The Beautiful and the Forgetful

1.

“Kris! I have good news!”

Giving a muffled groan, Kris buried himself deeper into the comforts of his bed, ignoring his boisterous roommate who was invading into his moment of peace with no care in the world.

Today had been a horrible day. No, more like a horrible ty day. Kris had been kept up the night before by his idiotic roommate who was playing video games till the wee hours of the morning. And then he woke up late because his roommate had casually forgotten to wake him up before leaving for school himself. And in his haste to rush to school, he forgot to bring his 10 page report on the History of Shakespeare which he had dully completed one a week before the dateline. And to top it off, his teacher gave him detention and 2 demerit points for nodding off during the lesson. This was all the fault of his roommate who was now standing beside him, a devilish grin on his face.

“Go away”

“But Ge, I have good news” Luhan whined, waving a set of papers at him.

“Anything from you can never be good news” Kris muttered, turning to glare at Luhan with narrowed eyes.

“Well, you never know, you could be the happiest man in the world because of me. You just have to stop insulting me and treat me better.”

“Dream on babyface,” Kris grabs the papers from Luhan’s hands in an attempt to shut him up. He lies in bed, scanning the papers and flipping the pages, trying to make sense of the names and scattered headings on every page.  

“I give up” Kris groans, throwing the papers back into Luhan’s face and letting his arms flop back onto his bed.

Luhan gives a very dissatisfied sniff and proceeds to read dramatically from the first page.

“SEOUL HIGH SCHOOL SABBATICAL ALLOCATION 2013-“

Kris sits up from his bed so fast, startling Luhan who drops the papers with a yelp. Grabbing the papers and frantically flipping the pages, Kris attempts to find his name amongst the other hundreds on the list. . Sabbatical allocations. He had completely forgotten to sign up for the ones he liked. All he remembered was being intent on completing his stupid English essay which he had so conveniently forgotten to bring to school this morning. Now, he would most probably be randomly allocated to some sabbatical which was stupid and boring and a complete waste of time.

“Where the hell…” Kris mutters furiously under his breath as he tries to look for his name under random sabbaticals.

“Page 3, column 2, Sabbatical number 25” Luhan interjects with a bored tone, his words laced with a tinge of excitement. Why the hell would his idiotic roommate be excited about the sabbatical Kris is in, unless-

And then he sees it.

Sabbatical #25: Dance (Conducted by Aspire School)

….

Oh Se Hun

Kim Jongin

Xi Lu Han

Kris Wu

His name right beneath Luhan’s. What the . Kris stares incredulously at the list before him, cursing out loud. Out of the 50 sabbaticals available, he just had to get allocated into dance. For crying out loud, he could have gotten into boring pottery or even knitting. But no, he had to get into dance. He couldn’t dance to save his own life and now he had to dance for two straight months? At this point, Luhan’s clearly couldn’t hold it any longer and he burst into a fit of laughter, enjoying the pain and suffering that was clear on Kris’ face.

“Well, it’s alright. I will just skip the sabbatical. Anyway, it’s not like anyone will miss me and the dance instructor won’t even know he has a missing student. Better for both of us.” Kris decides outloud. At this, Luhan bends down to grab the fallen papers on the floor and points gleefully to the fineprint at the bottom of the page. Any form of truancy will not be tolerated. Attendance will be taken before and after every session. Demerit points will be handed out to students who skip their sabbaticals without a valid reason. Kris remembers that he is nearing his limit for demerit points, and the latest ones are no thanks to the babyfaced devil smiling sweetly at him right now.  Shooting a glare at Luhan, Kris collapses onto bed once more with a loud sigh.

It was the end of the academic school term and the bell had just rung. The hallway was filled with the excited chatter of the students who were eagerly anticipating their own sabbaticals. Everyone except Kris of course. He had just finished putting his books back into his locker and was leaning his head onto the cool metal surface of the locker door, wishing that he could blend in with the lockers as well. All he wanted to do now was to return to the dormitory and sleep, not go for some stupid dance sabbatical. But unfortunately, Luhan had spotted him before he could sneak away and had dragged him off in the direction of the dance studio.

“Give me a break and bother someone else why don’t you” Kris grumbles. “Where is your other half anyway, he would be more glad to see you than I am” At the mention of his boyfriend, Luhan beams widely and replies “Oh don’t you worry Fan Fan, Sehun is already at the dance studio waiting for us.”

“Don’t-“

“Call me Fan Fan~” Luhan finishes Kris’ sentence in a singsong voice. “Well, I don’t care Fan Fan. It’s a cute name and we are going to be late if you don’t hurry.”

Kris huffs and pulls his arm out of Luhan’s grasp. “I can walk fine by myself, thank you.” And then trails after Luhan, who is already walking away. 

Upon entering the dance studio, Kris gulps at the number of people in the room. There is easily 10 people in the room. A few pairs of eyes look up and gaze curiously at him as he enters the room. Kris manages a small smile before going to join Luhan who is currently lying on Sehun’s lap in the corner of the room.

“Well, the king finally made it” Luhan says in a snarky tone. Sehun cracks a smile even though his gaze is fixed to the screen of his mobile phone. Kris decides to ignore the older one and sits down with a sigh. There is still a little time before the lesson starts and Kris takes this opportunity to assess his classmates for the next 2 months. Most of the people in the room are seated in pairs, chatting quietly with each to other. There is an Asian boy with dark eye circles chatting with 2 other boys. He looks up as if knowing Kris is staring at him. His piercing gaze causes Kris to look away, flustered at being caught for staring. Kris turns his attention on 2 other boys in the room. One has big eyes who looks as if they could pop out any moment. The other, a dark- skinned boy is resting his head on the other’s shoulder, with his eyes closed as the big- eyed boy hums quietly. The two give off a peaceful feeling and it is clear that they are comfortable in each other’s presence.

The door suddenly opens and a male in his mid- thirties strides, speaking in a booming voice, startling Kris and a few others in the room as well. Kris sees the dark- skinned boy being started awake and the other boy gently pats his head and chuckles.

“Hi everyone! I’m Instructor Park Jin Young. You can call me Instructor Park. I will be your instructor for today! Now everyone up on your feet! Let’s go!”

By the end of the lesson, Kris is pouring with sweat. The teacher wasted no time with introductions and immediately launched into the lesson. As it was only the first lesson, the teacher decided to make them learn the widely popular hit Gangnam Style, in an effort to make them loosen up. Kris’s hair is plastered to his forehead. Who knew that prancing around like a dumb horse could make one so tired. Kris looks around and sighs in relief when he sees that he isn’t the only one who has difficulty getting the moves correct. A smiley faced boy is trying to do the moves and the boy with the piercing gaze is laughing at the way the other dances. Meanwhile Luhan and Sehun who are fast learners have already gotten the main moves correct and are way ahead of the teacher.

Kris sighs in relief when the teacher claps his hands and signals for the end of the lesson. As he flops to the ground, he hears the teacher tell them that “it was a good time teaching them and that their real instructor was busy today which is why he is here in his place”.

Just then, Luhan bounds happily to him with Sehun in tow. “Well, wasn’t that fun!” he chirps happily, swinging his arms in delight. “Ugh no, I felt like I was going to die.” Kris complains. He doesn’t know where and how does Luhan gets the energy from after 3 hours of dance. But then that’s why he is labeled crazy frog for a reason.  Kris smirks to himself before getting up and heading back to the dorm for a well- deserved break.