Hyejoo had her hand on the doorknob when her bell rang. She had been expecting her.

"Hey there." She greets Chaewon first, taking in her comfy outfit which suited her adorably well. She lets her in.

"Hi Hyejoo," Chaewon greets back with a smile. "How's it going?"

"Pretty good." Hyejoo watches as Chaewon automatically puts her shoes onto her small shoe rack by the door. She chuckles mentally.

Chaewon sniffs the air, turning to Hyejoo for confirmation of her thoughts. "Kimchi fried rice?"

Hyejoo grinned. "You got it."

"Yes~" Chaewon rushes to the dining table, Hyejoo following behind her with a slight shake of her head.

"Not even a thank you for cooking?" Hyejoo watched in disbelief as Chaewon heaped spoonfuls of rice onto her plate.

Chaewon's hands paused in their tracks. She looked at Hyejoo apologetically. "Thank you very much Hyejoo."

"That's more like it." Hyejoo nods in satisfaction, waiting for Chaewon to hand her the spoon.

They begun eating, first in silence as they both wanted to taste the food. Hyejoo never had doubts cooking dishes she had cooked a million times before, but nervously waited for Chaewon's reaction.

"Wow! Such a nostalgic taste." Chaewon exclaimed, suddenly pouting. "I wish I could eat food like this everyday..."

Hyejoo frowns. "What do you eat everyday?"

"Um..." Chaewon didn't want to give a honest answer, out of shame. But Hyejoo's piercing eyes made her say the truth. "Convenience store foods? Or takeout?"

Hyejoo feigns a shocked gasp, holding her chest as if she was having a heart attack. Chaewon bursts into giggles at her exaggerated reaction.

"I know for sure you'd get kimchi slapped by your mom." Hyejoo joked, receiving a sarcastic glare from the girl. Her lips twitch into a smile though.

"You don't get to judge me." Chaewon crossed her arms.

Hyejoo scoffs, "How can I not when you're eating stuff like that?" Her nose wrinkles at the thought of grease.

"What do you meannn..." Chaewon stretched her words, stuffing with more food. "I can't cook." She incoherently replies.

Hyejoo shakes her head again and takes a tissue paper to wipe a stain of sauce on the corners of . Chaewon's hands remain holding her cutlery, eyes widening in surprise when she sees Hyejoo do so. 

"Don't talk with you mouth full." Hyejoo scolds her, folding the tissue to get a new clean side.

Chaewon swallows her food, stuttering. "Y-yeah, sorry..."

Hyejoo grins at her which has her heart fluttering. "Wanna game with me?" She points to the Playstation resting next to her TV.

"Definitely." Chaewon nods aggresively.

Hyejoo gets up to clean up the table of empty dishes, Chaewon immediately assisting her as well.

"Hey no need to help me, you're my guest." Hyejoo swatted Chaewon's helping hands away. 

Chaewon rolls her eyes, nudging Hyejoo slightly to the side to stack her own plates. "It's not that big of a deal Hyejoo, it's the least I could do for you."

Hyejoo smiles teasingly. "That's a good point."

Chaewon knew where she was going with that line but decided not to say anything further.

"Ready to go down Son?" Chaewon cracked her knuckles as she picked up the controller.

Hyejoo chuckles at her boldness. "I was about to ask you the same thing." She slides through the screen to determine which game would be played. "First, we gotta pick."

"Let's warm up with some mario kart." Chaewon chooses the box of familiar characters.

Hyejoo nods, face suddenly dotting a confident grin. "Oh you're definitely going down."

"Over my broken kart." Chaewon retorted, and they begun racing.

For most of the laps, Hyejoo was in front of Chaewon, who kept up closely behind her. But Hyejoo was definitely no amateur, she knew how to steer her kart to block anyone or Chaewon's attempts to overtake, skillfully dodging every object Chaewon sent flying her way.

Chaewon grits her teeth after Hyejoo blocks her for the nth time. "Not again!"

Hyejoo laughs evilliy, zooming to cross the line in first, Chaewon's kart just coming up right beside her. "Ha!" 

"Rematch." Chaewon strictly requested, spamming on the button for a rematch.

Hyejoo 'tsked', victoriously pumping her fist in the air. "Someone's fired up."

Chaewon glared at her sideways. "No way I'm letting Mario down." 

"We'll see."

Unfortunately, Hyejoo had a head start again. Chaewon collided with another kart which had unexpectedly swerved in front of her. She focused on regaining speed, slicing through the tight corners impressively which Hyejoo noticed, while savouring her lead. She threw banana peels and shells in the hopes that Chaewon would trip on them but the latter was quick to go around them, accurately predicting which direction the shells zig-zagged to.

"Not so fast." Chaewon muttered under her breath as she caught up. Hyejoo bit her lip, worried.

"." Hyejoo lost control at a corner trying to drift, her finger slipping off the controller accidentally. 

Chaewon took the chance, zooming past her. Just as Hyejoo recovered, Chaewon threw a banana peel, cutting Hyejoo's momentum again.

"NO!" Hyejoo protests, fumbling to get back on track. But it was too late, Chaewon was approaching the finish line.

"YES!" Chaewon smiled triumphantly.

Hyejoo dropped her controller in defeat, grabbing her finger that slipped. "Why did you slip?!" She blames it childishly, resulting in laughter from the girl next to her.

"Alright," Chaewon gains her attention. "That's a fair warm-up. Let's play some other games." She proposes.

Hyejoo nods in agreement. "COD?"

Chaewon gives her a thumbs up. "Let's shoot some bad guys." 

After what seemed to be 10 intensive rounds of playing, Chaewon and Hyejoo decided to take a break, releasing themselves from the enjoyable stress of flanking, pinging and whatever was needed to stay alive. 

"Yo that last one was tough.." Hyejoo exhaled audibly. "The dude sniping was insanely accurate."

"I know, I kept getting caught by them." Chaewon shook her head in exasperation.

They stayed in silence for a moment, Chaewon checking through her character's set-up, while Hyejoo fiddled with her controller.

Chaewon was about to ask Hyejoo for her opinion on something but the latter beat her to speaking,

"Y'know if you ever want to learn to cook, I can teach you." She suddenly offers, but genuineness laced her tone. "It's a good skill to pick up and you'll be able to eat better." Hyejoo playfully flicks the back of her head. 

"Hey!" Chaewon rubs the back of her head, turning around to face Hyejoo. "I manage myself fine, I'm not dying or am going to die soon." She points out matter-of-factly.

Hyejoo snickers, "You say that. Wait till your broke account pays for your medical bills." She retorts strongly.

Chaewon had nothing to say to that. Because it was true. "Ugh fine. But I'll get lazy and not cook either way."

Hyejoo laughs. "I'll make sure to spam call you and force you to cook." She smirks mischieviously.

"Hyejoo!" Chaewon is annoyed, "The last thing I want is someone forcing me to do cook!" She whines.

"Fine how about we make a deal." Hyejoo comes up with an idea. "I teach you how to cook, then we take turns cooking for each other."

Chaewon tries to makes sense of her every word. "You mean we have say, dinner at each other's place?"

Hyejoo nods. "I can't always be the one cooking." She defended herself. "About time you return the favour." She  chews on a mint nonchalantly.

Chaewon steals one from her, pondering over what she said. It was true that Hyejoo had been cooking for them a couple times now. Okay maybe not a couple, more like 6, and Chaewon hadn't really done much for her except pick up some ingredients for her on two or three occasions. 

"Alright then. We'll arrange a time." 

Hyejoo smirks again. "It's for your own good Chaewon~"

Chaewon rolls her eyes. She sounded like her mom.

They contemplated on playing another round of games, but then Chaewon suggested to watch a drama she was currently hooked on; Little Women.

"Oooo yes that drama is good...let's put it on." Hyejoo grabs the remote but Chaewon's hand on her forearm stops her. 

"Can we please have snacks?" Chaewon's eyes begged, tugging ever so gently on Hyejoo's sleeve.

Hyejoo moved in a mix of dismay and consideration. After taking a moment to stare into Chaewon's hopeful eyes, she relents with a nod.

"I have pepero in the back cupboard," Hyejoo flinches as Chaewon squeals loudly next to her. "-and choco pie's next to it."

"See, I knew you weren't that much of a control freak," Chaewon grins proudly, referring to Hyejoo's ultra healthy eating habits. "You got a sweet tooth."

"Actually those were sent by Hyunjin..." Hyejoo crushes her assumption. "I say that they're in the back cupboard because I don't ever touch them."

As Chaewon had already walked halfway across the room, realisation dawns on her. 

"Wait so are they expired??" She questions.

"No, no." Hyejoo assures her. "It's been there a couple days, I got them last weekend."

Chaewon trusts her words and goes to retrieve the snacks, finding them with difficulty past the empty jars & tupperware that Hyejoo didn't often use. She knew Hyejoo liked eating food fresh.

"Wahhhhh~!" Chaewon excitedly grabbed the goodies in both hands, skipping back to the couch in delight. Hyejoo shakes her head at her excitement, debating on whether she should get some rice cakes or veggies to snack on herself.

The thought left her head when Chaeyeon bumped her shoulder against hers, eyes motioning to play the episode.

"Oh yeah..." Hyejoo pressed play, noticing how Chaewon naturally snugs up to her side. She softly smiles and puts a pillow on her lap so she could rest her arms.

Deeply engrossed into the episode, Chaewon and Hyejoo quietly reacts to the twists an turns of events, both sharing a similar train of though when they kept coincidentally glancing at each other during particular scenes. 

"Oh my god!" Chaewon buries her face into Hyejoo's shoulder as a gruesome scene was showed. Hyejoo pats her head sympathetically, having no problem absorbing every detail of the scene. 

Chaewon peeks with one eye, but Hyejoo covers her eyes as the scene intensifies and Chaewon slightly whimpers from the excruciating sounds heard. 

"It's over Chae," Hyejoo rubs her shoulder, stifling a chuckle at the latter's terried gaze. "They're fine."

"It's over?" Chaewon repeated, doubting her words as if a jumpscare could happen at any moment. Which was a possibility.

"This isn't a horror movie." Hyejoo reminds her. Chaewon only nods.

Getting to the end of the episode, Chaewon released a breath that she hadn't realised she had been holding the entire time. Hyejoo looks at her weirdly but leaves her to compose herself, picking up the empty box and wrappers of snacks to basketball them into a trash bin at the corner of the room. It goes in perfectly.

"I see you practiced that. " Chaewon comments, not denying her precise accuracy. 

Hyejoo smirked, "I beat Hyunjin easy with one-on-ones. But yeah practice is key." She flexes her biceps which does pop out impressively. Chaewon stares in awe.

"Y'know I was wondering..." Hyejoo starts, Chaewon immediately notices the shyness in her tone which was unusual. She gave her her full attention. "if you would like to see me perform at a dance showcase...?" Her eyes shined with what seemed like hope, making Chaewon smile.

"Of course I'd love to!" Chaewon squeals. "What kind? Hip hop? Contemperary?" She fired at her.

"You'll find out." Hyejoo winks at her. But suddenly the latter casts her gaze downwards, with obvious hints of sadness.

"Chae?" Hyejoo places a hand on her shoulder. "What's wrong?"

Chaewon blinks away the bad memory which nearly brought tears in her eyes. "It's nothing."

'It's clearly something.' Hyejoo raised an unconvinced brow as Chaewon started to fiddle with her fingers. Why was she suddenly upset?

"You can tell me anything." Hyejoo put it out there, letting her hand drop from her shoulder. She was sorry for making an awkward silence surface but she didn't know how to fix it either.

"I know," Chaewon finally looks up at her, Hyejoo catching emotions swirling through her eyes. She seemed to be thinking of her past. "Let's just say dancing isn't a good memory of mine." Chaewon forced a smile.

Hyejoo nods, understanding her immediately. For Hyejoo, dancing was something she enjoyed and hence a thing she was fond of. But that may be a different story for Chaewon and she was there to listen to her.

"I'm all ears." 

Chaewon takes a deep breath. "In high school, I was part of the dance club. We did school performances but we also had solo performances," She pauses.

Hyejoo knew where it was going when she heard the word 'solo'. 

"I worked hard to choreograph my solo, that was required. Everyone worked hard on it. But a rich girl from my group had bribed our teacher to let her have the solo, AND allowed to have it choreographed for her, as long as she could have all the spotlight." Chaewon spoke with what Hyejoo could tell was held back anger. She herself couldn't believe someone would do that; they may be rich but had no class. "So we all fumed while she got the solo during the showcase, half of the girls quitting the club afterwards. Because if it happened once, it could happen again. They didn't want to work hard for nothing." 

Hyejoo nods profusely in agreement. "Did it actually happen again?" 

Chaewon curtly nodded. "My teacher was nice, I really liked her...but she just had to give in and let the rest of us down." She said bitterly.

"Did you at least have a fun time other than that?" Hyejoo questioned. 

"Of course." Chaewon thought of the memories she made with the other dancers. "But the solo was what I really wanted to experience, what I strived for, and I never gor a shot to show my choreographies." Hyejoo could tell it deeply hurt the latter, her heart unexpectedly clenching as well. 

"I'm sorry you had to go through that." Hyejoo didn't know what to say. 

"It's fine. It's in the past." Chaewon replies which made Hyejoo hesitate with her words. 

Chaewon sensed this and pointed it out. "I'm alright Hyejoo, seriously." 

Hyejoo nods, "If you ever feel like dancing again or something you can always tell me." She smiles knowingly. "I'm sure you've still got moves in you."

Chaewon laughs. "I wonder who would win if we had a dance battle?"

"The answer is obvious." Hyejoo flips her hair sassily and Chaewon laughs some more.

"Is there maybe a..." Hyejoo starts but stops, wondering if Chaewon would be comfortable or not with her question. Chaewon looked at her expectantly. "Maybe a..." She hesitated again.

"Hyejoo, just say it." Chaewon prompted.

"Is there maybe a genre of dance you would love to explore?" Hyejoo asked, eyes shutting close in apology. She couldn't help but be enthusiastic about dance. Especially it's different forms. 

Chaewon doesn't react negatively, seeming to take her question seriously. Hyejoo observes as she falls into deep thought. She questioned herself whaat genre of dance she would like to explore...after all she had learn most of the different forms since young. 

"Ballroom?" Chaewon broke her out of her thoughts. "I see it often in movies, and I think it's a really elegant form of dancing, like ballet." She adds.

Hyejoo's eyes grow wide, but she quickly calmed down. She suddenly got up and ran towards her room, leaving a confused Chaewon on the couch. What was she doing?

She came back a second later with a black JBL speaker. Without saying a word, she started moving the funiture. She removed the chairs of the dining table to push the table against the wall. She then carefully stacked the chairs on the table. She then walked to where they sat and shifted the coffee table onto her boxing mats, easily putting it in place. Chaewon watched on in awe of her swiftness and strength but also grew more and more confused.

Hyejoo plopped back onto to the couch next to Chaewon and first connected the speaker to the TV before searching for waltz music on Youtube. She ignores Chaewon burning gaze on her and sets the volume to a suitable one. She energetically gets up, stretching a hand out for Chaewon to take.

In a polite manner, she says. "M'lady, would you grant me a dance on this fine evening?"

Chaewon burst into giggles at her posture and tone, which was posh and proper. She gladly took her hand in amusement, but her brows furrowed slightly as she realised what she was doing.

"Hyejoo, I don't know how to waltz." She is immediately aware of the close proximity, Hyejoo was swift to bring them close.

"That's why I'll teach you." Hyejoo only replies, eyes kindly telling her to simply trust her.

Hyejoo placed Chaewon's left hand just below her right shoulder, placing her right hand on Chaewon's lower back. She gently laced their other hands together and stretched them out to the side. She looked into Chaewon's eyes and was relieved to see her looking back without any sign of discomfort, rather curiousity.

"This," Hyejoo motioned to their hand & arm positionings. "is our basic position. After we twirl, step backwards or forward, we always come back to this position, you understand?" She awaits for an answer.

Chaewon takes a second to familiarise herself with the position, trying to control her rapidly beating heart and the effect Hyejoo had on her. She could feel the warmth of her body mix with hers. 

"Okay." She finally replies, barely pulling herself together.

"Great, now we'll learn how to move in this position," She creates some space between then which makes Chaewon immediately miss the warmth. "Are you familiar with the box step?"

Chaewon nods, visualising the step in her head. "But if we're doing it with two people..."

"The box step will be inversed." Hyejoo finished her sentence, glad that Chaewon was on the same page as her.

"Ah, right. Let's try it out." Chaewon loosened her legs.

Hyejoo's eyes twinkle in hope. Hope that Chaewon would be able to enjoy dancing with her in the end.

When Hyejoo stepped her left foot back, Chaewon stepped her right foot forward. When she stepped to the side, Chaewon followed simultaneously, both mutually building a graceful rhythm to the music that hummed in the background.

Hyejoo brought them back to the centre after a cpuple minutes of continous movement. She blushes when she realises that they had been staring intently at each other the entire time. Chaewon seemed to have noticed that too, averting her gaze to the latter's shoulder.

"So now we'll add some spice," Hyejoo composes herself, wanting to make sure she was teaching Chaewon the right things. "I'm going to let you twirl." 

"Sounds fun." Chaewon smiles softly. "Will I get dizzy?" She teases. 

Hyejoo laughs. "Depends on how fast you wanna twirl m'lady."

As expected of a former dancer, Chaewon gets it down fast, squealing when she succesfully did for the first time.  Her previous attempts lead to nearly tripping over her own feet, which Hyejoo obviously took action to save her.

"Don't worry, I'm here to catch you when you fall." Hyejoo catches her by the waist, always taking the opportunity to slide in a cheesy line.

Chaewon reddens with a thought. 'What if I'm falling for you instead?' The thought lingers as Hyejoo stood them up to try again. 

"Are you ready to combine them and vibe?" Hyejoo prompts with swag, patting Chaewon's lower back.

"I guess I am." Chaewon replies, free of worry.

The entrancing piano pulls them into a smooth rhythm, the focus becoming one another. If anything their attention to one another had been brought to another level, a more intimate one. They were able to read and feel each other's movement; when Hyejoo's hand loosened in hers, she was asking her to twirl on the beat of the music. Chaewon took control of a couple steps, surprising Hyejoo with her confidence. 

Amazingly enough, they hadn't come in contact with any objects, with props given to Hyejoo for shifting the furniture out of the way. It was a part of her abrupt plan after all. She was just as absorbed as Chaewon was, hoping deeply that the latter was enjoying it as mich as she was.

They slowed to a stop when the music died, Hyejop catching Chaewon after her last twirl. She stayed put in her arms, breathing in sync as their eyes meet with shared emotions.

With the room being silent, Chaewon could practically feel her heart pumping in her ears. Her heart rate had been calm in the midst of waltzing with Hyejoo, despite the soft smiles they had sent each other's way. The tension had changed a little in this moment.

Hyejoo sensed it too, eyes travelling down to Chaewon's lips, something that grabbed her attention for a while.

Chaewon noticed, causing a frenzy of thoughts to run through her mind. Will she do it? 

The gap grows smaller as Hyejoo gradually dips her head down, their lips meeting in a matter of miliseconds & courage.

Chaewon closed her eyes just as Hyejoo closed hers, their lips barely grazing over each other's when-

"Trrring! Trrring!!" Hyejoo's phone goes off on the dining table, interrupting their moment.

The two seperated immediately, startled at the sound. Hyejoo cursed harshly in her mind, rushing over to see who dared to disturb her.

Chaewon turns away in faint embarrassment, touching her lips in awe. Maybe they hadn't kissed properly but she did feel Hyejoo's lips brush against hers! That had her heart fluttering like mad. 

"Sorry, Hyunjin called." Hyejoo says a second later, silencing her phone before walking up to Chaewon to hug her from behind. "You did really well by the way." 

"O-oh...thank you." Chaewon is nearly taken aback by her sudden skinship. It was unlike Hyejoo. Nonethless she accepted and patted Hyejoo's arms. "Thank you for teaching me, I can see why you're praised as a good teacher." She honestly replies, turning around in Hyejoo's arms.

Hyejoo grinned widely, touched. "You think so too? Awesome." 

Chaewon smiles in return, but it quickly falters as Hyejoo brought their faces close together again. 

"Now, should we finish what we started?" Hyejoo says teasingly, mindlessly drumming her fingers against Chaewon's hips.

Chaewon found no reason to be shy anymore, in particular about her feelings, seeing that Hyejoo also reciprocated the same way.

"Yes we should." Chaewon closed the gap, happy to have finally been able to express her feelings for Hyejoo.

Hyejoo found herself lost in the kiss, lost in the sensations the kiss brought her, the feelings she truly felt for Chaewon surfacing as she poured her heart into it. 

Both breathless but satisfied, they parted but kept their foreheads together. 

"Thank you for making my evening brighter each time." Chaewon referred to the other nights she had been with Hyejoo, each night similar but yet memorable.

"You're welcome. It's the least I could do for you." Hyejoo replies sweetly.

In that moment, Chaewon realised Hyejoo's intention of a sudden dance. She wasn't trying to make her get over her past or make her relish it, no, she had tried to help Chaewon enjoy dancing like she always had, through obviously different way; her learning a form of dance she'd never learned before. Hyejoo's naturally kindess warmed her heart.

If that wasn't the good enough of a reason to fall in love with her, Chaewon didn't know what else it could be. She wouldn't change it either way.

 

Authour's note: Hehe a long one this time, I hope y'all enjoy it!