Minah halted the moment she stepped into the Health Centre with Ari causing the latter to bump into her.

“Oh no.” she groaned, causing Ari to turn to her confused.

“What happened?”

“This er is ing everywhere. I can’t stand him!” Minah grumbled as Ari looked up to see another immensely handsome man with bleached white hair looking around the Health Centre in what could be the most entitled fashion.

“Classmate?” Ari asked.

“Batchmate. Lee Taeyong, resident with a pretty face. He’ll probably sign up for your dance class. He’s a performing arts student.” Minah rolled her eyes, walking past Taeyong who looked her up and down with distaste before meeting Ari’s eyes and shooting her a smirk.

Something about him made Ari want to punch him.

But damn was the man attractive.

“Yah Kim Minah, are you here to lose that fat you’ve been gaining?” he called out as Minah froze, Ari felt a rage rising in her before she turned around and smoothly retorted.

“She can come to the gym to get fit and lose weight as you say, but you can’t go anywhere to grow a brain and lose that ego of yours.”

Taeyong frowned watching Minah ignore him and Ari’s figure walk her towards the gym before making her let out a laugh. His eyes stayed on Ari.

Definitely not going to be the last time he spoke to her.

Ari huffed, it was disrespectful people who irked her the most especially when it came to her friends. Minah was a strong woman, she knew she'd have probably knocked Taeyong’s teeth out, but Minah didn't like resorting to violence either and thus Ari felt the need to step in. She headed over to the dance studio, feeling the bleached blonde still glaring at the back of her head. She shrugged as she pushed the door open; this was the least of her problems. Kim Jongin sending her a smile and making her feel extremely flustered on the other hand, was.

Not that it meant denying him from driving her back home since Minah had finally begun boxing lessons with Taekwoon (which Ari doubted actually happened since both of them were equally awkward). They’d been going home together for a while and Ari had increasingly gotten comfortable with Jongin, but he still got her flustered every time he sent her that smile.

“Guys, time to pair up and get the usual stretching done…” Jongin began as his eyes landed on Taeyong “we have a new entry! Taeyong right? I heard you have some dancing experience.”

Taeyong looked around, smug as he nodded, sliding beside Ari who shot him a dirty look as Jongin blinked. He realized that the math of the class had now changed and they now had even numbers and he didn’t have to pair up with anyone. But he didn’t miss out the look Ari shot Taeyong which piqued his interest.

Was she interested in this man?

So when Jongin told them to pair up, Taeyong in all his silver-white haired glory, walks up to Ari and asks her if she wanted to be partners. She began to walk forward to tell him off but was pulled away. She was about to fight him, still remembering the things he said to Minah. Jongin however, saw this being played in a completely manner. What Jongin saw was a guy with a decent body coursing with testosterone and Ari taking steps towards him in all earnest.

So what did he do? He pulled her away in instinct. Now, the entire class was staring at him. Great.

“Uhhh, today we will be understanding body balance so it's important to be paired up with someone your own size. Ari if you could please pair up with Bora here,” Jongin led Ari to the other girl.

“And new guy, you can be my partner!” Jongin smiled rather smugly.

Ari was in a daze. What had just happened? Jongin had told her he was happy with how the class was developing a sense of balance and how he was going to continue with the actual dance technique. Why on earth was he starting balancing exercises again? She was thankful she didn’t have to pair up with the annoying blonde though. She peeked at Jongin as she turned towards Bora who gave her an uneasy smile. Jongin was eyeing Taeyong, almost sizing him up like he was going to destroy him. Shrugging, she began following Jongin’s instructions watching as Jongin himself nearly bent Taeyong out of shape. Taeyong kept up extremely well, much to Jongin’s disappointment, he was a performing arts students after all.

Things went down south when one of the older men in the class lost his balance and bumped into Taeyong, causing the blonde to hiss at him in a rather disrespectful manner fueling Ari’s temper further. While Jongin hurried over to help the man and the class huddled around him, Ari turned to Taeyong.

“That was extremely disrespectful of you.”

“Oh really now,” Taeyong rolled his eyes as the class dispersed back into position.

“The highly insecure bully speaks,” Ari replied, shrugging “has too fragile an ego to apologise to a man who bumped into him. Ouch.” she moved away and back to Bora as Taeyong shot her a look before turning to an extremely disgusted Jongin. The old man was back on his feet and dancing and if it had been an ideal situation, Jongin’s fist would have been in Taeyong’s face.

Ari shot Taeyong another glare before turning back to Bora as the class resumed without any further damage. On the class ending, she waited for Jongin to finish chatting with the other students. Taking sips of water, she sat down, leaning against the mirror and watching Jongin praise some of the students, encouraging them to do better.

“Ah the feisty one,” Taeyong's voice reached her ears and she looked up and frowned “I like them feisty.” He winked, making her gag before rolling her eyes.

“Ari, you ready?” Jongin called almost a little too perfectly on time. She scrambled to her feet and drifted past Taeyong and nodded to Jongin as Taeyong gave the two a look as they exited.

“So how is your friend coping up with Taekwoon?” Jongin asked as Ari let out a laugh.

“They're both so awkward, but apparently he's teaching her how to box. I'm expecting the two of them to just stand there and not do anything.”

“I doubt it, Taekwoon takes his sports seriously. Plus you know how activities make people a little less inhibited. “ Jongin shrugged.

“True,” Ari nodded “and Minah is very competitive, so I have no idea what the hell those two are doing.”

As for Minah, she was busy getting acquainted with the punching bag. But that wasn’t all that she was getting acquainted with. Since Taekwoon had promised to teach her how to box, they were trying to also learn how to be not-awkward. Comfort was a long way to go, she thought. Minah was okay with people, as long as they took the initiative. Give her a man like Taekwoon who hardly says anything and is awkward one hundred and ten percent of the time, and you have random sentences that don’t even make any sense.

“Bend your knee,” she heard him say.

She turned around, surprised.

“Oh you’re here. I didn’t hear you come in,” Minah told him.

He headed straight towards the punching bag and faced her.

“Punch,” He said, without saying much else to her.

She gave him a look of irritation. He could at least reply or say hi or something.

She sighed knowing that she was expecting too much. Minah shook her head of any expectations and punched as hard as she could.

“Your strength is coming only from your arms and shoulders. It should be coming from your entire body, “ He told her.

“And how would I do that?” Minah questioned, hand on her hip.

Taekwoon walked over to stand next to her “Left foot forward, angle your body accordingly, like this,” he demonstrated, shoulders straight but relaxed. She kind of just wanted to stare at him all day. He was so damn fit. And that shirt. Damn that shirt. It sat on his perfect shoulders. His perfect wide shoulders…

“Minah!” A voice brought her back to reality. Ari’s voice. Disoriented, Minah blindly followed to the general direction of Ari’s voice.

“Give me a minute,” She told Taekwoon, to which he nodded.“What's up?” Minah asked as she walked over to her friend who was standing outside the gym.

“Was just passing by so wanted to say bye and see how your class was going, but by the looks of it, you seem to be concentrating on something else entirely. Or should I say someone else,” Ari raised her eyebrows as she smirked at Minah.

“I don't know what you're talking about,” Minah said looking the other way “Plus aren't you the one getting super chummy with your dance instructor. What, has it been 2 weeks since he's been dropping you home?”

“3 weeks actually,” Jongin said as he walked over to the both of them and smiled.“So, how’s your class going? I heard you're getting trained by the famous Jung Taekwoon,” Jongin said as he too casually hung his arm on Ari’s shoulder.

“I don't know. He probably hates me. In case you haven't heard, I've been at everything I do lately. He probably pitied me,” Minah crossed her arms and looked down at her feet.

“Nah, Taekwoon doesn't do things like this for people he doesn't care about,” Jongin assured her but Minah wasn't listening as she eyed Taekwoon at the punching bag “anyway, Ari and I will get going, you go ahead.” he said, nudging her back into the gym.

Minah gulped as she made her way back to the punching bag. Taekwoon halted his punching before looking at her blankly.

“Shall we try again?”

Minah nodded, getting back in position as Taekwoon shook his head.

“Keep your back straight but bend your knees.”

Minah tried again gaining the posture to some extent and watched Taekwoon purse his lips in thought before he approached her. A sudden hand was placed on the small of her back, straightening her out as her eyes went wide. Jung Taekwoon towered over her as he fixed her posture and something about him being so close made her feel terribly shy.

“Just a class just a class.” she repeated to herself on her head as he shifted back and she focused on the punching bag.

Taekwoon shot her an approving look “Much better. Let's get started then.”  

Thank you guys for being patient and keeping up with this fic :)

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