Choreografeels - J-Hope Fanfiction

Bird Pt. 1: In The Cage

Your days were now filled with avoiding him, pretending not to know him when you walked past each other in a hallway, staring at your feet when your ways coincidentally crossed, and as the weeks passed the two of you became strangers again.
Most of the memories had faded, details had been forgotten and said words had become a blur.
It was already late and you were busy packing up your things after practice, not really listening to your leader, who was standing next to you and excitedly telling you about some new make up line being released next week. You rather concentrated on the Maknae's fooling around, making the usually quiet place bubbly even at nighttime. Their energy never failed to make you smile.
"Are you even listening to me?", her shrill voice ripped you out of your thoughts. You opened your mouth to reply but were interrupted by the door flying wide open and the groups' manager walking in, his expression brighter than usual. "Ladies, I have AMAZING news!"
"Do we get a day off?" The youngest member started squeaking happily. "LET'S GO ON A TRIP!", the other Maknae joined and they started jumping around in circles, just to get a derogative glance, which caused them to calm down again. As soon as silence filled the room, he continued: "It's not a day off.. BUT", he kept everyone from letting out a disappointed sigh, "I'd recommend you all look prettier than usual tomorrow." A huge grin formed on his face.
"Why?", your leader asked with a wary but curious tone.
"You'll see", he said mysteriously and winked, then left as fast as he'd appeared. As soon as the door fell in it's lock, everyone around you started throwing out their questions, but despite everyone elses daydreaming you decided to just shrug it off and see rather than imagining something unrealistically magnificent and ending up getting disappointed.
~
"Can't we just go already? He was probably just joking anyways." You couldn't conceal an annoyed tone in your voice. Having been standing in the hallway for 20 minutes now, you were waiting for the rest to finally finish getting ready. In contrast to everyone else you hadn't put more effort into your looks than usual, while your members wore skirts and dresses and high heels and pretty make up, you stood there in the usual shirt, jeans and chucks, your nearly bare face not hiding the lack of sleep you had.
"Well at least we won't look ugly receiving our surprise", you heard your leader mock from the bathroom.
"At least I won't be too late to receive it", you fired back. Getting a bothered sigh as a reply, you were surprised when another 10 minutes later everyone was done and ready to go.
You'd intended to sleep on the drive but that plan failed throughoutly, all the aflutter chatting turned the usually calm car into a cage full of cackling chickens. Now entering the building with an sore expression, you asked yourself what could happen that was actually worth all of this fuss. Your manager greeted you, a way too wide and way too white smile on his face, as the group formed a line in their usual training room. Looking around, you couldn't recognize anything different, the only odd thing was the unusally clean floor, but that was more likely to be caused by a new cleaning employee being more motivated than the rest of them.
"So is everyone excited for the surprise?", the manager grinned. Between enthusiastic clapping and squeeqing, you slightly nodded to not completely kill the mood. "Y/N, expression", he warbled while pulling the corners of his mouth up into a smile. You did as you were told to.
"Starting from today, we'll be doing a 1-week project. But not just any project! We call it a 'Get ready for debut'-project. That means, you'll get taught everything you need to know before becoming an idol, plus a special perfomance linked to your position in the group. Obviously the people who can teach the most are the people that have the most experience so-"
"We'll have idols as tutors?!", your leader cut him off, her voice jumping along several octaves from agitation.
"Yes..", he glared at her for ruining his special moment, but his face quickly lightened up again. "They should be here any second!" Even he was more excited than you, still your heart jumped a little when the door suddenly opened, a still unknown manager walking in. You felt like you'd seen him before, but couldn't quite put a finger on why nor when. He gave each of you a big smile after you'd politely bowed, revealing the group you'd work with for the following seven days. "May I introduce to you", he made a little pause as the tension hit its climax. "방탄소년단!"
You froze. The faked happiness disappeared from your expression making space for shock, anxiety and despair. You figured the boys hadn't been told who they'll teach either, you could see how they immediatly covered up the reluctance in their eyes. You couldn't help but stare at J-Hope, hoping for his eyes to meet yours but when they did, hastily jumping somewhere else, there was an unknown gloom to them. While the two managers explained further details about the project, you observed his mental absence as he pretended to look out of a window while seeing nothing, lost in thoughts. All of a sudden, seeming to have felt your gaze, he created eye contact once again and unlike last time he didn't break it off. Slowly drowning in those black holes, you recognized hurt in his glance, but before you could observe further the two of you got interrupted by Namjoon, who gently nudged him with his elbow, causing Hoseok to cease the connection and acting suspiciously interested in PD-nims explanations.
"Each one of you will get paired with one of the boys according to your position in the group. Leader and leader, vocal and vocal, rapper and rapper, dancer and dancer. So let's announce the groups!"
You were both relieved and disappointed, this way of forming the groups would most likely team Jimin and you, both in position of the lead dancer. After Taehyung and Namjoon got their partners, it was J-Hopes turn. "Our sunshine J-Hope will be teaching Y/N this week." Both of you stared at the manager with wide eyes.
"But I'm not the lead dancer", Hobi insisted.
"That's right, he's the main dancer and the lead rapper. Shouldn't he teach one of our rappers then?", you agreed.
"Since you only have two rappers while BTS includes three, we figured J-Hopes dancing skills would be more benefitial in this project. We needed Jimin as a vocal", PD-nim explained with a slightly confused look on his face. Against your expectations, Hoseok now nodded without any hesitation and walked over to stand next to you like his predecessors did with their students. He stood too close, the warmth radiating off his body could still reach you, causing your heartbeat to slightly increase. Thoughts jumped around in your head, making it difficult to concentrate on the managers words while he announced each group's task for the following days. "J-Hope and Y/N will obviously perform a dance together to show their progress", was the only sentence reaching your ear. Soon the meeting ended, the different groups got on the way to their different practice rooms, leaving the both of you behind. After the two managers had also excused themselves after another motivational 'Fighting!', you found yourself alone with him and oppressive silence. Without a word he sat down on the creaking bench, putting on his training shoes. It was obvious that he avoided talking or even just looking at you.
"Hobi..", his name had a welcoming sweetness to it, not having been spoken out loud for a long time.
"J-Hope Sunbae-nim", he corrected you.
"J-Hope Sunbae-nim", you repeated loathly. It sounded too formal, too distant. "I-"
"We will do this profesionally, politely and smoothly. Just focusing on our task and forgetting the rest is the best thing to do", he cut you off. Observing him, you searched for any hint that he was insincere, lying, anything but actually meaning this. Ending up finding nothing, a lump formed in your throat, all you could do was stare at your feet and slightly nod - talking would've exposed your brittle voice.
"Good." After a short pause he stood up from his seat, rolled up his sleeves and officially began the training. "Dancing, if you break it down, is creating tension and releasing it again at the right time. Being able to create that tension, we need muscles. That's what we will focus on today."
Leading you through a two-hour workout, he made you go far beyond your usual routine. Every break seemed like a blessing, the time between them endless. But against your instincts, you listened to all the things he demanded, as immoderate as they might have been. Maybe you were hoping to rewin his sympathy by that, you couldn't quite tell yourself.
In the end he left without a goodbye as you were still laying on the floor trying to catch your breath.