BALANCE || Hyunlix

Chapter 5 - One, two, fall

Hyunjin was changing into sweatpants and a loose t-shirt in the dressing room when Felix came in with Jisung, whom he had left a few minutes ago at the dining table, which had been confiscated by 3RACHA – Jisung's rap group from the living room in the form of him, Chan, and Changbin.

"Oh my god, I'm not worthy of this beauty!" Jisung shouted dramatically with his hand on his forehead as if he was about to faint. Then he took out a towel from his sports bag and hit Hyunjin's butt with it. Hyunjin just looked at him in disgust.

But Felix thought that Jisung read his mind when they came into the dressing room. For how thin and tall Hyunjin was, he was also surprisingly muscular, and Felix's throat went dry for a moment when he suddenly realized what he was doing and where he was, and that it's inappropriate.

"Stop staring. He's going to think you're a pervert." He cursed at himself in his mind. If he thought yesterday that Hyunjin is a beautiful person, now he thought even more so. Yes, Felix found Hyunjin very attractive, unfortunately the topic of such attraction between two men is far more taboo in this country than it is back home in Australia. He had to come back down to earth. He preferred to sink his hands and eyes into his sports bag and began to change his clothes as well. Hyunjin was already in the dance studio.

All the classmates were now individually stretching and warming up, including Hyunjin, while the teacher chatted with them to see if anyone was sick or injured, while turning on the required audio.

Since this was a regular class where they were just practicing what they learned in theory, it was pretty boring for Hyunjin. Therefore, he could also focus on the surroundings while training a simple choreography. Instead of the usual scolding of Jisung, he watched Felix's technique closely. Unlike Hyunjin's elegant and well-calculated, Felix had a more aggressive hip-hop style. He simply had such 'swag' in him.

During the third repetition of the choreography, the teacher began to critically monitor them. She was now admonishing Jisung to pick up his pace and switch his hands properly, and she said something similar to a few others. Except for Felix.

"Lee Felix! Great job! You all should learn something from him!" The teacher praised him loudly. She rarely did that, Hyunjin was taken aback. From her point of view, it was more about the fact that she thought that Hyunjin already knew how excellent he was. But it surprised him. That was the last straw for today. Actually, instead of concentrating on his dance, he looked towards Felix at that moment, and from then on, everything went wrong.

Hyunjin's steps didn't come out right from the turn, he ran into the classmate next to him at full speed, he tripped over his own feet and fell to the ground.

He only managed to quickly stretch out his hands to avoid falling on his face. At that moment, a sharp pain shot through him from his shoulder blade to his neck. Hyunjin howled in pain, the music continued to play but everyone stopped dancing and was silent. As soon as the audio turned off, it was the longest few seconds of Hyunjin's life. This has never happened to him. It was so humiliating. He didn't fall completely to the ground, but he could feel himself falling deeper into the belief that he wasn't good enough. He felt hot tears welling up in his eyes. No, no one can see this. He must flee. And his back hurt like hell. At that moment, footsteps approached him, he didn't even have to raise his head to know who it was, because this boy is everywhere now and won't disappear.

"Are you okay?" Felix asked quickly, and he carefully wanted to give him a hand to help him to his feet.

"No! And it's your fault!" Hyunjin's usually calm mask cracked and he yelled uncontrollably at Felix. He just quickly withdrew his hand and widened his eyes in shock. Hyunjin chose an escape plan, gathered the last remains of his strength, got up and ran away. Felix was still looking in his direction when Jisung asked if he could go check on Hyunjin. The teacher nodded.

***

Felix was regretfully returning to his dorm after class. It was no wonder that people were afraid of the first days of school and work, because he did not do very well on his first day. Today he found out that his Korean is not the best, he doesn't know how he will study and he probably did something that made the top student of the class hate him. He sadly greeted his roommates - Jeongin "I.N." and Seungmin. He didn't really know the boys yet, so he didn't see any reason to confide in them about his first day, luckily they didn't even ask him. They were both great roommates in the sense that they were really respectful, proper young guys and didn't get in each other's business.

Felix would normally try to strike up a conversation with them to strengthen their relationship, but really he was just in the mood for a hot shower and a long undisturbed sleep.

But Felix didn't feel any better after the shower. He was just furiously drying his hair with a towel because he thought it would dry faster this way when he remembered Hyunjin's expression. It looked like he really hated him. Felix tried to remember if he had done or said anything to upset him. He had that last scene in his mind again.

"No! And it's your fault!" Hyunjin's voice broke in in the middle of the scream. He wanted to cry. He must have cried later. Felix was worried about him, and if Jisung hadn't asked if he could go see him, he probably would have. With these thoughts, he silently retreated to his bed and buried his face under the covers. He decided that whatever he did to him, he wouldn't try to find out anymore and he would avoid Hyunjin from tomorrow on.

***

"Hey..." Jisung tried several times to get Hyunjin to talk to him, "Aren't you finally going to tell me what's going on?" when the answer from behind the bathroom door was just another sob, he sighed in surrender.

"Seriously, not so much happened. You yourself know very well how many times I, and others, have messed up the choreography and fell. I know you just don't make any mistakes, but how else are you going to learn?" He continued to try to comfort him. But he had no idea that the source of Hyunjin's cry was not so much the fall as the fact that he was worried about his future.

"I know that sometimes I'm quite loud and I talk a lot. But you know very well that you can tell me anything, we've already yelled at each other so many times that you don't have to have any inhibitions in front of me, so please trust me." Jisung didn't want to be so sentimental, but he knew that Hyunjin was a sensitive soul and sometimes he has to say things like this in order for Hyunjin to let him closer. It seemed to work because in a moment he heard the lock click and Hyunjin came out, his eyes watery and red. Jisung just smiled encouragingly at him, grabbed his elbow and silently led him to their room where the atmosphere would be more pleasant than the school toilets.