Soojung groggily woke up to find her phone ringing somewhere in the sheets. It was the seventh missed call from Jongin. She still had her jeans on, remembering going straight to bed last night with an upset mood.

She and Jongin didn’t really get along well before she left. Soojung just walked straight out of his sight, after he had acted like his words were no big deal.

Soojung still felt sleepy, but she somehow fought the urge to snuggle some more and went straight to the bathroom. From inside, she could hear her phone ringing loudly again. She definitely had no plans on talking to him at this hour. Soojung wanted to clear her mind up and fill her raging stomach before hearing this guy’s awful apologies.

The morning dragged on slowly. Little Baekhyun and Sooyeon were up earlier than Soojung, waiting for her at the dining table. Mrs. Jung had prepared a lot for them, and she was nervous since everyone had a bright mood, including her older sister. She was the only one who had a frown early morning.

“Here you are,” her father waved as he came walking from the kitchen. “Let’s eat!”

She bared a huge smile. Soojung had felt a bit of excitement, seeing her dad once again.

“Dad!” she frantically ran and hugged him. “Wh—Why are you here?!”

“What, you don’t want me here?” He chuckled loudly.

Soojung missed hearing his unique laugh. “No, I mean. No one told me you’re coming home.” She glared at her mother, expecting an explanation. She just laughed, and invited everyone to settle for breakfast at the dining room.

“We were surprised, too,” Sooyeon started. “Dad arrived yesterday evening, but you weren’t here, since you were busy spending time with your boyfriend.”

“Hey!” Soojung shrugged. She said boyfriend like it was the most illegal thing on this planet. “As if you never had one.”

Mr. Jung was flabbergasted by his daughters’ conversation. “Wait, one of my princesses has a boyfriend now?”

“Yeah, I met him!” Baekhyun giggled cutely. “He’s awesome!”

Soojung swore she’ll strangle Sooyeon to death for bringing up that annoying Kim Jongin in this conversation. She could feel her cheeks burning; she’s going to die of embarrassment.

“Is that so?” Mr. Jung asked playfully. “Invite him here again. I want to meet this awesome guy Baekhyun’s talking about.”

“Yeah, sure,” She forced a grin. “I’ll invite him… some other time.”

She was enjoying her Sunday afternoon in her room watching some baseball games’ re-runs, until Jongin floods her with his never-ending calls again.

Soojung furiously stomped to get her phone and finally answered his call. She tried to settle and answered with a calm tone.

“Hello?” She didn’t know why she felt nervous on answering him.

“Soojung,” She swore he started with an irritated voice. “Why aren’t you answering?”

“I was...” Soojung thought of excuses. “feeling bad earlier. Sorry.” She bit her lip and walked back and forth across the room.

“You should’ve texted me,” He scolded. “Anyway, I’m really sorry, even though I don’t know what made you mad.”

She wanted to curse him for how insensitive he has gotten. “Yeah, sure. Whatever.” How could he still not realize?

“I guess you’re really feeling bad, huh.”

Soojung decided to not ruin the afternoon, so she just sheered the conversation and tried to be cheerful and all. “By the way, we got this recital on Thursday evening, are you free by then?”

“Why did it have to be this Thursday?” He worried. “I can’t come.”

Soojung heaved a big sigh. “Why? Are you going somewhere?”

“I can’t skip football practice. I’m captain,” His voice was deep and firm. “The team won’t be meeting for another week. You know when our next big game is.”

She felt a little bit tired to argue. Soojung was sure she’d never win in forcing this captain. “I’d have to perform without you watching, I guess.” She stressed with so much disappointment.

“Look, I’m really sorry,” Somehow, she found a hint of sincerity in his words. “I’ll try my very best to wrap it up early and catch your show. I’ll be there to pick you up, I’ll send you home. I promise.”

Jongin and the rest of the team were glad to see Chanyeol in the cafeteria looking especially happy, except for the fact that he wore sparkly pink bunny ears.

“What in the world are you wearing?” Yixing was cracking up and hitting the table really hard.

Chanyeol didn’t really see why they were laughing. “What are you talking about?” He was confused on why the rest of the students were giggling at him, which he thought was kind of odd.

“Dude, don’t tell me you’ve gone gay.” Jongdae teased, almost choking after sipping a bit of cola. “Is that what happened to you after you’ve dated Jinri?”

“I still don’t understand why—“ Chanyeol scratched his head, and realized he still had that thing on. “Oh.”

“Look, I’m not gay,” He recovered. “We had a storytelling activity during English class, and I had to put this on to entertain the kids.”

“And you forgot to take it off, you dumb hyung.” Jongin laughed. “Why did we have to be your friends?”

Chanyeol grabbed one of Minseok’s cheese burgers. The older didn’t seem to bother. “Stop laughing now, okay. I had to run here, I’m starving.”

Jongin remembered something and turned to him. “Why don’t you tell us the cause of your absence last Saturday?”

“You know… I helped Jinri with uhm, math lessons.” Chanyeol gulped. He actually doesn’t remember much of the teaching time. Although he clearly remembers being awkward in Jinri’s study room, Jinri laughing cutely at his not-so-funny jokes, feeding Jinri’s dog, Jinri’s adorable dumbness, Jinri—

“Why did it take you so long? You should’ve caught up with us.” Jongin pretended to question him.

“We um, sort of… had fun.” Chanyeol shyly admitted. “Sorry about that.”

Joonmyun ruffled his dongsaeng’s hair. “We’re going to let you pass, since it’s been ages you had fun with other people besides us.”

“It’s surprising that you surpassed spending two hours with me.” Jinri nudged Soojung as they walked by the corridors.

Soojung grinned. “He’s being an idiot.”

“What do you mean?” Jinri asked as she slammed her books into her locker.

The other opened hers and shrugged. “Long story.” She thought of it as some kind of excuse.

“You just don’t want to talk about it.” Jinri guessed.

“Sorry. It’s just…” She lifted her long hair and slid her bag onto her back. “I don’t want to ruin this nice afternoon.”

They strolled to the gates of the school, passing by the football field. There were a bunch of cheerleaders at the center, with some of the senior football players looking all flirty and giggly.

Soojung spotted Jongin playing around with a baseball with Oh Sehun. He looked handsome in that baseball cap, his tanned skin shining gorgeously under the sun. But she thought this isn’t the right time to be praising him and such.

Jinri realized Soojung had stopped walking. “Do you want to talk to Jongin?”

“No, I don’t want to disturb his fun time.” She replied bitterly.

“So, do you have plans after school?” Jinri asked.

“Studio. Routine practice,” Soojung answered blandly. “The usual.”

Soojung knew she was going to see Kim Myungsoo again, but she’s quite surprised he hadn’t changed a bit since last time.

“You came,” Myungsoo stood and greeted with a relieved face. “I thought you were going to ditch ballet because of me.”

Soojung dropped her bag at the corner of the room and smiled in return. “You know, I expected you to be awkward around me.”

“Nah, I also kind of expected you would answer like that,” The tone of his voice sounded very light and happy, although he wouldn’t look into Soojung’s eyes. “No big deal.”

She knew better. She’s sure there’s a tiny bit of hurt between his words.

“I’m thankful it’s a Monday,” Myungsoo changed the topic and tried to sound cheerful. “No one ever comes to the studio to practice, except us.”

Soojung nodded. “I guess they really hate the first day of the week.”

“No one loves Mondays like us.” He beamed, finally fixing his gaze on her. “Now, go change.”

“What about you?” Soojung noticed he was still in complete school uniform, propped on the studio floor. “Aren’t you going to practice?”

“Nope,” He had this evil grin. “I won’t dance with you at the recital either.”

“What are you talking about?” Soojung stood up, towering over Myungsoo. “Hey, don’t mess with me.”

“My ankle is bad right now, I have to rest it until next week. No pas de deux for this show.”

Good thing Myungsoo was a good liar. He doesn’t really have a bad ankle, nor have to rest it until next week. He just wanted Soojung to shine and go solo. This kid wouldn’t learn how to dance by herself, and Miss Haejin thought so too. Besides, Myungsoo wasn’t sure if he can dance perfectly without having his emotions mess him up.

Soojung sat helplessly beside him with her arms crossed. “What about the routine?”

“I’m sure you still remember that one when you were in eighth grade.”

Soojung grimaced. “The most embarrassing performance of my life. You’re making me do that?”

“You’ve learned a lot, ten times as good than you were back then.” Myungsoo assured her. “I haven’t seen you fail ever since that one.”

Soojung wanted to scream because of frustration. If he hadn’t been older than her, she would’ve strangled him already. “Thanks for the encouragement, but nevertheless, I hate you.”

“Here you are,” A hand swept the long hair covering Soojung’s face. “Next time, don’t use your hair to hide from me.”

“Who said I’m hiding from you?” She turned to Jongin, who turned out to be wearing his favorite jeans and a navy blue hoodie, and had no undershirt on. “And w-who said you’re allowed to roam around wearing only t-that?” She quickly turned to her textbook and kept a straight face. She could overhear some giggling, obviously from the swarm of girls seated by the bleachers.

“I just came from the shower room. That’s a valid excuse.” Jongin heard it too, making him zip up his hoodie.

“Whatever you say.” Soojung closed her textbook on social studies and patted the empty spot next to her. “Sit.”

“I’m really sorry about last time,” Jongin started as he sat. “I think I know what got you upset.” He continues, since Soojung isn’t answering. “I got a little bit controlling back there.”

Soojung managed a slight smile. “So you aren’t too insensitive.”

“It’s just that I didn’t want you to be far away. Seoul Ballet is miles from the college I wanted to attend.” Jongin admitted.

“You should’ve just told me your worries, though.” She sounded hurt. “It’s not like we’re going to separate for good.”

Soojung’s chest lightened, since she thought Jongin wanted to stop her from her ballet career. Although she somehow found Jongin’s reason a little bit selfish.

“We still have two more years. A lot of things can happen. Don’t worry too much.” Soojung assured.

“Don’t be mad at me, okay?” He entangled his fingers onto hers, pressing his lips against Soojung’s forehead.

Myungsoo thought Soojung’s performance was the most angelic of all. She had looked so confident, so elegant. Soojung always says she likes doing pas de deux more than dancing solo, but she definitely knows how to own the stage without Myungsoo’s help.

She perfected the routine, doing her fouettés en tournant more fluidly than ever. Her eyes shone brightly under the stage lights as she did her favorite, the grand jeté, and landed gracefully. She made a glissade to the center and ended in a Spanish fourth position.

Soojung bowed a couple of times and scanned the crowd, as if looking for someone. She seemed to have spotted Myungsoo and her father and waved at them. She kept scanning, but she was sort of disappointed. Myungsoo guessed Soojung didn’t see the person she was expecting.

“Soojung-ah, you were stunning back there.” Myungsoo praised her as they walked toward the exit doors. The recital just ended, and the two just finished saying goodbyes to their teachers and colleagues.

“Thanks,” She tucked thin strands of hair behind her ear. “Though it would have been more amazing if you didn’t have a sprained ankle and danced with me.”

“You’ve been dancing with me for a while now,” Myungsoo laughed at the idea. “Aren’t you getting tired of this face?”

Soojung shook her head. “Nope. Never.”

“Look, your dad’s waiting for you,” Myungsoo pointed beside the exit doors. Soojung ran and gave him a hug. Myungsoo followed her and greeted Mr. Jung.

“I missed going to your recitals.” Mr. Jung said. “Did your mom attend these when I was working overseas?”

“She and Sooyeon-unnie took turns.” Soojung answered. She gestured to Myungsoo. “Appa, you remember Myungsoo, right?”

“Ah, yes of course,” Mr. Jung patted him on the back. “He’s a regular at the recitals. Is he the one Baekhyun is talking about?”

“No, no!” Soojung tried to laugh in a cool way. He gave Myungsoo one of those I’ll-explain-later looks. Just when they were in the lobby and about to go outside, Soojung thought she heard someone calling her name.

A second later, someone tapped her shoulder from behind and said, “Hey.”

The three of them turned. It was Kim Jongin, trying to recover from panting. He immediately bowed and greeted Mr. Jung.

“Good evening,” He managed a shy smile. “I’m Kim Jongin, Soojung’s boyfriend.”