↱RIBS↲ ⇾seongjoong⇽

じゅうなな

The Morning After

The morning after, Seonghwa's dead on his feet on the way to dance practice.

He actually splurges and gets another uber, opting to sleep in and save his energy.

He and Hongjoong hadn't fallen asleep until almost three am, and he got up at nine.

He needs at least eight hours to function properly, and he's hoping he's going to be able to make it through a full day's rehearsal.

He doesn't regret the night before one bit, though.

Hongjoong even gets up with him and makes him an omelette and a protein smoothie while he gets ready, looking like a domestic god as he putters around the kitchen searching for ingredients in his couple pajamas and bedhead.

By the time he's all ready to go and Hongjoong's already fallen back into bed, there's still five minutes until his uber arrives.

He uses the time to make Yunho's coffee, and goes to rehearsal in the best mood he's been in in a while.

He's still first, and Yunho's still second, coming in with hooded eyes that light up when he says "oh, you got laid good, I can tell."

Seonghwa threatens not to give him the coffee if he keeps up the teasing, which results in a lot more aegyo than Seonghwa bargained for at ten am on a Sunday.

Yunho ends up cross-legged and content on the floor, eyes closed as he hums happily into the coffee mug.

They practice hard, all day, and eat healthily at lunch.

Seonghwa feels like he needs to be in a million places at once: running through the numbers with everyone, helping Yunho monitor the performances in slow-motion to catch any synchronic problems; re-doing parts over and over again to fix previously mentioned synchronic problems; going over the short duet he has with Eunbi during the bridge of their second song—just four counts of eight, but there's ridiculously tricky, syncopated footwork that Yunho choreographed; going over his own solo; helping the junior boys practice their tumbling now that they've stopped using mats to prepare for the actual performance.

It's hard and exhausting and nerve-wracking, when he thinks too long about how close the showcase is and how important it is, but he's determined and he pushes through the day.

Around two in the afternoon he gets a text from Hongjoong, and it's just a bunch of emoji hearts followed by a selfie of him in his studio.

Seonghwa definitely smiles at his phone, and also inexplicably has the strength to go on for the rest of the day.

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Eight Days

There's eight days left until the showcase and Seonghwa is losing his shit.

Tomorrow, he'll be able to say it's 'a week away,' and the thought of that is terrifying.

He's been working for this for so long.

Preparation for his solo started the school year before, because he's that much of a perfectionist, and he can't believe he's actually going to perform it in eight days.

One performance, and that's it.

His second last chance to perform at this university.