I ran away from the dance room. Actually, I just limped. But he made me so angry. I wanted to smash his frog face with my crutch. But I just ran.

I pressed the elevator button to go down. “Might as well look for Jonghyun.”

The elevator in front of me opened, and I came face-to-face with our teacher, who was in the elevator already.

I hesitantly walked in the elevator. “H-Hello.” I bowed slightly; but he continued to ignore me. I stayed on my side of the elevator and pressed the main floor button. The doors closed and we went down in silence.

The doors finally opened on the main floor. I slowly walked out of the elevator. Finally, I heard teacher speak behind me.

“You’ve been suspended for 6 weeks. Don’t come to practice.”

And with that, I heard the elevator doors close.

“.”

--

I woke up. I looked around, and realized I fell asleep outside. I stood up and stretched out my numb limbs.

“I wonder if Kibum’s back yet.” I yawned. “I don’t really want to go back though…”

So I sat back down again. My phone rang in my pocket.

“Hello?” I answered.

“Yah. Where the heck are you?” Kibum’s voice echoed through the phone.

“Just hanging,” I replied. “How did it go?”

“Why don’t you tell me where you are first, then we can talk about it.”

“Haha.” I heard someone coming down the hall. “Hold on.” I held my phone against my chest, so it wouldn’t be taken away if I got caught with it.

The door opened. Kibum walked out, sweat dripping from his face.

“Found you.” He said while turning off his phone. “Do you have any idea how tired I am right now? Dragging one leg to look for you.”

I just smiled. “Sorry,” I tapped the ground beside me. “Sit down.”

Kibum slowly sat down, laying his crutch between us.

I asked him again. “How’d it go?”

He started wiping off his sweat with the back of his hand. “It’s sprained. It’ll take six weeks to heal.”

“Mm.”

“I met Teacher in the elevator earlier...” He said.

I glanced at him once, and turned to stare at the road.

“…He said I’m suspended for six weeks.”

I didn’t say anything.

“Can I ask you something?” Kibum said.

I coughed once. “What?”

“Can you teach me what you guys are learning in class while I’m suspended?”

I turned my head in his direction.

“But…”I started. “How will you be able to dance with a sprained ankle?”

Kibum continued to stare forward. “I won’t put as much energy into it, but I’ll still try.” I saw determination in his eyes.

I looked toward the road again and smiled. “Fine.” I said. “But it’s your fault if you don’t keep up.” I held out my fist toward him.

 We fist-bumped for the second time.

--

One week.

“Kibum, we learned this move today.”

Two weeks.

“We talked about various things like stage presence, stage fright, and the audience today.”

Three weeks.

“We’re going to perform this dance for a dance show soon. Should we learn it together?”

Four weeks.

“Kibum, your elbow has to be bent like this. And you have to drag your foo- Oh, never mind.”

Five freaking goddamn weeks.

I sat down on the park bench. Every single day for the past five weeks, Jonghyun has been coming to teach me everything they learned that day. Occasionally Jinki-hyung and Taemin tag along with him, but Minho never comes. We’ve been meeting at the park every day.

I sighed, and looked at my ankle. “Almost there.” I looked around the park. There were still some children playing on the playground, and a person on a swing, even though it was nearly six.

“Kibum!” Jonghyun came running up to the park bench, short of breath, as usual.

I stood up. I still felt kind of awkward, as I didn’t need my crutch anymore to stand. I wobbled a bit.

“Whoa whoa whoa,” Jonghyun said. “I might have to teach you how to walk again.” He laughed while I glared at him.

“So,” he clapped his hands. “Remember the dance show I was telling you about? I found out that it’s on the day you come back to practice. Well, actually, there’s no practice because of the dance show… Anyway, I was thinking that you should perform at the show with the rest of us.”

I stared at Jonghyun. “Really?”

He smiled. “I think you’ll leave an impression if you do.”

I grinned back. “Then let’s learn this thing!”