Dates to Remember

Of Leads and Boundries

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From an unmoving figure at the back, sharp eyes looked at the dancers' reflection on the mirror. His straight face was far from pleased as his index finger followed along the beat of the steps. And one of his eyebrows would arch up every so often as one or three of them failed to sync up.

This was the Jazz class. Not his favorite but also not the least one he wanted to oversee. Plus, the people taking this class was so diverse that he could not help but keep his mouth shut or he might offend someone. As the song trickled into the final notes, he clapped before cutting it off.

"Good job, everyone." He slowly moved himself to the side of the room as to meet the students halfway. "Your spins are really good but some still need to work on a stable landing. Also, please, be more aware of the people around you next time. We don't want any of you having the same cast as I have, do we?"

Some chuckled at this but kept silent and some only nodded. He then dismissed the class and waited until the last person left before making his way back to the seat to pick his bag.

"You done, Channie?" a girl with a tight bun on her head peeked through the slightly opened door.

"Yeah, I thought it would never end. How's your class?" Chan bent over to grab his things but the girl was quick to swipe it off the floor and placed the backpack over her shoulders. "Give it back. I can carry it just fine."

"Nope. This way, you can't just ditch me half way to practice." She smiled at him, her eyes almost disappearing.

"I can't even walk out without you catching up, let alone run with this thing on my foot."

"But still... I want to be sure." She held the door open as he slowly paced, alternating his good foot and the clutch. "Plus, I want to make use of what dad and uncle promised after we stand-in for a few of their classes this month."

"And I can't understand how those two would just let us do that. We both major in dance but we don't even specialize on those dances." He shook his head.

They eventually reached the biggest room; the one they really prefered to practice in and Chan settled down on the only bench in there.

"Aagh, I want to take this thing off already," he groaned at the white mold around his ankle as the girl clipped on a skirt over her tights.

"Two weeks right? How many more days to go?" She asked while stretching on the floor.

"Ten days. But it feels like I had this for over a year now." Chan picked at the stray bandage showing under the plaster. "I want to dance already. Heck, I want to at least walk properly."

"And I want my partner back. I can't practice this routine on my own, too, you know." She added. "We have an evaluation in a week. You are excused and I am not. How fair is that?"

"Sorry about this, Eunji-ah," he looked down with a heavy sigh.

"Tch. I'm not blaming you because it's an accident." She said, placing her hands on her hips. "I am just saying how can they not consider excusing us as a pair. I mean, we had the steps down, the song, costumes and all. We already did the interim check too. Now, they want me to find another person just becauㅡ"

Eunji stopped as she saw Chan's face harden. "You know, maybe I can just dance this alone." She said, trying to lighten the mood

"Now, that's just plain stupidity. Move along~" Chan deadpanned, immitating how their professor says it but his facade quickly dropped and they both cracked up afterwards. "But seriously, there is literally a saying that goes against what you wanted to do."