Love Me Stage Left; Soonhoon

01

18 NOVEMBER

It's stupid, really, it's idiotic how quickly Jihoon's mood can change – and for just one simple reason! Not even a good one. He just feels dumb, honestly.

But the weather is horrible and dreary today and the sky outside is grey, the wet, brown leaves blowing off their branches from the wind, and Jihoon feels awfully tired and miserable ... and then Soonyoung takes a seat beside him. He's not graceful about it – in fact, he's loud as hell and boisterous in the way he announces himself to the table – but he throws his tray down with an obnoxious clatter and beams at Jihoon, and he asks, "How's your day so far?" and Jihoon just can't help smiling up at him.

"Good, it's good."

Soonyoung is practically rattling with pent up energy, his legs bouncing up and down fast enough to make the bench under them shake. He grins, "Guess what just happened."

"What?" Joshua asks.

"No, you gotta guess ."

Minghao rolls his eyes. "We're not guessing."

"I'll guess," Seokmin offers, and Minghao tsks. "Did you, uh ... Did you drop your phone in the toilet again?" Jihoon snorts, and Soonyoung's expression goes flat.

"You think I'd be this happy if that was the case?"

"I can never really tell with you, actually."

Jihoon nudges him, and his voice comes out sounding gruff despite his smile. "What happened?"

As if for dramatic effect, Soonyoung pauses, looking up and down the table, before telling them, "Yours truly has just been given the main role in the school's production of Grease . Yes, I'm playing a white boy, and yes, my name is Danny. If you laugh I'll kick you." Still, Vernon laughs.

Jihoon laughs, too. He says something like How is someone like you going to play a 70s greaser?, but he can't help swooning a little – just a little, like, a teeny tiny bit – because of course Soonyoung got the role. With the way he acts, with his passion and his energy, who else could it have been?

It's one of the things he admires most about Soonyoung: his absolute dedication to the things he loves. And Soonyoung's been doing theatre since middle school. That's just about six years that Jihoon has spent watching his best friend act from the sidelines, taking on the role of stage manager himself. He's not so keen on being the center of attention as he is helping out behind the scenes, and he likes being able to stand off to the side of the stage and watch Soonyoung fall into his role so naturally. He's always wonderful, but the way he radiates pride and happiness when he performs is something Jihoon will never get over.

Obviously, though, he'd never say any of that out loud. Definitely not.

When the table settles a little, after a discussion on who got what roles (Seungkwan as Sonny, Seokmin as Doody, Chan as Putzie, and Junhui as Kenickie – what Jihoon thinks has got to be the most chaotic casting of the T-Birds in the history of Grease performances), and a strong warning from Seungkwan to Vernon ("If you pull some disco shit with the lights again this year I will actually put you on PDA probation"), Minghao coughs to grab their attention.

"You guys heard about the funding situation, didn't you?" A quick glance around the table tells Jihoon that no, actually, most of them haven't. Only Mingyu and Jun nod their heads.