in your reflection || rini au

30. perfection in every way

nini had rushed into her room that night, throwing her bag onto her bed distractedly as she quickly grabbed ahold of the wooden chest box on the night stand, sitting down on the edge of her egg chair and holding it in her hands as she stared down at it.

she hesitantly reached for the latch to open it up, lifting the lid delicately and seeing a single familiar silver chain with an oval pendant attached to it at the end.

reaching down for it and picking it up, nini rested it on the palm of her her hand before closing her eyes for a split, opening them back up and letting her finger trace over the surface of the pendant until she slowly turned it over.

her lips parted, she stared down at the engraved rose petals that were beautifully decorating the back of it, her name in calligraphy just above it.

nini felt her heart rate pick up. this couldn't mean...it couldn't right? what the fortune teller was saying was nonsense...

but then again...as she stared down at the necklace, she couldn't help but feel her eyes sting with tears. her stomach flipped and turned in fear and guilt. her mind was running with every thing she'd said to push him away. push him away from being anything like that.

she felt like she was pathetic. letting a little necklace change her thoughts and perspective or at least try to. he was her friend. he is her friend. she doesn't want to lose that. and she doesn't want to lose the stability of familiarity she has around her. that she'd worked hard to build for her ever since it had fallen apart the first time last summer. she couldn't let herself change things again. because in her experience what good does change do? what has it done for her? heartache? pain? fear?

nini froze as she hesitantly stood up from the chair and put the necklace down, making her way to the bed to lie down as she finally closed her eyes, allowing sleep to consume her clouded mind.

—

with the next few days, it consisted of extreme rehearsals, getting everything sorted for the opening night of the show that was set to be in a week now. the group of dancers had now their costumes and props ready and their practices took place at the salt lake city grande theatre. it was quite a big space which meant that there would be the usual big audiences like every year. only this time, scouts from different universities were coming to watch.

the days of stress for the show wasn't relieved but more so intensified due to the teens' final exams also arriving, which meant that the only thing they were doing while not rehearsing was revising their school content.

and this also meant that it prevented nini to even think, process or accept everything that she was feeling for ricky. because though the amount of time she'd spent with him had been making her the more confused, everything happening around her was much larger and more important. and she had to focus on that. nothing else.

these past rehearsals, nini was taking more and more care of her ankle. she didn't pressure it too much and she put on bandages from her mom's nursing cabinet at home every night when no one would see her, also taking pain relief medication to make sure that it would be 100% strong for opening night. she wasn't going to let anything stop her from getting scouted at julliard.

but when doing all of this, though it went unnoticed by her teachers, her mom and her friends — ricky could tell that something was up with her. she wasn't as assertive with moves or the dances as she usually was this close to performance night. and knowing the stakes of importance, the odd and peculiarity of it stood out to him even more.

ricky stood up from the stage where he was warming up, making his way to nini to see her rolling her ankles around sensitively before he hesitantly tapped her shoulder

she quickly turned around and gave him a nervous smile "ricky...hey."

"hey." he greeted with a nod "i was thinking to practice that lift in the last dance today. we haven't gone over it too much."

nini swallowed and opened her mouth "today...? really? i was thinking we should leave that for in a few days-"

"the performance is in seven days, nini."

"yeah, i know-"

"so, why can't we-"

"ricky, i know what we're doing and what we've been practicing. we'll be ready. okay?" she snapped at him, folding her arms in frustration. but it was really to mask the worry of him finding out why she actually didn't want to practice that lift. not this far away from the performance.

ricky looked back at her, taken by surprise by the way she replied at him and he just scoffed, nodding "got it."

nini opened her mouth in regret to talking to him like that as he turned away and she sighed, shaking her head and deciding to leave him be.

she continued warming up before big red skipped towards her with a raised eyebrow "what was that about?"

nini shrugged "he had a question about the dance."

"which reminds me, i cannot wait to see the opening duet. with your costumes? it's going to look amazing." he grinned

nini smiled softly "thanks biggy."

the beginning of the show opened up with the duet that ricky and nini had really been focusing on as it basically summarized the entire show. they were meant to have white costumes which symbolizes how they - as romeo and juliet - were already passed and had met each other in the after life. it was about how their love was infinite and knew no lengths. to be honest, it was her favorite dance she'd ever done with ricky.

once she had finished warming up and had to start practicing with ricky, she slowly made her way towards him where he had been talking with another dancer before she cleared her throat awkwardly

ricky turned around and met her gaze, folding his arms "ready?"

"look..." she began, taking a deep breath "i-i'm sorry...for snapping at you earlier. i'm just...i'm under a lot of pressure with exams and these dances and-"

ricky raised his eyebrows in confusion "and...?"

"um...and...um-nothing." she mumbled quietly, looking down before continuing to speak in order to leave no room for him to question her "the point is, i shouldn't have reacted like that. i'm sorry."

ricky looked at her warily before nodding "it's okay. i get it." he half-smiled "but you know... you don't have to put yourself in this state. you're pretty perfect."

nini lifted her eyes up at him when he said that and felt her heart flutter

"a-at dance! and school-um-i mean...you know." he nervously chuckled

she let out a light smile at his composure and laughed "...thank you."

"so." he cleared his throat "uh-how about we um...get started?"

"let's do it." she beamed