Nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing. [Oscar Wilde]

Aerina’s pov:

There was a long awkward silence. Everyone seemed shocked to hear a foreign girl with golden hair and green eyes speaking Korean so fluently. They continued to stare at me with a mixture of reactions---the awestruck expression to outright ogling from the guys and the envious to challenging glares from the girls. I could practically feel their burning stares as they appraised me and my foreign exotic features. Judgment. I was used to it. But the whole thing was still very amusing nonetheless. Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw one tall guy cross his arms and roll his eyes out of impatience. I chuckled.

“Ahem,” Lee Soo Man finally broke the silence, thankfully, “That is all. Everyone needs to head to their scheduled classes now. Keep it up!”

His words of encouragement, which clearly sounded a lot more like a threat, made all the trainees rapidly dispersed, some even in slight panic. Military sergeant much?

“And you, Aerina,” he directed at me, his stern voice instantly turned soft, “follow Mr. Park. We will get you started with dance.”

From the way Mr. Park wished me goodluck before dropping me off at the dance room, I anticipated more than physical torture ahead.

The moment I opened the door, I was shocked to find only three trainees, along with the instructor, in a large dance room covered with mirrors. They were quietly stretching when I came in. Looking at the way their quadriceps flexed as they stretched, I could tell they each must have had at least seven years of dancing experience. Not bad.

Upon hearing my entrance, they all looked up at me in shock, as if it was their first time seeing someone else besides themselves in this room. Even the dance instructor, Ms. Kim, was mildly surprised but only nodded and told me to join the rest.  

“Annyonghaesyo,” I greeted with a smile as I started doing a hamstring stretch. The two handsome boys bashfully smiled back at me, seeming awfully shy as they introduced themselves to be Kai and Lay.

The girl, on the other hand, was more than excited.

“Hi Aerina! I’m Hyeri!” she grinned at me, her eyes forming into adorable half-moons. Aww. She was so cute! “I’m so glad you’re here. Though I can’t believe they put you here on your first day. How long have you been dancing?”

Before I could reply, the booming voice of Ms. Kim startled everyone into silence.

“Wrap it up! We have a lot to do today!” Ms. Kim deadpanned, then her serious eyes zoomed into me, “And Ms. Park, practice is not time for socializing,” she sternly scolded, “Drop and give me fifty pushups,”

Though surprised by the strict discipline I had observed here so far, I easily finished fifty as told, probably in record time, seeing everyone’s wide eyes staring at me in awe. It’s from my dad’s amazing gene of strength. Go figure.

Ms. Kim, seeing that I had not even broken a sweat after her “punishment”, cleared uncomfortably before heading to the radio to prepare the music. Kai, Lay, and Hyeri were all grinning widely, holding back their giggles at their first time seeing Ms. Kim so flustered. Lay smiled at me appreciatively, Hyeri gave me a mischievous wink, while Kai looked like he was ready to give me a hi-five had Ms. Kim not turned back to start her lesson.

“Lay and Hyeri, I want you two to do the routine of ‘Let Me Love You’ from yesterday. Aerina, watch closely,”

The music started as I observed each step of the incredibly detailed choreography. The song was fast yet sensual, so the footwork was quick and extremely complex, while the arm movements remained delicate and graceful. With each step, the partners’ skinship grew bolder to its peak of sensuality at the end of the song. It was no wonder that there were only four of us trainees here. This level of dancing was certainly no joke.

“Good job, Lay, Hyeri. I see a few mistakes, but you guys are certainly improving,” Ms. Kim said, then corrected their mistakes as I watched her, memorizing the steps.

“Aerina and Kai, it’s your turn.”

Kai’s eyes rounded in surprise, seeing that I had only been shown the routine once. He looked so adorably unsure as we assumed our starting positions. Once the music began, I started moving to the music, recalling every steps I had just memorized seconds ago. Kai was incredible as the leading partner, and his moves were not only accurate but also smooth and wonderfully y. The shy boy earlier was nowhere to be found, replaced by a confident dancer full of charms.

That was, until nearly the ending when I wrapped one of my legs on his waist as he dipped down, our lips almost touching. Kai’s cheeks quickly turned pink, and he struggled to resume and ended with a few mistakes. I finished the routine, all while trying to hold in my laughter at his cutely flustered face. Are all Korean boys always this shy?

“Wow…” Lay, Hyeri, and even Ms. Kim were speechless when I had finished flawlessly. Kai was now rubbing his neck, still cutely flustered.

“Photographic memories,” I shrugged.

We practiced for another four hours straight before given a 30 minutes break. Drenched in sweat, all four of us were gulping down water like there was no tomorrow as we exited the stuffy practice room. In the huge break lounge, there were already twenty trainees or so chatting loudly as they snacked.

“Come on Aerina! I’ll introduce you to my friends,” Hyeri said, pulling me to a corner of the room where stood one girl chatting with a few guys, “Hey Miyeon!”

The girl’s eyes brightened upon seeing Hyeri but quirked her eyebrows when she saw me walking next to Hyeri.

“Miyeon, this is Aerina. Aerina, Miyeon,” Hyeri cheerfully introduced.

“Of course, I know the Aerina,” Miyeon crossed her arms as she eyed me carefully. Her voice and entire manner were so full of spunk. Hmm I like this girl already.

“Ah, but you don’t really know me know me, do you?” I replied easily, pretending to fold my arms in a same way that she did before.

“Well, I guess not,” she grinned in approval at my laid-back teasing attitude and handed me a sandwich, which I gratefully accepted. Good God I was starving!

As I wolfed down the tiny sandwich, I noticed that several girls were staring at me, gossiping among themselves how many plastic surgeries I had done. Haha. Are you kidding me? I ignored them and looked around the room and spotted Kai standing by a group of guys, chatting and laughing. I raised my eyebrows at one of them.

“Hey Hyeri! How much longer do we practice after this?” I asked.

“Depends on each class. Ms. Kim’s class is the most brutal, so about five more hours for us,” Hyeri replied, “Why? Are you feeling ok?”

“Yeah I am, but someone else isn’t,” I replied before walking over to Kai.

The poor boy nearly jumped when I tapped him on his shoulders.

“Oh hi Aerina-ssi,” Kai greeted shyly. The one stood next to Kai nudged him and wiggled his eyebrows teasingly, while another one winked at me. I just waved at them, deciding to learn their names later after first attending to a more important matter at hand.  

“Are you not going to bandage that?” I directed towards the tall one who was leaning against the wall, eying his left ankle.

Everyone looked at him, confused.  

“Kris hyung, you’re hurt?”

“No,” the tall male, whose name was apparently Kris, replied dismissively and glared at me. Psst right. From the way he stood, I could tell he had sprained his ankle and possibly pulled the surrounding tendons.

“You’ve obviously hurt your ankle and from the look of it, it won’t last you through the next several hours of practice,” I explained, concern arising from my doctorly instinct.

“I am fine!” he growled. To demonstrate that, he shifted the weight back to his left leg and even stomped the ground with it.

“Oh my gosh! Ouch!!!” the stubborn jerk screamed in pain, planting himself on the floor and clutching to his ankle. Though I really wanted to, I held my tongue from letting out a victorious i-told-you-so in his face.

All the other trainees quickly gathered around us, wondering what was going on. Prying his hand away, I held his ankle, examined the extent of damage, then quickly pulled his ankle back to relieve the strain on the muscles and tendons. Kris yelped at the sudden pain.

“Hey stop! What the hell are you doing???” a girl yelled and actually moved to stop me.

“WILL YOU SHUT UP!!! I graduated from Harvard Med School! I think I KNOW what I’m doing!” I barked, effectively made the entire room grow quiet.

After messaging the sprain, I wrapped a tablecloth around his ankle.

“Better?” I asked. He nodded.

“And you better not move for the rest of today and tomorrow, if you don’t want to limp for the next two weeks,” I ordered authoritatively, “I’ll inform Soo Man about your condition.”

I stood up to head to Lee Soo Man’s office. When I saw that the jerk couldn’t even mutter a word of thank you, I wanted to turn back and kick his other ankle to even out the damage. Hmmph!

A/N: Hello everyone :) I don't like this chapter, but I didn't want to keep delaying updates, so hope you guys still enjoy it anyways! Thanks so much for subscribing/commenting!!! Hope ya'll doing well and enjoying your summer! Please keep commenting so that I can write better chapters :)