He was 19; she was 17.

The two of them stayed quiet in the dance studio after an hour plus of impromptu dance practice. Only their sound of breathing could be heard, as they both lie flat on the floor with their limbs stretched out and their body all sweaty.

Her quiet laughter broke the silence first.

“What are you laughing about?” Mark turned his head to a side, fixing his gaze on the other curiously.

“Nothing much, really. It’s just, I was reminded of the first time you guided me during the first proper dance practice.” He blinked and for a brief moment, he was brought back to about a year ago. He too, let out a soft laughter at the thought.

“See,” Nayeon prodded herself up, supporting her body with her elbow and looked at him. “It was fun!”

“Not.” He bit back a smile. “It wasn’t, not for me. I went home with bruises everywhere.”

“But it’s still fun.”

1 2 3 4

2 2 3 4…

Mark sighed loudly for the umpteenth time of the day as Nayeon, once again messed up the basic dance moves.

“Nayeon ah.” He tried to get her attention but the girl was too focus on getting her moves right that she didn’t hear him.

“Nayeon, listen to me.” He tried again, stepping a little closer to her this time.

Wrong move.

Nayeon just stepped on his foot hard and that’s when she finally gave Mark her full attention.

“Oh my god, I’m sorry!”

He didn’t reply, only bending down to ease the pain on his foot and half glaring at the younger girl whom in return, tried to put on her best innocent smile.

“Next time, when I called for you, listen. Not abuse me.”

She nodded in response before Mark started guiding her the moves she's having trouble with.

But, the peace didn’t last long for Nayeon had just elbowed her senior right in the chest. And again, Mark only managed to get her attention with a quiet yelp.

“Are you trying to learn or are you trying to kill me?”

“I’m sorry, I swear I didn’t see!”

Mark sighed again.

“You are going to have extra practices until you manage to stop attacking me subconsciously.”

“And the extra practices became a norm. Like right now, even though you didn’t have to come anymore.” She then gave him a cheeky grin. “But admit it, your life has gotten a lot more interesting because of the practices.”

“Interesting? Do you mean chaotic?” He teased, sitting up on the floor and pulled her up after.

“Interesting!”

“Well, if dragging me out every Friday night despite me almost collapsing because I want to sleep is interesting, then yeah it is interesting. Or, if you think giving me bruises during dance practices is interesting, then yeah it is interesting. And- ouch!”

He rubbed the spot on his thigh, which she had slapped and looked up, only to be greeted with a glare.

He chuckled.

“I’m kidding. Other than the fact that I have to help someone with almost all her subject and the fact that my ears hurt everytime someone panicked, I guess my high school life got more interesting.”

Silence took over the studio again and it was only when Mark heard the quiet sniffles that he realized Nayeon’s crying.

“Crying again?” He shifted closer to her side, his expression softened as he slowly guided her head to his shoulder, giving the girl gentle pats on her head.

“I’m not.” She mumbled stubbornly despite the shaking in her voice.

“You see, I’m graduating from high school and going to a local university. I’m not flying back to LA so, stop crying already. It's not like I'm going to disappear.”

“It’s different. And I’m not crying.”

He rolled his eyes in amusement at her statement.

“You cried when the graduation date is announced. You cried when the entrance exam results are out. You cried on my last official dance practice. You cried during that one dinner. And each time, you said you’re not crying.”

“This time I’m really not!”

“I wonder where all those tears came from.” He chuckled softly, his hand continued to gently pat the younger girl’s head subconsciously at the same time.

Again, silence took over but it wasn’t long before he broke it.

“You know, because of you, I’ve gotten a lot more talkative.”

She giggled.

On the graduation day itself…

“Are you crying again?!”

“I am not!”

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I'm trying to keep the characters as realistic as possible even if it's an AU. This is a slightly longer chapter than usual and I think for the three different chapters, I used three different writing style. There might be some similar ones later on or maybe another different style, it all depends on the chapter theme. So, don't expect the same length everytime? Also, leaving some comments and thoughts will help as a motivation and improvement! Hope you guys enjoyed this. <3