vi. the sixth step

Just like that, weeks went by and the monthly evaluations were today. Despite the time it provided and it was always more than enough for Minji, it ended up being full of unusual encounters than practice.  

Minji wasn’t used to being distracted—not this easily anyway and certainly not by boys—so when that bubble of concentration she always immersed herself in during practice was nowhere to be found, she knew was in trouble. As a result, she walked into the studio that morning, a nervous wreck. 

Why? 

Because she didn’t practice enough. Last month, she introduced a new routine she was working on to the class and today, she was expected to show its progress. But because of all the distractions, she hadn’t improved at all. It was nowhere near completion. All she did was practice it over and over again until her mind wandered off to a certain mysterious male and another one who purposefully missed practice to avoid her. The latter annoyed her the most.

Just why did she care so much? She’d been admiring him for a long time yet it never affected her this much before. Maybe she shouldn’t have agreed to Mr Hwan’s suggestion after all.

Hiding her nerves, she sat in the corner as usual. As everyone’s chatter droned on before the teacher’s arrival, Minji found herself peeking through the groups that scattered in the room.

There, on the other side of the room, she saw him.

“I shouldn’t have come. I could’ve said I was sick. It’s not like I ever miss practice,” Jongin groaned, raking both of his hands through his hair. He was sitting on the ground, leaning against the mirrored walls.

Lay, who stood just a distance away from him, was stretching his arms. “But hard-working Kai never misses practice. And especially not because of a hangover the night before. Our dear teacher would be appalled.”

Detecting the jest in Lay’ voice, Jongin shot him the deadliest glare he could muster. After Lay left last night, he took a shower and instantly fell asleep. If he calculated right, he slept just under five hours and if there was anything that made him cranky, it was lack of a good night’s rest. He must look like a downright chaos next to his friend.

However, that wasn’t the worse of it.

“You know that’s not the problem,” Jongin grumbled before collapsing against the mirror behind him.

“Oh yeah. You said you didn’t work on your choreo?”

Instead of replying, he buried his face in his hands. He was doomed.

“It’ll be fine. Just tell Mr Hwan that you’ve been busy the past few weeks with your part-time job or something,” Lay suggested lamely.

“But he has high expectations of me and he knows I never let that get in the way of my practice.”

When they both slumped their shoulders in defeat, the studio door opened loudly. All heads turned to find their instructor waltzing in, causing all the groups to disperse. In unison, they chirped their usual greeting.

“Nice to see you all back here again, I trust you guys had a productive month.”

At this several people nodded enthusiastically while some looked sheepish. Jongin, however, held his breath in dread. Lay noticing this, patted him on the back for comfort, telling him that everything will be okay. He really hoped so.

Without delay, the evaluations commenced. Eager students performed their composition first, hyping up the class and Mr Hwan nodded with approval and relayed his feedback after. However as more people came up and did exceedingly well, Jongin shrank smaller and smaller from where he sat.

Ugh, why did everyone choose this time to set the bar high?

A rush of spitefulness overcame him. This was all her fault.

He was glaring holes at Minji from the other side of the room when he noticed something off in her demeanour. Instead of an uninterested look on her face, she looked kind of antsy.  

His anger turned into confusion but before he could ponder on it, the sound of his name suddenly broke through his thoughts. A soft nudge connected to his shoulder. Jongin turned to his friend in a short moment of annoyance when he noticed the stares that were on him.

“Kai, it’s your turn,” Lay hissed next to him.

He froze, his wide eyes blinking up to their teacher who was looking at him along with everyone else. .

“Jongin, are you ready?” Mr Hwan asked once more, a keen look on his face. Normally such expression made him just as enthusiastic to perform but right now he felt the exact opposite.

He cleared his throat, postponing the inevitable as his mind scrambled for a response. Should he tell his teacher the truth or get up there and let them see for themselves? Jongin really did not know which one had a better outcome.

“It’ll be fine, Kai. Just do it. I’m sure you can—” Lay was trying to voice a final word of support when he was interrupted.

“I’ll do it.” The female voice that came out of nowhere startled everybody else. In an instant, they all turned to find Minji as she slowly rose from the floor. Whispers began.

“Gong Minji?” Their teacher raised a brow at the girl, who now stood above everyone else.

“If you don’t mind Mr Hwan, I’d like to go first,” she said more softly this time, her eyes glued to the ground.

Not only did Mr Hwan looked confused but so did everyone else. Including Lay and Jongin. The volume of the murmurs continued to climb until Jongin was able to catch a few of them.

“She really has no shame.”

“Who does she think she is to decide when she goes up?”

“Well, Kim Jongin is a threat to her. So I’m guessing someone’s feeling intimidated after all.”

On a normal day, Jongin wouldn’t have questioned what they were saying. He might’ve even agreed because nothing else made sense but it did not feel right. Not when he remembered her expression earlier. That was not the face of someone who was determined to get up and perform. No. it was an expression he wore all morning. It was apprehension.

“I see. Well, Jongin, if you don’t mind I’ll let Minji perform first. Is that okay?”

With nothing to say, Jongin could only nod.

Minji crossed the room to the front. Instead of her chin held high, her gaze was lowered the whole time but no one seemed to notice but Jongin did.

When the music began to play, she began her routine. Smooth and agile as usual, she contorted her body to the beat and executed it just as flawlessly as last time. It was only near the end when everybody, including himself, began to watch more attentively. She was to continue where she left off last month and everyone wanted to see the progress, but she just stopped.

And so did everyone else.

“Wait, is that it? Wasn’t that all the same as last time?” A voice commented from the back.

In his disbelief, Jongin blinked back to the front to where she stood unmoving in her position.

Don’t tell me she was in the same position and still performed anyway?

The talks were getting louder again until the voice of Mr Hwan silenced everyone.

“Minji, is that all?”

Slowly, she straightened up and nodded.

That was when everyone exploded in loud whispers. No one could believe it. Gong