“Why are we here, Kwon Yuri?” Tiffany hissed as she was pushed into the ballet studio. Suddenly, twenty pairs of eyes landed on her.  Each of the dancers stood with straight backs and eyes piercing, judging the newcomers.

Taeyeon nudged Tiffany in the thigh. “Why do they look like they’re going to eat us?” she murmured fearfully.

"To be fair, they don't look like they eat anything," Tiffany replied back, eyeing all the stick thin figures. 

“Relax, guys. We’re here to watch Jessica dance, remember?”  Yuri reminded the two through nervous laughter. Despite her bravado, she too was quite intimidated. 

“Why are ballet chicks so scary?” Taeyeon whined to herself, silently regretting her decision to come along. She should’ve accompanied the maknae to buy sweet potatoes.

“Can’t blame them though. The competition is tough,” Tiffany remarked as she watched the ballerinas warm up with perfect splits, too giddy about watching Jessica dance to feel any fear at the moment. 

“Hi! Welcome to the ballet club. Are you guys here to…” a tall blonde girl walked over.

The trio shook their heads anxiously in vehement denial. “Oh, we’re just here to watch!” Yuri replied.

“Right…but the ballet team doesn’t allow visitors. It’s to prevent other schools and ballerinas from spying on us,” the ballerina answered seriously, eyeing them with suspicion. Taeyeon gulped not so subtly.

Tiffany raised an eyebrow. “You’re kidding right? But you know we’re figure skaters.”

The ballerina raised an eyebrow at the rude attitude. “Right, but-“

“Nana, what’s wrong?”

They turned to see Yoona walking in. Taeyeon sighed in relief and thanked her lucky stars.

“They want to watch us practice,” Nana answered bluntly.  Taeyeon scratched her head awkwardly, as Tiffany waved sheepishly and Yuri smiled hesitantly.

Yoona looked over at the three and chuckled knowingly. “Don’t worry, I know what they’re here for,” she told Nana. Yoona briskly walked over to the three of them. “Come back in an hour. She’ll be here then,” she whispered and then promptly pushed the three out the door without any further warning.

“Wait, what do you mean-“

The door shut and locked behind them.

Yoona waved at them cheerfully through the window. 

“…Well, we just got kicked out,” Taeyeon commented mirthfully a second later. She was just glad to have gotten out of there alive.

“Wanna go practice?” Tiffany asked.

“Yeah, why not,” Yuri mumbled. “We’ll come back later, I guess. “

An hour later, Yuri, Taeyeon and Tiffany mindlessly walked back to the dance building. All three of them were deeply anticipating watching their new friend dance.

Yuri was so deep in thought, she crashed right into someone’s back.

“Ack. Sorry!” Yuri apologized hastily.

“Eh? It’s okay.” The person turned around and was revealed to be none other than a sweaty Im Yoona, fresh out of practice. Yuri nearly did a double take at the sight. A sweaty Yoona was a sight to behold. She gulped unknowingly.

“I was waiting for you guys,” Yoona grinned, not noticing Yuri's staring and beckoned them to follow her.

Yuri tore her eyes off Yoona and noticed that they were standing just outside the ballet studio. The door was slightly ajar.

“So why are we here now?” Tiffany asked. “Isn’t practice over?”

“Shhh,” Yoona hushed. “I’m about to show you. Now be quiet.”

Tiffany clamped shut and followed Yoona on her tiptoes to the doorway. As she neared, she heard a gasp from Yuri, who stood behind her.

Tiffany peeked in and was completely enthralled by the sight.

In the middle of the empty dance studio, stood Jessica Jung, straight, tall, and proud. Her eyes were closed and her body was still. Under the dim lights that outlined her figure, the blonde seemed to glow. Her arms made a circle in front of her body and her feet were pointed outward with the heels touching.

It was the classic ballet pose, first position, and despite seeing it hundreds of times before, either in real life by Yoona or in pictures, Tiffany felt her breath leave her and her mind go blank.

Slowly, Jessica opened her eyes and Tiffany felt Yuri’s breath hitch behind her.

Every move; every flick of the wrist, hop, turn, spin; everything was executed with a simple air of elegance and ease. The cold, indifferent look on the blonde’s face only added an air of superiority, confidence, and beauty to the already flawless dance.

It was different.

Compared to Yoona’s lively, energetic  ballet which Tiffany was so used to seeing, the beauty in Jessica’s dance was more subtle. It was calming and relaxing. Tiffany could watch Jessica dance for hours on hours.

“I don't believe what I'm seeing,” Yuri murmured in complete awe.

“Holy ing Jung,” Taeyeon cursed in surprise.

“She's so hot.”

Yoona, Yuri and Taeyeon whipped their heads to look at Tiffany with bewildered faces.

Tiffany mirrored their bewildered looks, catching herself by surprise with the slip of the tongue.

“What? She is. Not gonna deny it,” Tiffany shrugged and commented as a matter of factly, to which no one could disagree.

They turned their eyes back to the figure dancing silently in the dim studio.

Yoona smiled proudly. ‘That’s the Unnie I looked up to. Too bad she’s refuses to dance on stage.’ Yoona glanced down. ‘I’ve always wanted to share a stage with her.’

Just when Tiffany thought Jessica couldn’t get any better, she jumped. And so did Tiffany’s heart.

‘Holy . She jumps so high. It’s almost like she’s flying.’

“She’s amazing,” Tiffany whispered and felt Yuri nod in agreement.

“But...her skating is even better,” Yuri murmured, more to herself than the others.

Tiffany recoiled slightly in surprise at the comment.

‘Even better? Is she serious?’

Tiffany eyed the figure, who was currently executing a pirouette, spinning on the mere tip of one foot.

‘I want to see that. I want to see what you can do on the ice, Jung.’

“Come on, let’s go,” Yuri spoke, her voice barely audible.

The four backed away quietly from the door as the ballering inside came to a stop after completing her 32 pirouettes, her toe not moving even the slightest centimeter from where she started. The sound of the door closing seemed to echo as Tiffany’s mind wandered with images of the blonde spinning on ice.

One thought crossed her mind.

‘She would look like a princess.’

Jessica sighed as her back slumped in exhaustion. She stared at the now closed door and wiped the sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand.

‘Idiots. They need to learn how to whisper.’

She grabbed the water body from the ground and drank from it thirstily, chugging down half its contents in two giant gulps.

Sitting in the now completely empty dance studio, Jessica sighed as she stared at her disheveled appearance. She buried her head into her hands.

‘Why did she have to come back and remind of my past now? Everything was fine until she showed up.’

Frustrated, she threw her water bottle across the wooden floor and groaned loudly into her towel.

‘The shining wooden floor...the mirror...these pink shoes….and these pink tutus…’

Jessica chuckled humorlessly, as she thought back to the days when it was ice floors, wide open arenas, ice skates that hurt like hell, and glittery dresses that covered absolutely nothing.

‘What am I doing? Why am I feeling such nostaligia?'

Jessica busied herself with tying her pointe shoes, getting ready for another grueling ballet practice. Her hair was pulled back into a stiff bun and her leotard was tight on her skin. The familiar smell and warmth of the wooden dance studio filled her senses, lulling her into a sense of mindless routine, letting her thoughts wander restlessly.

It’d been two weeks since Yuri’s been back and even though Jessica had continued to refuse her offer of joining the figure skating team, she still found herself hanging out with them more and more.

It was starting to become worrisome.

After all, she wanted to avoid everything that had to do with figure skating, and that included the people.

No, especially the people.

Just this morning, they all showed up at the running track at 5:30, surprising Jessica who was used to running alone during the time. Smiling, Yuri, Tiffany, Taeyeon, and Seohyun all suggested they run together and Jessica could not turn them down.

Yesterday, they ate lunch together at the school’s cafeteria and Jessica swore everyone was looking at their table, probably wondering who the hell she was to be sitting with them.

Jessica knew that hanging out with the figure skating team was probably a bad idea if she wanted to avoid everything figure skating related, but at the same time, she couldn’t bring herself to cut ties with them.

Truth be told, she’d missed Yuri, who was her best friend in the US. The two of them had a lot of fun even before they started figure skating. Jessica was glad Yuri was here, even though she’d never admit it outloud to the other girl.

And of course there were her new friends. Seohyun was adorable in the way that made Jessica want to pat her head and tell her she did a good job.  And she got along well with Taeyeon. Both being the shy awkward type, they were able to develop a silent understanding of each other. Plus the girl was a huge dork which made Jessica laugh.

Then there was Tiffany. For some reason, there was just something different about Tiffany.  Jessica didn’t know exactly what it was that made the redhead so...attractive? Maybe it was her eye smile, or her contagious laugh, but Jessica found herself enjoying the presence of the girl whenever they hung out.

So yeah, Jessica had no plans of cutting ties with them yet, not when it’s the first time in a while since she’s made new friends.

Besides, what could go wrong? Right?

“Unnie, you okay?”

Jessica snapped out of her thoughts to see Yoona looking down at her in concern.

Not wanting to worry her friend, Jessica quickly responded “Yeah, why?” as neutrally as possible.

Yoona didn’t look convinced. “You seem out of it.”

Jessica let out a tired smile. “Just a bit sleepy.”

Yoona hummed in disatisfaction, clearly not falling for the excuse but dropped the conversation nonetheless.

Jessica sighed inwardly, grateful that the girl didn’t push any further. What she said technically wasn’t a lie though. She had been feeling more tired than usual.

‘Focus. I have to focus.’

Jessica stared at the three idiots and the cute maknae outside her door.

“What are you guys doing here?”

Yuri beamed at her. “We were waiting for your practice to finish. Let’s go grab lunch together.”

Jessica raised an eyebrow. “Do I have the choice of saying no?” she asked, despite practically already resigning herself to eat lunch with them. And Yuri picked up on it.

“Nope!” she denied cheerfully, clapping her hands together once for emphasis.

Tiffany took it as her cue to immediately cling onto Jessica’s arm. “Let’s go! I heard they’re serving bulgogi today!”

“Yoona, you coming?” Taeyeon asked as she saw the doe eyed girl appear behind Jessica. Unlike Jessica however, she was still decked in workout gear.

Yoona shook her head ruefully. “I still have to practice for the winter production. You guys go ahead.”

“Okay then. Byeeee!” They bid farewell to the ballerina and ran off toward the cafeteria like little excited kids, dragging a grumpy Jessica along.

Jessica set her tray down on the table and eased into her s