"Our love almost worked."

It was the last thing she heard the older woman say before feeling her arms around her, and then her lips against hers for the last time.

But how wrong she was.

Their love did work.

Only it didn’t work forever.

-

Seulgi still remembers how it all started.

It was a sunny Friday afternoon. She had checked out earlier from work that day – her last class had been canceled, something about electricity at the dance studio. She didn't bother to know what really happened. The only thing that mattered was that she was finally going to fulfill her promise to her niece about picking her up at the pre-school.

She had been so busy lately with classes after classes that she couldn't even make time for her family and friends. So, at the first opportunity she had, she decided to spend her rare free time with her niece, Bora.

"Her room is 4C, on the left," the secretary says, pointing with her fingers to the said direction.

"Thank you," she replies before heading straight to where she was told to.

The first thing she saw when she got there was a woman – not five years older than her, sitting on the floor with children around her, pretending to be drinking something from a small toy cup. And another one not far from her, drawing with another group of children.

"Uhm, hello. I'm here to pick up Bora," she says, standing awkward in the classroom's doorway.

"Seulgi unnie!" She hears a high pitched voice say and she wasn't even able to react before she feels tiny arms wrapping around her legs.

She gets down to be on the kid's height, returning the hug as tight as she could. When they pull apart, the woman that was drinking from the cup is right in front of her, a purple backpack on her hands, smiling at them.

"You must Kang Seulgi," she says.

"Uhm, yes. How do you know?" she asks, frowning a little.

"Your brother called to inform us his sister, Kang Seulgi, would pick Bora up today," she explains calmly.

"Oh, yes. Right." She nods.

"I'm Bae Joohyun. Bora's teacher. It's a pleasure to finally meet the famous aunt she always talks about."

"So you talk about me a lot?" she asks, looking down at the kid, who was watching her aunt and her teacher talking.

"Of course, Seulgi unnie," she replies, as if it were obvious for her aunt that she would talk about her.

"Well, then. Nice to meet you, Teacher Joohyun," she says, smiling at the older woman. "Let's go, kiddo. Say goodbye to your teacher."

"Bye, Teacher Joohyun."

Then, she takes Bora's backpack from Joohyun's hand before turning around and leaving the school hand in hand with the little kid.

-

"Alright, girls. Before we call it a day I have an announcement to make," Boa – GOT (Got The Beat Dance Studio)'s owner clasped her hands, gaining everyone's attention. "As you all know, we established a partnership with one of the local's pre-school. The director wants to add new extra classes and sought for us for a partnership. So, tomorrow we're giving them a free trial class."

"Seulgi and Hyoyeon, you'll be going in the morning. Sooyoung, Yoona and Yuri, you'll be going in the afternoon." She continues. "The school is the SM Pre-school. Seulgi, I know it's where your niece studies, this is why you're going in the morning." She looks around the room, eyeing the dancers. Then, she gave them a few more instructions before dismissing all of them, bidding them goodbye.

-

The next morning, Seulgi woke up even before her alarm went off. She was feeling a little nervous about the free trial class – or that was what she was trying to tell herself. She knew, deep down, the reason she was nervous was because of the thought of meeting Bora's teacher again, that is, if she works in the mornings too. Of course they would meet again, given that she's the little girl's niece and once in a while she would pick her up at the pre-school.

The problem is, she wasn't expecting the teacher to be that beautiful. She honestly doesn't know how she even managed to talk to her the other day without embarrassing herself in front of the woman.

She tried to shake that feeling off as she went on with her morning routine. By the time she was done and ready to leave her house, she had spare time to even stop by the cafe near the street if she wanted to.

-

She had just finished preparing everything for the next class when she heard a knock on the door of the small dance room. "Come on in," she said without turning around.

"Children, sit on the floor by the wall. Sooyoung is already on her way to be with you," a voice says as soon as the door opens. Seulgi didn't even need to see to know who it belonged to. "Good morning, you must be the dance teacher."

She turns around slowly, as if suddenly unsure of what to do or say. "Hi, good morning," she replies and has to stifle a laugh by the look of surprise on Joohyun's face.

"You," she says. "Bora really did tell me her aunt is a dancer, I guess I wasn't expecting you to be a professional dancer. No wonder she looks up to you so much."

Seulgi smiles, her cheeks turning red from the compliment. "Yeah, you can say so." She shrugs meekly.

"Hello, kids." A tall, brunette woman says from the door. "Good morning, you must be the dance teacher."

"Good morning. Yes, I am."

"Sooyoung, this is Seulgi-ssi, the dance teacher and Bora's aunt. Seulgi-ssi, this is Sooyoung, my assistant. She will be with the children during your class today." Joohyun says.

Not long after, she heads to the door, but not before turning to her students and saying, "You guys, behave."

-

The thirty minutes class went on pretty smoothly. For children aged four and five, Seulgi was rather impressed they followed her instructions the best they could.

At first, some of them were a bit shy, but with some encouragement from Seulgi and Sooyoung, they managed to join their friends and enjoy the class.

"Alright, children. For our last song I'll let you dance freely. Just feel the rhythm and let your body take control," she says, turning around to select the song. Then, she went to the center of the room and started dancing with them without a care in the world, just enjoying the children's song.

-

"And here I thought you said you were a professional dancer," Joohyun jokingly says, entering the room.

Seulgi turned around at the sound of her voice, putting a halt to her steps instantly. "But I am! The class is almost over, we're only enjoying our last minutes." She defends herself, to which the older woman only nodded in reply.

When the song ended, Sooyoung started to organize the children in a small line by the door, ready to leave for their classroom.

"Goodbye, children," Seulgi says, earning tiny waves from the kids and promises of talking to their parents about wanting to start doing dance classes.

"They seem to have enjoyed it," Joohyun comments, watching fondly her students heading to their classroom. Then, she turns to Seulgi. "Bye, it was nice seeing you again."

"Bye, Teacher Joohyun."

"Joohyun. You can call me just Joohyun," she says.

"Okay, then. Bye, Joohyun," Seulgi says, a tiny smile on her face.

-

Things at the studio have been quite hectic lately. Everyone around there was busy with one thing or another, and for Seulgi it wasn't any different – choreographing for rookie groups, for their students' competitions, some parteships here and there.

So, it wasn't until three weeks later that she was able to meet Joohyun again.

(She had been standing at the line to make her order at this cafe three streets down from her house when she got a glimpse of Joohyun picking up hers at the counter and making her way to one of the tables by the window.

Imagine her surprise. There was just something about Joohyun that she couldn't stop thinking about.

Then, after making her order she decided to be a little brave and head in the woman's direction.)

"Fancy seeing you here, Teacher Joohyun," she says jokingly, enjoying the way the older woman got scared at her sudden presence. "Can I sit here with you?"

"Oh my God, Seulgi-ssi! You scared me. Yes, you can sit here. And I thought I told you to stop calling me Teacher Joohyun?" she replies, lifting her eyebrows.

"Well, in that case you can call me just Seulgi."

-

It's a small cafe. On the right side is a row of blue and white tables and chairs by the windows with a view of the street in front of it and the park behind, on the left side is a glass display counter with various types of desserts and sweets and on its' side is the cashier. Small but cozy.

She sits in front of Joohyun – suddenly unsure of how to react now that she's so close to her. Then, she just stays there, stealing glances here and there while eating quietly on her carrot cake.

Joohyun laughs.

"What?" she asks.

"Oh, nothing. You just seem quite tense there," the older woman replies, laughing again.

She feels her cheeks heating up instantly. "Yeah, sorry. I'm just a bit awkward."

"No problem. How's Bora doing, by the way?"

"She's doing better. My brother said she'll be going to school on Tuesday."

"Oh, that's good to hear." Joohyun nods. "Speaking of your brother, you two look like twins."

She laughs. "Yeah, we get that a lot. People also say Bora looks like me. I guess it's because my parents said she looks like me when I was her age. Once a woman even thought I was her mom."

"So are you saying you are this cute since you're a child?" Joohyun asks, a playful smirk on her face.

"Uhm, I guess?" she replies unsure, feeling her cheeks heating up again.

-

There on the sidewalk outside the cafe they could see the sun already making its descending.

"So…" she starts. "It was fun, Joohyun. I had a great time. We should do that some other time, I guess?" she says, trying not to sound nervous and failing.

"Yeah, we should," Joohyun replies, a light smile on her face.

"Well, I should get going. Bye." she waves awkwardly at the older woman.

Joohyun waves back. The smile never leaving her face.

-

"I'm glad you could make it in time to pick Bora up today. I'm sure she's gonna be thrilled. She keeps saying how much she misses you," Garam – her brother, says walking side by side with her through the pre-school's hallways.

"Yeah, me too. Couldn't help but spend a few hours with my favorite girl."

(When she saw she had managed to end her classes earlier that afternoon she didn't think twice about ringing her brother and asking to pick Bora up. He agreed instantly but said he was already on his way so the both of them would be picking her up – not that the little girl would mind.

So, she quickly made her way to the pre-school to meet her brother there.)

The first thing she saw when she got to the classroom was Joohyun sitting on the floor playing some kind of memory game with her students beside her – Bora included.

"Hey, kiddo," she heard her brother say. Almost immediately her niece looked in their direction, her smiling getting bigger and bigger when she saw her there with her father.

"Seulgi unnie!" she yelled, running in her direction with her arms stretched. As usual, she got down to be on the little girl's height to return the hug.

"Glad to see you missed me too, kiddo," her brother says beside her, pretending to be annoyed.

Then, Bora turns to him. Hugging him as tight as she did with her. "Hi, dad," she says, smiling so widely her eyes disappeared in little crescents.

"Now I get why that woman thought she was your daughter, you two have the same smile," Joohyun says, smiling lightly while holding Bora's backpack. Then, she says to her brother, "Hello, Garam-ssi. Everything went well today." And then bows lightly.

"Yes, I guess we do," she replies.

From the corner of her eyes she could see her brother eyeing the both of them, making her suddenly feel shy.

"Glad to know. Thank you, Teacher Joohyun," he says.

"Bye, Joohyun."

"Bye, Seulgi."

-

"So, what was that about?" he asks when they're finally outside the school.

"What?" She pretends she doesn't know what he's talking about.

"Oh, come on now. All these smiles and dropping formalities?" he says.

"Garam! There's nothing going on between us. We're just… acquaintances. Yeah, acquaintances."

"I never said there was something going on between the two of you. But now that you mentioned it, well, there is? I wouldn't be surprised, you've always liked older women," he says, smirking.

"No, I told you we're just acquaintances."

"Yeah, right. Now I know why you wanted to pick Bora up today, you wanted to see your crush."

"No, I didn't," she replies, trying to put up a strong front but failing miserably when she felt her cheeks turning red.

Her brother could only laugh. "Oh, Seul. What am I gonna do with you?"

-

"Seul, there's someone out there in the parking lot wanting to