Chapter 2

Yoongi had never actually been inside the performing arts centre on campus before because he had had no need to. When he entered he saw that the main section was a massive hall. The walls and flooring were smooth and light maple wood, and the stage was set to the left, most of the middle of the room filled with padded chairs. The deep red cushions were pulled up, currently not in use, and he saw at least two hundred seats inside, maybe more. He couldn't count exactly so it was just a rough estimate. Yoongi stopped to run his eyes over the stage, seeing that it was currently empty. It was a decent sized elevated podium with curtains set either side that could be drawn, and there looked to be trap doors too from what he could see. After studying this he shifted his attention back to the interior on a whole and after a few seconds he turned his head to locate exactly what he was looking for. The audio booth was set on the opposite wall to the stage, high up behind a glass window with a nice discreet door that housed a staircase that would lead up to the booth.

Yoongi could see that there was someone up there, visible through the glass window. All that he could see was a lot of black: black hair, black hat, upper body clothing in black, and whoever was up there looked to be spinning around in a chair over and over. He didn't recognise his face but that was of no surprise to him because Yoongi only knew one dance student and that was Hoseok, much like how he only knew one acting student: Seokjin. He wondered if he was the so-called 'Jungkook' that Hoseok had said had been messing around with the system trying to fix it. If so, he was going to get an earful off him for doing so.

He crossed the hall in the direction of the other door, walking along the aisles that separated the sections of seating and finding that there were occasional elevated sections so that the seats near the back were higher so everyone would get a clear look at the stage. That was pretty smart, he had to admit. When he got to the door he grabbed the bar handle, tugging down and pulling it open to see a rather narrow and dim set of stairs, and he let his breath out in a heavy sigh. If he broke his ankle then Hoseok was so going to get sued. Yoongi went up the stairs a quick pace, just wanting to get it over with as fast as possible. They rounded ever so slightly like a stairwell so that when he reached the top and pushed the other door open he was once again facing the stage.

The sound of the door swinging open made the young man stop spinning in his chair, coming to a rather slow stop until he was looking right at him. The first thing that Yoongi noticed was that he had large eyes, though that could have been his curiosity making them look so large. He had a prominent nose and rather small mouth, and in his ears there were currently two black plugs. They weren't particularly large but they were rounded and unmissable, and Yoongi dragged his eyes away from his ears to look at his face again.

"Uh…" the young man murmured, narrowing those large eyes of his as he did. When he opened his mouth Yoongi saw that he had buck teeth, not too noticeable but rather only slight. "Who are you again?"

"Hoseok's friend," he replied as the booth door shut behind him. "He might've said my name: Yoongi? Wanted me to check out the system?"

"Oh… oh." He sat upright at this, back almost ramrod straight.

"Awesome!" He shoved his chair away from the sound system to clear it for him and so Yoongi grabbed another chair that had been left to the side, dragging it right up to the system so that he could sit down in it. The leather creaked under his weight, dry and worn, and he almost sank into it. "We need all the help we can get."

"How're the rehearsals going?" Yoongi asked as he forced himself to sit up in the chair. No wonder the young man had been having so much fun spinning in the goddamn thing. It seemed like the right to do to start a light conversation with him right now, even when he didn't particularly want to.

"Rehearsals are going great," he said sarcastically as he span in the chair, the mechanism making an annoying sound as he did. Yoongi detected something off about his accent, something that revealed that he wasn't from Seoul but perhaps Busan. He would need to hear him talk some more before he figured it out however.

"So, uh, the fuck is everyone? Hoseok was acting like there was a bunch of students counting on this for rehearsal, so where are they?"

"Everyone went off to rehearse in practice rooms," he explained, reaching up to scratch at the back of his head. His fingers rubbed against his beanie, making a rather funny rustling sound as he did. "But, uh, we still need to fix this problem. Can't just ignore it or else the performance night will be fucked."

"Are you Jungkook?"

"Uhuh, that's me," Jungkook said with a nod. Yes, he was most certainly from Busan. "Hoseok told you my name?"

"Yeah, he said that you were messing around with the system," Yoongi replied, noting that the young man stiffened up at his words. He looked like he might just be regretting playing around now, even though Yoongi actually wasn't that bothered. "What'd you do, huh?"

"See there was, uh, this kinda crackly feedback sound," Jungkook explained as he started scratching at his beanie hat again. "I thought it might be the bass, that it was too high and it was messing with the sound so I tried lowering it but nothing happened. The crackling sounds still there even when I mess around with the equalisers so I dunno what's going on."

"That's all you did? Touched the equalisers?"

"Yes, that's not a bad thing, right?"

"Nah it's fine, kid," Yoongi muttered as he eyed the system in front of him, seeing that the various slide switches were in rather…unconventional positions on the board. Well, whatever, he would fix that soon enough as soon as he figured out what was wrong. "Hoseok had me thinking you'd went at it with a hammer and chewed on the wires; touching the equalisers is fine don't worry." Jungkook sighed in relief beside him, safe from his possible wrath. The other student didn't even know him, never mind his wrath, and Yoongi found it rather hilarious that he already wanted to avoid angering him.

Maybe it was his empty dead eyes or the bags from one too many three hour nights that made Jungkook think he was a little scary. Either that, or Hoseok had put the spooks up him after he had played with the system.

"'K so," Yoongi shifted in the chair, "I'm gonna need to play some music for a couple of seconds." He eyed the system before reaching over to try balancing out the equalisers. He pressed his fingers down onto the switches, quickly altering them and boosting the bass, and then he twisted a dial to turn the music on. It started off rather low and so he carried on twisting the dial to increase the volume until the opening bar started playing. He felt like he recognised it but he didn't know where from, a rather repetitive acoustic guitar that sounded good to his ears. It was when the rather sweet-toned female vocalist started singing in English that the problem started to appear.

Yoongi could hear exactly what it was, that strange and rather irritating crackling sound that was coming from the system. It wasn't something that could be ignored easily because it almost drowned out the music and distorted her voice, making his ears protest until he twisted the dial hard again. As the hall plunged into silence he could sense that Jungkook was looking at him from the corner of his periphery, eyes wide with interest as he waited for him to say something to break the quiet.

"You know what it is?"

"I think that it's one of the speakers and not the system," Yoongi explained as he reached up to start fiddling with his headphone cable again. "That crackling sound, it ain't feedback. It's something wrong with a speaker, likely a loose circuit wire causing it to cut out. Thing is, we gotta find out which one it is outta all of the ones here before it can get fixed."

"How many are there?" Jungkook asked, as if he had more knowledge about the hall than him.

"Uh, dunno the exact amount but there's focus points," Yoongi explained. "I saw two mounted either side of the booth when I stepped inside a minute ago, a few running along the length of the aisles. The level of volume, it's gotta be a big one, or else it wouldn't be that detectable. They weren't big enough, so I think it could be a stage speaker."

At this they both glanced out of the window, eyeing up the rather considerable floor speakers that were mounted at the bottom of the stage. Yes, Yoongi thought that that was the most likely source of the problem.

"Do me a favour, kid," he said as he turned back to the system. "Go down to the stage and listen for me, try and see if you can figure out if that's where the problem's coming from."

"Uh…hang on a sec," Jungkook muttered as he got out of his seat and walked away from the sound system. Yoongi turned his head to watch him go, opening the door to step out of the booth, and then he turned back to the system. But after a second or two he detected movement down by the stage and so he lifted his gaze to look through the window again.

Jungkook had told him that the other students had left to go to one of the several practice studio rooms and yet there was one down there stepping up onto the stage: a young man. There was a bottle of water in his hand so he shifted to place it by the far corner of the stage out of the way, and then he moved to get closer to the centre. Yoongi furrowed his brow as he shifted forward in his seat, looking down at the stage more clearly through the window. Now that he was in the centre and standing upright he could get a better look at him.

The student didn't look particularly tall at all, might just have been his height or maybe shorter, and he had a rather small frame. But even with his small frame Yoongi could see that he was well-built, a muscular side to his slimness. He might have been wearing a very loose tee but all that he needed to see were his legs, clad in the same style of fitted leggings he expected to see on a ballerino. His thighs were rather thick with muscle and Yoongi couldn't help but stare as he shifted to get into a position. It actually took him a moment to look up and study his face and Yoongi felt rather embarrassed by this fact, cheeks heating up even though there was no one present to catch him staring. He couldn't see his face clearly but he saw wonderfully tanned skin and black hair that matched his dance clothes.

The young man didn't seem to care that there was no music playing right now because he was much too busy getting into a starting position so that he could start rehearsing. Only when he moved his legs to lightly cock one knee and stretch the other forward in a point, did Yoongi realise that he was barefoot. That was very interesting, he had never seen Hoseok dancing barefoot save for when he was drunk or crashing in his and Namjoon's shared accommodation room. Yoongi saw that he was holding the position for a moment, no doubt playing his track piece over in his head as he did, and then he started dancing. Jungkook finally cut down the aisle to get to the stage and then he turned back to him, waving his hand as he looked up at the booth and started shouting something. The booth blocked most of it out but he got the idea and so he started twisting the dial to turn the music on again.