Sungjong sat cross legged on the floor of the room he shared with Hoya, Myungsoo, and Sungyeol, peering up at his hyungs as they fumbled around in preparation to go to bed. Hoya was the first to climb into his lower bunk bed with headphones in his ears. Myungsoo was second, clutching his journal in his hands - a notebook where he recorded his daily events and thoughts. Sungjong had considered keeping such a journal like Myungsoo many times, but he was too lazy and too worn out at the end of the day to savor time writing. Even his mother had suggested it to him on multiple occasions, saying it would be a good record of this unbelievable life he was living, but it hadn’t worked out. Sungyeol finally climbed to his top bunk last.

“Jjong, are you not going to bed?” Hoya called from his lying position.

“I have to go talk to Jungryeol hyung,” replied Sungjong, hoping his tone sounded trivial enough.

“Mmmk,” mumbled Hoya, closing his eyes.

Myungsoo scribbled in his journal with a pen, while Sungyeol lay in his bunk, the light of his Ipod flashing over his droopy eyelids. Seeing as his hyungs would sleep soon, Sungjong got up from the floor, saying matter-of-factly, “I’ll be awhile, so don’t wait on me.”

Receiving a mere grumble from Myungsoo, Sungjong slipped out of his dorm room, closing the door lightly behind him. Am I really doing this?

Collecting his breath, Sungjong headed off into the halls. His footsteps made more noise than normal in the silent corridors, as the building was basically empty, so late at night.

Soon, he e final corner and arrived in front of the all-too-familiar practice room door. And there, in front of that door, stood Hyera.

Sungjong approached wordlessly, his skin already tingling as he neared her. She wore comfortable clothes and seemed relaxed, which relieved Sungjong. His footsteps gave him away, and Hyera looked up, greeting him with her brilliant, flashing eyes.

They stood there, without a word. Hyera had been the one to suggest that they meet, but Sungjong knew he wasn’t expecting her to have any definite plans set out; he couldn’t. He was just grateful that she was offering him anything other than the horrible fear she had shown him weeks ago in her appalling eyes.

“Should we go in the practice room?” Hyera spoke tentatively.

“Ummm, I’m not sure,… it might not be necessary…” muttered Sungjong. As he spoke, however, the blatant sound of two figures talking could be heard from around the corner hallway. The noise was approaching quickly.

“Oh yes we should!” said Hyera, and jumped into the practice room, Sungjong following close behind.

Only a few seconds after Sungjong closed the door to the room behind him, the voices could be heard passing by. Sungjong sighed in relief.

The practice room was dimly lit, just like the night, so long ago as it seemed to Sungjong, that he had watched Hyera practice there, alone. Recalling that memory sent a shiver down his neck, and Sungjong shook it off.

Hyera sauntered to the middle of the hardwood floor, where she crouched down as if to sit, then got back up. She walked in an arc and stopped, then made another arc in the opposite direction. She didn’t seem to know what to do, either. Sungjong merely watched her, the silence of the room strangely comforting.

He didn’t want to break the peaceful silence, but Sungjong knew he had things he needed to say. Before he began, he just needed to take a good, deep breath...

“I’m sorry,” he let out.

Hyera looked up, eyes aimed at Sungjong. Startled, he immediately threw his gaze to the floor, afraid to come in direct contact with her dazzling eyes. It’s okay. Just don’t look at her.

“I’m sorry about all those things I said to you. I… didn’t mean it. I was just thrown off…” Sungjong continued, head lowered in a bow, “and I’m really sorry, about what I did to you, that day… I can’t believe I did it myself…”

Hyera was pacing, her sneakers pattering the hardwood floor. Sungjong could hear her every step, clearly.

“I thought about it,” spoke Hyera, “and you were right, I’m not ready. I have so far to go.” Her voice was calm and flat, though her words carried much weight.

Startled by Hyera’s response, Sungjong raised his head, forgetting his previous warning to himself. Luckily, the girl had turned sideways, her gaze aimed elsewhere. “No!... I… didn’t mean any of those things I said,… I heard you singing today…” argued Sungjong.

“All of us girls, we still have far to go. But me especially,” cut in Hyera, “I know I frustrate Dongmin oppa. I frustrate myself more. Dancing is such a foreign language to me.” She articulated her words with force.

Her harsh response left Sungjong speechless.  His own words had done more damage to the girl than he’d realized. And he hadn’t even meant any of it. But that didn’t matter to Hyera, who had had to endure the scolding anyway, letting the thick coldness of those insults fester inside her.

“As Sunbae, I think you had every right to say those things to me, so no apology needed,” continued Hyera toughly, though her voice began wavering toward the end.

Sungjong watched the poor girl pace in front of him. “I can give you some advice, if you want,” he said. Had those words really just come out of his mouth?

Hyera faced Sungjong so abruptly; he had no time to react. Immediately, the sparkle of her brown pupils caught Sungjong’s gaze, and their eyes locked tightly, sending an almost electric wave through his body. For a moment, Sungjong was mesmerized in the brilliance of her eyes. Then, he turned his head, letting out the breath he’d been holding.

“Really? Will you? Right now?”

The impact of their eyes locking still rang in Sungjong’s head. When he gave his nod yes, he faced the girl, but he made sure to focus his sight on her neck.

“Oh! Okay. Can you show me?” asked Hyera, bounding over to the music player. She leaned over the multiple speakers and wires, unplugging most of the larger speakers so they wouldn’t make so much noise.

Sungjong walked over to the middle of the room, where the light was the brightest. He looked over to where Hyera was bent over the sound system. His heart was beating wildly. Somehow, he was about to give Hyera advice on dancing. How the conversation had turned out this way, he couldn’t recall. But he stood there, waiting for her.

“I always have trouble with ‘BTD’. Dongmin oppa thinks it’s because the song is too emotional for my sense of rhythm to comprehend,” said Hyera, as she brought the sound system to life, the speakers fuzzing as they , “I would really appreciate it, if you could show me how it’s really done.”

As Hyera straightened up from the speakers, Infinite’s ‘BTD’ began playing, ringing throughout the practice room. Sungjong found himself facing the mirror, launching himself into action as the choreography of the song kicked off immediately with the music.

Hyera’s had strolled up to watch Sungjong, standing a small distance to his side and front view. She was following the choreography slightly with her hands, but she focused on Sungjong’s movements.

As Sungjong succumbed to the powerful movements of the choreography, he felt as if the spell of Hyera’s eyes were lifting from him. He kept his eyes on the mirror, watching his own reflection, as he moved this way and that. His eyes took on a certain gleam they always did when he danced, a fierce gleam he prided himself on. When Sungjong danced, he felt he had to concentrate on effectively giving off the energy he had inside him to match the music of the song. Thus, he used his eyes to direct all of his energy and emotions outward, his body movements acting as a source of fuel for this focus.

The flow of his movements matching and accompanying the flow of the music made him forget, momentarily, his fear and hesitancy toward Hyera. But he could see her form, standing someway apart from him, out of the corners of his eyes. He became determined to show her all that he felt, all that he had inside him. He wanted to make it all up to her, all those insults he had thrown at her mercilessly.

The music reached its , and Sungjong lowered himself to the ground in preparation for Infinite’s famous scorpion dance. As he swung his arm, he felt a few drops of sweat fling off from his forehead. His body was on the floor, as the electric rhythm of the song hummed its . Sungjong lifted his leg backward, kicked it back down while his knee pushed up, and his body popped up flawlessly, leaving him in a standing position, seemingly stopped in time, until he launched himself outward in a series of powerful movements again.

Sungjong smirked to himself as he continued moving to the music. That had felt good. The scorpion dance had always been a golden marvel in ‘BTD’, and he had executed it well enough that he himself felt as if the air around him was bending to accommodate his bodily flow.

The song ended with a dramatic launch of rap followed by the electric hum fading abruptly. With one, final, deathly glare into the mirror, Sungjong lowered his upper body in a bow with his fist out, as the choreography called for. The music player buzzed, then clicked to a stop. Silence protruded the room. Panting, Sungjong straightened up again, wiping sweat from his brow.

In the silence of the room, Sungjong’s anxiety had returned, slightly. He wondered at Hyera’s reaction, but he couldn’t bring himself to look at her, standing only a few feet away. He breathed out in exasperation.

“I…” spoke Hyera, though her words seemed to have stuck in midway.

Hesitantly, Sungjong forced his head to look over to the girl. Her expression was again some new emotion he had yet to see in her. Mouth slightly ajar, muscles of her face tightened, she seemed, in shock. Why she seemed that way, Sungjong did not know. He relaxed his eyes, realizing that he was still concentrating his energy into them.

“I don’t think I could ever do what you just did,” murmured Hyera, “That was incredible.”

Sungjong was surprised to feel his cheeks heat up, when he heard Hyera’s comment. “Thank you,” he replied, looking at her straight in the eyes. He flinched slightly at their luminescent shine but did not break contact. He tried to keep insides in control, and at the same time, he tried to figure out exactly what he was feeling in there.

Hyera returned a warm smile at his thanks, which sent a wave of sparks through Sungjong. Then, she sighed, shoulders drooping, as she said, “I don’t know if any advice is going to help me out now. I don’t have what you have; I don’t have that glare that you have in your eyes.”

You have no idea what kind of glare your eyes have, thought Sungjong. He stepped one tentative step closer to Hyera. “You can do it. It’s not that hard,” he said.

“With dancing, I think of the energy of the music, and how we give off that energy to the audience. I focus on the music, and what kind of energy it contains, what kind of power it has. Then, when I dance, I use the movements to fuel that energy that the music withholds. I try to pull all of the energy and concentrate it into my eyes, the point I can draw the audience to. With that, I try to deliver as much of the energy I can to the viewers.”

Sungjong watched as Hyera slowly contemplated his words, and then nodded, once, then twice. “Okay,” she replied, and began to run through the choreography of BTD’s chorus, humming the melody as she did so. Sungjong could tell that she was trying to make sense of his words, as she moved her arms and body. She would occasionally slow down at some point, moving in slow motion as she tried to feel her movements, then start up again, rather awkwardly, especially without any music. The way she concentrated made Sungjong smile inwardly. She wasn’t doing too well. In fact, if Sungjong had seen her run through the BTD routine before, he would have probably thought that she was getting worse.

After a few tries, Hyera stopped with a sigh. “haha, I think I’m going to need practice. A lot of it,” she said, laughing at herself. She sat on the hardwood floor with crossed legs. “Do you wanna sit?” she asked Sungjong.

“Uhhh, sure.” Sungjong hesitated, not knowing where to sit. He didn’t know if he could deal with sitting face to face with her. He couldn’t very well sit right next to her, either. In the end, he sat at an angle from her, his eyes awkwardly aimed toward her right foot.

“So… about that other thing that happened, that night…” began Hyera, her voice trailing off. Sungjong gulped, the memory flashing through his mind.

“What did you mean when you said, you were obsessed with me? When you said you were obsessed with my eyes?” asked Hyera.

Sungjong’s heart seemed to want to race with time, to see how faster it could go. He took a deep breath, focusing his eyes on nothing in particular. Then he began. He told her about his nightmares of her and her eyes, sobbing relentlessly in front of him while he was helpless. He told her how the image haunted him day and night, everywhere, exhausting him. He even told her that he’d spied on her twice that day, on the roof top and in the recording room. He told her that he didn’t know what to describe it as, other than an insane obsession.

“I know you must think I’m crazy. I’m pretty sure I’m mad myself. I’m sorry about all of it. But I don’t know what to do,” said Sungjong. When he finished, the room went completely silent. Sungjong could hear himself breathing.

“I’m sorry too,” whispered Hyera, breaking the silence, subtly.

“But I said I would help. And I will; I’ll try my best. But also, you have to keep your word with me,” Hyera’s words became more articulate this time. 

Sungjong could feel that she was looking at him, full in the face. He was afraid to look back - his heartbeat was in frenzy – but he raised his head, breathing as calmly as he could. He locked eyes with Hyera: her eyes were so beautiful and so menacing. He wavered inwardly as the gleam in her pupils pierced through him, but he kept his gaze steady.

“While I help you, you have to teach me to dance the way you do, at the same time,” said Hyera, her eyes glittering with each word.

Something clicked in Sungjong’s heart, something that allowed him to breathe easier, to keep his gaze more focused, and to give a firm response to the girl in front of him. “I will. Thank you, Hyera,” he said.  

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A/ N: Hi everyone! I hope you're enjoying the story~!

I've had a exciting break-through in my random Infinite-fandom -ness today! I now have basically half of BTD's scorpion dance mastered XD It was soooo hard...

So, thank you for reading!