oneshots | joshua hong

four - strumming

hyunhae gently pushed the orange-painted doors open before stepping into the large empty performance hall. making sure not to create too much noise, she gently pushed back the doors to its place.

walking over to the stage with a slight bounce, a smile was already coming to her face. the performance hall was her most favorite place in the world— it was barely crowded, only used whenever the school held a play, and was normally empty, free for her to use as much as she'd like (none of those grafitti things, of course).

as she stood in the center stage, she allowed herself to take a panoramic view of the place in her mind, just appreciating the long grey walls and the vacant seats.

whenever she came here, she would normally just blast music and sing & dance along to it. but before she could even pick out her song, her ears caught the sound of very gentle guitar strumming.

her eyebrows perked. there was never people here besides her and the occasional security guard. she gently put her phone back into her pocket, and walking carefully towards the source of the sound. as she walked the sound became even clearer and it was even more defined that it was, indeed, a boy.

as hyunhae followed, she couldn't help but note how stable his voice, as if he'd gotten lessons. she inched lightly following the sound, and ended up backstage, where she was facing a boy sitting on the edge of the big table, a guitar perched on his lap, and earphones in.

hyunhae didn't even have to come any closer for the boy to notice her presence. quickly tugging off the earbuds, gently putting the guitar aside, he hopped off.

"um, i know i'm not supposed to be here but i promise—" he started before hyunhae could explain. "seriously, it's fine. i go here all the time too."

the boy tilted his head to side, a small smirk coming on to his lips. "but how come i've never seen you?"

"i normally don't go here at this hour. but my club activities were cancelled for today so i'd drop by here," hyunhae replied breezily, walking over to his side and leaning on her back by the edge of the table, mimicking the boy's position.

"oh, cool. i'm jisoo," the boy replied back, and nodding slightly. hyunhae took a mental note to try and find him during actual school hours before giving her name back.

"how about you? you go here often too?" hyunhae asked him back. she'd certainly never seen him here in the hall before.

"only when i want to escape my friends' commotion. thirteen boys don't really be quiet often," he chuckled. hyunhae's eyes widened. thirteen? but that would mean..

"you're from seventeen?" seventeen, the school's leading talent group. they were always sent by the principal whenever there was a talent competition, and they always brought back home a medal. hyunhae couldn't believe she didn't recognize him. well, she never exactly paid attention to them but their news had always gotten to her.

"you know us?" jisoo said, grinning excitedly. hyunhae nodded just as excitedly as he did. "i came to one of your performances one time. you guys are really good," she hummed, thinking back to that one school performance where the boys performed. they were clad in school uniforms with their names and danced and sang passionately on stage.

"wow, this is weird," jisoo laughed. she couldn't help but think, is that how angels descended from heaven laugh? but restrained herself from actually saying it.

who knew she would've developed a crush within fifteen minutes, and who knew that he would later share that he was feeling the same towards her?