dance with ease.
Hoseok also caught how the others stood more confidently, dancing next to the young man who was doing every part of what they had learn.
The last group also had a stand out young man. Hoseok could see the street dance influences in his fluid movements, and how he smirked and winked at the team leaders. At least he wouldn’t need to be taught what to do for the stage presence.
“Thank you all for coming tonight,” Jaebum said after the last group finished and the applause was over. “Our first official meeting will be Saturday at three, with the options to go to the ice breaker afterwards. We’ll be dividing you into the dance groups on Saturday, so please don’t be late.”
He looked down at Hoseok, who scrambled to remember what he was supposed to say. “Uh, yeah, don’t be late,” he said lamely, causing laughter amongst the first years. “If you guys have any questions, feel free and find us on campus. We don’t bite.”
“Hard,” Jimin drawled.
Hoseok watched Jungkook as they filed out, handing over the numbers as they walked past Nayeon. She kept a smile on her face as some of the braver first years tried to strike up a conversation with her, but she skillfully got them to leave without insulting them.
Jimin jabbed his elbow into Hoseok’s side. “What the fuck was that?” Jimin asked. “You’re normally not that lame.”
Hoseok yelped and flailed his hands at Jimin. The kid had been hitting the gym during the break, and his elbows got sharp. “I’m just tired, I guess,” Hoseok replied. It was a half truth, at least.
“Are you sure it wasn’t because someone caught your eye?” Taehyung asked as he packed up the camera and the laptop.
Hoseok nearly strangled Taehyung, but Jaebum and Nayeon both laughed.
“Taetae, have you ever seen Hoseok flirt with anyone on the team?” Nayeon asked, her hand on her hip.
“He didn’t even flirt with me,” Taehyung pouted. “And I’m very flirt-worthy.”
“Yes, you are, cutie,” Nayeon said. “That’s just proving my point. Hoseok doesn’t flirt with anyone on the team because he thinks it’s a god awful idea to date anyone, even though half of the team has hooked up with each other at this point.”
She looked at Jimin pointedly, who waggled his eyebrows at her suggestively. She rolled her eyes and ruffled Jimin’s hair affectionately.
“Yeah, I’m just tired,” Hoseok repeated himself as he grabbed his laptop from Taehyung. “Do you guys want to get together tomorrow for this? I have a free afternoon before we need to come back for the senior member evals, and I know Jimin has a free day.”
Jaebum nodded. “Yeah. I’ll call you when I get out of class. See you, man. Get some sleep.”
The others left shortly after Jaebum did, grumbling either about food, bed or boyfriend cuddles, leaving Hoseok to himself.
He sighed, rubbing his temples with his slender fingers.
Nayeon was right, he didn’t flirt with anyone on the team. He didn’t date anyone on the team because he was terrified about the dynamics getting ruined.
And he was afraid for himself. Hoseok always cared too much. He didn’t want someone to taint one of the things that Hoseok truly loved from school.
“Right,” he whispered to himself. “I don’t date hoobae on the dance team. I don’t.”
Then why the hell was he thinking about Jungkook?