Shout out in this one to 1412Bunny who wanted some more of Taemin’s life in the States.

And remember the Korean-American girl Taemin met in ‘Whitewashed?’(Number 73)  Well, Gloria is back in this one.  It was easier than coming up with a completely new friend for Taemin at UCLA, and she is totally based off of one of my students (whose parents choose the name Gloria for her when they lived in the States for several years of her childhood). 

And okay, okay, I know the prompt is New Direction, but I’m using it as New Directions…it’s close enough really so…yeah, that’s what’s happening.  

#95 – New Direction

"Gloria..."

Taemin pressed his lips together; one eyebrow cocked unknowingly doing a fair impersonation of his boyfriend.

"Come on Taemin – you were a dancer back in Korea right?  You should love this!"

The petite girl was bouncing up and down in her excitement, her braided hair bouncing about her head as she tugged on Taemin’s hand, walking backward through the quad, pulling her reluctant friend along with her. 

Taemin sighed, "Why is me seeing this dance team so important to you?"

He’d given up fighting against her, albeit ineffectual, pull and was just going along to get this over with. 

"I think you’ll have fun," she announced.  "You seem to think that you need to leave everything behind to succeed here.  Maybe having a little something of the familiar will help you out."  She threw a wicked grin his way, "Besides, they’re doing a SHINee medley." 

Taemin’s eyebrows rose as he was tugged forcefully inside the gymnasium. 

There was a dance team on campus that liked to perform around the city, called ‘New Directions.’  All the members were stretching and limbering up on the sides of the gym Taemin noticed as he settled into the bleachers next to Gloria. 

A big banner hung from the wall behind where the group would perform, swaying lighting in the meager air conditioning that was flowing into the large room, rippling like a small flag at the edges.  The group’s name was painted graffiti-style in blues and purples with accents of red throughout.

Taemin made some small talk with Gloria but he found himself oddly excited.  His chest felt a little tight as he waited for the show to begin.  His legs jumped around as though they could not stand to be still – as though they wanted to be up and dancing too. 

Soon enough base started pumping out of the speakers buried in the scoreboard overhead and the lights began to dim, strategically illuminating only the center of the basketball court that they were performing on and leaving everything else unnoticeable to the average eye. 

Taemin found he could not tear his eyes from the bodies flowing smoothly along to the deep rhythmic pounding that seemed to be forcing Taemin’s heart to match it as it reverberated around his chest. 

After a short break, giving the dancers a breather, they came back for their finale – the aforementioned SHINee medley.

The dancers started by pulling out several folding chairs to the center of the floor.  As the intro to Love like Oxygen came out of the speakers, Taemin trained his eyes on them, unsure what he was looking so intently for.  For mistakes?  He didn’t know, but there was a sense within him, a desperate yearning as he watched the dancers pull their own twists on the moves that he knew so well, to run down there and join them.

He wanted to be so close to the music that it literally carried him away.  He wanted to dance in front of an audience again.  Dance had been such a huge presence in his life, the over-arching narrative of his childhood and young adult years.

He wanted to be Taemin – the dancing machine, rather than Taemin, UCLA student.  

Taemin barely blinked as the songs transitioned to Hello and then Dazzling Girl and then a lone snare drum aided the transition to Sherlock.  Taemin’s feet and arms jerked about of their own accord, following the moves that were so engrained that he would literally do them in his sleep.  And then, as he knew would happen, the medley ended on what is probably the strongest, and most complicated, dance that SHINee had ever performed, Lucifer.  

As the music faded and the lights dimmed, Taemin found himself on his feet clapping loudly as the rest of the audience began their smattering of applause for the group of panting college students with exhausted smiles stretched across sweating faces.  The group took their bows and the audience started to clear out but Taemin insisted that Gloria and him remain behind. 

She laughed at that.  “Barely got you to come and now you don’t want to leave…” she mumbled under her breath, earning a mild glare from Taemin, though she was completely right. 

As the dancers cleared up their supplies and brought down their banner, Taemin stepped lightly down from the bleachers and approached the small group.

“Great job!”  He said happily, part of him laughing inside at the surprised looks on some of the faces as they recognized who he was.

“Oh wow…” one girl whispered, seemingly not even aware she did so, as she froze from gathering up the chairs that they had used in their Love Like Oxygen dance.  

Taemin’s grin somehow grew even bigger, “Seriously, you guys did the SHINee stuff brilliantly…and I can be critical.”  He added with an odd gleam in his eyes.  “How long have you been practicing that?”

A tall boy with dyed green hair straightened up from putting the banner inside a duffle bag.  “About three months.  Someone got the idea after seeing you last semester at the Asian Heritage Festival.”

They continued to talk about the routine, Taemin wishing a farewell to Gloria who wanted to go home and study for an upcoming exam, as they went to the group’s favorite coffee shop afterwards.  

Eventually someone asked about what he did with his dancing nowadays.

Taemin actually blushed and scratched the back of his head a little awkwardly.

“To tell the truth, I haven’t been dancing much lately.  I mean I still occasionally go to a studio near my apartment and work out on some routines that I’ve seen online…but nothing regular…”  There was a slight hollow in Taemin’s chest as he continued, “I kind of miss it…” and he didn’t realized until just that moment, how much he missed this thing that had been such a huge part of his life for so long.  

“You should come to one of our practices!” Someone chimed from the other end of massive line of tables that the group had shoved together, taking up half of the available shop space.

The leader of the group, the man with the green hair, leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms, giving Taemin a long hard look, as though he was sizing the former SHINee member up. “If you think you’re up to it, you’re welcome to stop by a couple of practices and see if you like it...”  He flashed a joking smile at the man before continuing, “...and maybe we can whip your back into shape.”

Taemin ducked his head in mild shame but quickly jotted down the time and locations of the practices on a nearby napkin and placed it carefully in his pocket.  

*****

Taemin sat, panting, against a wall, focusing too much on breathing to do anything other than hold the bottle of water someone had shoved into his hand.

These guys were serious, and Taemin was seriously out of shape.  Sweat poured off of him and he knew he would need to take a shower the instant he got home, rather than just before bed as was his usual habit. 

One of the girls came and dropped a towel on his head that Taemin’s tired arms reached up to grab and shuffle through his hair.  You’d have thought that he just finished swimming if you were to see him now.

“Good job today!” He heard someone say as they laughed on their way out.  

The towel was snatched off of his head and he found himself looking up into the smirking face of Jason, whose current hair was now blue instead of its former green.

“So, how’d’you think it went?” He asked, slurring his words together and forcing Taemin to have to think to suss out what had just been said.

“I’m out of shape…” was all Taemin muttered before finally cracking the water bottle and taking a long drink before twisting the cap back into place.  

“Hey, you hung in there the whole time!” Jason pointed out, holding out a hand to help Taemin lurch to his feet.

Taemin let loose a low laugh, “I wouldn’t have been able to if you all had gone on much longer.  Thank God your practice is only two hours.”  Taemin’s speech was slow, his sluggish brain making English a little harder on him write now.

“Well, you’re welcome to come back at any time.  I think you would be a good addition to the team if you want in.”  He said as he gently pushed Taemin out the door so that he could cut the lights and lock up before turning the keys back in to the building manager on there way out the door.

Taemin was silent for a while as they both walked to the bus stop where Taemin would leave Jason before heading home to his own apartment.  As the other man’s bus pulled up, Taemin said quietly, “I’ll be there.”  And Jason nodded as though a whole conversation had transpired in those three words.

“Good.” And he stepped on the bus.

Taemin walked slowly through the streets of L.A. and finally made it to his apartment building and slogged his way upstairs and into his place.  He immediately went to the bathroom and drew a bath, soaking himself in overly hot water and allowed some of the strain on his muscles to lesson.  He was going to be sore tomorrow, he just knew it.

After his bath his booted up his computer, the laptop automatically logging onto Skype as he did.  To his surprise he saw that Kibum was online.  He did some quick math in his head and realized that it would be around lunchtime in Korea.  The man must have logged in on his phone. 

Taemin didn’t feel up to a whole conversation, but he sent an instant message with a short statement.  “I’ve started dancing again.”

There was no immediate response so Taemin just assumed his boyfriend was busy and began to work on a reading assignment for class before he went to bed early.

A soft bubble sound erupted in the silent apartment.  Taemin leaned forward and clicked to open the minimized Skype icon on his computer.

“Good.”  Was the simple response.

Taemin smiled and laughed a little.  It was a typical Kibum response.  He had harped on the former lead dancer for letting his former passion slide on occasion, and Kibum was probably smirking at his phone, thinking that he had won a victory because Taemin had done as Kibum had been nagging him to do.

“Practice kicked my .  Going to bed.”  He typed back, his jaw cracking as a large yawn won out.  

Taemin could picture Kibum laughing out loud as he looked down at his phone with a soft smile on his face.  It was almost as though he was standing right in front of the man, and for a moment Taemin’s aching had absolutely nothing to do with practice.

Before Kibum could respond, Taemin sent an, “I love you.”

“Love you too Tae.  Go to sleep and rest your tired muscles.  Get back out there tomorrow and kick your practice’s instead. ;)” 

Taemin felt a small warmth go through his chest as how his lover took care of him, even when they were thousands of miles away from each other. 

He powered down the computer and went to his bedroom, sliding easily into the sheets and wincing slightly as his muscles shifted about while he tried to find a comfortable position. 

He felt exhausted and knew that he would be in downright pain come the morning, but still.  He was happy.  He was happy and excited and alive in a way that he hadn’t felt in a while.  

He was so glad that Gloria had dragged him to that performance. 

BTW - I finished posting up Kiss it and Make it Better today.  It's 31 chapters of Onew focus, so if you are looking for something else to read, it's already finished and waiting for you!

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