Innocence // STRAY KIDS' Han Jisung

twenty-two

In which there's anger and white lies.

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On her way back home, Jeongin had not been her only companion.

When Mirae had exited Dance class with shaky legs, still not getting over the anxious feeling of being on top of Jeno's shoulder, at a much higher height she was used to, she found Jeongin waiting by the school door with Jisung and Changbin in a way that made them look a lot tougher than they actually were.

"Hi, Mirae-noona!" Jeongin waved with a bright smile when he saw her, but stopped midway when he noticed the exhaustion on her face. "Are you alright? You look almost dead."

"'Cause I almost died," she deadpanned with a sigh. "I had Dance class and we did some pirouettes and lifting and it was tiring as hell."

"Oh, yeah, Hyunjin mentioned something when we were on our way out about a contemporary thing the teacher wants to put on, right?" Jisung questioned, tilting his head to the side.

"Yeah, she wants to do a contemporary routine in couples to perform at the Artistic Gala. And I think I'll have to do it because she said she wanted to see my partner perform."

"Who is it?"

"Lee Jeno."

"No way! We've competed against him and his dance academy before," Changbin gasped and slapped Jisung's chest, to which the other responded with another slap.

"He's also a dancer? No wonder he was able to lift me up so easily."

"He lifted you?" Jisung asked, frowning a bit.

Mirae shrugged and nodded, "Well, yeah. It's a couple's dance. We have to do like a million things and it includes lifting ups and spinning around. But I don't know, we just started learning the routine today. I still don't know how many more things we'll have to do."

"Oh! Maybe it's that dance that SM did on last year's competition! Since Mrs. Wang also teaches in SM," Jeongin said.

"What's SM?"

"The name of the academy, like JYP," he explained. "By the way, what was the name of the song you're dancing?"

"I don't know. Mrs. Wang mentioned the name, but I don't remember."

"Was it an English song?"

She nodded.

"Yeah, it's definitely that routine," Jeongin concluded with an excited look. "It's going to be amazing watching you dance to that, noona."

"It won't. I'm not a dancer! I'll most likely going to look like a dancing piece of wood next to Jeno. It's going to be embarrassing."

"I'm sure you'll ace it, Mirae," Changbin smiled at her friendly and gave her a 'fighting' hand movement. "Anyway, that's not the reason why we waited for you—"

"You were waiting for me?"

"Yes, I just said it—"

"Why, though?"

"Let me talk!" he burst out and the other two boys chuckled along. "So, we were going to this new place called 'Pinwheel' with Soobin-noona and the other hyungs later today, and we were asked by Soobin-noona to ask you to join us."

"If I'm not mistaken, Felix invited Nora as well," Jisung added.

However, Mirae's face fell upon remembering the invitation Mingyu had made a while back. "I'm sorry, I can't today. I am busy."