(Request from Jay)

You have sweat dripping down your body, but you don’t care.  You can’t stop thinking about all the recent events.  The TV shows, the interviews, the practice, the recordings, the gossip, the pressure, your manager.  You try to forget it all by drowning yourself in your practice.  Watching yourself in the mirror, you practice your new choreography over and over again, until your body is aching and you feel like you’re going to collapse. 

Finally taking a breather and downing half a bottle of water, the rumors repeat themselves in your head.

“Now I know everyone has heard of the new solo artist from SM.  A lot of people are saying that her dancing is simply amazing and is powerful enough to compete with the boy groups.  Her talent she shows off on shows is dancing to boy group songs.  And the people absolutely love it.”

“That’s right.  If you watch Weekly Idol, she was on with SM group Exo and she was able to dance to their songs better than the lead dancer of the group.  Some say she is the long lost member of Exo.  Of course, we know that she can never become a member of the group, but it is an interesting though in and of itself.”

The hosts of the show had been wearing strange wigs that looked really silly.  It was show called Beatle’s Code.  You had heard of it before, but you never really watched it.  Not like you cared about what they said about you.  You thought it was kind of cool that they compared you to a guy group.  That just meant that your dancing was good and that you had a lot of charisma.

However, your manager was not very happy with this.  He kept saying that your image was supposed to be sassy and sort of girly.  Not boyish and charismatic.  He then proceeded to go out of his way for your next comeback to be a y one.  He wanted very y dance moves, skimpy little outfits and a y song for a y music video.  His exact words were, “I want a Hyuna, not an Amber.”

You didn’t really like the comparison and he made you kind of mad for saying it, but you didn’t fight him.  You didn’t hate the idea of a y comeback, but you also didn’t care about the boyish imagine you had now.

So, you drown you troubles in practice, practice, practice.  The new choreography was the most painful thing you had ever experience.  Your waist hurt from all the hip rotations, your back hurt from the bending backward, and your neck hurt from all the hair flips.  Honestly, there was no part of your body that didn’t hurt.  But you kept going anyway.  People starting calling you a dancing machine and you didn’t want to let them down.

You grab the remote for the stereo and sighed.  You count in your head how many times this would make.  14.  This would be your 14^th time going through the dance.  Your back up dancers left about 2 hours ago, but you didn’t feel like going back to your apartment.  You looked at your watch.  It was 12:41 am.  Wow, it’s that late already?  Oh well.

You push the play button and slid the remote across the floor.  You have about 10 seconds before the song starts.  You adjust your tight tank-top and hot pants before getting into your position.  You ignore the sweat dripping off your skin, falling to the studio floor.

You have to stop halfway through the song to rest.  Your body is screaming in pain, but you somehow like the burn in your muscles.  You were finally doing what you always dreamed of doing.  No pain, no gain.  You giggle at the thought considering how true that line really is.

“You’re going to dance yourself to death.”

You jump about a foot in the air, not expecting anyone else to be around.  You look at the door and see Suho standing in the threshold. 

“Oh, Suho.  It’s just you.  You scared me.”  You put a hand to your chest, gasping for breath. (For more than one reason.)

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.  We were just passing by, about to head out when we heard the music.”  You see that there are a few more members behind him.

“It’s okay.  I just didn’t expect anyone else to be here this late.  What are you guys still doing here?”  You grab your cooling towel and water bottle, downing the other half.

“We were just practicing for our concert, but only a few of us could come today, because the other members had schedules.”  He walks fully into the room, the other members following behind.  Kai, Luhan, Tao, Lay and Baekhyun.

“Yeah I heard you guys were starting to have concerts.  I hope they are going well.  I wasn’t able to go to any so far because I was practicing for my comeback.  Sorry.”  You pull out your hair tie letting your hair fall on your shoulders.

“That’s okay.  We know you’ve been working really hard to change your imagine.  It’s unfortunate that that one show changed your imagine.”  Suho continued the conversation while the other members stood there looking kind of awkward.

“I’m not really the one who cares.  It’s my manager.  He is going all out trying to change my imagine from boyish to y.  Hence all the practice.”  You notice the other members.  “You guys can leave.  I’m going to be here for a while.”  You throw your towel back on the chair next to the wall and pick up the remote.

“No way.  You are not doing any more practice without a break.”  Suho grabs the remote out of your hand.  “Sit down and cool off.  You don’t to be passing out from heat exhaustion, especially with no one else here.”

“Oppa!” you whine.  You knew Suho liked your aegyo.

“Nope.  Not working this time.  You need to cool down.”  Suho grabs your towel puts it around your neck.  You give in and let him drag you out into the hall and makes you sit down in a waiting area.  The members follow.  Baekhyun goes to get you some more water, while Tao and Luhan go to find you something to eat.  They did all this despite your protests.

“Why are you working yourself so hard?”  Lay asked.  It was the first time he spoke to you since the show, where you two spoke a little in Mandarin.

“It distracts me from all the stress of the rumors and stuff going around.”

“I know dance practice always distracts me.  It feels good work out all your stress like that.”  This was Kai.  You felt horrible about showing him up at the show.  People were saying that she could dance their moves better than their lead dancer, which would be Kai.

“Kai, I just want to let you know I am so sorry about the Weekly Idol thing.  I didn’t know doing that would cause such an uproar.”  You hold the towel over your forehead feeling the cool surface lower your temperature.

“It’s okay.  You’re a great dancer.  I’ve watched you practicing a lot.  You’ve very good.  Even your back up dancers can’t keep up with you.  I feel sorry for that male dancer you are partnered with.  He has to meet your skill level and he struggles a lot.”

“When have you watched me?”  You feel a little embarrassed, but at the same time flattered by his compliment.

“Sometimes when we have a break I’ll come to your room and watch through the door.”  Baekhyun comes back with a full water bottle.  You thank him and he sits down next to Lay.

“Wow.  That sounds very stocker-like,” Baekhyun says, butting into the conversation.

You laugh as Kai throws a threatening look at him.  “That’s not what I meant,” he said.

“I know what you mean, Kai-ah.  Why do you watch us?  Our dance moves are nothing like yours and I don’t see any benefit for you, so why?”  You drink the cold water a little slowly this time, letting your whole mouth freeze.

“Well, I watch you mostly.  I really like your technique.  I want to watch you and maybe pick up a few things myself.”

“If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were trying to hook up with her, Kai.”  Baekhyun had a taunting tone in his voice, making Kai clench his fist.  Your heart is racing from the compliment.  You can’t believe that Kai just said he wanted to learn your technique.  That was amazing.

Luhan and Tao came back with some bread and vitamins (per order of Suho) and gave them to you.  You take the vitamin and dig into the bread realizing how hungry you were.  Everyone sits down in the waiting area, next to some windows that show the night sky.

“So what are we talking about?”  Luhan asked.

“Kai is trying to hook up with our long lost member over here.”  Baekhyun said in the same tone as before.  You roll your eyes at the mention of that title.  You couldn’t believe people were actually saying that about you.

“Kai,” you say, apparently interrupting some kind of threat toward Baekhyun.

“Yes?”

“Can you help me with something?”

“Uhm, sure.  What is it?”

“If you watch me practice, do you know the choreography well?”

“Yeah, I think so.”

“Great.”  You stand up and grab Kai’s hand.  “Come with me.”  You pull Kai to stand up and he does.  You then lead him down the hall back to your studio room.  You hear the members follow, but you ignore them.

You let go of Kai and turn to him.  “I need you to help me with one part of the dance with my partner.  It’s a little hard to do alone, so I’ve been kind of skipping it.  But if you know the moves can you dance with me?”  You grab the remote and look at him.  He was wearing loose pants and a t-shirt, perfect attire for practice.

“Yeah.  I think I know it pretty well.”

“Awesome.  I’ll let you know when I need you.”  You hit play on the remote and assume your beginning pose.  When the music starts, you see that Kai is dancing anyway, matching the moves perfectly.

You get to the of the song and you and your partner are supposed to do a tango-like couple dance, but adding in a few hip hop moves.  Kai’s been keeping up the whole time, making your backup dancers look like amateurs.  You grab his hand and let him pull you in close and he grabs your waist with his other hand.  You move together perfectly, staying on time together and playing off each other’s chemistry, making the room hot.

After the song ends, you stare at Kai and he stares back at you.  You are breathing heavy and there are beads of sweat on your foreheads.  Wow, it got really hot in here all of a sudden, you think to yourself.

“Kai, would you mind if I asked my manager if you can be in the music video with me, instead of my partner?”  You continue to stare into his eyes, held by some sort of spell he cast on you.

“No.  In fact, I would be delighted to dance with you any day.”  His eyes don’t leave yours.

“You know, even though the last Weekly Idol kind of ruined my imagine, it will be funny to find out what’s going to happen the next time I’m on.  Especially with you in the music video.”  You giggle before realizing Kai was still holding you in the last pose.  He was standing beside you, one arm around your waist, the other holding your hand.

“Yeah.  I can only imagine what people will say after that.”

“Let them say whatever they want.  As long as I’m doing what I love, I don’t care.”