pairing: Jihyo x Momo, Jihyo x Mina, ???? x ????

summary: Mina watches as her dance partner practices for a dancing competition without her.

note: Based on/inspired by this choreograpghy to Hayley Kiyoko's Cliff's Edge. I recommend you to watch it before reading this. Just maybe not in front of homophobic parents etc. (And give Jasmine Rafeal some love!)

Mina put the crutches on her left hand, making sure not to put any weight on her injured leg while maneuvering the door open. Her hands were sweaty and cold at the same time, but she managed to turn the lock and push the handle down. Quickly, she got her body in the opening so that it wouldn't close on her again.

Taking a breath, she got inside without a bigger hassle - thanks to weeks with the crutches she was finally learning a trick or two when it came to getting around without assistance. In the beginning, Sana had helped her a lot but as the situation normalized Mina was able to convince her friend that she didn't have to be chaperoned all the time. Knowing Sana’s caring nature, it wasn’t a small feat.

Funny, how she had always taken the sense of independence for granted.

"Hello there," she said, raising her voice so that the people on the other end of the gymnasium could hear her delicate voice.

"Mina!" Momo yelped and got up from the floor, rushing to see the newcomer. When she reached Mina, she embraced her gently but firmly, smiling so big that it made her eyes twinkle like spots of gold on a cave roof.

"Good to see you," Mina breathed out as they pulled apart, longing to close the gap again. She had underestimated just how much she had missed the other girl, even as they had met frequently after she had broken her leg.

Tearing her gaze away from the dancer, she greeted the others in the room - getting a cheery "hi!" from Hyoyeon and a benevolent "nice to see you, Mina" from Jihyo.

The latter girl made Mina a little nervous. She was quite used to Hyoyeon's life-is-a-celebration -attitude that took any group of people under its friendly wing, but Jihyo's intellectual charisma was something Mina had rarely seen, especially in people her age. (Unfortunately) Jihyo was also kind. Even around Momo and Hyoyeon, she was possibly the nicest.

"I heard rumors about progress," Mina said and smiled, quirking an eyebrow at Hyoyeon and Momo before extending her gaze to Jihyo, making sure she felt included.

"The rumors are true," Hyoyeon said, puffing her chest proudly. All Hyoyeon’s students were like her children and Mina found it endearing how she tried to hide her affection with merciless teasing.

"Didn't think anyone could match with Momo like you," Hyoyeon continued, grinning at Mina. "But Jihyo's performance hasn't given me nightmares."

"I bet it has kept you up because it’s so good," Jihyo said with a glint in her eye and Mina felt a twinge of sadness, jealousy and desire as if they were one and the same. Jihyo was a popular music major who Mina had heard a lot about, but her dancing skills had never come up in conversations. So, when Hyoyeon told her that Jihyo would be taking her role while Mina was recovering she had thought Hyoyeon had been joking again. However, the joke had proven to be on her instead.

Mina studied the girl - she was wearing black baggy pants and a black crop top that revealed her toned tummy. The confidence oozed from her skin in a way that reminded Mina of her dance partner. But unlike Momo, this girl seemed to wear her confidence even outside the stage, whereas Momo was just adorable.

"Jihyo is a great dancer," Momo said, looking at Mina before looking at Jihyo. They smiled at each other and Mina found words rushing out of .

"So... are you going to show me or not?"

Jihyo and Momo broke the eye contact as Hyoyeon got up and clapped her hands.

"You are getting the full experience!"

Mina laughed and walked to the side, carefully sitting down on a bench while putting her crutches to rest next to the wall. She looked down on her leg and wished it would heal faster. She had always felt a bit of an outsider, but as the only one-legged girl in her school of two-legged people, she could feel the distance more clearly. All the healthy people seemed so arrogant now that she wasn’t one of them.

"...like I said," Hyoyeon said to the two girls, "we have practiced so much that your moves will be automatic. But you can't let your thoughts drift away. If you don't concentrate and feel what you’re doing, the whole thing is going to look whack. Understood?"

Momo and Jihyo nodded, their faces serious like Hyoyeon's. It always surprised Mina how quickly Momo and Hyoyeon could turn on their professional sides. With Jihyo, the professional was always present - maybe because Mina didn't know her so well or because Jihyo felt like she had something to prove in the company of dancers.

The girls took their places while Hyoyeon ran to an old stereo. The blonde fiddled with buttons before lifting her head and shouting "ready?"

"Yes," Jihyo said, both her and Momo sitting on the floor and looking down, faces obscured by hair. They were a perfect image of a troubled couple. Mina felt an itch in and tried to clear it as quietly as possible.

The throb of the music began, so loud it was almost unpleasant but also intoxicating, making the whole building seem alive. Hyoyeon stood up and hurried to where Mina was sitting, alert and watching every twitch of a brow from her students.

"Love until we burn up, fire”

The dance started with Momo taking a hold of Jihyo's wrist and putting her arm around herself, only for Jihyo to pull away, annoyed look on her face. Mina had been part of the team while they were still planning and could tell that some things had stayed, and some had been changed. Yet seeing the finished performance was quite different from throwing off ideas in the early stages and the analytical part of her brain was pushed aside by her emotions.

She could tell that Jihyo was more than just keeping up with Momo's powerhouse moves. There was something theatrical about the music major's disposition - what her body missed in power (and it wasn't a lot) she made up with sheer emotion and charisma. It was hard not to stare at her vivid face.

When Jihyo closed her hand over Momo's mouth, Mina's toes curled. There was so much passion in the simple gesture that signified both pain, pleasure and power - and the fact that it was done by Jihyo made it somehow more significant. Mina couldn't exactly tell herself why.

The performance went on with a clever push and pull that at times screamed Momo’s design and at times Hyoyeon’s. The dance was both a moment and an eternity, and she knew that it would be this version that she would always remember - these college-battered dancing gods, making the light dust in the gymnasium flutter in the air when their bare feet glided over the floor.

Momo’s and Jihyo’s shadows melted together only to pull apart again. Jihyo run to the other side of the hall and stood still, as if on a cliff’s edge, face going through so many emotions that Mina forgot for a moment that she wasn’t alone in the stage. Just when it looked like the lovers wouldn’t unite again, Jihyo flung back, meeting Momo in the middle with an almost kiss, their bodies heaving together from the exercise.

Mina glanced at Hyoyeon, but the older girl was a picture of concentration and gave no glues to her inner thoughts. The kisses hadn’t been a part of the choreography when Mina was still supposed to dance. They seemed vital to the performance, but it bothered her because she couldn’t tell whose idea they had been.

The music faded, leaving the world barren. Mina clapped, or at least she thought she could feel the palms of her hands meeting in rapid movements. The dancers pulled apart looking shy and timid like they had been caught during an intimate moment that they couldn’t quite believe had happened.

"Seo's going to lose it when she sees this," Hyoyeon said from somewhere near Mina, voice full of pride cutting the silence. "And I doubt the judges have ever seen anything this gay in their lives.”

Mina chuckled.

"This is just about gay enough to get you all kicked out of the competition."

"Let them try!" Momo cheered and Mina looked at her for a long moment, wishing she could bottle the girl’s essence without anyone noticing. "So worth it," the girl continued and threw a glance at Jihyo who smiled an inviting smile back to her.

"Ah, well... I wish you all good luck," Mina said and reached for her crutches. "Not that you need it."

"You will come to see the competition, right?" Momo said and appeared next to her, assisting Mina with her school bag, like Mina hadn’t broken a limb and things were still as they used to be only some months ago.

"I wouldn't miss it," she said and meant it. Did Momo really think that after all they’ve been through she wouldn't even come to see her just because she couldn’t dance herself? Did Momo not know her at all?

"What's the hurry?" Jihyo said, still slightly out of breath. "I'd love to hear your thoughts."

Mina looked at the girl and swallowed the first poor excuse that wanted to come up. All of them were looking at her expectantly and now more than ever, she wanted to get away.

"Um, I promised not to be long. Mom's coming to pick me up," she said and rolled her eyes at the crutches, letting them take the blame for everything. "Besides, you don't need tips, it's perfect."

She swallowed again, the burn behind her eyes making her panic.

"You're perfect," she said to Jihyo, or to Momo, or to both, or to the thing that was more than the sum of their parts.

"I'll see you on the big day. Fighting!"

With that she left, doing the most pathetic run of her life as she limped through the gymnasium, the crutches whining in agony as she tried to go faster. If the others said anything, she didn't let herself hear.

As the door closed behind her, she took a shaky breath and let her eyes rest in the cold light of the corridor that was a harsh contrast to the dreamy yellow tones in the gymnasium. That was all the time she allowed herself, before pulling a phone out of her pocket, ready to call her mom who didn't know yet that she was supposed to pick up her daughter.

The door behind her opened before she could unlock the screen.

"Hey," a soft voice said, making Mina nearly jump, even as she had heard the door open. She turned around and saw Jihyo standing there, still glowing with the softer light from behind the door.

"Are you okay? I mean, with all this?" she said, nodding towards the gymnasium.

Mina stared, mute. Who was this girl? And why wasn't Mina getting angry at her for asking that? It had been long ago since Mina had drawn her lines and surely, many of them had just been crossed.

"It can't be easy to get injured and watch some average vocal student come here and pretend to dance with your dance partner," Jihyo said and smiled at herself, not offering pity, but just the right amount of sympathy that Mina wanted but wouldn't let herself get.

"It's okay," Mina said, awkwardly leaning on the crutches, finally getting the hang of things such as language and manners.

"I've had time to get used to this," she said and moved her injured leg just a fraction. "I'm just glad to see Momo in action. Besides," she smiled at the girl in front of her. "I might not know anything about singing, but I do know you are more than average in dancing.”

"Thank you," Jihyo said and bowed her head, doing a poor job at hiding a growing smile that made her eyes shine more than they already did.

"Would you like to hang out sometime?" She asked, still blushing a little. "With me and Momo?"

"Loved to," Mina said before she could catch herself. She wished she could hang out with them one at a time, maybe that way they wouldn’t be so overwhelming. But she didn't know who she wanted to see more now, the girl she had known and loved for years or this new one, keen-eyed singer with messy overgrown bangs.

"Great," Jihyo said, beaming. "I'll ask Momo to give me your number since you are in a hurry. See you soon!"

"Yeah, bye bye."

With another smile the girl disappeared behind the door, letting a flash of light into the corridor.

Mina stood there, listening long enough until the music began again. She reached for her phone and called her mother, the song pulsing through the wall and gnawing at her even behind her mother's voice.

She closed the phone and began to limp away, the lyrics buzzing in her head like flies. In her thoughts Momo and Jihyo danced again, the only two people in the world. And this time when the end came, they never pulled apart, but stayed together, hip to hip, lips on lips.

She knew that she would still be Momo’s dancing partner after it all, but Momo’s heart would now belong to Jihyo.

Feeling the familiar burn, Mina stepped outside, scanning the yard for her mother’s car. The vehicles blurred together, forming a silver train that kept melting and mixing with the grey sky.

If she wasn’t more careful than Momo, she might lose her heart too, she thought and blinked until the colors transformed into cars again. She struggled ahead, with her dancer’s shadow not far behind.

A/N: I'm still slightly salty about the LOA era dance ranking videos where everyone put Jihyo as Twice's worst dancer just because they didn't pay any attention to her.... Anyways, I'd love if jimo, mimo, 2na, mihyo, sahyo or samo danced to this choreo irl. Shall we mass e-mail JYPE? :3