I let the beat flow through my body.  I let the music control my movements.  The heavy beats each accompanied with a powerful move.  I loved to practice to the beats of music it made it so much easier.

            But it isn't dance that I practice.  No.  Sure I use the moves I know to dance and make routines out of them like I have in the past.

            But I don't practice dancing.  Well not exactly.

            I mostly practice self-defense and tae-kwon-do. 

            I am trained in dance though as well.  Mainly hip-hop though.  Just by looking at me no one would think that I was trained to fight or to dance anything but ballet.  But you have to remember not to judge a book by its cover.

            It's not like I do anything with what I'm trained to do; it's just something I find fun.  I like to incorporate the self-defense and fighting moves into my dances.  The routines still looked like a real dance, but in the right circumstance I could use the choreographed dance as self-defense.  Not that I ever needed to use it, I was just making them up and practicing them for fun.

            I spent the next three hours in the studio practicing old routines and going over certain tae-kwon-do moves I was still having a little trouble with before working on a new choreography. 

I had already been through two bottles of water and was on my third now.  I was breathing heavily and had to wipe the sweat off of my forehead every few minutes.  I finally though decided to call it a day before I overworked myself like I have in the past.

            I grabbed my iPod from the stereo system and glanced at the time.  I was just past seven so the sun would still be up for another hour or so before it began to sink below the horizon.  Deciding I had time to make it to the hospital before the sun set and Dad’s shift ended.

            Packing all my stuff up neatly I slung the gym bag over my shoulder. Thanking all my teachers mentally that they didn’t give us a lot of homework so I was able to finish it at school and didn’t need to drag around all my school stuff as well.

            I was lucky; the hospital was only a twenty-minute walk from the studio.  Saying a quick goodbye to the girl behind the front desk, who was still reading her book, I left the studio.  I decided not to put my ear buds in and just enjoy the busy city life I was still adjusting to.

            Seeing all the busy roads with cars always whizzing past, coffee shops filled with people and sidewalks filled with adults in business suits walking from one building to another or to one of the many coffee shops and back was a big difference from the small town life I used to be surrounded in.

            In what felt like a flash I was standing in front of the hospital’s main entrance.  Tightening my ponytail quickly I stepped closer to the door and it opened automatically and I walked in to the cool building.  Looking around I saw a sigh that pointed the way to the area I could most likely find my father in – the surgery ward.

            Pushing the button for the elevator, I patently waited for the elevator to arrive and the doors to ding open.  Stepping into the elevator I pressed the button for the fifth floor and waited for the elevator to arrive at my selected floor.

            The doors slid open with a soft whoosh and I steeped out and looked around.  The layout and design was typical of most hospitals.  The floor was white tile with pale-pale blue walls that if you weren’t looking close enough would look white.  The air had the heavy smell of sterilizers and the smell that you only found in hospitals and doctor’s offices. 

            A desk was set up in front of the elevators with here nurses sitting behind it.  The hall way stretched on either side of me before making a turn and most likely continuing on.  Walking up to the desk I gained the attention of one of the nurses sitting behind it that was reviewing a file.

            “Can I help you with something Miss?”  She asked me.  Her voice was soft but very clear.

            “I’m here to see my dad, Dr. Evans.  Could you page him for me?”  I asked giving her a bright smile.

            Nodding her head she paged my dad to the desk and told me he would be here as soon as he could.  I smiled back at her and stepped away from the desk to them her work and just looked around waiting for my dad to come.

            It didn’t take long before I saw my dad coming around the corner from the hallways to my right.  I smiled his way and gave him a wave as he came over.  I hugged him and said hello.

            “I thought you would be at home kiddo.  What brought you here?”  He asked and led me down the other hallway to the break room on that floor.

            We both took seats and I replied, “I didn’t want to bother Daehyun to come and get me so I decided to come here since your sift ends in an hour or so.”

            He laughed, “Came to get a ride home with me did you?”  I nodded happily. “Alright, you’re just going to have to entertain yourself here until I’m done though, alright?”

            “That’s fine.”  I agreed laughing.

            Dad thought for a minute before he gave me the look I hated, “You know Mizuki, since you’re here, you might as well get your blood tested again.”

            I huffed a breath.  I hated getting my blood taken, but I knew it was necessary.  Dad explained to me a few years back that I had this strange tendency for my immune system to go out of whack and my body to stop producing anti-bodies for a short period of time.  I would always get really sick when that happened, but after they figured it out Dad had me get my blood tested regularly so if they started dropping I would take supplements.

            But, I apparently couldn’t take these supplements all the time or my immune system would crash.  That’s why we had to catch it before it caused a problem and bring it back to normal.

            “I don’t really have a choice in this do I Dad?”  I asked him.

            “No, not really.”  He said shaking his head before he got up, “Come on Kiddo, I’ll get one of the nurses to get your blood work done, while I finish up my rounds up here.  I’ll come find you when I’m done.”

            I followed my dad to the desk again and he handed me off to the nurse who had paged my dad for me not that long ago.  She took me to a room and told me to wait while she got everything ready.

            I waited for ten minutes before she came back with everything she needed.  Within minutes she had finished getting the blood she needed for the testing and lead me back to the break room to wait for my dad the finish up his work.

            I put my headphones in and listened to my music while I waited.

***

            The next few weeks went my pretty fast.  I would go to school and hang out with Samantha, and I got to know Jongup a lot more. After school I would go to the studio and practice three times a week; the studio in our basement was nearing completion by now, so I was happy about that.

            Daehyun went out with his friends almost every night, so I didn’t see him around as much as I used to.  About a week ago, dad began looking at me strangely when he though I wasn’t paying any attention.  I mostly just brushed it off, but it was kind of unnerving.

            But overall, I was enjoying myself in the city.  I made new friends and had a life I really enjoyed.  I don’t think anything could have made my life better than it was now.