⚘ IV

Narcissus (Telepathetic II)
Please Subscribe to read the full chapter

“Kwon Alice, you are up.”

I took a deep breath. As the first chords of Ed Sheeran’s “Give Me Love” played, I got into position. I closed my eyes and pictured myself alone on the rooftop. I opened my eyes again, but it still felt like I was there, and not here in this auditorium with plenty of judging stares on me.

When the lyrics began, my limbs took over. I was in a whole new realm. Not the rooftop. Not the auditorium. Not like any place I’ve been before, but I’d been here thousands of times. It was the rush of blood flowing through my veins more so than an actual, physical place. It was the feeling of seeing kaleidoscope colours on a blank canvas. It was like hearing your favourite song played on your very own heartstrings.

By the end of the song, my chest was heaving up and down and I slowly returned to where I really was. I was at school, battling for the right to pass down my knowledge onto the next generation of dancers.

“Sloppy, Alice,” said Ms Yoo.

I quickly bowed and mumbled an apology.

“Lee Jiae, you’re up.”

I got off stage and went to the water fountain. After drinking enough to drown every meal I’ve skipped for the past two days, I leaned against the wall and slid down into a sitting position. I let myself breathe for a few moments.

Finally I mustered up the strength to get up and return to the auditorium, taking a seat in the audience as Lee Jiae finished up her number.

I paid close attention to what the others were doing in their dances. What moves were they incorporating? How were they executing them. Everyone on stage looked so sharp and rigid. It looked like no one was flowing with the notes of the music.

Eventually, Ms Yoo ran out of students to judge. “Alright, the mentors for this semester will be posted up tomorrow morning.” With that, everyone was dismissed.

In the locker room, I pulled off my tank top and pulled on a t-shirt instead. I swapped my leggings with jean shorts, and pulled the elastic off of my ponytail, setting my hair free. As I was shutting the door and ruffling my hair loose, I noticed Lee Jiae sitting on the bench, just staring into her locker. “Jiae?” I called. “Are you okay?”

She whipped her head around in surprise and smiled upon seeing me. “Yeah, I’m fine,” she said. “Just… disappointed with my performance.”

“Why?” I asked. “You did great.”

“I went up right after you. Have you noticed that she’s been putting me right after you for every single dance battle since second semester of first year?”

I had to say, I really hadn’t, so I just shook my head.

“Well she has. And today you did amazing, and she called you sloppy. I went up there thinking if Alice’s dance was sloppy, there’s no way I can do anything to please Ms Yoo. So I didn’t give it my all. I tripped up three times during the whole number. I just felt like I was going through the motions.”

“I promise you, you looked great up there,” I assured her.

She shook her head and sighed. The girl threw her towel into her locker and pulled out her bag, rather aggressively. She slammed the door shut and sighed again. “Maybe dancing just isn’t for me.”

I watched, dumbfounded, as she left the locker room without another word.

The next morning proved Jiae wrong. As I looked up at the list of names and junior assignments, I saw her name up there and not mine. Disappointed, I looked down at my feet and backed away from the sheet.

“Alice!” I heard as I walked towards the locker room to change. I turned around to find Jiae, smiling. “Have you checked the list? What junior group did you get?”

“I… didn’t, but you got the freshest batch!” I forced myself to at least pull the corners of my lips upward.

“You… what? You didn’t get an assignment?”

I shook my head.

“That can’t be right. You did great last night!”

“No, I was sloppy, remember?”

“There’s gotta be some explanation for this. A typo or something. Let’s go talk to Ms Yoo.” She grabbed a hold of my wrist and waited for me to walk.

I rolled my eyes. “Jiae, there’s no point. Ms Yoo hates people who feel entitled to contest her decisions. She doesn’t make mistakes. Just… Take your win and leave me alone.” I shook off her grasp and continued to walk to the locker room.

‘Maybe this just means she has a special assignment for you?’ Joshua suggested.

Not you, too. Just let it go. I’ve been out of the game for a few months, I’ve obviously got some catching up to do.

‘But Jiae is right. You did great. And I know how much you practiced for this battle. You worked hard and it paid off, so it doesn’t make sense that your instructor isn’t acknowledging that.’

Look, life in the dance world isn’t some magical fairytale where practice actually gets you somewhere. There’s more to it. I am simply not fit to be a mentor this semester.

I shut him out to ensure I got the last word, mainly because I was sick and tired of others telling me I wasn’t getting what I deserved. In the end it doesn’t matter whether or not I deserve it.

***

I couldn’t imagine a worse fate than walking into a studio dressing room for a schedule and finding out that Exo has been invited to the same show. Seungcheol, Vernon, Jihoon, and I were sent to represent Seventeen. We later found out that select members of Exo were also invited. I hoped against all hope that it wouldn’t be Kai.

It was Kai. Him and Sehun and Chanyeol. I didn’t care about the last two, but I could’ve done without seeing Exo’s Kai for the rest of my life.

“I’m not comfortable with Exo’s Kai,” I whispered to our manager. “See, they only have three representatives, can’t I sit this one out?”

“Absolutely not,” was the answer. “The whole point of you being on this show today is so that people get a chance to hear about what you went through. We’ve been through this.”

“Yeah, but wouldn’t that be easier done alone?” I prodded.

“Exo’s Kai has also been through the same thing. The producers thought you would feel comfortable with someone who had been through it as well.”

I groaned. “But--”

I couldn’t finish because the crew called out, “We go live in 10 minutes!”

My manager patted me on the arm. “Whatever beef you have with Kai, you have 10 minutes to sort it out.” With that, he walked away.

Seungcheol waved me over to my seat next to him. I sighed, feeling my stomach do flips.

I saw the Exo members approaching to take their seats. Kai made eye contact with me and gave me a smile. He turned to Sehun, whispered something, and got up.

Oh no. He’s coming towards me.

“Hey,” he said in a hushed tone. Seungcheol and Vernon looked up, saw that he was only looking at me, and then looked back down. “Can we talk for a second?”

I glanced at my manager, who was staring me down, and then back at Kai. I sighed in defeat and nodded. We distanced ourselves from our own groups. “What do you want to talk about?” I asked.

“Listen, I know we have our differences,” he started.

“And our similarities. Can’t forget those,” I interjected.

“Are you talking about both of us being attracted to Jinhee?”

“What?” I asked sarcastically. “I was talking about how we’re both Capricorns.”

Kai stuck his hands into his pockets and rocked back and forth from his heels to his toes. “Right. I just don’t want our differences to get in the way of conducting this show today. Let’s just focus on getting our message to the fans and be professional about it, okay?”

I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, whatever.”

The crew called out again, “Five minutes!”

Kai gave me a forced tight-lipped smile and went back to his seat. I took a few deep

Please Subscribe to read the full chapter
Like this story? Give it an Upvote!
Thank you!
Kwoncentrated
i hate to inform yall but joshuas not dating some influencer, hes dating a choreographer 😤

Comments

You must be logged in to comment
xadrimusicx
#1
Chapter 16: They had the wow. Subtle
tough-cookie
#2
Chapter 8: I do hope Alice and Josh figure it out and how to work around the link haha since it's making it difficult for them both. And yay for some Kyla support!
St-renaissance
#3
I hope your story becomes popular ‘cause it’s so good
St-renaissance
#4
This is so underrated :((
Baek4evr
#5
Chapter 3: Yaaayy! I really wanted to read the sequal....woah been so long....
Anyway fighting authornim!!
xadrimusicx
#6
Chapter 3: That bastard. IM IM DYINGG HAHAHAHA
xadrimusicx
#7
Chapter 2: Omg vernon GET SOMEEE LOL
keyalol #8
Chapter 2: how r u so good at writing oh my gosh teach me senpai
Yoloyoloyoyo #9
Chapter 1: How do I listen to the soundtrack?
callmesabby
#10
Chapter 1: I can't wait for the next chapters. It seems interesting though. And tbh, I feel you when you got a second character's syndrome because I'm having it too at the moment! LOL. And looks like Alice maybe different with Jin Hee. And the title..Narcissus... I wonder what would happen next. Btw, this is the first Joshua/SVT fanfic I ever read. I trust you for a great story in upcoming chapters soon! Hwaiting! \(^∆^)/