"Okay, so I have chosen the song and I've memorized the choreography. I just have to practice now." Bo Young said as she was sitting in the middle of one of the practice rooms after memorizing the moves of the song she chose. She memorized it pretty quickly.
She connected her phone to the speaker and played the song and started dancing to it.
"Woah, woah, woah." She stopped dancing as soon as she saw people intrude her practice through the mirror. The trio of annoyance entered the practice, who were Soo Ki, Rae Bin and Hyun Mi. Since the fight happened, the group split up. The group isn't HF girls anymore and Soo Hwa and Sang Sun have been hanging out together without causing any trouble.
"I have to practice. Get out." She said in monotone and began to stretch.
"Not before we sort things out." Soo Ki said, causing Rae Bin and Hyun Mi nod in acknowledgment.
She groaned, "what the hell do you want now?"
"Play the song you have chosen." Soo Ki demanded, not even as a request.
"Why should I?" She deadpanned.
"Because I feel like we have chosen the same song."
"So? Is there any rule that we can't choose the same song?" Bo Young asked, raising her eyebrows.
"No."
"Then, I don't care. I have things to do. Will you leave?"
"But, nobody chooses what we've chosen to be ours."
"Why are you scared that I will perform better than you?" She scoffed confidently causing the trio to be taken aback. She continued, "And Ms.Soo Ki, Ms.Rae Bin and Ms.Hyun Mi, fortunately the world doesn't listen and revolve around you guys. These things that you are doing to me won't work outside school either. You aren't middle schoolers anymore, to go bully and bother people to look cool. Now, leave." The girls looked really offended.
"You just wait." With that the trio stormed out of the room.
"I won't." She shook her head out of frustration and decided to stretch first before she actually starts dancing.
Few minutes into the stretch, the door busted open causing her to jump in the place, startled. She turned around to see a big crowd of students coming inside the room.
"What is going on?" She panicked at the amount of students inside the room. The train of students were ended with the trio. She then realized it was all the trio's plan.
"What are you doing?" She asked glaring at Soo Ki.
"You don't know? Soo Ki said that there was going to be a dance battle here." A student said among the group. She looked utterly confused. "Dance battle?" She asked looking really confused.
"Yes. Between you and us." Rae Bin commented, crossing her arms.
Bo Young rolled her eyes and threw her head back in pure annoyance. She just wanted to practice in peace while they decided to ruin her day.
"Why are you doing this?"
"Whoever wins will perform the song. If you lose, you change your song, the same rule applies to us too. Got it?"
"No. This is all meaningless. There is no rule that we cannot perform the same song as someone else. Are you in your senses?"
"But I can't stand people trying to do what we are doing. Its also called, 'plagiarizing'." Soo Ki shrugged.
"Now, what am I-" The door busted open again causing heads to turn. The person by the door stopped as he saw so many people inside, which he didn't expect.
"Ha Sang!!!" Soo Ki squealed and went to him. His eyes met Bo Young's who looked at him with sorry in her eyes, but looked away soon.
"I didn't expect you to come! We are going to hold a dance battle now." Soo Ki dragged him to the front of the crowd. He pulled his hand out from her grip and gazed at Bo Young and asked, "For what?"
Bo Young didn't look at him.
"We both chose the same song, so whoever loses the dance battle will change the song." Soo Ki went in front of him to distract him. Obviously it made no sense to him.
"Okay now, guys. We will dance to the same song taking turns, and you guys vote for whose is better. Got it? We will go first." Soo Ki said and pushed Bo Young out of the way for more space for them to dance.
"Music, cue!" A student helped the trio by playing the song. Bo Young leaned on the wall of the other side, adjacent to the crowd. She could feel eyes looking at her, but Ha Sang's even more.
The song started and the trio started dancing. They weren't bad. They were training to be idols and had the talents of course. But as a trio, they lacked team coordination and synchronization. They were individually more than good but not as a team. Because of the lack of teamwork, they bumped into each other multiple times.
Finally the song came to an end. The crowd clapped slowly, a little disappointed because they expected more. Bo Young was confident coz she knew who the winner was going to be.
"Your turn." Soo Ki motioned her to move on to the centre of the room to perform. Bo Young really didn't want to waste her energy on something silly like this. She looked at the crowd who were looking at her very expectantly and her gaze stopped at Ha Sang, who looked at her with a blank face. She looked away from him and moved to the 'stage'.
She stood in position and signaled them to play the song. The music started to play and she moved in sync with the song. Her moves looked so effortless but was on point. She put the required amount of energy in each move and danced like a feather. Her expressions were the cherry on top. The crowd was in awe and Ha Sang was speechless. Looking at her perform for the first time, he was drawn into her. Being someone who dreamed to be an idol, she always enjoyed performing and singing. Looking at her do something she loves, a soft smile crept up on his face. But the smile disappeared suddenly after he felt a sharp pain in his head and distorted memories came up his mind. He didn't pay a mind to that, but as soon as the pain stopped, he suddenly felt sad. He didn't know what came over him, but the smile turned into a sad smile.
The music ended. She stopped dancing but the crowd looked at her like they wanted more of her performance. The crowd cheered with yells and clapped so much for her. She was shocked by the sudden applause. She smiled gently and went back to the wall she was leaning on to stand against it again. But the applause stopped as they all received a glare from Soo Ki.
"Now that the battle is over. You guys will go to the side of the team you liked better. The more people by you, the more chance you win." Soo Ki announced as she looked at the crowd.
"Hey, stand beside us." Rae Bin called Bo Young over.
She rolled her eyes and did what they said.
"You guys can now go to the side of the person's performance you liked better." Soo Ki said, smirking as if she knew what was going to happen.
The crowd started swarming around them. They looked at Bo Young with sorry filled eyes and some even whispered 'sorry' to her. She didn't know why they all did that. She, who was looking down all this time, looked forward, causing her eyes to meet Ha Sang's, who hasn't moved from the spot he was in, looking at her. She looked away again.
"Ha Sang! You have to go the side you are in! Come on!" A student form the crowd called him out. He came out of the trance.
Bo Young was on the left side and the trio was on the left near to the door. He chose which side he was on, which was obviously, Bo Young and stood behind the line. She didn't care to turn around to look at the crowd behind her. The crowd was still deciding to which side they were going to be in. At that moment Ha Sang received a notification, asking him to come to the practice room fast. He paced towards the door and immediately stopped when he heard , "And stop!" The trio announced.
"Let's take a look at who has more people behind them." Soo Ki said and turned around. To look at who got more votes, Bo Young too turned around. She could see that her crowd was lesser than the trio's and on top of that, Ha Sang was standing on the left side. Feeling Bo Young's betrayed eyes on him, he wondered why she looked at him like that. He soon realized, he accidentally stood on the side of the trio when he was moving to the door. When he realised that and looked at her, she was already looking away, as if she has accepted the reality. He felt bad.
"Ahem, so you guys, remember what I told you guys?" Soo Ki nudged one of the crowd members. The crowd members looked as if they realized something and moved on to the trio's side. Bo Young took notice of that. She was angry. Why were they unfair to her?
"So, looks like we won." Hyun Mi smirked at Bo Young. Bo Young was really irritated. Now she knew why they all felt sorry to her.
"Thanks for choosing us guys! Now, the loser can change their song. Good luck." Soo Ki smirked. This made Bo Young wonder how she and Hyun Wook are siblings.
She couldn't speak anything. Her time and energy was wasted into something, that wasn't going to work for her anyways.
"It was my fault for wasting my time and energy into this." She said and paced towards the door and held the handle to open but stopped as she heard, "It's your practice room now, where are you going?" Rae Bin said.
The trio paced towards her.
"We'll 'get out' just like you said, Ms.Bo Young. Good luck with your practice." With that Soo Ki opened the door by herself and left the room, with the crowd following the trio. Bo Young leaned on the wall beside the door, with her eyes glued to the floor. The students among the crowd whispered apologies to her and left. Noticing someone stand in front of her, she looked up. It was Ha Sang again. With 3 seconds of eye contact, she broke it off and looked away to the other side. He opened his mouth to speak but stopped and walked out of the room.
Bo Young was clueless about what to do now. The song she chose and memorized the choreography was now taken away by someone. She had to choose another one and do it all over again.
She sat down in the middle of the room, her legs brought together to her chest and hands wrapped around it, and her head rested on her knees, looking sideways.
She heard the door open, but didn't mind it and said, "The time's not over yet. Please wait till then." She said considering that her time for using the practice room hasn't finished yet and didn't take notice of who came.
"I'm not here for that though." Hearing the familiar voice, she turned to look to confirm. She was right, it was Yeon Joon.
"What are you doing here?" She asked looking at him walk towards her.
"I heard what happened and decided to come look at your condition." He said and sat himself down beside her.
"Wow. Very gentlemanly of you." She replied in a sarcastic tone and smile.
"I know that myself." He had a proud smile. She rolled her eyes and relaxed her legs by stretching it out.
"What are you going to do now?" He asked looking at her. "Choose a new song and start everything all over again." She stated the obvious. He looked at her confusedly.
"Is the ice queen Bo Young, accepting defeat?" Yeon Joon mocked her.
"Come on. It's obvious that the trio bribed them with something and brought the crowd inside. Plus, I don't want to waste my time and energy because of them again and its annoying." She said in an annoyed tone. He laughed at her.
"This is not funny." She said in a cold tone making him to stop laugh. "And don't you have practice with the guys?" She asked. He shook his head and answered, "I'm doing a solo performance." She looked at him with confusion.
"I thought I heard that you three would perform together." She furrowed her eyebrows.
"Hmm..not this time."
"Oh. Okay, then what song are you performing for?" She asked looking at him with curious eyes.
"This one." He showed the screen of his phone.
She recognized the song immediately.
"Oh, I know this one. I love it. This is a good one to perform to."
"I know." He smiled. "It would be even more good if you had a partner to dance with. You know it's song from a co-ed group. And with these many fans of yours from our school, you can dance with one of them." She suggested. He nodded but then looked at her suddenly after something struck his mind.
"You are a solo performer too, aren't you?" He asked sitting upright all of a sudden.
"Yeah, obviously."
"Then, be my dance partner." He said causing her too look at him, in confusion.
"What?" She asked, to process everything.
"I'm a solo performer, and you too. You suggested that it would be nice if I had a dance partner, for this song particularly. So why don't we form a duo?" He asked, looking into her confused eyes.
She looked away, trying to think.
"I'll give you some time to think about it.
She scoffed and said, "It's not like you asked me out." and returned to thinking. He returned a soft smile and muttered, "Right."
"Alright," She continued, "Let's do this together." She said causing Yeon Joon to question his hearing.
"Wait-what?"
"I'll be your dance partner." She stated.
"Yes!!" His voice echoed through the empty room, "You look excited for something that's as simple as this." She chuckled.
"Let's get into the special round. I want to get scouted by some company. You better not mess up." She said in a stern tone.
"Yes ma'am!" He saluted at her. She shook her head and laughed.
"In the next practice room time slot, I will learn the choreography. Oh-right, we have to change our category to duo, so that we will have same practice time."
"I'll take care of that."
"But I'm the class president."
"But I was the one who dragged you into this. We will sort it out by tomorrow. Today we will just go on with the normal planning."
"Okay, then."
Ha Sang who was outside the door all this time, looked at them smiling and chatting through the glass part of the door. He sighed and walked away, not wanting to interrupt them. On his way, he threw the chocolate milk he had in his hand, inside the pocket to the trash bin and walked away.
Chapter-64 end.