Soobin’s POV

Donghae and I are already at the Competition Venue. We watched couple after couple and they are all really good.

“Don’t worry. We’ll outshine them.” Donghae said as he squeezed my arm in reassurance.

In no time, it was our turn.

“Hwaiting.” Donghae whispered before he took my hand and lead me on stage. We got into our position and waited for the music to start.

I was facing him as he looked at me in the eye. One of my hands on his shoulder while the other on his chest. I was leaning slightly to the right and we were standing under the red spot light.

When the music began, we moved with the music. However, the eye contact never broke. I know through the entire dance, I was looking at him in the eye and so was he. It was as if he was telling me to trust him.

Throughout the weeks of practice, I have placed all my trust in him. If not, we won’t be able to practice at all.

When the music ended and our dance came to an end, I heard loud rounds of applause. We bowed and I squinted to see a huge crowd. It was a standing ovation.

“We did it.” I said when we went back stage.

‘Yes we did.” He said before suddenly giving me a hug.

We went back to our waiting room before it was announced that contestants were to head to the stage to receive the award.

“2^nd Runner up…. Gyungnam high!” There was a loud round of applause with wolf whistling and cat calls.

“1^st runner up…. Dongjoon high!” It was the pair which I thought would win. They had a new number of high difficulty moves and their coordination was perfect.

“Lastly, the champion. Who would it be?” The MC asked. I didn’t realize I was grabbing hard on Donghae’s hand.

“It’s none other than… “ He seem like he was dragging on forever.

“CHUNGNAM HIGH! Congratulations!” Did I hear it wrong? We won?!

Donghae was as shocked as I was till we felt a push for us to step forward to receive the trophy and sash.

“Congratulations yet again. The champions would be representing Korea to compete in the Asia’s competition! Let’s all wish them good luck and give them another round of applause.”

I couldn’t stop smiling. Even though it wasn’t the first time I received a trophy, but winning it with someone else, working hard with someone else, it was the first time.

“Congratulations! I’m so proud of the both of you!” Ms. Shi said before coming to give us a group hug when we went back stage. Both Donghae and I had received many bouquets of flowers and our entire room was filled with them.

“It seems like we’ll be going to Japan.” Donghae said after we changed out of out costume.

“Let’s hope we make Korea proud then. After all, we’re Koreans.” I said.

We took Ms. Shi’s car back to school where she announced the results straight away through the PR system, causing most student to come up to us and congratulate us.

“Congratulations! I knew the both of you can do it!” Haemin came to us with Eunhyuk.

“So the both of you will be going to Japan?” Eunhyuk asked.

“Yes we are.”Donghae answered.

“I hope our group dance will get top too. Like this we can also represent Korea.” Eunhyuk said.

“Don’t worry, you all can do it.” Donghae said with his hand on Eunhyuk’s shoulder.

“We’re late for practice already. See you around!” Haemin said before dragging Eunhyuk away.

As for the both of us, Ms. Shi allowed us to head home for the day since we’ve already put in so much effort and we needed our rest, but from tomorrow onwards, another round of intensive training would begin.

As expected Donghae came to my place. Omma congratulated the both of us for making the school proud.

“Oh I wanted to ask you this yesterday but it slipped my mind. How was your grades for your English test? I heard it’s out already.” I said and I saw the guilty look on Donghae’s face.

“It’s not very good.” He said before fumbling with his bag from his room and pulling out a piece of paper.

“60 out of 100! That’s great. You’ve made improvements.” I said and flipped through the paper. It seems like he really put in a lot of effort for English. His previous grade was 30 out of 100. To improve so quickly, he would have spent a lot of time and effort since it’s not easy to improve a language subject.

“But most of my mistakes are really careless.” He looked down, not looking at me, fiddling with his fingers.

I placed my hand on his, “Making such a great improvement after a few weeks is very good. It shows how much effort you placed into the subject. I guess you’ll still be my peer tutee for now.” I said before we head off to the showers to wash away the make-up and change into more comfortable clothes.

When I was done, I went to the study room to see him not out yet. I sat down and massaged my legs. I felt my whole body being sore and how I wished I could go for a nice massage. Maybe I should have taken more time during the shower just now and take a dip in the hot tub.

Suddenly, I felt a pair of hands on my shoulder and I immediately jumped out of my seat.

“It’s me, Donghae.” He said and I untensd immediately.

You scared me. I thought who it could be.” I said before taking a sat.

“I saw you massaging you legs so I thought you might be tired, so I was thinking maybe I can help you untense your shoulder muscles.” He said.

“It’s alright. I’m fine. Let’s get started then since you’re back.” I know he was trying to help, but I didn’t like people touching me. That trauma left a really deep impact on me and I don’t really want to get it started again.

However, he seems to be out of focus for the past half an hour.

“Donghae. Donghae!” I exclaimed and he snapped out of his thoughts.

“yeah?” he looked at me.

“you seem tired I guess we should stop for the day. You go and rest.” I said and left the room.

End of Soobin’s POV

Haemin’s POV

Today, Soobin went for the couple dance segment with Donghae, so I had no one to accompany me today. I somehow envy Soobin because she could be so close to Donghae. I admit I have been having a crush on Donghae ever since last year. There was one time last year I saw him sitting under a tree at the back of the school, listening to music and reading a book. The wind blew and he looked really charming. When he noticed that I was looking at him, he nodded before giving me a smile. It was then. It hit me that I have a little feeling for him. During that time, he wasn’t a Kingka yet, but many girls liked him.

I have always told Soobin that he wasn’t a bad guy because I have seen the nice side of him. I guess she must have seen it by now, that’s why they’re close. I’m not jealous or anything because I know this feeling towards him is not love. It’s just some kind of admiration, or maybe you can say I idolize him.

It’s a lucky thing I have Eunhyuk to accompany me during the break time. Eunhyuk and I are partners for the group dance. The both of us got along really well. Ever since he joined the dance club with Soobin, I got to know him more. He’s really smart and didn’t have a lot of friends because of his appearance. However, after being around him for some time, I got to realize he wasn’t bad looking. It was really because of the glasses he wore. It was so big and bulky.

Ever since Soobin, Donghae and I helped Eunhyuk with his image, a lot of people don’t recongise him. Now there are girls following him around and even writing him love letters, how I know he’s still the shy boy deep inside.

“Haemin!” I heard someone call me and I saw Eunhyuk running towards me.

“Sorry to keep you waiting. The teacher let us off late.” He said and we walked into the cafeteria together. The both of us talked about our lives and classes. Eunhyuk even offered to help me with school work when the dance competition is over.

“Oppa, can we sit here?” A group of girls came towards our table and I could tell they were flirting with him since they were batting their eyelashes and their skirts were so short.

“sure.” Eunhyuk said.

“Let’s go.” Eunhyuk said and pulled me away since we were done with our food long ago. I saw the girls sending me daggers through their eyes. Now I know how Soobin felt.

“That was close. I didn’t know how to reject them.” Eunhyuk said as we walked to the back of the school.

The both of us sat down on a bench and shared our thoughts about the couple dance segment today. Eunhyuk says he believe that Soobin and Donghae would bring back the champion trophy.

Donghae is a really great dancer. He has his own style and his moves were sleek. When he dances, it seems like the whole world has stopped moving and he was the only one moving. I didn’t know why, but his dance captures people’s hearts. He had been offered classes in the dance schools, but he rejected them. Record companies have also came to sign him, but he rejected as well.

“How I wish I am half as good as Donghae.” Eunhyuk sighed.

“You’re good in your own way too! The both of you are of different styles!” I tried to cheer him up.

“Really?” He smiled his gummy smile.

“Really. You’re awesome!” I said and he laughed.

Looking at my watch, I realized that break time was about to end so Eunhyuk and I walked back into the school building and left for class.

I helped Soobin collect all the work that was given so she won’t be too far behind. Before class ended, the PR system came to life, announcing that Soobin and Donghae was Champion in the couple dance segment. This is great news!

After class ended, I met Eunhyuk and we went to look for Soobin and Donghae, but they were surrounded by people who were congratulation them, so we stood aside and waited till they were alone.

After congratulating them, we rushed off for practising since Donghae and Soobin had the privilege of not attending practice today after taking part in the competition.

Dance practice was tiring since the date was drawing nearer and the group dance was still lacking something.

After Dance practice ended, Eunhyuk and I was about to leave the school when a group of girls stopped us and it was the girls from break time.

“Oppa, want to hang out with us?” With their batting of eye lashes. It’s really disgusting I don’t know how they were able to do that. I know I won’t do it.

“I’m going home. Sorry.” He said before dragging me away from them. I felt invisible daggers being sent to me again.

As Eunhyuk and I walked home, we were analyzing what was missing. We all work well as a team, but the teacher said something’s missing and all of us are trying to figure out what’re the problem.

“I guess we’ll continue analyzing tomorrow then. I’ll see you around!” Eunhyuk and I bid each other farewell before I head home, passing Soobin her homework on the way.

End of Haemin’s POV