apartment block 17

[ 084 ]

apartment #811
lee jihoon, kwon soonyoung

seokmin left sometime later, and soonyoung knocked on jihoon's door softly.

"what is it?" jihoon groaned, rolling over in bed but not making an effort to get up. soonyoung cracked the door open, letting eye-searing light into the room.

"i was just wondering what you wanted for dinner," soonyoung said with a soft smile. it was so unfair that soonyoung could get away with anything with just a smile. "i'm probably gonna head over to the mall, so tell me what you want!"

jihoon sat up, which took way too much effort. "i don't really care. i'm not that hungry."

soonyoung sat on jihoon's bed, crossing his legs comfortably. "you need to eat, jihoonie! i don't know about you, but i was feeling like pizza..."

jihoon smiled weirdly and said, "then let's get pizza for dinner! i'll pay."

soonyoung squinted and poked jihoon's stomach. jihoon flinched back, but otherwise didn't make any other retorts. "it feels like you. it sounds like you," soonyoung leant forward slightly and took a big whiff of the air near jihoon, "smells like you, too."

"what?"

"you're..." soonyoung stuttered, "acting kind of weird. i thought someone else was pretending to be you or something."

"what?" jihoon repeated, clearly unable to say anything else. he shifted his position on the bed to face soonyoung. "what do you mean?"

"like... lately you've been so nice and you never scold me for anything," soonyoung began uncertainly, "you don't cringe when i compliment you... and you even... compliment me. more than usual!" he added the last bit in a hurry before jihoon misunderstood.

"um... and that's a bad thing?"

soonyoung stared for a while. it was rare that someone as loud and bubbly as him got rendered speechless, but this was what he believed to be the lee jihoon effect.

back before soonyoung met jihoon, he was a stressed teenager struggling to decide what to do for his future. he had an important dance competition coming up and he was completely out of it, suffering from what he decided to call 'choreographers' block'. if writers could get writers' block, then choreographers should have an equal term, he thought.

the pressure of success and the added stress from his parents asking him to pick something more practical than dance as a future career became too much for him, and he ended up dropping out of the competition right before the final round.

practically everyone at school had encouraged him. his friends and teachers at the time had nothing but praise for soonyoung. to them, he was the great kwon soonyoung, a genius choreographer and dance extraordinaire. but soonyoung was human. it sounds good to have so much support behind your back, but that support and the expectations that came along with it ultimately pressured soonyoung to his breaking point.

but that was when jihoon came along.

while everyone around him said, "you can do it, you're kwon soonyoung!", jihoon would say things like, "did you really think that move would match that beat?" jihoon was blunt, critical, and rather harsh in everything he said, but he was the only person who ever helped soonyoung improve.

in slightly over-exaggerated words, soonyoung idolised jihoon. jihoon gave him the motivation to improve his dancing and continue it on as a career. it was jihoon's idea to start teaching dance lessons at rock studio, and it was always jihoon who critiqued his choreography which allowed him to take it to another level he would've never achieved by himself. what soonyoung had needed his entire life was for someone to push him. someone with a different personality who could bring out the best in him.