"This is a ual dance, guys," I exclaimed, wiggling my eyebrows for dramatic effects.

The other members went wild. Seungkwan and Dokyeom hooted while Seungcheol threw his jacket into the air. Off stage, we were just a bunch of uncontrollable young wolves dripping testosterone.

I was introducing the choreography of Fast Pace, a dance I had proudly created all on my own during my trainee days. Most of the members already knew most of it since I had forced them to perform for my sake – once I created art, I had to see it in all its perfected action. I was Kwon Hoshi after all.

“Remember, it’s like there is a mirror existing on stage,” I reminded them the concept as the others carefully got into place. “Wonwoo, come to the middle, you’re starting.”

I grabbed his wrist and pulled him towards me – this came so naturally as Wonwoo and I had been close for so many years. However, these days, I felt like he had somehow changed. He had really matured, not just in height and his looks. It was as if he was really transforming into a man.

Wonwoo towered over me and smiled for a second too long. I gulped – when had the punk gotten so tall? I remembered when I used to beat him in arm wrestling. Now I couldn’t beat him in anything which was super frustrating. Except dancing. And being funny.

Actually, Wonwoo was funny. In my opinion, he was hilariously unfunny that I couldn’t help bursting out in laughter. Despite our personality differences, we actually clashed pretty well against each other like waves against the shore.

“Okay, when your verse ends,” I was directing him, guiding his movements with my own hands on his arms. I had my game face on – I was the performance leader after all. “You’re going to move behind me.”

It was my verse when I would be in the center. “You’re going to have your back against me,” I told him. “Then extend your arm against mine and…” I straightened out my limbs and interlaced my fingers with his.

Goodness, his hand was warm. I shoved that thought aside.

“Then put your other arm up and I’m going to run my hand across like this –”

I was startled when he flinched from my touch. I scrutinized him through the wall mirror in our dance studio. “Why are you so stiff?” I snapped.

“Sorry,” Wonwoo muttered. The punk wouldn’t even look at me.

“Remember this is a ual dance,” I pressed. No one wooed this time – I noticed I was raising my voice in frustration and the atmosphere had suddenly gotten tense. I shook it off. “Just one more time, okay? Try to be natural. The movements are supposed to be passionate.”

We retraced the steps again, but it was the same result. If I was dancing with a piece of cardboard, I wouldn’t have been able to tell the difference.

What annoyed me was that I knew Wonwoo was better than this. This was relatively simple compared to everything else we had recently performed. Plus, I knew Wonwoo worked really hard on his dancing skills; he had really improved over the years. There was no way that he was putting his one hundred percent right now.

“Are you taking this seriously?”

Other members who were making small talk amongst themselves went instantly quiet at my tone. Immediately, Seungcheol hyung stepped up to diffuse the situation.

“Soonyoung, what’s going on?” he interrogated.

I realized I overstepped the line. “Sorry –”

“No, it’s my fault,” Wonwoo quickly replied. “I’m just not feeling too well. Could I take a break and practice separately?”

Usually, S.Coups would’ve declined, but this was Wonwoo. He was one of the hardest working in the group and he never asked for a break unless there was something seriously wrong.

“Fine,” he obliged in the end. “Make sure to learn everything by today evening so we can work on details tomorrow.”

Wonwoo gratefully nodded and hastily walked out of the practice room, leaving me in confused silence.

***

Practice ended well as usual. All the members were starved and ready to eat. We always broke off into groups for meals – there were those who wanted to grab a bite out, those who always settled for some homemade ramen, and those who were on a strict diet and could only nibble on a petty salad.

“Hoshi hyung,” someone sang my name cutely as he skipped over.

“Seungkwan ah,” I sang back with a cheerful smile.

“Let’s go eat some meat today,” he whispered evilly in my ears.

I giggled. “Aren’t you supposed to be on a diet?”

He rolled his eyes at me. “I’ve been feeling like a rabbit these days. I need some quality meat inside me.”

“You should eat what you want,” I agreed. “But I can’t join you.”

“Why?” he whined.

“Because I’ll get fat.”

“You’re so mean,” he cried, narrowing his eyes playfully. He quickly left me and ran over to Dokyeom to see if he could entice him.

Slowly, all the members began to clear out of the practice room to carry on with their plans. While I was pretty hungry, something else bugged me too much to eat. I grabbed my phone and swiftly texted:

“Are you feeling better?”

I shoved the phone back in my pocket. Had I been too harsh on him? It always pissed me off when people didn’t take practice seriously. But sometimes I had to admit, I could be too much, easily getting lost in the flow of practice. Was he really sick? Maybe I should get some soup for him?

My pocket vibrated and I was surprised to see that he had answered back so quickly.

“Yeah.”

I bit down on my lip. Should I apologize?

“Then stop being lazy and come practice.”

Wow, I could be such a jerk. As expected, he didn’t respond after my text. A bit frustrated with myself, I put in my ear phones and started to feel the beat of the tune. Woozi had shared it with me – it wasn’t a finished track yet, but he wanted me to start getting ideas for the choreography.

It had good rhythm. I let the song take over as I imagined all the possibilities. It was difficult to work with 13 people, but it was also challenging and fun. With the song still ringing in my ears, I got up to try some of the steps I had thought of in my head. Aish, that wasn’t it. I replayed the song and tried again. That looked pretty good. Or maybe this one looked better? I could have half the members doing this while the others did –

A hand abruptly tugged an ear bud out of my ears. I almost yelped from surprise.

“Wonwoo?!”

“Hey, sorry. I tried to call your name a few times, but you were so focused, you didn’t hear me.”

It was weird to hear him apologize to me. He had done it earlier, too. Wonwoo never said sorry to me and I was okay with it. It wasn’t like I was ever really mad at him for anything he did.

He was one of my closest friends. Perhaps the one who knew me the most.

“Are you feeling better?” I asked worriedly. I drew closer to him and saw beads of sweat across his forehead. His eyes also looked a bit worn. “Did you spend the whole night playing games again?”

At that accusation, he glared down at me. “No. Let’s practice.”

Good. I was glad Jeon Wonwoo was back in action. “Yeah, let’s do that beginning part again.”

I counted off while he did his solo flawlessly. Then I stepped in for my portion where he acted as my mirror image. I leaned softly against his back and reached out for his hand to interlace our fingers.

There was something strange – an unfamiliar tension between us. Perhaps it was the fact that there were only two of us in the practice room. Perhaps it was the immense heat radiating from his body. Perhaps it was because we stayed with our fingers locked together for moments too long.

It took all my efforts to shrug it off. I fixed my eyes on the mirror, watching myself dance smoothly with the other shadowing my every move. I slowly ran my hand down his bare arm – he was wearing a black short sleeve tee – and felt every inch of his smooth skin. It was hard to miss the fact that goose bumps appeared the moment I touched him.

Then I saw it in the practice room mirror. I saw his eyes that were no longer worn out nor tired.

His eyes were passionate. Flaring. Hungry.

“Wonwoo?” I called curiously, but he had already began to make his move. He grabbed my waist and spun me around so that we were face to face.

He stared at me so intently that I couldn’t look away. What was going on with him?

For a second, I was sure he was going to crack the tense atmosphere with a joke. Instead, the desire in his eyes transformed to rage and resentment.

“Change the choreography,” he whispered angrily through his teeth.

“W-What?” I started, but he wasn’t going to hear me out. He quickly walked away – for the second time in the same day – leaving me alone in stunned bewilderment.