May 27, Friday, After School: DANCE STUDIO

You enter the dance studio. Donghee and Heechul are already there. You don't see Donghae.

"Haneul!" Donghee calls out. "Are you ready to bust your groove?"

"Uhh," you chuckle. "I guess?"

"YO HANEUL MAN YO HOW ARE YU DOING OUT HERE??" Heechul says in English very enthusiastically while giving you multiple high fives.

"... Are you trying to be Black, hyung?" you ask. xD

"Yo whatchu talking about?? My soul is Black and I'm just trapped in this Korean body!" he replies dramatically.

You shake your head.

Oh, Heechul. You may be older than me but you're way better at being an idiot, sometimes.

Yunho enters the room with his hands on Donghae's shoulders. "Hello, everyone!" Yunho says.

"Hey, coach."

"'Sup, sunbae-nim."

As Donghae approaches, Heechul and Donghee greet him in their usual way. You don't know whether to greet him as well or just look away to avoid humiliation. To your surprise, he looks at you and smiles. You just blink and smile back.

"Alright, guys, settle down," Yunho claps. "I expect that you're all ready with your choreography. Everyone sit by the walls of the room. We'll need the space. I will call on you one by one randomly. We'll be doing just the first minute of the song like last time so be sure your routine is done when time is up." 

You sit in between Heechul and Donghee. Donghae sits beside Donghee.

Yunho steps in the middle of the room. "I know some of you might be having problems right now," he looks at Donghae. Then he shifts his gaze to the other faces in the room. "But you have to remember that the real world doesn't care. Honestly, guys, it's brutal out there. So you can choose to either throw them out the window or channel them into your dancing instead. You might be surprised. However, if you can't seem to let go of your problems, then you might as well not dance at all."

He points to someone in the room. "You there, in the cap, you go first."

He plays the song on the boombox and he dances his own choreography.

Then Yunho calls on Donghee. You and Heechul give a woot woot to support him. After he dances, everyone in the room claps.

"Thanks, guys," Donghee blushes.

Yunho calls on Heechul next.

"Yunho sunbae-nim, prepare to be blown away," he says. When he starts dancing, you, Donghee and Donghae try to hold in your giggles. You see Yunho with his lips pressed together tightly, a smile showing on the corners of his mouth. He is obviously trying not to laugh as well. The rest of the class are covering their mouths to stifle their laughter as well.

After Heechul finishes, there is a wild round of applause.

"Heechul, 10 out of 10 for audience impact," Yunho laughs. "Thank you. Next! Lee Donghae."

He stands up and begins to dance. He seems to be battling with something inside.

"Donghae," Yunho calls him. "Channel it."

Donghae bites his lip, glances at you then closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. Yunho replays the song. He does the dance from the beginning, except this time, his movements are bigger, and the change in aura can be felt. It's as though he became a totally different person. He moves furiously with ferocity and passion. He clenches his teeth as he does so. 

You feel his frustrations through his dance. This leaves you gaping with your mouth open. Everyone claps loudly when he finishes.

Yunho says, "See what I mean, guys? Good job, Donghae. Although don't use this as an excuse to keep your problems unsettled. Fix them as soon as possible. Next!"

You wait anxiously for your turn. He calls the next guy.

And the next.

And the next.

Finally, he looks at you. "You're up next, kiddo."

You get up and take a few deep breaths. Then you step into the center of the room. Initially, you feel okay, but when you look in Donghae's direction, he has this downcast look upon himself.

Crap, now I feel even more nervous.

Yunho plays the music and your body feels stiff during the first few steps. You glance at him and he twitches his lips to the side in disapproval. "Dance for yourself," he says. "Not for me."

Just let it go, Haneul.

Let it gooooo~

You close your eyes like Donghae did and think about the times that you had together as friends, you think about Jessica and how she caused everything, you think about Donghae being mad at you because apparently she likes YOU and not him, you think about how this isn't your fault and you want to tell him this if only he'd give you the chance to speak. You think about your story and how no matter what you do, no one-- NO ONE-- will be able to truly understand what you're going through. You feel as though you're getting angrier and angrier, but you feel better because you're releasing all of your bottled-up emotions through dancing. You realize that you're no longer doing the dance steps you practiced in your choreography, but rather, you're letting your emotions lead your movements.

When it is over, everyone gives you a round of applause, including Yunho and Donghae. "Good job, Haneul," Yunho claps. "Let me ask you just one thing: How much percent of the dance  you did just now was your initially prepared choreography?"

"Um... around 70%," you reply.

"Do you see the power of dancing from the heart, guys? It makes you do things you never thought of before and feel so empowered that you just lose yourself in the music. You just stop dancing the dance. The dance uses you to let itself be known. This is what separates performers from DANCERS."

After all of you are finished with your turns, Yunho tells everyone to stand up and take up enough dancing space in the middle of the room.

"We're going to learn a new dance today. It's actually from my group's debut single called 'Rising Sun' so maybe some of you already know it, but I'm going to teach you step by step. First of all, let's watch the music video." Yunho pulls down the LCD screen and plays the "Rising Sun" MV of DBSK. 

After watching it, Yunho shuts off the video. He rubs his hands together. "Let's dance."

"First step, guys, is like this..." he starts.

He teaches the club the first half of Rising Sun.

You all have fun while Donghee pants along beside you. At the end of the session, everyone is red in the face and drenched in sweat.

"Good job today, guys," Yunho says. "Give yourselves a round of applause."

You all clap.

"I'll see you again next week if I don't have something in my schedule with DBSK," he waves goodbye. "Get out of here. Scoot."

You decide to approach Donghae.

"Hey," you say.

"Hey," he says back.

"Can we talk?" you ask.

He hesitates, then glances at Yunho who nods at him. He turns back to you and nods. "Okay."

"Roofdeck?" you suggest.

"Yeah, sure," he says.

You go up to the roofdeck with Donghae.