fluid: haobin

17

the vocal instructor and manager open the door to the meeting room, seeing hanbin already sitting down and opening his laptop.

"oh, hi!" the dance instructor greets the newcomers.

"hey, how was your class?" hao asks as he sits down across from the dancer.

"pretty good, i did small group evaluations and i think everyone is on a good track," hanbin answers.

"that's great to hear," the manager smiles at the good news. "should we start the meeting?"

"i'll start," taerae volunteers as he scrolls through his own laptop. "first of all, everyone gave their payments so we don't have to worry about that. and, after looking through how much we have to spend on the trip, i came up with these budgets for each part."

he pulls up a slideshow, turning the device around to give a better view to the other two.

"the hotel is already gonna cost a lot, i'm thinking at least 40% of the budget. eating, we can bring some food but i also have 25% of the funds set aside for that. the students will bring their own money to purchase anything so we have 20% for transportation and 15% for team activities."

"so, the payment the students gave covers their hotel, competition entry, and outfits?" hao asks.

"yep," taerae nods. "and i also set aside some extra funds just in case."

"good," the chinese takes down some notes before turning to hanbin. "do you want to go next or should i?"

"i can go," hanbin clears his throat. "in terms of choreography and preparedness, i think we're all good. outfits, i'm still trying to get the design all finalized and the students also gave me their input on what's best. i should be able to send it by tomorrow and, if there's no delay at the company, then should arrive at least 1.5 weeks before we leave."

the dance instructor takes out a piece of paper and pictures.

"the crew decided to have team hoodies and i looked through some past photos of the event to get some ideas. for our event specifically, it's supposed to be casual so i think buying team hoodies would be good."

he shows them some design choices.

"first one would just have our logo in the middle in minimalist print but the back has their name, personal sketch, and number. the second has a blank front and their names on the back but everything else is on the sleeve. we thought about going black but realized everyone else would try to do the same so..."

a couple of fabric swatches are tossed on the table.

"the studio's name reminds me of water so i liked the idea of doing blue. the first hoodie design would be royal blue but the accents are all white. the second design would be the same colors but flipped."

"i prefer the first design," taerae says after going through the pictures.

"same here, but i think it would be better to take the color scheme from the second one and do it for this one," hao points to the design.

"i agree with that too, now that i'm looking at it," hanbin agrees. "for the rest of the outfit, just some black cargo pants and black hats. i also had an idea for the shoes. everyone mentioned they have black shoes so if we buy colored shoelaces, then i think it could tie the whole look together."

"i like that!" hao exclaims.

"great, then i can order the laces online!"

"ok, costumes and finances down, how did the calls go hyung?" taerae asks.

"so, i was able to get a 15-seat van rented for us, so that'll be our main mode of transportation. as for hotel, i called at least so many places but there's a big conference happening at the same time as the competition. one hotel had rooms opened but i was able to reserve 4 triple bedrooms and 1 double room."

"there weren't any single rooms available?" hanbin asks.

"nope, they're all reserved for the week. so, there's a possibility hanbin and i will have to share a room with the students."

"or we could share a room together hyung," the dance instructor mentions. "we could take the double room and the team can figure out how they want to divide the triple beds."

"that's...fine," hao says hesitatingly.

"i think hanbin is right, it'll be better to have you two stay together in case of an emergency and it'll be easier to plan everything out for the day," taerae jumps in, using the opportunity as an advantage.

"is that fine with you hyung?" the dance instructor asks, breaking the manager out of his daydream.

"oh yeah, that works," but the only mind going through hao's mind was...

if he shared with the students, then they would almost always be out of the room until late so it was easy to hide it from them.

but how was he gonna deal with the dance instructor?

.

.

.

"what's wrong with you?" matthew asks as he sits on the sofa next to his best friend. "you look so out of it."

"the competition is coming faster than i thought," hanbin stares at the calender in front of him no the coffee table. "i feel prepared but there's something that feels weird."

"was hao hyung able to secure hotel rooms for everyone? that's always mission impossible every time there's a competition."

"yeah but there's some conference going on at the same time so the room situation is a situation in itself."

"why, you got a room for everyone, right?"

"yeah but i think hao hyung wanted single beds for us two because now, we're sharing a room."

"what?!" the canadian exclaims at the news. "hao hyung is sharing a room?!"

"yeah, why that reaction...?" the dance instructor gives a look to his friend, who was sporting a shocked look.

"uhm, just that hao hyung is typically a private person so, you know, he likes his private space and he's also an introvert and yeah, he just usually stays by himself, you know," matthew rambles as he starts to hit himself internally for the overreaction.

hanbin, on the other hand, just gives a raised eyebrow at the younger's behavior.

"ok..."

"anyways, let me see the team hoodies! i remember you had called for ideas and i wanna see the final results!"

.

.

.

"mr. han, i'm going to be using the dance studio for a bit so you don't have to clean over there," hao tells the older man, who was currently helping him clean the hallway floor.

"alright, is that all for today then?" he puts his mop into the bucket.

"yes, thank you so much for your help," the manager bows to yujin's father.

"i'm doing this to return the favor so don't worry."

hao bids the man goodbye and locks up the entrance, making sure it couldn't be opened from the outside. once that's done, he then heads into the studio, turning on the lights to their dimmest setting.

plugging his phone into the speaker, escapism starts to play as he pulls on his dance shoes. the tie dye design was starting to wear out but these weren't sneakers he was willing to replace so easily. 

and for the next hour, the studio was filled with the sounds of squeaking rubber soles and various pop songs.