The next morning I got a text.

To: Do YiSoo

From: Kris Wu

Can you do me a favor?

To: Kris Wu

From: Do Yisoo

What…

To: Do YiSoo

From: Kris Wu

Can you come to the dance class?

To: Kris Wu

From: Do Yisoo

Kris, it starts is 20 min! I was asleep -__-

To: Do YiSoo

From: Kris Wu

But my sitter bailed last minute on watching Ace and I want someone to watch him during the class… Pleaseeeeeeee

To: Kris Wu

From: Do Yisoo

Ugh fine I’ll be there soon

To: Do YiSoo

From: Kris Wu

Thanks Yisoo-shi! You’re my style ;)

To: Kris Wu

From: Do Yisoo

Ew. Stop or I’m not coming.

To: Do YiSoo

From: Kris Wu

It never happened. :)

Cumbersomely, I trudged out of bed to get ready. Sunday mornings were usually my time to sleep all morning and prepare myself for the coming week. I guess I wouldn’t be getting that luxury today.

I arrived to the dance class (which was also at the community center) just a few minutes late. When I walked in, I was surprised at how big it was.  There was a long mirror covering the far wall with a barre attached to it and rolling barres around the room as well. In total, there were about 10 sets of dads and children, mostly daughters, with the exception of Luhan, Yixing and Chanyeol and their sons. On the back wall, where there were sofas for parents to sit, I saw Jongin and Hyein among the sea of mothers.

“Yisoo-shi!” He called me over.  He was bouncing a giggly Hyein on his knee and Ace was sitting on the floor by his feet, mesmerized watching a dustball travel across the dancefloor.

“Jongin-shi,” I said walking over, “I’m surprised you came.”

“I said yesterday I was going to! The other guys didn’t believe me either.” He pouted. “I only came to try and get some inspiration, you know.”

“I know, I know.” I said, giving him a playful shove. “But, if you’re here, why did Kris have to call me to come watch Ace?”

“I don’t think he trusts me.” Jongin replied. With that, Kris noticed I had come and walked over, trailed by Kara who was bouncing around with a huge smile on her face.

“Good, you came!” He said. “Class hasn’t started yet, thank you so much for watching Ace.” He picked up his son off the floor and pretended to hold him upside-down, making the little boy laugh.

“Daddy Daddy me too!” Kara chimed.

Kris put Ace in my lap as he turned to his daughter. “Honey, you’re too big for that stuff.” Kara pouted, but let it go.

“Unni! Look at my tutu! I picked it out all by myself! Isn’t it pretty?” Kara said to me.

“It’s beautiful!” I replied. “Like a princess!”

Suddenly, the little girl shouted over to the group of little boys.

“See Jaehan!” She said. “I do look like a princess! Yisoo unni said so!”

“Whatever.” The little boy shouted back. “It’s stil uhh-glllly.” He stuck his tongue, puffed out his cheeks, and wiggled his hands by his face. Kara’s face turned a brith shade of pink as she ran over to try and whack Jaehan on the head.

I noticed that everyone seemed to be here except Chanyeol. Yixing was on the barre, stretching, while Bing stood next to him trying to copy his dad’s lithe moves. Junmyeon was talking to one of the other dads while his daughters checked their buns in the mirror. Luhan was coming over with his son.

“Where’s Chanyeol?” I asked.

“I don’t know, but the punk better get here soon.” Luhan said. “I’m only here because of his big mouth.”

“Oh, don’t be so upset, it’s not as bad as you think.” I said, trying to console him.

“Please. I’ve already been here for thirty minutes. Junmyeon told us 8:30 even though the class starts as 9. He said he wanted us to ‘prepare our minds and bodies’ or some crap like that.” Luhan complained.

“And yet, Chanyeol has still managed to be late.” Kris said.

“He’ll show up soon,” Jongin added. “He always arrives at the last minute. At least the teacher isn’t even here yet.” A couple moments later, Chanyeol walked into the room carrying his son, hair blown out of place and a confused look on his face.

“Finally!” He sighed. “I made it!”

“You’re forty minutes late!” Junmyeon said, storming over.

“I got lost!” Chanyeol defended.

“How??!” Junmyeon questioned. “This is the same building we meet at every week.”

“Yea, but on a completely different floor and room!” Chanyeol said. “You can’t expect me to keep up with all these changes and new locations. It’s ridiculous!” He huffed as he put Chanyong down. The little boy ran over to play with Jaehan.

            Junmyeon shook his head. “Just, don’t do it again.” He said, then walked away to talk to his girls.

            “So, did I miss the class?” Chanyeol asked, turning to us.

            “It hasn’t even started yet, dumbie.” Luhan said, hitting the taller boy on the head.

            “Darn it! I thought it started at 8:30?”

            “Junmyeon lied. It starts at 9, he just wanted us to get here early.” Kris explained.

            “Ugh, really? All that work for nothing.” Chanyeol pouted.

            “You purposely came late?” Luhan asked. “Genius.”

            “Yes, and no. I did still get lost.” Chanyeol answered. We all gave him judging looks.

            “What? You know directions are not my thing.” Chanyeol said with a shrug of his shoulders.

            Just then, the doors swung open to the room once again and a woman walked in. She was very pretty and seemed young, maybe only in her late 20’s. She wore a sleek black leotard, pitch black hair pulled into a tight bun, and had an air of elegance about her.  She walked purposely to the front of the room and put her hands on her hips.

            “Attention everybody!” Her sweet, high pitched voice announced. “I deeply apologize for my tardiness. I am Ms. Ju, your teacher. Please, if you could all gather your daughters and sit in a circle in the center of the room and we can begin class.”

            “Wish me luck.” Kris muttered as he grabbed Kara’s eager hand and went to go sit down.

            “Ba ba!” Ace cooed to his dad, opening and closing his little hand as if waving goodbye. I saw Luhan and Chanyeol dragging their sons to go sit in the circle. Although Chanyeol still seemed as unenthusiastic about the class as he was a minute ago, Luhan’s mood seemed to have significantly perked up. His eyes were glued to the young teacher and his mouth hung slightly open, giving him the look that he was either lost in a deep thought, or had forgotten his own name.

            “Ah, I love seeing all the new faces!” Ms. Ju said with a kind smile. “Why don’t we go around and quickly introduce ourselves so that we can all become acquainted?”

            As the dads started introducing themselves and their daughters, it seemed that most have them had taken the class before. Finally, it was Junmyeon’s turn.

            “Hello! My name is Junmyeon, and these are my daughers. Jihye and Dahye.” All three smiled. “We are very excited to take your class, Ms. Ju.”

            “It’s wonderful to have you!” She replied. “And who do we have next? A father son pair? We don’t usually have little boys in our class, how exciting to have so many this year!”

            “Hello.” Yixing shyly nodded. “My name is Yixing and this is my son, Bing. I did some dancing in my youth, but haven’t in a while. I hope that we have fun and learn a lot.” He finished with a small grin as Bing looked up at his dad with a beaming smile on his face.

            “I’m excited to have you.” Ms. Ju said, and nodded at the boy next to Yixing.

            “Hello everybody.” He started. “My name is Luhan, and this here is Jaehan. To be honest, I’ve never really danced before so we have a lot to learn. But I’m really looking forward to being in you class, Ms. Ju.”

            Luhan threw the teacher his best smile, but Ms. Ju didn’t seem to catch his hint. “Don’t worry about needing to learn a lot, that’s what the class is for! I’m very happy to have you and your daughter here!”

            “Daughter??!” Luhan choughed. “Jaehan is my son!!”

            “Hey, I’m not girl!!” Jaehan yelled.

            “Oh!” Ms. Ju corrected, starting to blush, “I’m sorry- I thought; never mind. Um, who is next?”

            “Park Chanyeol.” Chanyeol boomed, giving a bow. “And this is my son Chanyong.”

            “Nice to meet you!” Ms. Ju said, regaining her composure.

            “What’s up, I’m Kris.” Kris said coolly.

            “And I’m Kara!” His daughter beamed, flashing a charming smile.

            “It’s nice to have all these new faces!” The teacher said after the introductions were complete. “Now, as we all know, the purpose of this class is preparing for the community center’s annual talent show! We will be preparing a dance to perform at the show. However, this class is much bigger than it has been in years past, so I will probably need to split you up into two smaller groups.” She paused and I looked at Chanyeol, Kris and Luhan’s shocked looking faces. It seemed that Junmyeon had forgotten to mention the performance part of this class.

            “Now, don’t get embarrassed if I pick you for Group B over Group A. I plan on making Group A made up of some of our more experienced students so they can do a more challenging routine and Group B will be more of our beginners.” Ms. Ju continued. She clapped her hands.

            “Now,” she proclaimed. “Let’s begin!”

            She ordered everyone to stand up and follow her routine for stretching. It was pretty basic stuff, I even remembered doing it in ballet when I was a little girl, but with the exception of Yixing and Junmyeon, the guys seemed to be having a rough time. Chanyeol, due to his height, could barely reach his toes when bending forward, making him look awkward and stiff. Kris kept trying to show off, but couldn’t execute any moves, so he just ended up embarrassing himself (and mortifying poor Kara). Luhan spent half the time trying to catch the teacher’s eye, or get her to come help him with his ‘form’, and the other half acting like it was all a joke, making weird faces in the mirror that made Jaehan burst into fits of giggles.  Only Yixing seemed to know what he was doing completely. He moved with patience and fluidity, it was captivating to watch him, even if it was just stretching. Bing tried his hardest to copy exactly what his dad did, but his little body was no where near as graceful as his dad’s.

            After stretching, Ms, Ju began running through some basic dance moves and terminology to get them all acquainted to ballet. As I saw her running through first, second, third position, I noticed out of the corner of my eye that Jongin’s feet were moving along with the teacher’s.

            As it turned out, Luhan was actually a fairly good dancer. He was able to perform all the moves Ms. Ju said and was even graceful. If only he wasn’t constantly making snarky comments and teasing Kris and Chanyeol.

            “C’mon Kris, it’s not that hard. Just, plie down,” He said, lowering his torso as his knees parted, “and plie back up.” He finished, returning to standing in first position.

            “Yea, Daddy! It’s easy!” Kara added, performing a perfect plie herself.

            “It’s okay guys, I don’t need help.” Kris said, sounding agitated. “I’m doing it right.” I giggled to myself as he spread out his feet to shoulder width apart and squatted down like a catcher.  He was most certainly not doing it right.

            “This is painful.” Jongin said as he tried to suppress is laughter. “Hey Kris!” He called the older boy.

            “What?!” Kris yelled back, clearly frustrated.

            Jongin carefully put his daughter in the chair and stood up, putting his feet in first position. “Like this.” He said, performing a flawless plie.

            “Mine look exactly like that!” Kris interjected but Ms. Ju had seen Jongin too.

            “That was wonderful!” She said, walking over to Jongin as he reached down to pick up Hyein.

            “Oh, thank you.” Jongin said, sounding flustered.

            “You aren’t in the class, are you?” She asked.

            “No,” Jongin responded. “My daughter is too young to dance.”

            “But you clearly have classical training!” The teacher pressed.

            “Yea, I guess.” Jongin said. “I’ve danced since I was little.”

            “Come here.” She said, grabbing his arms and dragging him to the front of the room. In a haste, he plopped Hyein into my lap.

            “Everyone!” She announced. “I want you to watch this man here – what’s your name?” She asked.

            “Jongin.”

            “Jongin here, watch his plie!” She nodded to him and Jongin plied again.

            “See his form? This is what you should all look like.” Ms. Ju said. “Can you do more?” She asked,

            “I guess.” Jongin said, shrugging.

            He spent the rest of the class at the front of the room. Whenever Ms. Ju told the class to do a move, Jongin did it too as a demonstration. She continued to sing his praises for the entire duration of the class (much to Luhan’s displeasure) until it ended an hour later.

            “Excellent class!” Ms. Ju said to her tired students. “I will let you all know soon which group I have put you in. Have a great day!”

            The boys started to make their way over to me to gather their stuff as Jongin was pulled aside by the teacher to talk.

            “Great first class!” I said, trying to be supportive.

            “You don’t need to sugar-coat it, I know I .” Chanyeol complained.

            “You don’t -“ I started to say but was cut off.

            “You’re right, Kris too!” Luhan interjected and I shot him a dark look.

            “What I meant to say, was that you just need to practice!” I finished.

            “I would rather just quit.” Chanyeol muttered.

            “You can’t quit!” Junmyeon said, sounding appalled. “Just think of what type of example that would set for Chanyong.” I looked at the big eared little boy, and determined that he wouldn’t really care. Half way through the class he had decided he was tired and couldn’t possibly continue, so he had just sat down on in the middle of the floor, not budging no matter how many times Chanyeol pleaded for him to get up.

            “He’s right.” Yixing added. “You can’t just drop out, we have to talent show to prepare for!”

            “Oh right,” Luhan said, reminded, “It seems, someone had neglected to mention this little, show.” He said the last word with malice.

            “I did?” Junmyeon said innocently. “Silly me, easy mistake. I didn’t think you would be so angry about it!”

            “Hyung, I can’t dance in front of a bunch of people I don’t know!” Chanyeol fretted. “I will be laughed off the stage!”

            “He’s right!” Luhan said. “Kris will too!”

            “Hey-“ Kris started, but stopped, realizing he was right.

            “Relax,” Junmyeon cooed. “Yisoo is right, you just need practice. One class means nothing, by the time of the show, you will be amazing!”

            As the boys continued to pack their things, Jongin came back over. I handed him his daughter as I asked him what he was talking to the teacher about.

            “Oh, um, she asked me if I wanted to be an assistant instructor for the class.” He replied shyly.

            “Really!?” I said. “That’s great! Isn’t it?”

            “Yea, I think so.” Jongin said. “Hyung, do you think I can count this as my bonding?” He said, asking Junmyeon.

            “Hmm, I don’t see why not!” Junmyeon said. “It’ll be great!”

            “Wait, so Jongin’s going to be our teacher??” Luhan asked.

            “I guess so.” Jongin said, a smirk growing on his face. “That’s Mr. Kim, to you.”

            “You little—“ Luhan said, reaching over to whack the younger boy on the head.

            “Hey Hey stop it!” Jongin said, trying to duck his swats. “You don’t have to call me Mr. Kim. I’ll will be perfectly happy with ‘Jongin the Great’, ‘Jongin the Excellent’, ‘Jongin our Fearless, Talented Leader’ too.” He said, earning him more slaps from Luhan.

            “How about we go with ‘Jongin the Idiotic’”? Luhan asked.

            “Hmm, doesn’t quiet have the same ring to it.” Jongin said, laughing as we left the dance studio.