Nabi High School's dance group is now back and practicing once again for performances. While the seniors graduated, some juniors passed the audition and got accepted to the dance group. Coach Jeong, Soobin's father, is the head of the arts department and the teacher in charge of the dance group. Currently, he is deciding on the leaders of the dance group this year, smiling at his final decision.
"Dad." Soobin makes a visit to the arts office.
"Hey son. What do you need? Practice starts in a bit." Coach Jeong answers with a warm fatherly tone while he gathers his files and bag, making his way to the dance room with his son.
"Dad. Am I the dance leader?" Soobin looks at his dad expectedly. He has waited for this day afterall. Soobin loves power and the title would only make him more famous as the dance team is popular, winning state competitions. The dance team is one of the things that Nabi High School is known for, "Please dad. I'm your son."
"Son." Coach Jeong pats his shoulder, "Just because you're my son, doesn't mean I can give you anything. As a father, yes. As a teacher, it's a different story." Coach Jeong is a fair teacher, with a strong, kind and truthful personality.
"But dad! Don't you want your son to look good?" Soobin begs his dad, already feeling that he won't be one of the dance group leaders.
"Jeong Soobin. If you want it, you have to earn it." Coach Jeong doesn't sound fatherly anymore, his rough, deep teacher voice coming out. Soobin hates this side of him. Last time, in a dance assessment at school, their classroom dance teacher had an emergency and Coach Jeong needed to fill in last minute. Judging everyone fairly including his own son, Soobin only got 67%, placing him near the bottom. When they went home, Soobin asked for an explanation, mostly why he couldn't be scored higher to which Coach Jeong only slapped him, discipling him for his selfish actions.
"If you want it, you have to earn it."
That's Coach Jeong's motto in life.
The members of the dance team have already gathered up in the familiar dance room, the new members introducing themselves and making new bonds with the existing members. Jaemin did not partake in any of the welcoming part, only nodding when someone introduces themselves, not even smiling and going back to whatever he was doing on his phone.
"Could you at least introduce yourself?" Haeyoon bravely covers the screen of Jaemin's phone with her palm while her other hand snatches one side of his earphones out, "Plus, no phones during practice."
"But we're not practising yet." Jaemin argues back.
"Well technically practice has started. Coach Jeong just isn't here yet."
Jaemin rolls his eyes at the girl and puts his phone away in his bag sending the girl a raised brow, "Happy?"
Haeyoon sighs hoping to not regret her next words, "You're nice when we're actually dancing. You lead the team well. It doesn't hurt to do the same before and after practice."
"Stop telling me what to do." Jaemin glares at her, Haeyoon backing out in response but then felt a surge of confidence rise through her.
"Don't tell me what to do either."
The two had a little glare off with their eyes, not knowing some of the eyes that are directed to them. While staring into his eyes, Haeyoon only saw the cold, deep and emptiness that his eyes held. On the other side, Jaemin saw how Haeyoon's eyes shook a bit, possibly due to her anger that he has caused by provoking her. To Jaemin, Haeyoon looks small and innocent. He smirks at her, amused with the so called confident stare that the girl held and lets out a short scoof at her, "You don't scare me."
Before Haeyoon could answer back, the hinges of the door creaked and everyone bowed to Coach Jeong, "Hello everyone! Welcome back to another season! Let's start with introductions and then warm-ups!"
The dancers are now winding down with the soft background music that can be heard from the speakers.
"Donghyuck!" Renjun shot up and chased him around the room when Donghyuck splashed water at him.
"Kids kids!" Coach Jeong smiles at Renjun while Donghyuck hides behind him, "Come on. This is winding down time."
"I would be winding down if my blood pressure wasn't so high right now." Renjun sulks and Donghyuck pulls out a tongue at him.
Yebin shakes her head at the two, "Cute."
"Are you going to tell him?" Haeyoon nudges Yebin who only sways around, avoiding her feelings for the particular boy.
"Donghyuck doesn't like me." Yebin mumbles, playing with the ends of her high ponytail, "I don't want to ruin our friendship."
Jeno smacks his lips, giving out a frustrated grunt, "Yebin. Anyone would know that Donghyuck likes you."
Haeyoon high fives Jeno, pointing at Jeno to the sad Yebin, "Told you it wasn't just me."
Yebin shrugs, not wanting to believe anything that her friends say. What if Donghyuck rejects her? Their relationship will never be the same again, "Better safe than sorry..." Yebin leaves the group momentarily and makes her way towards her bag on the other side of the room.
"Alright! I think I should talk about this year's leaders!" Coach Jeong claps to gather everyone's attention, "I'm pretty sure it's no surprise who this year's leaders are. For the new members, every year we choose two leaders, one girl and one boy. The leaders work with me when we have competitions and lead the dance practices. Usually it's the seniors but there have been past leaders who were in the junior years because leadership isn't determined by seniority after all."
"Very true" Haeyoon thought to herself.
"And so," Coach Jeong smiles proudly to Haeyoon, "Come on up, Hae."
The other students cheer for the girl. Haeyoon smiles and makes her way to the front, giving Coach Jeong a hug and introducing herself in front of the group, making sure that everyone knows that she is approachable and open to opinions, "Let's make this a good year everyone!" Haeyoon bows in appreciation of the compliments and whistles being thrown at her.
"And for the male..." Coach Jeong looks far away from the group to a lone boy at the corner of the room. Jaemin's eyes widened a fraction, not expecting to get the leader position, "Come on up, Na."
Unlike when Haeyoon came up, the clapping that he received was slow and full of hesitation. Especially to those who knew about Jaemin, most just gave a bored look to the boy as he shook hands with Coach Jeong, "I didn't think I would get it."
"To be honest, I debated a lot about you. But then I remembered Brian's words to me." Coach Jeong pats Jaemin on the shoulder, "You just need to be more social before and after practice. Smile more and laugh more, you know?"
Jaemin gives a slight smile and bows to both the coach and the rest of the members before making his way to stand next to Haeyoon. The two pairs of eyes meet for a short moment before Haeyoon broke it and slightly shuffled away from Jaemin.
"These are your dance leaders everyone! Please congratulate Na Jaemin and Choi Haeyoon!"
Climate change is starting to be really really evident...
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