word count: 1857

     This is a story about love. As humans, we have desires that are never satisfying to us. We search in this never-ending cycle of emptiness in our chest; however, our desperate hearts eventually find love. And love in return finds us. This is a story about sacrifice. In the end, we have to submit our love and accept that in our priorities, we must feel nothing. For this reason, life is so cruel. Reality hurts and throws us into a deep, dark abyss with the ominous feeling called depression. On the other hand, there’s one word that lights up even in those who seem like their minds are pitched black. This word even makes the demons of the night cower in fear. This alleviating word is called *hope. This story is about a girl and a boy – no, a woman and a man who loved each other and sacrificed for each other.

     The man and woman start out as young adults, two individuals who attend two seperate universities. The young lady’s name is Roxanne Lee, a lady of ambition and independence, and the young gentleman’s name is Yixing Zhang a.k.a. Lay, a gentleman of nobility and cordial. What makes them so compatible to each other is their passion for dance. They breathe in the atmosphere of dance. The electricity of dance courses through their veins. And dance seems as if it’s their sixth sense. They were born with this beautiful ability. Yes, their natural instinct must be to dance.

     Now, their story doesn’t begin here; and even when they both worked in the same job in that comfy coffee shop nearby the universities, their eyes never met. Ironically, they saw each other at an underground “meeting” that deals with dancing. When the so-called normal civilians of South Korea go home and sleep in their homes, the street lights illuminate the city streets. And as the stars of the night sky twinkle behind the fluorescent lights of the street lamps, the nocturnes of the city gather underneath the streets. This was Roxanne’s first experience to ever come across such an epic event. She thought of how many people, who share the same passion as hers, will be there, and how the music will drown her in euphoria. The sensation would blind her into her own world, where no one can touch her, but one can watch from a far. The low red lights brightened the place creating the intense atmosphere on the dance floor, and the low bass of the music beat against the adolescent’s chest. The place was filled with the aroma of cigarettes and beer, and with the amount of people, there was hardly any breathing room. However, neither of these stopped her from dancing.

     She danced to the beat starting with contemporary moves until the music swerved into a heavy tempo, letting her crump in a bang. She bumped into people, but she didn’t care. It’s not rude to show what your passion is, especially at a place where it is necessary to show. The oblivious adolescent simply closed her eyes, indulging herself in the music and letting her body move freely. At first, the people surrounding her were irritated by her; however, when they actually laid their eyes on her performance, they made room for her to dance even more freely. Roxanne sensed this and smiled, because now, she has enough room to break dance. Once she single-handedly spun on her head, she ended with a diagonal high kick with a roar of applause filling her ears. She jumped back to her feet only to stumble back a bit to meet chocolate orbs like hers. It was none other than Yixing, but underneath the city streets, he’s known as Lay.

     Lay gave Roxanne a smile as if he was satisfied about her performance, but the smile seemed like a smirk to Roxanne giving her an uneasy feeling. The young gentleman began to pop his body, but his movement was as if he was moving like a snake. He danced in the style of street dancing with his feet moving quick like a cheetah and hips popping like the way one pop opens a soda can. He ended his dance session with his face close to Roxanne’s, and he waved good-bye to her as if he already won the prize. The crowd was getting intense and louder, and Lay slightly tilted his head with a Cheshire-like grin on his lips.

     Everyone wanted a retaliation from Roxanne. Then a retaliation is what they’ll get. The expression on her face showed determination. Her eyebrows furrowed, and she kept her lips in a straight line. Lay leaned closer with their noses barely brushing against each other and he breathed, “Are you going to step up to the challenge?” His eyes seemed to be fixated on her plump lips rather than her eyes, but Roxanne ignored it and replied by pushing him away. She then stepped up to him with her chest high, chin up, and arms spread wide as if she was a majestic falcon ready to feast on her prey. “Less talk. More dance,” she said in glowering tone. Lay definitely liked the sound of that, because not only did his lips curve into a satisfied smirk, his eyes glinted with amusement. As Lay gestured his hand towards her in a chivalrous way, everyone was wildly rousing in hollers and standing ovations, because this is what they craved for – competitions, dares. They want a show. Well, they got their show.

~~~

     Roxanne and Lay stumbled into his apartment. The brunette gentleman was ravishing her lips while carelessly closing the door with his ankle. They couldn’t stop touching each other and teasing their heated skin underneath their cursed clothes. Roxanne felt the back of her legs hitting an arm of a couch, and as Lay came tumbling down with her, her back fell against the soft cushions. And soon enough, two mouths met each other again. Their minds were clouded with the sound of their lips smacking and their moans and groans escaping their throats. Lay was drowning in the aroma of alcohol and lavender from the latter, and Roxanne was engrossed by the way the dark brunette touched her so roughly yet gently held her close to him. Once the gentleman wrapped his arms around the young lady’s waist, the female adolescent wrapped her slim legs around his waist, and they both stumbled again into his room.

~~~

     The heated experience didn’t affect either of the adolescents, and they simply moved on not even bothering giving each other a name. After that, everything went smoothly for them- Well, back to normal, at least. University for Lay was hard work, and it was almost stressful for Roxanne. They worked in different shift times; therefore, they never saw each other in their job. However, fate decided to be humorous, and they saw each other again in a local dance team, which they decided to join as a commitment. The encounter was awkward at first. In fact, Roxanne attempted to avoid him, but she questioned herself, “What’s there to run away from?” *Nothing. Lay even made the first move by awkwardly scratching the back of his neck and introducing myself. “My name’s Yixing Zhang, and I attend Seoul National University. And you are?” he said in a bashful tone and held out his hand out of courtesy. Roxanne thought that the chivalrous man in front of her was anything but the cocky man she first met at the underground club.

     However, she didn’t want to be rude – or in her case, mess up. She cleared throat, and said, “I’m Roxanne Lee, and I attend Dongguk University. It’s - uhm - nice to meet you, Yixing.” She cursed herself for the slight stammer in her sentence, but she eagerly took his hand and shook it out of mannerism.

     Lay smiled at how she was actually cute, and said, “You can call me Lay, since…. Well, you already know.” And the gentleman failed to continue a decent conversation by letting it drown in awkwardness.

     “You don’t need to remind me,” Roxanne said in a slight exasperated tone.

     “Are you trying to say something?” The dark brunette asked with an arched eyebrow.

     “What? No, of course not! It was – uh….” Roxanne lowered her head, because memories of that night flooded through her head. She felt her cheeks heating up shading into a rosy tint. Lay chuckled and was about to reach out to her to ruffle her hair but decided against it, since they just met to a degree.

     “How about we actually get to know each other over a date. Does dinner sound good?” Lay sincerely smiled at her, waiting for her reply.

     “Yes,” she lifted her head and smiled back at him, “dinner sounds great.” The gentleman’s grin grew wider in relief and happiness.

     “Great! Now, I’m not some rich guy. So don’t expect steak and lobster with wine for dinner.”

     “Then, what am I supposed to expect?” Roxanne chortled in response.

     “Ramen noodles and spam-a-sushi??” Lay questioned more to himself while grinning like a goof. Roxanna laughed and playfully punched him on the shoulder.

     “That’s honestly better than McDoncald’s so you got yourself a date.” Lay really couldn’t stop smiling at her replies, because he actually thinks of himself as a “loser who can’t pick up any girls.” But, man, was I wrong.

     “My apartment at seven o’ clock sound fine?”

     “It sounds perfect.” Roxanne was amused at how adorable Lay is when he shows his enthusiasm about something. He doesn’t even know that he’s slightly jumping, making Roxanne chuckle in her mind.

     “Alright, then! Oh, right, I think I should give you my address. So,” he gently grabbed the latter’s wrist and took out his pen writing down his address on her arm, “there.” He nodded with a smile, and Roxanne examined the address on her arm. Lay may not feel anything in that simple gesture, but as cheesy and disgusting as it sounds, Roxanne felt as if a million butterflies just exploded in her stomach. She blamed her sensitivity, but it was more than her body being sensitive.

     “You know, you could have just grabbed a piece of paper nearby and write it on that instead of my arm, dimwit.” Roxanne chuckled.

“     Yea—but I was too lazy.” They both laughed in response.

     “Well then, I’ll just carry a small notebook just for you so that I won’t get ink poisoning.”

     “Good. Then that means we’re a pair, right? You know, peanut butter to my jelly, and pen to my paper??” Roxanne laughed and slapped Lay in the back of his shoulder making him wince a bit, but Lay laughed along as well.

     “You dimwit, that’s not even how the song goes!”

     “It still applies.” And at that time when Lay smiled, Roxanne felt it again; however, the butterfly was fluttering to her heart. Her body wasn’t sensitive to Lay’s touch.
The sensitive core was her heart.