It was your first morning at dance camp, and in Korea actually. You got barely any sleep that night because of your thoughts and worries. Such as how your first day of practice would go, how this summer would turn out, and unfortunately, your great next door neighbor. His barbaric words left you feeling less than good enough. You wished your doubts that were risen so easily would go away just as swiftly. That they’d leave your mind like a brisk strong river, washing everything away. Even with hours upon hours of you staring at your blank ceiling during the night with those very thoughts swirling in your head, you rose the next day ready to fight back and show everyone what you’re capable of.

After grabbing some fruit and the very popular banana milk you headed to the main dance room. You wanted to arrive around a half an hour early so you had time to properly warm up and stretch. You almost got lost but somehow replaying the memories from yesterday helped you find your way. Why is he stuck in my head?? You ruffled your hair vigorously, frustrated with yourself.

Finding the correct door, uou walked into the room. Setting down your backpack and taking a huge bite out of your apple you examined the room while chewing. It was completely empty. Hm... I wouldn’t think that I’d be the only one here? You shrugged, more room for me I guess. Starting to warm up your stiff muscles, you relaxed at the familiarity of it all. Even a foreign dance studio still felt like home. Dancing made you feel at ease and free, even if it forced you out of your comfort zone.

Sitting on the floor and starting to stretch your legs, you simultaneously rolled up your sweats so they were shorter, it’d which would help you dance later. As you were doing that you heard the door open, minding your own business you didn’t look up until you heard them set their stuff down. Glancing in the mirror, so it wasn’t so obvious that you were looking; you saw Kai in the corner arranging his stuff. Out of all people, it had to be him???

Even so, you got back to stretching, putting more pressure on certain places to get all your muscles flexible. You stood up and walked over to the ballet bar, lifting your leg gracefully onto it you stretched down into splits that were more advanced. Thankfully he was also ignoring your presence which just made it easier on the two of you. You also purposefully moved yourself to a wall that didn’t have any mirrors so you couldn’t stare at him, even when you tried not too, you’d start glancing at him. It wasn’t like you were infatuated, he was just an interesting bitter character that had an extremely hard shell. His looks probably had something to do with it as well...

Sighing and moving onto the other leg, you couldn’t wait for Eun Bi to get here. She was a great distraction and you liked her over-the-top personality already. Sadly though, she couldn’t come back to the dorm last night because she forgot her stuff. You still smiled at the thought though. It seemed just like her to do that, and her predictable positive character made you feel comfortable and welcome.

As the two of you were warming up in a tensed-filled silence, more people were starting to come in. Erasing you and him’s mutual feelings and leaving it with exciting energy. You then quietly moved to the middle of the floor and repeated some of your previous stretches. Eun Bi walked in, humming a bright tune and sat by you.

“Good morning ____! Ready for a day of hard work and stress?” she said happily as she popped in a piece of gum.

“Well, yeah?” you replied, not sure what she was asking about.

The instructor came in ten minutes later  then class was supposed to start, probably ensuring that everyone was properly warmed up. “Today we’ll be taking it easy, learning some new routines and just seeing how you work with strangers and as a team, ne?”

“Neh!” everyone in class responded.

He rubbed his hands together swiftly then clapped, “Alright, why don’t we all start and learn a solid basic choreography?”

He put everyone in the correct spots, which usually went in order of a boy and then a girl. Boy, girl. Boy, girl. And repeating, naturally putting everyone with a partner of the opposite gender. Eun Bi comically exaggerated her departing of you, like the two soulmates on Titanic. You giggled at her actions but it was quickly stifled when you realized, he was your partner. You tried to not groan out loud in frustration when you looked at his sour face.

Your instructor showed you the first sequence of moves, and they were easy enough. However it involved him touching you, and you were extremely uncomfortable with that. Your face was bright red when you started practicing the first sequence. The two of you had to repeat it over and over again to memorize it and his hands had to keep touching you over and over again. Grabbing your hips, pulling your calf up, or grazing your stomach, it always sent inconvenient chills down your spine.

*****

An hour later, sweat was dripping down your neck and back. You sighed angrily, “Okay, it’s obvious that ou’re not putting enough emphasis on that step which makes my part look overdone. I don’t understand how you can be so blind and not see that!” you shouted harshly at Kai.

“Or you’re completely wrong and those steps are supposed to be subtle and intimate,” he glared at you, pushing his hair back and away from his gleaming forehead. Neither of you were getting the last section of the dance down. Everything else seemed to go together rather smoothly even though both of your facial expressions were stiff and unhappy. But this part, he was supposed to run his hands your sides and then end at your lower back, resting there for a moment. Then he was supposed to bring both of you suddenly upright in a jerking manner. The song was extremely upbeat and catchy that involved large amounts of footwork and popping. However instead of him jerking upright and stopping suddenly, he thought that gracefully bringing both of you up would look better.

“That’s NOT how the director wants us to do it, let’s just follow the steps and get this over with okay???” you complained, wiping your t-shirt over your face.

Kai took a deep breath, making it look like he was holding himself back, he then coldly replied, “Maybe my partner just doesn’t have the ability nor talent to work with me.”

Your mouth dropped, you walked right up to him and responded bitterly, “Then how exactly did I end up here?”

He narrowed his eyes, making you feel inferior. “You’re a pity case. That’s my best guess,” he replied, smirking before turning back to the mirror and started practicing the last couple of moves.

You bit your lip and balled your fists. You felt unwanted tears trying to spring to your eyes. Biting your lip even harder, you decided that you wouldn’t let him have the satisfaction of his words working in making you feel like . Taking a deep breath to get your emotions in check, you tried to calmly say, “Let’s ask director-nim and see what he says so we can get this over with.”

“Fine.” he growled, then walking over and getting the director’s attention.

The director helped you through the last part, compromising with Kai even though you knew you were right. After ten minutes of perfecting it as much as the two of you could in one day, he called it quits.

Calling everyone over into a circle, the director threw out a light smile and expressed, “To celebrate our first successful day I’m sending all of you too a KBBQ restaurant. It’s has great reviews and the foods on me! Don’t stay out too late or you’ll regret it because tomorrow will be testing for you.” Everyone cheered with exhaustion and started packing up.

Eun Bi was immediately at your side and said, “Wow! You got Kai, huh? How lucky! He’s by far one of the best dancers here and can make anyone look good.”

That stung. Not sure if it was just a compliment about him or something against you, you dropped it. “Ready for dinner Eun Bi?” you asked with a smile you tried to make real.

“Of course, I call dibs on sitting by you okay?” she said happily. She then quickly changed the subject and started complaining about her partner as the two of you walked out of the dance room.

*****

Now sitting at the table, you were surrounded by your fellow peers. They were all chatting about the day’s work, you couldn’t fathom how they still had so much energy to spare. You felt weariness settle in your bones, and your brain felt like mush from concentrating so hard with the added pressure. Silently scooping up your white rice into your mouth, you nodded at Eun Bi’s one-sided conversation, luckily she didn’t notice or maybe didn’t even care about your input. Staring vacantly at the wall, you thought about today’s occurrences.

The dancing was strenuous and never-ending but the steps were easy and your endurance was already built up. The only thing you could see getting in your way was Kai. You smugly looked at him, he was quietly picking at his food and taking small bites. Biggest jerk I know, I’ll say. He’d probably be the only person to make you lose focus and lower your motivation on succeeding and learning. You didn’t want to admit it but what he said really got to you. You wanted to feel accepted here and that you earned your rightful spot here.

A/N: Hey everyone! Sorry it took me so long to have an update!
I worked on a oneshot before this and I've been crazy busy!
I really hope you enjoy this chapter and look foward to the next one. ^^
I LOVE AND APPRECIATE comments/subs/anything. :)
<3- Minji