Minho’s POV

“So what was the scary dream that you had last night?” Kibum asked as he settled his tray on the table.

“You had a bad dream?” Onew hyung asked as he looked up from his drumstick.

“Yeah. Some girls got murdered, and I saw them. I couldn’t forget that face,” I said, trying to gain back my appetite.

“Whose face are we talking about?” Jonghyun hyung said as he sat down and put the earphones in his bag. “A girl,” Kibum answered him. “oooooo,” Jonghyun teased.

“Of a dead girl. Can we drop it? We’re having lunch here,” I said. We were settling lunch together before going off for separate modules.

“Are we going to Taemin’s school festival thing this Saturday? It’s his year-end evaluation,” Kibum asked as we ate. “Of course! My sister’s graduating too,” Jonghyun replied with a sad tone. We always knew about a sister, but we’ve never seen her.

 “Yah Lee Jinki, you ARE coming to support your brother right?” Kibum nudged Onew. He looked up blurly from the chicken again. “Of course. Sunday right?” “Saturday! Oh my gosh…” Kibum said in English with a diva tone. That’s what Kibum was for, keeping the unity in our brotherhood. “What about you, Minho? He’s expecting all of us to be there,” Kibum asked me.

“I’m going, but with my dad. He’s attending as the guest of honor so he asked me to come along since I’m alumni,” I said as I played with my food. I sort of lost my appetite after Kibum brought up my dream. Some memories just need time to be erased. “Oh right. Can’t you join us instead? Or maybe spend an hour with your dad or sit with us during the performances?”

“I’ll try to work something out. Hyungs, I’ll make a move first,” I said as slung my bag and picked up my tray. “Minho-ah, can I have that? Don’t let it go to waste,” Onew hyung asked. “Sure. Here you go. See you guys!”

I headed off to the classroom and sat near the window. Our tutor got up from his seat. “Now let’s talk about our heavy-weight project.”

Your POV

“5, 6, 7, 8!” We started to dance to the cultural music playing through the speakers. We were wearing chimas (the skirt of a hanbok) and a shirt over it. Balancing ourselves as the music slowly played, we practiced our performance of the Taepyeongmu. Finally, it was over. As much as I liked dancing, the Taepyeongmu was too slow for my personal preference. “Alright! Great! Cultural dance, take a break. K-Wave, you’re up,” the stage director commanded through the mic.

We went off-stage and sat in the comfy auditorium seats. Boom boom boom boom The bass made our chests beat as the music started. The girls were no doubt cheering for the guys there. Don’t get me wrong. They are cute, well built, and great dancers. But this was the first time I had seen their performance so I was paying more attention to the performance itself. I could always cheer for them once the dance was done.

It was pretty interesting. Their performance was like a timeline of our Korean wave, comprising of hits from the 1990s to modern day. The girls performed parts from DIVA and Fin.K.L. while the guys performed parts from H.O.T. and g.o.d., and they combined to perform hits from the more modern TVXQ and BoA. And who could forget the famous “Nobody” and “Sorry Sorry”? The concept of the performance based heavily on dance, so there wasn’t much room for slow songs. As the performance ended with the “Sorry Sorry” ending pose, the whole auditorium was filled with cheers from girls. Of course I cheered for them too. They didn’t cheer for us much, but we understand why. I mean, come on, our dance is so slow…

They took a seat behind us and watched the following performances with us. The guys teasingly yawned at the performances by the traditional symphony, and we sniggered at it. “Stop it. They can hear us, you know,” Lee Taemin whispered from behind me. The girls immediately stopped laughing. Ah, Lee Taemin- the sensitive yet hot boy that the girls in my faculty fall for. He looked really young for his age though, and not really funny. His brother, on the other hand, is funny. Every time his group of friends come, he would be the cause of our schoolmate’s laughters. He was like the class clown. As much as his friends don’t laugh, we always do. His friends… Oppa, are you doing well?

“Alright, all the performances are more or less perfect. This Saturday, I do not want to see guys in the girls’ dressing room or vice versa, you hear me? All performers please be here 3 hours before the concert. After our last full dress rehearsal, you are free to roam around the school or get lunch, but be back 30 minutes before the concert begins to get dressed and have makeup done. Any questions?” The director scanned through the performers as we sat comfortably in the chairs.

“Why do we need makeup? We’re good looking enough,” Jongmin oppa shouted from behind us. Ego. “The makeup’s to enhance your expressions in case your dance moves come up short,” the director retorted. “Oooohhhh” All the performers sniggered at the director’s retort. “If there are no GOOD questions, consider yourselves dismissed. Please pick up your rubbish and throw it outside.”

“You’ve worked hard!” Taemin called out. “Neh, you’ve worked hard!” the juniors chorused with us as we packed up and left.