Short Stories || Hyunin One Shots

The Smell of Hairspray 🌸

Hyunjin's ballet team is performing three times together with another ballet team over the weekend. To say he's both excited and nervous is an understatement. Amongst the chaos of the backstage, a curious boy catches his attention.

The sudden bump on the road made Hyunjin's eyes flutter open.

The ride almost lulled him to sleep, but the nervousness and excitement coursing in his veins kept making his body react to every sound or faintest movement. His parents were currently driving him to the second show of the weekend.

Friday had been stressfull but successfull. Now that he had the experience from the first performance, he was feeling more at ease, but he couldn't control the bubbles of anticipation from growing in his stomach.

He still had the smell of the hairspray in memory, which somehow Hyunjin grew to like since last evening.

Just as the car was entering the parking lot, Hyunjin caught sight of someone skipping towards the entry, that someone being one of the boys from the other ballet team. That same boy he kept thinking of. That same boy who was spraying too much hairspray on every dancer's hair who'd cross his path yesterday.

While Hyunjin took his bag out of the trunk, he wondered why this specific scene kept playing on repeat like a broken DVD in his head.  It wasn't even anything special, so why was Hyunjin's heart fluttering at the memory ?

Why was he remembering the exact sound of the younger's carefree laugh ? Why could he picture so precisely how his lips curled up in a stupid smile or how his eyes had filled with tiny shining stars ?

After his parents said goodbye, Hyunjin entered the changing rooms, or more like the lecture room which was attributed as their changing room, and noted that, while it seemed it had recovered from the chaos it was left in the day before, it wouldn't be like that for long.

The two teams' dancers were arriving, merily chatter emitting from them. Boys were turning on the right side and girls on the left, divided by a makeshift wall of tables and chairs stacked in the middle. Bags were thrown where there was space, dancers already changing into their first costume of the night.

The hair and makeup station was rapidly becoming a mess. Safety pins could also be found scattered in the corners, you only had to bend down to grab one if you needed to fix your fit or attach an accessory.

Hyunjin spotted the boy from before, sneackyly advancing towards the table with the bottles of hairspray.

Hyunjin smiled at the scene unfolding before his eyes, being the only witness of the trickery which would most certainly happen.

Unfortunately, the other teams's teacher, which was trying to tame a girl's rebellious spike, caught the boy's wrist just before he could catch the nearest bottle. He retreated with a disappointed look, but Hyunjin was sure he wasn't yet defeated.

-Jeongin, the audience is filling the venue, come see with me !" a friend of the boy exclaimed, effectively catching the younger's attention. 

Ah, so that's his name.

They zoomed past Hyunjin towards the backtage, the later already imagining them peaking between the heavy red curtains to see if they could spot anyone they knew while exchanging hushed comments.

Only when they disapeared was when Hyunjin realized he had been staring. His cheeks suddenly felt warm for no reason.  He clearly had some sort of admiration for this Jeongin boy and it left Hyunjin confused.

Was he envying the other one for that natural friendliness of his ? But then if it was the case, why was he feeling such a pull towards the boy, a kind of attraction to him ?