“Let’s practice somewhere else.”

Spinning on his heels as soon as he gets a peek inside the practice room, Jongin quickly walks back towards Sehun, who had been lagging behind him by a couple of steps.

“Why, is it packed already?” Sehun asks, eyes flicking up from his phone to look at his best friend.

“No. But Jounets is in there,” Jongin replies tersely, lips pulled to one side in a small frown. “C’mon let’s go.”

Contrary to Kai’s obvious irritation, Sehun’s face lights up at the mention of Jounets (although in Sehun’s case, his “brightened expression” is only noticeable by a raised eyebrow and a tiny upwards quirk of his lips, since he was apparently born with a naturally resting b*tch face). 

Jounets. The jazz funk trio consisting of Seohyun, Soojung and Chaeryeong that has been making a name for itself as one of the most anticipated college student dance teams in the jazz funk genre. For the upcoming Seouliter Dance Performance Competition, the biggest dance contest between college student dancers, there’s been some hype about the competition between Sehun and Jongin’s team and the Jounets, since they were all from the same university. And also with the news of Jongin and Soojung’s recent breakup. It was juicy gossip, and it had spread like wildfire through the university and local dance community, which unfortunately did nothing to help ease the tension between them.

"We should at least say hi to them,” Sehun says to Jongin over his shoulder, biting down a smirk as he heads back towards the dance room.

“No, wait Sehun---”

“Hi guys.” 

It’s too late for poor Kai to stop Sehun from poking his head into the practice room, eyes curving into half-moons as soon as his gaze lands on Chaeryeong, who had been stretching in a perfect splits position, pointed toes and all. Coincidentally, she’s wearing the Stussy t-shirt Sehun had gotten for her on her birthday two years ago, and it makes him feel a bit giddy, like that little triumphant feeling you get when you find a four leaf clover in the fields before anyone else does. It puts him in a good mood. 

With Sehun’s sudden appearance, it’s almost instinct for Chaeryeong to get up and go greet him with a hug, but she catches herself just in time. She can definitely feel her two team mates’ expectant stares weighing down on her, so she opts to wave at him from her stretching position down on the floor. “Hey Sehun!”

“Hello Sehun,” Seohyun greets politely, nodding at him through the reflection of the practice room’s mirror. Sehun bows his head, and Seohyun promptly goes back to her stretching without sparing him another glance. Soojung says nothing.

“Is Jongin here too or are you here to practice by yourself?” Chaeryeong asks, breaking away from her stretching position to reach for her backpack. Fishing out a granola bar from the outer pocket of the bag, she gestures to Sehun if he wants it and he sticks his hand out as a ‘yes.’  She tosses it to him and he catches it easily, sending a grin in thanks to her. It’s become a habit for Chaeryeong to automatically share her snacks with Sehun, because Sehun knew she always carried food around with her, whether it be trail mixes or cookies or mini rice balls, and he always nagged and whined until she shared them with him. And so now Chaeryeong just tosses him whatever piece of food she has at him before he can even open his mouth to start whining like a baby, so unfitting and unmatched with his 6 foot Michael Phelps type of build.    

“Oh, Jongin bolted as soon as he took a peek inside and saw us here,” Soojung comments flippantly, screwing her bottle of water open with bitterness written all over her face.

“Hey, I was not peeping!” Jongin pops into the room to interject (and unintentionally exposing himself of eavesdropping behind the door). “I just wasn’t in the mood to run into drama today,” he bites back, crossing his arms defensively and pointedly ignoring Soojung’s glare. 

Before Soojung fires back another sarcastic jab at her ex-boyfriend, Sehun cuts in to make conversation with the girls.

“Anyways, did you guys already turn in your audio?”

“Nah, we’re still editing it to make the transition from the second track to the third track smoother,” Chaeryeong answers, stretching her arms and shoulders.

“Oh, you guys are using three? We’re actually---Ow!”

Sehun grimaces as Jongin elbows him in the ribs, and he shoots his friend an unamused look. Was Jongin really going to be so petty and secretive? It’s not like there was any information the other team could steal from them and although they were now considered rivals, they all were good friends, some more than just friends too. 

Apparently Soojung thought the same. She scoffs, shaking her head as she slams her downed water bottle on the table. 

“Kim Jongin,” Soojung deadpans. “I think you’re the drama queen here.”

To that, everyone breaks out into chuckles, all except Jongin, who sputters and struggles to keep his cool after getting savagely dissed by his ex. “Well, it’s not like we have a duty to publicly announce our tactics to the whole world.” He leans forward with crossed arms, taunting the pissed dancer. “Don’t worry though, Soojung, we’ll make sure not to copy your guys’ infamous stripping move.”

“Yah,” Soojung warns. “It’s an outfit change, not a stripping move.” 

“Yeah, whatever. But you do have to admit that your onstage ‘outfit change’ gets you brownie points from the judges and audience,” Jongin eggs on. Throwing an arm over Sehun’s shoulders, he sneers, “That’s an advantage only girls get.”

Genuinely offended, Seohyun tries to correct Jongin’s biased perspective, “See, that’s a double standard that’s often seen in---” but gets abruptly cut off by Soojung chucking her empty water bottle at Jongin’s head. As Seohyun gasps at her dongsaeng’s unmannerly behavior, the empty water bottle bounces off Jongin’s forehead and clatters to the floor. The bottle cap must of come off in the process and hit Sehun in the eye because he mutters a small ‘ow,’ which lingers in the following period of silence like a single balloon, left forgotten in a room after the party has all ended.

The situation should have been comical. Everyone should have been laughing by now, joking that it was like a scene from a teen comedy and how funny it is that ‘Ice Princess’ Soojung could be so child-like at times. But with the tense atmosphere and the cutting remarks from before, what should have been just a childish banter ends up as a scene full of hostility and resentment.     

After a few moments in which everyone seems to have frozen, Soojung breaks the silence.

“Leave,” she says flatly. Her eyes are now downcast, her fierceness completely gone, and the passive aggressive sass Jongin had been so full of just a few minutes ago also dissipates like a deflating balloon.

It’s an awkward and uncomfortable atmosphere for all the dancers in the room; Seohyun’s eyes switch back and forth between Jongin and Soojung while Chaeryeong chews on her lip, watching worriedly as Sehun rubs his eye. The silence is back again, heavy and damp like the premonition of an upcoming storm. Jongin slings his backpack onto one shoulder and leaves the room without saying another word. 

Sehun follows shortly, picking up his bag and bowing his head lightly before heading out the door.

He looks back at Chaeryeong before he disappears behind the door, locking gazes with her. His eyes send her the apologies he can't speak out, but there's something hidden in his gaze that makes the cherry blossoms in Chaeryeong's heart wither away.
 

 
Before she knows it, it’s D-Day already. After the precarious incident at the practice room two weeks ago, the days had flown by in a blurry of school, practice, sleep, school, practice, part-time work and no sleep, school, practice, sleep.

Chaeryeong carefully applies her Bordeaux-colored lipstick in the bathroom mirror while Seohyun and Soojung change into their stage outfits in the bathroom stalls. They were all now wearing fitted black lace tops with burgundy colored velour wide pants, with black leather belts to accent the high-waisted trousers and patterned silk scarves as headbands or as a ponytail ribbon to give off a retro type of look. Soojung had just finished putting on dramatic smoky cat-eye makeup on Chaeryeong earlier, since Chaeryeong wasn’t used to putting on anything more than lip tint and mascara. 

Since the rehearsals were already over, they’re left with approximately forty minutes of tortuous nervousness until the competition starts. Sighing anxiously, Chaeryeong puts the lipstick down and stares at herself in the mirror, commanding herself to calm down and be confident. Mental strength was just as important, if not more, than physical strength when it came to performing in front of people. 

Coming out of the bathroom stall in her full stage outfit, Soojung leans close to the mirror to apply her own red lipstick. For the Jounets, putting on red lipstick was like flipping the ‘ON’ button for performance mode. 

Seohyun also finishes changing and fixes her hair in the mirror, adding a few extra bobby pins to make sure her headscarf doesn’t fly away while dancing. It’s quiet between the three girls, each dancer focusing on mentally preparing themselves. Practice time is over, there’s nothing to review about the choreography because they all know it by heart, and all that’s left is to dance once in front of the judges and audience. They get one chance and one chance only to show everything they’ve acquired and prepared through all the countless hours of practice. Only one chance, all or nothing. It's quite a cruel game.

With a smack of her lips and a final makeup check, Seohyun comes to stand between Chaeryeong and Soojung and puts her hands on their shoulders. Taking a deep breath, the leader closes her eyes, then opens them abruptly, almost like a mascara commercial, and looks directly into both of her teammates’ eyes.

“We can do this.”

“Yep.”

“We’re gonna win this.”

“Yep.”

“Okay girls, let’s go.”

The Jounets walk backstage, greeting staff members and fellow competitors as they head to the administration counter to take the draw and determine the order they’ll be performing in. Everyone is dressed to impress (although comfortably enough to be able to dance their best), and Chaeryeong struggles to fight down the awful intimidation clawing up . She’s fiddling with the sleeve hem of her lace top while tailing after Seohyun and Soojung when she hears a familiar voice calling her name.

Turning around, she spots Sehun on the other end of the backstage, waving to her over all the heads of the dancers separating them. 

“You guys go ahead first, I’ll catch up,” Chaeryeong whispers to her teammates. She turns and heads over to Sehun who is also walking in her direction now, gulping nervously at the way the lights accentuate all the lean muscles hidden under his black dress shirt and leather pants. It’s been a week since she last saw Sehun, and seeing him again so suddenly, looking so menacing but alluring at the same, is definitely not doing good things to her heart.

It’s been a full week since she's seen Sehun, when he had found her drinking alone at her favorite spot overlooking the Han River. Chaeryeong had a favorite park bench next to a small cherry blossom tree where she liked to go when she wished to clear her thoughts, and Sehun had joined her a couple of times to share some soju and salted seaweed packets together there.

Chaeryeong had been particularly stressed that day, with the exhaustion of balancing school work, her part-time job at the internet café, and dance all at once. And it didn't help that she hadn’t been able to see Sehun on campus for the entirety of the week following the incident at the practice room, which meant a full week of anxiety worrying whether everything was still okay between them.

It bothered her, a lot more than she expected or wanted to admit, that she couldn’t decipher Sehun’s true feelings, that things like rivalry and ambition wouldn’t ruin their friendship. 

She couldn’t be sure anymore, if this uncertain, but comfortable relationship with Sehun that teetered on the edges of friendship and something more, would stay the same. She wanted more, but she didn’t have the guts to risk losing the friendship she had with Sehun now.

She wanted to win the competition, of course; her countless hours spent in the practice room and the numerous liters of sweat were proof of her determination. She was sure Sehun put in as much effort as she did to prepare too, knowing his competitive personality. Of course, she sincerely hoped that both of their teams would get good results, since many chair persons from dance studios came to watch the competition and recruit students to come work as instructors at their studios after graduation. Directors from entertainment companies sometimes came too; that's why Jongin is so desperate to win. Chaeryeong had a vague inkling that Sehun wanted to keep pursuing dance after graduating too, but she actually wasn’t sure what his real dreams were.

In any case, Chaeryeong had been well into her third bottle of soju on that park bench that night when Sehun had found her there. Quite honestly, she was already so tipsy that she didn’t really remember when Sehun had come, she just kind of remembered him being there, already by her side before she realized it. She remembered Sehun taking off his jacket and dumping it on her head, then hovering over so close to her that she could feel his body heat in her face to maneuver her lazy arms into the jacket sleeves. She remembered they had exchanged a few words, but she just couldn’t remember what she had said. But apparently it had been something that struck a nerve within Sehun because he had angrily snatched the bottle of soju from her hands and downed the rest of it in one go, telling her to get up and go home to call it a night already. She remembered whining that it was only 10 pm and attempting (failing) to do aegyo to get him to let her off the hook, but the next thing she knew she was on the back of Sehun’s bicycle, hugging his waist and sticking to him like glue to hide from the chilly wind that blew against them as Sehun pedaled her home. 

The warmth of his body against hers in the cold night. That familiar, yet exhilarating scent of his shampoo and a whiff of musky cologne. The ridiculous broadness of his shoulders and the sound of his voice carried on by the wind as he kept talking to her, making sure she won’t fall asleep behind him and fall off the bicycle. Those things she remembered, with enough clarity to make her cheeks burn up. Chaeryong tries to push the memory out of her mind as Sehun walks up to her.

“Nice outfit,” Sehun casually comments, lips pulling upwards in a smirk that makes Chaeryeong’s heart race. 

“Thanks, you’re looking good too,” she replies with a hint of teasing. She pokes at his hip, where the tight leather material hugs his perfectly lean figure. It’s y, there’s no doubt about that, and it’s definitely not helping her keep her thoughts PG, but she conceals it all with a chuckle. “Be careful not to rip them.”

Sehun laughs, his left eyebrow quirking upward unconsciously, and there’s a moment when his gaze locks onto her like a camera whirring in to focus on an object. There’s nothing obscuring or disrupting their locked gazes; Chaeryong can clearly see the recognition and hesitance reflected in his beautiful acorn brown orbs, and maybe even a hint of sadness? His eyes tell everything, although in a language she doesn’t know, and her heart constricts with a pang of longing and wistfulness. 

The moment passes within a second, everything turning back to normal as if that moment never existed. Sehun shifts his weight on his feet and his lips, tongue grazing between his naturally pink lips and his pointed canine teeth. He flashes a grin at Chaeryeong, “Hey, don’t jinx it, alright?” It’s awkward and it doesn’t feel right. Something feels wrong.

Somehow, it feels like a bucket of water had been poured over her. Maybe it’s true, maybe they did let the rivalry get in between them. Maybe their friendship is over, the possibility of them becoming more already buried six feet underground.

It’s a bit painful to force a smile at the realization, but Chaeryeong braves a small, sad, yet sincere smile because she means it when she says, “It’ll be fine. I know you’re going to be great out there.” Pulling herself together, she gulps down the tears starting to well at the rim of her eyes. “Best of luck to the both of us.” She reaches out for a hug, unable to meet his eyes in the fear of revealing her tears but hoping to convey her well wishes through a tight squeeze.

When Chaeryeong looks up as Sehun unwinds his arms from the hug, she finds him reciprocating the same sad smile as her.

“Yeah. Best of luck to the both of us.”

With that and a light pat on her shoulder, Sehun is walking away, granting the vulnerable girl with only a view of his receding backside, dressed head to toe in obsidian black like a grim reaper.

Chaeryeong sighs, head hanging low now to hide her distraught expression from the bustling people passing by. The sudden hopelessness eats away at her heart like toxic acid and she’s on the verge of crumbling from withstanding the unimaginably heavy weight of the competition and the struggles of daily life for so long, and now with the added despair of her ruined friendship with Sehun. She’s professional enough not to let herself succumb to the stress and become a crying heap on the floor; she has a contest to compete in and she has the responsibility as a member of Jounets not to let the team down. But it definitely delivers a blow to her confidence.

Weaving through the crowds and groups of dancers with sparks of tension igniting within the atmosphere, Chaeryeong eventually runs into her two teammates standing by the stage curtains, sharing matching expressions of grim disheartenment. 

“What number did we get?” Chaeryeong asks apprehensively, dread winding up and making it almost impossible to take a breath.

Seohyun holds up a slightly crumpled piece of paper which almost resembles a fortune cookie message, except the fortune it tells is rather unfortunate. 

「 1 」

Cursing silently under her breath, Chaeryeong bites her lips and closes her eyes, unable to deal with the harsh reality at the moment. Going up first at a competition is never good; although you get to set the standards for the rest of the teams competing after you, the crowd isn’t warmed up yet when you perform so the response from the audience is cold, and the judges are bound to forget about your performance by they get to their 26th performance unless you absolutely blow them off their feet. And the worst part is the mental and emotional stress that comes with it. 

Wordlessly, Seohyun and Soojung come up to her to envelop the three into a group hug. "We can do this," Seohyun whispers to them, rubbing circles into the younger two's backs. "It doesn't matter what order we perform; we're going to do our best and we're going to be the best." But there's doubt in the back of Chaeryeong's mind still.

Nodding, they break from their hug and smile at each other, fully understanding one another's emotions without having to speak. The trust and bond between the members is strong and unbreakable; now it's just up to the judges to play god and decide if their effort paid off in the end or not.

With an unspoken understanding, the three girls get into their starting formation and check the choreo for the very last time, with Soojung chanting the eight-counts for them. And before they know it, the backstage has been cleared out except the first three teams performing, and the speakers announce the start of the competition. 

The host proceeds with the introductions and the five judges enter the stage to showcase their individual solos. The music blasts loud, echoing loud enough backstage to hurt Chaeryeong's ears but her heartbeat pounds louder and her toes are beginning to feel numb and 's all scratchy and painful and---

"Chaeryeong." 

She's whisked around to come face to face with a satiny black shirt and a shiny button. Looking up and tilting her head up a good seventy degrees, she finds two deep brown eyes boring into her with a rawness that pierces her heart.

"S-Sehun? W-What are you---you're not supposed to be backstage yet!" Chaeryeong sputters, but Sehun shushes her with two fingers to her lips, effectively rendering her speechless.

"I just---I know this isn't exactly the best timing and this is probably crazy, but I want you to know that I'm always rooting for you," Sehun confesses hurriedly, gripping both of her arms to peer into her eyes. His eyes swims uncertainly over her face, unsure if his sudden words are registering, so Chaeryeong gives him a hesitant nod to signify him to go on. "I don't care what the results are. I want you to win and I'll be so, so happy, so genuinely happy if you do. And---and I think I know you feel the same way for me. I think you'll be equally happy for me if I win too, r-right?"

Chaeryeong nods furiously at that, wide eyes latching onto the way a faint smile twitches on Sehun's lips at her sincere reaction. 

"It just---it just felt so awkward and wrong back there and I thought maybe---maybe you didn't remember what you said last week."

With eyes enlarging into the size of dinner plates, Chaeryeong squeaks out in embarrassment, "W-What did I say!?"

Sehun laughs at her comical response, but returns to his serious tone. "You said we were letting the rivalry and the competition get in between us."

"Oh." Chaeryeong's expression drops like a stone to the floor. So she had said something in her drunken state that night. 

"But I argued that that's not true. I said---" There's a fine pink blush spreading over Sehun's cheeks, but he gathers himself determinedly and continues, "I said that you're too precious for me to give up for a mere competition. I said that I really treasure you and I was actually waiting until after the contest to officially ask you out..."

Absolutely stunned, Chaeryeong can only stare at Sehun with wide eyes and an incredulous expression.  

"But---but I didn't think you remembered that by the way you acted before, so yeah." He looks down at his feet, seeing both of their shoes pointing at each other, and coughs to cover up for the butterflies in his stomach. "So yeah, I just---I just wanted to make that clear with you." 

Still uncertain, Sehun peers into Chaeryeong's eyes with timid question marks swimming in his own. But Chaeryeong slowly breaks out into a smile as she gazes into his eyes, croaking a small, "It's clear" past her lips before Sehun dives in to kiss them with a sense of urgency and relief similar to a broken dam. 

With her heartbeat pounding in her ears and the soft warmth of Sehun's lips caressing her own taking up her entire world, Chaeryeong barely manages to hear the host beginning to introduce the Jounets over the speakers.

Breaking away from the kiss with a sweet, reluctant smack, Chaeryeong opens her eyes and Sehun sees the newly found spark in them. 

And with a smile, she's strutting onto the stage without looking back, confidence and vivacity springing alive in her steps. 

And Sehun knows. Sehun knows he's a lucky winner either way.