It was an understatement to say it was hard on her. Why am I even doing this? She thought and breathed heavily. Go, she signaled and spoke tiredly, “I will deal with you again later.” Watching her junior walk away, she sighed again and shook her head at the obvious lack of remorse her junior had exhibited earlier.

She was, undoubtedly, tired.

Everyone consults her with issues, everyone expects her to have solutions to any problem imaginable, and everyone expects her to be the best at what she does – dancing. Nobody realizes that no matter how perfect she is, she is only human after all. Weighed down with unimaginable pressure and expectations, it is a surprise that she still is able to smile brightly every single day.

At moments like this when no one else around, it is when you can see her starting to shed her strong exterior. Back hunched, the sunny glow normally around her seems to escape, and it was as if life had been out of her. The worry lines on her face start to appear as she creases her eyebrows. She massaged her aching thighs and her frown deepened when she realized the state of strain on her leg. Sighing and looking around at the now empty dance room, she bowed her head down, too tired to even think, and slowly drifted off into slumber.

Meanwhile…

He ushered all of them out, eager to be left alone.

“Yeah, yeah, alright bye guys. Remember the money for the concert tickets and your consent forms!” He reprimanded, vaguely reminding the students of a grumpy old woman, or in his case, old man. When the last of the dancers had left, he let out a breath he had unknowingly been holding.

Phew, he thought, it was definitely hard to be nice around people. Exhausted at the day’s effort of simply trying to be charismatic and friendly, he turned tiredly to look at the studio’s wall-length mirrors. Staring at his reflection, he noticed he had been frowning again and made almost no effort whatsoever to change that unwelcoming and distasteful expression.

(Flashback)

“A step and a coupe, grand rond de jambe, landing in a split. Standing up, use the hip-hop sequence you just learned, before ending in a double pirouette and a grand jete!” The instructor listed out the new sequence in great gusto and looked expectantly at his students.

“That’s crazy, who can master it immediately?”

“Oh my, did you hear the tempo? It’s ridiculously fast!”

“We haven’t even got the hip hop sequence down yet!”

The students continued jabbering on, while attempting to remember the steps their instructor has made up. Unfazed, he was the only one stepped forward meanwhile and completed the set of movements gracefully and perfectly in time. His fellow dancers stared at him in awe. This was the one thing that made him special and unique. He stood out from the others with his overflowing charisma, and you couldn’t look away from him no matter how hard you tried - there was just this certain captivating charm about him.

It certainly didn’t help that he was a perfect gentleman and partner especially on the dance floor. Every girl that he was supposed to assist for lifts were treated carefully and gently like a precious flower vase or glass ornament that would seemingly break if given the rough treatment. It was without doubt that he was the most sought after boy in school – good looking, exceptional academic ability and a perfect gentleman.

Class soon ended, and the aura around him spontaneously dimmed. He still maintained a strained smile, chasing the dancers out of the studio.

(Flashback ends)

His smile positively disappeared without a trace and all pretenses dropped. He snarled at everything in sight – it was certainly hard for him to be nice. It did not help that he was always around people clamoring for his position. To be able to stand on stage with confidence and have all eyes of the audience on that sole silhouette and no one else – that was the charm of being a solo dancer.

Somewhere in the rat race to the top, he found that being cold, cruel and unfeeling was the way to go. He did not need to care who he surpassed, or who was behind, but just focus his sights on who was in front. It was always every man for himself. The ones that were behind somewhat irked him though. Given a choice, he wanted nothing to do with them. They made unnecessary hoo-ha, consulted him on things that were completely obvious, and were plain idiots. Useless fools, he would think, as he feigned a smile and went through the steps again whenever requested to.

He stepped out of his reverie and shifted his gaze to the lone figure leaning against the mirror. Hasn’t he already asked all of them to leave the studio? Upon going closer, he found that the sleeping figure was just his reliable partner and vice-president. He found himself being unable to look away from her. Something about her sleeping form drew him in, and he settled down beside her. It was soothing, listening to her soft breathing sounds, just the two of them in the spacious studio. He stared at her face intently, scrutinizing every detail of her peaceful features.

“It’s weird,” he whispered and shifted in his seat to gaze at her. “You are the best female dancer, and on some levels, we are on par. How is it that you treat every single person so sincerely, that cheerful grin forever on your face? Why do you not worry if anyone was going to backstab you or pull you down from where you are? You are nice even to me, when I irritate you so much…”

He snapped out of his daze when he realized what he was just doing and shook her awake. She woke up with a start, and relaxed when she saw it was just him.

“Can’t you let me sleep a little longer? I was just dreaming about something, and I really wanted to know how it ended…”

“No. Get up, I have to lock the studio and return the keys.”

She stood up reluctantly, glaring at him. “Pfft, cold unfeeling creature. Pass me the keys. I’ll return them since I’m energized now.”

She took the keys from his hand, and grabbed her bag. They walked side by side out of the studio and he watched as she locked the doors. Just before they parted ways, she turned back to face him. “See you next week!” she chirped, beaming. He stood rooted in surprise, before relaxing into a smile.

That was actually really adorable.

---------------

A/N 

OMG PLEASE DON'T SLAUGHTER ME /ducks before i get bricked or whatever/ this is still not a chapter YET... because this is actually the future of the story, the beginning of this story is gonna be like half a year to a year before this scene happened :) This is kind of like an introduction to the characters, and omg. It's gonna be a SuGen pairing >< I'm not particularly fond of some of the SuGen pairings, because I'm an ELF LOL does that make sense? Can anyone guess who they're gonna be? (It's actually obvious why am I even asking LOLOL) He's actually my third SJ bias hehe. Poster is coming soon ^^ I would appreciate it if anyone would bother to make me a poster too :D

Sorry to all those people who waited! I kind of didn't have my laptop for awhile oops ><

Please SUBSCRIBE, COMMENT and wait for the next update! :)

Special thanks to minzlove, my editor and somewhat co-writer ^^

to weiwei (what's your new account hmm?) for rushing me on this

and of course, we can't forget gracengxy xoxo