Chapter Text
hanbin walks towards a dance studio he has always frequented, eyes on his phone's screen. he has been dancing in this studio for as long as he can remember, that now he remembers every corner and level of the building by his heart. it amazes him how the studio is still here for more than ten years but he is happy nevertheless, because the studio is his second home. he grows up practicing his moves in the studio, running to this building right after school hours ended instead of going to any academies.
he scrolls down his instagram as he presses the elevator button, waiting for it to open when a photo catches his eyes – a photo of a guy whom hanbin knows so well, though not personally. zhang hao, the most popular idol these days, of course everyone and their mom know him. his visual is on the whole another level and it would be lie if hanbin said he doesn’t feel infatuated by his handsome face. but, that is all to it. zhang hao is someone who is out of his league – unreachable and unattainable by any means and hanbin never in his right mind would have any thoughts on him aside from admiration.
clicking the tagged username, hanbin is brought to his profile. he scrolls through the photos while entering the elevator. his finger presses the button with number three on it, eyes still glue on the phone. if zhang hao is not an idol or someone famous in general, he would be panicking when he realizes he has liked almost all of his selfies, but zhang hao is and he obviously won’t have his notification on so hanbin keep liking his photos.
the elevator stops a few seconds later, and hanbin goes straight to his practice room. a loud music echoes in the room the moment he opened a door, showing a familiar figure is dancing religiously. realizing hanbin's presence in the room, the guy stops dancing and heads to the speaker, lowering down the music volume.
"get over it, hanbin. stop stalking his sns," he mumbles as he slumps himself down beside hanbin who was already sitting comfortably on the bench at the corner of the practice room. "it's a stupid crush – you said so last time," his hand reaches for the drink on the floor.
it was a stupid crush, the feeling developed over time and he knew it wasn't stupid crush anymore. hanbin finally gathered up his courage to talk to his crush – a cute guy he had been sharing class for two semesters now – but before he could do that, he saw the guy with his probably, oh scratch that, obviously boyfriend on a date. hanbin was heartbroken of course, but he isn’t stupid to stalk his instagram anymore, that will just make him more heart broken than he already is.
"excuse me seok matthew, i'm not stalking him. i'm stalking my rebound," it is a spontaneous answer, really, but hanbin doesn’t think that idea is bad. maybe, he can really use the zhang hao as his imaginary rebound to get over his crush. crazy, he knows, but oh well, as long as it works, then it is not stupid nor it is crazy.
"your what?" if the guy, matthew is drinking at the moment, he probably will spit it all over hanbin's face upon hearing that.
"imaginary rebound," hanbin shoves his phone onto matthew's face just to have the latter eyes widens seeing the instagram profile. "introducing my imaginary rebound, the zhang hao," hanbin smiles.
"and how that'll work?" matthew finds hanbin unbelievable, if his tone is anything to go by but hanbin couldn't care less about that.
"like maybe i'll dm once in a while? when i think of him?" hanbin shrugs. he doesn’t think that far yet. he likes the idea of having the idol star as his imaginary rebound but honestly, he doesn’t have any idea how he will get over his crushes on his classmate by using the idol.
"do you think he'll reply to you? he probably will think of you as some annoying fans who won’t stop bothering him," matthew shakes his head, still finding his friend is crazy to even think of that as a solution for his unrequited love. hanbin might be impulsive and unpredictable at times, but he never imagines he would do this.
"that's the point, he’s not supposed to reply to me – he's my imaginary rebound," hanbin emphasizes the last word before putting his phone on the bench, starting to warming up before continuing with his dancing routine.
"crazy, you're crazy."
****
it starts with an occasional 'good night' and 'good morning' message sent to zhang hao, but it gradually becomes a habit. hanbin's day eventually starts with sending the greeting message to zhang hao on his instagram account, and ends with a good night. sometimes, hanbin writes a long message to the idol, ranting about how bad his day was, how his group fucked up their presentation because one of them forgot to finish their part on time and how he accidentally entered woman's bathroom because he was sleepy. there was also time when he wrote to the idol about him winning some dance and feeling happy because everyone around him was proud of him. like that, the private messenger becomes his diary.
hanbin doesn’t expect anything from the idol, though. he after all, is just his imaginary rebound. however, after keep sending those messages for two months now, he can’t help but to get excited whenever the little ‘seen’ appeared under his messages.
today too is no different from other days. after taking a selfie for the nth time, he finally got a perfect one. he opens his instagram app, tapping on the first name on his private messages list. hanbin writes a quick message under his selfie and hits the send button. he closes the app and locked his phone before making his way to his university.
zhanghao.offcl
wish me luck for a test i didn't study