Chapter Text
“I’m going to fuck him.” Changbin tells Jisung, staring at something, probably someone when he thinks about it, in the crowded club.
“Ok.” Jisung intones, voice bland. Changbin does that sometimes, he’s a very visually oriented person so he’ll just see someone and announce his intentions to whoever is nearby.
They’re going on stage in ten minutes though, and they have to meet up with Chan basically right now to get their mics. Changbin’s sexual overtures are going to have to wait.
It’s their first performance at this particular club, so Chan’s been backstage for the past thirty minutes making sure all their equipment is set up the way they want it. The set manager for this club had scouted them from a performance at one of their regular, much smaller, venues and if everything worked out, this might be a reoccurring deal.
It was pretty massive, for a trio that were rapping as a passion project. Jisung had been scoping out the crowd, a very lively couple hundred people. Bottle girls were walking around, their hands full even with a packed bar.
Definitely a step up from anything they’d done before.
Chan is still talking to some tech guy when they get backstage, and Jisung takes a moment to rearrange his outfit. He removes the oversized dress shirt, tying it to his waist instead. On stage he wants to attract attention, and this lets his sleeveless shirt frame his biceps while giving his outfit some motion when he bounces through his lines.
He flips his hat on backwards, and shakes his limbs out as he starts his vocal warmups. Chan and Changbin do the same beside him, though their warmups are a little less like a kid having a spastic episode.
Soon enough they’re handed mics and counted down. Jisung puts on his best fuckboy face, shoulders squared back and cocky grin ready. Then they’re out, running onto the stage to the intro beats of the first track on their set list and he’s rapping into the mic with his entire soul.
The crowd seems to love it.
They picked five of their songs with the most beat-heavy arrangements, lots of aggressive lyrics about making money and having lots of sex. There’s also a whole song about cake, carefully worded to sound like it’s a euphemism but was actually just Jisung really wanting cake one day.
Sometimes he’s glad that basically every word is a hidden sex thing, because he can make the dumbest of thoughts into relatable bangers. Most of the time he doesn’t enjoy that the world runs off sex, because it means that every conversation is full of landmines he doesn’t notice until he’s already stepped on them.
It always ends up ok when he writes songs. He has Chan and Changbin to screen his lyrics for accidental innuendos, and to add intentional ones in.
Their set goes well, the crowd is energized and bouncing along to their bassline, some even shouting their lyrics back during one of their more repetitive songs.
When they reconvened backstage, sweaty and hatless because Jisung might have head banged a little too hard, the set manager looks pleased. Chan is talking to them, trying to look really casual while he tries to juggle wiping the sweat off his face and nodding at something they said.
Another advantage of tying his shirt at his waist is that once he’s all toweled off he can put it back on and it’s still relatively dry. Chan finishes his conversation and they make their way back into the club floor with a purpose. Jisung wants to go find his hat, Changbin has his conquest from before, and Chan is probably going to chat up a bartender.
Finding his hat turns out not to be all that complicated, he sees the red brim bobbing in the middle of the dance floor pretty quickly. Getting the hat back will be more complicated, as the person wearing it in the middle of some sort of grinding train that Jisung doesn’t want to be anywhere near.
He could just run in and snatch the hat off the guy, but that somehow feels almost weirder than just walking up to him while he’s busy grinding his ass into someone.
So he does what feels like the least awkward solution and starts dancing nearby, keeping hat guy in his sights so he can step up when there’s an opening. Within seconds they make eye contact, hat guy lifting an eyebrow in question. Jisung immediately turns to look away, a blush on his face as he realizes that just walking up might have been the better option.
He tries to ignore hat guy, formulating a plan to just run by him and snag it off his head on his way out.
There’s an arm crossing his field of view, coming to rest on his shoulder. When he’s turns to look, it’s hat guy slinking his way into his personal space. He’s taller, incredibly handsome even at this short a distance, and oozing a confidence Jisung wishes he could have on stage.
“Hello, hottie.” He purrs at Jisung, and Jisung bites his lips because he just does not know what to do with this. All he wants is his hat back. “Why are you dancing all alone?”
“You’re wearing my hat.” Jisung blurts out, and hat guy’s expression freezes for a second. A hand pulls at the collar of his dress shirt, lifting it away briefly as hat guy rakes his eyes down his tank top and clearly recognizes the logo printed across his chest.
“So I am.” He smirks, tightening his arms around Jisung’s neck until his mouth is nearly at Jisung’s ear. “What are you going to do about it?”
Jisung pulls back and looks at him quizzically. “Ask for it back?” he says, and hat guy’s eyebrows rise like he’s surprised. Jisung likes that hat though, and he does want it back.
“And what will you do to get it back?” hat guys asks, a hand making it’s way down Jisung’s spine.
Hat guy’s being extremely obvious about what he wants, but Jisung has no interest in any of that. He has practiced being alluring in the mirror enough times that he can probably fake interest until he gets an opening to run away, hat in tow.
“What were you thinking exactly?” Jisung breathes, his best sensual smirk on, eyes hooded a little to imply interest. It feels weird, wrong even, but it seems to be convincing enough.
“Mmmm. I was thinking we could go backstage maybe.” Hat guy hums, fingers playing along Jisung’s spine in a way that makes him want to flinch away. “Wanna see if your mouth is good at more than just rapping.”
Jisung arches forward, primarily to get away from the ticklish fingers, but also so he can put a hand to hat guy’s nape, playing with the short hair there for a second while he looks like he’s deliberating.
“I’m not.” He replies, giving up the pretense as his fingers close on the hat’s closure and he pulls it off. “I just want my hat back.”
Hat guy - or hat-less guy now - frowns deeply, head titling like he’s confused things didn’t go his way. His arms are limp on Jisung’s shoulders though, and he can shrug out of them easily.
He makes his way off the dance floor quickly, weaving through the bodies until he reaches Chan at the bar. He’s predictably chatting up a cute bartender, leaning towards her as he takes sips from his glass of what looks like water.
So predictable.
“Where did you go?” Chan asks Jisung when he notices him, a fair question since Jisung doesn’t normally leave his side in venues this crowded.
“Had to go get my hat back.” He mutters, waving his hand at the dance floor. Chan cranes his neck to look, but the bartender asks Jisung for his drink order and he has a slightly sticky beer glass in his hand by the time Chan turns back around.
Three days later, in the middle of a ticket to fix some lady’s outlook settings because that’s apparently above her skillset, Chan calls him to say that they’re invited to perform at the club again. He sets the phone on his desk, speaker mode on, as he remote desktops into the lady’s computer and starts messing with the settings.
“They’re giving us a 45 minute block this time.” Chan says, “We’ll have to pick an expanded set list.”
Jisung knows they’re not going to make any song decisions right now, not without Changbin on the call to add his own thoughts. Jisung does know which songs he wants to perform, which ones might be better for a club setting.
Eventually they all meet at Changbin’s gym to discuss things. They work out for the first while, until Changbin is finished with his clients and they can huddle in the staff locker room and talk about their list.
Soon enough their new list and song order is decided, and Chan books a practice room at his university so they can get a sense for the performance as a whole. Jisung has arguably the most rigid work schedule of them, since he has to match the work hours of the company he’s contracted to.
Chan is a masters student with an endlessly flexible schedule, and Changbin works shifts around his personal training clients, so they can make things work.
Going through their set in a practice room feels a bit like the old days, when they were all trainees at a big company. They had become friends basically immediately, the few humans in a trainee group brimming with sirens, satyrs, and fae.
Jisung had held on for a year before his family couldn’t afford all the tutors and workshops to keep him on track and he’d pulled out to go back to school. Changbin had been bitten by a rabid werewolf while coming home from a late night practice and the company failed him out of the next evaluation once they realized he had been infected. No company wanted to deal with all the leave and conditions associated with his new status, idol schedules were too inflexible to care about the moon.
Chan had held on the longest, having been there three years before Jisung joined and staying on another two after he dropped out. He eventually gave up when he realized that the company was not going to let a boring human debut, even if he had all the skills. They wanted that extra oomph, the magic, just a touch of compulsion, that would make an idol magnetic.
Chan refused to give up on music though, and he enrolled in a music degree program immediately, and was now completing a masters in music production. It was through him that they could rent out all the equipment to record their tracks and practice their sets.
While working in IT definitely wasn’t Jisung’s dream job, it paid the bills in between the small time weekend rapping gigs.
And with Changbin, they how had that little bit of spice that brought in the crowds. He didn’t compel anyone like the traditional entertainers, but he did have a little bit of animal magnetism and a really smooth growl that sounded so good on stage.
“He’s here again!” Changbin shouts as they enter the venue, pointing at the dancefloor.
Changbin had never found the guy he had declared intentions on last time, evidently having disappeared during their set. The dancefloor is packed again, and Jisung isn’t interested in trying to figure out who Changbin is referring to specifically.
They’re the last set of the night, with only a house DJ going up after them. The current DJ, who is an invited set based on the giant sign with his socials, is doing a good job of keeping the energy up.
They go straight backstage, despite Changbin’s protests that he’ll miss out on the guy again if he doesn’t introduce himself.
The prep is quicker, Chan hands over the USB that has their songs pre-ordered, they get three mics hooked up to the sound system, and they do their warm ups.
Since they have more time on stage, they expanded into their more-than-just-rap songs. There are a couple ones that are on the edge of being poppy dance numbers, and one that is very sultry and smooth but with a good beat for the crowd. Those all will require a lot more of his vocal range, and he’s a little nervous because he hasn’t sung in public for a very long time.
When they run on stage, he can feel the energy of the crowd and his worries melt away. He became a trainee not only because he loves music, but because he loves sharing it with others. He lets the beat take over his body, rapping and singing his lines, and just moving to the beat as he sees fit when it’s someone else’s turn.
He’s learned his lesson from last time and didn’t bring a hat, but that also means he comes off the stage with damp hair everywhere and sweat dripping off his face. It’s amazing what an extra twenty minutes on stage will do to your stamina.
The set manager thanks them for their performance again, and Jisung wipes the sweat off his brow with the back of his long sleeve. He sticks close to Chan this time, following him to the bar where Chan orders them both water before Jisung can get anything a little harder.
Changbin has vanished into the crowd, presumably to find his conquest, and they’ll hear from him eventually. Very few things can hurt him now, so they generally don’t worry about him much.
They end up not seeing him for the rest of the night, nor hear from him most of the next day. Jisung knows he has clients on Saturday afternoons, so once the afternoon rolls around without a peep there won’t be anything for a while still.
That was the weirdest hookup of my life Changbin sends them late at night.
Found your man? Jisung sends at the same time as Chan texts A good weird tho?
Hands down best sex of my life, saw my life flash before my eyes
Was ready to ask for round two when the dude starts asking me questions about Ji
Totally killed the mood
Jisung doesn’t really know what to do with that information. People have been interested in him before, he’s conventionally attractive enough that he managed to get into a trainee program. Hat guy is an example of that.
No one ever pursues him for very long once he shows his cards, and certainly not mid-hookup with someone else. It feels very weird and a little intrusive.
Lolllll Chan texts while Jisung tries to process the information. Sungie cockblocking from across the city.
That statement spurs him into action. While he might not have a sex drive, he does have an ego and he will not tolerate his name being besmirched in this way.
He clearly slept with you to get to me
Who is the best wingman now? Jisung types adding a couple emoji for flavor. Chan isn’t worried, and he’s usually the one to be protective of Jisung and his eccentricities. It’s a pretty good sign to not panic over this.
What’d he ask? Chan sends, completely ignoring Jisung’s comments.
Nothing too weird
if we were friends, what you were
was really confused when I told him ur human
mybe has a supes kink and felt let down? Changbin types.
Cuz being ace isn’t a let down? Jisung replies
That didn’t come up
Also said it b4, but ur really missing out
dick so good I slept for like 10 hours Changbin continues.
Jisung’s gross and Chan’s niceeeee show up half a second apart. He might be the only one in the group that doesn’t suffer from sleeping issues, based on the evidence presented they’re probably the ones missing out.
The conversation moves on from there, Chan had made a new melody for a potential song and they discuss it for a while. Changbin also complains about one of his handsier clients, a woman. That was both good because he wouldn’t be tempted to cross any professional lines, but also bad because he was just uncomfortable with the whole encounter.
A month later they were called back for another performance at the big club. They had several smaller performances in between, and had done some busking when they all had the evening free. It was all pretty fun, but the club was the biggest payout and the most energized audience.
They were booked for another 45 minutes, a bit earlier this time so the crowd wouldn’t be as sloshed and maybe actually listening to their words.
There was a lot more activity backstage this time, with employees putting their stuff away into the lockers and servers changing into their uniforms.
“That’s the dude!” Changbin whisper shouts at them as they enter the space, eyes trying to point out a guy putting a bag in a locker. “Questions about Ji guy.”
Jisung stares at the back of his head as subtly as he can, but he does definitely feel a bit weirded out by the dude. He hopes he doesn’t approach them.
When the guy starts to turn around, Jisung is immediately turning around too, looking explicitly anywhere else.
“Damn, he’s hot.” Chan sighs out, and Jisung turns a little to stare at the eldest.
“I know, and he knows how to use it too.” Changbin says dreamily and Jisung just really wants out of the conversation.
“I understand Binnie maybe, but Chan - you’re straight.” Jisung mutters, pulling them forward towards the AV tech and away from the hookup.
“I’ll bend a little for him.” Chan exhales and that’s deeply concerning, because Chan has never shown interest in a single guy ever. Not even any of the sirens they hung out with as trainees.
“Oh fuck, he’s coming over.” Changbin says and Jisung wants to punch something, maybe claw their eyes out so they can move on from the clearly a bit creepy dude Jisung wants nothing to do with.
“Hello. Fancy seeing you here.” A very smooth voice calls out, a hint of a smirk on their tone.
“You work here?” Changbin asks, his voice airy and light.
“Mm, yeah. They pay me to keep the crowd dancing though the lulls. You three make my job easy though, your music’s fire.” The guy says.
Jisung feels like he’s probably standing out more by refusing to look at him, especially since he mentioned them three. He turns around a little, intending on giving him and thankful head nod and going back to looking busy.
Chan and Changbin are both leaning forward weirdly, trying to be closer to him. They’re breathing heavily, noses flaring and Jisung squints suspiciously at the guy instead of anything casual.
Abort!
Abort.
It’s hat guy.
This absolutely cannot be happening to him right now.
“We need to get ready to go on.” He lets out maybe a little louder than he really needs to, grabbing their sleeves in each arm and tugging towards the mic station. “See you later, gotta go.” He dismisses hat guy, walking forward and yanking the two behind him as the refuse to follow.
“Why’d we leave?” Changbin whines, but Jisung will not even try to address it.
“We need to give the tech our set.” Jisung explains, prompting Chan to pull the USB out of his pocket. “Also the guy hit on me before and I don’t want to be near him.”
That seems to kickstart Chan’s brain, his protective instincts going online. “I’m sorry, I don’t know what came over me. We’ll stay away from him.”
Changbin seems less convinced, but he looks a lot more lucid when they start their warmups and he’s twirling the mic casually in his hands by the time they’re counted down.
Jisung can see hat guy in the crowd and it startles him, but performing the first song is pure muscle memory at this point so he doesn’t mess up.
He sees him every time he scans the crowd, his eyes closed as he dances to the beat, always in the middle of a cluster of bodies swaying with him. At some point he reaches back, muscled arm poking above the crowd as he holds onto someone behind him and rolls his body.
He doesn’t stare at them, focused on interacting with the crowd around him. The fact that he doesn’t really look at the stage make Jisung feels better, but he finds himself interacting with the crowd furthest away from him anyways. They seem the most engaged too, reacting to him when he dances and yells out adlibs.
He feels good when their set ends, hat guy not forgotten but eminently ignorable. The crowd’s attention stayed on them the whole time, and they even have a couple fans waiting for them by the backstage door that are excited to talk about their music. Chan’s excitedly showing them their soundcloud profile, and talking about the next gig they have lined up.
Eventually the fans leave to go rejoin the crowd dancing as a new act sets up. Jisung follows Chan to the bar like usual, drinking back all the water he sweat out on stage before ordering a beer to help with the jitters now that the adrenaline is leaving his system.
He sips his beer as he watches Changbin disappear into the crowd, eyes accidentally catching on hat guy making his way towards them.
He spins on his stool immediately, putting his beer down and whipping out his phone to stare at.
“He’s coming this way.” He says when Chan grunts a questioning sound, and Chan immediately, counter productively, cranes his neck to look for him.
Jisung’s hiding with his hand obscuring his forehead, looking downwards at his phone in his lap.
Hat guy seems to at least catch the extremely awkward vibes Jisung is putting off, going to the very edge of the bar instead. When Jisung glances up at him quickly, he sees that he’s perched against the bar top, talking to the bartender quickly. When the bartender comes back with something colorful and fruity and then stays in front of him despite the long line, Jisung notices that everyone around him is leaning towards hat guy. For some, like Chan, it’s subtle. Just a mild tilt like they’re trying to listen in. Others, especially the ones closer to him, are fully bowed towards him moving with him when he stands up to drink.
Jisung may have stared at the weird trance everyone seems to be in too long, and now hat guy is raising his glass at him in a toast from across the bar.
Jisung abruptly does not want to be in this club anymore and he tugs on Chan’s arm to tell him as much. He turns back to Jisung, shaking his head like he’s clearing his thoughts, and takes one look as Jisung’s pinched face and agrees to leave.
It’s not that late this time, but it’s always safer to travel in numbers at night. Jisung texts Changbin that they’re leaving, and he ends up replying relatively quickly to wait for him. They all pile into a taxi together, back to the neighborhood they call home.
Over the next couple months the club keeps calling them back. Hat guy isn’t always there, especially if they don’t perform on a Friday, but his presence bothers Jisung less and less each time he is actually there. He seems to understand that Jisung doesn’t want his attention, so while he will occasionally have a brief moment of small talk backstage, they both mostly keep to themselves.
Changbin sleeps with him again too, after asking over and over that Jisung is ok with it. He ends up agreeing mostly to make the questions end, but Changbin reports back the next day (after another long recovery sleep) that they didn’t talk about him at all.
Jisung doesn’t go out much other than to sing and pickup takeout, so it feels a little like he’s cursed when he runs into him on the way to a studio meeting to record a new idea they had.
He’s with some friends, piling out of a practice room while laughing and chatting. Hat guy sees him and suddenly the entire group is silent, watching him as he stands by the door. It clicks shut behind him, making him flinch a little.
That also seems to snap the group out of their silence, one of the people that isn’t hat guy stepping towards him hesitantly.
“It’s him, right?” One of them whispers, and Jisung bristles when hat guy nods. Sure, he knew hat guy had a weird obsession with him but hearing the evidence of it feels so fucking creepy. Jisung looks around trying to plan his escape, the stairs that take him to the floor with the recording studios just a short distance to his right.
“He really isn’t reacting.” The closest one muses and Jisung wants to run for the stairs, but he can’t get his feet to move.
“Stop it, you’re scaring him.” Hat guy says, storming forward and pushing the closest one through the doors and into the night.
“You’re not charmed or anything, are you?” The last one says, looking at him like he’s a puzzle to solve. “So odd.”
He leaves out the door and Jisung can finally exhale again, his feet pounding up the stairs as he climbs them as fast as he can. He bursts into the studio out of breath, startling Chan and Changbin who had already started mapping out the guide for the lyrics he had written.
The next time they perform at the club, Jisung is so nervous he ends up doing breathing exercises on the taxi ride over.
“We can cancel if you’re this anxious. I’m sure they’ll understand.” Chan keeps reminding him, but he shakes his head. This has been their biggest break, the club has boosted their profile and income tremendously. He doesn’t want to do anything that might upset the stage manager.
He is very nervous about running into hat guy though. He doesn’t want to have anything to do with him.
That fear ends up realizing itself the moment they’re backstage, when hat guy makes a bee line for him as they enter. Jisung looks around frantically for somewhere to hide, but there’s nowhere but the door they just came through and they do need to stay here to prep for their performance.
“I’m so sorry about last week.” Hat guy says, bowing his head a little bit to show remorse. “They never should have approached you like that.”
Jisung doesn’t know what to do. He wants to leave, run away from this man and never see him again, but also he’s apologizing and probably expecting something in return. They’re coworkers, sort of, and he can’t just burn a bridge like that at work.
“It’s, um, ok.” He ends up stuttering out.
“It’s not ok.” Hat guy asserts. “Just because you don’t react doesn’t mean I should have said anything about it.”
Don’t react? Jisung is pretty sure he reacts to his presence plenty, he’s constantly reacting to the man. Mostly negatively, but he’s definitely reacting.
“Don’t react?” Jisung says before his brain can stop him.
“Yeah, you don’t react to my pheromones at all.” Hat guy says offhandedly before pausing and looking at him with a tilt to his head. “Did you not notice that you don’t react?”
Jisung shakes his head as hat guy takes a deep breath.
“God, this must look so sketchy for you. I’m sorry – I emit pheromones that normally make people very interested in... being around me. It’s not voluntary on anyone’s part, but you’re the first person I’ve seen that doesn’t react at all.” Hat guy says, looking like he is actually genuinely sorry.
Jisung has noticed that people reacted differently to hat guy, he’d be blind not to. Even right now, there’s a girl a couple feet to his left that is angled too far in their direction to be coincidental.
“The leaning?” He asks and hat guy lets out a quick laugh followed by a smile.
“Yeah, the leaning is part of it.” Hat guy smirks, and Jisung tries to think what else happens. People get a little hazy around him sometimes, slower to answer.
“Why?” he asks.
“I’m an incubus – cambian technically since I have a human parent but no one really cares about the distinction – and it’s basically our whole thing. The club hires me so that I get sweaty and keep the crowds horny and on the dance floor, and I get to feed in relative safety.” Hat guys says, and it technically makes sense. Would explain why Changbin had called him a 10/10 dick if he was specifically designed for this. “What did you think it was?” Hat guy adds, looking at Jisung curiously.
“I dunno. I’ve never… People get tongue tied and stare a lot when they find someone attractive?” Jisung says, because he’s never actually tried to explain why people seem to gravitate towards hat guy. It’s just a thing that’s intrinsic to him.
“Are you saying you don’t find me attractive?” Hat guy says with a laugh, and Jisung raises his hands to defend himself.
“No! No, you’re definitely super hot!” Jisung scrambles to say, and hat guy raises an eyebrow sensing the but. “Objectively attractive for sure. That’s just… not to me? I don’t do… crushes or …sex?”
“Interesting.” Hat guys says, nodding to himself like that makes any sense at all. “Well, I’ll leave you to get ready. Sorry again for having been so creepy about all this.”
Jisung nods his head as hat guy steps around him, going out to the club floor.
“You ok?” Chan asks when he joins them by the AV station, and he nods his head as he thinks. It does make sense that a guy who is constantly accidentally turning people on to fixate on what was evidentially his first rejection.
Jisung is handed a mic and starts to do his vocal warm ups but pauses. Did that guy said he gets to feed? Did he feed on Changbin?
Jisung stares at Changbin, trying to assess if he’s sickly or whatever. Both times he had sex with hat guy he said he slept for a really long time, but Jisung saw him a couple days after both times and he didn’t look any different. He looked happy, even. Well rested.
It’s a thought for another time, he decides. He has to finish warming up before they’re due on the stage.
Soon they’re counted down and running on the stage, the crowd cheering as they start their bars. Like usual, hat guy is in the crowd, in the middle of what Jisung can now identify as a very horny dancing circle.
Hat guy looks at him this time, during one of their slower song. He’s grinding up against someone again, something he seems to like doing, but he rolls his head back against the guy’s shoulder, eyes directly on Jisung.
It doesn’t feel weird this time. It feels like two people at work, enjoying what they do. Jisung aims one of his fuckboy smirks at him and hat guy smirks back before turning slightly to the person behind him and very obviously rolling his hips.
Once their set is over and he and Chan are rehydrating at the bar, hat guy comes and stands next to Jisung to order his own drink. It doesn’t feel weird to have him nearby, but it does look weird to have everyone nearby converge on them in slow motion. Hat guy gets his drink quickly, something orange and red this time, and he presses a hand against Jisung’s back when he pushed away from the bar.
When Jisung turns to throw him an exaggerated glare, hat guy is smirking back at him, lifting his glass up before tossing it back and returning to the dance floor.
“Is… are you ok with him now?” Chan asks once he’s started to shake off the haze he gets whenever hat guy is nearby. It’s silly, now that he knows, that Jisung could ever think this was just normal attraction.
“Yeah, we talked and we’re cool now.” Jisung says and Chan smiles like he’s done something important.
Now that Jisung isn’t actively uncomfortable in hat guy’s presence, he’s around an awful lot more. He’s not the chattiest of guys, but he does initiate more small talk in the back stage area, and says a word of two when they wait for drinks at the bar.
He’s funny too, in a weird way that has Jisung cackling each time. He’s clearly used to getting away with almost anything since everyone around him is always so captivated by his every move, and that has warped his sense of humor into this erratic string of non sequiturs.
He also never makes any jokes that involve anything sexual, which Jisung doesn’t know if he does for everyone or just him, but he definitely appreciates it. He enjoys being quick on the uptake for the first time since he hit puberty.
He even runs into him at the university building again, and hat guy forces his friends to bow at him and say they’re sorry the moment they see him.
“You traumatized this poor boy. Beg for his forgiveness.” He orders, and his friends look a little startled at first before dipping into a bow.
“Are you all..?” Jisung asks and hat guy nods while he presses down on his friends' back to get them to bow deeper.
“We have to practice our dances separately for the sake of the regular dancers.” Hat guy says, and Jisung didn’t know that club dancing had to be practiced. Or that hat guy really needs any more practice, he’s pretty fluid on the dance floor already.
“Good thing Junseo is sleeping with half the student population, we get to book practice rooms for free.” One of the friends says as he shakes hat guy’s hand off and returns to an upright position.
They all smirk and look at the third person, who shrugs like it’s no big deal. It probably isn’t, given who they are. Jisung certainly doesn’t think much about varying the restaurants he orders takeout from – it’s probably the same idea.
“So you’re really not charmed? At all?” The non-Junseo friend asks, looking like he wants to step forward towards Jisung but is afraid of hat guy’s reaction.
“Uh, no? Not that I know of at least?” Jisung replies. He’s obviously heard of charms before, they’re often used to get around symptoms or conditions with trainees who can afford them.
“You’d know, these charms are very expensive.” Hat guys says, “and even with them we can feel the energy, just not feed. You emit nothing at all.”
“Is that bad?” Jisung asks, because it does sound bad. If he doesn’t emit something that literally everyone else has, that feels like something is wrong.
“Oh my god, you’re right!” Junseo exclaims, as if he’s suddenly realizing it too. “You really don’t emit anything. Even right after practice.”
“This is going to sound super weird, but can I touch you?” Non-Junseo asks, very much intentionally ignoring the glare that hat guy is giving him.
Normally Jisung would be very opposed to being touched by a stranger, but he’s also a little bit concerned about the not having that energy thing and it seems more important to figure out right now.
“Sure.” He says, adding an extra thought a moment later. “Why is it being after practice important?”
“The effect is stronger when we sweat. More pheromones in the air or something.” Hat guy tells him from much closer, staring down his friend that is placing his hand on Jisung’s exposed forearm.
“I’m getting nothing at all. So weird.” Non-Junseo says, lifting his hand back off and flailing it around a bit like he’s trying to get rid of a weird sensation. Or a lack of it, probably.
“We’ll go now.” Hat guy says, smiling at Jisung before glaring at his friends to go through the door. “I’m sorry they bothered you.”
“It was nice to meet someone we can actually talk to!” Junseo yells as he’s being pushed through the door, and non-Junseo waves at him eagerly.
Jisung waves back, a small smile on his face. They’re definitely all a bit weird, but they probably suffer from the same issue as hat guy – no one’s been coherent enough to tell them no in years, and they’re too used to getting what they want.
Other than being a little pushy, they seem nice though. When Jisung actually makes it to the studio, he’s in a good mood and it translates well to the song they’re working on.
Its three weeks later when hat guy tells him that he won’t be in for work for the next two months. Apparently the reason he and the other incubi practice in the university building is because they’re all background dancers for a singer, and he’s going on tour.
Jisung clearly doesn’t manage to control his facial expression well enough, because hat guy laughs at him briefly before cooing out “It’s not like we can’t talk at all. You have a phone right?”
Jisung bites his lips to keep the smile off his face when he nods, but hat guy smirks at him and extends his hand out to receive the device.
Jisung doesn’t have many friends, just Chan, Changbin and the one guy at work he commiserates about clients with through Teams. He’s a bit embarrassed that his contacts list is so short – Chan’s the one who has all the contacts and friends that keep their group afloat.
Hat guy doesn’t comment on it, entering his info into the phone casually like he does this all the time. He might, Jisung knows that Changbin has a lot of hookups’ details on his phone so maybe hat guy does too.
“I’ll text myself, ok?” Hat guy says, and Jisung nods but that doesn’t seem necessary since his fingers are flying across the keyboard without him even looking up.
Eventually he returns the phone back to Jisung, a chat open that has just a bunch of chipmunk emoji on his end. He’s used to that at least, everyone makes rodent references at him because of his cheeks. Hat guy hasn’t even seen him eat, which is when it usually starts.
Or, Minho hasn’t seen him eat, if the name at the top of the chat can be trusted. Minho 😈, to be specific.