“1,2,3,4 2,2,3,4 3,2,3,4 turn. AISH. STOP STOP STOP!” Jiyeon screamed as she pushed Myungsoo.

Myungsoo smirked and looked at Jiyeon in amusement. Ruffling her hair in frustration, she looked up and glared really hard at Cho Hee. Hoya shook his head and sighed. That affected her more than Jiyeon’s glare- his disapproval.

“Yah. Can you get your act together?!” She yelled and caused many girls in the group to snicker.

“Yes, I will. Sorry.” Cho Hee mumbled softly.

“Start all over again!” She ordered and the person nearest to the music player acted according to her command.

Cho Hee was trying her best to concentrate with all her aching muscles from yesterday’s practice and ignoring the fact that her partner is Hoya, the one who always her to lose concentration. Hoya tried to cover up her mistakes from time to time and this reduced her scolding from Jiyeon. The group eventually moved on to the final step of the dance after practising the previous few over and over because of mistakes here and there. Thankfully, Cho Hee was not the only who faulted all the time. However, she had gotten the most scolding from the leader, as usual. Like in the past, Cho Hee would apologise but this time, without the smile. She knew even if she treated them with the same respect and courtesy, they wouldn’t do the same. Instead, her smile would look disgusting and hideous to them. She just knew.

“At this point, girls, you will do a split and the guys would pull you up in a swift moment. Get it?” she said as she demonstrated with L.

Myungsoo smirked at her when she got up from the split and they were close to one another. Jiyeon merely rolled her eyes at him and turned to face the group.

“Practise with your partner for 30 minutes and we will come back together as a group to synchronise the movement! Practise hard for the reputation of ‘Sparklex’, arraso?” she shouted.

“Ne.” They chorused.

Cho Hee swallowed hard at the next move to be practised. The split was not the issue here since she had mastered it some time back. After all, doing a split was one of the basic movements in dance. The issue was how Hoya was going to pull her up in a swift moment like how L did to Jiyeon. She knew her physique was quite hard to achieve that and she would definitely not be able to withstand being in such close proximity with him.

“Are you going to keep stoning there for 30 minutes?” he questioned.

“Ani, it’s just th-” She turned back and tried to explain.

“How do I put it? I…I can’t possibly say ‘It’s just that I think I am too fat and you can’t pull me up’, right?” she thought and sighed inwardly, feeling extremely self-conscious out of a sudden.

“We can do it.” He said.

She looked up at him, surprised at his words. It was as if he read her mind.  

“Let’s get started.” He confirmed and that instantly erased all negative probabilities in Cho Hee’s mind.

Hoya extended his hands and waited for her to place hers in his. Slowly and unsurely, Cho Hee placed her hands in Hoya’s. She slid down swiftly but fell to the side in the next instant, bumping into Hoya’s inner right leg. Hoya balanced himself but Cho Hee had fallen to the ground already. The whole studio erupted into a loud laughter and Cho Hee felt embarrassed.

“I…I forgot to do stretching.” She explained to no one before getting up.

Hoya rolled his eyes and gestured for her to do her necessary stretching.

“You can do this, Park Cho Hee.” She told herself before giving the split a second attempt.

This time, she went down smoothly but the issue was next.

“How is he going to pull me up?” she thought in her mind.

“4,2,3,4.” Hoya gave the command and pulled Cho Hee up at the count of 4.

Secretly, everyone was looking in the pair’s direction, ready to see Cho Hee make a fool out of herself again. However, surprisingly, Hoya managed to pull Cho Hee without any fault. He was surprised at himself too.

“I told you we can do it.” He said with a smile.

Then, Cho Hee realized that she was really close to Hoya after getting up and his smile completely blown her away. She froze in position and normally, this is when the male lead would lean down and steal the female lead’s first kiss. However, back to reality, Hoya merely stepped back.

“I guess this is all thanks to my regular workout. But damn, this fat girl is going to make me have severe muscle aches tomorrow.” He cursed in his mind as the smile he had on a moment ago vanished quickly.

She could feel her heart beating faster than ever and she wondered if it was evident that her cheeks were pink.

“I…I need the toilet urgently.” She informed before running off.

“Yah. We have not prac-” Before Hoya could complete his sentence, Cho Hee ran out of the studio already.

She locked herself up in the cubicle and leaned against the door with her hands on her cheeks.

“If you continue to act like this, how am I going to stop myself from falling for you further?” she questioned as she tried to calm her racing heart.

After some time, Cho Hee got out of the cubicle. She walked over to the basin and sighed. Splashing some water onto her face, Cho Hee looked into the mirror which had her reflection in it.

“If I were not this Park Cho Hee standing here, would everything between you and I be different?” she wondered.

Returning to the studio, she saw Jiyeon had struck up a conversation with Hoya. Looking at them from afar, Cho Hee thought they actually looked compatible.

“Dance machine, dance leader. The pretty and the handsome.” She thought with a sadistic smile.

“You’re back.” Hoya said as he looked over Jiyeon’s shoulders and spotted Cho Hee.

“Yea. Sorry for taking such a long time.” She apologized.

“Want to practise together?” Jiyeon asked Hoya with a smile.

“Sure.” Hoya agreed, without consulting Cho Hee at all.

The two pairs left a considerable gap between one another and was about to practise the splitting movement together. At the start count of the beat, both of the girls went down and did a split. Then, now it was up to Myungsoo and Hoya to complete the move. Myungsoo pulled Jiyeon up effortlessly and the two smiled in triumph.

“Although it is kind of hard, you got to pull her up faster, Hoya.” Jiyeon said and patted on his shoulder before leaving to supervise the next pair.

Hoya thought she saw a quick flash of hurt in Cho Hee’s eyes but it vanished soon when she put on a fake smile.

“Sorry.” He heard her say.

“Let’s start again.” Hoya looked away and said.

They practised over and over again until the 30 minutes practice time was over. Jiyeon gathered everyone together to practise the last step and learn the finale pose.

“Hoya’s pair, too slow.”

“Cannot make it.”

“Restart.”

Cho Hee looked up at Hoya’s face which was getting darker and darker at Jiyeon’s remarks.

“I am…”

“If you really are, then just keep quiet.” He said.  

She nodded and stopped talking. Hoya put his full concentration into pulling her up in the final move which drained all of his remaining energy already.

“Okay, good.” Jiyeon finally said.

“Now, for the finale pose… Everyone would…” She instructed and drew up a draft of the formation the group should be in.

“Get it?” she asked.

“Ne.” They replied together.

“And with that, I conclude that today is the end of our practice sessions for the senior year’s performance together! Everyone did well… Although some did better than the others. Anyway, don’t forget to return home and practise more, okay?” Jiyeon said with a deliberate smile.

Everyone applauded and relieved smiles broke out on their faces. They were anticipating for that one day whereby all their hard work, sweat and effort would pay off. The thunderous applause from the audience was all that they wanted on that day.

“Now, here is the allocation of the pairs on stage.” Jiyeon said.

She then told them their locations and Hoya was taken aback. Cho Hee and he were standing at the second last row of the stage.

“Why am I at the back?” he questioned upfront, not bothering to beat around the bush.

Jiyeon met eyes with him and shifted her gaze to Cho Hee with a knowing smile.

“Put us at the front.” He demanded.

As the group’s dance machine, Hoya was always at the front of the stage. Never once had he been allocated to the back and never in his life would he accept this type of arrangement.

“I am more than willing to do that, Hoya. But what do your partner think?” Jiyeon said with a smirk as she directed the question to Cho Hee.

Being the unconfident Cho Hee, she would normally accept the arrangement of being at the back gladly. This was what she had always been doing anyway. She thought that in this way, less people would see her mistakes and she would be less embarrassed if anything goes wrong. She was used to go unnoticed and she had learnt that sometimes, that can become a blessing. However, this time she had a different notion. She knew that Hoya wanted to be at the front. Also, this was her first and probably last chance to be on stage. She wanted to shine like how an unpolished diamond would after being processed.

“Put us at the front, please.” She said and looked down after saying so. 

“Sure.” Jiyeon said as she immediately swapped one of the pair with Hoya’s.

“I am looking forward to our performance.” Jiyeon said.

“In 3 days’ time, we will be the sparkling on stage like we have always been, right?!” Jiyeon shouted loudly as she pointed to the dance group like a rock singer on stage.

“YES!” came the resounding response. 

Author's Note:
Hehe. A slightly longer update because I was super happy reading the comments :D ! 
Thank you lovelies, for commenting^^ 
Hope you enjoyed reading and don' forget to comment! (: 
Thank you for reading 'Dear Diary, I am Fat'.