Panting furiously, I sprinted through every hallway backstage. I searched in every corner and dressing room, but he was nowhere to be found. But we still had time, right? Because we were the second to last performance.

    Even so, why was he still not here when the showcase starts in five minutes?

    “Oh Sehun! I am going to murder you when I find you!” I shrieked in annoyance as I slumped into the black leather couch. The opening was in five minutes, and the first performance was scheduled to begin in ten, yet this idiot was nowhere in sight. I even had to run through the routine without him during our final dress rehearsal. I intended on patching things up for the sake of the performance after witnessing the level of awkwardness during our last practice. But, of course, he never showed up, and his phone had been off since last night.

    Therefore, while everyone was warming up and stretching for the final time to prepare for their respective performances, I was sulking as the other performers who were in my other routine tried to calm my nerves to the best of their abilities.

    Yuri was the first to speak up, “Don’t worry; he’s not that irresponsible. He’ll show.” I wanted to believe her, but something held me back; perhaps I could not take being disappointed again.

    “Yeah, just enjoy the other performances for now,” Jinyi chimed in with an encouraging smile.

    I only nodded absentmindedly in response. “Especially Kai’s!” Kai. My nerves knotted even further, so I closed my eyes to meditate for a brief moment.

    “Opening in two!” Mark hollered into our room, leading us to shuffle out and toward the stage. I saw the hall’s lights dim, with the only source of light shining brightly onto the stage, where we were all going to be standing in just a minute. With a set of introductions and background information about the charity foundation, we received a round of applause before filing backstage yet again.

    “For the first performance I proudly present to you: Kai!” I heard Mark’s voice resonate through the speakers. The said name again felt so unfamiliar, as though it belonged to a complete stranger, with whom I did not share a past at all.

    Before the lights went out completely, I took a seat on the front row of the hall to watch the performances before preparing for mine. I had never seen Kai’s full routine during our rehearsals before, because I was either late or practicing for my own numbers.

    Although I glimpsed into a few segments of his dance, I was completely mesmerized the moment he appeared on stage. Despite being dressed in a black crewneck sweater and black jeans paired with red, high-top sneakers and a red snapback, he still shone ever as brightly on stage. As always, he was completely immersed in the music and performance itself - so enthralling that nothing apart from dance mattered to him.

    When the music began, Jongin moved to every beat and his moves were simply capitivating. My heartbeat sped up, just like every other time I watch him dance.

    It was a fluttering feeling of admiration and love, and he attracted my full attention.

Without even hearing the words of the song, I knew that he had chosen “Blind.” Our song. I knew why he chose that song; he wanted to desperately hold on to our past and relive it to create a happy ending.

    But just like he had modified our couple routine into his spellbinding solo, our tale has been modified for us to take upon two separate paths. Two distinct paths that might intersect again some day. We could no longer return to the times where we danced to impeccable couple routines together. We could no longer force ourselves to love each other just as before again.

    A crack in a relationship is never fully mendable without the trace of fallibility of mistakes, let alone our shattered relationship. The shards of our memories can never be glued back together to form a picturesque future, because the future simple did not exist.

    Even when he said the words, “This dance is dedicated to the girl who stole my breath away thirteen years ago,” I remained unaffected even though I smiled in appreciation. Even when he said, “It’s for the girl who I still love with all my heart,” while holding out a rose to me at the end of his number, I realized I no longer wanted to return to the past.

    Our story was left in the past, and it was finally time for me to start writing a new chapter in my life. Jongin and I could never return to the past; perhaps we begin a new fairytale. From the moment I saw him dance on that stage, and the moment that his words reached my ears, my heart knew its decision.

    Perhaps I realized this inevitable fact quite late, but I knew for sure that it was not too late. And now was the time for me to declare my role in his very own story.

It's almost over....

Click poster! :D