Chapter IV - The Professionals

“Thank you everyone for making it here today. I'm sure all of you have heard about the one detail I revealed to the media a couple of days ago.” PD Park said addressing all of the professional dancers in the meeting room.

He was sitting at the head of the table with the other two producers to his left and right respectfully. The professional dancers were all seated on the remaining chairs with a couple standing at the back of the room alongside some of the production staff and the judges on the show.

Everyone in the room nodded. If by now you had not heard the news, then you must've been living under a rock. Satisfied with their answer, the producer continued. “Great. I wanted to know which one of you here is not comfortable dancing with a same partner. Please raise your hand.”

The outcome was something he expected. Four out of the ten male dancers raised their hands and everyone else just looked over at them. The producers expected the male dancers to be the ones to be against it, but they thought it could have possible been most of them. Four was a low number in their books.

“Okay, no problem. Thank you for your honest. We will make sure to give you a partner of the opposite .” The female producer replied writing down their names on her notes.

“Do we get to know which celebrity requested a same partner?” One of the professional dancers asked. Her name was Lia Kim — she was a veteran on the show, the one with the most wins, and owned her own dance studio where she did choreography for some of the top pop stars in the country.

Producer Park smiled at her and shook his head. “No. We want all of you to be surprised when we start filming the first week and you get to meet your celebrity partner. In the mean time, we have the schedules for the first two weeks for all of you. Everyone will be covering different dances so start preparing so you can accomadate your dance partner to the best of their ability.”

The professional dancers all received their schedules and usually the first week included what would be considered the “easier” dances. The producers got up and said their goodbyes to everyone followed by those who were part of the production staff leaving just the professional dancers in the meeting room.

Once everyone was out of the door, one of the male dancers quickly spoke up. “Okay, who do you guys think is the celebrity who requested a same partner? I'm dying to know! Noona, please tell me you have a clue since you work with so many pop stars.”

He looked over at Lia who looked at him like a deer caught in headlights. “Uh...why are you asking me when I don't even know?”

“Because you have worked with these pop stars! Noona....pleeeeaasseee!” He begged her and all she could was chuckle.

“Out of the cast we have so far, I've only worked with Jackson who used to be in GOT7 and Hwasa most recently. Honestly, I don't know if either of them are the one.” She replied.

He pouted and sat back on his chair. “Well...maybe it will be Park Bogum because that man is fine and I would love for him to lead all over the dance floor and maybe the bed—”

He was cut off by another one of the female dancers because she did not want to hear about his ual fantasies about the famous actor. “And it's not going to be Park Bogum.”

“And why it couldn't be him?!” He protested and a whole discussion started between all the female professionals and some of the guys just laughed at the banter.

The four who had declined to dance with a same partner took their leave from the room and that kind of quited everyone down as they watched them go. It wasn't until the door closed behind that one of the quieter and more shy dancers finally spoke.

“I don't see what their issue is. It's not like we all haven't danced with a same partner before. It's common during practice sometimes.” Wheein mentioned.

Jung Wheein, she was the youngest of the dancers in the room. She wasn't a rookie on the show anymore, this would be her third year and her top position had been third place which she achieved the previous season.

“Men, they don't want to look like they're weak.” Another female dancer replied.

One of the guys answered too. “They don't want to be thought of as being gay, but you're right Wheein.”

“Okay, so since we're on the topic, which celebrity you want to dance with? We already know Minkyu's answer.” Lia Kim grinned looking at everyone in the room.

The dancers started shouting their responses over one another except for Wheein who was always more reserved. She let her dancing speak for her. She looked down at her phone and home screen lit up showing the picture of her choice if she could pick them.

Author's Note:  I know there is probably some Kpop idol out there named Minkyu, but this is not him or them in this story.  All the dancers are OG characters except Lia Kim and Wheein of course.