all jung wooyoung ever wanted was to go about life like he always did, and that worked for him; until the top-tier celebrity choi san was in the picture, that is.
but there was a catch; wooyoung was his anti-fan.
start: august 9, 2023
end: septembe...
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after his few hours of rampage that initiated the previous evening and lasted well into the night until he relieved all his anger with the help of his best friend, wooyoung went to bed and got a good night's sleep. getting all that rage and hatred out of his system took a significantly heavy weight off of him. of course, it was all thanks to yeosang that wooyoung could perform efficiently at work.
this time, he was truly hellbent, not just on avoiding choi san, but denying his very existence overall. he could just pretend he was never there and move on with his everyday life until san was gone, for good. and, he was almost confident he could succeed in this little mission, considering how not a single one of his billion thoughts consisted of choi san anymore; not even his subconscious thoughts.
"no, jungwon, you're not getting it right," wooyoung breathed out and paused to turn around. "joong, can you pause the music for a bit?" he signaled to hongjoong, who complied and leaned against the wall, taking heavy breaths.
wooyoung then proceeded to approach jungwon, a slightly taller young boy who was an idol trainee. "your leg movements are all over the place. at the beginning of the chorus, everyone moves their right leg to the front. but you keep pulling yours back."
"oh, okay. got it. i'm sorry." the younger boy had responded. it was hard to miss the anxiety that was etched in his face, and even harder to miss the heavy traces of it in his tone. of course, being an idol trainee wasn't for the weak. it meant hours and hours of practice and turmoil, so wooyoung could see why so many youngster trainees gave up on their dreams before they even made their debut.
to somewhat balance their struggle, wooyoung always spoke to his trainees in a more understanding tone. but of course, not everyone had a heart as empathetic as wooyoung's.
"hey, get it right for once, you moron. we can't go past this step because of you." a much taller boy, niki, grumbled.
"you know i'm giving my best like everyone else here, right?" jungwon mumbled under his breath, moving back into position.
"well it's clearly not good enough," he retorted, deadpanning at the shorter.
wooyoung disrupted the feud with two claps. "alright, alright, everybody get back into place. let's start from the beginning now." he shouted and hongjoong started the music again, taking his place next to wooyoung and jongho.
training newbies to do choreographies above their level was not the only hard part of his job. it wasn't uncommon that a trainee group had a few members that absolutely despised each other. situations like that only made wooyoung's work more difficult and since they were so young and simple minded, they never realized that their negative emotions for each other hindered the progress of the rest of the group as well.
but wooyoung was only a choreographer. his job only went as far as teaching them how to dance, not how to behave. not like he wanted to interfere, anyways. it just slightly bothered him, but he kept it to himself because, well, they were just kids.
"okay, stop." hongjoong called out and signaled with his hand this time and wooyoung placed his hands on his hips, watching as hongjoong approached niki. "niki, you're messing up your hand placements. you've been doing that for half of all our practices on this song, but you know you really can't afford to make a single mistake when the group is ready to go on stage. you need to be perfect, okay?"
"now who's the one messing with our progress?" jungwon muttered, side-eyeing niki.
"the fuck did you say?" niki snapped, pushing jungwon back by the chest.
"hey, watch your language." jongho interfered, trying to tear the two apart but to no avail. wooyoung sighed as he watched the two boys push each other back and forth and make petty comments at each other.
"alright, okay," wooyoung barged in, hand on both of the boy's chests to hold them away before they go for each other's throats. "let's take a break. clear your mind and relax, or whatever, and come back in half an hour."
the two boys were the first to leave, taking angry strides. the other members mumbled soft apologies to the choreographers on behalf of the troublemaker duo before silently scurrying out of the studio.
once it was just the three professional dancers in the studio, they all let out huge sighs of defeat and annoyance before falling to the ground, close-by each other. wooyoung stared at the ceiling, panting heavily.
"i should have become a doctor like my mom wanted me to," jungho huffed out, "this shit is deadly to my cortisol levels."
"5 year old kids are easier to manage than a group of teens." hongjoong continued on jongho's struggle.
"i think we'll have to speak to their manager," wooyoung reasoned. "those two boys are getting out of hand."
jongho aggressively nodded in agreement, sitting up. "they've been fighting like this since their very first lesson! joong, can't you talk it out with their manager?"
after a moment of silence to think it through, hongjoong finally spoke. "nah," he declared. "they'll figure it out on their own. they have to. if their manager tells them to hold it off instead of them fixing their issues on their own, then it's going to fuck with their performance and success even after their debut."
jongho groaned in defeat and fell back. wooyoung didn't really see where hongjoong was coming from, but whatever hongjoong said was always right, so he just went with it instead of arguing. hongjoong was wise; he would always tread carefully around issues and act upon them smartly. he was very much unlike wooyoung, who never thought before acting and always did things impulsively. as for the consequences, he would deal with them with his fist, of course.
"are you sure we shouldn't intervene, though? i feel like they're sucking the life out of me." jongho whined.
hongjoong chuckled in response. "they're just kids, you know. besides, love starts with hate sometimes. and there's a very thin line between love and hate." he lectured. "they'll learn to love and respect each other as fellow members, and as friends, in due time."
wooyoung thought deeply about that. was it really possible for love to stem from hatred?
maybe not always. everybody felt varying intensities of hatred for different people. you could never hate two people the same. some people, you despise more than others. isn't it impossible, in that case, to ever feel a positive emotion towards them? you could learn to compromise and tolerate your ill feelings, but there's no chance you'd ever learn to love them. maybe the reason wooyoung so strongly disagreed was because he'd never felt that way for anyone. he limited his feelings towards people; he either despised them, couldn't bother to care about them, or just adored them. it was better than complicating everything for no reason.
but hongjoong was right in his idea about the teenage boys. first, they'd learn to compromise, and then they'd grow to love each other. it's not like they had any other choice, anyways. and in the end, they wouldn't be able to recall the hatred they had for each other.
