The song ended, and Seulgi remained in the ending pose, breathing heavily. "No, no, no," Seulgi muttered to herself, "That wasn't good enough. More grace Seul." She wiped the sweat from her brow. It was about 11 o'clock and of course, Seulgi was practicing a dance she had learned by herself. She walked towards the speakers where her phone was plugged in and hit rewind.

"One, two, three, four." Seulgi counted. She moved to the sound, she moved forgetting everything, she moved so she could forget to feel. Towards the end of the song, Seulgi lost her balance and fell. "." Seulgi muttered. She stood up again, she felt pain, but it was meaningless. She began to dance again and again, over and over, repeat and repeat. After some time, she sat down to examine her ankle, Seulgi felt someone watching her. Someone... was watching. That wasn't okay, no one watches Kang Seulgi dance at night, no one. 

She glanced out the window and saw a figure retreating down the hallway. "No, no, no..." Seulgi worried to herself. "They saw me, they saw me feel, they saw the real me... I promised this wouldn't happen again, and I failed." Seulgi quickly gathered her things and fled the scene. "Maybe... Maybe they didn't know it was me." She thought as she clambered into her bed.  That was her last thought before falling asleep. She didn't even notice that she was crying.

N E X T    M O R N I N G 

Rubbing her eyes, Seulgi rolled out of her bed. Gathering her shower caddy, she put on a white robe and headed into the dorms public showers. As she entered, she was hit in the face with steam. Somehow, Seulgi had blindly managed to find an empty shower. She hung her caddy up and closed the shower curtain. Still trying to wake up, she was silent, but everyone else was sadly not. There was squealing, shouting, giggling, groaning, and many other noises Seulgi couldn't even try to guess. Soon she stopped hearing the noises and began to concentrate on the continuous thump of warm water on her back. After she was done with her shower, she put her robe back on.

As she was leaving, one of the girls from her dance class had called out to her, "Hey Seul! I can call you Seul right? Anyway, I was wondering if you would like to hang out with me and a couple other people, you seem pretty cool, but we need to break your shell first." The girl winked at her and walked away, not even bothering to listen for Seulgi's answer to either of her questions. Seulgi was dumbfounded by people's ignorance sometimes. She shook it off and continued back to her room.

During the day, Seulgi's mind kept wandering to the night before. "Who was it??" The question kept racing through her mind. When she got to her dance class, she was sure she was going to go crazy if she didn't find out. Mrs. Song was standing in the front of their class when she entered. The students were stretching in the middle. After 10 minutes, Seulgi was changed and blended in the crowd stretching with them. 

"Everyone, attention please!" Mrs. Song's voice rang out with two claps. Everyone stopped. "Perhaps it was someone in this class?" Seulgi wondered staring blankly at Mrs. Song. "I would like to announce that I have made the decision to have a winter concert. I know that it is only Autumn, but I want to make sure this ballet will be the best of the best." A hand rose near the front, “What ballet are we doing?" Mrs. Song pointed to one of the several posters hanging around the room, The Nutcracker. "Was it a male or female who was going down the hallway?" Seulgi thought, glancing at the poster. "I believe that I have already chosen my leads, if that is alright with everyone. I hope they do agree to become the leads, but if not, we will have tryouts for those parts also." Excited titters came from the girls, "Who is it? You don't think it's me, do you?" Mrs. Song clapped her hands to silence the girls. "Now, I'm sure you are all excited, but the leads I have chosen are... Kim Jongin as the Nutcracker and Kang Seulgi as Clara." Disappointment came from all around, at first it didn't even register to Seulgi. 

"Huh?" She asked somewhat stupidly to Hyeji, who was standing next to her beaming," What happened?" Hyeji laughed, "Seulgi weren't you listening?? You got the lead! I knew it had to be you, after I saw you dance yesterday and all..." "Wait, she saw me dance??" Seulgi thought alarmed, "It was Hyeji??" Seulgi shook her head, "Never mind, she was my partner for that one activity." Then it hit her, she said that Seulgi was the lead. Seulgi felt a sense of excitement, and dread. "Who'd she say my partner was Hyeji?" Seulgi asked in a soft voice, Hyeji pointed to the middle of the crowd. Kim Jongin. He was silent and stone faced as the congrats came upon him by the other students. He wasn't really paying attention to them, he was staring at Kang Seulgi, and Seulgi could feel that he saw through her facade. "Kim Jongin was the one who saw me dance."

-

A/N sorry for the late update lmao oops but happiness bc I uploaded right??? Anyway I'm still getting used to writing on AFF but hopefully I can accomplish great things once I master this lmao. I will become Sensei Swim Goddess and all will praise me. Love love love you all owo bye bye and enjoy the rest of the story hopefully... subscribe if you want to.... or upvote.... they're really appreciated yo like I can't explain how much each and every one of them mean to me... idk I'm getting teary. DON'T MIND ME.