“You’re doing it wrong, let me show you...”

The empty classroom was not big enough for these two lovers as they tried to syncronize their bodies and coordonate their feet. The background music, the overused and overloved “Once upon a December”, a must-have song to all weddings, was on repeat for the past hour.

“Where should I… “

 “No, no… I put my hand right here and you put your hand like this… and we just… “

They began to move from side to side, slowly at first, to gain more confidence in their pace and then their moves become more and more quicker and steadier.

“That’s it! Let’s keep it that way!”

“Oh, oh! I’m good at this!”

With his enthusiastic remark, Minseok lost his focus for a second and immediately the rhythm was off. His partner tried to fix it, but it was getting worse. 

“YAH! Why did you ruined it? It was going so good!“

“Well, it surely lasted longer than a minute. That’s a record.” A third person intervened.

Angry stares were directed to Minseok and the poor boy’s eyes began to shake a little.

 “D-don’t look at me like that! I tried my best! It’s not my fault that my feet won’t listen to me! T-the song is too hard!”

“Maybe we should do this the easy way. Sitting on the table all night long, would you like that?”

“No! We haven’t practiced for the past hour for nothing! You can’t leave me like this!”

“An hour more like a lifetime…” their witness mumbled loud enough for Minseok to hear.

Minseok threw an annoying look and his partner, who's hands were still linked together, shook him to get ready for another try.

“Again!”

Minseok’s head was back and he tried to regain his concentration, but in vain.

“What’s with the sweaty hand? Are you nervous, boi?”

Minseok pushed his hyung back and released his grip on his hand and started wiping his hands on his pants.

“It’s not funny, hyung.”

“Of course is not, we don’t want to make Mona here jealous. You’re right, Mona, he’s hopeless. I thought maybe female company is making him flustered, but I know now. It doesn’t matter, he’s just as bad. Unless he likes me.”

“In your dreams, hyung. I’m good at dancing, it’s just that waltz is a little bit difficult for me. It was going pretty well until I stepped on your foot, but still…”

Jisung ignored his words and directed his attention to Mona, who’s eyes mindlessly looked at the window. “Mona, come here. Let’s see if he really can keep up like he says.”

Mona’s head fell on her desk and she shaked her head in disbelief. “You two looked like a bunch of teenagers, dancing at prom. Jisung, we don’t have to practice . I mean, I don’t have to practice. He’s the one who at dancing.”

“Easy on the compliments, darling. Remember, your needs me. “

“You need me first tomorrow, so shut it! “

“It’s a win-win deal. I’ll go with you next month when you’ll be a maid of honour, so technically you are doing this for yourself, too.“

‘Once upon a December’ was still on repeat mode and the song started again, to Mona’s despair. “If I hear this song one more, I’m gonna lose it.”

Minseok grinned. “Hyung, give me your I-pod so I can play this on the way home.” Mona smacked his head, “I will make you eat that I-pod if you bring it.”

“People, people! Let’s concentrate and you two show me what you’ve planned. It’s already weird that I’m the third wheel here…”

“Hyung don’t say that, I need you too… You’re the smart one in this family and I need your opinion on this. I hope my sis will like the surprise. Mona, come over here, let's start.“

“Finally.” Jisung said and sat on a chair to observe their performance.

“We’ll stick to the original plan.” Minseok murmured to Mona after she came to sit beside him. Mona rolled her eyes, mumbling 'whatever' and went to the I-pod to unplug it and connected her phone to play their songs.

The couple decided as an opening number to use ‘Falling in love with you’ by UB40, continued with a 30 sec dance of ‘Me gustas tu’ by G-Friend and finished with Bruno Mars’s song ‘Marry you’. After weeks of  brain-storming and going back-and-forth in changing songs, they come up with a mix of three songs, first going slow, then to a cute dance to make the guests and grooms laugh, and for the final blow, a song to make everyone dance and sing along. It was a constant stress, mostly from him, because it was his sister wedding afterall and he wanted to give her special memories on her special day.

Jisung was watching them closely, his eyes never leaving them. “It’s good. Our sister will like it, for sure.”

“Danggg, we are awesome! High five!”

Mona lazily raised her hand and Minseok slapped it with a noise and made a fist in the air with a huge grin on his face.

“Congrats, bro. Practice more and it’ll get better. Btw Mona, your dance was very cute.”

Her aegyo dancing to ‘Me gustas tu’ was briging a huge smile on Minseok‘s face everytime.

“You looked like a idol!” Jisung added.

“Really? Man, I knew I should have gone to auditions when I was a kid. Dancing to this is fun.” Mona was still immersed in her dance, still half-dancing her part.

“You said you’ve had some dancing classes.”

Mona nodded, “Yea--“

“Yeah, and she dropped them, too.” Minseok interrupted.

“Well, I’m sure it helped.”

Mona sighed, doing a pirouette, “I haven’t danced for more than a year, now. And clubbing doesn’t count, Minseok!” She saw from the corner of her eye he was going to make a naughty remark and she was right because after that he answered back with a pout.

“It’s like you never stopped. You still got it.” Jisung winked at Mona, to encourage her.

 “You think so, brother? She did look like she gained some weight after she left dance classes. And her moves… looks like she’s gardening, stomping her feet like that,” Minseok teased, his gummy smile showing proudly.

Mona gave him a glare and continued her dancing.

“Don’t listen to him, Mona! I don’t know how you contain yourself to not give him a slap.”

“No, oppa, he’s right. Maybe I should start dancing classes again.”

“NO, don’t do that!” Minseok’s mouth answered without thinking, startling himself with his reaction.

Mona and Jisung stood frozen for a second and exchanged weird looks at his sudden change. She slowly directed her attention to the boy who seemed perplexed.

“Umm. I was just joking… No need to react that calmly…”

“Oh… Alright then, I was kidding also, you can do what you want, whatever. Don’t mind me, huh” His forced laugh echoed the class room and she diverted her eyes back on the window.

Jisung coughed, “Hmm… I think I’m done here. I should go now… Do you guys want to practice more?”

“No!” Both answered at the same time. Their eyes met for what it felt like an eternity as they tried to read each other thoughts and they moved in unison to the get to the door. Minseok playfully bumped on her shoulder as they battled for who’s gonna be the first to exit the door and she pushed him gently to the door frame for her to pass in front of him.

“Yah, don’t you know to respect a lady and let her pass first?”

“You’re not a lady, you’re a gardener.”

“Ugh, just admit it. I’m better than you, sweet pea.”

“Sweet pea? Mm, I think it’s time to wet your sweet pea.”

“What did you just say?”

“Nevermind.”

~~

“Why did I agreed to this…” She kept repeating to herself. “How come you convince me to do everything you ask me…” She knew it very well why.

When Mona and Minseok first met, they were sure they’ll be more than just colleagues for the rest of their lives.  On  the 1st year of University, they were both trying for acting classes. It was like a click. Both very friendly, talented and with lots of determination for art, you’ve never seen two people who looked more alike. The teachers were crazy about them, giving them roles acting as a pair, due to their amazing chemistry. Their visuals, way above average, were sure a huge plus to their performance. Mrs. Pawn, their teacher, loved to tease the youngsters, “Your babies will be so pretty!”, earning histerical laughs from both of them. Yeah, like it will happen.

But after few actings together in the summer theather, she decided to drop the acting classes and opted for dancing and singing instead. Although Mona tried to convince him to join her in singing classes, Minseok choosed to stay in acting. They rarely saw each other since, but they remained in good terms, occasionally talking at lunch, simple greetings when they met on the halls, or walking together home. Just for a few of times because at the end of the second semester Mona began dating her partner she met in dance class.

That was quite a shock for Minseok. But not exactly a shock, more of an amazed reaction since Mona was indeed a beautiful woman and was about time someone took the opportunity and asked her out.  He wondered how she and her new boyfriend hooked up so quickly and in their case, after spent one year together in acting class, they didn’t have one date. And after a month of dancing classes, she already adapted so quickly. Too quickly.

For him, that was always a question. If he asked her back then for a cup of coffee, would she said yes? Maybe. He wasn’t very confident and a girl like Mona, so nice and sweet to him everytime they’ve met, he interpreted it as a sign of pure friendship. Or was it more? The doubt was left there and, with time, the question remained unanswered.

It wasn’t that bad, after all.  Minseok accepted his friend relationship with a warm heart and Mona was a true lady, almost never mentioning the word  “Yixing”, her boyfriend’s name, or anything related to her relationship when she was around Minseok. She didn’t want anything to change between them even if she had someone else in her life.

Nothing really changed, actually. Minseok definitely felt attraction for Mona, no man is stupid enough not to admit that she is indeed an amazing woman. He refused to let his emotions out, other than his genuine smile everytime he saw her. It was hard, but in the end, he felt more of a regret that he didn’t asked her out first.

Fortunately for him, unfortunately for her, her fling only lasted half of year, till winter, when Yixing was the one who called it quits and left Mona speechless. It was a foggy situation, people didn’t knew about their break-up till they saw Yixing with another girl near the holidays. Students were confused and started rumors as to guess what happened, but the true reason was never revealed.

“Why is she so secretive?” “I bet she was dumped.” “ You never brag with this kind of things.” “Maybe they were just -buddies.” “Damn, too bad. I wonder if she agrees to go out with me if I ask her.” And that’s just a fraction of it. Not that she was popular, but people talk. It’s a normal thing. It didn’t last long and after a while they moved on to another topics.

As her good, supporting friend, after he heard of his friend misfortune, Minseok tried to get Mona back on her track. He was much more animated and he somehow hoped everything will come back to normal. 

Mona wasn’t quite a fan of the new Minseok. He looked like a squirrel on bateries, smiling with his chubby cheeks all, like all the time. It was a little overwelming for Mona, especially at the beginning, when all she wanted was to stay alone in her room and sleep her pain away.

The breaking point was at the Christmas Eve dinner held at her parents house where Minseok was invited too. He joked saying that her boyfriend broke up with her because he didn’t want to buy her a present for Christmas. He laughed, she didn’t. Inste