🎭 wear your heart where i can see 🎭

a dbsk fanfic about falling in love on a trial run

fandom: dbsk/tvxq
characters: kim jaejoong, jung yunho, seulgi sooyoung boa in supporting roles
ship: yunjae
themes: high school au, fake dating au, tutoring au, sooo tropey, you're gonna predict every plot point and you're gonna love it okay?, okay
rating: T+ for cursing

A/N (4.1.2023): The fake dating/tutoring premise is entirely stolen from the showhyuk fic Say You Want Me by natacup82 on ao3, but I changed the setting and the execution to avoid plagiarism charges, lol. Title from Trouble Is by the Backstreet Boys :)

prologue

Seulgi follows after her First Day Buddy somewhat boredly. She may be a transfer, but she's a second-year student. It's not like this is her first time setting foot in a high school. All she really needed was to be shown to her locker, but here she is on a tour of the school.

Sparing her Buddy's words half a brain, Seulgi surveys the crowd of students as they surge around her, wondering if any of the people she observed would end up becoming meaningful to her over the next two years. Maybe she already crossed paths with her next best friend, or a new nemesis, or her next boyfriend.

As they pass the gym, a group of freshly showered co-ed athletes filter out, laughing and boisterous. Immediately, one of the guys catches her eye.

"Who's that?" she asks, just loud enough to interrupt her First Day Buddy's narration. (She didn't really internalise his name. Sue her.)

To his credit, he doesn't seem to mind. "Which one, Tall with Curly Hair or Dimples and Broad?"

"Strong Jawline and Great Arms," she recites with interest.

Her Buddy points just to be sure. "Him? High cheekbones, bow lips?" When Seulgi nods, he sucks a breath through his teeth. "Ah, that's Jung Yunho. He's a final-year, on the hapkido team, dating the star of the drama club. It's his longest relationship ever, I think. They're pretty serious."

Seulgi gets a calculating look in her eye. "How long is 'longest'?"

Her Buddy turns to her, deadpan. "No offense, but greater women than you have tried to keep them apart and failed." He juts his chin in a direction over her shoulder, and Seulgi turns around just in time to see a beautiful girl with a quietly confident aura pass them by. "And that's the greatest woman. Kwon Boa."

The pair watch as Boa seamlessly blends into the early morning bustle, which slowly gets calmer as students filter into their classrooms until nothing but a silent, empty hallway remains.