This one might be a long one again sorry~

"They were both so nice to me, everybody there is so sweet." you explained to Youngjae in Maths. Now the Monday after your last dance class encounter, now having met two new people at the class, you were excited to tell Youngjae about how you were making progress with making friends."People like me, Youngjae." you emphasised, making him laugh.

"Of course people like you, you're kind to everyone." he said focusing on his maths text book, working out problems.

"I try." you said, paying attention to your work again.

It became a bit silent between you, some other students in the class still chatting amongst themselves, you were eavesdropping on some of their conversations, but most of them were pointless, trivial things or they were actually talking about maths.

You started to think, worrying about how Youngjae might feel with you getting close to new people. Since childhood it had always been just you and Youngjae. Sure you were friends with the small group of girls here in high school, but that was a bit different. You felt like that was more for survival in a school situation, Youngjae understood how you felt about being an outcast and being friends with more than one person was essential if you didn't want to be bullied basically. It was all about connections, if you're friends with someone who has some kind of authority in the school, you were safe. Hence being a part of the group, with self proclaimed group leader, Geonhee. She wasn't exactly the most popular but everyone certainly knew who she was and most were intimidated by her rude nature. In Youngjae's case, he's safe because he's friends with you, he sort of has a connection to Geonhee because of you in a way. So he's never been made fun of.

Youngjae didn't care about any of that though, even if he was the one being bullied he would just ignore it all. If that did happen, you were the first person to have a word with whoever was trying to hurt his feelings. You just wouldn't let it happen...who would even want to hurt someone like Youngjae, he never did anything wrong. He was perfect almost, you felt lucky to have him as your best friend, and there was no way you were going to lose that because of becoming friends with people outside of school.

"Do you want to come along to my dance class this week? You can meet my teacher and the students who I'm friends with." you piped up after your long thought process. You might have just asked in fear of him feeling upset by your new friends, but part of you really did want him to come along and see what it was all about.

he laughed a little, "You wouldn't be embarrassed with me sitting there watching you?"

"Embarrassed? No!" for such a smart guy, he sure did ask some silly questions, "I'm just saying if you want to come, then you're welcome to." it got a bit silent between you, the other students conversations becoming clear again.

"Alright." he said quietly.

Was that a yes? You weren't sure but you were going to take it as one anyway.

-

It came to Saturday again, and you and organised to meet up with Youngjae a little bit earlier in the city so you could take him to the studio. Your mum dropped you off earlier and more in the heart of the city so you could meet Youngjae out the front of one particular store.

He finally turned up, noticing you from afar he started a light jog, his small backpack bouncing against his back as he hopped over to you.

"Hey" he greeted, giving you a small hug when you met. "So where is this place?" he asked after you greeted back.

"Just down here." You said gesturing to the right, down a main street. You started making your way to the studio, him happily following along.

You made it to the studio, stepping inside, some of the students were already there, some weren't just yet. Jongup was in today, he was a busy man, he wasn't there last week. You brought Youngjae over and introduced him to the studio owner. They shared a lot of smiles and Youngjae was much better at making conversation than you were.

Junhong turned up later than you today, normally he was always there before you, watching the popping class. He walked in the door with headphones in his ears, taking them out as he got closer to the reception desk, saying hello to you and Jongup, giving you an awkward side hug. It was a bit intimidating because of how tall he was, but knowing that he felt he was friends enough with you by now that he could hug you, even if it was a bit awkward, made you happy. You tried to not make it obvious but your heart started beating faster when he came in for the hug, Youngjae next to you watching as it happened.

"This is my best friend, Youngjae" you introduced him to your dance teacher, and he was happy to meet your friend.

"Is he gonna be joining in the class too?" Junhong asked innocently. You and Youngjae both laughed a bit and you shook your head.

"He's just gonna watch."

"You don't dance?" Junhong asked, a little bit embarrassed. Youngjae shook his head, "You should just join in and give it a go." everyone here really was encouraging, we all laughed a bit but Youngjae wasn't persuaded. He was more than happy to sit on one of the little plastic stools they had around for parents and other peoples friends who wanted to watch. Come to think of it, nobody else brought friends, there were only some of the younger students parents sitting on the stools. You introduced Youngjae to some of the other friends you had made there, Kim, Hoseok, Jimin, all equally friendly people and all glad to see you had other friends. Youngjae kept a polite manner with everyone as always. It was easy for anyone to basically feed off of these students and all their positive energy, it really created a happy environment to be in, and you really liked being a part of it and now you were even happier that you got to share it with Youngjae for today.

"Oh," Junhong said turning to you, "did you make a decision on the concert?" he asked in anticipation.

"Oh yeah, I think I'm gonna do it." you smiled.

"Yes!" he did a light fist pump, before reaching out a hand to pat you on the head a little bit, "good, I'm glad" he seemed to really want you to be a part of this concert. And a pat on the head? Why was he being like this today? Thinking about it too much gave you a queasy feeling in your stomach so you tried to forget it.

As the dance lesson commenced, you glanced over at Youngjae a couple of times, it made you laugh a little bit seeing him sat next to one of the student's mum. You saw Jongup go over to him a couple of times and chat to him. You didn't know what they were talking about, you weren't that curious, but you were glad he had someone to talk to and he wasn't bored.

Just like Junhong said last week he started working on some formations in the lesson. The part of the dance you had learned by this point was only about 3 or 4 coutns of 8 so he couldn't do a lot, but he had already planned out all the formations for the whole dance, he just had to teach it all to us. He was dragging people here and there moving them around the room.

"And Rina..." he said walking around behind you, placing a hand on your shoulders, pushing you to walk forwards, (what was with all the skinship today?) "You're gonna go~~....here!" he had placed you almost right in the front. If his hands on your shoulders didn't bring your heart up to your throat, the thought of being in the front certainly did.

You swallowed, "Are you sure?" you said quietly. doubting yourself once again.

"I'm sure." he said happily, walking back to where he had placed himself in the formation. He counted us in getting us to practice it over and over in our new formations. Hoseok and Jimin were up the front too, they smiled at you a couple of times, almost as if to say 'told you you were good.'

Over time you started to feel a bit more comfortable with being in the front, but you still weren't 100% convinced that Junhong had made the right decision with this formation.

At the end of class you went back over to Youngjae. "You weren't bored were you?" you asked, already worrying.

"Bored?" he rasied his voice a bit, about to laugh, "No way, that dance looks really cool so far. I'm glad I came." he smiled.

"Okay good." you said relived with reassurance, going to grab your bag, telling Youngjae that you were going to leave now. You said bye to Jongup and Jimin and Hoseok. You were going to say goodbye to Junhong but he was talking with one of the other new students, you waited for a bit for him to finish his conversation.

"See you next week." you said waving at him.

"Wait, Rina," he said, stopping you from leaving, "Listen, you need to stop doubting yourself, you're good and you need to believe that." it wasn't totally out of the blue, but to you the words were still hard to wrap your head around. You nodded, knowing what you needed to work on, you were starting to get sick of people telling you to be more confident, it frustrated you that it's not something that can happen overnight, You would get there eventually. "If you need it, we can organise a one on one session later so I can help you work on putting more confidence into your movements." he said very casually, you agreeing, thinking that it might be a big help. you thanked him for looking out for you and all the constant encouragement. The people here just wanted everyone to be happy when dancing.

-

Leaving the studio, You and Youngjae were just going to go and get something to eat and hang out in the city for a while before you asked your mum to come and pick you up. You decided on just going to get some icecream, the perfect snack on a hot day. Walking to the icecream shop Youngjae started up a conversation.

"Everyone there really is nice" he sounded rather surprised like he didn't believe me when I told him they were all so kind. You nodded enthusiastically.

"They really are! And so encouraging" you agreed. Him now nodding along.

It fell silent between the two of you, you wondered whether you should ask him what he talked about with Jongup, but you werent that curious anyway. Suddenly next you, you heard Youngjae let out a very tiny little laugh. You looked at him, now smirking.

"What?" you asked, wondering what was going on in his mind. he was quiet for a second as you kept walking.

"Junhong was really nice huh?" he kept smiling and moved closer to nudge you on the arm lightly, messing with you.

"What are you talking about?" you exclaimed a bit, confused at his weird behaviour.

"Oh your ears were bright red Rina! don't even try to lie to me!" he laughed.

"They were not!" you started bickering. He thought you liked Junhong? He was just the dance teacher, you wouldn't have ever thought of him in that kind of way. You were 100% sure your ears never went red....or did they?

"Look, your ears are going red now thinking about him aren't you?" he joked, he was just plaing with you now to annoy you.

"Shut up, they are not!" you pushed his arm, as you finally made it to the icecream shop.

You ordered your icecream and sat inside the shop at a little table. Youngjae kept laughing at you quietly, there was a big smirk on his face the whole time. You were sitting, eating your icecream in almost silence....if only Youngjae wasn't laughing to himself everytime he looked up and saw your annoyed face. You of course were in no way able to stay mad at him, and his laugh made you laugh.

"Stop it, Youngjae!" a laugh escaping your mouth in the words.

"Sorry, sorry, I'll stop now." he took another spoonfull of icecream. another moment of silence, "In all seriousness though, I think Junhong is the one who likes you."

Your heart flying back up to your throat. Your ears were definitely going red now, wait why were they going red you didn't like him anyway...right? "What?" you asked, trying to laugh it off as ridiculous.

"Seriously, he's being really kind to you-"

"He's kind to everyone though" you cut him off

"He's giving you special treatment too! how many other students did he offer a one on one session with?"

"He just cares about my dancing." you dismissed his thinking. Youngjae let it slide, seemingly still not fully convinced though.

Luckily he let it go for the rest of the day, not bringin it up again.

On the car ride home you told mum about how Junhong had offered to do a one on one session with you to help your confidence, and she seemed to think it was a good idea, gladly not taking it in the wrong way like Youngjae did. What if Youngjae was right though. You started to think about the way Junhong had been treating you, why did he do so much skinship today? From the hug to the pat on the head to grabbing your shoulders. He hugged all his other students who were his friends when they turned up you just figured it was him considering you a friend. You had only been to 3 lessons now you couldn't be jumping to assumptions about this kind of thing now anyway. But somehow the image of Junhong's cute baby-face smile wouldn't get out of your brain.