Dance with me;

Chic. Mysterious. Strikingly handsome. These are some of the words used by the public to describe Kim JongIn. Oops, my mistake, I meant Kai. In front of the flashing cameras and the hungry media, he would be Kai, the seemingly untouchable guy of EXO. But behind all the glitz and glam is a simple, humorous and outgoing guy. This is JongIn; the one who hid behind an image of cold ice to pursue his dream of performing to his heart’s content on stage. Though he might have let his image down at times, and have let the public see the boy behind the image, one thing the public will never know was JongIn’s little hospital visits. No, he’s not sick. The reason he comes to the hospital is to visit someone, a very special someone.

Funny. Sweet. Childish. Meet Lee HanSeong; JongIn’s childhood best friend. She was the one who had persistently annoyed JongIn to audition. She was the one who lightened up his tiring days of being a trainee. Basically, she was the one who made JongIn realize and achieve his dreams. She was his muse. HanSeong also had her fair share of dreams. One of them was to be able to dance and if possible on-stage with JongIn someday. Even as children, both have dreamed of a time on stage where hundreds of people would watch as they showed the product of all their hard work. Everything seemed great. Everything seemed fine. But fate intervened. HanSeong’s asthma attacks started becoming worse. After two weeks of sudden asthma attacks and frequent trips to the hospital, the doctors decided to have HanSeong move in the hospital until her illness heals. JongIn never missed one day to visit the girl and even until they have moved into their teen years, JongIn made sure he’d see HanSeong. Until one day,

“You should try auditioning” JongIn looks up from the apple he was peeling and stares at HanSeong.

“Why?” HanSeong raises an eyebrow at the boy.

“What do you mean ‘why’? You’re an awesome dancer! I’m sure you’d get in right away! And didn’t you say your dream was to be able to dance on-stage with hundreds of people watching?” JongIn sighs and hands the sliced apples to the girl.

“It was our dream, HanSeong; to be able to dance on-stage with hundreds of people watching… together.” HanSeong sighs.

“I guess so but with my current condition, I guess you’ll have to stand alone from now on.”

“HanSeong, it’s not too late. You will heal. You will be back to dancing. We… We’ll be back to dancing.”

“JongIn, be serious. This sickness, it’s not something a little bit of hospital air could heal.” JongIn stays silent as HanSeong pauses her sentence to take a bite from an apple.

“Also, I won’t be staying for long either.” JongIn’s head snaps up and furrows his eyebrows.

“What do you mean you won’t be staying for long?” HanSeong lets out a mournful laugh.

“This sickness, it will kill me soon.”

“No! You’ll get out of here someday okay? You’ll be fine and we’ll, we’ll achieve our dreams, right? Right, HanSeong?” She doesn’t answer, only looks away. JongIn couldn’t handle it, at least not anymore and he tears up, pouting at the girl.

“HanSeong… Tell me we’ll reach our dream. Tell me fate has other plans.” HanSeong bites her lip and looks to the window.

“Fate does have other plans, JongIn, for you. But to reach our dream, I don’t know.” JongIn just sits there, wiping his tears with balled fists.

“If you really want to achieve our dream…” HanSeong speaks quietly as she stands up and walks to JongIn, reaching out her hand to pat his head.

“Audition and reach your dreams; dance on that stage with those hundreds of people watching, that enough will be good for me.” JongIn just silently nods and grabs her hand, hooking his pinky with hers.

“If that’s what you want, I promise you, I will reach our dream as long as you stay beside me on the way.” HanSeong simply smiles and nods.

The next day, JongIn had immediately come to a company to audition and without a doubt, he got in easily. Ever since then, his visits became less due to the intensive training but HanSeong was fine with it and every time he did visit, she would listen to him talking about his experiences and before he would go, HanSeong would wish him good luck and encourage him to do even better.

The day JongIn had told HanSeong that he would be debuting and will be in charge of the dancer position, HanSeong had cried of happiness and gave him a long speech about not forgetting her and how he should act in front of the public. The smile she wore that day, it was something JongIn strived to see more so he worked even harder and danced the best he could, hoping HanSeong would be watching and waiting to greet him with her brightest smile.

Because of his debut, JongIn visited scarcely but made sure to give frequent calls and messages to HanSeong. But whenever he would visit, he made sure to make their time together well spent. He would sometimes bring one of the members to help even lighten up the mood or sometimes just go alone to be able to cherish the simply moments with only the two of them there. Today was one of those latter days.

“JongIn, how’s living the dream?” HanSeong casually asks him as he peels an apple just like all the times before. He lightly hums before answering.

“It’s great especially knowing that you feel happy whenever you see me on stage.” HanSeong laughs and stares at JongIn.

“JongIn, how does it feel to dance?” JongIn stops peeling and looks back at HanSeong. Her eyes were glassed with longing, the longing to dance once again.

“It’s great.” For a moment they just stare at each other, HanSeong seemingly lost in her own thoughts and JongIn counting all the shades in her eyes.

“Would you like to dance again?” HanSeong snaps from her trance, bites her lip and in a silent and shaky voice responds.

“Yes.”

JongIn stands up and holds out his hand to HanSeong. For some time, she only stares at his hand and then she moves her eyes towards his and their gazes lock.

“Are you sure?” She asks wearily. JongIn only nods, smiling softly at her. With a final breath, HanSeong takes his hand and stands up.

“What are we gonna dance? I obviously can’t do any of your tiring choreographies.”

“We’ll do a different dance. I don’t know if you still remember this but we’ve done this once as children.” Slowly, JongIn guides her hand to his shoulder; the other kept firmly in his while his other hand was placed gently on her back. JongIn leads as he steps forward, HanSeong instinctively taking a step backward and basically doing the opposite of what JongIn would do. HanSeong vaguely starts to remember. It was a summer afternoon, inside the dance studio with silent classical music vibrating through the room. It was the dance both of them could never exactly master; the slow dance. As kids, they never saw the reason behind the dawdling choreography but maybe because they’ve grown and matured that they started seeing the reason now.

Even without music, the two danced fluidly and gracefully, JongIn making sure not to move too fast in order to avoid getting HanSeong an asthma attack. And honestly, despite being unused to the leisurely tempo of the dance, JongIn was content of that moment, the moment where he could hold HanSeong in his arms and feel the calm atmosphere between them.

“JongIn, why do you think the slow dance was invented for?” HanSeong silently asks.

“So, you do remember.” JongIn smiles at her as he spins HanSeong earning a silent chuckle from her.

“I think slow dances were invented for people in love.” He responds to her earlier question. Hanseong simply softly smiles and asks once again.

“And why is that?”

“Because they long for a moment to stop where they would have their lover in their arms and the world around them would stay peaceful and quiet just as if there was only the two of them in the universe and there were no limits to what they could reach.” JongIn says as he pulls her closer, placing her other hand on his shoulder and wrapping both of his arms behind her. And in that moment, they both just slowly stopped idly moving and just stood at the center of the room in peace.

“I’ve always loved you.” JongIn quietly murmurs as he lays his head on HanSeong’s. HanSeong responds by hugging him tighter and in a hushed voice replies,

“I know. I’ve shared the same feelings. I’ve always loved you too. Thank you for making our dream come true.”

“Thank you for staying with me till I did.”