2PM: Hello there
Wow how long has it been since I posted a 2PM fic? There's a One Day pun in there somewhere. Well when you are as obsessed as I am, there is a One Day pun everywhere! I'm a high class lady everyday.
Title: Hello His Name Is
Fandom: 2PM
Pairings: Taec and Khun bromance
Rating: PG, it's pretty tame
Words: ~7,200
Summary: The first day Taecyeon meets Nichkhun, he decides to take him for a night out on the town.
Notes: Man this was supposed to be funny and adventurous. It turned out to be not much of either. :(
"So we'd like for you to act as a translator for him," his manager tells Taecyeon that morning. "The company's determined to keep him, but he needs help getting used to the country. Will you do that?"
"Sure," Taecyeon says. "Sounds good."
He'd said that, but that was only because Taecyeon knew his place. Trainees received instructions, not requests, no matter how sweet the tone. Besides, Taec’s the only fully bilingual person here; if not him, then who else?
Geez. His second week living in Korea after almost a decade in the States, his third day in JYPE, and Taecyeon's already saddling up with responsibilities that he didn't ask for. He came here to try new things and indulge in purely selfish pursuits for once, instead of always focusing on school-related achievements to please his parents (or worse, for "his future"): GPAs, honour rolls, an impressive academic record. Taecyeon had come to Korea to have fun. Jump headfirst into the deep end.
His manager nods and says, "I think you two will get along. He's that quiet type, but he seems kind enough."
"Great," Taec says.
He's given a careful look. "Don't get swept into the jealousy, Taecyeon."
Taecyeon blinks. "What jealousy?"
Taecyeon first meets Nichkhun in the first floor's men's washroom in the JYPE training building, before Taec had been called for that meeting. Nichkhun had been coming out of the room just as Taecyeon had been going in, and he'd nearly slammed the door into Taecyeon's face by mistake. He'd hurriedly apologized in brutalized Korean before he walked off, but all Taecyeon had been able to pay attention to were the two pieces of fur growing overtop of this dude's eyes. After Taecyeon had done his business and washed his hands, he'd loitered a while in the washroom, staring at his own reflection in the mirror, touching his new nose, stroking his own eyebrows, inspecting his teeth (for longer than he'd probably like to admit). Wondering about his looks. Not that Taec thought of himself as an ugly or anything, but that other guy had been -- well, far from gorgeous, but... pretty in way that would immediately attract attention in a crowd. Good attention.
Taecyeon though. He's a Korean back in Korea, and he's trying to become an idol even though he can’t really sing for crap. Swim his way through an ocean of competition. Make everyone see him. What makes Taecyeon stand out?
Taec supposes it's just as well that there isn't anything. It's not like Taec is actually going to be an idol. He's just here for the experience.
Taecyeon remembers that first meeting because of Nichkhun's eyebrows, mostly. After they've been officially introduced, Nichkhun tells him he remembers that first meeting because he'd thought Taec was gay, from the way Taec had been staring at him. Taec doesn't know what's worse: that, or the fact that Nichkhun tries to make him feel better by saying that he actually got those looks a lot.
"But it's just that everyone in Korea is really touchy-feely," Nichkhun explains to Taecyeon, over lunch in the trainee lounge. "You know that other American guy? Jay Park? I've talked to him about it before." Nichkhun laughs. "I think he hates it here."
Taecyeon can understand that, but the thought of JYP-favourite, full-blooded American homeboy Park Jaebeom (who Taecyeon has yet to meet in person, but it's not like you need to see Park Jaebeom to know Park Jaebeom) being scared of guy-cooties or homo-germs or whatever disease he must think they all have is kind of hilarious. Taecyeon wishes he had been around to see Jay's face (which, according to trainee gossip, is "pretty nice") the first time another male tried to give him a hug.
"Is his Korean really as bad as they say?" Taec asks.
Nichkhun shrugs and swirls his chopsticks in his soup. "He's better than me, totally. And he's good enough that he gets to go to a normal school, not just special language classes."
"I wonder if they're going to ask me to start translating for him too?"
Nichkhun smiles. "I don't know; he's kind of busy all the time. He's always practising. He doesn't... hang out with the rest of us."
"Huh," Taec says.
"Everyone admires him though. He's very talented," Nichkhun adds, voice quieter.
Great, now Taecyeon feels like a douche. "No, come on," he says. "I'm sure you're talented too. I mean, you're one of the only non-Koreans here, right? The agency doesn’t just let anyone in."
"It's not like," Nichkhun starts to say, but purses his lips together instead, "I mean, I'm not talented."
Taecyeon can't seriously believe that. Jay "Seattle Street" Park might have the reputation around here, but Nichkhun's name is known too. It's attached to words like "flower boy" and "foreigner" and "don't understand a word he's saying," but people know about him. Taecyeon knew about Nichkhun his second day in (the first day he had been too busy trying to keep track of the trainer's barking voice to care much about the other guys suffering the same fate as him), and it's not like Taecyeon knows many others.
He should probably do something about that, come to think of it. Can't have fun in what might be years of training together without a good group of friends, right?
Hm.
"Let's do something tonight," Taecyeon suggests. "In the city."
Nichkhun coughs around his spoonful of soup. "We can't do that!" he sputters. "If we break curfew, we'll get in trouble!"
"No, wait, hear me out," Taecyeon says quickly, an idea forming in his head. "If we get caught, I can just say that I was taking you to the museum or something to educate you on Korean history, and we got lost. You're Thai and I'm still new here. They'd completely believe it!"
"But in that case, we are going to get lost," Nichkhun says.
"I'll bring a pocket map or something. How hard can it be? I can always ask people for directions."
Nichkhun leans back in his chair, mulling it over. His bottom lips juts out the picture-perfect amount as he thinks and Taecyeon nurses a brief worry about his own lips -- how are Nichkhun’s so shiny and smooth? Taec needs some lip chap.
"I guess we could try it once," Nichkhun says eventually.
Taecyeon grins. Relief. "Great! You're living in the west dorms, right? I'll come to your place tonight; my stuff's not all unpacked anyway."
"All right," Nichkhun agrees. "Should I dress up?"
"Look decent, I guess. But go for as discreet as possible." Taecyeon says. This is great; something exciting to do today. He can already hear a good time calling.
When Nichkhun opens the dormitory door for him that night, he spends an uncomfortably long time staring at Taec before letting him inside.
"I thought you said discreet," he says at last, eyes flitting up to Taec's.
Taecyeon looks down at his own clothes. "This is discreet."
"Yo, Khun, what the hell is that guy wearing?" There's a short guy in a bright pink t-shirt glaring balefully at Taecyeon from the end of the hall, a dumbbell in his hand. Oh. Park Jaebeom, in the flesh.
Funny, Taecyeon hadn't expected him to be so small. From the way that some of the other trainees had been going on about him, Taec had been under the impression that Jaebeom possessed enough charisma to light up a dark alley or something. Seeing him now, he actually seems more like the kind of person Taecyeon would like to share a bag of chips with while watching a basketball game.
Nichkhun looks back at Jaebeom sheepishly. "Jay, this is Taec. He's helping me learn Korean. So he can speak English."
"There's nothing wrong with my outfit," Taec says to Jay.
"Are you colour-blind, man?" Jay says with what Taec hopes is absolutely no malice. He walks over curiously, the tension that had been colouring his face quickly disappearing. "Where are you from?"
"Bedford, Massachusetts. It's right by Boston. I'm not colour-blind."
"Were you born in the States? Your accent's a lot less painful than Khun's."
"Hey," Nichkhun interjects.
Taec smiles. So Jaebeom's the blunt type. "No, I just went there mainly for middle school and high school. I just got accepted into JYP last month, so I flew back here."
"Huh," Jaebeom says, shifting his dumbbell to his other hand. "Are you a singer?"
Taec cannot envision any reply he could give that will end well, so he just shrugs and goes for honesty. "They want me to rap, so I hear. I'm not good at it, though."
That actually makes Jaebeom laugh. "You and Khun are like, meant for each other then. He sucks balls at singing and rapping too."
"Hey," Nichkhun says again, a bit crosser. "I'm doing my best here."
"Yeah, yeah," Jaebeom says. "So are you moving into this place or what?"
"No, I live with the newer trainees in the east dorms. I'm just here to take Nichkhun out for a night on the town. Do Korean-y things." Taec can feel himself grinning. "You should come with us."
Jaebeom balks and takes a step back. "No thanks. I've got better shit to do. It's Taec, right?" Taecyeon nods. "Right. Well, I'll probably see you around the training building or something. It was nice to meet you." He reaches out for a very brief handshake and heads away to another room.
Nichkhun sighs, watching him go. "Sorry, Jay's kind of... he's awkward with Korean things. He even used to fist bump a lot, but he got scolded."
"Scolded?" Taec teases. "Do you seriously talk like that?"
"I talk better than you dress, though," Nichkhun quips lightly, tugging on the end of Taecyeon's bright orange jacket. "This thing is weird."
"What's wrong with it?" Taec asks.
Half an hour later, they finally leave the dormitory, Taecyeon freshly dressed in a set of Nichkhun's street clothes that really don't fit as well as Nichkhun reassured him they would (Taec appreciates his effort though). One of the things Taec's mom had reminded him of before Taec had boarded his plane was that he absolutely had to be friendly with the stylists who would eventually be working with him. "They know their job," she'd told him, but Taec's seen some of those older music videos -- even he has better fashion sense than those people did. But still, Taecyeon concedes that he's better suited for other people dressing him, and he feels oddly pleased that Nichkhun cared enough to help, even though it's their first day together.
Or maybe he had just been scared to be seen with Taec in public, in his original outfit. Whatever. Honestly, Taecyeon's not even sure that the clothes Nichkhun picked for him are as discreet as he made them out to be, because they're walking down the street now and a few people's heads are actually swivelling as they pass.
Oh wait. They're swivelling as Nichkhun passes, not Taec.
"Jay's right though," Nichkhun's telling him as they head to the bus stop. "I'm not good with singing or dancing or rapping. The trainers are always telling me I'm the worst in the whole company." He doesn't sound upset about it though, which Taec supposes is a good thing.
"Don't let them get you down," Taec says. "The fact that you passed auditions already says something about your talent." That’s what Taec’s manager had told him, back when Taecyeon himself had been surprised that he'd passed his auditions.
Nichkhun looks at Taec, eyes wide. "Actually, I didn't go to any auditions."
What? Taec's surprised. "Then how did you get in?" he asks.
Nichkhun laughs awkwardly. "The scouting people actually... kept on phoning me until I agreed to join the agency. It was really a bit overwhelming. They just wouldn’t take no for an answer. So I decided to try it."
Taec pauses. What the hell, that's just... something else. Most of the trainees here got into the agency by beating out hundreds of other participants in competitions, like Junho from Taec’s dorm did: he’d won Superstar Survival. Taec himself had to audition again after getting kicked out from that competition, before finally getting accepted into the company. But it’s the same story with everyone: they all put in effort to be here. Nichkhun's telling him that he had been begged to join JYPE? It’s like being thrown a life-preserver while everyone else is madly swimming towards the one lifeboat.
Is this what his manager had been talking about, when he'd told Taecyeon not to be jealous?
Right, like Taecyeon can actually begrudge someone for going down a path they hadn’t planned on. Taecyeon had auditioned to be a model.
"To be honest with you," Nichkhun goes on, "I don't really want to be a singer. I just didn't want to waste the opportunity."
Hey. Taecyeon can get behind that. He's about to tell Nichkhun, but he sees the bus approaching. "Just wondering," he says. "How much money to do you have on you?"
Nichkhun takes out his wallet. "Five American dollars and 700 baht. Oh, and a 100-won coin. What about you?"
"I've got 5000 won."
"Wait, how much are bus tickets again?"
"At least it's nice weather tonight," Taecyeon says as the two of them trudge down the street.
"Where are we going?" Nichkhun asks.
"Around, I guess." Taecyeon glances back and forth across the street. There are tea shops, clothing stores, music stores, fast food places; all these things to do and they're wandering in circles. "Can you just pick something? What do you feel like doing?"
"I really don't know. Are you hungry?"
"We've got 5000 won and five USD."
Nichkhun laughs. "We can split a meat bun or something." He points to a street vendor in front of them. He's fanning away at something steaming, and the aroma of fresh spices carries quickly to Taecyeon's nose. But Taecyeon's more attracted to something more than the food, namely, the two high school girls standing nearby, rifling through their school bags for what Taec assumes is some loose change.
"Hey, lesson number one," Taec says, grabbing Nichkhun's elbow and dragging him forward. "Making conversation with girls."
Nichkhun goes pale (well, paler) and pulls backwards, hard. "No way, I'm not ready for that! They're going to think I'm a moron."
"Don't be ridiculous, they'll love you," Taec says, tugging harder. More correctly, they'll love Nichkhun's face. Taecyeon can handle the talking.
The two girls look wary as they approach, and Taec wonders if it's because he's showing too much teeth in his smile. Like the big bad wolf or something equally lame. Taecyeon tries to look charming.
"Hello there," he says, keeping his voice low and tone casual.
"Hello," one of the girls replies slowly. Her eyes flit to Nichkhun. "Hello," she says to him.
"Hi," Nichkhun says in poorly accented Korean, and he bows to the girls, with his hands clapped in front of him.
It works though. The second girl blushes and gives a short bow back. "Hello!" she chirps, giggling.
Taecyeon can't hide his teeth this time. Score.
No score.
"Your Korean," Taec starts to say, leaning his head against the back of the restaurant booth he shares with Nichkhun, sans femmes.
"Hm," Nichkhun agrees.
"Is seriously just."
"Yeah."
"So bad."
"...yeah."
"How is your Korean so bad?" Taecyeon says. He pushes himself upright and flaps his hands in front of Nichkhun's face. "Haven't you been living here for months? What happened?!"
"I just," Nichkhun says, staring absently out the window of the restaurant. "I'm trying, okay. It's hard."
Taecyeon cups his cheeks, sighing loudly. "Those girls were sooo cute, darn. Imagine if they hadn't been offended by what you said and invited us to go partying with them or something. That would have been great."
Nichkhun frowns and adjusts the cap on his head. "Well, it's too late now," he says. "They think I'm a creep."
"And me by association," Taec nods. He taps his teeth out of habit. "You don't think they'll call the police on us, do you?"
Nichkhun's eyebrows rise. "Why would they do that? I didn't say anything that horrible, did I?"
"Dude, you don't know Korea. What'll be worse is if they blog about us. Thank goodness we didn't take pictures with them or anything."
"I'm going to have a talk with Jay when I get back home," Nichkhun mutters. "Lying to me like that. I'm never going to learn Korean from him again. Who's been teaching him swear words? I bet it was Junsu. They think they're all gangster like that." His head darts up to meet Taec's gaze. "Please promise me right now that you're not going to fill my vocabulary with profanity."
Taec holds up his hands. "If I do, you can report me. They'll kick me out of JYPE for screwing with one of their favoured trainees."
This just makes Nichkhun frown more. "I'm not, stop saying that."
"No, you totally are," Taecyeon insists. "They told me. The company's determined to 'keep you.'" He makes bunny ears with his fingers to emphasize his point. "You're safe. You're going to debut."
"We'll see," Nichkhun says flatly. But Taecyeon doesn't get to argue more, because a waitress darts up to them, eyes bright and notebook ready.
"Hi, welcome. Can I take your orders please?" she asks eagerly, staring unabashedly at Nichkhun.
"Er," Nichkhun flounders, grabbing the menu and flipping through the pages. "Can I have, please, to, um." He makes a circle shape with the fingers of one hand as he tries to gather his words.
"Oh!" the waitress lights up. "Something to drink? Water? Tea? Coffee? Juice? Coke?" Nichkhun opens his mouth as she says this, and she nods. "Great! One large Coke, coming right up!" She dashes off without even looking once at Taecyeon.
Nichkhun puts down his menu. "That's... kind of why I suck at speaking. People speak for me, usually."
"I see," says Taecyeon, blowing air into one cheek. "But I don't know, man. If you're going to be a national idol, you have to be fluent in the national language."
"That's if I become an idol though," Nichkhun adds forlornly. "I have to practise harder. I think everyone’s got a better chance to become an idol than me. Especially you!”
“Me?” Taec bursts out laughing. “I can’t sing or dance or anything either. Why me?”
“Because you’re funny and you speak well,” Nichkhun says, like it’s obvious. He sighs. “I really do need to improve in Korean. I actually wanted water, not Coke. She just was talking too fast." He offers a tentative smile to Taecyeon. "Will you lend me some money?"
Going out tonight had been a bad idea, Taec realizes this now. It's not so much that Nichkhun's Korean is much worse than Taec had anticipated, but it's that Nichkhun's sucky Korean is attracting attention to a degree only surpassed by Nichkhun's pretty, un-Korean face. It's a bad combination: people have approached to talk, and have left disappointed and confused when Nichkhun's barely able to stumble out a coherent sentence to them. And it's not that Taecyeon is annoyed or anything, but he's realistic: sooner or later some excited pre-teen girl is going to take an unsavoury snapshot of Nichkhun with her cell phone, and once Nichkhun debuts, that's going to spell nothing but trouble for him. And Taecyeon by default, if he even lasts that long here.
It's not just young girls, either. Grandmothers have come by to stroke Nichkhun's arm, pinch his cheek; Taecyeon is getting a lot of compliments for having such an attractive friend, "even though he does seem a bit on the slow side, dear." Their sole comments about Taec have been about his height.
Taecyeon suddenly sees the logic in why Nichkhun must be kept in the company, at all costs. He's an attention magnet. They'd make a killing off him.
"Hey, you there!" a shop owner calls out to them as they walk by his small store. "You guys look like two energetic young men! Strong voices, I'll bet! Come here; come test my new karaoke system! I guarantee the quality will blow you away!"
"No and thank you very much," Nichkhun says, inclining his head. This is his best Korean sentence. Taecyeon's heard it probably a hundred times today.
"Aw, come on!" the vendor pushes, pursuing them for a few steps. "Two kids like yourselves aren't interested in karaoke? You've got to be kidding me! Come on, come on, try it out! No pressure to buy!"
Another thing that Taecyeon has noticed about Nichkhun: he's too nice. No, nice isn't the right word. He's too accommodating. He takes direction extremely easily, without complaining. The whole night, whenever Taec translated for him, he’d just dutifully repeated the words, like a perfect student. Even though Jaebeom had taught Nichkhun nothing but curse words, Nichkhun hadn’t questioned anything Taec said. And even though all these strangers have talked to him, some of them even laughing at his poor language skills, Nichkhun hasn’t been rude to any of them. Polite first, self-concerned after.
But the split second where Taecyeon tries to reach for Nichkhun's wrist to pull him away from the vendor, the guy's already got his hand on Nichkhun's forearm, and is leading him back to the shop. Nichkhun just walks along with him, tossing an apologetic look at Taecyeon back over his shoulder. Taecyeon quickly follows.
"Just sing anything you like," the shopkeeper says, shoving a shiny karaoke mic into Nichkhun's hand.
"Um, I can't--" Nichkhun starts.
But a crowd has already gathered; Taecyeon heaves a sigh of resignation. It's a free show on the street; of course bystanders are going to watch. Plus, Nichkhun's face.
Some of the people are giggling and whispering to their friends and Nichkhun notices; his eyebrows pinch inwards for one long moment as he stares at the microphone, and he opens his mouth to sing.
Jaebeom, Taecyeon realizes sadly, had been right.
"Your singing," Taecyeon says.
"Don't," Nichkhun says shortly.
"Is seriously just."
Nichkhun walks a little faster to avoid what he knows Taec is going to say. Taecyeon jogs up to him. "I'm just kidding," he says. "It's not even like I can talk. My singing's ten times worse. We're just lucky the old guy hadn't asked me to test out the mic. We would've ruined his sales indefinitely."
Nichkhun continues with his brisk pace and says nothing. Maybe he's upset because a few people had been giggling while he'd been singing -- and not the friendly sort of giggling. Taec feels a little bad about it, but it wasn't like Nichkhun’s voice had been so horrible that Taecyeon got second hand embarrassment (his pronunciation had actually been modestly better while singing). Besides. If Nichkhun is going to make it as an idol, he had better get used to people criticizing his performances. Him being from Thailand, he probably has no idea how vicious the audience could be here.
But it's the guy's first time in Korea. And Nichkhun is nice; Taec likes him. He's been a good sport about this so far failure of a night. And Nichkhun's experience in Korea is partly Taec's responsibility now. They're likely going to be sticking together for a long time and Taec doesn't want to start off their relationship with bad memories. After a few more moments of tense silence, Taecyeon is fed up.
"Look, sorry. I didn't mean to be a dick there. Your singing is fine, really. And anyway, we've got voice coaches for a reason, so after some more practise you and I can--"
"Can I ask you something?" Nichkhun interrupts. "Why did you join the company?"
"Pardon?"
"I mean," Nichkhun stops walking. He looks straight at Taec. "What made you decide to pack up your life and move to another country? You could have, I don't know, done something else. Anything else." Nichkhun's shoulders drop slightly. "The company spends a lot of money on us, so they want our best, but we might not even make it. You fit well back in the US, didn't you? You don't have any accent at all. So why did you come back here?"
Taecyeon doesn't get it. He jokes, "I don't know if you've noticed, man, but I sort of blend into the crowd in Korea, that's how well I fit here." But Nichkhun just tilts his head, unsmiling. Taecyeon supposes he wants a real answer.
"I guess... I just wanted something new," Taec says slowly. "It wasn't really about pursuing a dream or anything like that." At first, it'd just been on a whim. Taec liked being spontaneous and the attention it got him. He liked trying new things. And he liked succeeding. He'd thought, if he was going to be something other than a doctor or a lawyer or a dentist, he might as well be something so completely opposite so there was no way Taec could fall back on some middle ground. Otherwise, it wouldn't be interesting, and there'd be no point.
It's like being in water. Taec doesn't like to just swim. He likes to dive, he likes to surf. He wants to do things most people can't do, won't do. He wants to rise above the majority. He wants to see how far he can go before the waves overwhelm him and he gets pulled under. He's eighteen years old and Taecyeon wants to make the most out of his life and show everyone how far he can go. He doesn't want to die behind a desk.
"If you're afraid of--" Taecyeon begins, but Nichkhun briefly disappears from view as two men in hoodies bump violently into him as they run past.
"Hey!" Nichkhun shouts, nearly pitching over.
"Sorry!!" one of them calls out as they hurry away.
Taec reaches for Nichkhun. "You okay?" But Nichkhun's staring after the two men, face blank. Suddenly, he puts his hand into his jacket pocket and freezes.
"They took my wallet!" he hisses, and takes off running.
"What?!" Taecyeon shouts.
"My wallet!!" Nichkhun yells back. "They stole it!"
Taecyeon sighs and gives chase. They really should not have come out tonight.
“Nichkhun!” Taec calls, panting. “Dude! Give it up! It’s five dollars, come on!”
“No!” Nichkhun calls back, running faster (no wait, that’s Taec running slower). “That’s my wallet and I need that!”
“Augh, damn it,” Taecyeon huffs. This isn’t fair; he is not in good shape. Nichkhun’s been in training for months; of course he’s got better stamina. Taec’s chest is freaking burning and he can’t catch his breath anymore. Taecyeon slows to a stop. Nichkhun hurries on ahead, following the break in the crowd that the two thieves had created. The three of them round a corner into an alleyway between two scraggly looking restaurants.
Taecyeon swears in English and Korean. If Nichkhun gets himself in trouble... Well. That would suck, to say the least. Taecyeon takes a deep breath and jogs to catch up.
He approaches the corner of the alley silently and sees Nichkhun backed into a pile of trash, the two thugs on his either side. They don’t notice Taecyeon. They’re jeering at Nichkhun, faking punches. Nichkhun stands his ground, his face steely. In the dark shadows of the alley, he looks a lot less innocent. It’s unnerving.
“Going to call the police, pretty boy?” one of the men sneers. “Oh, wait, you can’t. You can’t even speak the language.”
“Go back to where you came from,” the other laughs.
“Let’s see what pretty boy’s got in his wallet,” the first man suggests, taking out his prize. He opens it up and freezes. “Oi, hey. There’s like, five American dollars in here and some other weird bills. He doesn’t even have any money! What the fuck!”
“No way, you’re shitting me!” his friend says. “I swear this guy looked full of it.” He leans in to check the contents of the wallet, and in that instant, Nichkhun catches Taecyeon’s eye. Before Taecyeon even realizes that something’s about to happen, Nichkhun’s kicked one of the men in the waist and punches the other one holding his wallet in the stomach. They grunt in pain and surprise, taking a few steps back. Nichkhun reaches out and grabs his wallet out of loose fingers and throws it to Taecyeon.
Taec catches it. “Um.”
Nichkhun ducks past the two thugs, just as they reach for him. “Run!” he yells.
Taec runs.
Ten minutes later, Taec wishes he hadn’t. Or at the very minimum, he wishes he hadn’t followed Nichkhun’s lead, because Nichkhun hadn’t been watching where he was going as he was running (not that he could read street signs, anyway) and had lead Taecyeon around in random directions until he realized that the two of them weren’t being followed. The thieves obviously had thought chasing them wasn’t worth the trouble, considering Nichkhun’s wallet was practically empty. That actually had been kind of lame.
Still, the kicking and punching part had been cool.
“My dad made me take some basic martial arts lessons,” Nichkhun had explained casually, when Taec had demanded an explanation for going Bruce Lee on him. “For self-defence. I travelled by myself a lot as a kid, and he wanted me to be safe.”
Too bad Nichkhun hadn’t been a boy scout either.
“Are we lost?”
“Maybe.” Yes.
“I think we’re lost.”
“I said maybe.”
“Where’s your map?” Nichkhun asks. “I thought you said you were going to bring a map?”
“They’re in my pants pocket!” Taec says. “And those are on your bed. Back at your dorm.”
“Oh. Right. Whoops.”
Taec lets out a breath. “Let’s just ask someone for directions.”
But there’s no one on the streets. And all the shops around them look really, really sketchy. It’s nearly 11 pm but a normal street in Seoul shouldn’t be this empty, should it? Taecyeon has a bad feeling about where they are.
“You should have just let them keep the wallet,” Taec says tiredly. “I could have, I don’t know, reimbursed you or something.”
Nichkhun frowns. “No, I like my wallet. Plus, it’s the principle of the thing. I don’t like people taking advantage of me.”
“People do that?” Taec asks. That sucks.
Nichkhun shrugs. “Not... really. But I can’t speak Korean well, so I’m sure it’s happened.” He laughs a little. “I mean, I nearly just got beat up by those two guys! I think I’m just way in over my head in this country.”
Taecyeon gets it. The first few weeks he’d spent in America as a kid, unable to speak a word of English besides video game slogans, it’d been like being dunked underwater. Trying to swim with the current, but unable to get out to take a gulp of air. The culture and language had been so different, washing over him like unintelligible noise. His favourite place during those months had been home, where he could understand everything. But in Korea, Nichkhun doesn’t even have that to help him.
For things like that, you just need practise. Little by little, you improve. Your vocabulary grows; you start to gain a better foothold; you’re not so overwhelmed by everything anymore. Keep yourself afloat. Nichkhun can do it. But Taecyeon, who had been assigned to lend him a hand, took him for a night out in the town instead, where he’d gotten mugged, of all things.
What a fantastic adventure today had been.
Up ahead, Taecyeon notices three women walking slowly down the empty street. “Hey look,” he nudges Nichkhun. “Let’s go ask them for directions.”
“Okay,” Nichkhun says.
They’re a few yards away from the three women, Taec skids to a stop, Nichkhun right beside him. The three women stare at them, their thick makeup shining under the streetlight. Holy crap. Hookers. And they look mean.
Taecyeon grabs Nichkhun’s hand. “Quick, pretend we’re a couple.”
“What!” Nichkhun hisses.
“I don’t know! Just do it?”
“You boys looking for a good time?” one of the women calls.
“Don’t say anything,” Taec warns Nichkhun, tugging him back the way they came. “Let’s just try to get out of here.”
“Aw, don’t be like that! We’re nice to teenagers!” All three of them laugh loudly.
“Are they going to rape us?” Nichkhun whispers, eyes huge.
“No, geez! Shut up!”
“Hey!” one of the women shouts after them. “Are you guys really like that? You aren’t, are you? Pansies?”
Taecyeon ignores her and walks a little faster.
The women laugh crudely again, their voices echoing down the empty streets. “Stupid boys!” But they don’t follow them, and Taec’s thankful.
Once they’re far enough away that they can’t hear the women anymore, Taecyeon turns to Nichkhun, letting go of his hand. “Sorry about that.”
“Why?” Nichkhun asks. “What did they say to us?”
“Nothing nice,” Taec says grimly. “Don’t worry about it.”
Nichkhun doesn’t seem bothered. “It’s fine. I don’t understand most of the things people say behind my back.”
Taec looks at him carefully. “I see.” That’s really kind of depressing.
“Anyway, shouldn’t we give up?” Nichkhun continues. “It’s almost midnight. Let’s call someone and tell them to come find us.”
“No, that’s a bad idea,” Taec says. What if the person they call reports them to their managers and spins the whole story in a negative light to hurt Nichkhun’s reputation? It’s possible. (Also. Since when did Taec get so paranoid? This entire night has given him a negative mindset on everything.)
“I’m calling my dorm,” Nichkhun decides. “They won’t tell on us. I promise.”
“You’re sure?” Taec doesn’t know the people in Nichkhun’s dorm. He can’t make any assumptions.
“Yeah,” Nichkhun nods. “They’re all really nice.”
"You guys are such idiots, Khun!!" Kim Junsu's voice shouts through the cell phone loudspeaker. “Especially you!”
"No, it's not us!" Nichkhun replies anxiously. "Those bad people--"
"I bet they picked on you because you looked like a clueless tourist! Were you walking around speaking English at the top of your lungs or something? Damn, you need to stop being so obvious about yourself!!"
"Hyung," Nichkhun says, exasperated, "please can you check up our, um."
"Location," Taecyeon supplies.
"Location," Nichkhun repeats, "on the map please? Hurry! We need fast. Left of...”
“Of Lucky Cards strip club,” Taecyeon enunciates slowly.
“Of Lucky Cads strap club on--"
"Okay okay, I heard you the first time," Junsu gripes. "Hold on, I'll check it up. Strip club, holy damn, and where am I?" There's a clicking sound as Junsu puts down the phone and then the faint sound of typing.
Nichkhun lets out a long breath and lowers his cell phone. "Well."
"Well," Taec nods.
“At least we had fun?” Nichkhun tries.
“You had fun?” Taecyeon asks, appalled.
Nichkhun laughs. “Well, it was exciting, wasn’t it? We’ll have a good story to tell when we get back.”
Taecyeon groans. “No one’s going to believe that stupid excuse I made up, are they? What are the chances of me getting kicked out of the company for this?”
“You won’t get kicked out,” Nichkhun reassures him. “If I stay, you’ll stay for sure.”
“Easy for you to say, you’ve got a face like that.”
“You’ve got a great face!” Nichkhun grins. “I swear it. All we need to do is get better at singing and stuff, so they can’t kick us out. We just need to be confident we’ll succeed!”
“Ugh, that’s your master plan?” Taec whines. “Cheesy motivational lines?’
“It’s all I’ve got,” Nichkhun says.
And just the way he states it, Taecyeon can tell he’s serious. Man. What it must be like to be him right now. Taecyeon wonders how the guy can stand the pressure he’s under. The company expects so much from him. And he didn’t even want to be here in the first place. If you’re so far out at sea that you can’t see the land, what makes you sure you’ll survive?
"Let me talk to your friend Taec," Junsu's voice comes back on the phone. "He's fluent, right?" They had been lucky it was Junsu who picked up, not Jay; according to Nichkhun, Jay would have just laughed at them. Junsu had been exasperated (loudly so) about them breaking curfew ("Without me! Khun!"), but he seemed helpful enough. Taec wonders if he's ever seen Junsu around the JYPE building.
Nichkhun hands his phone to Taec. "Hello," Taecyeon says. "Sorry for all the trouble."
"No worries man," Junsu laughs. "I'm glad you took Khun out for a night. Seriously, he does nothing but mope around at home and hog the keyboard."
"I do lots things!" Nichkhun argues. Taecyeon turns his back to him so he can concentrate on the directions Junsu reads out to him. He makes Taec repeat it to him just to make sure Taec's got it memorized.
"Thanks for your help," Taecyeon says, motioning for Nichkhun to follow him. "I'll bring him home soon."
Junsu snorts. "He is kinda like a pet dog, isn't he? Well, I appreciate it. Good to know that Khun's new friend is taking care of him. I actually got kind of worried when Jay told me some tall kid came by and Khun took off with him -- Khun's just a nice guy, you know? He goes along with things crazy easily. Plus he, like, doesn't understand half the stuff you say to him."
Taecyeon does indeed know all of this. But it’s comforting to know Nichkhun’s got people who are concerned for his well-being.
"Anyway, I'll wait up for you guys to come back," Junsu goes on. "I doubt that Khun brought his keys. And it'd be cool to meet you too, man. You're new, right? Welcome to the company."
"Thanks," Taec smiles. "It'll be nice to meet you too."
"Yo, how much money was in that wallet, anyway?"
"Five USD and some change."
Junsu groans. "What an idiot." But Taecyeon can hear the affection in his voice. "See you guys later."
Nichkhun looks up at Taec. “It wasn’t about the money, you know that, right?” He takes out his wallet again and opens up a folded flap on the side pocket, holding it up for Taec to see.
They’re photos. Of happy people.
"It's my family," Nichkhun explains, beaming at Taec. "I keep all my favourite pictures in this pocket, so I can look at them when I get lonely or depressed. I would've killed myself if I had lost these. It was my family who encouraged me to come try this idol thing out."
Taec can feel himself smiling back. "That's cool of them."
"I think so too. They're the only reason I'm still here. Well, them, and the friends I’ve met here," Nichkhun admits. He doesn’t look away from Taec as he says this and for one inexplicable moment, Taecyeon is proud of him.
"Did you really?!" Chansung shouts to him, as soon as Taecyeon's inside the dorm. "Hyung, did you really?"
"Did I really what?" Taec asks, taking off his shoes. "Did I really go out in the city and break curfew? Yeah."
Chansung bounces on his feet, nearly giddy. He shares a look with Junho, who’s standing behind him. "No! But yes! But I meant, did you really spend the whole evening with Nichkhun? Everyone's been talking about it!"
"Why? What's the big deal?"
"People are wary of messing with Nichkhun," Junho says. "Rumour has it that he's one of the ones who are going to stay here indefinitely. So he's in a better position than most of us."
"I didn't mess with him at all," Taec says, making a face. "And I don't think he's in much of a better position. Lots of pressure on him right now."
Junho presses his lips together. "Still. There are other trainees who would gladly be in his place. ...He's really nice, hyung. But it's still a competition between all of us and he can't sing or dance or rap or even speak Korean. Some people don’t like that.”
Taecyeon frowns. "He's working on it. And now I'm here to help him with his Korean." It's not like Junho's being mean, but Taecyeon, for some reason, wants to defend Nichkhun. Just because Junho won Superstar Survival doesn't mean he -- or anyone else -- has more of a right to be here than Nichkhun does. Everyone has their own auditions to pass. Nichkhun's is just slightly different, more drawn out, from the rest of theirs. One night with Nichkhun and that’s what Taecyeon realized.
But Junho surprises him by breaking out into a smile. "I'm glad to hear that. Honestly, that person needs all the help he can get."
Taecyeon blinks. "You're not--"
"No no no!" Junho waves his hands, flustered. "I really like Khun hyung. But some people are a bit... resentful of him, I guess. I just wanted to make sure you weren't one of them. Sorry if I looked a little too serious."
"I like Khun hyung too!" Chansung blurts, swinging an arm around Junho's shoulders. "He always shares his lunch with me."
Junho tilts a bit to adjust for Chansung's weight. "I hope you two had fun tonight. What did you do?"
Taecyeon pauses dramatically, then announces, "We sang karaoke. Then got mugged. And Nichkhun took out the thieves. And then some hookers propositioned us."
Junho’s mouth drops open slightly. "No. Way."
It's past one in the morning when Taecyeon finally crawls into bed. He rummages around his blankets for his cell phone and notices that he's got a new text message. It's from Nichkhun.
Thx 4 tonite!! Good 2 make a new friend!! ^^
Taec quickly types back, Are you serious?! After all that?! Wtf man but thanks
A few seconds later, his phone buzzes with a reply: lol well we.re back safe and sound. Thats the main thing
Taec types, Ppl here were all shocked i got so close to famous Nichkhun-sshi!!! Btw i bragged that youre a ninja.
Buzz. >__< lol just call me Khun!!! Im not a ninja lol
Ok! Taec writes. Dude go to sleep, early day tomorrow.
Early days 4 rest of lives, Nichkhun’s return message says. gonna b BIG IDOLS!!!
Taecyeon snickers. Lmao thats gonna be just you.
Nichkhun's response is immediate.
No, he writes. u 2 i know it. Better get used to my face, handsome taecyannie!!! keke we re going to stick together ok??
He'd spelt Taecyeon's name wrong. But he'd called Taecyeon handsome.
There's a huge grin on Taecyeon's face when he types back, Of course! Going to teach you Korean or die trying. Cant have you getting kidnapped or smth on us.
Haha ur 1 of a kind taec, says Khun. glad i met u <3 lets both do our best here.
That night, Taecyeon dreams about surfing.
Title: Hello His Name Is
Fandom: 2PM
Pairings: Taec and Khun bromance
Rating: PG, it's pretty tame
Words: ~7,200
Summary: The first day Taecyeon meets Nichkhun, he decides to take him for a night out on the town.
Notes: Man this was supposed to be funny and adventurous. It turned out to be not much of either. :(
"So we'd like for you to act as a translator for him," his manager tells Taecyeon that morning. "The company's determined to keep him, but he needs help getting used to the country. Will you do that?"
"Sure," Taecyeon says. "Sounds good."
He'd said that, but that was only because Taecyeon knew his place. Trainees received instructions, not requests, no matter how sweet the tone. Besides, Taec’s the only fully bilingual person here; if not him, then who else?
Geez. His second week living in Korea after almost a decade in the States, his third day in JYPE, and Taecyeon's already saddling up with responsibilities that he didn't ask for. He came here to try new things and indulge in purely selfish pursuits for once, instead of always focusing on school-related achievements to please his parents (or worse, for "his future"): GPAs, honour rolls, an impressive academic record. Taecyeon had come to Korea to have fun. Jump headfirst into the deep end.
His manager nods and says, "I think you two will get along. He's that quiet type, but he seems kind enough."
"Great," Taec says.
He's given a careful look. "Don't get swept into the jealousy, Taecyeon."
Taecyeon blinks. "What jealousy?"
Taecyeon first meets Nichkhun in the first floor's men's washroom in the JYPE training building, before Taec had been called for that meeting. Nichkhun had been coming out of the room just as Taecyeon had been going in, and he'd nearly slammed the door into Taecyeon's face by mistake. He'd hurriedly apologized in brutalized Korean before he walked off, but all Taecyeon had been able to pay attention to were the two pieces of fur growing overtop of this dude's eyes. After Taecyeon had done his business and washed his hands, he'd loitered a while in the washroom, staring at his own reflection in the mirror, touching his new nose, stroking his own eyebrows, inspecting his teeth (for longer than he'd probably like to admit). Wondering about his looks. Not that Taec thought of himself as an ugly or anything, but that other guy had been -- well, far from gorgeous, but... pretty in way that would immediately attract attention in a crowd. Good attention.
Taecyeon though. He's a Korean back in Korea, and he's trying to become an idol even though he can’t really sing for crap. Swim his way through an ocean of competition. Make everyone see him. What makes Taecyeon stand out?
Taec supposes it's just as well that there isn't anything. It's not like Taec is actually going to be an idol. He's just here for the experience.
Taecyeon remembers that first meeting because of Nichkhun's eyebrows, mostly. After they've been officially introduced, Nichkhun tells him he remembers that first meeting because he'd thought Taec was gay, from the way Taec had been staring at him. Taec doesn't know what's worse: that, or the fact that Nichkhun tries to make him feel better by saying that he actually got those looks a lot.
"But it's just that everyone in Korea is really touchy-feely," Nichkhun explains to Taecyeon, over lunch in the trainee lounge. "You know that other American guy? Jay Park? I've talked to him about it before." Nichkhun laughs. "I think he hates it here."
Taecyeon can understand that, but the thought of JYP-favourite, full-blooded American homeboy Park Jaebeom (who Taecyeon has yet to meet in person, but it's not like you need to see Park Jaebeom to know Park Jaebeom) being scared of guy-cooties or homo-germs or whatever disease he must think they all have is kind of hilarious. Taecyeon wishes he had been around to see Jay's face (which, according to trainee gossip, is "pretty nice") the first time another male tried to give him a hug.
"Is his Korean really as bad as they say?" Taec asks.
Nichkhun shrugs and swirls his chopsticks in his soup. "He's better than me, totally. And he's good enough that he gets to go to a normal school, not just special language classes."
"I wonder if they're going to ask me to start translating for him too?"
Nichkhun smiles. "I don't know; he's kind of busy all the time. He's always practising. He doesn't... hang out with the rest of us."
"Huh," Taec says.
"Everyone admires him though. He's very talented," Nichkhun adds, voice quieter.
Great, now Taecyeon feels like a douche. "No, come on," he says. "I'm sure you're talented too. I mean, you're one of the only non-Koreans here, right? The agency doesn’t just let anyone in."
"It's not like," Nichkhun starts to say, but purses his lips together instead, "I mean, I'm not talented."
Taecyeon can't seriously believe that. Jay "Seattle Street" Park might have the reputation around here, but Nichkhun's name is known too. It's attached to words like "flower boy" and "foreigner" and "don't understand a word he's saying," but people know about him. Taecyeon knew about Nichkhun his second day in (the first day he had been too busy trying to keep track of the trainer's barking voice to care much about the other guys suffering the same fate as him), and it's not like Taecyeon knows many others.
He should probably do something about that, come to think of it. Can't have fun in what might be years of training together without a good group of friends, right?
Hm.
"Let's do something tonight," Taecyeon suggests. "In the city."
Nichkhun coughs around his spoonful of soup. "We can't do that!" he sputters. "If we break curfew, we'll get in trouble!"
"No, wait, hear me out," Taecyeon says quickly, an idea forming in his head. "If we get caught, I can just say that I was taking you to the museum or something to educate you on Korean history, and we got lost. You're Thai and I'm still new here. They'd completely believe it!"
"But in that case, we are going to get lost," Nichkhun says.
"I'll bring a pocket map or something. How hard can it be? I can always ask people for directions."
Nichkhun leans back in his chair, mulling it over. His bottom lips juts out the picture-perfect amount as he thinks and Taecyeon nurses a brief worry about his own lips -- how are Nichkhun’s so shiny and smooth? Taec needs some lip chap.
"I guess we could try it once," Nichkhun says eventually.
Taecyeon grins. Relief. "Great! You're living in the west dorms, right? I'll come to your place tonight; my stuff's not all unpacked anyway."
"All right," Nichkhun agrees. "Should I dress up?"
"Look decent, I guess. But go for as discreet as possible." Taecyeon says. This is great; something exciting to do today. He can already hear a good time calling.
When Nichkhun opens the dormitory door for him that night, he spends an uncomfortably long time staring at Taec before letting him inside.
"I thought you said discreet," he says at last, eyes flitting up to Taec's.
Taecyeon looks down at his own clothes. "This is discreet."
"Yo, Khun, what the hell is that guy wearing?" There's a short guy in a bright pink t-shirt glaring balefully at Taecyeon from the end of the hall, a dumbbell in his hand. Oh. Park Jaebeom, in the flesh.
Funny, Taecyeon hadn't expected him to be so small. From the way that some of the other trainees had been going on about him, Taec had been under the impression that Jaebeom possessed enough charisma to light up a dark alley or something. Seeing him now, he actually seems more like the kind of person Taecyeon would like to share a bag of chips with while watching a basketball game.
Nichkhun looks back at Jaebeom sheepishly. "Jay, this is Taec. He's helping me learn Korean. So he can speak English."
"There's nothing wrong with my outfit," Taec says to Jay.
"Are you colour-blind, man?" Jay says with what Taec hopes is absolutely no malice. He walks over curiously, the tension that had been colouring his face quickly disappearing. "Where are you from?"
"Bedford, Massachusetts. It's right by Boston. I'm not colour-blind."
"Were you born in the States? Your accent's a lot less painful than Khun's."
"Hey," Nichkhun interjects.
Taec smiles. So Jaebeom's the blunt type. "No, I just went there mainly for middle school and high school. I just got accepted into JYP last month, so I flew back here."
"Huh," Jaebeom says, shifting his dumbbell to his other hand. "Are you a singer?"
Taec cannot envision any reply he could give that will end well, so he just shrugs and goes for honesty. "They want me to rap, so I hear. I'm not good at it, though."
That actually makes Jaebeom laugh. "You and Khun are like, meant for each other then. He sucks balls at singing and rapping too."
"Hey," Nichkhun says again, a bit crosser. "I'm doing my best here."
"Yeah, yeah," Jaebeom says. "So are you moving into this place or what?"
"No, I live with the newer trainees in the east dorms. I'm just here to take Nichkhun out for a night on the town. Do Korean-y things." Taec can feel himself grinning. "You should come with us."
Jaebeom balks and takes a step back. "No thanks. I've got better shit to do. It's Taec, right?" Taecyeon nods. "Right. Well, I'll probably see you around the training building or something. It was nice to meet you." He reaches out for a very brief handshake and heads away to another room.
Nichkhun sighs, watching him go. "Sorry, Jay's kind of... he's awkward with Korean things. He even used to fist bump a lot, but he got scolded."
"Scolded?" Taec teases. "Do you seriously talk like that?"
"I talk better than you dress, though," Nichkhun quips lightly, tugging on the end of Taecyeon's bright orange jacket. "This thing is weird."
"What's wrong with it?" Taec asks.
Half an hour later, they finally leave the dormitory, Taecyeon freshly dressed in a set of Nichkhun's street clothes that really don't fit as well as Nichkhun reassured him they would (Taec appreciates his effort though). One of the things Taec's mom had reminded him of before Taec had boarded his plane was that he absolutely had to be friendly with the stylists who would eventually be working with him. "They know their job," she'd told him, but Taec's seen some of those older music videos -- even he has better fashion sense than those people did. But still, Taecyeon concedes that he's better suited for other people dressing him, and he feels oddly pleased that Nichkhun cared enough to help, even though it's their first day together.
Or maybe he had just been scared to be seen with Taec in public, in his original outfit. Whatever. Honestly, Taecyeon's not even sure that the clothes Nichkhun picked for him are as discreet as he made them out to be, because they're walking down the street now and a few people's heads are actually swivelling as they pass.
Oh wait. They're swivelling as Nichkhun passes, not Taec.
"Jay's right though," Nichkhun's telling him as they head to the bus stop. "I'm not good with singing or dancing or rapping. The trainers are always telling me I'm the worst in the whole company." He doesn't sound upset about it though, which Taec supposes is a good thing.
"Don't let them get you down," Taec says. "The fact that you passed auditions already says something about your talent." That’s what Taec’s manager had told him, back when Taecyeon himself had been surprised that he'd passed his auditions.
Nichkhun looks at Taec, eyes wide. "Actually, I didn't go to any auditions."
What? Taec's surprised. "Then how did you get in?" he asks.
Nichkhun laughs awkwardly. "The scouting people actually... kept on phoning me until I agreed to join the agency. It was really a bit overwhelming. They just wouldn’t take no for an answer. So I decided to try it."
Taec pauses. What the hell, that's just... something else. Most of the trainees here got into the agency by beating out hundreds of other participants in competitions, like Junho from Taec’s dorm did: he’d won Superstar Survival. Taec himself had to audition again after getting kicked out from that competition, before finally getting accepted into the company. But it’s the same story with everyone: they all put in effort to be here. Nichkhun's telling him that he had been begged to join JYPE? It’s like being thrown a life-preserver while everyone else is madly swimming towards the one lifeboat.
Is this what his manager had been talking about, when he'd told Taecyeon not to be jealous?
Right, like Taecyeon can actually begrudge someone for going down a path they hadn’t planned on. Taecyeon had auditioned to be a model.
"To be honest with you," Nichkhun goes on, "I don't really want to be a singer. I just didn't want to waste the opportunity."
Hey. Taecyeon can get behind that. He's about to tell Nichkhun, but he sees the bus approaching. "Just wondering," he says. "How much money to do you have on you?"
Nichkhun takes out his wallet. "Five American dollars and 700 baht. Oh, and a 100-won coin. What about you?"
"I've got 5000 won."
"Wait, how much are bus tickets again?"
"At least it's nice weather tonight," Taecyeon says as the two of them trudge down the street.
"Where are we going?" Nichkhun asks.
"Around, I guess." Taecyeon glances back and forth across the street. There are tea shops, clothing stores, music stores, fast food places; all these things to do and they're wandering in circles. "Can you just pick something? What do you feel like doing?"
"I really don't know. Are you hungry?"
"We've got 5000 won and five USD."
Nichkhun laughs. "We can split a meat bun or something." He points to a street vendor in front of them. He's fanning away at something steaming, and the aroma of fresh spices carries quickly to Taecyeon's nose. But Taecyeon's more attracted to something more than the food, namely, the two high school girls standing nearby, rifling through their school bags for what Taec assumes is some loose change.
"Hey, lesson number one," Taec says, grabbing Nichkhun's elbow and dragging him forward. "Making conversation with girls."
Nichkhun goes pale (well, paler) and pulls backwards, hard. "No way, I'm not ready for that! They're going to think I'm a moron."
"Don't be ridiculous, they'll love you," Taec says, tugging harder. More correctly, they'll love Nichkhun's face. Taecyeon can handle the talking.
The two girls look wary as they approach, and Taec wonders if it's because he's showing too much teeth in his smile. Like the big bad wolf or something equally lame. Taecyeon tries to look charming.
"Hello there," he says, keeping his voice low and tone casual.
"Hello," one of the girls replies slowly. Her eyes flit to Nichkhun. "Hello," she says to him.
"Hi," Nichkhun says in poorly accented Korean, and he bows to the girls, with his hands clapped in front of him.
It works though. The second girl blushes and gives a short bow back. "Hello!" she chirps, giggling.
Taecyeon can't hide his teeth this time. Score.
No score.
"Your Korean," Taec starts to say, leaning his head against the back of the restaurant booth he shares with Nichkhun, sans femmes.
"Hm," Nichkhun agrees.
"Is seriously just."
"Yeah."
"So bad."
"...yeah."
"How is your Korean so bad?" Taecyeon says. He pushes himself upright and flaps his hands in front of Nichkhun's face. "Haven't you been living here for months? What happened?!"
"I just," Nichkhun says, staring absently out the window of the restaurant. "I'm trying, okay. It's hard."
Taecyeon cups his cheeks, sighing loudly. "Those girls were sooo cute, darn. Imagine if they hadn't been offended by what you said and invited us to go partying with them or something. That would have been great."
Nichkhun frowns and adjusts the cap on his head. "Well, it's too late now," he says. "They think I'm a creep."
"And me by association," Taec nods. He taps his teeth out of habit. "You don't think they'll call the police on us, do you?"
Nichkhun's eyebrows rise. "Why would they do that? I didn't say anything that horrible, did I?"
"Dude, you don't know Korea. What'll be worse is if they blog about us. Thank goodness we didn't take pictures with them or anything."
"I'm going to have a talk with Jay when I get back home," Nichkhun mutters. "Lying to me like that. I'm never going to learn Korean from him again. Who's been teaching him swear words? I bet it was Junsu. They think they're all gangster like that." His head darts up to meet Taec's gaze. "Please promise me right now that you're not going to fill my vocabulary with profanity."
Taec holds up his hands. "If I do, you can report me. They'll kick me out of JYPE for screwing with one of their favoured trainees."
This just makes Nichkhun frown more. "I'm not, stop saying that."
"No, you totally are," Taecyeon insists. "They told me. The company's determined to 'keep you.'" He makes bunny ears with his fingers to emphasize his point. "You're safe. You're going to debut."
"We'll see," Nichkhun says flatly. But Taecyeon doesn't get to argue more, because a waitress darts up to them, eyes bright and notebook ready.
"Hi, welcome. Can I take your orders please?" she asks eagerly, staring unabashedly at Nichkhun.
"Er," Nichkhun flounders, grabbing the menu and flipping through the pages. "Can I have, please, to, um." He makes a circle shape with the fingers of one hand as he tries to gather his words.
"Oh!" the waitress lights up. "Something to drink? Water? Tea? Coffee? Juice? Coke?" Nichkhun opens his mouth as she says this, and she nods. "Great! One large Coke, coming right up!" She dashes off without even looking once at Taecyeon.
Nichkhun puts down his menu. "That's... kind of why I suck at speaking. People speak for me, usually."
"I see," says Taecyeon, blowing air into one cheek. "But I don't know, man. If you're going to be a national idol, you have to be fluent in the national language."
"That's if I become an idol though," Nichkhun adds forlornly. "I have to practise harder. I think everyone’s got a better chance to become an idol than me. Especially you!”
“Me?” Taec bursts out laughing. “I can’t sing or dance or anything either. Why me?”
“Because you’re funny and you speak well,” Nichkhun says, like it’s obvious. He sighs. “I really do need to improve in Korean. I actually wanted water, not Coke. She just was talking too fast." He offers a tentative smile to Taecyeon. "Will you lend me some money?"
Going out tonight had been a bad idea, Taec realizes this now. It's not so much that Nichkhun's Korean is much worse than Taec had anticipated, but it's that Nichkhun's sucky Korean is attracting attention to a degree only surpassed by Nichkhun's pretty, un-Korean face. It's a bad combination: people have approached to talk, and have left disappointed and confused when Nichkhun's barely able to stumble out a coherent sentence to them. And it's not that Taecyeon is annoyed or anything, but he's realistic: sooner or later some excited pre-teen girl is going to take an unsavoury snapshot of Nichkhun with her cell phone, and once Nichkhun debuts, that's going to spell nothing but trouble for him. And Taecyeon by default, if he even lasts that long here.
It's not just young girls, either. Grandmothers have come by to stroke Nichkhun's arm, pinch his cheek; Taecyeon is getting a lot of compliments for having such an attractive friend, "even though he does seem a bit on the slow side, dear." Their sole comments about Taec have been about his height.
Taecyeon suddenly sees the logic in why Nichkhun must be kept in the company, at all costs. He's an attention magnet. They'd make a killing off him.
"Hey, you there!" a shop owner calls out to them as they walk by his small store. "You guys look like two energetic young men! Strong voices, I'll bet! Come here; come test my new karaoke system! I guarantee the quality will blow you away!"
"No and thank you very much," Nichkhun says, inclining his head. This is his best Korean sentence. Taecyeon's heard it probably a hundred times today.
"Aw, come on!" the vendor pushes, pursuing them for a few steps. "Two kids like yourselves aren't interested in karaoke? You've got to be kidding me! Come on, come on, try it out! No pressure to buy!"
Another thing that Taecyeon has noticed about Nichkhun: he's too nice. No, nice isn't the right word. He's too accommodating. He takes direction extremely easily, without complaining. The whole night, whenever Taec translated for him, he’d just dutifully repeated the words, like a perfect student. Even though Jaebeom had taught Nichkhun nothing but curse words, Nichkhun hadn’t questioned anything Taec said. And even though all these strangers have talked to him, some of them even laughing at his poor language skills, Nichkhun hasn’t been rude to any of them. Polite first, self-concerned after.
But the split second where Taecyeon tries to reach for Nichkhun's wrist to pull him away from the vendor, the guy's already got his hand on Nichkhun's forearm, and is leading him back to the shop. Nichkhun just walks along with him, tossing an apologetic look at Taecyeon back over his shoulder. Taecyeon quickly follows.
"Just sing anything you like," the shopkeeper says, shoving a shiny karaoke mic into Nichkhun's hand.
"Um, I can't--" Nichkhun starts.
But a crowd has already gathered; Taecyeon heaves a sigh of resignation. It's a free show on the street; of course bystanders are going to watch. Plus, Nichkhun's face.
Some of the people are giggling and whispering to their friends and Nichkhun notices; his eyebrows pinch inwards for one long moment as he stares at the microphone, and he opens his mouth to sing.
Jaebeom, Taecyeon realizes sadly, had been right.
"Your singing," Taecyeon says.
"Don't," Nichkhun says shortly.
"Is seriously just."
Nichkhun walks a little faster to avoid what he knows Taec is going to say. Taecyeon jogs up to him. "I'm just kidding," he says. "It's not even like I can talk. My singing's ten times worse. We're just lucky the old guy hadn't asked me to test out the mic. We would've ruined his sales indefinitely."
Nichkhun continues with his brisk pace and says nothing. Maybe he's upset because a few people had been giggling while he'd been singing -- and not the friendly sort of giggling. Taec feels a little bad about it, but it wasn't like Nichkhun’s voice had been so horrible that Taecyeon got second hand embarrassment (his pronunciation had actually been modestly better while singing). Besides. If Nichkhun is going to make it as an idol, he had better get used to people criticizing his performances. Him being from Thailand, he probably has no idea how vicious the audience could be here.
But it's the guy's first time in Korea. And Nichkhun is nice; Taec likes him. He's been a good sport about this so far failure of a night. And Nichkhun's experience in Korea is partly Taec's responsibility now. They're likely going to be sticking together for a long time and Taec doesn't want to start off their relationship with bad memories. After a few more moments of tense silence, Taecyeon is fed up.
"Look, sorry. I didn't mean to be a dick there. Your singing is fine, really. And anyway, we've got voice coaches for a reason, so after some more practise you and I can--"
"Can I ask you something?" Nichkhun interrupts. "Why did you join the company?"
"Pardon?"
"I mean," Nichkhun stops walking. He looks straight at Taec. "What made you decide to pack up your life and move to another country? You could have, I don't know, done something else. Anything else." Nichkhun's shoulders drop slightly. "The company spends a lot of money on us, so they want our best, but we might not even make it. You fit well back in the US, didn't you? You don't have any accent at all. So why did you come back here?"
Taecyeon doesn't get it. He jokes, "I don't know if you've noticed, man, but I sort of blend into the crowd in Korea, that's how well I fit here." But Nichkhun just tilts his head, unsmiling. Taecyeon supposes he wants a real answer.
"I guess... I just wanted something new," Taec says slowly. "It wasn't really about pursuing a dream or anything like that." At first, it'd just been on a whim. Taec liked being spontaneous and the attention it got him. He liked trying new things. And he liked succeeding. He'd thought, if he was going to be something other than a doctor or a lawyer or a dentist, he might as well be something so completely opposite so there was no way Taec could fall back on some middle ground. Otherwise, it wouldn't be interesting, and there'd be no point.
It's like being in water. Taec doesn't like to just swim. He likes to dive, he likes to surf. He wants to do things most people can't do, won't do. He wants to rise above the majority. He wants to see how far he can go before the waves overwhelm him and he gets pulled under. He's eighteen years old and Taecyeon wants to make the most out of his life and show everyone how far he can go. He doesn't want to die behind a desk.
"If you're afraid of--" Taecyeon begins, but Nichkhun briefly disappears from view as two men in hoodies bump violently into him as they run past.
"Hey!" Nichkhun shouts, nearly pitching over.
"Sorry!!" one of them calls out as they hurry away.
Taec reaches for Nichkhun. "You okay?" But Nichkhun's staring after the two men, face blank. Suddenly, he puts his hand into his jacket pocket and freezes.
"They took my wallet!" he hisses, and takes off running.
"What?!" Taecyeon shouts.
"My wallet!!" Nichkhun yells back. "They stole it!"
Taecyeon sighs and gives chase. They really should not have come out tonight.
“Nichkhun!” Taec calls, panting. “Dude! Give it up! It’s five dollars, come on!”
“No!” Nichkhun calls back, running faster (no wait, that’s Taec running slower). “That’s my wallet and I need that!”
“Augh, damn it,” Taecyeon huffs. This isn’t fair; he is not in good shape. Nichkhun’s been in training for months; of course he’s got better stamina. Taec’s chest is freaking burning and he can’t catch his breath anymore. Taecyeon slows to a stop. Nichkhun hurries on ahead, following the break in the crowd that the two thieves had created. The three of them round a corner into an alleyway between two scraggly looking restaurants.
Taecyeon swears in English and Korean. If Nichkhun gets himself in trouble... Well. That would suck, to say the least. Taecyeon takes a deep breath and jogs to catch up.
He approaches the corner of the alley silently and sees Nichkhun backed into a pile of trash, the two thugs on his either side. They don’t notice Taecyeon. They’re jeering at Nichkhun, faking punches. Nichkhun stands his ground, his face steely. In the dark shadows of the alley, he looks a lot less innocent. It’s unnerving.
“Going to call the police, pretty boy?” one of the men sneers. “Oh, wait, you can’t. You can’t even speak the language.”
“Go back to where you came from,” the other laughs.
“Let’s see what pretty boy’s got in his wallet,” the first man suggests, taking out his prize. He opens it up and freezes. “Oi, hey. There’s like, five American dollars in here and some other weird bills. He doesn’t even have any money! What the fuck!”
“No way, you’re shitting me!” his friend says. “I swear this guy looked full of it.” He leans in to check the contents of the wallet, and in that instant, Nichkhun catches Taecyeon’s eye. Before Taecyeon even realizes that something’s about to happen, Nichkhun’s kicked one of the men in the waist and punches the other one holding his wallet in the stomach. They grunt in pain and surprise, taking a few steps back. Nichkhun reaches out and grabs his wallet out of loose fingers and throws it to Taecyeon.
Taec catches it. “Um.”
Nichkhun ducks past the two thugs, just as they reach for him. “Run!” he yells.
Taec runs.
Ten minutes later, Taec wishes he hadn’t. Or at the very minimum, he wishes he hadn’t followed Nichkhun’s lead, because Nichkhun hadn’t been watching where he was going as he was running (not that he could read street signs, anyway) and had lead Taecyeon around in random directions until he realized that the two of them weren’t being followed. The thieves obviously had thought chasing them wasn’t worth the trouble, considering Nichkhun’s wallet was practically empty. That actually had been kind of lame.
Still, the kicking and punching part had been cool.
“My dad made me take some basic martial arts lessons,” Nichkhun had explained casually, when Taec had demanded an explanation for going Bruce Lee on him. “For self-defence. I travelled by myself a lot as a kid, and he wanted me to be safe.”
Too bad Nichkhun hadn’t been a boy scout either.
“Are we lost?”
“Maybe.” Yes.
“I think we’re lost.”
“I said maybe.”
“Where’s your map?” Nichkhun asks. “I thought you said you were going to bring a map?”
“They’re in my pants pocket!” Taec says. “And those are on your bed. Back at your dorm.”
“Oh. Right. Whoops.”
Taec lets out a breath. “Let’s just ask someone for directions.”
But there’s no one on the streets. And all the shops around them look really, really sketchy. It’s nearly 11 pm but a normal street in Seoul shouldn’t be this empty, should it? Taecyeon has a bad feeling about where they are.
“You should have just let them keep the wallet,” Taec says tiredly. “I could have, I don’t know, reimbursed you or something.”
Nichkhun frowns. “No, I like my wallet. Plus, it’s the principle of the thing. I don’t like people taking advantage of me.”
“People do that?” Taec asks. That sucks.
Nichkhun shrugs. “Not... really. But I can’t speak Korean well, so I’m sure it’s happened.” He laughs a little. “I mean, I nearly just got beat up by those two guys! I think I’m just way in over my head in this country.”
Taecyeon gets it. The first few weeks he’d spent in America as a kid, unable to speak a word of English besides video game slogans, it’d been like being dunked underwater. Trying to swim with the current, but unable to get out to take a gulp of air. The culture and language had been so different, washing over him like unintelligible noise. His favourite place during those months had been home, where he could understand everything. But in Korea, Nichkhun doesn’t even have that to help him.
For things like that, you just need practise. Little by little, you improve. Your vocabulary grows; you start to gain a better foothold; you’re not so overwhelmed by everything anymore. Keep yourself afloat. Nichkhun can do it. But Taecyeon, who had been assigned to lend him a hand, took him for a night out in the town instead, where he’d gotten mugged, of all things.
What a fantastic adventure today had been.
Up ahead, Taecyeon notices three women walking slowly down the empty street. “Hey look,” he nudges Nichkhun. “Let’s go ask them for directions.”
“Okay,” Nichkhun says.
They’re a few yards away from the three women, Taec skids to a stop, Nichkhun right beside him. The three women stare at them, their thick makeup shining under the streetlight. Holy crap. Hookers. And they look mean.
Taecyeon grabs Nichkhun’s hand. “Quick, pretend we’re a couple.”
“What!” Nichkhun hisses.
“I don’t know! Just do it?”
“You boys looking for a good time?” one of the women calls.
“Don’t say anything,” Taec warns Nichkhun, tugging him back the way they came. “Let’s just try to get out of here.”
“Aw, don’t be like that! We’re nice to teenagers!” All three of them laugh loudly.
“Are they going to rape us?” Nichkhun whispers, eyes huge.
“No, geez! Shut up!”
“Hey!” one of the women shouts after them. “Are you guys really like that? You aren’t, are you? Pansies?”
Taecyeon ignores her and walks a little faster.
The women laugh crudely again, their voices echoing down the empty streets. “Stupid boys!” But they don’t follow them, and Taec’s thankful.
Once they’re far enough away that they can’t hear the women anymore, Taecyeon turns to Nichkhun, letting go of his hand. “Sorry about that.”
“Why?” Nichkhun asks. “What did they say to us?”
“Nothing nice,” Taec says grimly. “Don’t worry about it.”
Nichkhun doesn’t seem bothered. “It’s fine. I don’t understand most of the things people say behind my back.”
Taec looks at him carefully. “I see.” That’s really kind of depressing.
“Anyway, shouldn’t we give up?” Nichkhun continues. “It’s almost midnight. Let’s call someone and tell them to come find us.”
“No, that’s a bad idea,” Taec says. What if the person they call reports them to their managers and spins the whole story in a negative light to hurt Nichkhun’s reputation? It’s possible. (Also. Since when did Taec get so paranoid? This entire night has given him a negative mindset on everything.)
“I’m calling my dorm,” Nichkhun decides. “They won’t tell on us. I promise.”
“You’re sure?” Taec doesn’t know the people in Nichkhun’s dorm. He can’t make any assumptions.
“Yeah,” Nichkhun nods. “They’re all really nice.”
"You guys are such idiots, Khun!!" Kim Junsu's voice shouts through the cell phone loudspeaker. “Especially you!”
"No, it's not us!" Nichkhun replies anxiously. "Those bad people--"
"I bet they picked on you because you looked like a clueless tourist! Were you walking around speaking English at the top of your lungs or something? Damn, you need to stop being so obvious about yourself!!"
"Hyung," Nichkhun says, exasperated, "please can you check up our, um."
"Location," Taecyeon supplies.
"Location," Nichkhun repeats, "on the map please? Hurry! We need fast. Left of...”
“Of Lucky Cards strip club,” Taecyeon enunciates slowly.
“Of Lucky Cads strap club on--"
"Okay okay, I heard you the first time," Junsu gripes. "Hold on, I'll check it up. Strip club, holy damn, and where am I?" There's a clicking sound as Junsu puts down the phone and then the faint sound of typing.
Nichkhun lets out a long breath and lowers his cell phone. "Well."
"Well," Taec nods.
“At least we had fun?” Nichkhun tries.
“You had fun?” Taecyeon asks, appalled.
Nichkhun laughs. “Well, it was exciting, wasn’t it? We’ll have a good story to tell when we get back.”
Taecyeon groans. “No one’s going to believe that stupid excuse I made up, are they? What are the chances of me getting kicked out of the company for this?”
“You won’t get kicked out,” Nichkhun reassures him. “If I stay, you’ll stay for sure.”
“Easy for you to say, you’ve got a face like that.”
“You’ve got a great face!” Nichkhun grins. “I swear it. All we need to do is get better at singing and stuff, so they can’t kick us out. We just need to be confident we’ll succeed!”
“Ugh, that’s your master plan?” Taec whines. “Cheesy motivational lines?’
“It’s all I’ve got,” Nichkhun says.
And just the way he states it, Taecyeon can tell he’s serious. Man. What it must be like to be him right now. Taecyeon wonders how the guy can stand the pressure he’s under. The company expects so much from him. And he didn’t even want to be here in the first place. If you’re so far out at sea that you can’t see the land, what makes you sure you’ll survive?
"Let me talk to your friend Taec," Junsu's voice comes back on the phone. "He's fluent, right?" They had been lucky it was Junsu who picked up, not Jay; according to Nichkhun, Jay would have just laughed at them. Junsu had been exasperated (loudly so) about them breaking curfew ("Without me! Khun!"), but he seemed helpful enough. Taec wonders if he's ever seen Junsu around the JYPE building.
Nichkhun hands his phone to Taec. "Hello," Taecyeon says. "Sorry for all the trouble."
"No worries man," Junsu laughs. "I'm glad you took Khun out for a night. Seriously, he does nothing but mope around at home and hog the keyboard."
"I do lots things!" Nichkhun argues. Taecyeon turns his back to him so he can concentrate on the directions Junsu reads out to him. He makes Taec repeat it to him just to make sure Taec's got it memorized.
"Thanks for your help," Taecyeon says, motioning for Nichkhun to follow him. "I'll bring him home soon."
Junsu snorts. "He is kinda like a pet dog, isn't he? Well, I appreciate it. Good to know that Khun's new friend is taking care of him. I actually got kind of worried when Jay told me some tall kid came by and Khun took off with him -- Khun's just a nice guy, you know? He goes along with things crazy easily. Plus he, like, doesn't understand half the stuff you say to him."
Taecyeon does indeed know all of this. But it’s comforting to know Nichkhun’s got people who are concerned for his well-being.
"Anyway, I'll wait up for you guys to come back," Junsu goes on. "I doubt that Khun brought his keys. And it'd be cool to meet you too, man. You're new, right? Welcome to the company."
"Thanks," Taec smiles. "It'll be nice to meet you too."
"Yo, how much money was in that wallet, anyway?"
"Five USD and some change."
Junsu groans. "What an idiot." But Taecyeon can hear the affection in his voice. "See you guys later."
Nichkhun looks up at Taec. “It wasn’t about the money, you know that, right?” He takes out his wallet again and opens up a folded flap on the side pocket, holding it up for Taec to see.
They’re photos. Of happy people.
"It's my family," Nichkhun explains, beaming at Taec. "I keep all my favourite pictures in this pocket, so I can look at them when I get lonely or depressed. I would've killed myself if I had lost these. It was my family who encouraged me to come try this idol thing out."
Taec can feel himself smiling back. "That's cool of them."
"I think so too. They're the only reason I'm still here. Well, them, and the friends I’ve met here," Nichkhun admits. He doesn’t look away from Taec as he says this and for one inexplicable moment, Taecyeon is proud of him.
"Did you really?!" Chansung shouts to him, as soon as Taecyeon's inside the dorm. "Hyung, did you really?"
"Did I really what?" Taec asks, taking off his shoes. "Did I really go out in the city and break curfew? Yeah."
Chansung bounces on his feet, nearly giddy. He shares a look with Junho, who’s standing behind him. "No! But yes! But I meant, did you really spend the whole evening with Nichkhun? Everyone's been talking about it!"
"Why? What's the big deal?"
"People are wary of messing with Nichkhun," Junho says. "Rumour has it that he's one of the ones who are going to stay here indefinitely. So he's in a better position than most of us."
"I didn't mess with him at all," Taec says, making a face. "And I don't think he's in much of a better position. Lots of pressure on him right now."
Junho presses his lips together. "Still. There are other trainees who would gladly be in his place. ...He's really nice, hyung. But it's still a competition between all of us and he can't sing or dance or rap or even speak Korean. Some people don’t like that.”
Taecyeon frowns. "He's working on it. And now I'm here to help him with his Korean." It's not like Junho's being mean, but Taecyeon, for some reason, wants to defend Nichkhun. Just because Junho won Superstar Survival doesn't mean he -- or anyone else -- has more of a right to be here than Nichkhun does. Everyone has their own auditions to pass. Nichkhun's is just slightly different, more drawn out, from the rest of theirs. One night with Nichkhun and that’s what Taecyeon realized.
But Junho surprises him by breaking out into a smile. "I'm glad to hear that. Honestly, that person needs all the help he can get."
Taecyeon blinks. "You're not--"
"No no no!" Junho waves his hands, flustered. "I really like Khun hyung. But some people are a bit... resentful of him, I guess. I just wanted to make sure you weren't one of them. Sorry if I looked a little too serious."
"I like Khun hyung too!" Chansung blurts, swinging an arm around Junho's shoulders. "He always shares his lunch with me."
Junho tilts a bit to adjust for Chansung's weight. "I hope you two had fun tonight. What did you do?"
Taecyeon pauses dramatically, then announces, "We sang karaoke. Then got mugged. And Nichkhun took out the thieves. And then some hookers propositioned us."
Junho’s mouth drops open slightly. "No. Way."
It's past one in the morning when Taecyeon finally crawls into bed. He rummages around his blankets for his cell phone and notices that he's got a new text message. It's from Nichkhun.
Thx 4 tonite!! Good 2 make a new friend!! ^^
Taec quickly types back, Are you serious?! After all that?! Wtf man but thanks
A few seconds later, his phone buzzes with a reply: lol well we.re back safe and sound. Thats the main thing
Taec types, Ppl here were all shocked i got so close to famous Nichkhun-sshi!!! Btw i bragged that youre a ninja.
Buzz. >__< lol just call me Khun!!! Im not a ninja lol
Ok! Taec writes. Dude go to sleep, early day tomorrow.
Early days 4 rest of lives, Nichkhun’s return message says. gonna b BIG IDOLS!!!
Taecyeon snickers. Lmao thats gonna be just you.
Nichkhun's response is immediate.
No, he writes. u 2 i know it. Better get used to my face, handsome taecyannie!!! keke we re going to stick together ok??
He'd spelt Taecyeon's name wrong. But he'd called Taecyeon handsome.
There's a huge grin on Taecyeon's face when he types back, Of course! Going to teach you Korean or die trying. Cant have you getting kidnapped or smth on us.
Haha ur 1 of a kind taec, says Khun. glad i met u <3 lets both do our best here.
That night, Taecyeon dreams about surfing.