“I have to do what ?!” Seungri nearly fell out of his chair as he was told the news of who his partner would be for the national dance competition. His sister, Chaerin, looked at him, surprised at the sudden outburst and put down her own phone to watch.

“I'm not doing that. Absolutely not. You can mark me off this one.” He was just about to hang up when Chaerin reached over the table and grabbed his phone from him.

“Ji? Whoever his partner is, Seungri is glad to participate in the competition. Yep, we’ll call you soon.” She ended the phone call and passed the phone back to Seungri while he looked at her, his face a picture of utter shock.

“Why the hell did you do that?” His hand slammed down on the table but Chaerin didn't even flinch. She merely picked up her own phone again and began to scroll through it, ignoring her brother completely. “Chaerin! Do you know what you've just done?!”

She glanced up at him and rolled her eyes. “I saved your career that's what. What makes you think we weren't going to participate this time?”

“My career doesn't need saving. I'm actually very famous, if you didn't know.”

“You're right. I didn't know that. God, I must have been living under your pile of unwashed sheets for the past three years of my life.” She clicked her tongue and went back to her phone. “Just because you're good to some people doesn't mean you should stop trying to better yourself or show others what you have up your sleeves. And you do know we’ve recruited close to half of the students at the academy by going to these competitions right? Are you even thinking before making these decisions? Who could you be partnering with that you can’t do this?”

“ Dong Youngbae .”

Chaerin suddenly stopped what she was doing and sat up in her seat, forming an ‘O’ shape and she began to nibble at one of her nails. “.”

Seungri just collapsed back into his chair with his head leaning back as he stared at a crack in their ceiling.

*                                                                          *                                                              *

Seungri absolutely hated him. The way he stood, as if he were better than everyone in the room at the moment. The way he spoke, always raising his voice over Seungri’s like what he had to say was more important. Seungri wanted to - no, he needed to punch him, just once.

They were facing Kwon Jiyong, the organizer for the competition and he looked exhausted after having both Seungri and Youngbae in his office for two hours, trying to convince him that them being partners was the worst thing to do.

“How can it be bad? You're both amazing dancers and choreographers. I just want you to work together for a couple of months for the competition. Come up with the best choreography you can. Combine a few of the best dancers from your academy and show off your skills. We can bring in even more people when they find out you're both attending as guests. What's so hard about it?”

“Well, the first problem would be: I hate him with every cell in my body.” Seungri glared at Youngbae as he said it and Youngbae glared back, not backing down for a second.

“I can't be his partner. He's too-” Youngbae looked Seungri up and down, his face contorted in disgust and Seungri snorted.

“Hey hey, at least I can keep a shirt on for more than five minutes.”

“You little-” Youngbae raised a fist but Seungri squared his shoulders and lifted his head a bit higher so he could look down on him.

“You sure you should be saying ‘little’” Seungri barely missed the fist that came at his face when Jiyong stepped in between them, holding his nose between his index finger and thumb, trying to breathe normally.

“Look I don't care how much you two hate each other. I'm expecting you to put aside your resentment for each other for professional reasons so we can make this year a good one. If you don't, I won't be inviting either of you to next year’s competition to guest or participate in so you both better hurry up and figure this out.”

With that he motioned to the door and went back around to his desk. Seungri was the first to let out a sigh and trudge toward the door, with Youngbae following behind him. Once they were outside in the hallway, neither of them said anything, the air becoming more tense as time passed. After a couple of minutes of complete silence both of their phones vibrated in their hands.

Give me an answer by Friday or you're both out.

Three days. He was barely giving them any time to thin. They both raised their heads at the same time to look at the other though they both turned away quickly with looks of annoyance etched on their face.

Youngbae suddenly scoffed. “I'm never working with you.” He walked past Seungri, making sure to bump shoulders with him on the way.

Once he was alone, Seungri leaned on the wall next to him and began hitting his head against it. He wasn’t sure how long he was there like that, but after awhile he heard Jiyong’s office door open and soon a hand was guiding him into the room and to a chair.

“What's up with you and Youngbae? You guys weren't like this in college.” Jiyong’s voice was soft, like he usually was when Seungri was upset and he wanted to get him him to talk. Sometimes it worked and other times it only made Seungri want to not talk at all.

“That was five years ago. People change.”

Jiyong shook his head. “Not you two. You're both the same people you were in college. You're just not friends anymore and I don't understand why.”

Seungri began to play with his fingers, not even bothering to look Jiyong in the eyes. “We just don't like each other. That's all. College was a different world than now.”

There was a small pause before Jiyong spoke again. “Okay whatever you say...but I was serious about what I said. If you two can't figure out how to be professional for a couple of months, it's over.”

Seungri nodded slowly and sank back into the chair, unsure of what would happen next.

*                                                                          *                                                              *

“Are you going to the party tonight?”

Chaerin walked over to Seungri, who had rarely left his seat on the couch for the past two days wondering how he was going to get Youngbae to choreograph and dance with him on stage, but he had been coming up empty. He'd gotten to the point where his thoughts seemed to be going back and forth faster than he could keep up with them. Yeah he wanted to dance and get some of his students this opportunity to be on stage, but having to interact with Youngbae nearly everyday for two months seemed like an impossible task.

“Hey! Are you listening to me?” Chaerin was waving her hands in Seungri’s face. “Are you still worried about the thing? Come on, you’ve been stressing about it so much, I’m starting to get gray hair from being around you.”

Seungri let out a groan and kicked the table in front of him. “Why did it have to be him?”

“Ri.” Chaerin sat down beside him and put a hand on his shoulder, her voice noticeably getting lower. “I wish I could make you feel better but I can’t. So come out tonight with me. You can get your mind off of this for a little while.”

He nodded slowly. “I guess I can do that.”

Chaerin was right. That's exactly what he needed right now. A distraction.