chapter twenty seven: xxvii. dance performance

“OH MY GOD THAT MATH EXAM WAS STRESSFUL!!!!” I screamed. It was my way of relieving my stress from the exam I had just written.

“You said that about the English exam too,” Jongin laughed.

“Because it was,” I whined, rubbing my eyes.

“Now all that’s left is your dance performance… which I’m so excited to watch!” Chanyeol grinned.

“Don’t remind me,” I groaned. “I’m going to mess up, I know I am.”

“No you’re not. Have some more faith in yourself,” said Junmyeon, but he was smirking secretly.

“I hate you,” I muttered.

“No you don’t, you looooooooove me,” Junmyeon teased.

“Whatever,” I said, looking away to hide my blush.

“But she loves me more!” boasted Chanyeol, pulling me into his side.

I rolled my eyes, punching him half-heartedly on the arm that was around me.

Kyungsoo and a few of the others popped up, and the rest got occupied talking about the math exam. Kyungsoo pulled me aside, seeing my worried expression. “Did you do okay on the math exam?” he asked quietly.

It was funny how the people who were quieter were often the ones who noticed things better. Instead of speaking, they would search for things with their eyes. Often, they were more perceptive. Kyungsoo was one of those people.

I sighed. “Yeah, I don’t even know… I’m worried about it. I don’t feel that confident.”

“You think you passed?” he asked.

I nodded. “Yeah, but I wanted to do well on it…” I sighed again, looking down at the ground.

Kyungsoo squeezed my arm gently, smiling at me when I looked up at him. “It’ll be fine. There’s no use worrying about it anyway, it’s all in the past now anyway.”

I smiled back. “You’re right.”

“Hey, Jooeun?” he asked, looking at me with a strange expression on his face.

I nodded.

“I was actually talking to the others about the competition thing… I know you don’t like it, and I don’t really like it either, to be honest… and I think we’re going to call it off.”

My face lit up, and I beamed. “Really?”

He nodded. “That being said, we’re probably all still going to vie for your attention. I mean, we all still like you, so… But I thought you would feel less burdened and pressured if it was still a competition, so yeah.”

I grinned, pulling him into a tight hug. “I love you so much, Soo oppa!”

I couldn’t see him, but I knew that he was blushing like crazy.

“DID JOO JOO JUST CONFESS TO YOU? WHAT’D YOU BEWITCH HER WITH, DO KYUNGSOO?!” roared Chanyeol.

This was how the order of the performances were supposed to go: the singing and rapping part was first, and then there was an intermission. After the intermission, there was the dancing. So Kyungsoo and I would perform our song, and then later on, Tao and I would do our dance performance with Sunyoung, Seulgi, and Jinki.

Kyungsoo and I were performing third, and right now, Wendy and Sunyoung were doing a duet, and were the second to perform. We were waiting backstage, ready to go up.

Nervous was an understatement to how I felt. There were going to be scouts there. I cursed, wondering why fate had made us go after Wendy and Sunyoung, two of the best singers of our school. Kyungsoo held my hand, and it was clear that he was just as nervous as I, if not more.

“We can do this,” I whispered to him. “We’ve done it so many times before, there’s no way we’re messing up.”

Sunyoung and Wendy hit their final notes, a beautiful harmony.

He nodded to me, smiling. There was a thundering applause, and Wendy and Sunyoung came down from the stage, wishing the two of us luck. We thanked them, before walking up to the stage, bright lights nearly blinding us. Kyungsoo took his place by the grand piano, and I took my place on a stool beside the grand piano, so that I would be able to face him. Someone came and gave me a guitar and a pick, and I took it and placed the pick inbetween my lips.

“Next, we have Do Kyungsoo and Kim Jooeun, performing a self-composed song, titled Dreams.”

There was applause, and we both took deep breaths, adjusting the mics in front of us. I smiled at him, and he smiled back, before nodding. I could see him gathering the necessary emotion for the song, and I did the same.

His piano started, as did his voice. It was smooth, with no cracks at all.

I fingerpicked the pre-chorus, before taking the pick swiftly out from inbetween my lips to strum for the chorus. We sang together, looking into each other’s eyes.

His piano playing faded away and I quickly put the pick back onto the guitar, fingerpicking as I sang my verse.

Then his piano started up again with my fingerpicking for the pre-chorus, and then I took my pick again to do the chorus.

I couldn’t really remember it much, but the song flew by and the applause was deafening. I took the guitar in one hand, and Kyungsoo’s hand in my other, before we both bowed to the audience. The MC, one of the students here, Minho, said something about us making a cute couple, and the audience laughed when I mock glared at him, before bursting into a smile. I squeezed Kyungsoo’s hand, unable to stop my smile from widening. Both of us had done amazing. When the girl came to take the guitar away again, I couldn’t stop myself from hugging him tightly, causing the audience to aw at us. He was blushing, but hugged me back just as tightly, lifting me slightly into the air and spinning me around.

It was one of the widest I’d ever seen him smile. The audience cheered and clapped even louder, and I could tell that I was never going to hear the end of it from Amber and her friends. Or anyone in general. But honestly, at that moment, I didn’t care.

“Good luck, you guys got this!” Junmyeon coached us. “Just stay calm and remember everything.”

I swallowed, nodding. I jumped up and down a few times in my nervousness.

“Jooeun-ah, I know you’re going to do great,” said Yixing, smiling with his dimples showing at me.

“Xie xie, Yixing ge,” I said, laughing.

“Wow, what about me, ge?” Tao whined.

He didn’t seem nervous at all. I was so jealous of him.

“You’ll do fine too.” Yixing rolled his eyes, before winking at me.

Luckily, Tao was too preoccupied with playfully fighting with Kris to have caught it. I grinned at Yixing, before giving him a tight hug. I didn’t know why, but I was feeling especially clingy today.

He hugged me back, digging his face into my hair, inhaling my scent.

After I pulled away, a hand tapped me on my shoulder, and I turned to see Sehun skillfully walking away, as if he had not just tapped me on my shoulder.

“HOON!” I scolded, but I couldn’t help but laugh at how cute he was being.

“You’re not going to give me a hug?” he asked, turning back to me, pouting slightly.

I rolled my eyes, before walking towards him with my arms out, when Jongin stepped in front of Sehun to intercept the hug. I laughed into his shoulder, moving my arms to loop them around his neck.

Sehun let out a sound of disbelief, before forcefully pulling me away from him, and essentially pushing my face into his neck.

Wow. His neck was really white. How was he so pale??

“Wow, possessive much?” I teased, tilting my head backwards to look upwards at him.

“Be quiet,” he muttered, but a smile was forcing its way up onto his lips. “Good luck, Jjoo.”

“Thanks,” I replied, tightening my grip around him.

After pulling away, Minseok and Luhan stepped forward.

“Want a sip?” Minseok asked, offering me some of his coffee.

I nodded, taking a sip from his coffee. Luhan laughed, before wiping the coffee residue away from my lips. “You have to look your best for Shindong saem, and the scouts.”

I swallowed. “Way to make me feel less nervous, Lulu ge.”

“It’s okay, sweet child, all will be good,” Junmyeon said, stepping in front of me to tuck a loose strand of hair behind my ear.

I rolled my eyes, trying to take attention away from the fact that my heart was beating like crazy.

“Give her space,” Kris scolded. “Let her breathe!”

I smiled gratefully. “You are my savior, Wu Yifan.”

He winked at me. “That’s my middle name.”

“STOP FLIRTING IN LANGUAGES THAT I DON’T UNDERSTAND!!” Baekhyun whined.

I turned to Tao, winking at him before speaking, “Wo ai ni.”

He blushed before coming over to me and hugging me tightly, whispering things in my ear that I had no idea the meaning of.

“HUANG ZITAO!” Baekhyun huffed.

He pried Tao off off of me, before hugging me to himself. He seemed to like burying his face in my hair, but this always led to my face being stuck in his neck. “Aishteru,” I whispered, and he tightened his grip around me.

“Finally a language that I understand,” he grumbled.

“You’re going to ruin her hair!” Minseok scolded, detaching Baekhyun from me and pulling me into his side.

“Mini oppa, don’t you and Lulu ge need to get ready to go onto the stage?” I asked, turning to face him and rearranging his sideburns to look neat and organized.

He put his arms around my waist, smiling down at me. “I’ll be ready if you give me a kiss.”

I rolled my eyes, as chaos ensued around us. Kyungsoo tore Minseok’s arms from my waist, Chanyeol started punching him, and Jongdae pulled me into a hug. He flinched slightly when I stumbled into him, before hiding it with a smile.

A jolt of worry ran through me. “Is it your legs? Your ribs?”

“It’s nothing,” insisted Jongdae, laughing gently.

I pulled away from his hug, scanning his body. He quickly moved his weight to both feet, and it wasn’t missed by me. “It’s your legs, isn’t it.” It wasn’t a question, it was a statement. He didn’t deny it, either. “Your right leg is worse than your left leg, isn’t it? You idiot, if your legs were hurting, why’d you keep on insisting to walk everywhere?”

“Because I want to walk, dammit!” Jongdae cried. “I want to walk, and I want to run, too!”

It had gone silent around us, the boys watching us.

“And the only way you’ll be able to do that is if you rest! Do you think by straining yourself, you’re going to get better faster? No! Physiotherapy is good, but pretending you’re fine when you’re not is not going to help you!” There were tears in my eyes, and my voice cracked on the last syllable.

“Jooeun, Tao! The order’s been switched up, we’re going on now!” Jinki ordered in a panicked tone.

I followed Jinki to the stage, ignoring Tao’s murmurs of my name, taking my place on the stage. I blinked away my tears, wiping them quickly. The bright light shining down on us blinded and me, and I could see the red blinking of the cameras recording us. Because of the bright light, I couldn’t see anyone in the audience, nor could I see the scouts from entertainment companies.

Minho spoke once more. “Now here we see two of our students whom we’ve seen earlier today. Sunyoung here made an excellent cover of the song Hello by Adele along with her friend, Wendy, but we’ve already seen Wendy’s dance performance. The other student in question here, is Jooeun, who we all saw hug Kyungsoo tightly and get lifted in the air.” The audience laughed. When I looked up at him, rolling my eyes, he spoke again. “Sorry, I meant that she excellently performed a self-composed song with her oh-so-lovely partner Kyungsoo. Now, the other three here are Zitao-a transfer student from China, Jinki, and Seulgi. Please give a warm round of applause for our second dance performance!”

As the applause faded away, our music started playing, and we started our dance. This was drilled into me, I found my body moving on its own. But still, I had to concentrate. It would be terrible if I accidentally did the wrong part in the wrong place. The chorus of the song started, and when I was switching positions with Jinki, my leg-my right one, to be exact-knocked against his own harshly, causing me to fall onto my knees. Luckily, it seemed that he hadn’t fallen. Ignoring the jolts of pain that were rushing to my right knee, I got back up, continuing the dance. I heard a murmuring in the crowd, before a light applause started up.

We were getting to my solo part, which included me doing a lot of fancy footwork, and I felt rather than knew that my leg was going to this up. I tried to keep a charismatic expression, as this dance required, but the pain was getting too much. Whenever I moved or bent my right leg at all, I could feel jerks of pain.

I moved to the middle for my solo part, moving my feet in and out but my right leg giving in, causing me to fall to my right knee once more. I used my arms to keep me up, trying to get up once more with tears in my eyes before realizing that I couldn’t.

I tried again and again, to no avail. My right knee just wouldn’t let me. The music stopped abruptly, and I realized that the others had stopped dancing and were at my side. I blinked away the tears in my eyes, and it seemed that Minho had come back up to the stage.

“Ah, Jooeun was actually in a car accident at the beginning of the year. It healed, but I think the fall might have damaged her leg again. We’re so sorry for the inconvenience.”

“I’m sorry guys,” I whispered, unable to look up and face them. “I’m so sorry.”

“It’s okay, don’t blame yourself!” Sunyoung said, putting a comforting hand on my arm. “If worse comes to worse, we can just perform again later, right? For semester two’s dance performance. It’ll be totally fine, don’t worry about it!”

“Yeah, it’s my fault for tripping you, I’m sorry! I was a second late in moving, that’s why it happened.” Jinki winced, running a hand through his own hair.

Tao wordlessly put an arm around me before helping me up. I winced at the pain from straightening my leg, before pretending otherwise.

“I think you need to go to the hospital,” Seulgi murmured, a worried look on her face.

By this time, my boys had rushed onto the stage, surrounding me. Chanyeol was the first to arrive, crouching in front of me so that I could get on his back.

“I-I-my leg needs a splint. It hurts a lot whenever I bend it.”

Kyungsoo and the others came, surrounding me. “It’s swollen, we need ice first.”

Minho came over to us, asking us if we could move so that the next performance could take place. He had an apologetic expression, he obviously didn’t want to cause inconvenience to us yet the show had to go on.

Kyungsoo put one of my arms around his neck, before motioning to Minseok to do the same. I basically hopped on one foot off of the stage, burying my face in Minseok’s shoulder so that no one could see my face.

“Let’s give an applause to them anyway, since it looks like their performance would’ve been amazing anyway!”

There was loud cheering and applause, but it didn’t make me feel any better.

Sehun came with a bag of ice; I hadn’t even noticed that he’d left to get it. There were no chairs, so they gently placed me down onto the floor. Junmyeon took the bag of ice from Sehun, who looked like he had no idea what to do with it, and gently applied it to my swollen knee, causing me to let out a yelp of pain.

Jongdae pushed his way through the others, flicking me on my forehead, causing me to flinch and look up at him.

“That’s not helping!” Baekhyun screeched.

He had tears in his eyes, and he looked angry. It was rare for Jongdae to look as angry as he did just then. Jongdae was one of the happiest people that I knew, always smiling and wanting other people to smile. And he was angry, much angrier than he had previously been when I’d left to go dance.

“You hypocrite!” he shouted. “You told me not to pretend I was fine, yet what were you just doing?” His shout died down to a croak, as he fell down to his knees, taking one of my hands in both of his. He bent his head, his skinny frame shaking as he cried. His grip on my hand was so tight, as if if he let go, I would run away.

I took my free hand and pulled his head towards me, so that he was crying into my neck. I bit my lip, struggling not to cry but tears already on their way. I wanted to comfort him, and in order to do so I couldn’t cry.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered, and somehow my voice stayed stable, not cracking or shaking at all. I bent my head, unable to look any of the others in the eye. I hated appearing so weak in front of them. I hated it.

“MINSEOK, LUHAN, I KNOW YOUR GIRLFRIEND IS INJURED BUT WE’RE ON RIGHT NOW!” Victoria yelled, and with apologetic expressions, they silently left.

Seconds after, Amber appeared with something in her hand. “I have a knee brace, let’s use it to get you to the hospital,” she said, walking towards us before stopping in her tracks as she saw Jongdae crying into my neck. “Or… I’ll just leave it here and come check on you at the hospital.”

At this, I felt Jongdae laughing, pulling his face away from my neck and wiping his eyes. Then, I realized that he was on his knees and I quickly scolded him, and he sat down beside me.

When my eyes met Tao’s, my bottom lip started trembling. We had worked so hard for this, only to have it all fall to nothing because of my knee. At his tired smile, the gates burst and I started sobbing into my hands, only to have Jongin sit down on the other side of me, my hair calmly with one hand and wrapping an arm around me with the other.

I had never cried this often before… these boys were making me soft.

A/N: Okay so I was supposed to study for my exams today but instead I wrote this... ugh... now I feel so angsty...

I'm not sure if you can tell, but I think I'm going to write around ten-fifteen more chapters... who knows, it might end up with more but I'm thinking around ten before ending it. We'll see how I'll end up writing it.

What did you think about this chapter?