~CHAPTER ELEVEN~

Andrea had been hoping—even praying, occasionally—that something would come up that she would have to take part in after the dance competition on Saturday so she wouldn’t have to go out with Jay, but, as is usual with her luck, nothing did come up, and, much to her annoyance, a part of her was happy about that. She didn’t want to like him for a multitude of reasons. The dominating reason, however, was because if she like Jay, it would prove Ryan right about Jay not being a bad guy, and it would also give her friend a reason to make fun of her for quite possibly the rest of her life, and that would hurt her pride more than admitting to Ryan that going to the movies with Jay wasn’t sounding so bad.

The competition that she and Jay, along with their respective crews, were in went well for both, even if it was a little weird for Andrea. When she had been invited to participate, she had been in a crew with Jay’s current members. But besides that, it was the first time in a while that Andrea had danced on an actual stage, and for as far as she knew, it had been the first time some of her team had ever been in a formal competition.

Her team hadn’t won, but that was okay with that, since Jay hadn’t either. The judges had only told everyone who had come in first, leaving everyone in the dark as to who had made second, third and so on, which made Andrea’s life a whole lot easier. It meant that Jay’s crew and Andrea’s team were either equal in skill, or at least they didn’t know who was better than whom. Because of this, Andrea knew that it wouldn’t be too awkward for her when she met up with Jay afterwards. She wasn’t sure how she would be able to act around him if he had won the competition with her old members and friends.

“Your aerials were really good,” Jay complimented her as he drove. It was late, at least, it was late enough that the nocturnal side of LA was creeping out. The LA streets and freeways were still crowded, of course, as it was a Saturday night in Los Angeles and everyone just had to be out on Saturday night here.

Jay and Andrea, however, were headed out of the city, so the traffic wasn’t nearly as bad as it was for them as it was for those heading further in. Jay had thought ahead enough to find a theater outside of the overly-crowded parts, though, being LA, it would be crowded no matter where they went.

“Thanks,” Andrea said quietly, actually feeling a little shy to be getting choreography compliments from him.

“But you didn’t participate in a lot of them though,” Jay pointed out. “Is it because of your knee? Has it been bothering you?”

Andrea smiled wider, grateful that it was dark enough that Jay couldn’t see her face. He was more worried about her knee than she was, though some part of that was probably because he wasn’t the one using it every second of every day. “Not really,” she answered. “It’s more because I have a terrible fear of them. I mean, I can do them when I’m practicing with my team, but when I’m being judged, I question myself, and that’s—”

“The last thing you want to do,” Jay finished, essentially stealing her words away from her.

She grinned and looked down at her feet, feeling like a schoolgirl. “Exactly.”

“Now, who were the ones…the ones doing the series of flips over the two girls during the middle part?” Jay asked, ignorant of Andrea’s bright red face.

“Murphy and Brandon,” Andrea answered after a slight moment’s hesitation. He had already stolen her crew once; she didn’t want it to happen again. Granted, now that she knew him, she didn’t think he meant to do anything wrong, but that didn’t stop her from being a little wary. “And they were flipping over Bre and Lizzy.”

When Murphy and Brandon first approached her with the idea of them doing a group of alternating back flips and forward flips over another crew member during their performance, Andrea was concerned that either the flow of the dance would have been interrupted, or that the boys would be too dizzy afterward to continue dancing. But after being assured by all four members that they could do it and make it work, as well as being shown the move, Andrea okayed it, as long as they figured out where to put it in the already established choreography. They did, and Andrea had to admit, it was a good idea, and, based on the reaction she had heard during the competition, the crowd had liked it too.

“It was really cool,” Jay continued. “They were in complete sync, even though the two of them were on opposite sides of the stage.”

“They were?” Andrea asked. “I couldn’t see both of them from where I was…”

She saw Jay nod.

There was a moment of silence while Andrea tried to find a compliment for Jay’s performance. She had actually watched it, much to Ryan’s surprise and delight, and the dance had been really well done, but Andrea didn’t want to compliment her former crew members. It was still too soon after them leaving for her to feel comfortable doing that.

Before she could find anything to say though, Jay asked, “How do you feel about Korean food?”

“I like it,” Andrea answered automatically, and it wasn’t a lie. When she and Ryan first became friends and started hanging out, Andrea’s dad would keep forgetting that Ryan, though part Asian, was actually Japanese. He had no Korean blood in him at all, but Andrea’s dad had a difficult time remembering that, and would therefore get Korean food whenever Ryan stayed for dinner at their house. Andrea had always been embarrassed, but Ryan was a good sport about it, and always ate it, knowing that Andrea’s dad meant well. By the time her dad finally got the memo, getting Korean food had already become tradition anytime Ryan was over.

“Good, because I’ve been craving it,” Jay admitted. “Do you mind if we stop for food? We’ll still get to a movie, I promise.”

Andrea laughed. “It’s fine. I’m kind of hungry anyway. Do you know where you’re going, though?”

It was Jay’s turn to laugh. “Yes, I know where I’m going. Have a little faith in me. And my driving.”

“Okay,” Andrea mumbled, well aware that she had now gone way past the point of just knowing Jay. She was now being asked to trust him, which was an entirely different ballgame, even if he was only asking her to trust him enough to know how to get to a Korean restaurant.

They sat in silence for a little while, allowing the radio play. Andrea had a tendency to pay more attention to music instead of conversation while in a car. It had annoyed family and friends before, but apparently, Jay had the same condition. Andrea caught him more than once tapping out beats in time to the music on the steering wheel, and even humming along to some songs and commercial jingles.

Finally, Jay pulled up in front of a section of a strip mall, which was conveniently labeled “Korean Dining” over a door.

“Have you been here before?” Jay asked as he turned the car off and unbuckled his seatbelt.

“No,” Andrea said, shaking her head. “Why?”

Jay shrugged. “Just wondering. Do you mind if I do the ordering?” he opened his door and got out of the car, and Andrea followed suit.

“That’s fine with me,” Andrea said warily. “AS long as I know what you end up ordering?” She didn’t like eating things when she didn’t know what they were. Ryan used to play that joke on her, and she had ended up eating a lot of really disgusting things, so now she always made sure to know what was going into anything she ate.

“Deal,” Jay agreed, opening the door to the restaurant and holding open for her.

A bell rang as the door opened, signaling their entrance, and almost immediately, an older woman walked into the main room from a door at the back of the restaurant. She bowed slightly to Jay and Andrea, and said, “Hello,” but in a thick accent.

“Why don’t you go find a place to sit,” Jay suggested quietly to Andrea. “I’ll do the ordering.”

“But I thought I got to know what I’m eating?”

Jay smiled slyly. “You will. When the food comes. I promise. Now go find a seat.”

Andrea sighed loudly, but started looking around the restaurant for a seat. There were only ten or so small tables and booths in the entire place, and about half of them were already full, surprising Andrea. The strip mall was out of the way that the general population went, and Andrea hadn’t seen a lot of cars parked outside, but apparently, this was the place to be for some people. And, based on the looks she got as Andrea walked towards an open booth, the patrons were regulars and could tell that it was her first time coming here.

Andrea sat down at the booth. She could hear Jay and the woman who had greeted them talking to each other, but she couldn’t hear what was being said, so she tuned them out. It was then that she realized that there was music playing. She turned around to see a TV on the wall behind her, playing a music video of what she could only assume to be a Korean group, as she had no idea what they were saying, and the video didn’t look familiar to her.

She looked around the booth, and saw that the restaurant had put menus on the tables, so Andrea grabbed one and began to read. It was in both Korean and English, and even though she had no previous experience with Korean, she found herself comparing it to English, wondering which words meant what.

“Studying Korean?” Jay’s voice startled Andrea away from the menu, which made Jay laugh as he slid into the booth on the other side of Andrea.

“Where’s the food?” she asked.

“It’s coming,” Jay said, imitating her whine. “Be patient.” He was poking fun at her, and she couldn’t help but laugh.

“What did you get us?” she asked, looking back down at the menu, wondering which items Jay had chosen.

When she didn’t get an immediate answer, Andrea looked back up, only to find Jay looking at the TV behind her. When she turned around, she saw that the video and music had changed. It had been a girl group, sounding very happy, but now it was guys, and one line of the chorus was in English.

“Are they saying ‘again and again?’” Andrea asked, turning back to Jay.

“Huh? Oh, yeah, they are.” Jay answered, looking back at Andrea with a smile. “You know them?”

“Hm? No,” Andrea answered. “I just wanted to make sure I wasn’t hearing things wrong.”

Jay didn’t say anything in response, but he did smile at her. Andrea couldn’t help but notice that this smile seemed sadder than usual.

She wanted to ask about it, just as he would have done to her. But before she could, a restaurant employee walked over to their table, carrying a tray-full of food. Andrea could only watch in awe as more and more food was placed on the table in front of her. “Explain all of this to me,” Andrea sighed once the waiter had left.

Jay laughed, his usual, happy laugh back. “Alright. Do you think you can remember all of this, though?”

Andrea shook her head, but Jay launched into his explanations anyway. 

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