Jessica rarely walked the halls of the dance school.  She’d decided the year before that there was no point to return to somewhere where only bitter memories and regret remained in every sweat covered floor and tear streaked face.  She’d given her all to dance and it had played its role in her life before the curtain closed on her early.  Jessica accepted that fate along with permanent dull ache in her right knee. 

It was the loud drop of a beat and the squealing of shoes catching on grimy floors that lured her deeper into the dark building.  It was late, most of campus was closed, but she had caught the security guard before he’d locked the building and convinced him she’d left her wallet in one of the studios.  He’d agreed with little hesitation and Jessica had silently thanked her innocent looks as she passed him with a small smile.

She turned a familiar corner to some of the more private dance studios and finally found who she’d been looking for.

A lone light shone down on a shadowed figure – Kai had always loved dancing in the dark.  The effect was breathtaking, as if a real life shadow had come to life and moved like smoke over the wooden floors.  Then again, Jessica reminisced, Kai had always had that effect on others.  Simply by watching him walk one would be able to see a grace that was present in few others.  It was what had made her attracted to him in the first place two years ago when they’d first met – Kai a prospective high school senior auditioning and Jessica a talented upperclassman assigned to guide him.

Two years later the two were still dancing the same dance around each other but the stakes had changed.  Jessica could no longer dance and Kai would no longer dance.

Jessica sighed and leaned her head against the cool glass of the door.

She had accepted her fate but it seems that Kai had not.

“Kyungsoo.”  A knock at the door startled him from his daze.  Luhan leaned against the frame to his room holding a buzzing object in his hand.  “Your mom’s calling again.”

Kyungsoo groaned and glared at the phone.  For a  moment he considered ignoring her for the rest of the night rather than listen to her micro-manage his first few weeks away from home.  Then he shook his head and decided that ignoring her now would make it worse later.

“Of course she is.” He muttered and snatched it from Luhan’s hand.  Luhan merely gave him a cheeky grin, knowing how high maintenance  his mom was, before shuffling out of the room to avoid the door being shut on him.

“Hello?” Kyungsoo asked in a voice that feigned innocence.

“Well it’s nice to hear that you’re alive.” His mother’s voice commented dryly.  “Sweetheart, why own a phone if you don’t know how to use it?”

Kyungsoo rolled his eyes.  “Sorry, I was in the middle of unpacking.”

“Still?  You’ve been in the house for a week now.”  He can imagine her shaking her head.  “What have you and Luhan been doing that this is still such a time consuming activity?”

“We’ve been exploring the neighborhood.”  Kyungsoo reached into one of the few boxes left and grabbed some of the textbooks he’d used in previous semesters and placed them on his bookshelf.  “The area’s really designed for college students – there are thrift shops and coffee shops everywhere.”

“Yes, well, I’d rather you tell your father or I if you’d like something rather than buying it from a second hand shop.  You never know what conditions it was exposed to before purchase.”

“I think Luhan and I have everything we need for now.” 

When Luhan had asked Kyungsoo to move into an apartment only a few blocks from campus he had been only to eager to agree.  They had been roommates in the dorms for the last two years, Jongdae always rooming with random students because he found it more thrilling, and had all but jumped at the chance to escape the constant supervision of the dorm security and residential advisors.  Originally Jongdae had planned to move into the third bedroom but had been hired as an RA last minute and had to pull out. 

“Sorry guys,” He had apologized.  “But you know how tight money is for my dad with him only having part time work.  Being an RA would cover more than half of my tuition costs and I wouldn’t have to worry about housing fees.  Besides,” An evil grin appeared on his face. “There’s nothing more fun than fresh-meat.”

“You mean freshman.” Luhan had corrected him with a confused expression.  Jongdae simply shook his head.

“They’re my next victims.”

Though Kyungsoo questioned the people who hired Jongdae, wondering if he should warn them that Jongdae was the one most likely to torture the poor students, he’d been fine with just rooming with Luhan for the year.  Jongdae would spend all of his free time with them anyways, minus the nights he had duties and room checks to perform. 

Buying everything for the apartment had been the best part.  Most of the furniture came from Luhan’s family since his parents had decided to return to China.  They’d agreed to let Luhan finish college in South Korea though not before Luhan had mental breakdowns in any and every public place the family had gone to for weeks.  He’d given Kyungsoo a high five the moment they had caved smiling victoriously as he brushed the staged tears from his eyes.  Kyungsoo figured Jongdae’s influence on them was permanent now. 

“That one boy isn’t living with you right?  The one that completely re-categorized our kitchen and ruined your father’s end of the year dinner party?  I don’t like that one.”

Kyungsoo choked back a laugh.  Jongdae had wanted to mess with Kyungsoo but didn’t realize that Kyungsoo’s father was having doctors over for his yearly dinner party the weekend they had gone home for Christmas break.  Jongdae relabeled every container and Kyungsoo’s mother had not noticed until it was too late.  Kyungsoo was used to Jongdae’s kitchen pranks and would have caught it immediately and grudgingly put everything back to its appropriate state.  Kyungsoo’s mother not so much.

“No mom, Jongdae’s an RA this year.  He’s still living in the dorms.”  Kyungsoo put the emptied box into the hallway with the rest from their move.

“Well good.  Luhan’s such a nice boy.” 

“Yes he is.” Kyungsoo let out a chuckle and looked over at his roommate lazing about on the couch flipping through channels.  “Listen mom, Luhan and I have to run to campus to pick up our textbooks since school starts in two weeks.  We want to beat the rush of students.”

“Oh yes, Kyungsoo, that’s why I called –“ She began.

“So I’ll talk to you later.  Okay?  Love you mom, byeeeee.”  He hit end call before his mother could get another word in and grinned as Luhan gave him two thumbs up.

Kyungsoo thought most of campus was ugly but nothing was ugly quite as much as the Union.  At the moment he and Luhan were avoiding herds of freshman being given their orientation tours around the campus, trying their best to weave a smooth path towards the staircase that would bring them to the floor with the bookstore. 

There was a text message sounding on his phone from his mother but Kyungsoo ignored it, knowing she was going to chastise him for hanging up so abruptly. 

“Hey,” Luhan suddenly called out as they reached the second floor and turned towards the bookstore.  “Do you think they’ve opened up all the food on the third floor yet?  I hate the grill downstairs and I’m hungry.”

Kyungsoo opened his mouth to respond when someone collided roughly with his shoulder and knocked him to the ground. 

“I’m so sorry,” The boy who’d hit him was picking himself up.  He held up his hands as he started to quickly walk away.  “I’m so sorry I’m really in a hurry!”

He took off in a hurry and Kyungsoo stared after him incredulously.  Luhan was brushing off his shouler and offered a hand.

“Hey what’s that?” Luhan pointed with his free hand as Kyungsoo stood.  “I think he dropped his wallet.”

Sure enough when Kyungsoo looked a few feet a head a simple black wallet lay next to the staircase. 

“I’ll grab it and look up his name so I can send him an email later.” Kyungsoo shrugged and placed his hand on the staircase as he bent over to grab it.

“Well I was just thinking that we – oh!” The feminine voice suddenly cut off as another figure ran into Kyungsoo’s side and the both fell in a pile of limbs.

“Jessica!” A husky voice exclaimed as a boy and another girl reached to help the girl, Jessica, off the floor.  Kyungsoo held a hand to his head, he’d hit it on the railing during this fall.  When he turned to glance at the other victim he was shocked to find himself staring into angry dark eyes.

“What the hell were you doing ?”  Husky voice snapped at him, breaking his glare only to check on Jessica again.

“Kai,” She snapped, brushing his hands off her.  “It was an accident.  Look, Krystal’s not freaking out about it.” She pointed to the girl behind her that had shockingly red hair.  “You’re overreacting.”

“Over reacting my .”  The boy, Kai, muttered, returning to glare at Kyungsoo who was thankful for Luhan standing next to him.  “Isn’t common sense not to be crouching down in-front of a staircase?  You could have seriously hurt her.”

Kyungsoo opened his mouth to apologize but froze when Kai’s glare only became darker.  For a moment he felt like a fish the way his mouth opened and closed with no words.  He looked at Luhan for help but  his friend was staring at Krystal who was glaring at Jessica who was glaring at Kai who was still glaring at Kyungsoo.  Instead he finally let out a squeak and stared at the ground muttering a practically silent apology as Kai pulled Jessica up by her arm.

“Come on,” He turned her around despite her protests and pushed her forward signaling to Krystal to follow.  Kyungsoo noticed her feet were still in his vision and he looked up to see the red headed girl staring angrily at the floor with her fists clenched before she finally stomped – Kyungsoo and Luhan both jumped – and stormed after the pair. 

Kai’s angry ‘’ echoed down the hallway towards Kyungsoo.

A hand entered his vision and he looked up gratefully at Luhan who gave him an apologetic stare. 

“Well that was certainly,” Luhan struggled with the right word for a few moments as he pulled Kyungsoo up to  a standing position.  “Awkward?”

It came out like a question but Kyungsoo couldn’t help but agree.

Hopefully he’d never have to see that boy on campus ever again, he got chills down his spine just from thinking about his angry black eyes.

“Come on,” Luhan finally pulled him forward.  “Jongdae’s probably waiting at the bookstore for us by now.  Forget that jerk – he completely over reacted.”

Kyungsoo gave a distant nod.  “Yeah.”

He couldn’t shake the feeling that he would see Kai again.

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

Yay!  Update!

Sorry I'm such a terribly slow updater T.T

I need the proper inspiration!

Enjoy!