Krystal was ridiculously good at jazz. He glided toward her with leaps and slight hip hop movements; trying to embrace her from the back as their planned choreography called for, while Krystal turned abruptly and pushed him away, doing a series of turns as she got further and further away from him. Her turns were simple, light leap turns, but she extended her legs out in such natural lines, her upper body loose and gentle, her hair flying around her despite being tied up. Her expression was cool and absorbed, finishing her turns with arms extended out gracefully on opposite sides. Instead of moving on with his part of the choreography, Jongin stopped, and just watched her.

“What are you doing??” Krystal asked, her focus dissolving as she let out a laugh, looking at Jongin through the studio mirror.

“Huh?” Jongin uttered idiotically. He caught his own reflection, grinning goofily. He straightened his expression right away. “Sorry…” Jongin apologized, scratching his head. The music was still playing, so he strolled over and clicked pause.

There were still several parts to their choreography that were missing, but Jongin felt great about what they did have. He was totally embarrassed about having lost it just now, staring at Krystal with that stupid grin, but he couldn’t help it. She was that good.

“I think we’re good with this first verse,” said Krystal. “Do you wanna try working on the chorus some? The chorus is pretty important.”

Jongin nodded. Krystal clicked the music on again, and they listened to the chorus, counting the beats and tapping the rhythms. Again, Krystal’s face fell in that concentrating look she wore, that sort of fierce, blank expression, like from before. Jongin controlled himself this time; he didn’t lose the beat of the music, but he did find himself admiring her again, her and that expression.

“Ooh! I got an idea!” Krystal shouted, making Jongin jump. She hurriedly shut off the music, and came to stand behind him, taking his right wrist.

“What’s the idea?” Jongin asked, but instead of replying, Krystal took control of his right arm, singing the melody of “Icebox” faintly, in her perfect English. She made Jongin slide his right hand over his chest, making an invisible half box, then made him tap his chest twice. Before he knew it, she had taken a hold of his left arm as well, bringing it up and sweeping it before placing it above his right one.

“Get it? Icebox…” Krystal did the half-box motion again. “and heart used to be…” she tapped his chest, but more forcefully this time, treating Jongin’s arm as if it were a dummy. “Hit your chest sort of roughly. I think that’s better,” she added.

“And then, I’m going to come in behind you and shadow you…” as she spoke, she moved her arms in a similar fashion to what she’d done with Jongin’s arms, reaching around him. “Can we try at the same time?” she asked.

Jongin followed the moves Krystal had showed him, while Krystal, standing behind Jongin with her head just poking out behind his shoulder, shadowed him. Again, she guided them by singing the melody of the song lightly, and as they moved, Jongin observed their reflection in the mirror.

“Wow,” Jongin mouthed, watching him and Krystal move in unison, “That’s brilliant.”

Krystal was absorbed in her own thoughts. “And then we can move away from each other in steps…” she kept singing and trying out different moves.

The two were suddenly interrupted when the studio door slammed open, and a guy Jongin recognized as the guy named Hyungshik barged in. “Krystal! You… $%#@*!#^)~!#@...”

Jongin couldn’t catch what the guy was saying. Blabbering in a flurry of sentences, Hyungshik stormed toward them, threw down a handful of items he’d carried in, and shouted dramatically, “You can have those back!”

The items he threw down – a stuffed bear, a baseball cap, a tube of BB cream, a lightning bolt keychain, a red Nike t-shirt – scattered across the wooden floor in front of Jongin and Krystal. Hyungshik, glaring at Krystal, his heels and shot out in the same noisy way he’d come in, once again giving Jongin no sort of acknowledgement whatsoever.

Krystal rolled her eyes as she bent down and collected the items Hyungshik had left behind. “I already told him he could keep it all,” she muttered.

Jongin picked up the lightning bolt shaped key chain that had bounced close to his foot. What Krystal said clicked in his brain, and out of the blue, he laughed. “Guess he didn’t understand you the first time.”

With a sideways glance at Jongin, Krystal’s mouth curved into a small smile. “Hyungshik always feels the need to make a big deal out of everything,” she remarked.

Krystal had gathered everything in her arms except for the lightning bolt key chain. She sort of frowned, not knowing what to do with it all.

“You got him this much stuff? Maybe that’s why he’s so clingy,” Jongin joked. Krystal raised an eyebrow. “Not that it’s any of my business,” he quickly added.

Jongin awkwardly the lightning bolt key chain. It was about half the size of his hand, and gray, with black outlining. It looked like something you would find in multiple colors at a hippie gift shop. Jongin thought absentmindedly, that he didn’t have any keys other than his house key, which at the moment, he had no idea where to find.

“Do you like it?” Krystal asked. Jongin looked at her questioningly. He realized that she meant the key chain. “Oh, what? Um… well… here you go,” he blabbed, holding the key chain out to her.

“If you like it, I’d be more than willing to give it to you,” said Krystal, setting the rest of her stuff down next to her bag.

“Uhh… isn’t it weird, that you’re giving me something your ex-boyfriend gave back to you?”

Krystal placed a hand on her chin. “It could be… but Hyungshik never even used that key chain. He didn’t like it. I thought it was cute, but he never cared much what I thought.”

“Oh,” Jongin muttered.

“I think I’m okay, as long as you’re okay with it. It’s not like I’m giving you his old, used t-shirt he wore a billion times,” Krystal remarked, pointing to the red Nike shirt.

Jongin shrugged. Then he remembered that he didn’t have any keys. “Uhh… actually, I don’t have any keys.”

Krystal looked at him for a moment, then laughed. “Okay, well here, let me,” she said, and took the key chain from Jongin. She went over to his backpack, a big black thing that had way too little stuff in it, and attached the lightning bolt to a front zipper. “How’s that?”

Jongin thought that he should feel silly, having a lightning bolt shaped key chain on his backpack like an elementary school kid, but for some reason, he smirked contently. A little too late, he said, “Uhh… thanks.”

Krystal laughed again. Jongin couldn’t determine if she was laughing at him or not. She simply went over and shut off the music that had kept playing.

“Uhh, we’re about five minutes early, but do you mind if we finish here for today?” Krystal asked.

“Sure,” Jongin answered, though he was disappointed. Krystal seemed to have been in her zone, before Hyungshik barged in. They could’ve added a lot to their chorus. For some reason, rather randomly, his friends Sulli and Sehun came into Jongin’s mind. He only then remembered Sulli talking about Krystal being sensitive… but she didn’t seem sensitive at all. She was giving away her ex-boyfriend’s stuff like it was nothing. Jongin wondered if that was normal behavior.

“So, what are you gonna do with the rest of that guy’s stuff?” said Jongin. “I mean, just curious.”

Krystal picked up the tube of BB cream from the pile of Hyungshik’s things. Without even a blink, she dropped it into the trash can in the studio. “The rest of this, I’m gonna drop off at the second-hand shop on my way home,” she replied.

Jongin nodded. When they left the studio, Krystal waved to him with a small, simple smile. She walked off, still carrying Hyungshik’s things in her arms.

At home, before dinner, Jongin absently glanced at his backpack he’d thrown on his bed, and caught sight of the lightning bolt key chain. He didn’t know why, but it gave him an odd feeling. He then remembered Krystal walking away, with Hyungshik’s things. He disheveled his hair, somewhat punitively, then shook his head. He didn’t need Sulli to tell him to be nice. He had been nice to Krystal, this whole time.

Everyone still had about two weeks left until the mid-year showcase. Jongin felt highly confident about him and his partner. Their choreography was pretty much finished, and it looked good, really good. He just had one thing he wanted to suggest to Krystal, because he really felt like they could pull it off.

“You wanna do a lift???”

Jongin nodded. He hadn’t done any jazz lifts since he was little, when he’d taken private dance lessons. He probably didn’t remember anything from then, but he was very confident that he and Krystal were capable.

“What made you want to do that?” Krystal asked. She wasn’t acting absolutely shocked. Jongin decided that was a good sign. “I think we make a really good team,” he answered.

He didn’t know why he’d decided to ask Mrs. Ok about a beginner lift move they could try. Maybe he wanted Krystal to be like him. He wanted Krystal to dance because she liked dancing, not because she had to and she wanted good grades. And even if it wasn’t so, maybe he hoped she would understand him, and do the lift, for him.

“Okay,” Krystal said.

Jongin blinked. The grin spread across his face slowly and climactically. “Seriously??” he asked.

“Seriously.” Krystal noticed his ecstatic expression and laughed. She had a tendency to laugh at him a lot, during their practices. Jongin didn’t know if that was a good thing.

“Awesome,” he muttered, “That’s awesome. Let’s try it, then.” He jumped up, eager to get started. He showed Krystal a sample video clip Mrs. Ok had sent on his phone. But when they actually started trying, Jongin realized just how difficult it was.

In their choreography, Jongin had to hold Krystal back while she tried to walk away from him, and wrap her waist around with one of his arms. He had to take ahold of her hand from behind her with his other arm. Then, Krystal had to jump into the air, while Jongin, supporting her, had to help her swing her legs in an arc. She was light, but it was a challenge to support her with just an arm and a hand. The first few tries, Jongin dropped Krystal mid-arc, afraid he’d hurt her arm with his grip.

“Stop being so scared!” Krystal snapped, when he dropped her the fourth time.

“Sorry…” Jongin mumbled.

They got in position to try the lift again, when they were interrupted by a thin guy in his school uniform, who came in carrying a bouquet of roses. “Are you Krystal?” the guy said.

“Yeah,” Krystal replied.

“These are for you.” The guy held out the bouquet of roses. Krystal received them with a puzzled expression. “Who’s it from?” she asked.

“There’s a note…” the guy added. “Okay… bye…” he left the studio so fast, Jongin thought he almost ran out.

Jongin watched Krystal detach the small note from the bouquet. He didn’t mean to, but the message was written in such large, clear letters that it was impossible for him not to read it. The flowers were from that Hyungshik guy. He’d written, “I’m sorry,” with a hand-drawn frowny face.

“What the heck?” Krystal cried, before tossing the bouquet on the floor next to her bag. “Sorry about that… Park Hyungshik that… urghhh!” Krystal grunted, anger flashing across her brow.

Jongin found himself wondering why all of a sudden, after almost two weeks, the guy decided to apologize to Krystal. For a moment, he thought guiltily about the lightning bolt key chain, still hanging on his backpack.

“Let’s just keep trying the lift. Okay?” Krystal suggested, letting out a deep sigh. She looked unsettled, even though she tried to hide it, and Jongin again felt guilty, as if he should be trying to comfort her somehow. Instead, he did finally manage not to drop her, when they got back to practicing.