Forest | haobin

Vii⋆.˚

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Of course his target was to make new friends and survive university life somehow, but now the sour tasteness is getting to him. The more he socialised the more he was distracted.
Watching his so called childhoodfriend smoothly socialising burnt up a envy in him. Having mutual friend group did not help in the thought of avoiding him either. Whenever he was around Matthew eventually hanbin would be around too. The so called soulmates were stuck to each other like glue not failing to make zhanghao left uneasy and awkward.

When zhanghao was around his friends eventually having to face hanbin made things obvious of the plotting to ignore the other, the lack of interactions being avoided by zhanghao whenever hanbin did try to approach him as he finds excuses to stay away from hanbin much as possible caused him to simply avoid his own feelings. Less the interaction between them lessens unwanted feelings of distraction.

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Zhanghao was at the practice room with Ricky and Taerae. exclusively practising and memorising thier upcoming performance they had to compete against the opponent team. His opponent Sung Hanbin. Give it all his best and win. not even sure why he's desperate to win against him but this is how he always was. he must win and pleasure the standards he has of himself, and not let himself fall behind. When it comes to performing it's no giving up to zhanghao.

He's hardworking and admirable and wouldn't let go to anyone, he believes the more effort and stress that's been established equals the remarkable outcome. he's stubborn that's what makes him get what he wants, and to not lose what he wants he must focus and not let distraction get to his weaknesses.

Hanbin was quite an tease, the younger would slightly smirk whenever they happen to come across paths while practising around the dance room at different times, taking turns to use the dance room and eyes meeting everytime zhanghao leaves and the younger enters. His eyes held an evident glimpse of tease each time they met, not quite sure what that meant but got it as the hint that he's probably provoking him to see who's going to win.

He swears it's not jealousy he feels towards the younger but growth of hate burning each time he does think of the younger, for no absolute reason of course, it's not like they are friends anyway even though it's quite obvious of the youngers approach to him that made it clear he wants to befriend zhanghao. But no way, he's going to ignore him and runaway of course it's what he always does, ghost the ghost.

Zhanghao and Taerae work together on vocal lines, their voices harmonising nicely. Ricky joins in occasionally, offering suggestions and ideas. The three are immersed in their work, focusing on refining their performance. As the practice comes to an end, Taerae breaks the silence.

"We make a good team, don't we?" he grins at them as they both smile.

"Indeed we do" Ricky says and zhanghao smiles at the two, he genuinely loved practicing with them as they both were quite comforting to be with. They would often listen to zhanghao well and follow his lead and praise him for his skills which made him feel relieved and somehow calmed his anxiety down, even though thier bond wasn't deep as others they sure did get along and bonded while practicing and had no problems with one another.

The two grabs thier bags and items and decides to leave. "it's pretty late, you're not leaving yet?" Ricky asks as he notices zhanghao who hasn't packed up yet.

Zhanghao looks up, a tired smile on his face. "Yeah, I wanna practice a bit more," he replies.

"okay take care then" Ricky replies unsure if zhanghao was feeling tired or not he decided to leave the boy alone.

The moonlight kept him acompany as zhanghao practiced an dance move over and over again until perfect and moves in to the other. As the music echoes the lonely dance room, he's tierd he wants to sleep but stubborness takes the best of him. Again and again and again until his body finally gives up as he lays on the floor taking heavy breaths as he's sweating.

The music still plays, he closes his eyes and listens. The sound of the beat, the lyrics, he's sleepy, footsteps. His eyes stays closed refusing to open, the footsteps wasn't alarming or anything, it sounded safe as if he's heard them before. It approached near him as the person lies next to him and a strong linger of fragment of that person rushes in the air.

"Are you dead?" the person asks with no emotion evident in thier voice, Zhanghao recognises his voice immediately, he knows who it is.

"Yes" he replies still not opening his eyes and not moving.

"The corpse talks"

In the dimly lit dance studio, Zhanghao and his new companion share an intense silence, each lost in their thoughts.
After a while, the companion speaks up.

"You should take better care of yourself," he says quietly. Zhanghao finally opens his eyes, looking over at the person next to him.

"I could say the same for you, Sung Hanbin. " he retorts, eyeing the companion's messy appearance.

"why are you determined to win against me?" hanbin asks the older as they both hold eye contact.

"not against you or anything, I'm just a perfectionist who's born to win." zhanghao spits out as he looks back up the ceiling

"well, what do you gain?" mocked by the younger

"shut up"

A few seconds of silence passed by and Hanbin gets up and offers zhanghao a hand

୨୧｡𖦹 ⋆.˚🕯⋆.˚｡𖦹 ୨୧

"Dance with me?" he smiles as he offers the older to practice with him, zhanghao looks up at hanbin who patiently waited for his acceptance which made zhanghao give in and eventually accept his hand and rely his weight on him as he got up.

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