𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐬 ˢᵛᵗ

nine ♬

The boy was in the middle of an intricate dance routine when I walked in.

"It was you all along? You're the night practicer?" I asked dumbfounded. I had a lot of  guesses for who it could be, Jun was not one of them.

"You caught me," He threw his hands up and let out a small chuckle before resuming his dance.

As he played the song, his body moved like water; free and flowing. Each move captivated me; the way he hit each beat yet danced so delicately. The air around him was his to command, lifting him effortlessly in his jumps.

It was mesmerising.

After the dance finished, I clapped loudly like the appreciative audience member I am.

"Did you like it?" He asked tentatively

"It's for my exam on the 14th."

"You have to do a dance exam?" It confused me because if I remember correctly, the exams I was sitting were for English, Korean Lit and Fine arts. Not dance.

"Instead of English and Korean Literature, I have my Korean language test and dance," He answered before taking a gulp of water.

"Well, If I were your judge you would definitely be passing," I praised.

He smiled and thanked me for the compliment. At that moment, my phone buzzed with a text from Seokmin.

seokmin

You back yet? I heard you left the building

sent 10:53

I quickly typed back a response.

me

Yeah im back now

sent 10:54

It wasn't long before Seokmin replied.

seokmin

Ok 👍

sent 10:56

I was about to put my phone down when another text came through.

seokmin

Good night :)

sent 10:57

I simply smiled down at my phone.

"What you smiling at?" Jun teased as he sat down next to me. Quickly, I hid my phone out of view. He tried to wrestle it out of my grip to see what was on it, but fell over the side of me instead. We both ended up on the floor beside each other, creasing up at his failed attempt to grab my phone.

"Why did you think that would even work?" I asked in between laughs.

"I don't know," Jun cracked up.

We laughed some more before calming down. A few minutes passed as we lay on the floor in silence, until Jun spoke up.

"You know," He began,

"It's nice to be able to laugh like this. Being a trainee is hard, but moments like these are something you can cherish forever. Thanks for this, Chae-ri."

"For what?" I turned my head to face him. He was staring at the ceiling, watching the light that shone down on us. Jun and I aren't so close yet, but right now he feels familiar to me.

He didn't say anything further, so I assumed that was the end of the conversation. It was getting late, so I got up off the ground and told him that I was going to head to bed. We exchanged goodbyes and then I left the room.

Couple of days passed, now being the last study period before the big exams. The date was Wednesday the 12th of February, just two days shy of the tests. Jeonghan and Joshua invited me to join them learning more Korean Lit from Mingyu, however I passed on the opportunity because I actually needed to solidify my English more.

So I decided to spend the four hours with Vernon and Seokmin. Seungkwan tagged along, simply because he had no one else to hang out with. He covered this up by saying he was bored so he joined us, but we all knew the real reason.

"I hope you guys know that there are tons of other people I could be hanging out with right now," Seungkwan loudly said, making sure we all heard him say it for the third time.

Vernon gave him a death glare, signalling for him to shut up. Seungkwan obeyed, diverting his attention back to the textbook in front of him.

"This paragraph is talking about time," Vernon explained,

"Chae-ri, wanna try read it out and see if Seokmin can answer it?"

I nodded and began to read the passage.

"John arrive at school at 8 o clock. The teacher ask to talk to him before the beginning of class. Since school start at 7, why did John get in trouble?"

"Good job, just remember to add the "d" sound at the end of the verbs that happened in the past," Vernon advised,

"Like arriveD, askeD, starteD. Ok Seokmin, answer in English."

"John was in trouble because....," Seokmin struggled to form the words. Vernon almost stepped in, and that was when a lightbulb lit up in Seokmin's head.

"He is late!" Seokmin shouted enthusiastically, happy that he found the answer. Vernon patted his back as the boy bounced up and down to celebrate.

"Ugh, English is easy," Seungkwan complained,

"Let's do something fun."

"I wouldn't be so sure about your low quality English," Vernon muttered whilst turning the page. Although it was fairly quiet, Seungkwan seemed to have heard the comment.

"Low quality?!" He yelled,

"Low quality?! I'm the best quality!"

His outburst made us all laugh, which only made him angrier. He sat down in a mood, continuously huffing until someone noticed. The three of us ignored him and continued studying until lunch time came.

Two days went by fast, as most of the time I was occupied with classes. Ms Chang had a new vocal challenge for us to see who could hold the longest A#. Seokmin was in the lead, with Seungkwan in a close second. I was fourth on the list behind Josh, who managed 13 seconds before accidentally going off key. Yoona created a new choreography containing many styles such as hip hop, street and urban. The whole idea behind it was the quick change in style strengthened our agility and ability to adapt.

In other words it was a nightmare.

But none of that matters right now, as today is D-day. The dreaded day that came sooner than expected. The day where I couldn't fail at all costs, otherwise my life as a trainee would be halted.

Today was exam day.