My Little Dancer

eight // practice

"Do your practice and all is coming."
K. Pattabhi Jois

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A head bopped to the rhythm of a song while the owner's pair of eyes were fixed on the thick textbook in front of her. She had a pen in hand that was busy scribbling away, with the other occasionally pushing her glasses up in which it was resting loosely on her nose.

A loud continuous vibration snapped Yein out of her study mode. Checking her mobile, she saw an incoming call from Mijoo.

"YAH JUNG YEIN!" Mijoo screamed the instant the call connected, causing Yein to winced and pull the phone away from her ear.

Still in a rather loud voice, Mijoo continued, "didn't we agree to meet at five?"

Glancing quickly at the digital clock at the corner of her laptop, Yein's gasped. It was already five fifteen. Jumping out of her chair, she frantically dashed across her bed to the wardrobe.

"Sorry sorry sorry! I totally lost track of time!"

"You owe us one."

"Right, owe you one. I'll be there real quick."

Dropping her phone on her bed, Yein changed to her dance attire and hurriedly grabbed her essentials. Shoving them into her bag, she quickly slung it over and ran out of the room.

//

A door beeped open, causing the occupants within to pause and look up. The dance studio door was pushed open to reveal a heavily panting Yein, looking fairly dishevelled from the sprint.

"I'm so sorry I'm late," Yein said breathlessly, raising one hand up as a gesture of apologising.

"Dinner's on you!" Mijoo said gleefully as she sent a flying kiss to Yein.

Yein winced, "dinner?!"

"Eyy, a drink's fine," Jimin smiled. "Or dessert..."

Yein nodded, "alright, later. I promise."

Tossing her bag to the side of the studio, Yein began stretching out her muscles. She was trying to warm up faster for she felt really bad for being late. Eyeing Jungkook, she tried to see if he showed any signs of annoyance for her tardiness.

Jungkook had his earpiece plugged in and eyes fixed on his phone. He was watching the practice video that Howon ssaem had sent to them. Walking briskly over towards him, Yein gently tapped his shoulder to get his attention.

Nervously playing with her fingers behind her back, she said softly, "I'm good to start."

He turned to face her and as much as Yein has been spending slightly more time with him these few weeks, she still couldn't read his expression. Was he upset she was late? Was he angry? Was he thinking that she had wasted his time waiting? She couldn't tell as all his face had was a blank look – that which he always seemed to have.

Yein looked at him, eyes wide with question to which Jungkook simply shook his head and replied, "just go and warm up properly. We can start in ten."

Pulling at the corners of her mouth, Yein folded her lips in and eeked out a quiet 'okay'. Shuffling her feet lightly to the side, she began to properly stretch out and warm up her body that had been stiff from all the studying she was doing.

Within the ten minutes that she spent warming up, she saw Mijoo and Jimin start practising their individual solo items. Since everyone's part was a different segment of the performance song, they took a corner each, such that the music wouldn't be too distracting.

Finally knowing her body was warmed up well, Yein stood up and got Jungkook's attention by waving to him in his line of sight. Pulling out his earpiece, he sauntered over and placed his stuff down on the floor in front of the mirror.

"You remember the moves?" asked Jungkook.

"Yeah, most of it. Just not so sure about the spinning part because I can't do it alone," Yein answered meekly.

He looked at her in surprise, "you tried it on your own?"

"Whatever my room space could offer, yes." Yein chuckled, recalling the numerous crashing and bumping she had suffered while practising in her room; she kicked the bed frame so many times she lost count.

Seeing how she laughed, Jungkook knew she was no longer nervous and he couldn't help but laugh along with her, or rather, at her funny antics.

"Then we shouldn't have so much of an issue, I guess," Jungkook said with a smile.

Yein froze.

It would be a lie to claim that Yein had never seen him laugh. She had. But the rare times she had seen him laugh was when he was with his friends, talking about something she couldn't hear because she was a distance away.

Jungkook did have a beautiful expression whenever he smiled widely or laughed genuinely. (Well, he did have a beautiful face to begin with, to Yein's understanding.) But it wasn't the beauty of it that mattered, it just made Yein wonder if he didn't laugh or smile at her for a reason. Now that it happened, she was startled.

"Shall we begin?"

Pulled back to reality, Yein agreed with a yelp and scurried into position.

//

"Five, six, bam, bam, bam and end."

Jungkook and Yein immediately separated as the latter asked worriedly, "sorry for that catch just now. Are you okay?"

He shook his head, "which catch? It was okay though."

A loud series of claps interrupted them as Mijoo and Jimin walked over exclaiming, "wow, you guys are mad. It's pretty much perfect already."

Shaking her head, Yein said, "nah, I made a lot of mistakes."

It was already coming close to seven and they had to leave the studio soon for another club had booked the place after them. Drowning herself thirstily with water from her bottle, she began packing her things with her other free hand.

Seeing a shadow coming over her, Yein looked up to see Jungkook stooping down beside her. As her eyes followed his movement, she waited attentively to what he wanted to say.

"About the spinning and catching parts," Jungkook started while Yein nodded in response. "When we don't have the studio, we can practice along the hallway at Block C2. There's a glass with pretty good reflection and no one really passes there."

"Ah okay! We just ample space and a place to see our reflection."

After a brief moment of silence, he added, "so don't practice in your room. You'll only get bruises." He pointed at her leg where there were light visible bruises from bumping into the bed frame.

Quickly using her bag to cover her ankles, she replied, "I'll just be more careful."

"Just don't get injured."