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“You can't choreograph them into loving each other.” Jihoon said. He was sprawled on the top bunk of the dormitories, Soonyoung lying next to him. The rest of Seventeen had already gone to sleep, but the composer and the choreographer lay awake together.
Soonyoung had a suspicious smile on his face, “Or can I?”
Jihoon sighed and looked up at his boyfriend, “You can’t .”
“I don't have to choreograph them into loving each other. They already do. I just have to get them to confess .”
Jihoon rolled his eyes and said, “Fine. You can't choreograph them into confessing .”
“Wanna bet?” Soonyoung asked, wiggling his eyebrows.
Jihoon immediately perked up. A challenge . He couldn't say no to that. “Okay, if I'm right, I get $20.”
Soonyoung blinked, “Is that it?”
“Well I also get the satisfaction of being right.”
“If I win,” Soonyoung said, “you have to give me a kiss.”
The composer frowned, “I can do that right now.”
“Then do it.”
Jihoon blushed, realising what he had just walked into (but refused to shrink away from a challenge), and leaned forward to kiss the idiot choreographer.
Jihoon moved to pull away but Soonyoung caught him in a hug and giggled, kissing the composer again. When they weren’t in front of people, Jihoon did not bother pushing Soonyoung away. Everyone thought Jihoon hated touching, but Soonyoung knew his boyfriend liked hugs the most.
Soonyoung leaned into Jihoon. “Do you really think they won't one day have what we have?” The choreographer asked.
Jihoon shook his head. “Oh I know they're gonna end up together.” Soonyoung smiled. It seemed that his boyfriend was a fantasizer as well. “It's just I don't think your stupid plan will work. Minghao is stubborn as heck.”
Soonyoung laughed, “Maybe that's why he's so good for Jun.”
The parents of Seventeen had confronted them first, suspecting some sort of joke or goal or plan going on between their composer and choreographer.
“Okay, spill.” Jeonghan had demanded, slamming their dorm room door closed, trapping Soonyoung and Jihoon in. They hadn’t even initiated anything, and Jeonghan was already on their tracks.
Without even looking at Jeonghan, Jihoon said, “Soonyoung is trying to get Minghao and Jun to confess their love to each other.” Soonyoung glared at his boyfriend, but Jihoon only shrugged. Soonyoung sighed and explained everything to Seungcheol and Jeonghan, adding a “through the power of choreography” to the end of his explanation.
Instead of reprimanding them, Jeonghan turned to his boyfriend and said, “ See? I told you. It’s obvious there’s something going on between our Chinese members.”
“I admit defeat.” Seungcheol sighed. The leader then frowned and turned to Soonyoung, “Wait, how do you expect to use your powers to get them together?”
“I’m the performance team leader. I have a right to abuse my power.” Soonyoung assured. “You guys are gonna help, right?”
Jeonghan had an evil smile on his face, “Of course we are.”
And abuse his power he did.
There wasn’t much Soonyoung could change to the Mansae choreography now, but they had been invited to Weekly Idol, and were split off into their units. The perfect opportunity for Soonyoung.
The next activity they had to do on the show was the paper passing game. Really, it was as if fate was handing Soonyoung opportunities to get his two Chinese members together.
“We're gonna line up shortest to tallest.” The unit leader commanded, “Maknae at the end.”
“But I'm always last.” Dino complained.
“You can always stand next to me.” Soonyoung joked, framing his face.
“I'll be at the end.” He said automatically. Ah, Seventeen's poor little heterosexual and innocent Maknae.
That left Jun and Minghao to stand in the middle. Next to each other.
“Ready, start.”
Soonyoung mounted a piece of paper onto his lips. After watching the other units struggle, passing the paper from him to Minghao was easier than he had expected.
In the heat of the game, Soonyoung couldn't focus on what was going on with and next to Minghao, but a second later there was an “OHHHHHHHH” from Defconn, right when Soonyoung calculated the paper would go from Minghao's mouth to Jun's.
There hadn't been a reaction like that from any of the other passes, so Soonyoung assumed everything was going good. Of course, it wasn't as good as a real kiss, but that part would come later. Hopefully.
In April, the latest thing Jihoon had been working on was a song called “Pretty U”. Their manager had asked Soonyoung to create a slightly different choreography for each stage to appeal to fans, so he had gone straight to his boyfriend and said, “I'm gonna make Minghao jump into Jun's arms.”
“No way,” Jihoon had said, to which Soonyoung had replied, “ Yes way.”
Jihoon scoffed, “You know at this rate, you might as well just choreograph a kiss for the two of them.”
“That,” Soonyoung said, “is a really good idea.”
Jihoon looked at his idiot boyfriend, “You can’t .”
Soonyoung sighed, “Yeah, but I wish I could.”
Getting thirteen boys to learn a dance was no simple feat. Seokmin’s annoying singing didn’t help. Sure, the guy had astounding vocal chords, but having to show it off outside of the recording studio every damn day was starting to wear off on the rest of the members, aside from Seungkwan, who accompanied Seokmin’s raucous sounds with his own.
Soonyoung started talking because having all thirteen boys listening and quiet was a rare occurrence that he had to take advantage of. “This next part of the dance is going to be a little more challenging for Jun and Minghao.” He went on to explain the other members’ part before turning to the two Chinese members. “So,” The choreographer said, “Minghao, here you are going to run, and Jun is standing over here so you have to jump into his arms.”
“I object.” Minghao said, automatically raising his hand.
“Same here.” Followed Jun.
Soonyoung knew something like this would happen. “Aish, you guys, it's not like I'm making you kiss.” Soonyoung said, to which both Jun and Minghao began blushing.
Soonyoung made eye contact with Jihoon for a moment, and he was rolling his eyes but still smiling, understanding the reference the choreographer had made to their conversation last night.
“But I have weak arms.” Jun complained.
“Remember when you picked up Minghao when Jeonghan couldn’t?” Soonyoung countered.
“I’m not the lightest member here.” Minghao stated, “I’m going to squash him.”
Soonyoung had thought of a comeback to this argument as well. “You’re like, hella skinny. And you’re the only one here who can jump that high.”
“It’s not that high,” Minghao argued.
Soonyoung had just run out of arguments, but then Seungcheol interjected and said, “This is going to take forever.” Soonyoung looked over at their leader, who in turn gave him a thumbs up and mouthed “this is gonna work”.
Reluctantly, both Jun and Minghao agreed to comply to their choreographers ideas for time and convenience sake.
“Okay let’s get this part over once,” the choreographer instructed, “5,6,7,8…”
They started the dance from the center to end of the song, and the first time the Chinese members tried it, they got the jumping-into-arms move perfectly.
“From the beginning, now.” Seungcheol said. The members got into ready position and the music started playing. Everything was going smoothly, and Soonyoung had been focusing on his own part of the dance. So far he hadn’t bumped into anyone, so that was a good sign.
The chorus came again, and it was near the end of the song. Then there was a crashing sound and a huge thump.
Soonyoung turned around to find Minghao on the ground and Jun sprawled over him. “Ow.” Jun groaned.
The younger Chinese member frowned and said, “Ya, why are you complaining? You fell on top of me.”
They were in a compromising position and the rest of the members were silently giggling. Mingyu said, “Yeah, get some!” Earning a slap across the shoulder from Wonwoo.
Minghao shoved Jun off of him and Soonyoung saw that the younger Chinese member’s face was red. The choreographer went up to them and asked, “Hey, are you guys okay?”
Minghao disliked the sympathy and said, “Yeah, let’s try it again.”
When they performed on stage, everything went perfectly. It was amazing , if the choreographer didn't say so himself, his favorite part coming from the two Chinese members.
But it wasn't enough to get them to confess. Yet.
On June 8th, Soonyoung bound up to Jihoon and said, “I need you to write them a duet.”
The composer looked up at him, “What?”
Soonyoung gave his boyfriend the puppy eyes. “Just put their lines together. For me.” He pleaded.
“Their lines, are already together. In Aju Nice.”
Soonyoung lit up, “Really?”
“Yeah.” Jihoon tried to play it off as a coincidence, but Soonyoung saw his boyfriend’s proud smile.
“You did it on purpose, didn’t you?” he asked.
Jihoon tilted his head and took a sip of his tea, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
With Jihoon's help, the choreography turned out perfect . There was one part where Jun came up and put an arm around Minghao.
Afterwards, Soonyoung had said to Jihoon, “They look like boyfriends.”
The manager came in that day to give pointers on the choreography, and a few members took the time when attention wasn't directed on them to rest. Jun was one of them.
Soonyoung practically slid into the empty spot next to the eldest Chinese member where he was sitting on the floor. Jun, however, had his eyes on someone else. Soonyoung followed his gaze. Minghao.
Jun was watching Minghao dance.
“Whatcha doing?” Soonyoung asked.
Jun looked startled for a second to see Soonyoung next to him, as if he had just noticed his unit leader was there. “Sitting.”
“Ah, you don't even look tired!” Soonyoung exclaimed.
“But I'm sweating.” Jun complained, and leaned into Soonyoung.
“STOP RUBBING YOUR SWEAT ALL OVER ME.” Soonyoung joked. In turn, Jun laid his head onto the choreographer.
The choreographer pointed his finger to where Jun was already looking, “Minghao's really good.”
“Yeah,” Jun agreed, “He's been working super hard lately. Doesn't he look cute?”
“Yeah.”
Jun laughed, “But he's totally not.”
Soonyoung took a moment to observe the way Jun was intensely staring at Minghao, not to mention the fond tone in Jun's voice when he retold the tale of how the other Chinese member had nearly decapitated him “on accident” yesterday.
Yeah, Jun was so in love.
It was July of 2017 when Jihoon said, “Hey, Soonyoung.” Soonyoung looked over to his boyfriend, who had a wide grin on his face. “So Minghao came over to talk to me about his song, right?”
“Mhm.” Soonyoung already knew their youngest Chinese member had taken up composing.
“He’s making it a duet,” Jihoon paused, “with Jun.”
Soonyoung squealed, “Oh my Jisoos, yesss!”
“They're calling it My I.” Jihoon added.
“What does that mean?”
“Google translate it.” The composer said, and Soonyoung did, and he squealed. My Love .
As expected, a couple weeks later, Jun and Minghao had come to Soonyoung for help on creating a choreography for their song.
“We decided we're gonna use a string.” Minghao told the choreographer.
Soonyoung tilted his head to the side in question, “Why? Like, it's cool and stuff and I really like they idea, but why ?”
“There's an old Chinese soulmate story…” Minghao seemed nervous about sharing his ideas. “It's about this red string that connects soulmates."
“But we're using a white string for aesthetic purposes.” Jun added.
Soonyoung grinned. Soulmates . Interesting concept for the two of them to choose. The choreographer rubbed his hands together, “Well, do I have some ideas for you!” He said excitedly.
The next day the three of them, Jun, Minghao and Soonyoung, met in the dance studio to go over the choreography. The two Chinese members had already gotten a good amount of moves down, but there were still blank spots that needed to be filled in.
In the next week, the choreography was finished, and they were ready to run through the entire song, costumes and all.
The music wove through the room and the boys began dancing. They'd practiced how to look dramatic, how to manipulate their eyes so that it enhanced the performance. Dancing was only half of the components needed in choreography, the other half was based solely on the performance of emotion.
The Chinese members had no problem expressing their emotion, until the part where Jun carressed Minghao.
“Eyes.” Soonyoung reminded. Supposedly, they were to look into each other's eyes. Here, however, Jun was clearly avoiding Minghao's gaze, and instead looking off to the side.
“Oh, yeah, sorry.” Jun mumbled, but they continued dancing, and Jun continued avoiding Minghao's eye contact.
The choreographer pulled Jun to the side after they had finished practicing. “Hey, you good?”
Jun swallowed a large mouthful of water and said, “Yeah, why?”
Soonyoung wasn't so sure. “Are you uncomfortable with the choreography?”
Jun hesitated before saying an uncertain, “...No”.
“Don't forget to maintain eye contact with your partner, okay? It's the most important part.”
“Soonyoung,” there was something hesitant about Jun's voice, “I don't think I can do that.”
“It's just Minghao. Why not?”
“It's just that his eyes are so intense , especially when he's performing. And like…” Jun groaned, blushing.
Ohhhhhhhh , Soonyoung realized the problem now. Jun was nervous around Minghao .
The choreographer remembered a time when he was trying to woo a composer. Jihoon had seemed so intimidating back then, and Soonyoung could barely hold eye contact with him for more than a few seconds. Only after a couple weeks of dating did Soonyoung find it comfortable to study Jihoon's eyes. And he did. A lot. The composer's eyes were such a rich and pretty color.
“Awww,” Soonyoung said, patting Jun's back.
Jun buried his face in his hands. “You won't tell him… Right?”
Soonyoung made a motion of zipping his lips and throwing away the key. “For now,” the choreographer said, “you can just look a little to the right, and pretend like you're thinking. But still practice, practice, practice.”
Jun looked at Soonyoung gratefully, “Thank you.”
A few days later, Soonyoung was still thinking about his conversation with Jun. He thought it was cute that Jun got nervous around Minghao. It was obvious Jun was in love with Minghao, but it wasn't as easy to tell if Jun's feelings we're reciprocated.
Soonyoung had picked up small actions from Minghao that showed the younger Chinese boy cared for the elder, but now he was sure .
“Oh my Jisoos Christ,” Soonyoung said to his boyfriend, who he found writing inside of the recording studio, “So Jeonghan told me that Minghao told Mingyu who told Wonwoo who said it too loudly and caused Vernon to hear it who accidentally told Seungcheol told him that he really liked Jun, like in a more-than-friends way!”
Jihoon blinked. “You know you really can't trust anyone with a secret here.”
“Yeah,” Soonyoung agreed, “But that's not the point. Minghao doesn't know that I know. And you're not gonna tell anyone, and no one's gonna tell Jun, got it?”
“But isn't the whole point to get them together?” The Composer asked.
Soonyoung sighed, “Ugh, you're no good with romance. Does it make sense for me to confess Minghao's love for Jun, for him ?”
“Okay, that's fair enough. So then what are you going to do with this information?”
“Watch it play out. Maybe meddle with it a bit more.”
Jihoon nodded thoughtfully, “You know it's been nearly two years since your plan first started?”
“Well it better start working soon.” Soonyoung laughed.
They started making their way towards the dance studio and Jihoon asked, “Aren't Jun and Minghao practicing My I in there?”
Soonyoung shrugged, “I don't know, but I haven't seen the precious room for days so I wanna go.” The studio was like Soonyoung's second home.
They got to the door of the dance studio, and Soonyoung pushed it open. The floors had been thoroughly cleaned yesterday, and Soonyoung hadn't been allowed to step inside it for an entire 24 hours. He was looking forward to dancing again.
Suddenly, Jihoon stopped dead in his tracks. Soonyoung bumped into him and was about to say, “Ow, what?” until he too was seeing what the composer was seeing.
In one corner of the room, two people attached by a white string were kissing, the black and white color of their clothes intertwined.
Jun and Minghao.
Jihoon turned to find his boyfriend waving his arms around and mouthing “OH SHIT”.
The two Chinese members did not notice the composer and choreographer standing at the doorway, and apparently did not hear the door slam shut afterwards.
“It worked!” Soonyoung squealed at his boyfriend, once the doors were closed behind them and Jun and Minghao couldn't be disturbed by a certain choreographer's overdramatic displays of excitement. “My plan worked!”
“Fine, you were right.” Jihoon grumbled, and gave the idiot choreographer a short kiss on the lips. “Now let's go.”
“Aw but I wanna watch. I worked really hard on this ya know.” Soonyoung joked sarcastically.
Jihoon rolled his eyes and dragged his boyfriend away, letting the two Chinese members “practice” in private.