“Wait so the simple version of that entire convoluted story is: the two of you need to perform in the talent quest,” Eunji concluded with a slow smirk spreading across her face. “I TOLD YOU. YOU SHOULD’VE JUST SIGNED UP AND SAVED YOURSELF THE TROUBLE.”

“I don’t what to do,” I wailed miserably tugging on her arm. “I can’t sing or dance.”

“Kris gege can,” Tao piped up helpfully. “He can rap but he dances like a piece of uncooked spaghetti.”

“Hey!” Kris protested with a small pout and small punch to Tao’s shoulder. “That’s mean.”

“Well,” Chen announced with great pride. “I am the group’s dansheen masheen after all so I can teach you.” I did not want to do anything with that stupid troll face after the whole photo shoot in a swimming pool incident. Come on, rubber ducks and a row boat? The guy didn’t have a clue about anything.

I didn’t think I would survive.

Kris tried to stifle his laughter by biting into his sandwich. Chen’s horrific English pronunciation was laughable. Eunji rolled her eyes and grabbed my arm.

“Just do the troublemaker dance routine,” she whispered obnoxiously into my ear.

“Hell no,” I flat out objected. “And if you haven’t realised by now, he’s about two metres taller than I am which doesn’t make for a good dance partnership. And it’s extremely touchy feely and the kind of touchy feely I do not want to engage with Kris.” 

“You have any other ideas then?” Xiumin asked us in a dry tone.

“Err….” Kris and I exchanged completely helpless looks.

“I thought so,” Eunji added with a smug smile.

“We could just sing the national anthem,” I suggested. “No preparation needed, we’ve been singing it ever since we could walk.”

“No no no no no!” Luhan protested. “That’s a terrible idea.”

“Well Minhee you can’t sing or dance and Kris and sing or dance but he can rap?” Lay asked sensibly. “Maybe you could just do a rap performance? I’m sure Kris will be willing to teach you some things about it. I’m pretty sure it’s just the art of saying a bunch of mumbo jumbo really fast to a beat.”

Kris let a little gasp of betrayal fly from his mouth.

“So we can stand up and say a bunch of words to a beat really fast for thirty seconds?” I replied dubiously. “That doesn’t sound good.”

“It doesn’t,” Eunji interrupted once again. “Which is why you guys are destined to do the troublemaker dance routine. Besides, there’s no point arguing because I already let the principal know that’s what you guys are doing.”

I almost stepped forward and throttled her.

“Oh no you didn’t,” Kris said uneasily.

She winked and just smirked. “I’m on good terms with the principal after I won national championships in Taekwondo last year. Our poor school hasn’t won  anything other than academic accolades so I’m a prized addition-”

“This is terrible,” I groaned, sinking into the grass. Lay patted my back sympathetically. “It’s all your fault, you idiot.”

“Who are you calling an idiot?” Kris responded with an equal sense of defeat.

“Whatever,” I huffed. “Even if the world ends, I won’t agree to this.”

“Same.”

And for the first time in our lives, we felt an unbreakable bond. A bond that would keep us from having to do an impossibly awkward dance routine in front of the entire school.

And… turns out that bond wasn’t quite so “unbreakable”.

After an entire two hours of constant badgering from our little gang, Kris finally gave in after Tao threatened to dump all his Gucci debts on him. To be completely honest, I was pretty close to giving in after Eunji pulled out a photo of me dancing in a banana suit for a kindergarten project to show the entire world. As a result, Luhan who seemed to everything within the confines of his sprawling estate had forced us into a dance practice room with a flamboyant and overly excited Chen. I was already starting to doubt his expertise in this field through the choice of his skin tight, bright orange, duck-print trousers.

Someone save me.

“Okay let’s start with stretches,” Chen announced.

Oh so he was going with an American accent now.

Chen tried to make it look as if he wasn’t struggling to touch his toes. I let out a light scoff and wondered if anyone could to anything in jeans so tight. However, Kris and I weren’t doing so well either. His long, seemingly never-ending legs seemed to prevent his arms from ever reaching his feet and I was just plain inflexible. There was a Chinese transfer student in our school called Song Qian otherwise known by her English alias, Victoria who could bend her head all the way to her like a pretzel. If only we had one percent of her kind of talent.

“And now do this shoulder stretch,” our instructor commanded gleefully.

We obediently reached over our shoulders and held our elbows.

“Now switch sides.”

We copied his movements with slight reluctance.

“So how long have you been dancing, Chen?” Kris asked, trying to ease the awkward silence that our instructor was gleefully oblivious to.

“Do not question the master,” Chen snapped with a fabulous hair flick. Kris and I exchanged incredulous looks as we bent to the floor in an attempt to touch our toes once again. For another thirty minutes, we were subjected humiliation as we were forced into more and more difficult positions by our fellow peer. Thankfully, the rest of the team had left the room to entertain Luhan’s love for bubble tea. The nearest bubble tea store was fifteen minutes away by bus so it would be a good half hour before they returned.

“Okay,” Chen announced with a giant, creepy smile that signalled nothing but evil. “We shall start with the routine.”

A/N:

How glad I am to be back after two weeks of sickness :D All my assessments are done and I have some free time on my hands so I wrote this chapter for you guys! DID I MENTION HOW GLAD I AM THAT I’M DROPPING MATHEMATICS NEXT YEAR? It’s the bane of my existence I swear. That was a little hard to explain to my Chinese parents but nevertheless, I’m back and healthy and I’m really excited to see all your comments again! Thank you guys all for sticking with me through the entire fic (wow this author’s note is getting long) and I’d like to celebrate surpassing 200 upvotes! I’m forever indebted to you guys!