Not Alone || Jung Jaehyun

Chapter 8 | "one little slip up"

"Nice job, you two, really nice." Jaehyun said once the pair finished the dance. "Momo, make sure to make more eye contact and Sana, clean up the footwork in the second half a bit, but overall good job."

Hyemi's Jae dropped hearing the praise leaving Jaehyun's mouth. Not because she didn't think they deserved it, they totally did. They performed the piece as if they'd known it for years. But she was shocked that Jaehyun was even capable of saying anything remotely nice.

"Good practice today guys, see you later." Jaehyun said as he checked his watch, starting to pack up.

"I can close down today." Hyemi offered, standing from her spot. "I have a free period right now."

"Fine." Jaehyun said, grabbing his bag and leaving the room without a second glance.

Once she was sure they had all left, Hyemi returned to the center of the room and turned on some music. Even though she was tired after their practice, she still wanted to do more. As the hip hop instrumental played over the speakers, Hyemi danced to the combo from earlier, watching herself in the mirror and trying to find errors.

She kept doing the combo over and over but it didn't look right. She walked through it slowly, watching her every move in the mirror but something was still wrong.

"Your hand is facing the wrong way, and you're still not putting enough power into the kick."

She turned to see Jaehyun leaning on the doorway.

"How you didn't notice those errors by now, I'll never know, they're so obvious." He continued, throwing down his dance bag and going to stand next to her.

"You were watching me?"

"Obviously I was. I'm not about to trust a first year to shut this place down properly after all the work it took to get this room for us." He said, rolling his eyes as faced her. "Do it again."

She stared at him in confusion.

"The combo. Do it again."

"Oh, okay."

She went through it once more, her nerves spiking under Jaehyun's close eye.

"The hand position is still wrong."

"Oh, like this?"

She tried to correct it but he shook his head. She tried again but was wrong. Eventually Jaehyun let out a frustrated huff and grabbed her arm, moving it into proper position for her.

"God you're slow at this, you're gonna need to pick it up if you want to keep up with us." He scoffed out, playing the music for her again.

This time she did it right, to her relief, but of course nothing was perfect fo Jaehyun.

"Put more power into your footwork."

"That kick needs to be higher."

"You're not getting low enough on the drop."

"That move isn't precise enough. Make it sharper."

Hyemi was totally exhausted now, having run the combo over and over again trying to get Jaehyun's approval.