Under The Colored Lights

They Never Know - Ex'Act

Change in perspective (literally)

Minseok thought Sehun was very difficult to read right from the start. He stayed still and quiet behind Mr. Feng at all times during Minseok's impromptu audition. If he was being honest with himself, Minseok would say that Sehun was downright out of place for a circus troupe. He found it hard to believe such individuals like Sehun and the two earlier were part of anything remotely like this.

"Come with me, while Chanyeol and Baekhyun respectively set up your quarters I'll show you around the place." A glare was etched onto Sehun's otherwise stoic face. He was directing it at the supposed Chanyeol and Baekhyun still snickering in the corner.

"Yah we're older than you!" Chanyeol growled in response, and Minseok raised an eyebrow.

"Hyung or dongsaeng?" he questioned the two, "I'm 27."

If Sehun was startled he didn't admit it. He just stared down at Minseok with emotionless eyes as he looked at Minseok's entire face again.

"Oh, so you're one of those people hyung." He didn't have any tone to his voice either, but it was nice to hear him regardless. So Minseok knew that he was definitely older.

"This little shit here is 23." The smaller of the two snickering ones informed before getting dragged away and Sehun sighed unimpressed.

"Well hyung, now that you know these two, those are part of the acts too. The tall one is Chanyeol and the smaller one is Baekhyun. Chanyeol is with Baekhyun and they are inseparable." Sehun explained as he walked around the length of the stage.

"Seems as if they are good friends with you." Minseok found himself responding, and Sehun shrugged.

"We're more like a family. We have our quirks and oddities but it's a very accepting family. Wouldn't have it any other way. Anyway, this way is the wings and backstage entrance." Sehun felt a bit strange leading Minseok around as if he were trying to get used to the new addition to the family. He wondered if this addition would stick around.

The two fell into step beside each other as they toured backstage and eventually met up with the rest of the troupe in the designated mess hall. Minseok found that there were only twelve members counting himself that ran the show. It was quite a small troupe compared to the ones he had already seen. These people made things much better and the illusion they had way more people than they let on was impressive.

Kyungsoo was serving food when they walked in and Sehun quickly pointed him out. His unique eyes made him immediately recognizable and Minseok learned his cooking surpassed anything basic he could come up with. Baekhyun and Chanyeol walked past carrying supplies for his tent probably, and Minseok couldn't help but notice Chanyeol had a suspicious amount of fireworks hanging from his pocket. Yifan and Tao were introduced next, and it was obvious that Tao had a certain plan in his head once he saw Minseok. Sehun chose not to warn the newbie, after all, it was only fair he found out through natural causes. It was interesting to watch Minseok interact quietly with them all. In retrospect, Minseok quite liked Yixing, Junmyeon, and Luhan. The three seemed to have a varying air of thrill to themselves without being overly obvious. It was nice to be able to smile freely with them. When Jongin and Jongdae met the Minseok, they automatically pointed out his unique facial structure, Jongdae being much more obnoxious about it than Jongin was.

Minseok felt a connection with Jongdae as well as if he were definitely a friend worth having, whatever his loud complaints were, and Sehun must have thought the same thing as they left the mess hall, quietly telling him he thought the two would be good friends.

Sehun was definitely excited to show Minseok the living quarters next. They weren't animals, so obviously they slept in the traveling trailers that they owned. But no one had ever actually been in one of theirs, and that was what made it so exciting. Sharing is caring. One of the cars was designed just for showering, and Minseok paled a little when he saw that none of the showerheads had anything close to a stall door or separation barrier.

"We're family. It's okay." Sehun reminded him as they moved on to the area where they all slept. There were mainly trailers, just another small circus trailer park, but each trailer felt like a home. When they had to fly the trailers were left in a rental parking lot but for most of the time, they were driven around. Trailers were allotted per act because similar acts had similar schedules. Exceptions to this rule were Baekhyun and Chanyeol.

Naturally, Minseok would stay with Sehun. Sehun didn't mind it one bit, but Minseok looked a little out of place as they stopped at his trailer.

"So you're staying with me since we have the same act. Hope you don't mind." Minseok look around the trailer as Sehun powered up the lights, and he was surprised by the lack of character the place had. It was generally clean, with a stray coffee mug lying around here and there. Sehun didn't think to furnish much, and he also didn't have any pictures out.

"It's a plain space," Sehun found himself defending his living space slightly as he couldn't judge Minseok's reaction properly. Minseok settled himself on the newly fixed bunk above Sehun's, and Sehun wanted to snicker at the fact that Minseok was so small that he fit in that small space.

"What are you thinking?" Minseok interrupted his thoughts and Sehun quickly put on a trained poker face.

"We're going to get along perfectly." He selected his words carefully, judging that Minseok would probably attack him like a hissy cat if he mentioned his true thoughts. This was going to be very interesting.