“As you all know, the annual Senior Recital is in six months.  I evaluated you all last week to determine who’s been practicing enough to be able to participate,” the teacher droned.  Jongin closed his eyes tuning her out.

He didn’t need to listen to any of it.  He knew he’d be the soloist.  There was no question of it and everyone else knew it too.  Jongin was arguably the best dancer in the school.  Sehun came close but there was really no competition.  He closed his eyes and leaned back into the cool glass of the mirror behind him.  He tuned everything out until the names were mentioned.  Jongin heard of a few worthy names and then Sehun’s was thrown into the mix.

“Finally, the soloist is well, of course, Kim Jongin,” the teacher read off the clipboard, the lack of surprise evident in his tone as well.  Nonetheless, the room roared with cheers and everyone broke into a round of applause.  “Rather, the tentative soloist.”

His eyes shot open.  He was being congratulated left and right by everyone he was friendly with and even people that didn’t really like him but respected him anyway.  However, Jongin didn’t care about any of that.  He could only focus on one thing.

Tentative? What the hell did that even mean?

He felt sparks of irritation running through him, trying to decipher the reason behind the recently announced news.  The teacher quickly carried out a few closing comments and dismissed the class.  Jongin was about to run to Sehun to let out his frustrations when he was called over by the teacher.  Jongin walked over figuring he was about to figure out what tentative meant.

“See you later, man.” Sehun clapped him on the shoulder before leaving.  “I'll wait outside."

Jongin nodded, waited for the door to click shut and faced their teacher.  “Was there something wrong with my evaluation last week? Did I not meet the usual standards? Why am I tentative?”

The teacher sighed.  “Jongin, your performance was excellent as usual.  You’ve proved yourself the best, however, we have a new transfer student coming in and from the audition tapes she sent in just to get in to the school she’s at your level.  The staff and I have agreed to let her have a chance to prove she has what it takes to be the soloist as well.”

Jongin stared at his teacher as if the guy had two heads. He stormed out of the room with not another word, utter confusion and anger etched on his face, boiling through every fiber of his being.