Erika's POV
"Do you have to leave?" I asked Aideen as she continued to pack various articles of clothing into her suitcase. Tomorrow as the first day of school and my mind was swimming with thoughts. Thoughts of Aideen leaving for her internship in Paris. Thoughts of seeing Kina at school after all the time we had spent together through the December break.
Aideen sat down on the bed and stroked my hair gently. I was gonna miss her more than anything. Aideen and I were the closest out of all our siblings.
"I'll only be gone for a little while Erika. I'll make time to call you everyday" she reassured. I sighed, opening my mouth to say something but being disturbed by my phone ringing beside me.
"It's the school" I said skeptically. Aideen motioned for me to answer and returned to her packing.
"Hi! May I speak to Erika Park?" The Head of Student Affairs asked on the other side of the phone.
"This is she" I replied hesitantly.
"We have recently been made aware of your achievements with dance and we would like to see you dance in the assembly tomorrow afternoon" he continued. I was silent for a few moments.
"Okay I guess that's fine I suppose" I trailed off.
"Great see you tomorrow fifteen minutes before school ends tomorrow" he finished before hanging up.
"So?" Aideen questioned.
"I have to dance in front of the whole school tomorrow" I groaned. Aideen squealed and clapped her hands in excitement. I could already see her formulating outfit ideas in her head.
"What are you gonna wear? What are you performing?" She asked excitedly.
"I don't know. Maybe Dive Into You?"
"And you could wear an outfit inspired by that set. Let me see I probably have something here. You should go practice" Aideen chased me out of her room and got to work on styling an outfit for me, abandoning her packing entirely.
I returned to my own bedroom to remind myself of the choreography and practice. I managed to run through the dance with ease despite it being a while since I learned the dance and the lack of space.
I ran through the dance a few more times before deciding to sleep early. I prepared my things for school and got ready for bed. As soon as my head hit the pillow, I fell asleep.
When I woke up the next morning the sun was barely up and the house was quiet. I quietly got ready for school, taking the time to admire the outfit Aideen had picked out for me.
Once I was ready I crept into the kitchen to eat breakfast. My dad was in the kitchen drinking his morning coffee and Aideen was packing my lunch for school.
"Good morning" I greeted softly. My dad looked up from where he was reading the news on his phone and sent a nod in my direction. I could tell his coffee hadn't kicked in yet. Aideen on the other hand was already buzzing like an Energiser bunny.
"Morning Cherika" Aideen greeted cheerily as she fluttered around the kitchen, fixing me something to eat for breakfast. I sat down at the kitchen island as she sat a plate of fruit and some cereal in front of me.
"What did you pack?" I motioned to the lunchbox she was zipping up. Aideen placed the lunchbox in front of me and leaned against the kitchen counter.
"Two kimbap wraps, chicken nuggets, a few little snacks, a mango juice and a bottle of water" she recounted.
"That's all?"
"Erika that's a lot of food" Aideen rolled her eyes at me and pat me on the shoulder before setting to work on cleaning up the kitchen. I watched her as I finished off my breakfast savouring the last few moments of seeing her here before she left.
"Who's going to make me food when you're gone?" I asked Aideen as I rinsed off my breakfast dishes and placed them in the dishwasher.
"Well Erika this is your chance to grow up and make your own food" Aideen sighed. I gasped and looked at her, eyes wide with shock.
"Grow up?" I blinked a few times. This was the first time she hadn't insisted on babying me. Aideen rested her hands on my shoulders reassuringly and placed a soft kiss on my forehead.
"I'll be back in a month but until then I suppose you could ask Taeyang" Aideen smiled reassuringly. A pang of sadness at the realisation hit that she was really doing this.
"A whole month" my voice was barely above a whisper. She pulled me into a tight hug, the smell of her perfume imprinting itself in my mind.
"You'll be fine Erika, it's not war it's Paris" Aideen reassured before releasing me and returning to her room. I shuffled back to my bedroom to finish off my morning routine by brushing my teeth.
"Erika are you ready?" my dad's voice rang from the living room. I padded out into the living room with all my school stuff. My dad lead the way out of the house and I followed him to the car.
"You're wearing the Converse?" my appa asked, taking in my outfit. I nodded and did a twirl so he could see my full outfit. He smiled in approval and motioned for me to get into the car. The ride to school was silent as I went over the choreography for today's performance in my head over and over again.
We pulled into the school parking lot and I got out of the car. My dad waved me goodbye and I walked into the school building and straight to the eighth grade lockers.
"Erika!" I heard Maya squeal from behind me.
I turned around to see her running towards me. I opened my arms and ran towards her. We collided and she jumped onto me, wrapping her legs around my waist.
"I missed you" I released her from my embrace and placed her back on the ground.
"Nope I missed you more weirdo" Maya ruffled my hair causing me to slap her hands away playfully. I opened my locker and placed all the books I didn't need for this morning's lessons inside.
"So what's new with you?" Maya asked, fiddling with the bracelets on her wrists.
"Well I got a job as choreographer at my studio with Kina , Aideen is leaving me for a month to start her fashion internship and most importantly, I have National's Qualifiers next weekend and I am not ready" I rambled. Maya's eyes widened and I know only one thing situated in her mind.
"So Kina huh?" she smirked. I slammed my locker shut and looked at her sternly.
"No. No. No. No. No. Don't you dare get any ideas. She's just a friend and my choreography partner. That's it" I clarified.
"Oh my god" a devilish smile appeared onto Maya's face.
"What?"
"You're totally in love with her"
"I am not"
"Yes you are. You're definitely in love with her" Maya crossed her arms in satisfaction. I narrowed my eyes at her.
We progressed through the morning together with all our friends. To outsiders it may have looked like we were never apart. It seemed like that to us too.
-
"Erika you have been excused from class. I'll see you tomorrow" my English teacher said. It was finally the end of the day and I was dreading my performance in front of the school.
"Erika. How are you doing?" The head prefect for the year greeted me.
"I'm okay thank you" I replied.
"That's fantastic. If you don't mind quickly practicing on the stage with the track just so we can see that everything goes smoothly" she instructed. I did as I was told and practiced the full choreography with all the trimmings.
"I like the backdrop. It's exactly how I wanted it but I just have one request" I spoke once I had finished my run through.
"Name it darling" the Head of Student Affairs took out a pen and paper, ready to write out my requests.
"For the beginning and the end could it only be black lights that shine on the stage and you can keep the lighting we just had for the rest of the dance." I paused.
"Oh and can all the lights in the room be off for the beginning and then we do the black light" I added.
"Done" the Head of Student Affairs clapped twice.
"Thank you so much sir" I thanked.
"Please sir sounds too formal. Call me Mr Lupton" he shrugged off my formality. When school ended everyone piled into the auditorium. I caught sight of Kina and her friends through the backstage door.
"It's okay Erika. You'll be fine. You'll be fine. Just think of it as another performance for the team" I whispered to myself.
Kina's POV
It was only the first day of school and we were already being forced to go to an assembly.
It was bad enough that tenth grade math was kicking my ass during the last lesson but now I had to sit through a boring ass assembly for an hour.
"Alright everyone welcome back to school" our new Head Prefect began.
"Nobody can top Hannah as a prefect" Cassandra whispered to me.
"I am your prefect for the new school year, Bella Steinfield" the Head Prefect squealed. Everyone clapped except for my group.
"To start the last stretch of this school year off I'd like to welcome a special guest to the stage. Some of you may already know her but if you don't then you will definitely know her name after this. Ladies and gentlemen. Erika Park" Bella announced before walking of stage.
My heart fluttered at the mention of her name. The whole auditorium turned pitch black and the whole room was so silent that you could hear a pin drop.
Then I saw her on the stage. My jaw dropped at how she looked with the set behind her. The music started and she started to dance.
"Didn't I tell you she was gay? Look at her. Straight bitches don't watch I-Land." Cassandra commented.
"Don't you watch I-land?" I pushed her playfully and she held onto Gale's arm.
"Kina's bullying me" she joked. Gale sent me a playful look. Erika finished her dance with a wink. Everyone cheered and Erika received a standing ovation.
"She definitely winked at you dude" Gale said. I shook my head.
"No fucking ways. It was probably Maya. I heard they were dating" I defended. A spark of jealousy went off inside me at the mention of Maya.
The assembly ended and everyone rushed to leave as quickly as possible. A small group of people gathered outside one of the doors.
"Erika you should definitely join the school's dance team. We need talent like you" I heard a voice say from the crowd.
"I'm already signed to a team but thank you for the offer" Erika replied politely.
"Erika have you ever thought of cheer" someone else asked.
"Erika are you single?" a boy asked her.
"Erika are there any open spaces for a water boy on your dance team"
I could see Erika getting visibly uncomfortable. I walked over to the group and pushed past some people to get to her.
"Come on we have to go" I said.
I put my hand on her back a guided her out of the crowd and into the empty eleventh grade hallway under the staircase.
"Are you okay? You seemed anxious back there" I questioned.
I scanned Erika's face for any sign of distress.
"I'm okay. Thanks for the help" she said turning to leave. I grabbed her hand and pulled her in for a hug.
"And this?" she asked against my chest.
"You looked like you needed a hug" I replied softly.
I released Erika from my embrace and she left to her locker to go collect her belongings.
I walked out of the school buildings to the parking lot to wait for my mom.
"So how are you feeling now that there's a better dancer than you out there" Cassandra asked when she saw me approaching.
"Shut the fuck up" I rolled my eyes.
My mom's car pulled into the lot. I bid my friends goodbye and left with my mom.
"You're really quiet today what's going on?" I chuckled.
My mom gave me a serious look.
"Kina." she began.
"Oh shit now I know it's bad" I groaned
"Language"
"Sorry"
"Kina there's a guest waiting in your room" my mom said softly.
"Oh" I breathed.
I sunk back into the car seats as I my stomach turned.
The car inched into the driveway and I got out without letting the engine turn off.
I raced up the stairs and flung the door open.
"Amelia" I sighed.
"Don't Amelia me. Explain this" she pushed her phone towards me. On the screen was a picture of me hugging Erika earlier today.
"Fuck" I whispered to myself.
"I said explain yourself Kina" Amelia raised her voice.
I ran a hand through my hair and sighed again.
"I'll be ready to explain that once you explain your Instagram posts"
"What posts?"
"Don't play dumb Amelia. You know exactly what I'm talking about" I spat.
The colour rushed from her face and her facial expression dropped.
"Kina it's not what it looks like" she whispered. Her persona changed dramatically.
My body went hot and I was seeing red. A bitter chuckle escaped my throat.
"Really? It's not what it looks like?" I chuckled. I walked closer to Amelia until our faces were inches apart. She closed her eyes as she anticipated a kiss from me.
"It kinda looks like cheating sweetheart" I whispered. Her eyes remained closed as she put her hands around my waist.
"I'm sorry. I was just having fun and I got caught in the moment. Josh is just a friends. Its not a big deal I swear it will never happen again" she said softly.
One of her hands came to caress my cheek. I flinched away from her. My blood still hot.
"You're right it won't happen again because we're done. Now I'm done talking about this. I didn't deserve any of the shit you pulled on me." I said.
I stepped back from Amelia as I spoke. My eyes never left hers.
"Even though you don't deserve shit from me I have this fucked up sense that I owe you an explanation. Erika is just a friend. That's the truth. I haven't kissed her. I definitely haven't slept her. It's only hugs because that's just how things work with Erika." I continued.
A few stray tears escaped from Amelia's eyes.
I walked over to my desk and picked up a jewellery box. I handed Amelia the box without even looking at her in the eye.
"Kina no this is yours. I made you this. Please don't do this. Don't do this. Baby we can fix this. I know we can just let me fix this" she sobbed.
Seeing her cry didn't tug on my heart strings as much as seeing Erika cry did.
"What is there to fix Amelia. You broke my trust and it's incredibly hard to gain my trust back. You know that. Now please leave" I said coldly.
Amelia sobbed and opened my bedroom door. She stormed out and slammed the door behind her. I sighed and ran a hand through my hair.
"Fuck my life" I whispered to myself. I grabbed my phone and pulled Erika's contact up. The phone rang twice before she answered.
"Kina?"
"Can you meet me at the studio at 7?"