try-hard •sunki au•

seventeen

There was nothing else to do.

Riki's small mistake in dancing kept irking Sunoo's patience. It was just one beat that he kept on missing while practicing for the whole chorus part of the song.

He's been watching it for almost an hour after they got here on the apartment.

The place are a lot more spacious even after having four people living in there. The place screams luxury for its high-class furnitures and million-worth paintings. Sunoo feels a little ashamed to come inside wearing the winter clothes he just stole from Jungwon's closet.

“Five, six, seven,” Sunoo counted when it was near the part where Riki made mistake.

But instead of dancing it right, Riki stopped moving and just stared at him.

“What?” Sunoo asked, “I was just helping you get the right beat.”

“I thought you said you don't dance?” Riki asked confused.

“I don't dance but that does not mean I don't know how to dance,” Sunoo said.

“So, you dance?”

Sunoo stared at Riki, quite amused. He didn't know if he lacks understanding or he's just annoying. Maybe both.

“I did dancing in middle school,” Sunoo confessed.

“Why'd you stop?”

Sunoo only shrugged. Riki's persistence to know everything is something else. Why does he need to ask about everything?

“Can you show me?” Riki asked.

Riki walks closer to him, pulling him up until he stood on his own feet from the bean bag he was sitting at. Sunoo reluctantly followed Riki on the middle of the room, looking around as if forgetting there were only the two of them inside the apartment.

+++

Riki notices it again.

“There's only the two of us here,” Riki said, assuring the obviously conscious sophomore.

He saw how Sunoo takes a deep breath, gripping into Riki's finger a little tighter.

“Were you afraid of people or something?” Riki couldn't help but ask.

Sunoo didn't answer his question as he let go of his finger and started warming up his lower body.

“Teach me the steps of that song you were dancing,” Sunoo said after a while.

Riki let a smile of contentment rest on his lips as he obidiently followed Sunoo's request. It only took Sunoo seven tries and half an hour to memorize the steps.

“Okay, I get it now,” Sunoo said after Riki corrected his mistake on the first part.

Riki sat on the bean bag as he played the song again, his eyes never leaving the sophomore.

There was something about Sunoo's grooves that made Riki stare at him a little more deep. He kept getting flashbacks of the street dancer in his middle school. He and Sunoo have something in similar and Riki can't point it out. The only difference is that the street dancer wore an addicting smile while performing.

Sunoo, though, is really good at dancing but he lacks confidence. It's obvious that he's hesitating to give his everything, and Riki wanted to see him giving his best.

Riki blinks when he realized Sunoo have already stopped dancing.

“Can I now sit back?” Sunoo asked, brushing his hair out of his face.

Riki nods, standing up from the bean bag.

“You also missed the beat on first verse, but it's good,” Riki said. “It's out of the blue, but can I ask if you did street dancing in middle school?”

Riki notices the flash of hesitation in Sunoo's eyes.

+++

Can he recognize me? Sunoo thought, avoiding any eye contact from Riki.

“I...” Sunoo said, thinking of a way to get himself out of the hot seat. “I was about to say you can't but you already asked.”

+++

It was him. Riki believed it was him. He might have a blurry image of the street dancer's face in his mind, Riki can never forget the way his body swayed effortlessly on the rhythm of music. Although Sunoo dances with less confidence, he has that same perfect groove.

After almost four years, he have finally known his name. Sunoo.

He didn't push the topic further knowing all too well that Sunoo would just deny all the obvious facts.

Riki might not know why Sunoo choose to hide his past life, but he knew how to respect that. He is already contented that Sunoo and him have somehow managed to get closer together.

He just hoped it will last. Although he have a doubt that Sunoo will start ignoring him again when the class starts.

Although multiple question kept bothering Riki... what happened to the addicting smile he always wore? How did he lost so much confidence? Why did he stopped dancing?

tengyu_