For: synchronizity
From: unkentrollable

Title: None Other Like You
Rating: PG-13
Side Pairing/s: Chen/Xiumin
Length: 2498 words
Summary: Jongdae only meets Junmyeon a total of three times before their hit single, Growl, explodes.
Warnings: exo as twelve initially, mentions of members leaving

Notes: To my recipient: Your prompts were all lovely, and I hope you don’t mind the slight deviation of the prompt I chose for your fic~ Also, thanks so much to O for betaing! :D

Jongdae only meets Junmyeon a total of three times before their hit single, Growl, explodes. Each time, Jongdae has noticed—with increasing anxiety—that his heart seems to be running a marathon. His heartbeat should not be going that fast if he's not even dancing or singing on stage yet. Minseok, with his teasing and unsuccessful attempts for Jongdae to get closer to Junmyeon, isn't much help. Neither is anyone else. (But then again, you wouldn’t go to EXO with your love problems.) "We're idols, entertainers," Yixing says with an infuriatingly knowledgeable nod one day after dance practice, "not love counselors." ~ The First Encounter The first time Jongdae actually gets "introduced" to Junmyeon, it's a hundred degrees and the dance practice room has cranked the air conditioning up so far that it breaks. Jongdae is near the front of the line of already-sweaty trainees neatly filing in. He shrinks against a shiny glass wall with Minseok when the rest crowd in. An air of excitement hangs around them all--debut is not far away. He should be focusing on warm-up stretches, but Jongdae can't help but stare at the trainee that's been rumored to have trained for six years already—the one that always holds the door, even though he's not the youngest, the one that's helping the maknaes fix their nametags right now (because the dance instructor could care less what their names are). Jongdae deliberately unties the string hanging the nametag on his own chest, and watches the inky Hangul characters float to the wooden floor with a mixture of giddiness and anticipation. Soon enough, a pale hand of said trainee is scrambling against Jongdae's to pick it up, and Jongdae can actually hear Minseok's "what is wrong with you" echoing around his head. "Is this yours...Kim Jongdae?" The trainee's mouth wraps around the syllables of Jongdae's name, repeating it again when Jongdae does not respond. The trainee's name is Kim Junmyeon. Junmyeon, Junmyeon, Junmyeon, Jongdae repeats in his head, still not responding, because this is someone whose name he doesn't want to forget. (Jongdae has already been in an unpleasant situation with mixing up Wu Yifan and Zhang Yixing. He'd like to not to repeat it again.) "Does he get like this often?" Junmyeon asks with some concern to the rapidly approaching Minseok. Minseok responds with a broad grin and, “No, it’s just the summer heat.” Jongdae doesn't register anything but the sound of Junmyeon's sweet, crystal-clear voice. In fact, Jongdae feels like fainting when Junmyeon ties the nametag carefully around his neck. "There. Don't let it fall again," Junmyeon says to Jongdae's still-frozen figure. Minseok snickers so loudly that the dance instructor has to shush him, much to the amusement of the other trainees. It's only until the end of the five-hour dance practice that Jongdae realizes. "I think I have a crush on Kim Junmyeon." ~ Luckily, Jongdae didn't have much time to dwell on this interesting new development. After the chaotic whirl of debut and quick promotions in Korea, he was shipped to China with Minseok, the two of them clinging onto their sanity in the world of Chinese as best as they could. There was no time to dwell on Kim Junmyeon. There was no time to even see Junmyeon in person, as an entire time zone (or two) separated them at times. Hence, Jongdae didn’t even know Sehun’s age but knew how many bubble teas (and favorite flavor) Luhan consumed a day. It’s when EXO have their first comeback that Jongdae finds himself mashed backstage for the first time in months, with the whole set of members. Jongdae is quite concerned about being mashed with EXO, because EXO without the hyphens plus K or M means everyone. And everyone includes Junmyeon. (The Second Encounter) Everyone’s almost vibrating with their nervous energy as they sit in front of coordi noonas that are rushing around fixing makeup and wardrobe malfunctions that seem especially fond of occurring last minute. Most of EXO rehearse the single under their breaths, even though most of their voices will be covered by playback. (“Yes a wolf, I’m an OOLF—”) Jongdae does not have the energy to deal with netizens complaining about the would-be lip-syncing, so he ignores his SNS accounts and focuses on pictures of Junmyeon on his phone instead. (There are plenty of them floating around the internet. And hey, fans do this all the time. Why can’t he? He counts as a fan of Junmy—err, Suho, right?) An MC pokes his head into the dressing room, face shiny from stage lights. “On stage in five!” Jongdae’s mic chooses that moment to detach itself from his face, and, much like a cheap printer paper nametag in a similar situation one hot summer ago, drops to the ground. The wires attached to his neck (and on-the-ground mic) have hopelessly unwound themselves. And Jongdae didn’t do it this time. The rest of EXO nearly stampede his poor mic as the MC shouts for them to get on stage. Jongdae, on his knees in front of the coordi noonas for glue—Velcro—any sort of adhesive, is left in the dust, and his manager is yelling at him for his lack of preparation. Suddenly, a figure breaks from the mob of boys heading up the stairs of the stage and sprints back to Jongdae. Mic tape is then being applied to Jongdae’s face and mic, and he only has time to blink in confusion when he looks up and sees Junmyeon’s freshly black-dyed hair wrapped by a bandana and a gesture for him to come on. Junmyeon sheepishly whispers as they get in the position for the Tree dance: “My mic got unwound, too—I forgot to give the tape back to the coordi noonas.” Nodding and trying to keep his mic from falling off again, Jongdae muses that being yelled at by the scary manager (who is rumored to sleep with dumbbells under his pillow) isn’t so bad if Junmyeon is there. Jongdae tries to get yelled at again a week after the performance, but this time, it just results in laundry duty and no Junmyeon. How did he forget that they room in different dorms…? This, on an entirely unrelated tangent, leads to the third time Jongdae encounters Junmyeon. ~ The Third Encounter “You are so annoying,” Minseok hisses as the twelve of them cram before a long table in front of a couple hundred zealous fans. After everyone gets situated, and Jongdae steps on Minseok’s feet twice, Minseok hisses again with a smile on his face, “Did I mention that you’re so annoying?” “Thanks,” Jongdae mumbles, to his only good friend in EXO-M. It’s not that he’s not close to the other members, it’s just that sometimes EXO feels like a giant group forced by a teacher to work together on a group project—and you don’t have to be (good) friends with everyone to work well with them. “1, 2, 3—Hello! We are EXO!” The screams of the fans are so loud, Jongdae can’t hear his own heart thudding for a couple of moments—Junmyeon is sitting two members away. “You really need to deal with your Junmyeon problem before a netizen catches on and leaks everything.” Minseok takes advantage of the fans screeching over Baekhyun and Chanyeol’s fanservice for a moment to continue, “What would happen if you woke up one morning and the latest celebrity news read: ‘JONGDAE IS JONGGAY!’” “Shut up,” Jongdae says, face growing warm. Most unfortunately, there’s a lull in the shrieking of fans and Jongdae’s mic is turned on. Everyone—including Junmyeon—swivels in Jongdae’s direction. “Would you care to share anything with us?” Junmyeon asks with complete innocence, unaware of the furious shin-kicking war occurring right underneath the tablecloth between Jongdae and Minseok. “I—ow­—don’t—OW—ugh…no,” Jongdae waves Junmyeon away, and everyone misinterprets Jongdae’s flustered expression as a reaction to all the attention focused on him. Jongdae doesn’t really pay much attention for the rest of the fansign and Q&A event. Sure, he mechanically greets fans and signs their albums—Growl has just been released as a follow-up to Wolf—but all he can think of is the Junmyeon in his peripheral vision. Junmyeon laughing politely to fans, Junmyeon directing fans to those who don’t bias him, Junmyeon this, Junmyeon that— “Um, Jongdae?” Kris is looking at Jongdae’s spaced-out face with confusion. It’s the Q&A already? “Don’t worry, he’s always like this.” Minseok smiles sweetly at the concerned fans. Minseok cackles in silence as Jongdae makes a furious mental note to prevent himself from being so easy, and snaps his gaze to Kris. “What’s your ideal type?” Kris repeats for what probably is the third time. “Oh…ideal type…” Jongdae closes his eyes on pretext of thinking, while trying to conjure up the list of easy answers to interviews he’d created for their first showcase. One of the easy answers is his supposed ideal type, but Jongdae just can’t remember it. Somehow, he says something that appeases the fans, and it goes like, “…around my height, calm, cute, considerate, a strong leader to guide me in desperate times, and has a voice like spun sugar.” No one sends anymore questions towards Jongdae after that. Jongdae is privately grateful, for Minseok is dead-pan-staring at Jongdae like he’s grown a third, fourth, and fifth head. When they get into their respective vans to head back to the dorms after lots of good-byes to their fans, Minseok pulls Jongdae towards him with sheer disbelief stamped all over his face. “You described Junmyeon as your ideal type to the fans.” Jongdae wants to curl up into a hole and die. ~ The screen of Jongdae’s laptop burns his eyes, but nevertheless, Jongdae resolutely continues to use (fight) the upgraded version of Microsoft Excel. The steady breathing in the dorm isn’t helping, either. It’s like a siren’s song, trying to lull Jongdae to sleep, sleep, sleep...Jongdae grits his teeth and slams his fist against the mousepad. He hasn’t gotten a spare hour or a chance meeting with Junmyeon ever since the beginning of 2014. It’s very, very sad. “It’s even sadder than you’re spending your free time on this,” Minseok says with his chin on Jongdae’s shoulder. Jongdae leaps ten feet in the air. “Why the fuck are you up”—Jongdae squints at the time in a corner of the screen—“at 3:16 AM?” Minseok just grins cheekily, then proceeds to point at Jongdae’s valiant attempt to produce a graph on Excel. “Why is Yifan lower than Zitao.” “Because I don’t see him much nowadays, and the other day I heard him talking on the phone to a lawyer…” “Why am I not the highest?” “Damn you, you’re off the charts.” Minseok sighs. “This is sad.” He points at Junmyeon’s data point, which reads a depressing “3” in corresponding to the y-axis. Even the next-lowest point—Jongin’s— is higher, reading a “25”. Jongdae covers Junmyeon’s data point protectively (and a bit defensively). “Stop! I still have to add a title.” NUMBER OF TIMES I HAVE INTERACTED WITH MY FELLOW EXO MEMBERS Minseok collapses against Jongdae’s desk laughing, because the title is too long and runs off the graph. “Go to sleep,” is the only thing Jongdae can say with his last scrap of dignity. Before Minseok goes, though, “Was that graph supposed to make you feel better about not being able to make a move? Come on,” Minseok counts on his fingers, “it’s been almost three years since you’ve met him.” “And I’ve only met him three times…He’s not even my ideal type,” Jongdae mumbles. “What if he has a secret girlfriend?” Minseok sighs, prompting Jongdae to glare. “No offense, but even you have better chances of getting a girlfriend.” Jongdae whacks Minseok with his now-closed laptop. “Seriously, you need to sleep.” ~ They’re winning everything, topping charts, nabbing more fans from every corner of the earth—but there’s also the feeling that somehow this insanity needs to slope off and die a little… As contributed by the quickly-leaving members that can’t take it anymore. (Jongdae has only stayed for Junmyeon. It’s totally not because no lawyer will take him.) Somehow through the mess of their next era, Jongdae manages to confess to Junmyeon in the recording room. His excuse is that he was afraid Junmyeon was going to leave, too. “No, seriously,” Jongdae splutters, his voice weaving in and out of the others warbling at the top of their lungs. Junmyeon looks anywhere but at Jongdae, the tiny room feeling even stuffier than that one summer’s day. “Let’s discuss this later…when there’s not as much chaos.” But there’s never a time when there’s no chaos, Jongdae wants to protest, but he lets Junmyeon go without embarrassing himself any further. “Good job,” Minseok throws Jongdae a thumbs up when Jongdae laboriously steps out the door. Jongdae ignores him, still not sure if Minseok was sarcastic or not to this day. ~ It takes several variety shows and stage performances for Junmyeon to reach Jongdae, because Jongdae has never felt this humiliated at a neutral rejection before. The two finally get a chance to stroll alongside the Han river, city lights bouncing off the glistening surface as they clear their throats at the same time, blushing ridiculously. Their newest song’s playing from a café nearby, and they hurriedly walk more, so that they can get as much privacy as possible. “You know what,” Jongdae says after an extremely loud silence. He’s determined to speak first and be the man, because it’s taken Jongdae four long years to get here, and he’s not sure if he can wait any longer. Junmyeon doesn’t say anything, just stares at his shoes with a shy tilt of his head. Suddenly Jongdae’s arms are wrapped around Junmyeon, and Junmyeon’s half-laughing, half-gasping that he’s always liked Jongdae, always liked Jongdae’s natural humor and rich voice, always liked his bravery for staying in EXO-M so long—always liked everything about Jongdae. They stand, gently rocking in each other’s embrace for so long, that Jongdae can’t differentiate their heartbeats anymore. Junmyeon starts, when they untangle each other, “When this ridiculously long contract is up…” “I’m thinking of finding another company to go solo,” Jongdae meets Junmyeon’s eyes. What they both really want to say is: “We can go public.” But the wait won’t—and doesn’t— seem that long, because all of the thrill of ‘dating’ Junmyeon is in the stolen glances before stage, the furtive kisses when no one’s left in the dance practice room, the repeated refusals to name their first-adopted after Minseok. When Jongdae and Junmyeon do go public, though, the fans insist that they knew Suchen was real the whole time. Of course they did, Jongdae thinks affectionately as security is drowned by the fans screaming for “one last picture” as they leave the company building together, hand in hand, not ever looking back.