“Oh you’re forgetting one other thing,” Eunmi said as Taemin headed for her door.

“What?”

“My ankle is sprained,” Eunmi said, holding her sprained ankle out.

“I thought you said it was okay,” Taemin walked over to the bed where Eunmi was sitting.

“Yeah, enough for me to walk without falling. Certainly not to dance,” Eunmi said.

“Oh. Should I go get you one of Jongin’s crutches?” Taemin turned to the door again. “I’ll get mom too.....”

“No! Wait!” Eunmi limped after him and grabbed his arm in the hall. “Okay its not that bad. But I can’t dance with this ankle for sure. Not yet. In a couple days, yeah.”

“We don’t have a couple of days. So you’ll just have to learn the moves your upper body can do for the time-being,” Taemin said, heading to his room “Tomorrow, 4:00, studio.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So 4 o’clock on Wednesday, Eunmi headed for the studio address Taemin texted her (she would always forget whereitwas). He had been there since after school and Jongin had gone somewhere with Hyunki so she got out of the house fast. Jongin hadn’t attended school that day because he was supposed to be resting at home, but he would attend tomorrow.

Every time Eunmi found this place she would look at it in an unsure way. Is he even allowed to use this place?

She shrugged, Taemin would occasionally play with the line, but never cross it completely.

“Close the door, its cold,” Taemin said the second she entered. Jonghyun, Key, Minho, Onew, and Sehun were waiting.

“As you guys can see, this is what I had to resort to,” Taemin jerked his head in Eunmi’s direction.

“I’m going,” Eunmi turned around but Taemin dragged her back.

“I was just kidding.”

“Mhmm.”

“Noona?” Sehun looked surprised. “I didn’t know you could dance.”

“I can’t,” Eunmi muttered. “You try saying no to a person who keeps annoying you to do it.”

Taemin grinned and Eunmi put her bag down where everyone else’s bags were.

“Since you two,” Taemin pointed to Eunmi and Sehun. “are new, we’re going to go from the beginning.”

“Let’s split up, FatMuffin will need more people to tutor her so three of us with her and two with Sehun,” Taemin said.

“We’ll teach Eunmi!” Key and Onew said.

“Taemin, you should too, she’s your sister,” Key added.

Taemin sighed, “But I don’t want to deal with the bad dancer. Sehun’s so much easier!”

Key rolled his eyes and he dragged Eunmi and Taemin by the arms to one end of the studio.

Jonghyun and Minho were at the other end and Onew followed Taemin, Eunmi, and Key.

“Hey wait,” Key stopped and looked down. “Your ankle.”

“It’s fine, it’s fine,” Taemin waved it away.

“You can’t dance like that!” Key exclaimed. “It’ll get worse!”

“Its okay, I can walk,” Eunmi said.

“You’re limping.”

“Only a little.”

Onew shook his head as well, “We should wait a week before we start with the dance, make sure your ankle is fully healed. “

“What do we do today then?!” Taemin asked as Jonghyun and Minho were started the music and Sehun was following along well.

“You can learn the words to the song,” Onew said, passing her a lyrics sheet.

“Watch the performances a lot,” Key advised. “Taemin, being the weirdo he is, learned the entire dance just by watching it a million times. He knows what time every move is, choreo is completely memorized. You should do that too.”

“Of course Taemin watched it at least a million times, I think a couple times a day will be good for you,” Onew said. “No need to turn into a creep.”

“Um hello? I’m right here,”

“Hello,” Key gave him a smile.

Taemin rolled his eyes, “Whatever. Okay Muffin, you sing, Sehun dances. Let’s go.”

They joined Sehun, Jonghyun, and Minho and started the music again.

The singing wasn’t a big problem, Eunmi had heard the song so many times because Taemin always played it. She would have no problem in smoothing out the edges. Sehun wasn’t having much problems with the moves either it seemed.

“Wow!” Jonghyun clapped. “That was great.”

“Yes yes but we all need practice so let’s start again all together,” Taemin said. Everyone got into their positions and Eunmi started the music.

“I can’t sing all these parts, they overlap,” Eunmi said halfway when the music stopped (they could only do the first half perfectly, excluding Sehun).

“Should we get backups?” Taemin asked.

“We could just have the music play in the background,” Key shrugged.

“Oh yeah. So just cross out the parts you won’t be singing,” Taemin said.

Eunmi nodded and they started the music again.

At the end of the hour, Eunmi was sure she had memorized the entire song and Sehun had somehow managed to learn the moves the rest knew.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“I’ll be back in a couple of minutes,” Jongin said, as he got out of the car with Hyunki’s help.

“Want me to go in with you?” Hyunki asked. “It might be hard with the crutches.”

Jongin shook his head, “Nah its fine.”

They were right at the front doors of the gym so Jongin wouldn’t have to go through the snow.

“Okay, I’ll wait here,” Hyunkis said as Jongin went in.

He found the boys in the gym they usually practiced in. They were playing by themselves, waiting for Jongin.

Jongin managed to open the door and went inside.

“HYUNG!”

Alarmed, the kids ran over to Jongin at the sight of his cast and crutches.

“Hey guys,” Jongin smiled.

“What happened?!” Hyunwoo demanded. Jongin quickly explained the story.

“Whoah... hyung you’re a hero!” Minki cheered.

“No,” Jongin said flatly.

 “Hyung can you still help us?” Hyunwoo asked nervously. “But your leg...... its better if you don’t.”

“You guys are great!” Jongin exclaimed. “I’ll drop in when I can but just keep doing the drills and what we’ve practiced.”

They nodded.

“I have to go now, but I’ll come by on Friday,” Jongin told them.

“You don’t have to!” Hyunwoo shook his head. “You should rest.”

“Don’t worry about that, there’s plenty of time for resting,” Jongin said casually. “See you!” He headed for the door and the kids followed him, Minki held the door open and they walked him to the front of the gym.

“Bye hyung!”

“Feel better!”

“We’ll work hard!”

“We’re going to win for you!”

Jongin waved to the boys and then exited the building to find Hyunki was waiting for him. He opened the door and helped Jongin in.

“Why haven’t you told your mother yet?” Hyunki asked as they drived home.

Jongin shrugged, “There’s not much to tell.”

“So if I told her......”

“Don’t! She’ll get excited,” Jongin said.

 “That’s bad? She already knows that you play with Taemin,” Hyunki said.

“Yeah but.... I don’t know.... she might get me to sign up for a team or something,” Jongin replied.

“Suit yourself. But its nice that you’re helping those boys,” Hyunki said as they pulled into the driveway.

They went into the house and found Taeyeon doing her homework and watching TV.

“I have to grab some of my things and then I’m off,” Hyunki said, heading up the stairs.

“Hey Yeon” Jongin sat down beside her. “What’re ya up to?”

“Math,” she replied. “Can you help me?”

“Sure,” Jongin nodded and Taeyeon smiled and turned the TV off.

“Where are hyung and noona?” he asked, suddenly noticing the argument-free house.

Taeyeon shrugged, opening her folder to the page she needed help with.

“When did noona leave?” he asked.

“After you did,” she replied and Jongin began helping her with her work.

About an hour later, Taemin and Eunmi trudged into the house.

“Where were you two?” Jongin asked, surprised that they came in together.

“We- we uh,” Eunmi stuttered. Taemin elbowed her and said to Jongin, “FatMuffin was with Chen and when she was coming home I saw her on my way from the studio and decided to chase her home with snowballs.”

He pointed to her head and coat that was covered in snow.

“Oh,” Jongin nodded. “How far are you guys with practice? Has Sehun caught on?”

“Yeah kid’s a fast learner,” Taemin said, throwing his wet jacket on Eunmi and sitting beside Jongin.

Eunmi made a face and took his jacket off of her. She took hers off and hung both in the hall closet before joining them in the living room.

“So when are you planning on finding the girl?” Jongin asked as Taemin turned the TV on to a variety show.

“Oh that. I’ve found someone,” Taemin said casually.

“Really?! Who?!” Jongin asked excitedly.

“Oh just some girl in grade 12,” Taemin shrugged.

“Who? What’s her name? Is she good?” Jongin asked.

“Her name is.... Jihyun and she’s okay as far as last resorts go,” Taemin said with a small smirk on his face as he glanced at Eunmi who was rolling her eyes. “LOTS of room for improvement though.”

“I see,” Jongin nodded. “I want to see her with you guys.”

“You can’t, she’s really shy. A total loser if you ask me,” Taemin said, thoroughly enjoying this chance at indirectly insulting Eunmi.

“But if my leg wasn’t like this she’d be dancing in front of me anyways!” Jongin exclaimed.

Taemin shrugged, “She doesn’t want anyone to watch her.”

“How is she going to perform on stage if she can’t even stand someone watching her practice?” Jongin raised an eyebrow.

Taemin didn’t have a reply for that one and racked his brain for an excuse.

“I- she- she’s confident on stage but not during practice.”

Jongin’s eyebrow went higher, “Are you serious?”

“I don’t have time for a questionnaire on the girl, I have to go organize my laundry,” Taemin stood up and went upstairs.

Eunmi rolled her eyes again. Nice save there, as if he does his own laundry.

“Do you think he actually found someone?” Jongin asked Eunmi.

“Oh. I guess I believe him,” Eunmi said weakly.

Jongin shrugged, “Well as long as the performance is coming together.” He turned to the TV.

“Yeah,” Eunmi said, getting up and going upstairs to avoid further comments.

“Nice save, Taemin,” Eunmi said when she got upstairs.

 “Just leave the lying to me,” Taemin said. “Clearly, a goodie goodie like you cannot think of any good excuses on the spot.” He was referring to the snowball fight excuse he made when he and Eunmi first entered the house.

“I’m so ashamed to not be a professional liar,” Eunmi said sarcastically.

“Mhmm you should be,” Taemin nodded.

Eunmi shook her head and went into her room to finish an assignment, but tripped over her foot on her way to her room.

“Ouch!”

Taemin shook his head and snorted, “I hope you don’t dance as well as you walk.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Eunmi’s ankle got much better over the next few days. Mainly because Taemin made sure she was resting so that she could learn the dance as soon as possible. He had also forced her to watch a dozen performances of the song every day and Eunmi was now sure that she had the entire dance memorized. The question was: would she be able to do it?

The following Tuesday, Eunmi found herself in the studio with the dance crew.

“Are you sure your ankle is okay?” Onew asked.

“Yeah! It’s all better, see?” Eunmi walked without limping and moved her ankle around.

“Great! We can start today then!” Key clapped. “Have you watched the performances?”

“Are you kidding? Taemin made me watch them a million times!” Eunmi exclaimed. “But there’s no guarantee that I can do those moves, I only know the order.”

“Music!” Taemin said and turned the song on as everyone got into position. The first part was easy, all she had to do was pretend like she was moving the boys out of her way.

“I don’t know what to do next,” Eunmi scratched her head.

“This,” Taemin showed her.

“I can’t do that.”

Taemin took her arms, lifted them up and forced her to do it.

“Now do it yourself and it’ll look better,” he said.

Eunmi tried but it didn’t look right.

“FatMuffin, if we’re going to embarrass ourselves right now by doing girly moves, you better learn!” Taemin warned.

Half of them did the move, the other half were controlling Eunmi.

After 15 minutes, Eunmi did it herself and Key cheered, “Yes!”

“Wonderful. We know the first ten seconds,” Taemin said dryly.

“I told you I can’t dance!”

 “You didn’t tell me you were this bad.”

“Yes I did!”

“No you didn’t.”

“Yes I did!”

“N-”

“Okay let’s move on!” Minho said loudly. They spent the next hour trying to teach Eunmi the chorus. It resulted in Eunmi learning the first three seconds.

Taemin slapped a hand over his face and shook his head.

“Its okay, noona! After you learn the chorus, the rest is easy,” Sehun assured.

Eunmi nodded, feeling like a total fail.

“Bye,” Eunmi waved to them as she and Taemin left.

The walk home was unusually quiet.

How come I’m biologically related to a dance genius and unable to learn  a couple of moves? Eunmi thought miserably.

Taemin looked at her, she was looking down with her hood over her head.

“Hey you,” he said, feeling a small bit guilty for degrading her so much on her first day. “We’ve got plenty of time. Like Sehun said, after you learn the chorus, its easy.”

“Okay.”

She felt a little better and Taemin decided to stuff snow down her jacket to take her mind off of the dance practice.

“HEY!” she yelped as Taemin ran away.

“LEE TAEMIN YOU ARE SO OBNOXIOUS!” she yelled before running after him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Daehyun jiggled his key into the keyhole. It was broken but he didn’t have any money to fix it.

He kicked the door open and entered the apartment he shared with his father.

He found his father passed out on the floor. He sighed and dragged his father onto the sofa. He scrunched up his nose, the entire place smelled like alcohol and the apartment was a mess.

How did we end up like this? Daehyun thought as he began cleaning up.

“Ah!” He on his bleeding thumb after a broken alcohol bottle shard went into his skin.

Ah screw it. He gave up on trying to clean the place and went to his room.

A couple of minutes later, his father woke up.

“GET ME A BEER!” he roared from the living room. Daehyun closed eyes and opened them before goung into the living room.

“We don’t have any,” he said in a bored tone as his father lit a cigarette.

“Then find me some!”

“I’m busy.”

“What did you say, boy?!” Mr. Jung snapped, getting rid of the cigarette and standing up.

Someone knocked on their door and Daehyun turned around to get it.

“Where’s my rent?!” The building manager screamed in his face.

“Oh. I’ll go get it,” Daehyun said going into the kitchen to get the money from the cookie jar.

But there was no money in it. Daehyun pressed his lips into a thin line, knowing full well where the money was.

“I’m really sorry, I’ll get it to you tomorrow,” Daehyun bowed and closed the door. The manager shouted something about kicking them out if he didn’t have the rent in his hands by tomorrow afternoon.

“Why the hell did you use the rent money to buy your drinks?!” Daehyun yelled, his irritation rising.

“I can use it for whatever I want,” his father grunted.

“Yeah? On alcohol and illegal drugs?” Daehyun snapped, his mouth spitting out whatever words came to it. “Who cares if we’re kicked out and have to live on the streets, but thank God we have your friggin’ weed!”

“Watch it!” Mr. Jung warned.

“No! You should watch it! What happened to you?” Daehyun asked. “You think mom would be real proud knowing you’re an idiotic druggie?”

Daehyun was prepared for what came next, but that did not take the pain away from it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Come on, bro,” Youngjae led Daehyun into his one room apartment.

Bruised, cut, and burned, Daehyun limped into the room. It was one room, but it was home to the six of them.

“Would you stop talking about your mom to that old man?!” Yongguk said in an annoyed voice as he took out a large suitcase from a cupboard.

“It’s not my fault, he- UGHH,” he groaned as he flopped onto the sofa.

“Stay still,” Himchan ordered. He and Youngjae were good with injuries so they took care of them most of the time.

Youngjae didn’t have any parents, he lived by himself. The rest of them were in the same situation as Daehyun, except Zelo who was stuck with his stepmother.

“AHHHH!” Daehyun moaned as they rubbed medicine on the cuts on his face arms and shoulder. He thrashed back and forth, causing Himchan to spill some of the medicine.

“Pin him down!” Himchan yelled and Yongguk and Jongup pinned Daehyun to the sofa.

Daehyun tried to move and was groaning as they finished with his cuts and bruises.

“That is a nasty burn,” Youngjae commented. “How’d that happen?”

“Cigarette lighter,” Daehyun panted as the stinging stopped. It wasn’t a very big burn, but it was big enough to hurt like hell.

“Time for the big boy,” Himchan shook a giant bottle of spray.

“Oh no no no no,” Daehyun shook his head and tried to move his burnt arm.

“Hold him tight. I’ll count to three. One, two,” he sprayed it. “Three.”

“ARGHHH!” Daehyun winced and Yongguk let go of him. “What happened to counting to three?!”

Himchan shrugged and Youngjae took a bandage out. They wrapped his arm and Daehyun muttered a thanks.

“Hyung, can I sign your bandage?” Zelo asked.

“No, you oddball,” Daehyun rolled his eyes.

“You staying the night here?” Youngjae asked.

“Can’t go back right now, can I?” Daehyun made himself comfortable on the sofa.

Youngjae nodded and put the first aid kit away.

“I want to stay too,” Zelo said.

“Fine fine, you can all stay” Youngjae said, shoving the first-aid kit into the cupboard.

“I need 400 bucks for the rent,” Daehyun said. He wasn’t going to get his paycheck for at least one or two weeks.

They all coughed up what they had. Daehyun, Jongup, and Zelo had fifty in their wallets, Yongguk had 100, Himchan snd Youngjae had 75.

“Thanks guys,” Daehyun said putting the money in his pocket. Frequently, one of them would be short money and everyone would give what they had to help out. They didn’t bother paying each other back because they would just help whoever needed it, and they all needed it. In more ways than one.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As per usual, when Daehyun entered school the next day, rumors followed him like a shadow. Quite frankly, he was tired of people ogling at him wherever he went.

He slammed his locker shut in annoyance as a group of girls gasped at his face.

“You seem a little mad,” a voice said. He jumped and saw Eunmi blinking at him.

“Oh my gosh!” her eyes widened at the sight of his face. “What happened?! Are you okay?”

“Its nothing,” Daehyun mumbled, turning around and walking away, ashamed of what he was.

Taemin was passing by at the time and he looked at Daehyun in surprise.

“Well that isn’t a very pretty face,” Taemin shook his head as he reached Eunmi.

“Do you know what happened?” Eunmi asked.

“A mirror probably blew up in his face after he looked in it,” Taemin laughed.

Eunmi hit his arm, “You’re so mean! This isn’t something to joke about.”

“I’m not joking.”

Eunmi hit him again.

“Watch your hands, woman!” Taemin said and took this chance to run away from her.

Eunmi still had the lurking worry of Daehyun with her for all of Wednesday but didn’t get a chance to talk to him. Partly because Taemin was taking any moment in the halls to teach her some moves. By the end of that day she had almost mastered the first move of the chorus.

“No-like this-,” Taemin fixed her leg with his foot and showed her the move.

“Ugh Taemin, we’re not in the studio, we are in a hallway!” Eunmi stomped her foot.

“What are you two doing?” Jongin came by on his crutches and looked at the pair of them.

“Nothing,” Eunmi said quickly. “I have to see Mrs. Lee for extra help, later boys!”

Taemin shook his head while Jongin wasn’t looking.

“You guys are weird,” Jongin said before walking away.

Taemin went after him, “Wait for me!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After school, Daehyun slowly crept into the house. His father had probably forgotten about yesterday’s incident.

He threw his bag into his room and flopped onto his bed.

He had no plans, unless you counted keeping his father out of jail.

Before he would call a practice with Eunmi to escape from the reality he had and live an almost normal life. But he couldn’t do that now. He turned over and rested his head on his arm. Really, the only fun time he had was when he was with Eunmi in that abandoned music room. It would only be him, Eunmi, and their voices. No abusive father, no judging eyes, no harsh reality.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I know I said my note would be by the characters in the story but I really don't want to dig through my e-mail to find it and then colour coat it so you guys are stuck with me :)

It was test week last week and this week so that is my excuse for now. But test week is over (almost, I have the second part of one tomorrow) and then regular classes until winter break when I will have more tests~!

THEN EXAMS! Woppeeeee

Have you ever given a 20 minute seminar? Yeah me either but I'm going to have to as part of a project and I have no idea what I'm going to talk about for 20 minutes. I mena 1) no one is going to listen 2) I'm bad at explaining things and 3) it just spells boredom. Eeryone has to! We're a huge class and everyone gives a seminar! WHO IS GOING TO LISTEN TO A GROUP OF TEENAGERS TALKING ABOUT A BOOK THEY PROBABLY DON'T UNDERSTAND?

Whatever I'm not a person who worries about things before they happen so I'll rant about that the day before it happens.....

I want to read a good book :( I love sitting by a fireplace and reading something good, it just makes me so happy.

I have to finish my homework now so see ya later~! (Most likely not)

PS I have Katy Perry's 'Roar' in my head.

I GOT THE EYE OF THE TIGERRRRRRR SOMETHING SOMETHING CUZ I AM THE CHAMPION AND YOU'RE GUNNA HEAR ME ROARRRR