I woke with a start upon hearing loud banging on my door. I checked the time and practically jumped out of bed, running straight to the bathroom. As I hurriedly brushed my teeth I remembered the knocking and went to answer the door. There stood my very tall neighbor Kim Mingyu. He was a culinary arts major at a different university that lived downstairs with his best friend, Jeon Wonwoo, my co-worker at Lunar bookstore.

“Morning sunshine, do you have bread?. The boys came over to study suddenly so we don’t have breakfast. Oh and Su-min texted me to tell you ‘You better be done in 5 minutes or we’ll leave you’,” he flashed me a tired smile after relaying the message.

      I signalled him to come in as I quickly went to finish brushing my teeth. As I rushed to change into a more presentable outfit than my pjs, I saw Mingyu in the kitchen looking for the bread. “Left side! Top cabinet!” I shouted the location of my bread as I fixed my hair into a ponytail.

“Thanks.You saved me from a bunch of sleep deprived hungry college students,” he responded as I hopped past trying to pull on my socks.

“Always. Just buy me bread the the next time you do your groceries.”

      Since they first moved in, Wonwoo and Mingyu have always asked to borrow things when they needed it. That being said, I also learned when either of them say friends there were at least 4 other boys at their apartment with a big appetite so I’ve grown accustomed to these exchanges.

“Okay. I gotta go make breakfast for those losers now. You better hurry you have like a minute left,” Mingyu called out as he left, his chuckle echoed through the hall as I rushed to grab my bag and slip my shoes on before darting out the door.

“I know!” I shouted as I ran passed him, down the stairs.

      I saw the girls waiting for me at the bottom steps all looking sleep deprived just like me. That didn’t change the fact that we couldn’t help but smile at each other, we haven’t danced together in ages. As we rushed into the school we saw the professor in front of the class taking roll. I mentally cursed Professor Kim’s punctuality before entering with the other girls. Once class was over we were scolded for ages in his office. Taesun-sunbae luckily came to our rescue saying that Professor Kim had a lunch meeting with the other professors from the department. Professor Kim grumbled at us a bit more as he collected his things before he left. We all released a sigh of relief once the door closed.

“Thanks for helping out Jiyong, he really needed the extra hands,” he thanked as he continued to organize the papers.

“Oh it's no big deal, really. Thank you for saving us from Professor blabbermouth,” Minah stated, having no fear of what would happen if caught.

“No problem. How has Jiyong been working you guys?”

“Well it was hard in the beginning but it’s actually pretty fun. Other than cleaning we just help with the class,” Seohee stated with a happy smile.

“Oh yeah in the upcoming showcase we are actually performing due to certain circumstances. You should come sunbae,” Minah invited.

“Oh ho. So you guys are performers now? Then I might just come to see you guys work hard on something for once,” he teased.

“Sunbae!” We whined.

“Okay, okay,” he chuckled. “I’ll try to make it, just don’t cause Jiyong too much trouble.”

“We won’t,” we chimed in unison before leaving.

      Going through our usual schedule, we went to work and afterwards we made a stop at home to change into “proper” dance attire, which in my case consisted of a loose t-shirt and joggers. Once at the studio, we quietly slipped in as Jiyong-sunbae gave a quick pep-talk to keep up the good work. We stood quietly against the wall as we usually do, but Jiyoung-sunbae gestured for us to come over and we gave each other confused looks before joining him in front of the class.

“Due to certain circumstances the girls will be joining the show. Don’t worry there will be no changes to the class dances, they’ll just be in one dance and the group has already agreed to it.”

      Silent whispers and murmurs spread throughout the room and I internally groaned at the thought of the gossip that would spread through the class. Jiyong-sunbae made us introduce ourselves to the class once again before dismissing everyone to work on their pieces. I could feel the class was hesitant towards us as joining this late is a bit extreme, but at least there were a few kind souls who wished us luck before going to their own groups. The boys were conversing with Jiyong-sunbae so we headed to the dance room the boys usually use. There,  we did some partner stretches until the boys came in and we warmed up together. After warmups, Soonyoung sat us down and started to explain the piece to us.

“Okay so this is a partner piece about a love where everything becomes beautiful and special when they’re with each other. Most of the routine is together but to show off how love is different for everyone there are solos for each pairing,” we all nodded in understanding as he continued to explain the piece.

      When the explaining was done, Soonyoung went straight to pairing us up which involved lots of switching until he was finally satisfied with the pairs. Seohee was paired with Chan, Su-min was paired with Soonyoung, Minah was paired with Minghao, and I was paired with Jun. The girls all shot me teasing looks when the boys weren’t looking and I rolled my eyes at them. We went straight into learning the group choreography and we drilled long and hard. It was easy to tell that the boys were somewhat shocked at how quick we learned the dance and how relaxed they got once they saw us putting in our best effort. By the end of the first night we already learned a large portion of the dance and by the end of the week we learned the whole group choreography.

      After a week of learning the collective group choreography, we started to work on the pair solos. Within the night we learned the solos but amongst us girls we all agreed that the solos were too simple compared to the rest of the dance which made the performance seem a bit lackluster. Minah, being the outspoken person she is, decided to bring up this concern to the boys while we were packing up for the night.

“Hey guys why do the solo pieces seem so simple? Compared to the rest of the choreography it seems... lacking.”

“The other girls were having such a hard time learning the main choreography that we had to make the solos easier so we would be able to be ready by final evaluations,” Chan explained.

“Well since there is still a week left… could we work with our partners to make… new solos?” I offered, unsure of the response. The boys cast glances at one another and for a moment I thought they would turn the idea down but they all broke into smiles.

“That’s a great idea! Plus it's a great way to take some time to get to know one another so there can really be chemistry when we perform on stage. We’ve been too caught up with drilling but remember this is supposed to be fun,” Soonyoung responded enthusiastically.

      He did have a point, aside from dancing I know nothing about Jun other than he was charismatic and hardworking so there is a bit of distance between us. After that announcement everyone split off into their pairs and began to discuss the solos excitedly.

“Junhui-sunbae are you free to meet outside of class to work on the piece? I think it would be better because I think the time at the studio isn’t enough.”

“Yeah sure, let’s exchange numbers and I’ll text you my schedule. It’s fine to just call me Jun by the way,” he said, pulling out his phone.

“So you got Jun’s number?” Su-min teased on our way home.

      Teasing me about Jun after class has become an after class ritual for the girls. Also since this is my first “crush”, their favorite thing to pick at is my inexperience and naivety regarding such matters. For instance, right now, as apparently I gave the wrong answer about getting his number.

“Yeah. I wanted to work on the piece outside of class.”

“Bor- ing. You don’t have to just talk about the piece you know,” Seohee complained.

“Our poor ice princess doesn’t know what to do since she’s never been through this before,”  Minah said, wiping away a fake tear dramatically.

“Oh shut up,” I said rolling my eyes.

“You should text him to meet up tomorrow if he’s free. You don’t have class,” Su-min fueled the fire.

“Okay, I’ll do it tomorrow. It’s late he must be tired right now.”

      Before I could react, Minah snatched my phone from my hands and a sigh escaped my lips. Many years of experience told me that there was no point in arguing for it back so I just let them be. They would never embarrass me… that much.

“Let’s see~,” Minah hummed. As she searched through my contacts, a look of disappointment fell over her face.

“Really? Just ‘Junhui’? Come on. He isn’t going to see it so change it to something more fun.”

      By the time my phone was returned, his contact was changed and a message was sent. Although this wasn’t a big deal, my heart rate did pick up a bit at the anticipation of his reply.

To: Prince <3

Hey, this is Hyemi, are you free anytime tomorrow?

“And ‘Prince’ is so much better? That name is so dumb,” I complained.

“Would you rather I change it to something cheesier like ‘My love’?” Minah countered with a smirk. The other girls laughed.

“Oh god. Never mind, ‘Prince’ is fine.”

      Once I was finally home, I was exhausted both physically from practice and mentally from the girls. As I got ready for bed I heard a text notification and drifted towards my phone, assuming it was one of the girls but I was pleasantly surprised.

To: Partner ^^

I have morning classes tomorrow but I’m free after that.

I grabbed my phone and immediately replied. For some reason I couldn’t help the smile that grew on my face as we texted.

To: Prince <3

Oh what time does your last class end? I have the morning shift tomorrow so I can meet you at at your university after my shift ends ^^

To: Partner ^^

I go to Hwayi University and my last class ends at noon. Where do you work? If it's easier I can meet you there instead.

To: Prince <3

I have friends who attend Hwayi! I work at Lunar Bookstore but it's fine. There are probably better places around the university to talk and work on the piece anyways.

To: Partner ^^

Oh okay then since we both have early mornings we should sleep lol. Good night :) See you tomorrow

To:Prince <3

Good night! See you tomorrow ^^

      With that I plugged the charger into my phone and set it down on the nightstand. I fell back onto my bed with a goofy smile on my face that I just couldn’t get rid of. I don’t like Jun romantically but there is something about him that keeps him stuck in my mind. As I stared at the ceiling, excitement built up in me like when I heard we get to dance again. Why is this feeling coming back around? All I’m doing is meeting Jun tomorrow…