“Choir room,” Jiwoo muttered to herself, looking over the wrinkled school map in her hands for what felt like the hundredth time, “choir room?”

She was completely and utterly lost.

Jungeun had highlighted the choir room’s whereabouts on the map, but that proved unhelpful as Jiwoo stumbled around the unfamiliar hallway. She had so confidently told Jungeun that she could make her way around school grounds without her help and already Jiwoo was regretting her words.

Glancing around, Jiwoo saw some things she recognised. There was a water fountain she swore she had passed only minutes ago, a familiar-looking classroom, and even a decorated locker she remembered from the orientation tour.

Her head tilted to the left as she heard faint music coming from across the hallway. As Jiwoo moved towards the sound, she could hear some of its lyrics. She didn’t recognise the song - it sounded like nothing Jiwoo had ever heard on the radio. As soon as she got to the source, she looked up at the sign above the door.

“Music room?” Jiwoo scrunched her face up in confusion. “That’s… like a choir room, right?”

Not having anywhere else to turn to, she slid the door open.

Instead of finding Jungeun as she had expected, Jiwoo discovered a girl she had never seen before. A perfect girl.

The girl was wearing their uniform so casually - top buttons undone, shirt untucked, skirt rolled up, hair in a loose ponytail - that without the sight of the familiar blue and red, Jiwoo might not have figured out that she went to the same school. Even from the other side of the room, Jiwoo could tell that she was pretty - no, beautiful - and that realisation made Jiwoo unable to move from her spot by the door.

More beautiful than the girl’s appearance - though only slightly - was her dancing.

It was glorious. It pulled the air right from Jiwoo’s lungs. Jiwoo couldn’t tear her eyes away from the sight of her fluid movements, amazed at how well they fit with the beat of the song and by the ease by which she executed them. It seemed so easy and so perfect as if the girl had been rolling her hips since the day she was born.

Unaware of Jiwoo’s presence, the girl continued to dance. Jiwoo could do nothing but stand there, transfixed, as she went through step after perfectly timed step.

Jiwoo didn’t know if the sight of the girl dancing was what was making her heart beat faster, or if it was merely trying to match the unrelenting tempo of the music booming from the speakers, but either way, Jiwoo could feel her heart beating rapidly in her chest.

The song stopped soon after. As it reached its final chord, the girl’s movements stopped as well but Jiwoo still couldn’t stop staring. As if sensing someone’s eyes on her, the girl’s eyes met Jiwoo’s.

Jiwoo hadn’t really been doing anything wrong - this was her school too, after all - but she still felt guilt at so shamelessly staring at this perfect stranger.

“Hello?” the girl said, a tinge of confusion to her voice. “Are you lost or something?”

Were voices allowed to be this soft and pretty? Surely, there must be some sort of rule against this, otherwise, everyone would be too distracted and no work would get done. Yes, there must be a law stating that girls that are already drop-dead gorgeous shouldn’t be allowed to have sweet melodic voices as well. Unfair, all of this was unfair.

“Oh, uh, yeah, I’m sorry,” Jiwoo struggled out, “I’m a first year and I’m really bad at maps so I have no clue where anything is and I--”

“No, no,” the girl said, thankfully interrupting Jiwoo’s tangent before she said anything too revealing. “It’s fine…” she trailed off, waiting for Jiwoo to fill in her name.

“Jiwoo.”

“Well, it’s nice to meet you, Jiwoo.” She smiled. Oh, her teeth were adorable. “My name’s Sooyoung. Don’t bother calling me sunbae or anything - just Sooyoung’s fine.”

Even her name’s pretty. “Alright, Sooyoung it is.”

“Or maybe…”

Jiwoo tilted her head to the side. “Maybe?”

“Maybe you can call me unnie.”

Jiwoo almost choked. Luckily, Sooyoung seemed too focused on the map in Jiwoo’s hands to notice Jiwoo dying ever-so-slightly on the inside.

As soon as Jiwoo got over her almost-choking incident and started breathing again, Jiwoo heard Sooyoung laugh. Jiwoo looked down, noticing how Sooyoung was looking at the writing on her hand telling her to get to the choir room 4:30 sharp. Jiwoo felt embarrassed, chastising herself and thinking that she should have rubbed it off so she didn’t look so forgetful.

“Looking for the choir room, huh?” Sooyoung asked. When Jiwoo didn’t answer, she stepped closer and asked another question. “You planning on joining them?”

The closer she was, the more tense Jiwoo felt. It was like her brain stopped functioning, she couldn’t even string enough words together to form a coherent answer.

“Their practices start in about an hour. I could show you where--”

“No!” Jiwoo said, surprising even herself with her outburst. “I-I mean, I wouldn’t want to… inconvenience you more. I already interrupted your dancing and--” Jiwoo her heel, giving an awkward little half-bow as she turned away from Sooyoung. “I should go.”

“No, don’t leave.” Sooyoung grabs her arm and gently pulls her in. “You’re lost, right? Let me help.”

“I don’t want to cause you any trouble.”

“How about this? Help me with my dancing and I’ll get you to that choir room in time. That way, we help each other. No trouble.” She smiled again, this time so brightly that the sun could’ve stopped existing and Jiwoo wouldn’t even have noticed. Jiwoo sorta wants to look away and refuse her offer purely because her little heart couldn’t take this anymore, but she also never wants to look away.

It was a hard choice but Jiwoo finds herself nodding.

“How can I help?” Jiwoo asked, leaning against the window in the furthest corner of the room. If she was going to stay, she might as well be as safe as possible.

“Just watch?” Sooyoung said. Jiwoo could do that. She could do that all afternoon if she were allowed to. Maybe even do it forever if she could somehow do that without seeming like a creep. “Tell me if you see anything wrong, alright?”

Jiwoo nodded, pressing the play button on the remote.

Sooyoung’s expression changed the second the music started back up, going from kind upperclassman to cold and chic within seconds. Jiwoo wasn’t a dance critic or anything, but even she could see how well Sooyoung’s intense gaze created a confident persona that fit the hard beats of the song near-perfectly.

At the ending pose, her leg moved forward slightly. Jiwoo might not have noticed the mistake if not for Sooyoung’s sudden expression change into a frown.

“Again.”

So Jiwoo pressed the play button once more.

They continued on like that for a while, going over every little detail of Sooyoung’s movements. Jiwoo had heard the song so many times that - although she had never heard the song before this - she could probably sing every lyric off by heart by now. She was honestly a little sick of hearing it over and over. She could only imagine how Sooyoung felt, she had probably heard the song hundreds of times more than Jiwoo had.

Thankfully, Jiwoo never grew sick of watching Sooyoung. In fact, the older girl only became more interesting as the minutes went by.

Behind that strong persona, Jiwoo caught short glimpses of the real Sooyoung underneath. The moments were so short that if Jiwoo weren’t actively watching, she might have missed them. Every time Sooyoung took a misstep, was too slow or too fast, every time she berated herself and let out a heavy breath. She’d merely look disappointed in herself for a split second, before plastering on that confident look and trying again.

It was somehow more breathtaking than if she had done the dance perfectly. It showed that underneath the bravado and strength, Sooyoung was a person just like Jiwoo was, someone flawed, imperfect. Someone allowed to make mistakes.

Sooyoung, however, didn’t seem to think the same way.

“Shouldn’t your arm be at 45 degrees?” Jiwoo questioned. After seeing the older girl falter at her words, Jiwoo rushed to correct herself, afraid she had overstepped a boundary by so blatantly pointing out her mistake. “Not that it looks bad that way,” Jiwoo squeaked out.

“No, you’re right.” Sooyoung lifted her arm up to the right angle. “Such a basic mistake and I still--”

“It’s fine. Honestly, it made it better.”

Sooyoung shook her head, not even taking the time to properly consider Jiwoo’s words.

“Again.”

Jiwoo’s thumb almost pressed the play button out of instinct, but there was something stopping her. Something told her that she had to tell Sooyoung that being human and making mistakes was okay. That taking off that strong persona every once in a while would be fine.

“I-”

“Again,” Sooyoung said, her stern voice making it sound more like a command. “I have to be perfect.”

Sooyoung panted, struggling to catch her breath after dancing for so long. Somehow, even though strands of her hair were sticking to her face because of the sweat, Sooyoung looked even more mesmerising to Jiwoo. Somehow, even the way she rubbed her aching muscles and groaned was endearing. Somehow, the less perfect she was, the more beautiful.

Jiwoo could never say that out loud, though. Sooyoung would probably brush it off and refuse the compliment. Of course, she would. After all, Jiwoo was just a random stranger that she decided to help.

“I have to be perfect”? Jiwoo thought. Who told her a lie like that?

“4:30,” Sooyoung said, looking up at the clock on the wall. “Guess we should start heading down to the choir room now, huh?”

Jiwoo felt a little disappointed by that. She didn’t know why - this was the deal after all, but she had expected… she doesn’t know what she expected. After all, there was no way that Sooyoung was as interested in her as Jiwoo was interested in Sooyoung.

As they exited the choir room, Jiwoo shut the door behind them. Trailing after Sooyoung, Jiwoo watched Sooyoung as they walked straight along the hallway, then turn right, and then… they just stopped.

“The choir room,” Sooyoung said, gesturing to the door in front of them.

Jiwoo looked up at the sign and, yep, there it was. So close to where they had been for the past half hour. So close that Sooyoung could have easily just told her where to go and not kept her around.

“We were this close the entire time?”

“Yep,” Sooyoung said, chuckling a little at Jiwoo’s shocked expression, “surprised?”

“A little,” Jiwoo admitted, “wouldn’t it have been better if you let me go and you had just focused on your dance?”

“I dunno. I wanted to keep you around for some reason.” Jiwoo felt her heart skip a little in her chest. “Maybe I just wanted to get to know you a little, Jiwoo.”

“I wanted to get to know you too.”

“Yeah?” Sooyoung’s eyebrow quirked upwards. “What did you learn?”

I learned that you aren’t perfect. I learned that underneath it all you’re maybe just as flawed as I am. I learned that even your mistakes are unfairly beautiful. I-- “Not much, unnie.” Jiwoo smiled. “Maybe we should hang out so we can get to know each other more?”

Sooyoung’s lips curved into a smile as well, matching Jiwoo’s expression. “Maybe,” Sooyoung said.

Wanting to leave before she made a fool of herself, Jiwoo slid the door open. “Bye, unnie.”

“Bye, Jiwoo.”

Jiwoo locked eyes with Jungeun, the wide smile on her face not even faltering as Jungeun loudly sighed and said, “finally.”

Just a crush, Jiwoo thought to herself as she let Jungeun tug her into the unfamiliar room, just a little crush. Nothing to worry about.