Compared to yesterday, today’s events flew by in an instant as anticipation for tonight’s dance show occupied my mind. Once classes finished we all rushed to Seohee’s house to get ready. Since it was rare for me to do anything to my face aside from a touch of eye liner and lipstick here and there, I recruited the assistance of Seohee to help me get ready. Giving her free reign to do whatever she wanted, she happily got to work and what I thought would take fifteen minutes ended up taking more than an hour but boy was it worth it. Aside from doing an amazing job with my makeup she did my hair too, styling it half up with loose curls. After checking the time, we didn’t have time to dwell on how amazing we looked. Grabbing our dance bags, and making sure we had our costumes, we headed to the venue.

      Since this was a showcase, with an audience, Jiyong-sunbae rented out the small theater across the street since the studio didn’t have any rooms big enough to hold all the people who end up coming. Once we entered, one of the girls in the class pointed us to the girls dressing room and told Su-min that Jiyong-sunbae was looking for her in regards to the music. She dropped off her bag in the dressing room before heading backstage to find Jiyong. I would say she was lucky though; the girls dressing room was chaotic. Girls ran around swapping around hairspray and makeup while the room itself smelled of a bad mixture of excessive hairspray, ungodly amounts of perfume, and burning hair. As the beginning of the show was drawing closer everyone got changed into their costumes and settled into the dressing rooms; the first few groups leaving to wait backstage in the wings. The closer it got to our performance the more nervous I felt. It’s not my first performance but it’s been a while since I last performed in front of a crowd this big.

      When we were called to go backstage, my heart was racing even though there were still a few dances before ours. Stretching, pacing, jamming to the music, nothing was working to calm my nerves. As my fingers nervously tapped at my sides, a warm hand was felt on my shoulder to stop my jittering. Turning to see who it was, I was greeted with a warm smile from Jun. After seeing that it was as if my nervousness melted away in an instant.

“Nervous?” Jun whispered.

“A bit… its been awhile since I last performed in front of so much people.”

“You’ll do fine. Just look at me if you start to feel lost or nervous.”

“Thanks,” I said, lightly bumping shoulders with him.

      Once it was our turn, the girls and I went to the left wing as the boys went to the right. As the song started, we entered stage and went through the choreography. It was a hip hop styled dance with a playful twist as the song was bright and energetic. Luckily muscle memory took over so the dance was executed properly and thanks to Jun my expression stayed a cheerful smile throughout the dance. Once the second verse began, Jun and I started our solo. The fluid yet sharp movements of the contemporary highly complimented the quick powerful movements of the hip hop. As the solo was ending, my feet tripped on each other and I nearly fell but luckily Jun caught me. The spotlight shifted from our pair to Minghao and Minah. The shock of nearly messing up left me staring at Jun’s face, in his arms, as the horror set in. Minah’s and Minghao’s solo was ending and before I knew it, Jun grabbed my hand and pulled me along to our next position. Luckily, that was enough to snap me back into focus as the stage lights brightened the stage once again. Thankfully the rest of the dance went smoothly and cheers arose once we exited the stage by pairs as “couples”.

      The moment we were off stage, tears sprung in my eyes and my hand went to cover my mouth, to not be heard by the audience, as the next performance entered stage. Jun’s worried gaze burned the side of my face as I looked away from him and the girls were by my side the instant they heard me sniffle. Once we were back in the halls and away from the stage, the girls immediately ushered me to the restroom leaving four worried and confused boys standing in the hall. By the time the door closed, I was a sobbing mess.

“Hyemi are you okay?!” Minah asked, grabbing my shoulders to try to see if I was hurt or something.

      Unable to say anything, I focused I trying to calm my thoughts and control my breathing. The makeup Seohee worked so hard to apply was beginning to smear so I went to one of the stalls to clean up my face but I ended up sliding to the floor as I the strength in my legs slowly depleted. The girls flinched as I kicked the stall door in frustration and Su-min intervened once my ragged breath calmed enough for me to talk.

“Mi what’s wrong? Are you hurt?”

“N-n-no. I-I-I messed u-up,” I replied as I continued to wipe the never ending tears.

“Hyemi, it’s okay. Mistakes happen.”

“But th-this was important to Soonyoung-sunbae and I messed up everything.”

“Everything was fine though, everyone was cheering when we finished and you kept dancing so it’s like it never happened.”

“I almost didn’t dance though. I was panicking, if Jun-sunbae wasn’t there I would have been a deer caught in the headlights...”

“But you still danced nonetheless,” Seohee countered.

“And the performance was fine. You didn’t mess anything up, don’t beat yourself up over it,” Su-min reassured.

      Taking in my friends’ reassurance, a blush rushed my face as I started to calm down and think rationally. Rather than being embarrassed about the tripping, I was now embarrassed at my complete melt down I just had over something so small. I felt like an idiot. Su-min helped me off the floor but once I stepped on my left foot, pain shot up my leg causing me to wince. From the pain level it wasn’t a sprained ankle, which I reassured aloud to the girls whose heads snapped at my wince. As we exited the bathroom the four boys anxiously looked at me.

“I’m sorry for worrying you guys, I’m not hurt or anything… I just had a meltdown because I messed up…” I reassured awkwardly, an embarrassed laugh escaping my lips. Soonyoung pulled me into a hug, which I returned, as all four of them audibly sighed.

“Don’t worry us like that, we thought you were seriously injured or something!” Soonyoung exclaimed.

“Even if you did mess up the performance, which didn’t happen, you health is more important,” Chan added.

      After that mushy moment we starting walking back to the dressing rooms together. Jun, who hovered closer to the back of the group, slowly pulled me back with him before he whispered, “Did you sprain your ankle when you tripped? You’re limping.” A warm feeling grew in my chest as I couldn’t help the soft smile appeared on my face.

“I’m fine, Jun-sunbae. I’ve sprained my ankle before, and this isn’t it. It does hurt a bit though but it’s bearable. I’ll ice it back in the dressing room.”

“You did good today. Don’t push yourself too hard,” he said, ruffling my hair.

      The rest of the show went by and we all went on stage for the ending bow, and thank you message from Jiyong-sunbae. Standing up there without having to dance allowed me to see just how many people were out there and make out their outlines. One outline stood out from the rest because among the sea of heads one head was taller than the rest. I am ninety-nine percent sure that is Mingyu. Su-min gave me a weird look and mouthed why was I laughing to myself, pointing out the figure to her, she joined me in stifling our laughter while a light blush dusted her cheeks.

“... and that concludes our show. Thank you for coming out everyone!”

      After grabbing our things we went out to the main hall to find Mingyu and the others. Even though we thought we would have saw Mingyu’s head above the others, it was still very hard to find them. In our search for them we ended up finding someone else and Seohee was the first to call out to him.

“Oh! Taesun-sunbae, you came!”

“Yeah, you guys did well,” he smiled.

“Are those flowers for us?” Minah teased.

“They’re actually for Jiyoung but,” he pulled out four flowers and handed them to us, “He wouldn’t miss a few.”

      We thanked him and pointed him in the direction to where we last saw Jiyong-sunbae. I caught the red tint to Minah’ ears when she took the flower from Taesun-sunbae’s hand but I let it be. Continuing our search for friends, we finally found them standing around the theater exit but while heading there Seohee ran into one of the people in the crowd. Her long brown hair blended well with her soft features and she was so thin she looked like she could break. I stand corrected, she already broke. I noticed her foot was in a boot as Seohee apologized, making sure she was okay and that her foot didn’t get more injured in any way. She gave an airy smile, giving off a girl-next-door vibe, and reassured Seohee that everything was fine before disappearing into the crowd.

      When we finally reached our group of friends, they all congratulated us on a job well done. The boys were in high spirits and Seungkwan especially commented to me that he liked when Jun caught me in my arms as if it was straight from a drama, which earned him a playful shove. While waiting for Soonyoung and company to come out, we heard that they would be throwing a congratulatory party for the job well done. Already knowing how crowded Mingyu’s and Wonwoo’s apartment can get with seven people, let alone all thirteen of them, I offered the rooftop in exchange for an invite which Mingyu happily accepted. It was more space and since it wasn’t in his apartment that meant no more cleaning up after seventeen people, who could refuse? Once Soonyoung and the others came, more excited congratulations were exchanged. Amongst them all, oddly enough, Jun seemed the most giddy even compared to the ever energetic Soonyoung.

“To another amazing performance by Soonyoung-hyung and everyone else. And to Hyemi and the girls for letting us use the rooftop and for not telling me they could dance even after being neighbors and good friends for-”

“Give it a rest already Kim Mingyu,” I laughed.

“And to an amazing excuse to eat meat!” Seokmin added.

      Everyone cheered and laughed at our antics before digging in to the meat. There was good food, good laughs, and a bit of alcohol to make make one heck of a celebration. It was quite the sight to watch the antics of tipsy college students, Jeonghan was clinging to Seungcheol and Wonwoo was as energetic as Soonyoung which was very out of character. After a while I decided to step away from the group to save myself from dying of laughter. Leaning on the ledge, away from the body heat of sixteen other people, I realized that it was pretty cold tonight. Closing my eyes to soak in the cold for a moment, the presence of another person could be felt to my left. Opening my eyes, my vision was filled with the side profile of Minghao.

“Did you need a breather too?”

“Yeah, Wonwoo-hyung and Joshua-hyung started a pun battle so I decided now was the best time to leave.”

“That actually sounds like an interesting scene,” I laughed.

“Are you feeling better now?”

“Ah… yeah I am, just a bit embarrassed that I blew it so out of proportion. Can’t really beat myself up for it though, Jihoon-sunbae really loved the performance,” I smiled.

“We all have those moments where we get embarrassed over the little stuff so you’re not alone.”

“Thanks Minghao. Oh yeah, I’ve always told this to Minah but I never had the chance to say it to you. You guys did really good on your partner section, both your dancing styles really complemented each other and blended well.”

“I could say the same for you… I was actually quite impressed and really thankful.”

“Thankful? For doing the dance?”

“Well for that too but I meant for making a piece with Jun-hyung that really shows who he is.”

“That’s what we were supposed to do though? Choreograph something that complements the dancer’s style and personality?”

“You would be surprised at how many people don’t understand that concept. When others usually work with him, their style and personality overpowers Jun-hyung’s so he just acts along with it. It’s nice to see him actually get to be himself on stage, aside from working with me, Hoshi-hyung, or Chan.”

“Well then you’re welcome, I didn’t take you as someone who would be soft for their friends,” I teased.

“I am but don’t tell the others about it, I have a reputation to keep,” he said as he went back to the group with a playful smirk. I rolled my eyes with a smile and followed Minghao back to the group.