out of time |t.k|

eight

Jeongguk stood backstage going through his routine vocal rehearsals with his coach. He wasn't nervous, but then again he didn't really feel anything. He could hear the crowd from backstage, he wondered how many people were out there. He peeked through the black curtain hiding him from view and gasped from the vast sea of people in front of him.

Just then a woman waddles over to him and turns him away from the curtain. She roughly pushes him into a chair and a group of people begin working on him. Makeup smeared onto his eyes, hair perfectly mussed and held in place with enough hairspray to singlehandedly deplete the ozone layer. A pair of hands reached around his head to gently grab his cheeks, turning his face toward the light.

"He's perfect. He's ready.", a man's voice exclaimed loudly.

He kneeled on his platform under the stage and the lights dimmed and the slow, pounding music started to hype up the crowd. This was easily his favourite part of his job, getting the fans as excited as he was to be there.

His heart began to pound as he heard the familiar beat of his song start to blend into the already pounding beat. The man crouching a few feet in front of him held up a hand, slowly counting down from three. The platform sends him to the stage and he begins his song to the sound of thousands of screams.

Performing is a fluid action for him. Nothing comes as naturally as being on stage, that is until he looks along the crowd line at the people and spots a familiar face. The next step in his choreography slips his mind and the next line of the song escapes him.

He stands frozen on stage momentarily as he stares down at awestruck Taehyung, looking up at him with wide eyes. He opens his mouth as if he were going to say something to Taehyung over the speaker system in front of the entire crowd but stops short. Suddenly, Taehyung raises a camera in front of his face, snaps a picture and turns to leave.

Jeongguk has to restrain himself from shouting for him to stop, to turn around, to come back. He returns to reality when Taehyung is out of sight and realizes he has just been standing there. Without missing another beat he returns to his song and dance, finishing the rest of the show flawlessly.