“I really can’t be bothered with the project,” Sehun groaned in annoyance as he took a seat with his friends.

Junmyeon snorted. “What are you bothered about when I’m clearly the one who’s doing all the work,” he commented while furrowing his eyebrows at the young male.

Sehun casually shrugged his shoulders and took a bite of his apple.

“We’re screwed,” Baekhyun pointed out and Chanyeol nodded in agreement.

“Isn’t the deadline in three days?” Chanyeol grunted as he was worried if Baekhyun and him could finish the project in time.

Kyungsoo nodded, a bit concerned for his friends. “You better get on with it, or else your parents are going to be called in about your terrible reports,” he warned, but they took it as if he was teasing them.

Sehun laughing didn’t help either. They all remembered when both Baekhyun’s and Chanyeol’s parents were called in for a private meeting about how their sons were always joking around whenever they were in class. As a punishment, they had to help the janitor clean around the school for a month. 

“How are you going with your project?” Junmyeon asked Jongin who quickly waved the question away, not wanting to get his other friends’ attentions.

They all knew that he was working with Mira, almost everyone in the Academy knew he had partnered up with her now. 

Jongin had lied telling his friends that he partnered up with her because she was the second smartest student in school and that he was tired of working with Kyungsoo all the time and they seemed to buy it. His friends were so naive at times, but Jongin was happy that they had trust in him.

“She’s probably doing all the work, isn’t she?” Sehun asked.

Jongin wrinkled his nose, offended. “Hey, I’m not that dumb. Plus, we split up the work so I do some research on the computer while she reads through some books for information and then we swap around,” he hadn’t realised that he was bragging about how well he was working with Mira.

His friends had never heard, or seen Jongin so eager when talking about school work.

“Ok…” Sehun awkwardly looked away from Jongin and took another bite of his apple, not knowing what to say next.

Luckily, Baekhyun changed the whole topic, tired of talking about school related things. “Are we practicing afterschool?” He asked for a conformation.

Junmyeon nodded right away. “Yes, we only have a month left till the competition,” he pointed out.

“But…I promised to meet up with Mira in the school library after school to work on the project,” Jongin suddenly stated, surprising everyone.

Kyungsoo looked at Jongin. He knew something was definitely fishy while the rest stared at him in shock. Kyungsoo hadn't told the others how he had seen them two together and he didn't plan to. It wasn't his position to tell them anyway. 

“Are you really Jongin?” Chanyeol literally poked Jongin's cheek to check if he was really his friend.

“I never knew you were this passionate about school work.” Baekhyun added.

Sehun raised an eyebrow. “Well…she can wait, plus this is way more important.”

Junmyeon nodded. “And you’re the main dancer so we obviously need you.” He put more pressure on Jongin who sighed, but finally agreed with his friends.

---

Mira had waited for an hour for Jongin to arrive, but there was still no sight of him.

Did he forget? I’m going to get a zero because of him! She decided to leave the school when she got a sudden text message.

In curiosity, she read the message and smiled when it was from Jongin. 

Come to the dance club, it's a must!

She wondered what Jongin would be doing there at this hour, but headed toward the clubs section anyway. The dance club was a few blocks away from her club. It was near the far right, next to the change rooms. She could see the lights were still on in the room and could hear an upbeat song playing from the outside. Without even taking a peek inside to check who would be there, she opened the door to enter in the dance club. Her eyes widened when she saw five other guys who were staring right back at her. Her eyes searched for Jongin and heaved out a sigh of relief when she saw him. He waved for her to come over, but truth to be told Mira wasn’t comfortable at the fact that there were other people in the room.

Jongin titled his head and wondered why Mira was standing there and not coming toward his way. Without a choice, he walked to her with a smile. “Sorry about the late notice,” he shouted over the music. Mira didn’t say anything. Jongin noticed that she looked anxious. “Hey, you ok?” All of a sudden, she could feel a soft touch against her cheek while Jongin hadn't even realised what he was doing.

Mira looked up at Jongin and both their eyes met, calming her down right away. She would have pushed his hand away if he had done that to her in other situations, but right now she needed a sense of comfort. Jongin was the only person she knew. Mira didn’t feel comfortable when she had to greet people. She felt nervous because interacting with others was almost unbearable for her. As much as she didn’t want to admit it, she did have trust issues. After a long time of being alone, she didn’t know how to fit in the crowd so having Jongin next to her made her feel safe.

While Jongin and Mira were having their moment, the others eyed them two in curiosity and confusion.

“Umm…why is Jongin looking at her so lovingly?” Sehun asked with a disgusted face. “So, this was the reason why he was so keen on seeing her afterschool,” he added.

“The fact that he nearly picked her over us makes me terribly angry,” Baekhyun stated with a pout.

Before they could make more comments, Jongin walked toward them.

“Sorry about that, let’s continue,” he stated as he started the song back from the start.

“What about her?” Chanyeol asked, pointing at Mira who was sitting down on a chair a few meters away from them.

Jongin smiled. “She’s just going to wait till we finish,” he replied and waved at Mira. She returned a smile back at him.

“Your smile is blinding me,” Kyungsoo teased, making Jongin chuckle.

Kyungsoo had noticed these past few days that Jongin had been smiling more often. He then glanced over at Mira who just sat there with an indescribable look. She seemed uninterested, but looked apprehensive at the same time. 

Mira had told Jongin that she wasn't comfortable about him wanting to introduce her to his friends. She didn’t know how to make an impression and she knew that they would think wrongly of her because of her expressionless face. She didn’t know how to act in front of them so she was glad that Jongin agreed to let her watch them without any introductions. She felt bad, but she just wasn’t comfortable enough to meet new people yet.

She had heard a lot of Jongin and his friends and how talented they were with their dance skills, but she had never once seen them dance before so she was excited. She wanted to see it with her own two eyes to see if people were telling the truth about them.

The preferred song started and the group got ready in their individual positions. She could feel the heat that radiated between them. She could see the slick sweats that glided down their skins, how they moved in sync, their ragged, short breaths, how each dance moves made them breathless. Their movements were fluid and smooth. Her eyes then landed on Jongin who seemed lost in his own world.

She could tell right away that Jongin was more talented. He outshone the others. Don't get her wrong, the others were fantastic as well, but Jongin's movements were way different from his friends. The way he moved, there was just something captivating about it. She couldn’t tear her gaze away from him. For the first time, she agreed with the rest of her schoolmates about how well they danced and how Jongin was in fact the 'dancing machine'.

Still mesmerised by their performance, Mira hadn’t realised that they had finished their practice for today. In panic, she stood up as she didn’t want to face Jongin's friends just yet and to her relief they all left one by one, leaving Jongin and Mira alone in the end.

“How was it?” Jongin asked in between his hefty breaths.

Mira was confused at first about what Jongin was asking her, but then soon realised what he was referring to. “You’re a good dancer,” she honestly replied.

Jongin smiled after hearing her answer. He knew that Mira genuinely meant it because he was well aware of her not complimenting people much. She wasn’t those people who would do, or say something for money, reputation, greed or power. She really meant what she had said and it brought a smile to Jongin’s face. “Well, I’m flattered,” he literally bowed 90 degrees, mocking Mira who just rolled her eyes. He then uncapped his drink bottle to take a long sip of water.

“Where to now?” Mira asked. 

“I thought the answer was obvious.” Jongin replied with a cheeky smile.

Mira knew what Jongin was thinking of right away. They were going to the secret place. 

"To infinity and beyond." She stated with her eyes twinkling in excitement, making Jongin hopelessly chuckle this time.  

---

The hot sun shone brightly on them.

Mira propped herself up on one elbow and noticed that Jongin had gone quiet and was staring at her. It made her self-conscious, but she was unable to look away once their eyes had met. Lying this close to him, she couldn't help but notice for the first time just how muscular his shoulders were and how lush his lips looked. Those lips then twitched up into a smile.

“How cute,” he said all of a sudden. Mira just stared right back at him with wide eyes, not understanding what Jongin meant by that statement. He then pointed at her nose, biting his lips so his smile wouldn’t grow wider. “I didn't know you had a freckle,” he added with a cheeky smile, his eyes twinkling in delight. 

Mira was a bit surprised at how Jongin had noticed the terribly small freckle on her nose, sometimes she wouldn’t even see the freckle herself. She then realised how close they were sitting next to each other as she unknowingly arched her back as if this would help get more distance between the two of them. “Alright, do you want to read over the draft one more time so they aren’t any errors?” She suggested, turning her attention back on the project which to Jongin nodded. “I’ll start first,” she stated as she took out her cue cards to read her information.

Jongin watched and listened to Mira, not missing out any words or actions. He was simply curious and wondered why she was taking this issue so seriously. Yes, he had agreed to talk about the Social Status, but he was not interested in it at all like her. He agreed in the first place for Mira because she wanted to focus on this particular topic and he didn’t want to disappoint her. She genuinely seemed happy as she read out her information about the lower class.

Could it be that she was worried about them?

If so, why?

Why was she so keen on letting other people know about the way the poor lived?

Jongin knew for the fact that no one in the Academy would clearly reflect on Mira's opinions. They would only just pretend that they were listening when they clearly didn’t give a damn. People below their standards were a waste of time. They were nothing to them. Jongin also viewed them the same. Like always, he thought of them as trash.

“Why must we care?” Jongin suddenly asked, interrupting Mira who had a confused look on her face. She furrowed her eyebrows, giving Jongin a look which clearly told him that she didn’t know what he was talking about. “Why must we care about the useless people?” He asked.

After a few seconds, Mira understood what Jongin wanted to know.

“Did I mention that we must care for them?” She asked Jongin who blinked in surprise. Why was she asking him questions when she was supposed to answer his? “Did I clearly state that ‘we’ are required to care for the unfortunate?” She asked again, confusing Jongin even further.

“What do you mean?” He couldn’t help but ask.

Mira shook her head at his ignorance. “No, what do you mean?” She challenged him.

Mira didn’t want to admit it, but her views on Jongin had changed over the past month. She thought maybe, maybe, Jongin was a bit different from the rest that she categorised them as but once again like always, she was wrong. She had made yet another wrong assumption to her disappointment. Jongin was just like the rest. Selfish and ignorant. He was unaware of what was happening around him, to be more exact, he was purely uninterested of what was happening to others that had less power than him.

“They contribute nothing in this world’s economy, the only number they increase is poverty. They are a waste of time and effort, to be specific, they are trash,” Mira heard Jongin speak.

She mentally froze in disbelief. Whoa, just whoa. She couldn’t believe that she was talking to yet another person who clearly was selfish. The one thing that really pushed Mira off the edge was that one word Jongin used to describe the lower class people as, trash.

Was that necessary?

Did he just categorised them as a material, a filthy, waste material?

She didn’t want to continue this talk, she didn’t even want to start another conversation with him. Overall, she didn’t want to talk to him anymore. She was disgusted at his behaviour. All of a sudden, she was feeling this hatred that was building inside of her. She was physically, mentally and emotionally angry at Jongin. “Contribute? Are you telling me right now that they don’t contribute anything in this world?” Jongin heard Mira ask.

He was starting to feel uncomfortable at how Mira kept on asking him questions which suddenly made him feel unsure of his statements.

Why did it feel as if he was saying something wrong?

Nevertheless, he nodded at her question.

All of a sudden, Jongin heard a chuckle escape Mira’s mouth.

“Wow,” she breathed out to Jongin’s confusion. He was starting to have that uneasy feeling coming back in his stomach. “You know that right now you are judging a group of strangers?” Before Jongin could answer her question, she continued. “Do you really know what they do for a living? Do you know their struggles or what they have been through? Do you know how difficult it is for them to even survive a day without any worries? Do you know the hardships that they have to face to which it made you judge and assume something which crosses way over the boundary?” She finally paused to take a deep breath.

Her face was flushed red, angered by Jongin’s words. She was in distraught and was disappointed at him. She was even more disappointed at herself for believing that Jongin was different from the rest. 

Jongin looked at Mira in astonishment. He was once again speechless, he wanted to say something but nothing could come out of his mouth. However, after a while of fighting with himself, he found his voice back. “All they do is complain and bicker with us about how we get to live in luxury. They don’t do anything to get to where we are so they don’t deserve any care or comfort,” he expressed his own opinions. “And you know for a fact that you are judging me for what I stand to believe is right,” he quickly added.

It was an instinct actually, Jongin wanted to defend himself.

“You are right. You are right about the fact that I am judging you for your own opinion, but how can I clearly not when your statements are truly false? How can I believe something which is not right?” Mira provoked Jongin.

He was suddenly starting to feel angry now.

“We are the lucky ones, we are the fortunate ones, we are the ones who get to live our lives in luxury and with wealth which you don't see is clearly unfair to the rest. We should be pleasantly grateful for the fact that we are born into a successful and opulent family, but here 'you' are, stating that they are trash and that they don’t deserve what we have. Do you think they get any say in this? Do you think they wanted to be born into a deprived family? Do you think they want to live their lives this way? I’m not trying to waver your thoughts or opinion, I am simply affirming that you need to open your eyes to the truth so you don’t have any regrets when you depart this world and that you haven’t been living your life with lies that others have influenced you with,” Mira firmly stated in confidence.

What was Jongin supposed to say now?

After hearing Mira talk, it hit him.

She was right. She was right about how he had been influenced by others around him.

He had never once took the time to deeply think for himself. In fact, this made him realise that he was living his life with lies. This made him admit that he was a coward, that he was undertaking everything that his parents ordered him to do. He didn’t think for himself or by himself, he was simply chasing other people’s dreams and desires. 

It also brought fear in him. A fear in him that presented him being someone else. He wasn’t himself. It was as if he had a mask on. A mask that represented his false nature. A different identity that he had always been living his life for someone else. He felt stupid and angry at himself. He was mostly embarrassed that he had argued with Mira when what he had stated was clearly all false. It was just like the rumours that spread throughout the Academy. He had too thought that he wasn’t one of them, but this made him realise that he was. He was just like the rest. He was selfish and ignorant when he clearly thought that he knew much more about the world than them. 

“Can I do some adjustments to my speech before I start? In fact, I want to rewrite my own speech,” Jongin finally spoke. Mira looked up at him for answers. “I only realised now that I have been writing false information.” He added which brought a smile to Mira's face.

Mira was glad that she had finally opened Jongin's eyes to the truth.