Morning fell, rather slowly as I laid in bed. I could feel my swollen eyes and pillow that was damp from my tears. Had I really stayed up all night to weigh out all the worst possibilities? Why was I so pessimistic? But how can I not be when this insidious illness was taking over my life.

It happened again yesterday evening. The pain that caused my desperate lungs to grasp constantly for fresh oxygen. It was a pain where I would rather replace with 72 knives through me.  Umma rushed to get me in front of the school. She brought me home safely and contacted my doctor. 

"How is our MInah, Dr. Park?" 

"It seems like we reached the worst." he replied abstractly. I closed my eyes trying hard to inhale. 

"What are you talking about?"

"We're up to the stage where treatment won't be able to slow this process. I have told you before Minah's emphysema has already gone severe." he explained. "You must be prepared for the worst."

Umma lost her balance at the moment, held her hand over and started  to cry. I thought of giving her a warming hug to calm her flustered heart but my limb body just won't allow me. I watched her cry walking Dr. Park to the exit. She came back, still with tears. 

"Minah, you'll be fine. You are Umma's precious daughter. Umma will be here." she said drying her eyes but they were still glazed as she would have burst into tears at any given moment. Umma left the room when there was a sound of a closing door. "Your Appa must be home." She turned of the lights and closed the door lightly behind her. 

I laid there in the dark listening to their faint voices. Tears fell uncontrollably. I felt useless. Useless because I couldn't help myself. Useless because I couldn't help my parents. Useless because I wouldn't be able to spend time with them after I leave.

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"One, two, step. One, two, step" Lay repeated the steps for me to follow. I tried the same moves hoping our practice till the night falls will have a safe outcome for the competition that was just roughly a week away. 

"Okay lets do it once with the song" He said moving towards the edge of the stage where his phone was placed. I nodded in agreement, taking a deep breath. The familiar beat played as I turned around in preparation for the beginning. Lay joined next to me. I think that the stars would have waited, for us. We turned around at the first note. My arms went in circular motions till the were in front of my face. At the next beat, I brought my arms down to my chest, crossing them and then bringing them down to the side. 

We had already perfected more than half of our piece. The rest of the moves will fall into place in the next few days when we get inspired. At the moment in our choreography when the moved one in front of the other, the auditorium doors were pushed open. Our dance halted but the music kept playing. We walked up to her, bowing when we reached this thin women in her late thirties.

"Hello" she smiled. "I'm sorry to interject your practice but we have scheduled our play practice today."

"Oh! We didn't know." I responded. "We'll be leaving." Lay said bluntly after me. He bowed, expressionless and walked off. I did the same and caught up to him at the edge of the stage retrieving our bags. We exited the school reluctantly.

"I guess we can depart separately from here" Lay said once we passed the gates.

"But we haven't practiced enough." I pulled his arm back when he was about to leave. 

"There is no where for us to practice. I don't think our house has enough room for us to move around." He reasoned. 

I nodded but then an image of a place popped into my head. "I know where we can go!" Confused, he had no choice but to follow my lead. The sun was still up as we passed through the busy streets of employees going home after work. Lay let me hold his hand as I pushed through the crowd. I approached a familiar building, going up the familiar steps to a familiar place. I unlocked a metal door that let me to a place filled with memories of the times before I had this friend. This was the place I called mine when I was desolate of others. This was my roof, my stage.

The breeze blew through my hair just as I had remembered. "It's nice isn't it?" I asked stretching my arms out taking a few paces backward. Lay just nodded moving around, astonished by the breeze, the space or maybe the sky that was lit in shades of purple, pink and orange from the setting sun. "It's beautiful." He said after a while. "How did you ever know of this place?" 

My story with this area started with a rather depressing beginning which I would rather not tell, the time when I had felt that the edge of the top of this building was the only solution to my conflicts.  I sat down on the roof, not caring what had been on it or even if they'd even clean the place. Lay followed. Instead of starting from the beginning, I kept things simple by just stating I wanted to dance. A dance class containing more that ten people wasn't in one of my choices for my self-conscious self. So my other option was this locus; where I was alone, away from judgement, free to do whatever I prefer.  

I took a deep breath, smiled to change the subject. "Let's practice before it gets late. We'll be tripping down the stairs in the dark."

I think that the stars would have waited- for us. Hanging onto the night watching down below. The music played as we delved right into our dance, not knowing where the night would bring us. 

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Author's Note!

I'm back! Hopefully to stay. Half of you are probably like, "What is this story?" or "When did I ever subscribe to this?" I know I'm sorry for not being able to update for over a year. If you are still reading this... I just wanted to say thank you. Don't worry I won't keep you reading this author's note for long :P

Stars Falling Down (Just if you were interested in the song.) The dance described is inspired by Wong Fu Productions' short series 'When it Counts.'