off limits ✧ zb1 applyfic

✧ nineteen

Today during the morning assembly, the school’s director had announced they would begin preparations for the upcoming festival, organized to celebrate the long awaited summer break. Ever since then, Yujin had been racking his brain, trying to guess what in the world his class was going to do. There was the classic maid café, but that kind of stuff only happened in manga. Maybe they would open some sort of ephemeral snack bar. Or maybe a haunted house sort of attraction. As long as it wasn’t a play, Yujin was fine with it.

As P.E came around and their teacher told them they had something important to announce, Yujin got a bad feeling. Okay, the sports teacher wouldn’t be taking care of a play, but... Some sort of physical performance seemed to be in order, and that was just too embarrassing to even think about.

"For the school festival, this class will be doing a performance inspired by dances from cultures all over the world," she spoke up, her hands clasped.

Yujin let out a long sigh as he let his head hang low. "Dammit," he whispered to himself, already imagining how awkward it would be.

On the other hand, Irang, who was standing right besides him, clapped her hands in excitement. "It's going to be so much fun! I love dancing!"

Of course she did. And she was good enough at it, mostly thanks to her brother's guidance, that she didn't feel embarrassed to perform in front of other people. It's not that Yujin was bad at dancing. In fact, it had been something he'd been interested in for quite some time, and he'd put a lot of work into improving at it. But he'd never seriously danced in front of everyone. It was simply terrifying. Hell, if his classmates even knew he was so interested in dancing, they would probably make fun of him, so what would they say if they were to witness him actually doing it? He'd planned to keep it all to himself until he felt good enough to show others. Fate had other plans for him.

"Also," the teacher added, holding a finger up, "because there will be dances like the waltz, or tango, you will all be put into pairs."

At those last words, Yujin's eyes widened. Pairs. Couple dancing. Instinctively, his eyes drifted to Irang, who hadn’t reacted at all to that information, simply listening with a big smile on her face. If he were to dance with anyone... It had to be Irang. He wouldn’t feel comfortable with anyone but her. With her endless optimism and sweet nature, he knew she wouldn’t judge him. He knew he would have fun. And quite frankly, he didn’t really want to see her dancing with anyone else.

Speaking of, a few students suddenly flocked to Irang after the announcement was over. Boys and girls, they formed a circle around her, pushing against each other to be the one to talk to her first. His eyebrows furrowing, Yujin took a step back. He hadn’t even had the time to talk to Irang about anything...

"Please, please," a girl with twin braids whined, her hands joined, "can you dance with me, Irang?"

A boy pushed the girl aside, standing on his tiptoes to make sure Irang would see him. "No way! Please, pair up with me!"

"No, with me! We'll have so much fun, and I'm really good at dancing."

"Well I'm good at dancing too, so Irang should pair up with me."

A heavy sigh escaped Yujin's lips as he watched the scene unfold, a few steps away from Irang's rabid fanclub. He should've expected as much. After all, Irang was universally liked, by boys and girls alike, upperclassmen or freshmen. He obviously couldn’t be the only one who would want to dance with her. But still, he was her closest friend, wasn’t he? He should've at least gotten the opportunity to ask her. But it was too late now, she was put on the spot, having to pick between a horde of far too enthusiastic classmates.

When a hand suddenly wrapped around his arm, pulling him closer, Yujin flinched. Irang gave him a quick smile and patted his arm, before turning back to face her fans.