~Chapter SEVENTEEN~

Andrea had been right about the competition being composed of groups from all over the world. Granted, most were from Asia, but there were a few from the larger European and American, both northern and southern continents, cities.

All in all there were about thirty different groups, and ten different languages being spoken, but somehow, everyone managed to communicate with each other. And even though they were all competing against each other, because of competition meetings and designated dance practices areas, people made friends with others from different crews.

Andrea, however, hadn’t made very many friends. Any time that wasn’t spent eating or sleeping, she was in one of the practice rooms that the competition holders had designated for the competitors, choreographing.

She, and her crew had attended the initial competition meetings, where they learned the rules. There would be two days of competition, the first day for two dances by each crew, one for a fast tempo song of their choice, and a ballad song of their choice. The second day would come a week later, after the judges had chosen three crews to compete in the finals. The song would be provided, and they would have a week to choreograph a dance to it.

The ballad was giving Andrea some trouble, however. The song that her crew had decided on was a dance ballad, so it wasn’t that difficult to dance to, but it was long, and Andrea, for some reason, was struggling to choreograph a dance that didn’t seem too repetitive.

“Don’t try too hard,” Ryan told her as he watched her dance. He could tell she was getting annoyed and frustrated with herself for not being able to come up with a fantastic dance that she could be proud of very quickly. “Come and eat some of this….stuff.”

Andrea stopped dancing and turned around to face her friend, breathing heavily. “You have no idea what you ordered again, do you?”

Ryan, who was sitting on the floor in the back of the studio, sprawled out as though he was on a picnic, shook his head innocently. “I just asked for ‘The best food,’ and this is what they gave me.”

“”It’s absolutely fascinating to me that you manage to learn no other Korean except for ‘Give me your best food,’” Andrea said as she walked over and sat across from her friend.

Ryan handed her a plate of food he had just dished out. He had already knew that Andrea would be joining him for lunch. “I know; aren’t you proud of me?”

Andrea took a bite of food, suddenly realizing how hungry she was. “Well, I’d be more proud of you if you managed to not get lost any time you leave the apartment,” Andrea told him, still full of food.

Ryan had always loved wandering around, and in LA he was a pro. But Seoul, South Korea was a different beast entirely, and Andrea had taken to either accompanying Ryan out or sending someone with him if she couldn’t go, due in large part to the number of phone calls Ryan made to her when he went out alone, complaining that everything looked the same no matter which way he looked.

Ryan chuckled and began eating himself.

After a while, Ryan looked up at Andrea, who had already finished eating, and was tapping beats out with her fingers on the hardwood floors of the studio. Ryan knew she was creating another routine to try.

“I worry about you, you know,” he said plainly, reaching for more food.

Andrea looked at Ryan, broken out of her trance by his words. “You don’t have to, you know.”

Ryan shook his head, solemn. “Someone should. You obviously don’t, since you’re in here all the time, and your crew don’t know you well enough to know that you need someone looking after you.”

“I don’t need a babysitter,” Andrea insisted coldly.

“No, but you do need someone to catch you when you fall,” Ryan said, still calm. “Literally, sometimes.”

Andrea didn’t say anything. His words brought her back to the day she had been dancing alone and had fallen, only to need help from Jay in order to get back up. If she were being honest with herself, she knew that Ryan was right. It annoyed her that she needed as much help as she did, but ever since her sophomore year, she realized that she would have to lean on people for probably the majority of her life. She had always prided herself on being independent, and though that hadn’t been completely taken away from her, the struggle she had now meant leaning on others more than she would have ever liked.

“Have you heard from him?” Ryan continued, not waiting for a response from his friend.

“What? Who?”

“You know perfectly well who I’m talking about,” Ryan sighed, looking at his friend for the first time with tired eyes. Andrea knew that Ryan tired of her trying to push people away, but the comedian in him refused to let him show his true feelings, except, for whatever reason, right now, in a dance studio in Seoul South Korea, over a makeshift picnic with random dishes of who knew what. Andrea could see his true feelings, and suddenly Andrea felt like crying.

“No. I haven’t heard from him,” Andrea answered quietly looking away from Ryan. She knew that he would know she was holding back tears, but she still hid her face with her hair.

“You should find a way to talk to him,” Ryan said, thankfully refraining from commenting on Andrea’s display of emotion.

“He’s busy,” Andrea said quickly. She wasn’t lying; since the first day, she had seen Jay on various TV shows, all in Korean, though sometimes he did speak English, and that was the only time Andrea knew what was going on, though she had managed to figure out that Jay was a big deal, though Andrea wasn’t sure why. He was talented, sure, and good-looking, but there seemed to be something that she was missing that added to the hype.

“Still, didn’t you exchange numbers?” Ryan asked. “Shouldn’t you at least text him and tell him you’re in the same city?”

“Ryan, I’d look like a stalker.”

Ryan thought for a second, then nodded. “You’re right, you would.”

Andrea let out a snort, grateful that Ryan was back to cracking jokes.

“Anyway, I hope this dance I’ve been watching you practice isn’t the one for tomorrow, because if it is, I’ll regret entering you in this competition,” Ryan said, finishing off the food.

“Hey!” Andrea cried, laughing and reaching over to slap her friend. “It’s coming along, but no, it’s not for tomorrow. I have the two dances choreographed, I’m just working out the final kinks for the ballad piece.”

“I know, Ryan said, chuckling. “It’s actually really good. I was just teasing.”

“Well, what else is new?”

-           -           -           -

“I can’t believe you nailed that!” Bre cried as soon as they walked off the stage, grabbing a hold of Tony’s arm and wrapping him in a hug.

The rest of the dancers laughed lightly, too tired to add their own thoughts to Bre’s exclamation. Andrea wanted to say something, but was too winded to have the ability to speak. They had successfully completed their ballad dance in front of the judges, and the one part Andrea had been worried about being disastrous, a section in which Tony had to remain holding himself up by one arm for an extended period of time, went off without a hitch. During the practices, if Tony didn’t have trouble holding himself up, everyone else seemed to have trouble with their timing. Just now, in front of the judges, in the actual competition, was the first time Andrea felt that they had executed their moves well.

“Should we go celebrate?” Murphy asked, wrapping as many crew members as he could into a hug, which, considering his stature was a lot.

“Yeah!” Lizzy shouted, and it was loud enough that Andrea looked back at the stage to make sure that the group performing hadn’t been disturbed by the cry.

Brandon quickly hushed her though, so the only people affected were those closest to them, but even then, the other crews were too busy worrying about their own routines to care what anyone else was doing. They were in the zone.

“I want to watch for a little while,” Andrea told her dancers. They had been one of the first groups to compete, so it created a rare opportunity for Andrea to check out the competition in a formal setting. And because they were performing in an actual auditorium; one of considerable size, actually, she knew that she could watch and not be a disturbance at the same time.

Lizzy groaned, but once Tony assured her that the restaurants would still be around after the competition, Lizzy nodded. “Alright,” she sighed. “We’ll celebrate later, but I’m going to head home and shower and change.”

“Same here,” Bre added.

“Same,” the three boys agreed.

As much as Andrea wanted to watch the other performances, she had to admit that a shower sounded good.

But instead she decided to stay, telling her crew to be sure to find and hold onto Ryan when they left.

Andrea walked around to the entrance of the auditorium, and was just about to enter into the seating area when she noticed that there was a balcony. Andrea always preferred watching dance performances from above, as some groups, the more clever ones, often would integrate symbols into their dances. And those crews were the ones Andrea knew that she would have to look out for if she wanted to win.

She looked around for a little longer before she found the stairs up to the balcony.

Once there, she settled into one of the first rows, ready to watch whatever group was next.

“You did really well,” a voice suddenly spoke up from behind her, making her jump violently.

She turned around quickly, only to find Jay Park sitting a few rows directly behind her, silently laughing at her reaction to him speaking.

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