“Attention!”

 

Sitting on the dance studio floor, along with my best friend, Haemi, my eyes darted towards my dance teacher, Ms. Park. That’s right. Dance. It’s the only thing that has truly fascinated me. The other boring, average subjects, such as math or science, didn’t quite capture my interest as much as dance did. The first time I saw someone dance was a street performer, moving his body charismatically to a hip hop beat. I became instantly intrigued and I promised myself that I would learn to do what I had just experienced. 

 

Here I am today. A college sophomore attending the Seoul Academy of the Performing Arts on a partial scholarship. It’s a great college, if you love performing and putting on a great show. I’ve been trained to perform any kind of dance, but I specialize in hip hop, ballet and contemporary. At first, I wasn’t comfortable with the idea of having everyone’s attention. There’s always the presence of that awkwardness when you make eye contact with someone in the audience. I’ve grown to get used to it. The basic fact is, when it comes to performing, the performer is basically saying (in a discreet way), “Shut up and look at me.” Guess who had to swallow her pride many times? Me.

 

Of course, for a girl, there’s always that cute guy that catches your attention. Can anyone relate to that? For me...it’s him. Oh Sehun. Dark brown hair. Unreadable and mysterious, but at the same time, beautiful eyes. Silent, but passionate about his career. That one thing we have in common is...dance. At first, I thought he was just an average dancer, judging by his looks. He was really tall for his age. Only 19 years old, and already 5 feet and 11 inches. Talk about human skyscraper. He’s in my grade also, probably only older than me by a few months. He also has this slight lisp, but hey, I think it’s cute. Haemi likes his friend, Kai. She thinks he’s “adorbs”. Wait, have I introduced myself? Awkward. Hi, I’m Byun Ahyoung. Nice to meet you all, I guess. Okay, now back to listening to Ms. Park’s instructions.

 

She had what looked like two top hats in her hand. Oh, I get it. She’s going to pick people’s names out of the hat. What are we, first graders? Pft.

 

She talked really loudly, “I now will assign a project that is worth 30% of your quarter grade. Your project is to choreograph a dance to a song of your choice. This is to be done with a partner, that I will choose, of the opposite gender. This project’s theme is love and relationships. I will pair up partners, and then assign you a certain topic on love and relationships. Be sure to be creative and full of emotion.”

 

With that, she reached into one of the top hats. “Kang Haemi,” she read out loud. As if on signal, Haemi grasped onto my arm for support. I gently patted her hand, reassuring her that it was okay. Everyone intently watched as Ms. Park pulled out another piece of paper and stated, “Kim Jongin.” 

 

That’s Kai’s real name. I looked at Haemi’s reaction...and wish that I hadn’t. Her eyes were so wide that they looked like that singer boy’s eyes. I think he goes by the name “D.O.” was wide open, but her lips gradually curled into a big grin. I gave her an encouraging, but small smile. “Congratulations.” She nodded eagerly, still maintaining that ridiculous grin on her face. However, it was wiped off when Ms. Park said, “Your particular topic is hate. Show how two lovers can separate and cause ‘love scars’.”

 

I just had to snicker. Just a little bit. Beside me, Haemi was absolutely upset. I knew just what she was thinking. ‘How am I supposed to hate him when he’s so god damn hot?!’ Yup, something along those lines. Typical Haemi.

 

I noticed that girls around us were jealous and started to gossip. I guess you could say that Kai was the “ulzzang” in the dance department of our school. To most people, anyway. I beg to differ. 

 

Surprisingly, my name was called next. I have no idea why everyone turned silent. Probably because the girls wanted to see if their “precious oppa” was picked to be with me. Then the most mind-blowing, unexpected words came out of my teacher’s mouth. Those three syllables that I’ve cherished.

 

“Oh Sehun.”

 

No. Way.

 

And guess what our topic was? “Two strangers meeting, then falling in love.”

 

-----

 

Haemi is the only other person that knows I like Sehun. So, when lunch finally came, she freaked out before we even got our food. 

 

“I can’t believe you’re partners with the Oh Sehun! GAHHH!!! I’m so happy for you!” I watched her excitedly bounce up and down as I reached to grab a cookie. 

 

I paid the cafeteria lady for my food and waited for her to hand over her money. “What are you talking about? There’s only one of him on the planet. It’s not a big deal if I’m his partner. It’s all for school anyway.”

 

Haemi put down her money and walked by my side as we made our way to our usual tree, where we always ate. “Don’t act all indifferent about this, Byun Ahyoung! I know you perfectly well, so don’t deny that inside, you’re extremely happy. For crying out loud, you got his phone number!”

 

That’s true. After class was temporarily dismissed, Sehun walked over to me and we exchanged numbers so we could talk about a song to dance to. He suggested a slower song to show the emotion of our topic, so I just reluctantly agreed. 

 

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