Chapter 29

“Show us.” Jia pleaded to me, wanting to see it for herself. I stood in front to face her.

“Just stay right there, okay?”

“Okay.” Jia nodded obediently as a response.

“I promise I won’t hurt you so don’t move or cringe away, okay?”

“Got it,” Jia said with another firm nod. Afterwards, I instantly jumped and aimed for Jia’s left shoulder, using it as a leverage. I stepped on it and jumped off, spinning my body into a back flip. I landed gently on the tips of my feet and immediately flew into a tornado kick.

Applause immediately broke out afterwards.

“Whoa!!!”

Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap!

“Amazing!”

“That was incredible!”

The VJs all exclaimed at once.

Jia was looking at me as if I’d just discovered fire. Was she falling in love with me? Probably not. Jia might be overly friendly with other girls, but she wasn’t like that. Anyways…

“What do you think?”

“That was great!” Jia told me with both of her thumbs up.

“You guys dance and I’ll do a series of kicks alongside you guys. If we can pull this off, it will be amazing.”

“Okay! Let’s plan it out!”

Just then, Yoo-jin walked in and behind her was another girl. She looked familiar. Ah, I finally remember. She’s a member of YH Entertainment’s second generation girl group, Angel Five. Hyejin Oh, the group’s main dancer.

“Oh! Hello!”

Jia greeted her first and I quickly followed. Yoo-jin came back to our side and greeted the woman once more, along with the VJs who all turned their cameras toward her. Angel Five. They’ve ranked Top 2 for every music program they’ve been on for every comeback. They’re considered one of the country’s best idol groups, especially amongst those of the second generation. Except they’ve never won first place. They’re really popular, but strangely, they’re always second. They said it themselves. Angel Five has five members, and Hyejin is the amazing dancer with the short haircut and the boyish style. The ultimate girl crush. And apparently, she’s nice too.

“Hi, guys.”

“Hello!” We all answered enthusiastically. I was smiling too. Hyejin Oh just had this beautiful, pure vibe coming from her. How old is she? Aw well, who cares? It’s not like I was a guy anyway…

“How are you guys? I know Mi-hyang was here just now.”

“How did you know?” Jia asked.

“I ran into her. I see you guys tanked.”

“Oh…yeah…”

We all lowered our heads and pretended to be sad again.

“I could tell just by looking at her face. I bet she guys chewed you out, huh?”

“Yeah...”

We all nodded. Hyejin gave us a sympathetic smile.

“She’s just like that because she knows you guys can do it better. Is it okay if I see your dance?”n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

“Oh, that would be great,” I said with a smile. Seeing a beautiful girl made me undoubtedly happy. What? I’m a guy, remember? Of course I’d fall for a girl like Hyejin. She’s not too young either. What a catch.

“Go ahead and show me. I’ll help you guys fix it up.”

“Thank you!” We all said in unison.

***

Under Hyejin’s guidance, we all improved considerably. I showed Hyejin my martial arts moves and she helped me choreograph it to the music. An idol member and a choreographer. Having her around was certainly helpful.

“Here, Sian. You should kick right at this time. And then continue into a back handspring.”

“Okay,” I answered with a nod.

“And when the song first starts, can you do another flip in midair?”

“Of course. I’ll kick off on Jia’s shoulder and do it.”

“Okay. It’s not dangerous, is it?”

“It’s fine,” I answered confidently. Have some faith in me, will you?

“Hey, Sian, where did you learn all this? Did you take some classes or something?” Hyejin asked with a smile. She looked genuinely curious. Then again, she wasn’t the only one, judging by the looks on everyone’s faces.

“No.”

“So where did you learn how do to this?”

“Eh…you know…just uh...here and there…” I answered vaguely. If I told them where I’d actually learned it, they wouldn’t believe me anyway.

“Well, okay then. Just try out what I suggested.”

“Okay!” We all replied and began to dance as Hyejin had instructed us. We were definitely better. As I was performing better and more energetically, Jia and Yoo-jin were able to do better as well. They do say when one person improves, everyone improves.

We practiced all night that way and once she could see we didn’t need her help, she left. After letting us know to call her anytime to hang out, I got her number.

“I’m so thankful to Hyejin. She saved us, don’t you think?”

“Totally. I didn’t know she was such a good choreographer,” I said. I thought she was just a good dancer, but to think she could come up with original choreography like this.

“You know the song Pink Love? Apparently, Hyejin choreographed that too.”

“Really?”

Pink Love. The title track from Angel Five’s album last year. The one that got second place on all the music programs. So Hyejin had choreographed it? Wow, such talent.

“But, guys. How long are we going to practice?”

Yoo-jin asked all of a sudden. She looked extremely famished. Then again, we’ve been doing nothing but dancing for hours. Of course she would be hungry. But even with all the food this girl eats, her chest still stays as flat as ever.

“Hmm….”

The clock read 8:30 PM. It would be nice to squeeze in a few more hours of practice…

“Let’s just practice for a couple more hours and then leave.”

“But I’m hungry....”

“Sian, me too….”

Jia and Yoo-jin began whining, pouting at me. Heh, how cute.

“Then let’s eat.”

“Should we order food?”

“No, you heat it up.”

“What?”

Yoo-jin didn’t get my joke. This is why you need someone who does get it.

“Just kidding. How does sweet and sour pork and black noodles sound?”

While I said that, I looked at Jun-jin. I suddenly had this urge to mess with him. Jun-jin, having no idea what I was thinking, was chatting happily with his coworkers.

I approached the VJs with a smile.

“Do you want to make a bet?”

“A bet?” Jun-jin said.

“A bet for sweet and sour pork and black noodles.”

“Ooh~”

Jun-jin and the other VJs nodded in understanding. They looked at one another and then Jun-jin said, “We’ll just buy it for you. It wouldn’t feel right feeding off of you young ladies.”

True, sweet and sour pork with black noodles isn’t expensive. For three people, that’s about 10,000 won.

“Really? Because I also plan to add a whole chicken to that.”

“Oh.”

At that, Jun-jin stiffened. A whole chicken costs around 20,000 won these days. Black noodles, sweet and sour pork, and a whole roasted chicken could get pretty expensive. Jun-jin seemed to reconsider…for about two seconds.

“Alright. Let’s make a bet.”

Then he added, “But even if we win, we’ll still pay for ours. We just won’t pay for yours.”

“Okay. If we win, you pay for ours too.”

“Pffft. I hate to break it to you but there’s no way we will lose,” Jun-jin said. I wondered where all the confidence came from.

“Let’s each select three games that we want to play and out of that, we’ll randomly select two,” he suggested.

“Okay.”

I agreed then went back to Jia and Yoo-jin.

“Write down three games that we’re most likely to win.”

“Hmmm...”

Yoo-jin began to think.

“We can compare chest sizes?”

“....”

Ugh. This girl. Was she serious?

“How about the Shiritori Game!”

“Shiritori? What’s that?” I asked. Jia explained.

“You take the last letter of the word that the previous person says. So, for example, if I say table, you have to say elephant or another word that starts with that letter. It also has to be a real word.”

“Oh, okay.”

It sounded easy enough. I bet we could win that.

“What about the next one?”

“How about a staring contest?”

Yoo-jin suggested.

“What’s that?” I asked.

“Here. Open your eyes. Wide.”

I opened my eyes. Wide. Suddenly, Yoo-jin began waving her hands and moving them in front of my eyes. It was so unexpected that I actually blinked out of surprise.

“Do you get it?” Yoo-jin asked as she continued to wave her hands in front of me. I grabbed her by the hair.

“Stop it.”

We ended up picking only two games since we couldn’t come up with a third game. At least, not one that we knew of particularly well. I guess these two just haven’t experienced enough in life.

So I told the VJs to pick two games by themselves and they agreed.

We put the four slips of paper into a cup.

“Let’s just do two games. In the case of a tie, we’ll do one more.”

Everyone agreed to my suggestion.

“Should we pick first?”

“We don’t care,” Jun-jin replied confidently. He seemed so sure of himself that I couldn’t help but ask, “Are you good at these games?”

“I am. I say I win about 95% of the time. My team almost never loses, especially on bets.”

The VJs all nodded, confirming Jun-jin’s statement. Honestly, such people do exist – the type that never loses during a game. So Jun-jin was one of those people too, huh?

“Must be nice.”

“Thank you,” Jun-jin replied modestly.

“Then I’ll go first.”

I reached into the cup and pulled out a slip of paper. I opened it and it read “arm wrestling.”

“Hey!”

That’s not fair!”

Jian ad Yoo-jin cried foul while the VJs simply shrugged. Wow. These guys actually decided to have an arm wrestling match, knowing these young girls didn’t stand a chance. How pathetic.

“Nice pick,” I said sarcastically.

“Of course,” Jun-jin replied with a smirk. I was sorely tempted to wipe that smile off his face, but I held back. Breath in and out.

***

“Okay, Round 1.”

Jia went first from our side. The VJs picked Joong-hyun Lee. He looked really skinny, but also extremely cocky.

The two sat down and placed their elbows on the table between them.

“We have to hold wrists,” Joong-hyun said.

“Obviously,” I said.

Considering it was a match between two genders, hell yeah, he better hold her wrist.

The two got into position. Jia’s entire wrist was the size of Joong-hyun’s hand. Not that his hand was big, but Jia’s wrist was tiny.

“Okay, now ‘Start!’...is your cue to go.”

Even before I was finished, Joong-hyun had already slammed Jia’s hand down onto the table.

“A little harsh there, don’t you think?”

I said, my face hardening. This guy clearly didn’t know how to treat a lady. Asshole.

“Oh, hehe, I guess. I just really want to win.”

“Joong-hyun, you’re so mean. Can’t you go easy on me? Hmm? Please?”

Jia gave Joong-hyun the puppy dog face, but the latter simply closed his eyes and blocked his ears. I guess he really wanted to win. Then again, he probably didn’t have much money, so that’s understandable.

“Alright, then. And…Start!”

I called out. The two immediately put in all their strength.

And...Jia lost within one second into the game.