#i got rejected from a job again today. you'd think it gets easier after you stop counting how many times its happened cause its so often

[the-kipsabian]

life is like

extremely vague gestures

[starlit-serenade]

Dance With Me | Chapter 7

💙 Summary: After visiting the members of ONEUS during their dance practice, you find yourself inspired to learn to dance. You ask your friend Kim Geonhak to teach you.

💙 Chapter 7: 2,479 words

💙 Pairing: Reader X Kim Geonhak/Leedo / Characters: GenderNeutral!Reader; Kim Geonhak/Leedo; Son Dongju/Xion; Yeo Hwanwoong/Hwanwoong; Lee Keonhee/Keonhee; Lee Seoho/Seoho; Kim Youngjo/Ravn;

💙 Rated: T for some minor swearing / Warnings: Minor Swearing; Jealousy (Later in the fic) / Genre: Fluff; Minor Angst (Later in the fic); Friends-To-Lovers; Happy Ending;

《 Series Masterlist // ONEUS Masterlist // Boy Group Masterlist 》

You carry a plastic bag with you as you head into the RBW building. You hadn't told the members that you were coming, hoping to surprise them after a long week of practice. It's been a few days since Geonhak's birthday, a busy yet fun day. At some point, later at night after dinner, Geonhak had pulled you aside to talk about learning the next song--Twilight--and in your excitement, you wanted to come to practice early.

A trainee in the hallway nods to you. You've spent enough time here that you know most of everyone at RBW. You're friends with ONEUS and ONEWE. You're close with quite a few of the trainees, and you've even met the members of MAMAMOO.

You stop in front of the practice room again. The music is playing gently in the background, but instead of being accompanied by the sounds of dancing footsteps, it's accompanied by laughter and chatter.

You place your hand on the doorknob and poke your head in. The six members are sitting in a circle, chatting about who knows what. Something about a new song or something.

"Hello?" you say, knocking on the doorframe. They look over at you, and you hold out the bag of food. "I got you guys some food, if you guys want it."

"Y/N!"

Dongju runs to you, and you expect a hug. Instead, he takes the bag of food from your hand and sits back down in his spot between Keonhee and Hwanwoong, and the three start digging through the bag.

"Wow, I thought you'd be happy to see me, not the food," you say, laughing. Geonhak, across the circle, scoots aside and beckons you to come sit in the newly made spot between him and Youngjo. You do, and smile over at him.

"Excited for practice today?" he asks quietly, smiling widely. "You've got Lit all the way done. And Valkyrie is most of the way there. We should be able to start with Twilight today."

You clap gently, very excited. Geonhak chuckles and smiles his cute, nose-scrunchy smile.

"Geonhak," Keonhe says. "Come with me to finish heating the food."

Geonhak sighs, before getting up.

"I'm excited for this afternoon," you say to him as he leaves.

Hwanwoong looks up from the takeout in his hands, from the other side of the circle. "What's going on this afternoon?"

"Oh, I'm gonna start learning Twilight with Geonhak."

"Oh right! I forgot you're dancing with Geonhak. How's that going?" Hwanwoong asks excitedly. "What have you learned so far, Y/Nie?"

"Geonhak has taught me A Song Written Easily, Lit, and I'm almost done learning Valkyrie."

"Oh?" Youngjo asks. "You should show us what you have done for A Song Written Easily. Let's see how good of a teacher Geonhak is."

You stand up, and Seoho plays the song from his phone. You start dancing along with the music, recalling Geonhak's movements as you watch yourself in the mirror. The members in the room--Yongjo, Seoho, Hwanwoong and Dongju--clap and cheer you on.

Once you finish, you bow as they applaud you.

"That was great," Hwanwoong says. "Geonhak's a good teacher, hm?"

"Yes, he is."

"I'm not surprised. And it shows. You dance like you've been doing it for a long time," Hwanwoong says.

"You said you're working on Valkyrie?" Seoho says. You nod. "Why don't you show us, and we give you some pointers?"

"Alright."

You dance as Seoho plays the song from his phone.

"At that part," Hwanwoong says. "You should bend your front knee more. It'll make it easier to move on to the next part."

You nod, continuing the dance.

As you reach the end of the song, your right hand stretched upward, the members clap for you. You sit back down, smiling from all of the attention.

"So, how'd you manage to get Geonhak to teach you right before our comeback?" Hwanwoong asks.

"What do you mean?"

"I'm just curious about how you got Geonhak to teach you," Hwanwoong says, eyebrow raised.

"Well," you say, "I asked Geonhak because I was too nervous to ask you, actually."

"What? We're friends, aren't we?"

"Yes, but back then we weren't as close as we are now." You laugh at the thought. "But now we're much closer."

"Hey, I'm still open to teaching you if you're interested, Y/N," Hwanwoong says. You open your mouth. Would it be rude to reject him?

But Geonhak is already teaching you.

The sound of a door closing echoes through the room, but you're too focused on the conversation to notice it.

Suddenly, Dongju smacks Hwanwoong's arm and whispers something in his ear. Hwanwoong looks from the door to you.

"Or not. Geonhak seems to be doing a great job at teaching you already, you know," he says quickly. You nod.

"Yeah. Thanks for the offer, though."

Keonhee walks over and hands out the snacks, small tubs of food. He hands you one and you frown.

"Where's Geonhak?" you ask Keonhee.

"He said he was going to the restroom," Keonhee says. He seems to want to say more, but doesnt.

As the ONEUS practice comes to a close, Geonhak doesn't appear. You ask Youngjo, and he seems as concerned as you. The rest of the members pack up to go to their respective spaces after practice ends. Youngjo heads to the studio, and Hwanwoong, Dongju and Keonhee pack up to head to the dorm. Geonhak is nowhere to be found.

Seoho taps your shoulder.

"If Geonhak doesn't show up," he says, "I'll be two rooms down, and Youngjo is in the studio. If you need either of us, feel free to interrupt either of us. Okay?"

"Thank you," you say. He waves goodbye and leaves the room. You're left alone in the practice room.

You pace back and forth. You still have ten minutes until your practice technically starts. Perhaps he went to get an extra snack for the two of you. Maybe he had to get something from the dorm.

But as the minutes pass, you remain alone in the practice room. Five minutes, then ten minutes past the start of your practice together, you're sitting with your back against the wall.

You take out your phone and call Geonhak. He doesn't pick up. You call again, and he doesn't pick up. The third time you call, the phone rings for a long time, and just as you're about to hang up, the other end picks up.

"Hello?" Geonhak's voice is muffled by the phone, but you'd recognize his voice anywhere.

"Geonhak," you say, breathless with stress yet relieved that he picked up. "Where the hell are you? Our practice started ten minutes ago."

There's a long pause. Or at least, it feels long. "Why don't you ask Hwanwoong to teach you?"

"What?" You pause for a moment, trying to figure out what's going on. "Geonhak . . ."

"You know what? I'm feeling a bit sick, I'm going to hang up. Bye."

He hangs up, and you're left alone in your thoughts.

What the hell?

You want to curl up. What is all this about? Geonhak is obviously mad at you for something, but as you think through the day, nothing comes up.

You sniff and wipe your eyes. Your hand comes away wet, and you realize that you're crying.

You stand up, sniffling, and sluggishly make your way out of the practice room, down the hall, and knock on the door to your right. The door to the studio opens up, and Seoho is standing beside the door, hand on the doorknob. Further into the room, Youngjo is sitting in front of the computer. 

"Y/N?" Youngjo asks, leaning away from the computer. "Are you okay? Aren't you in practice with Geonhak?"

You look between them, and Seoho's face falls. He can tell from the sullen look on your face. You two might not be super close, but he still knows you.

"He didn't come," Seoho concludes. His voice sounds as sad as yours. He opens his arms. "Come here."

You hug him, and for some reason, you're crying into Seoho's chest. You don't see Youngjo and Seoho exchange worried glances.

"Do you want to sit down, Y/Nie?" Seoho asks, gesturing to the chairs against the back wall. You nod and sit with him. He hugs you and pats your back gently.

You hear clicking and look up. Youngjo is pressing things on his phone furiously.

"What are you doing?" you ask.

"Calling Geonhak."

You stare at him as he holds his phone to his ear.

"Geonhak, where are you?" he scolds into the phone. There's a pause. "Y/N is waiting for you, why aren't you here? You need to come back. No  Geon--Geonhak! You can't just do that to them." He pauses, and then his voice softens. "They're in the studio with me and Seoho. Geonhak, what's going on with you? Geonhak!"

He takes his phone away from his ear and sighs.

"Youngjo . . . what'd he say?" you ask.

"He told me he's at the dorm. He's not coming back. He didn't say why."

You nod. At this point, you just want to know why Geonhak isn't here. Why he's mad at you like this. You two have argued before, you've been friends for years. So what could you have possibly done to make him suddenly leave you?

Or is this him getting back at you for the one time you left him during practice, because he got too close to you?

"That stubborn kid . . ." Youngjo looks at you and pauses. "The youngest three should be at the dorm by now. I'll ask Keonhee to check on him."

He types a text to Keonhee, then sets his phone aside. He turns his chair to face you.

"Are you okay, Y/N?" he asks gently. "I know these practices mean a lot to you. They mean a lot to Geonhak, too. I don't know what's wrong, but it's not your fault, okay?"

"Thank you, Youngjo. And Seoho," you say. "I don't know why he's upset at all. I think I did something but K don't know what."

"Wait, wait," Seoho says, thinking. "Geonhak disappeared right after you brought us snacks. You only saw him for a bit before he went to help Keonhee with the snacks, before he left. What could have happened in that time?"

You shake your head. You don't know.

Suddenly, Youngjo's phone rings. He picks it up quickly.

"Hello? Ah, Keonhee. He won't? What's he--oh. Please keep us updated, Okay Keonhee? Thank you." He pauses and whispers to you. "Geonhak won't say anything to them. He barely said hello when they walked into the room."

You want to find it comforting. That you're not the only one he's ignoring. You want to think that he might be mad at someone else, one of the members, but not you. But you have a feeling, deep down, that it has something to do with you.

"Y/Nie," Seoho says. "If you want, you can stay here. We'll walk you home after we finish, okay?"

"Okay," you say.

Geonhak sits on his bed, phone in hand. He's watching music videos, listening to music, playing games, anything. Anything to distract him from you. But he can't help but think back to only a few hours ago at the end of the ONEUS practice.

He was so excited to teach you today. He'd practiced extra this morning, redoing the Twilight choreography a few times and figuring out the little things like positioning.

He was elated to see you come in early. He couldn't help but smile when he saw you, both in general and today.

When he had walked back into the room to hand out some of the snacks, he saw you talking to Hwanwoong.

"I asked Geonhak because I was too nervous to ask you, actually," he had heard you say through the crack in the door. He knew this already. You'd told him the same thing when you asked him to teach you. But he doesn't like hearing he was your second choice.

"What? We're friends, aren't we?" he had heard Hwanwoong say.

"Yes, but back then we weren't as close as we are now." Geonhak heard you laugh. He loved your laugh. But he didn't want to hear you laughing with Hwanwoong. "But now we're much closer."

"Hey, I'm still open to teaching you if you're interested, Y/N," Hwanwoong had said. Geonhak froze. Now that you and Hwanwoong were close, there was no need for you to reject him. After all, he was the main dancer.

Geonhak loved teaching you dancing. He loved teaching and being helpful, he loved spending time with you, and this was a combination of the two. But thinking that you could always Hwanwoong teach you instead . . .

Geonhak turned around, closing the door a bit louder than he had intended, and stepped back. Keonhee had nearly walked into him.

"Aren't you going inside?" Keonhee asked, frowning.

"I, uh, yeah. Take these, please, I have to go to the restroom," Geonhak had said, handing Keonhee the food. He walked past him and headed down the hall, straight back to the dorm.

All he could think of was Hwanwoong teaching you instead of him. Hwanwoong offered to teach you, why would you refuse when the whole reason you didn't ask him in the first place was because you were too shy, and now you're closer?

"Geonhak?"

He looks over to the doorway, and Keonhee is standing there.

"Oh, you're home."

"Geonhak, are you okay? Are you feeling sick?" Keonhee asks.

He tries to think of a way to answer the question, but how to do that? No? Yes? He turns away from Keonhee.

"Let me know if you need anything."

After a moment, he hears Keonhee leave the room. He hears speaking in the other room. Dongju and Hwanwoong. Shouldn't he be glad that Hwanwoong is here instead of teaching you?

He starts to think of you again. You must be still with Youngjo and Seoho at RBW. You must be so mad at him for abandoning you before practice.

He's liked you for a long time. Long before he started teaching you dancing. He met you maybe four years ago, and he started thinking of you as more than a friend perhaps two years ago. You'd never seemed to feel the same way, and so he never acted on those feelings. But spending time with you, teaching you to dance, he thought maybe there was a chance that you might feel the same. That maybe you could be more than friends.

And then he'd heard Hwanwoong offering to teach you instead. He felt himself feeling absolutely crushed, absolutely deflated. So very jealous. He still feels that way, that he likes you so much and that to you, you're just friends.