Sweetness and Light ✓ || Hueningkai X Reader

Chapter 5

A few days later, you find yourself back at the Magnificat, waiting to hear from somebody. You notice a tall black man approaching you, wearing a pink polo shirt and a pair of jeans. You learn his name is Demitrius -- Trius for short -- and he is currently helping out Kai's band with their stay at the Magnificat. "You must be this sweet pea that the youngest member is talking about."

"Haha, I suppose. Where to?"

Trius leads you to an elevator by the side of the mall. It looks like a normal elevator, but then he scans his pass by the side, and it opens. There are no buttons to open it. It looks like this elevator is only for staff members.

You step on, following him, and ride up a few stories to one of the restricted areas of the Magnificat. "I will need to stay by your side the entire time," Trius explains. "We used to not be open to visitors at all, but as long as they are cleared, the owner does not see a problem with it. Especially since you are leaving at the end of the day. No overnight guests for young kids."

"Ahh. I understand." It makes you wonder -- just how young is Kai? He hadn't registered as any younger than you, but perhaps you are wrong.

You walk down a long hallway, the Magnificat somewhere under you, forgotten. There are doors all along the side, and Trius knocks on one. A "Come in!" can be heard from inside, and when Trius opens the door, there is a tall white man with a white shirt on.

"Oh, you must be Sweet Pea! I'm Jared. Nice to meet you. You've been invited to TXT's practice."

"...Tee ecks tee? Oh, like a text message?"

You hear Kai's laughter from across the room, and you look in. Kai and his four band members are sitting in the corner. It looks like they've just gone through a heck of a practice. One of them is completely sprawled out on the floor, looking at the ceiling. Another is leaning on a third member, attempting to sleep (or at least that's what it looks like). But Kai is somehow full of energy again, and he bounds up to meet you.

"It's just our band name," he says, and then, "Jared, sorry, they wanted that to be a secret from everybody."

"Oh. Confidential information. I get it. Is it okay that they know?"

"Well..." Kai smiles at me. "Do you know what TXT stands for?"

You shake your head.

"Well then, I don't see any problem. Just don't tell them more!" And then Kai bounds across the room again, back toward his friends. "Come on, sweet pea, watch us dance!"

"I don't want to dance," one of the boys says in very accented English.

"All right, that's enough of a break," Jared says, clapping his hands. "Let's get back to business. We'll show your friend what you were going over. Let's start with Dope and then go onto DNA." Trius stands by the door, watching guard and making sure nobody exits...and nobody enters.

The five boys make themselves into a formation. They kind of remind you of the boy bands that you remember, vaguely, from your younger years. You had a cousin that was into some of them, where they all danced the same and sang all the same lyrics. Nowadays that work is left to the K-Pop boys that your best friend is so into, like BTS.

Everybody stands still, keeping things loose, as Jared walks over to a stereo system and pushes play. Then, he stands in the corner as music starts up. You recognize the voice coming out of the speaker as more Korean, but it's all a blur to you. The song starts out simple, but with swagger, and the guy in the middle -- Yeonjun, you think -- starts off the song. Then, all five of them are in sync together, waving their arms, keeping their legs loose with fancy footwork.

It all works for about ten seconds.

Then, Kai oversteps, tilting forward with his left foot instead of his right. He crashes right into Yeonjun, who bucks forward. The others stop. Jared stops the music. "Kai, Kai, I keep telling you," he says. "With your right foot on the beat. Not the left. It's okay, we'll do it again."

"I'm sorry," Kai says, hiding his head in his hands. But even though you miss what the others say to him, you can tell that they forgive him easily. They all pat him on the back, and then they get back into formation zero and go at it again.

It's in this way that you figure out two things: that these boys aren't quite the best at dancing yet. The small one in the back is always tripping over his shoes. He looks more like a moody musician than a dancer. And the really small one with big eyes is too robotic. He gets every move right, but he doesn't emote as much as the others do. But the second thing is: even when they mess up and start over, the boys still work as a unit. When one of them messes up, the others give their best shout-outs and tell the offending member that it's okay.

It's this way that you know that they're going to be okay. They could probably use a bit more practice. But they're gonna be all right.

They make it through the song in segments. There's a lot of little spaces that need tightening, and Jared doesn't quite seem pleased with the final result yet. You keep your eyes on Kai as he does the same shimmy five times, over and over again. From the look on his face, you can tell he's been doing this all day, but he still wants to dance.

Then, he looks up at you. He is able to give you a quick smile before the music starts up again, and it's lost.

"Okay, forget DNA," Jared says once they finally make it all the way to the end. "If you can make it all the way through Dope without stopping, then I'll let you break for dinner. Sound good?"

"Yes," the boys gasp out, then fit in their formation one more time. And you watch them dance, hands above their heads, raising their fists toward the sky. Kai seems even more serious now than he did before, intending on getting it just right. You have to wonder: is it because he's got an audience?

They make it all the way through, and Kai jumps up. "Dinner time!" Oh. He just wanted to make it through so he could eat.

"I want you all back in an hour," Jared explains, "but I'll go easy on you for the rest of the night. You've all deserved it. Good work, everyone."

"What's on the menu?" you ask as the boys grab towels, drying off their sweat, unfazed that a visitor is with them.

"Sandwiches. Do you want one?"

"Now now, Kai," Jared says, "I think they need to get going. I think they've seen enough."

Kai pouts, but then he turns toward you. "I'll see you at the restaurant soon, sweet pea?"

You nod and laugh, waving him off as Trius leads you out of the room. "Sure, sure."

That night, you stay in bed, unable to fall asleep for a long time. You stare at your ceiling, remembering how the band was dancing together. They all knew exactly what they wanted out of life, and they were working hard toward it. Even Kai was working as hard as he could, getting back up off the floor when he had fallen. It was really admirable. You haven't seen anybody do that before.

You'll have to make a point of asking him the next time he comes to Michi's. And this time, you hope you can have a real conversation.