A/N: I am so sorry it took me so long to update. Life got in the way. I hope you enjoy!

Today was the day Joonmyeon met the rest of the cast of Swan Lake. The rehearsal proper won’t start until the next meeting. The head choreographer wanted them to bond so they’d be comfortable with each other on stage. And it was Joonmyeon’s biggest problem as of the moment. She was not one to start any friendly conversation (Wu Yifan was the first!) and it always took her sometime to warm up to people. If she deem them worthy of her attention that was.

She was thinking that auditioning for this was not a good idea. Not when she was still in her last year of high school and had to juggle tons of school work and extra curricular activities. Not when her mother’s achievements preceded her. Not when she was in the beginning stages of a relationship with a guy she’s planning to keep for a long time. Nope. Not a good one.

“Hi. I’m Taemin. Joonmyeon, right?” The girl had a friendly smile and she had to stop herself from turning her back on her. She seemed harmless enough.

“Yes. Nice to meet you, Taemin.” She scrunched her face to a sorry excuse of a smile.

“Hey, I heard that one of the members of the dance crew is Han Kyung-sunbae’s son!” Joonmyeon would’ve choked on her own spit if it was possible.

“R-Really?” Good thing they were asked not to reveal their last names. For the air of mystery as the eccentric choreographer had put it. It was not that difficult to put two and two together if they knew hers.

“Yeah! I have a friend whose mom works for the dance company and she said her son didn’t even go through the audition. But please don’t tell anyone!” She whispered conspiratorially.

She wanted to tell her that she went through the audition like everyone else and that she was definitely not a boy but held herself. “What role did they give you?” She tactically moved the topic to something else.

“Odile.” Taemin smiled sheepishly. Joonmyeon’s eyes widened.

“Oh my god! Congratulations!” She smiled genuinely this time. Taemin was too humble to say that she got the role of Odette (since the same ballerina also played the antagonist Black Swan). It was so hard to even make it as an understudy so Taemin must be really good.

“Thank you!” She said simply. “I went on stage after your audition so I’ve seen you dance. You were amazing! Your piece was so difficult. And your boyfriend was soooo cute!”

Joonmyeon’s smile was wiped off by the thought of Yifan. Good thing their attention was called by the choreographer. Taemin was asked to dance to a scene from the second act—where Siegfried finally met Odette at the lakeside. A boy named Joon was chosen for the role of the Prince and she can already see why Taemin was chosen for the lead role. She danced like it was nobody’s business.

“Bravo!” Hyoyeon’s—the choreographer—smile was so wide that Joonmyeon was afraid her face will split in half. The chemistry between the two main dancers was so evident. “The show will run every Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays this coming fall for two months. The main actors will be taking six over eight weekend spots and two Friday spots. Understudies will be on the rest. So understudies, no reason to relax, okay? The tickets are not cheap so the patrons have to get their money’s worth. SDC is the best dance company in the country so anyone who can’t keep up will be cut. Understand?” There was a chorus of agreement.

Joonmyeon was worried she won’t even compare to Taemin. The girl danced like a dream. She was even more determined to be better. Her mother’s name was at stake.

*****************************************

After the rehearsal, Joonmyeon made a move to leave, opting to walk to a nearby mall where her driver will be waiting for her instead of taking a cab alone. She knew her bodyguards will be watching her from a distance as per usual. She was a bit surprised though to find Yifan standing beside a black car—that was clearly not his—waiting for her.

“Hi.” He bit his lip and opened the door for her. Taemin who’s walking with her didn’t even try to hide her giggles. “I see you’ve made a friend.”

“U-Uh, yeah. Yifan, this is Taemin. Taemin, YIfan.”

“Pleasure to meet you.” It looked like she would stay and chat if not for the subtle honk of a waiting Town Car. “Ugh. I need to run though. See you!” And Joonmyeon would have wanted her to stay longer than to face Yifan after last night’s dinner fiasco but luck was not on her side tonight.

“Is dinner okay?” He asked, almost hesitantly and she was relieved to know that she was not the only person finding this awkward.

“Y-Yeah. Sure.”

They ended on up in a quaint café just a few blocks from where the academy was. It was relatively empty save for a group of college girls in a corner and an elderly couple.

“How did you even know of this place?” She asked in awe. It resembled a country cottage with bright yellow gingham table cloths and furniture in distressed light wood. The whole place smelled of cinnamon and something really sinful and greasy.

“I was driving aimlessly last night and uh…their coffee was really nice.” He finished lamely and pulled her gently to a vacant booth. She was half-surprised that he didn’t move to the other side of the booth after he sat her down but slid next to her instead. Perfectly crossing out the possibility of her walking out of the place if anything escalated to something she didn’t want to deal with. Unless of course she wanted to break the glass wall.

Thank goodness for the appearance of the wait staff who handed them paper menus. Yifan ordered a burger and Joonmyeon thought the apple pie was the least evil of all the items on the menu. The staff left after filling their glasses with water to get their orders. Silence ensued.

Yifan broke it after gauging that waiting for Joonmyeon to speak first just won’t cut it. “I’m sorry for breaking my promise.”

“Promise?” She prompted.

“I promised to bring you to rehearsal today. I didn’t forget that I should but I thought I’ll save us the trouble until you’ve survived your first day.” He said quietly.

“W-Wait, you’re not…breaking up with me, are…you?” Uncertainty marred her features and Yifan’s head snapped up. She didn’t really sleep a wink last night even after Kyungsoo was snoring softly beside her because even if she didn’t have her best friend reiterating that she shouldn’t have acted like a real primadonna with Yifan’s friends, she realized she should apologize and make it up to Yifan. But it was hardly fair if he’ll break up with her without giving her a chance to redeem herself.

“What? No! Joonmyeon, when people had a misunderstanding, they talk about it. Not call it quits.” She sighed heavily.

“I think I should be the one to apologize.” Her voice was no more than a whisper. She was seldom wrong and it was hard to admit to her mistakes. She grew up thinking everything should go her way. “Is there anyway I can see Tao again so I can talk to her?” Kyungsoo’s instructions were clear: Talk to Yifan and apologize to his friends. Especially to Zitao. If she wanted to keep her relationship status that was (and with Joonmyeon’s pride on the line, she can’t accept that she’ll be announcing a break up this early so the wide-eyed girl was smart enough to attack her weak spot). And she was quick to tell her that she will know if she did or not. There were very few instances that Kyungsoo was mad and she didn’t want to know what will happen if she anger her further.

“They left this morning.” It was Yifan’s turn to sigh. “Don’t worry about it. We can call her sometime if you want. It doesn’t matter.” Their food arrived and they ate in silence for sometime. “How was the rehearsal?”

“It was okay. I’m billed for most of the Friday shows and a couple of weekends.” She picked on her apple pie. Thinking how much butter and eggs actually went in there and her stomach almost turned upside down because of it.

“Really? That’s great!” She looked up to a gummy smile that she missed despite seeing it just last night. Not that she will say that out loud of course. She nodded. “I’ll make sure to get tickets the same night your parents will see it so I can meet them.” Yifan didn’t know why he had to say that. He didn’t even realize he had any intention to meet Joonmyeon’s parents. But it felt that it was the right thing to say. And he was not someone to take his words back.

And by the look on Joonmyeon’s face, she didn’t expect for him to say something like that either. “Are you sure?” Her hands were getting clammy just because of Yifan potentially meeting Siwon and Han Kyung—given that they will come see her perform. There was a high possibility they won’t even care and she didn’t even want Yifan to know how dysfunctional her family really was. At least not this early.

After meeting Yifan’s family and seeing how close they were, she can’t really help but compare. Dinners at her house were stiff and almost business-like. They will ask her about school and she will give them impersonal replies and her parents will leave it at that.

Yifan’s parents joke around with him a lot and they were always looking for ways to embarrass him—but in a good way. She will not feel so insecure about it if she didn’t know his parents were as busy as hers if not more. Although they don’t really see each other everyday, they make it a point to spend time with Yifan.

“Yeah. Of course. I’d love to meet them. Actually, my parents would love to meet them, too. But I figured I should introduce myself to them first.” In fact, Yifan was wondering why her parents didn’t invite him yet. Parents should always be curious about who’s dating their child, right? More so if that child was a girl. Unless of course Joonmyeon was dating behind their backs. “You’ve told your parents about me, right?”

“Uhm, no?” And it hurt. It really did. “I mean, at least not yet. There was no chance. They’re not at home and—“ She was rambling and he didn’t have to be a genius to figure it out.

“But you’ll tell them, yes?” He cut her off. They just reconciled and he didn’t want to ruin the rest of the evening.

“Yeah. I guess. Of course.” She bit her lip. Just what kind of relationship did this girl have with her parents? Surely, there’s also the possibility that they were not allowing her to date but he had met her aunt and it didn’t strike him as such.

“Then I suggest you tell them first before I get to meet them.” She toyed with her lower lip again in way that she always did when she was anxious.

The rest of the evening was uneventful. Yifan said hello to Heechul before he bid her goodbye. Joonmyeon was finally at ease because at least they were better than they were last night.

***************************************

Come Monday, Joonmyeon was looking distractedly outside her chauffeured car when she noticed someone familiar. She was holding a piece of paper and was currently looking at the number attached to a tall black gate. They were still inside their village and she was sure as hell this person didn’t live there. “Stop. Stop the car!”

“What’s wrong, Ahgassi?” Her driver slash bodyguard looked at her in confusion but otherwise pulled over on the side of the deserted road. She paid him no mind as she made sure the girl was who she thought she was. She fumbled for the door and got out, ignoring the calls of the two other people in the car. The back-up vehicle already stopped not too far from where they were.

“Z-Zitao?” She asked and the girl’s eyes widened when she recognized who she was. “What are you doing here? I thought you left the other day?” She watched as fear morphed into her face.

“Please don’t tell Gege! I’m begging you!”

************************************************

Tao observed the village gate for almost the whole day yesterday. Although she can climb the wall without breaking a sweat, she was sure the fence was electrocuted so she mentally slashed it out of the possibilities. The guard house was in the middle of a two-way street. There were two guards-on-duty. One checks each incoming vehicle before opening the metal barrier. The other one does the same for the outgoing ones. Almost every car came with another. Judging the houses that she can see from where she was perched behind an overgrown bush, all residents can afford the luxury of a personal bodyguard or bodyguards for that matter. So that explained the cars that came and went in pairs.

Many months ago, she chanced upon a matchmaking website and she was fascinated with how people interacted with someone they don’t even know. There were decent conversations and there were ones that bordered to obscene. But one guy was cool enough to engage her into something neutral—like fashion. He was from Korea and even if her Korean was subpar, he stuck around. Before she knew it, they were talking everyday. And if she was honest enough, she will say that she was looking forward to their conversations.

It was not until they were communicating for over two months that the guy asked for her email address. She was in China and she thought she can just easily change email address if the guy ended up annoying. He sent a picture and it took her a month to finally return the favor.

One thing led to another and they were meeting regularly through Skype. He was sweet and thoughtful and he promised to visit her in China soon. And Zitao was falling deeper everyday. When she opened the prospect of dating, he was not very opposed to it. In fact, he said that they even spend more time with each other on-line than couples who were physically together. Nothing much had changed until Yifan was sent to Korea to study.

Victoria, daughter of her father’s boss and a friend they grew up with, suggested that they visit him in his new home. See how he was faring alone in a new school and if he had met new friends. To say that she ecstatic would be the understatement of the year. She would finally meet her boyfriend of three months. Her Shixun.

She wanted to it to be a surprise so she didn’t tell him until they landed. She was expecting an equally happy Shixun to ask her to let him pick her up from the airport. Or to arrange for them to meet right away. Or least pick up her call. Or respond to her messages.

But he didn’t. And she promised herself that she will not leave Korea without at getting at least a closure of some sort.

She asked a good friend to track his exact location through his IP address that directed her in front of his village. Her only problem was she can’t get in without being accosted by the guards. She was in the same line of thought when she noticed a black Roadtrek approaching. It might be her only chance so she moved out of her hiding spot and casually walked to the gate, hiding behind the huge van. She waited patiently for the guard to finish his mandatory verification and stealthily moved with the car as it sped through the gates. She thanked God for her smart decision to wear a tracksuit as she jogged further away from the gate. If the guard noticed, he might have dismissed her as one the residents on their early morning jog.

She sighed in relief as she disappeared through a corner, away from the prying eyes of the guards. She brought out a piece of paper where she wrote Shixun’s address even if she already memorized it by heart. If she had to check every street and every corner, she will. She can’t even ask for directions afraid she will give away her unauthorized entry.

She’d been walking for more than an hour and the sun was already too bright for her liking when she finally located the correct street. She scrutinized each of the house numbers until she saw what she was looking for. A white mansion was smacked right in the middle of a road that led in to two different directions. It was wrapped in a red brick perimeter fence and tall black gate. She approached it cautiously, her heart ramming painfully against her chest. She checked the house number again and again, gathering enough courage to finally ring the bell when someone called her name.

“Zitao?”