Before the Dawn (jikook/ vminkook)

I. First sight

Taehyung caressed the cool metal focus ring of his Leica, ignoring the shouts of the crowd around him. He released the shutter with expert timing as the boys on stage lunged into a formation that Taehyung deemed interesting enough to capture. Click. He jerked the film advance lever.

Spending his Friday night photographing his school's dance showcase hadn't been his first choice of activities, but the president of yearbook had asked nicely, and Taehyung didn't have anything else to do. It wasn't like he had any friends yet. He'd only been at this school a week. And he supposed it was a good opportunity to test out the gorgeous camera his dad had sent him for his birthday.

A little part of him was starting to think that maybe the two-grand piece of metal really did make up for his dad not being able to make it home to celebrate with him. Again. He had yet to see the images it could produce, but it felt solid in his hands. Reliable, sturdy. Click.

Taehyung pulled the f-stop down to 5.6 as the stage lights lowered a bit, casting the dancers into a dim, purple haze. Click.

He had to admit, the students here really were talented. He was beginning to see why his mom fought so hard to enroll him. Maybe a school of the arts would be a better fit than the last few he'd attended. Taehyung just wasn't too sure how well he'd perform against all these kids who were basically idols in training. Well, in training to be trainees, technically. Most of them wouldn't make it that far, but still.

Taehyung's interests weren't really in the performance category, so he supposed he couldn't be compared to those students so directly. Which was a major relief. Just watching the dancers writhe and lunge around in sync like that made him feel so pitifully unskilled.

Applause erupted, and Taehyung eased the Leica away from his face, just enough to peer over the top. The group shuffled off stage, allowing a new one to fill the space.

And that was when the crowd's energy really seemed to grow, from sparks to sudden wildfire.

The six boys gave smiles to the crowd as they walked to their marks, one even giving a dramatic flying kiss to the students in the front row. While the last group had little semblance of coordination where their outfits were concerned, this new group had styled in sync, down to the last belt buckle.

They looked sharp and clean in their all-black ensemble, little flecks of silver hardware glinting under the lights. A couple of them wore harnesses, made of leather or thin silver chain.

They walked with absolute purpose and confidence in their weighty combat boots. They hardly looked like dancers. They looked like soldiers. Taehyung smirked to himself. Really stylish soldiers, maybe.

They gathered on their marks, spreading into a symmetrical formation. Their smiling faces turned stone-cold in concentration, slipping into character as their heads bowed, they stilled completely.

The crowd grew hushed in anticipation. The lights sputtered out, plunging everyone into nearly total darkness. Taehyung gripped his Leica more firmly, finger posed on the shutter release.

But when a sudden snap of bass cued the stage lights to flare once more, Taehyung found himself too distracted by the boy's sudden eruption of movement to snap a single frame. He watched in awe as they threw themselves into the steps, hypnotized.

The crowd was roaring again, and now he was beginning to see why this group was the apparent favorite. Their moves were impossibly sharp, powerful, and yet somehow so fluid and graceful. And now that the stage lights were really cranked up, he could see their faces clearly. He actually found himself a bit annoyed at how good looking they were. Their skin seemed to glow under the usually-unflattering lights, and the expressions they wore could make even the straightest boy's heart beat faster.

But there were two in particular that really caught his eye. He couldn't even pinpoint why, but he couldn't look away. Especially when they were in the center together, building off one another's energy. It was like they were made to dance together, as if their bodies had been sculpted from the same clay. Their charisma was simply staggering.

The little metal box suddenly seemed foreign in his hands, and Taehyung fumbled for the film advance. His finger settled clumsily onto the film speed dial before locating the shutter release. Click.

He was nearly breathless by the time the performance was over. He'd wandered home almost in a daze, adrenaline still pumping. He'd always loved how a good performance could do that to you. Leave you utterly senseless.

By the time he got home, his senses had returned enough for him to at least focus on developing the pictures. Taehyung hurried down to the darkroom in his basement, absently calling into the foyer that he was home as he did. Only the echo of his own voice answered him as he leapt down the stairs, two at a time.

He plugged his phone into his speaker system, and set to work. Surrounded by the steady beat and croon of Amber Run's I found, Taehyung rewound his film. He was unable to suppress a slight grin as he imagined those beautiful boys, preserved pristinely where he'd captured them. They must be spinning right now, pirouetting somewhere in that tiny roll. He sang along softly with the somber vocals as he mixed his chemicals.

The next morning when Taehyung saw the dried prints hanging along the basement wall, his heart tightened. Dark, glassy eyes stared back at him, expressions ranging from intense to downright sultry. And the occasional grin where they'd just been having too much fun to hold it in. Their bronzed skin shone over high cheekbones and sharp jaws, their foreheads glimmering with sweat.

The thought of turning his photos in to the school, only for them to be slapped onto the pages of the yearbook mildly offended him. A proper art gallery would suit them better.

Taehyung's cheeks grew warm as he realized he'd mainly just taken pictures of them, instead of including the whole group like he was supposed to. There were a small handful of photos of the full group, so those would just have to do. As for the rest... he didn't think there was any harm in just... keeping them. The school probably wouldn't have a use for them anyways.

It wasn't weird, was it? They were just pieces of his art, really. And besides, no one would know.

They were just a couple (read: many) beautiful photographs of some pretty boys. Not random boys either- performers. Lots of people had been snapping pics on their iPhones, just the same. It wasn't that deep.