Fate

Chapter 90

Mina's POV
"I've never been the eldest in a group before. Exciting isn't it?"

I handed him his coffee order as we made our way to work. "You've had younger people leaning on you no?"

I chuckled at that. "Unless they were five years old, I doubt it. I looked up to Hyejin and Yani eonni at our first practice." The smirk on his face couldn't be missed. "Think I'm lying?I can't lie for shit remember?" My resting b*tch face made me less approachable.

"Moonbyul said the two youngest asked for your input a lot. I call that being leaned on."

"You do? I guess so. I've never been everyone's eonni or noona. I think that's what I meant." I explained.

He nodded taking a sip. "True, sometimes I forget Stef and Meg are older than you. Your friend Nathy is the youngest isn't she?"

I hadn't seen her in months. "Got that right. I mean, you've never really been the eldest hyung either."

He gave off hyung energy. While I could personally tell Jin was the eldest, the one acting like it was Namjoon. His leader position did enhance that, but even around hyungs, even if he fooled around, the etiquette was on him. "Accurate, surprised you know that. You'll do great, besides.. the choreographer is spending the day with you guys. He's the one they should go to first."

Did he not know how intimidating that was? I did speak up when I really couldn't figure it out, but my team was whom I'd ask first. It left a better impression than being the neverending interrupting idiot. Not that people who interrupted were idiots, not at all. It just felt that way after getting an answer at times. "Have you actually seen your backup dancers practice?"

My question was unexpected. "Well.." He frowned. "Can't say I have actually. You know I'm not the dance focused type."

Obviously! I nudged his shoulder as we entered the building. "Spy on us this morning. You'll see what I mean."

He accompanied me to my studio for the day. Early, again. Nobody in sight. "I'll see you this afternoon for our joint practice."

What was with his playful eyes and grin? "What are you trying to pull? Know something I don't?"

A kiss. "Of course, I do. Where would be the fun in you knowing everything?" He slowly pulled away until he had to let my hand go, then pointed at me. "I'll come stalk your practice, I promise."

That moment was funny enough, the phrase added to it. What a weird thing to say. "See you later, handsome." He went on his way, grinning like an idiot.
.
.
.
The closest in age to me was three years younger. We were twenty. The number of ladies hinted to what would unfold in the joint practice. There were seven of us, their ages between 20 and 22. Duets, huh? How would that fit into a song that was basically Idol's little brother. After a short introduction, we jumped to business: all the parts different for Bangtan. Honestly, the choreographer did go fast at times, even for me. When he called our first break and he left the room, I didn't take one. I restarted the song to practice the segment we learned. I looked into the mirror seeing about half of them slowly approaching. I smiled to myself. "Want me to go over some steps with you?"

The eldest boy was relieved. "You'd do that?"

"I'm not doing this only for myself, that's not knowing me well." I motioned for them to get closer. We can't do everything in 15 minutes, but we can run the tricky parts for the majority. Sounds good?" I think I became their favorite sunbae for the morning.

Namjoon's POV
I did as I said and observed for a good thirty minutes through the small window by the door. There had been one question and it was Mina asking for further deconstructing of a popping canon transitioning into a high energy unison with a spacing and position change. She had it perfectly which made the question odd, until I focused on her behavior. Being left center, you could see her observe the group in the mirror giving nods and small hand movements. It was her favored language, anyone who wasn't blind could see it. She spoke up for them. Seeing her take her break to help them, confirmed to me that insisting, even if the company already had her on their list, to get her on that job was the right call. I couldn't wait to see all of us work together.
.
.
.
She was the first one crossing the door, keeping it opened for the others. Saying the classic introduction dongsaengs said to their sunbaes. "Hello, please take good care of us!"

Then it hit me. I was working with my girlfriend on a very public release, with my group.. and dancers. I had to be professional with her for HOURS. We bowed too. "Welcome to the studio!" They worked great! She still checked up on then during water breaks.

They felt comfortable asking her about little points and during the bigger break, she went to my hyung. "Sunbae? Can I ask for your help with something?"

He seemed amused. "Sure, what can I do for you?"

Her choice of pronouns was endearing. "We seem to have trouble with the bouncy drop and turn to end on one knee. Would you mind taking some time to review that with us?"

How could he say no to a well formulated demand? Her group hadn't stopped working on it while she was asking. "Give me time to take a sip of water and I'm coming." He even called Jungkook over to mirror him.

It was an interesting experience watching her work. She would be direct, but not mean and use quirky comparisons for movements that were hard to make feel natural. She acknowledged their successes as soon as they happened. I wondered how her behavior would differ in the 7 vs 7 and duets. We had been paired with the girls by height to make it easier to have a standard heel height. Of course, they did not have the official shoes, but they had brought either a 2 or 3 inches high heeled pair. The guys were all two inches taller or more. I was looking Mina straight at eye level. We were all looking at the mirror. I had to comment. "Feeling tall?"

She shrugged. "You? Feeling short?"

I didn't lie. "Very." I couldn't imagine her next to Jimin right now.
A quick giggle went around the room before the choreographer came back in.

As we learned our steps, I discovered the dance was in a smaller individual bubble than I expected. Mixing the ideas of 21st century girl and Idol led to that? I mean, the verses and pre-chorus were soft enough for such an arrangement, but still.. She had better control than I did. "Your head needs to follow the movement of my arm."

"I forgot, sorry." Only I could hear her whisper. We redid the sequence. After figuring out the mechanics of it, we were asked to add emotions and flow to the movement. The song was about being free to enjoy life as we saw fit and make the world our playground some lines could be interpreted as romantic or platonic love. He did request for us to exude the full range between those extremes. Needless to say, I couldn't fake anything platonic. Leg extended to the side, other one bent, the only instruction was to rise up together face to face. Yoongi and Jin hyung were holding only a hand of their partner a small smile on. Tae did the same, but his gaze went up and down flashing a bigger smile. Hobi did so too, but added a bit more groove to it. Jimin and Kookie had their hand resting on the upper waist of the girls. I didn't know how I did it except that my hand was definitely lower than her upper waist, but still at a proper height. I know that I also didn't break eye contact with her. Maybe I was a bit close to her too.

I think practice was a success.