“Don’t mess with me, boy”, the army-guy says to Kibum taking an intimidating step forward, but before he can do anything further the music-track changes again.

It’s another old song: “Senorita”. Gods when did we last perform this? I think I remember that the choreography had several elements that not all of us were dancing. Kibum’s and Taemin’s parts were different from what we did.

We performed this once with EXO’s Yixing when Jjong was injured. I’m not sure but I believe the part that’s playing now wasn’t even danced by Taemin.

Kibum looks back over his shoulder at Tae:

“Just freestyle”, he says, covering the microphone, “maybe it’s enough to stick to the beat.”

Taemin nods and just goes on. I’ve climbed back onto the stage in the meantime. The lights in Tae’s shoe-soles are rapidly blinking red. .

“It doesn’t work”, I shout. Just then the blinking stops, the lights stay red and a deafening blast from the main stage makes even the army-guy stop and stare.

One of the bombs in the scaffolding ... There was a member of the bomb-squad working on that one, wasn’t there? I can’t tell from where I stand.

The army-guy tries to look unimpressed but he hesitates to take any further action.

Kibum immediately grabs the opportunity and steers Taemin back into the choreography. Does He really remember all of it?

The latest detonation has weakened the whole construction above the stage. While I helplessly just stand and stare the opposite side of the crippled scaffolding tilts to the side with a horrible screeching of abused metal that even drowns the music. But the steal-beams still hold although lop-sided.

“Yoon Daejangnim!” a soldier comes running towards us and stops in front of the army-guy saluting. “Sir, we’ve lost two men up there.”

Oh God, people are dying, this is really happening. I look at the army-guy who obviously is a General. That explains his commanding tone and authority. He still doesn’t show any emotions.

“Officers Park and Chung were involved in the detonation, Sir.”

This apparently gets to the General although he tries not to show it, when another man comes up the runway in the bomb-squad black jumpsuit.

“Yoon”, he says calmly arriving on the platform, “I’m Moon Kwang-Joong of the bomb-squad, we’ve lost a man of our squadron and two of yours but now we at least know the devices are triggered by something that must be in the center of the arena to reach that far in all directions. So it’s pretty much around where we stand right now. We need to find it.”

The General shoots me a look and then directs his attention to Taemin’s busy feet for the first time.

“It’s in the shoes!” I exclaim before he does, and the bomb-squad guy immediately crouches down to take a look at them.

Kibum moves to the side again to make room.

Although annoyed by Moon who addressed him rather informally General Yoon doesn’t argue, since Moon is the obvious expert here and about his own age. He decides to stand back for the moment.

“Has he been dancing the whole time?” Moon asks incredulously.

“Yes”, I tell him, “the bomber has been challenging him since the first explosion.”

I take a look at Taemin. I’ve only paid attention to his shoes for a while. Looking at him now I see an impressive study of almost painful concentration. I wonder how much longer he can stand this.

“Wow, that’s really something”, Moon shouts over the music. He is flat on his stomach scrutinizing the fateful shoes as far as he can without touching.

“So can you neutralize it?” the General asks.

Moon slowly shakes his head.

“I don’t know. Without taking a close look at it I can’t tell. And I can’t do anything as long as this boy keeps dancing.”

I want to make sure if the correct choreography is really crucial so I ask:

“Does it really matter if he makes a false step?”

“Well”, Moon says, “I don’t know much about dancing, but the trigger appears to be reacting to pressure and patterns. So it might not be necessary to make the exact movement but the number of steps, the power, the drift and possibly even the part of the sole that hits the floor first, may determine whether or not a bomb is triggered. So sticking to the choreography seems wise.”

Taemin swallows hard. Although he is focused on Kibum and the music he is still listening to the conversation.

I feel useless and dumb.

“So what happens now?” I ask the expert.

“We will concentrate on disarming the explosives. I don’t see any way right now to work on the trigger and obviously we cannot let your friend stop dancing or there will be even more casualties. As long as he keeps going and doesn’t make any mistakes we might have enough time to neutralize the bombs.”

“But he can’t go on like this forever!” I shout.

“Yeah. But hopefully long enough.”

I feel dejected and desperate. I expected something more encouraging from the squad-leader but he is just as clueless as we are.

Kibum rips me out of my thoughts:

“Jinki-Hyung, get us something to drink ... lots of it. This is gonna take long.”

Right. At least something I can do.