Chapter 4 Soubresaut

“Pas de chat¹. Point your feet — that’s it! Good job. Now, chassé² chassé and a soutenu³ turn. Down and close in fifth. Beautiful!”

So I’ve been here for about two weeks. Yup, two grueling weeks. This was my schedule everyday: get up at six in the morning, get to the studio at around seven, warm up and rehearse until seven at night (or if I’m lucky, at five, but that rarely happens), and repeat the cycle as necessary, which is about everyday.

Everything’s pretty normal right now: my life is pretty set and stone (see above) and I have something to work towards. Well, let me rephrase that: almost everything is normal with the emphasis on almost. I still feel a little embarrassed about that little run-in with the U-Kiss member whose name has two syllables and starts with a K. And if you have been paying attention for the past two chapters, hopefully you can figure that it’s not Kiseop.

I haven’t seen him since, but I’ve heard Man Man Ha Ni being played everywhere— in the mall, at the studio, and awkwardly enough, on one of the stage staff’s phone (she set it as her ringtone). The thing I find ironic is that everybody knows a few lines of Man Man Ha Ni, but less than five percent of those people know who the artist is. I always hear, “Who sings Man Man Ha Ni?” And that makes me want to scream at them, “U-Kiss sings it! If you cared enough to listen to it, at least make sure that you know who sings it! Gosh...” But of course, I don’t rage at them because that would just seem awkward and rude. I don’t. Honestly.

***

I sitting in a corner fixing my ribbons during a fifteen minute break after three hours of rehearsal. The edges of the ribbons were becoming a bit torn up. And satin at the edges of the platform⁴ was coming off.

“That’s the fourth pair in a week.” I mentally sighed to myself. Ballet isn’t an inexpensive art. Heck, I could have for college ten times over with the amount of money I spend on ballet.

“Hey,” someone sat down next to me. I turned my head a little to see Amy, one of my friends in the company. She’s one hundred percent Korean, with her Korean name being Yoon Mi, but everyone just calls her Amy.

“Hey, do you need something?” I figured that out because she’s always asking me for stuff, whether it’s a physical object or a favor. Like the other day she was begging me for bobby pins to pin her hair up. But nonetheless, she’s my friend, albeit a tad bit forgetful

“Yeah, can you go to the M! Countdown with me?” she asked, feigning a cute puppy expression. FYI, aegyo or cuteness does not work on me.

“Huh? What’s M! Countdown? If it’s a nightclub then no way on Earth am I going.” I replied, ignoring her (somewhat failed) cute expression. 

She burst into a fit of giggles that sounded like dolphin clicks while I stared at her dumbly.

“No, it’s not a nightclub, I swear on my pointe shoes,” she started. Wow, if she’s swearing on her pointe shoes then she must be serious because she absolutely adores those Russian Pointes.

“So what is it?” I interrupted her impatiently; I’m not going to waste my break asking her about some obscure event.

“Sheesh, let me finish will you?” she replied in annoyance. Bipolar, much?

“Anyways, M! Countdown is a music program that airs K-Pop rookie debuts or comeback stages. You have to come. I don’t want to go there by myself.” she explained.

“I don’t have to anything. And why is it such a big deal for you to go. Don’t you have practice?” I asked her.

“Yeah, but it’s SHINee’s comeback this week. It’s my duty as a loyal Shawol to attend M! Countdown.” she started hyperventilating.

“Shine— what? What is this terminology you’re using?” I asked, now very confused.

“SHINee. You know, the boy idol group from SM who released Ring Ding Dong,” she stated that like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“No, I don’t know because I came to Korea two weeks ago. Emphasis on two weeks or fourteen days if your brain cannot convert weeks to days.” I retorted. Now I’m really annoyed because she’s bugging me with this senseless crap and I need to go back to rehearsal.

“But you have to go with me. Please?” I mentally rolled my eyes and began to consider the options: if I go with her, she’ll stop annoying me but I will probably have to other events like this in the future. If I say no, she’ll pester me all the way to the moon and back. Alright, I’ll go with her.

“Fine, I’ll go but you better make sure the music there is good.” I sighed. I was attacked by a smothering hug.

“Hey, do you want to choke me before I get there?” I asked. She promptly released me and started to apologize.

“Sorry! Sorry! But I promise the music there is gonna be awesome. You’ll love it!” She bear hugged me once more.

“Hey what did I say about hugging me?” I asked. Clearly, repetition does not have any effect on this girl.

“Oh, sorry.”

***

I could care less where I go after rehearsal; I did my usual routines, ranging from waltzes to marches. But that was clearly not the case for Amy.

She was fizzing with excitement the entire day. I think Miss Amber had to give Amy her infamous lectures si— wait no, seven times (I lost count after three). She could not concentrate at all. She even managed to mess up her basic plié barre work. Now that’s a new low.

It was 5 in the afternoon. The sun cast a dull gold mask over Seoul; it will soon be replaced with the cool indigo of the approaching evening. I was standing outside in the parking lot with Amy who unfortunately, is still bouncing with giddiness.

“Oh my god, thank you so much for coming with me. I finally get to see SHINee perform live!” she squealed for the nth time (Note that n=∞) while I was fumbling for my car keys.   

“I hate to interrupt your fangirling but we maybe should get going. Just as a suggestion.” I said, having finally found my car keys.

“Right, we should be there extra early s0 we can get good seats,” she nodded in agreement.

We got into the car, and I wondered if I made the right choice to go with her.

***

An hour later, we arrived at M! Countdown. This is what I saw: the entire population of teenage girls in Korea screaming their heads off and holding placards that had their “oppa’s” name on it. I rolled my eyes and walked past them. Thinking about it, why would they want to be with guys who don’t even know that they exist? It’s kind of stupid and frivolous, but then again, there’s plenty of stupid people on the planet.

Amy was about to join them, but I dragged her along because at this rate, we’ll never see the idols perform.

“Come on,” I started, “Do you want to see SHINee perform or not?” I asked her. Stupid mistake: when the word SHINee was uttered, nearby girls started to squeal and give me dirty looks.

That didn’t really faze me because I just stared back at them with an icy look that was not really a glare, just a blank look. I’m guessing they have never been in a staring contest because they turned their eyes away.

“Yeah,” Amy replied, lost in her own world of SHINee.

“Let’s get this thing over with,” I softly murmured to myself.

***

“Now let’s welcome SHINee to the stage! The boys are back with Lucifer.”

Okay, in my opinion, SHINee is gonna need to have a miracle to impress me. So far, the performances were mediocre, with your stereotypical idols singing and dancing and lip...swiping? I’m willing to bet that it was for their “y” concept. I’m not saying there weren’t any good ones, there were a couple that I deemed as satisfying, but other than that, the dances were clearly lacking in originality and execution, but the fans just seemed to eat it up. I’m not judging them too harshly, am I? It’s a wonder how K-Pop is lasting so long.

“Soomeul gotdo chatji mothae naneun piharyeogo aesseo bwado

Geobujocha hal su eopneun

nege gadhyeobeorin na”⁴

Hmm... is SHINee as great as Amy described it to be? I’m about to find out.

***

I must say, I’m impressed with SHINee. Their choreography was solid, and they actually know what they’re doing, something that’s hard to find these days. They have great vocalists and dancers, especially that Taemin guy whose movements are really fluid. But I would like to see him to a jeté en tourant. Now that’s a sight I would pay to see.

“See, I told you. SHINee’s like the best group ever.” Amy started fangirling beside me. I facepalmed myself.

“For our final performance of the night,” the MC announced, “we have U-Kiss performing their comeback, Bingeul Bingeul!”

Another perf— wait what?

Footnotes

I pretty much gave up on this fic, but reading through the drafts today, it gave me a burst of inspiration to keep writing. Moving on, a soubresaut is a sudden jump from both feet, so I’ll leave it to you to figure that out in relation to the context

¹ Pas de chat—literally, the step of the cat; The dancer jumps sideways, and while in mid-air, bends both legs up (two retirés) bringing the feet up as high as possible, with knees apart

² Chassés are light, gliding steps, kind of like you’re skipping through a meadow of flowers

³ Soutenu means smooth, so the turn is very sustained

⁴ Lyrics to SHINee’s Lucifer