Take a Bow // Ateez // YunSan // Yunho x San

Illusion

Yunho gasped in a breath, the air in the dance studio thick with sweat. They'd gone through the dance about fifteen times today, and they had almost perfected it. It would take maybe one or two more run-throughs and they'd be ready to perform it tomorrow. He could see Mingi laid out on the floor as Jongho chugged a water bottle leaning against a wall. If he wasn't so tired he would have laughed at them. But to be fair, he probably looked just as ridiculous as they did. He rolled over onto his stomach and reluctantly pushed himself to his feet.

He cracked his neck, "Alright guys, one more time?"

The other boys groaned before nodding and getting into position. Yunho started the music and let the pumping bass fill his body. He started to dance, hard-hitting hip hop moves mixed with fierce facial expressions made their dance come to life. He loved how he felt when he danced, even he was exhausted. All his stress seemed to fly out of his body as the music filled him.

And he had a lot of stress filling him at the moment. He needed this to go well. This trio performance was worth 20% of their grades, and he really, really needed to get an A on it. He had gotten sick and hadn't been able to perform at their monthly evaluations. That zero had dropped him to a C, and being the overachiever that he was, that was unacceptable. He needed this grade to be good to bring him back up to a B, and then hopefully the big final project at the end would bring him up the A he so rightfully deserved.

This run-through was probably their best one yet, and Yunho was more than pleased when they finished. He was panting and gasping for breath, but they had all looked sharp, their timing spot on, and nobody missed a single move. It was poetry in motion. Nothing was better than a well-executed hip hop routine.

He stopped the music quickly, not wanting it to start playing again. Mingi was on the floor again, but this time he was joined by Jongho. They were both panting and Yunho was afraid they were going to make puddles on the nice hardwood floors from how badly they were sweating.

Mingi rolled over onto his stomach, "I can't go any longer, go on without me."

Yunho laughed, "I think we're done man, there's a class in here in like, twenty minutes."

"Oh shit," Jongho said, standing up, "I have lunch plans and if I skip they're gonna freak out."

"Alright, have fun with your friends, see you later!"

Jongho just waved behind him, not even turning back to look at them. Jongho usually spent his free time with his other friends, a group of about six boys his age. Yunho had never met them but he was sure they were nice enough. Yunho wished that Jongho would hang out with them, it was pretty lonely just eating lunch with Mingi everyday. Sure, they were visited by their other friends pretty often, the other boys were busy a lot. The four other boys were in their own group for the hip hop evaluations this month, so they were practicing a lot during lunch.

Yunho checked his phone, glad to see a text from Minhyuk that he and the rest of the boys would be joining them for lunch. Lunch was always better when you could spend it with friends.

Yunho slung his bag over his shoulder, "Yah, Mingi, grab your shit let's go. All the boys are going to be at lunch."

Mingi sat up with a wide grin, "Oh thank god. I really needed to ask Haknyeon how to do that one spinny move I can never get right."

"A windmill? Dude, you are way too big to be trying a windmill. Also, you have literally zero breakdancing experience." Yunho said.

Mingi pouted but followed after Yunho, "So? I still wanna try. It just looks to fun and so... spinny."

Yunho pushed him lightly, "Dork."

Mingi made an offended sound, "Leave me alone you jerk. Oh look, there are the boys!"