Black Swan [JIKOOK]

Co-Leads

Jungkook

Nope! I was back to hating this. As gorgeous as Jimin was, he irritated the life out of me. Two leaders in the same group fighting for dominance did not make for a fun afternoon. Dancing had always been fun to me, but now all I felt was annoyed. There was some other feeling that stirred beneath the surface of that, but I willfully ignored it. 

It was already our fourth rehearsal and we'd managed to not even come up with an opening routine. This was impossible! He was impossible!

Jimin was, admittedly, an incredible dancer. I could see how we'd been unknowingly pitted against each other by our fans. He was equally as talented as me, but I could see that his skills were more refined and trained than mine. His time studying and attending school for dance definitely shined. 

We had completely different styles, though. He was more elegant and contemporary, while my moves were sharper, edgier, and more hip-hop. Neither of us had a clue how we would not only mesh the two styles, but also manage to not strangle each other in the process.

I kept attempting to take the lead in suggesting a routine only to be interrupted by an agitated Jimin. The other members of our dance crews huddled together in the back of the room watching our squabbles unfold. Sometimes they would whisper to each other, increasing my frustration.

"Like this would look better coming out of that move," I insisted as I showed the same pop-lock move for the third time.

Jimin heaved a sigh as he testily shook his head. "No, it would look better if it were smoother like this." He leapt into an aerial without hesitation and no momentum.

Despite how impressed I was at his ability to do that, I was more exasperated at him continually cutting down my ideas and quarreling with me. One of us had to be the leader of this new merge group and it sure as hell was going to be me. I refused to back down to him.

Jimin

The boy may be sexy as hell, but he was the biggest pain in my ass I'd ever met. No matter what I suggested or how unique or interesting my sequence was, Jungkook always met me with resistance. I was already the lead dancer of Serendipity, one of the biggest dance crews in the world, and I was two years older! What kind of respect did I get for it? Nothing. Nothing from this boy.

"It doesn't need to be smooth," he asserted, once again shutting me down. Under my breath I cursed him in a Busan dialect to avoid him understanding me so that I could release some of my vexation with him while still being somewhat professional.

"What did you just say?" My mouth gaped open as he responded back to me in the Busan dialect.

"I-I-Nothing! Are you from Busan too?"

He blinked at me with doe eyes. "Yeah, I am. Is that a problem?"

"N-no," I stuttered back. It was the first time since we'd met that he'd caught me off-guard. I was shocked to know we were from the same place. It made me curious what else we had in common. "Let's just take a break. We're not getting anywhere here."

"I'll say!" Yoongi yelled from the back of the practice room.

"We haven't even gotten to dance once in four sessions!" Hobi whined. Yoongi patted his thigh in comfort, which seemed to settle him.

They were right, I realized. Jungkook and I had spent all our time arguing over who was the lead and what style to use and we had nothing to show for four sessions. A total of sixteen hours wasted, and our crews never even got to practice once!

"Jungkook, can I talk to you outside for a minute?"

He bowed his head, possibly having the same guilty thoughts that were racing through my own mind. "Yeah, I think we should."

We made our way to the front of the building. Dusk had fallen over the city while we'd been inside. I glanced up to the stars, taking a deep breath.

"Let's walk a little so we can at least get that much exercise," I suggested. He nodded and kept pace at my side.

"Jungkook, look. We're both the lead dancer of each of our groups. It comes naturally to both of us to lead, but us fighting for the top spot is getting us nowhere. Is there any way that we can both be the lead? Maybe each be the lead of our own style and somehow find a way to move fluidly between the two?"

"I think we have to try. I don't like the idea of not being lead, but we can't keep this up either," he agreed.

"I'm not saying one or the other be a single lead. More like...co-lead?"

He lifted an eyebrow. "Co-lead?"

I could tell I was making some headway with him, so I went on. "Yeah, co-lead. Like I said, you and I working together to lead our groups instead of just one of us."

"Our styles are very different," he said hesitantly.

"That's why it would be so much better if we worked together. You could teach me the hip-hop styles and I could teach you contemporary. Then we could find a way to make them work together effortlessly."

"Well...you are a pretty amazing dancer," he blushed and quickly added, "for a contemporary dancer."

I turned away to hide the pink spreading across my own cheeks. Why did he have to be so cute? And now he says I'm a good dancer? Biting my lip, I replied, "Thank you. You're a pretty great dancer yourself."

Turning back to him I tacked on, "For a hip-hop dancer."

He chuckled and grinned the cutest grin I'd ever seen. His wide smile and perfect teeth reminded me of a cute little bunny. I gulped as I caught myself staring at his lips.  I wondered what his lips would feel like pressed against mine.  Or pressed against my neck or my chest or my...

I cleared my throat as I looked forward, wide-eyed, fighting to regain control of my wandering thoughts.  Chastising myself, I dared a glance at Jungkook.

He rammed his hands into the pockets of his coat, still smiling, but pointedly fixating on the sidewalk. "Well, I think we could at least try being co-leads and seeing how it goes. Can't be any worse than what we've already done...which is nothing."

I giggled. "True. Guess we should head back and use the last forty minutes to do something useful, huh, co-lead."

Jungkook flashed his bunny grin at me again. "Guess we should, co-lead."