A/ N: Hey everybody~ Sorry about the late update... I had the chapter written and should have updated earlier, but... I've been busy with Prom stuff :3

Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoy this chapter!

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It had been a rare Monday without schedules for once, at least for Sungjong, and he and the other members who had remained at the company had been subject to the harsh whip of Dongmin hyung, Infinite’s choreographer, who always believed that after a win, a group needed to train twice as hard as they had during their debut days. Sungjong envied Sungyeol, who had to be out for his drama filming, and Woohyun, who had to be out recording for Immortal Song 2, and felt a pang of guilt, recalling the things he had said to Hyera, a long time ago, back when he hadn’t known any better.

That moment, when Sungjong had bumped into Hyera outside the restrooms, really seemed like years and years ago, when in reality, it had been just a month. The insults he had spit at her, though, were fresh in his mind. But here he was, a useless member of his own group, except for the cute maknae part and the girl group dance specialty. It was sort of ridiculous, actually, that he was pretending to be a dance teacher for Hyera, when he knew he lacked the ability.

Sungjong arrived in front of their meeting spot – the two doors of the large practice room in the Woolim building – heaving a sigh at the thoughts that weighed down his head. The breath he let out sounded much louder in the silent corridor. Sungjong’s phone vibrated in his pocket, and he took it out to open up the text message he’d just received.

TO: Sungjong

FROM: Hyera

Sent: 10.10.11 12:03a.m.

I’ll be right there! I was watching a movie with the girls and it lasted longer than I thought it would~ Wait for me inside!

Sungjong grinned at the message, and went inside the practice room. He as many lights as required to see, but no more. He looked around at the spacious area and the large, clean mirrors. The Infinite members, for the most part, had practiced in a small lower level practice room near their old dorm. That was the practice room where the members shared most of their difficult, painful, miserable, and heartwarming memories. This room that Sungjong stood in at the moment, to him, at least, only provided him memories and images of Hyera. He recalled all of the late night meetings they had shared in the last month, and chuckled out loud. And just a moment ago, he had been questioning himself: his place in Infinite, and his place as Hyera’s teacher. But they were questions not worth asking, Sungjong realized. What mattered was that he was there, he wasn’t anywhere else, he was a member of Infinite, and he was teaching Hyera to be a better dancer. Nothing could and would change.

A dark image flashed in his mind, and Sungjong cringed from its impact. It was the image of Hyera that had haunted his nightmares day and night, for the earlier part of the month he’d spent at the Woolim building. But Sungjong regained his composure, willing for the image to go away. As it did, the thought that replaced it was not one specific, concrete image, but a series of feelings associated with various images. The warmth, the enchantment, and the assurance that Sungjong now felt from Hyera’s eyes. Not the fear that he had always felt toward them; that was the old Sungjong. The new Sungjong now understood that back then, what he had been afraid of was his self-confusion. Now it was clear to him what he felt, and what that feeling meant to him.

The treatment he had received from Hyera, the help, as they had called it when they first started meeting at nights to get rid of Sungjong’s nightmares, had transformed Sungjong. Even the questions that he had asked himself in the corridor moments before seemed to have dissolved before him, just from the sheer influence of Hyera. What was it about this girl that made Sungjong such a better version of himself? He had to wonder, and he had to smile from the alarming strength of it all.

“Sorry I’m late!”

Hyera barged into the practice room noisily, breaking the silence, and with it, the difficult mood that had settled over the room with only Sungjong. When Hyera stopped in her tracks and looked at Sungjong, he was already smiling. He began walking over to her.

“What movie were you guys watching?” Sungjong asked, coming to a stop just a foot in front of Hyera.

“Delighted, Delighted. You know that comedy movie from last year?”

“Oh yeah, I’ve heard of it. Was it pretty funny?”

“Totally! I would recommend you to watch it, but you’re too busy.” Hyera answered. Sungjong reached out and took Hyera’s hand. He held it tightly but not too tight, just enough to lead her to a more well-lit area of the practice room. “Thanks for the consideration,” he added.

“You’re… welcome,” said Hyera, following Sungjong without resisting. The points of her hand held by Sungjong tingled at the flesh, which Hyera though peculiar.

“So… what are we doing today?” she asked.

“You know, you’ve gotten much better since the first time we met,” said Sungjong, the two standing below one single light bulb in the room that was fully lit. The light reflected off of Hyera’s pupils and made them glimmer. “So I was thinking, maybe we should work on some more rhythm and rigor now? With a song like TVXQ’s Oh-Jung Ban Hap?”

Hyera’s eyes widened, her glimmering pupils expanding. “Ohh man,” she breathed.

Sungjong squeezed Hyera’s hand. “You can do it! I’m not that familiar with it either, so we can learn it together,” he explained.

“Great. Just when Dongmin oppa starts complimenting me on how much I’ve improved, you’ve got to go and just ruin things, huh Lee Sungjong? That’s not good for my self-confidence, you know,” Hyera whined.

Sungjong held Hyera’s hand up to his face. It felt nice to have her hand in his. He smiled a genuine smile down at Hyera, then said, “Well, let’s get started!”

Hyera let out a clear groan while Sungjong fished in his pocket for his phone. When Sungjong finally let go of her hand to pull up a video of TVXQ’s Oh-Jung Ban Hap performance, Hyera realized that her hand had been held, this whole time, since she’d arrived. The tingling on the surface of her flesh made her cheeks redden. She glimpsed at Sungjong, who was busy peering into his phone. Letting out a sigh, she shook her head and began to stretch her arms and neck.

“Here, let’s watch it first, so we can get an idea of what mood the dance portrays,” said Sungjong, holding his phone out and coming to stand next to Hyera so both could watch the video.

The video showed one of South Korea’s most famous idol groups, TVXQ, in their earlier days, when the group was still together. The song Oh-Jung Ban Hap, from their 3^rdalbum, was a crazily upbeat, electro-dance song known for TVXQ’s quick lyrics and equally quick choreography. Hyera smirked at the young appearances of her Sunbaes, or Sunbaes-to-be. It was a fascinating thing, to see time change and people change, and even though they still looked the same, their wardrobe, hair, and makeup all spoke much more old-fashioned than today’s trends.

“We’re not doing Yunho Sunbae’s solo at the beginning, right?” Hyera asked, watching the flying arm movements.

“Oh no, we won’t worry about that,” Sungjong replied, to which Hyera sighed in relief.

“Unless you want to!” added Sungjong. Hyera simply laughed, not finding it necessary to refute his joke.

Hyera breathed deeply when they finished watching TVXQ’s performance. Dongmin oppa always trained her and the other girls hard, but this dance was possibly the most difficult she had ever encountered.

“Okay, here’s how the first part goes,” said Sungjong, moving to stand a bit in front of Hyera, closer to the wide mirror at the front of the practice room. He clicked on the music on his phone, and with phone held in one hand, he began to motion through the first few beats of the song. At first, the TVXQ members and all of the background dancers followed a united, sequential pop movement. As a single person, Sungjong had had to improvise to just utilize the basic popping in the actual dance. The arms are flying at a very fast pace with the electronic sound of the song. On beat one, they are both raised above the head, and then lowered as the chest is popped with strength. Taking a front step, the arms are raised and popped up, then woven in front of the chest in a fluid movement, being collected back to be shot out as they did waves from Sungjong’s central position. This very first sequence is followed by a slight period of rest, until the waves return with the electronic notes getting faster. This time, arms are shot out on opposite sides left and right together, then left, then right, until finally, the first verse begins. Sungjong stopped there.

“What do you think?” he asked, turning around, breathless.

“Not good,” Hyera answered, pouting. Sungjong chuckled, then came over to stand behind her. He put his two hands on each of Hyera’s arms. “It’s really just a fancy amount of popping and waving,” he said, leading Hyera’s arms through the dance, “don’t be so pessimistic.” With that, he wove Hyera’s arms, his hold over them giving him basic control of her body’s positional movements. “One, t-wo, thr-ee, and fo-our,” counted Sungjong, wildly commanding Hyera’s arms through the complex waves.

Hyera cleared her mind, ignoring a nagging in the back of her head which kept telling her she could not learn this dance. She could. She let Sungjong lead her body, following each of his words carefully. The movements were more rigorous than she was used to, being made for males, but she tried her best.

“Do you think you have that first part?” Sungjong asked, removing his hands from Hyera and walking around her to face her again. Strangely, the points of Hyera’s arms at which Sungjong had made contact tingled faintly, like her hands had. She nodded, ignoring the sensations, and repeated the dance of the first part of the song by herself. It took her two tries, but she could motion through it, slowly, although her chest popping could use some more refinement.

“Nice Hyera! I had to try that part more than a few times to get it right, but you got it easily!” praised Sungjong, his expression filled with approval.

“Well you didn’t have someone moving your body for you,” Hyera argued.

“Still,” Sungjong replied.

The next several parts of the song’s intro, though repetitive, were laborious, requiring Hyera to mess up more often before she grasped the motions. Sungjong had rooted out the moves of the background dancers rather than the singers, who had to stop the strenuous dancing at points to sing correctly. The step by step chest shifts and the different movements between the upper and lower body reminded Hyera more of the Infinite dances than the intro had. Each time she became a puppet under Sungjong’s arms as he showed her the different movements, the tingling feeling returned to her, and though she tried not to think too much of it, she was reminded of the night before, when Infinite had won their #1 with Paradise. Sungjong had simple come up to her and embraced her tightly, without a word, sobbing silently on her shoulder.

It had been different from when Hyera had watched the Infinite members shedding tears after their win for Be Mine. Then, she had stood off, watching enviously, understanding their tears but not fully feeling what they were feeling. With Sungjong wrapping himself around her and his every teary breath  right next to her chest the night before, Hyera could feel the complete weight of the victory, right on top of he. Partially, it was because she had gotten to know the Infinite members a little longer, and because she had gotten to know Sungjong. Over the month they had spent together, he had shared with her many things about him, just as she had, and the change in her emotional empathy surprised Hyera, even though she should have been aware of it. She knew that from now on, Infinite’s every stop in their career would affect her closely to the heart, because Sungjong was as close to it. For a moment, she stopped what she was doing, to stare at the boy in front of her.

“What?” said Sungjong, noticing Hyera’s gaze. She gave no reply, but continued to stare at him, her eyes seeming to want to penetrate him. A slight hint of panic arose in Sungjong’s chest, but he quickly quelled it, saying out loud, “Hyera.”

Even so, Hyera kept staring at him. “Hyera-yah,” Sungjong repeated, “Is something wrong?”

After a few moments, she finally responded, “No, everything’s fine. I just… well let’s keep going.”

Hyera shook her head and began to recall the parts she had been memorizing. Sungjong blinked, his heart beating faster as the panic in him subsided. Her stare had reminded him of the old eyes that he had so feared, and something about the way she stopped her stare without any explanation made him uneasy.

Sungjong and Hyera managed to run through the first verse of Oh-Jung Ban Hap at a slow pace, with Hyera pausing to recall her next moves just a few times. She never made it far enough with the music playing, though.

“Urggg! Why does the music have to be so difficult?!” Hyera exclaimed in frustration.

Laughing, Sungjong replied, “It’s okay Hyera! It’s just the first day. We should stop and head back now, it’s really late.”

They had spent almost 2 hours in the practice room, and it was nearing 2a.m. “Ughhh, I’m wiped out,” said Sungjong, collapsing to the floor, sitting slumped on the hard wood. Hyera came over and massaged his shoulders with her hands, feeling tense, overworked muscles under her fingers.

“Sorry, I’m really sore from…” Sungjong began, but Hyera cut him off. “From Dongmin oppa’s crazy practice drills? You texted me a pretty nice rant this afternoon, remember?” she chided, mocking Sungjong with a smirk he couldn’t see.

Sungjong let out a breath, relishing the relief Hyera’s fingers provided over his muscles. He was proud of Hyera and of himself: Hyera, for having improved so much and for having learned as much as she could this first night; himself, for… he wasn’t sure exactly, but he had gained and improved too. “Hyera-yah, what would I do without you?” Sungjong asked, meaning it.

Hyera laughed. “What do you mean? You’ve lived your whole life except for the last month without me! I think you can manage,” she retorted.

“No, I don’t think I can. Not anymore, not that I know you now,” Sungjong argued, grinning.

“Oh, please,” said Hyera, “Well, I’m pretty sure there’s no chance of you forgetting me now.” As she let out the last word of her sentence, the thought hit both of them like a strong knock of reality. For a moment, they were silent, the acrid thought weighting down on both of them heavily.

Sungjong turned around abruptly, Hyera’s hands hanging in the air where Sungjong’s shoulders had been. He shook his head, once. Then, again, again, and again, indicating, absolutely not. Sungjong was sure that he would never forget this girl who had changed him so drastically in just a month. His head shakes seemed to have reassured her. He placed his hands in Hyera’s. “Help me up,” he said.

When Sungjong stood up with Hyera’s help, the austere mood had passed. He held onto one of Hyera’s hands, leading her out of the room. They came out into the brighter corridor, hands held tightly.

“Hyera-yah,” Sungjong began to speak, voice low but clear and staid. He faced her glowing, brilliant eyes, staring back at him with the force that made Sungjong such a better version of him. “Are we dating?” he let out.

It was a simple question. But Hyera found it the most difficult thing she’d had to do in a long time, providing an answer. Finally, she answered, “I don’t know.”

“I was hoping you would say yes,” Sungjong said, shifting his gaze away.

Hyera still could not find a thing to say. But she needed to say something, wanted to tell the boy in front of her what he wanted to hear. She found herself unable. She found that her whole body was tingling, just like the same sensation she had felt when Sungjong had touched her. She didn’t know what to do, so she simply stepped forward, standing on her tiptoes, and touched her lips to Sungjong’s. It only lasted a moment, and when Hyera came down on her flat feet again, she her heels abruptly, scrambling off toward her dorm room.

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A/ N: I'm sorry if things are getting uber cheesy~ But I can't help it, its how things are! ^^

A few things to congratulate:

Congratulations to Shinhwa for their awesome win on M!Countdown Thursday!!! I love them sooo much~

And Congratulations to EXO, for their awesome debut and continuous awesome stages! Yeah, I'm totally whipped over these guys right now...

Again, thanks so much for reading!