Learning A New Skill?

It's Wendesday and we needed to film for our reality show. Everybody's in the practice room. 

"Here's your very first mission," the director handed us an envelope.

"Leader, open it and read what it says," Sarah was excited.

"'First TIN mission: Being in a rock band only required you to practice singing and playing your own instruments. As an idol, you have to learn other skills, too. One of the skills is 'dancing'.'" 

"What?" Everybody shouted in shock. 

"Dancing? Seriously?" I said. I haven't tried dancing before. Maybe I had, but I'm sure I wasn't that good at it. Even the other members are not dancers.

"Shh....let me finish," John silenced us.

"'So, each of you would be learning a dance from other groups.'" John finished.

"Wait...how does this go? What would we do?" Sarah asked.

"Four of you would be followed individually by cameras." The director started explaining. "You would need to find someone or a group to teach you one of their dances." 

"Noooo...." all four of us complained in unison.

"Wait, I'm not done yet," the director said. "You come back here at the end of the day and you'll be having a mini performance right here. The staff would be judging you and we would give a prize for the best performance."

"How many hours do we get?" John asked.

"The whole day. Just be here by 7pm."

"What? How can we learn a choreography in one day?" Daniel looked worried.

"Oh," the director continued, "one more thing. You can't go to the same artist. Each of you have to be taught by different groups."

"OMG! I don't know how to dance." I cried.

"What's the prize?" We all wanted to know.

"Two concert tickets for 'Maroon 5'."

Woooaaahhh....!!!!!

"What are you waiting for?" The director said. "Go!"

Sarah sped out of the room and into another practice room. I guess she asked AOA first. Lucky her.

"Who should I ask?" Daniel was really in deep trouble.

"I'll give you Kwang-hee's number. I hope he's not busy." John gave Daniel the number.

"Who are you going to ask?" I looked at John. 

"I have my connections," he smiled slyly and walked out the door dialing on his phone.

I don't know a lot of idol groups. I'm in more trouble that Daniel. Then I remembered, Jun was a part of an idol group before. 

"Kuya?" I said as he answered the phone.

"Yes?"

"Are you busy?"

"I'm in Busan. Why?"

"Oh no...really? When are you coming back?"

"Tomorrow. Why?"

I explained the situation to him.

"Sorry, Kris. I hope I could fly there now but I can't."

"That's ok, Kuya."

"Try getting numbers from Harry. He might know some people."

"Thanks. Bye."

I scanned through my phone.

Holy crap! Why didn't I think about him?

"Mark?"

"Hey, Kris. How are you?" He sounded out of breath.

"I'm sorry, but,....are you busy?"

"We're practicing. Why?" I could hear the shouts of the other members on the other line. 

'Who's that?' 'Is that Kris?' 'Are you two dating?' 'Ooohh...'

"Shut up guys," he tried to silence them. "Sorry for that," he said.

I explained about the reality show and about our mission. 

"And, I really need your help." I said at the end, almost pleading.

He laughed. "Wait."

I could hear him asking the guys if they want to teach me after he explained to them my mission.

"Sure! We'd love to," I heard Jackson speaking in English.

"You heard that?" Mark asked. "They said yes. C'mon over."

"Thanks a million. I'll call you when I get there."

Another reason for me to be with Mark. Yipeee...!

But, damn, he would surely be turned off when he sees me dance. 

I don't care....I wanna win this thing. I wanna see Adam Levine up close.

"Annyeonghasaeyo," I bowed to them as I entered their practice room. 

They stopped dancing when I entered. 

They all greeted me with a smile.

"Everybody," Mark called their attention, "this is Kris. Kris this is everybody."

"We already know her." Jackson said.

I could see teasing glances from the younger members. 

"Yah," Mark snapped at them. 

"Thank you all for agreeing to teach me. I don't dance....I can't dance," I corrected myself. "So, I hope you'd be patient with me."

"That's ok, Noona. We're good teachers." Yugyeom said.

"Thanks."

"We already talked about what dance we would be teaching you." Mark told me.

"Boys! Boys! Boys!" Bambam said while dancing the chorus for their GGG song.

"I can't flip," I said jokingly.

"You don't have to." JB cleared. "Junior and Yugyeom would be teaching you the steps."

"Ok, Noona. Are you ready?" Yugyeom offered his hand and I took it. 

He pulled me in the middle of the room. 

He started by showing me the first steps slowly.

"Slowly," I said. I couldn't quite catch it.

"It's already slow. But, ok, I'll do it slower."

"Like this?" I could feel all eyes on me. I became shy all of a sudden.

Mark must have noticed it. So, he told the others to join us. 

"Thank you." I whispered to him when the boys stood from the couch and came to the middle to join us dance.

He smiled at me.

"Yeah...you got it." Junior said after I tried to follow the first few steps. "Just a little bit more aggressive."

"This?" I did it again. 

"Perfect," Mark said smiling. 

"For the chorus, we'd record a different one for you since you're a girl." JB said.

"For real? You don't have to do that. It'd be too much of a bother." I really felt like I was taking too much of their time.

"Don't worry. It's just Youngjae's voice. It's not too hard." JB assured me.

"They want to look good and nice on camera," Mark whispered in my ear. 

I just laughed.

"What are you saying, Mark?" Jackson saw him whispering.

"He said, you just wanted to look good and nice on camera," I said.

"Yah," Mark elbowed me.

"Hyung..." Jackson said laughing. "Yeah...well, it's half true."

Everybody laughed at that.

"For the next step, you have to do this with your hands. We changed it a little to match the changed part." Junior danced the part slowly.

I tried to follow him but made a slight mistake. Well...I thought I copied him perfectly...but what do I know? I'm not a dancer.

"No, no...." he said. He went behind me and held my arms. He positioned them slightly. (I don't really see the difference.)

"Yah," Mark yelled. Junior looked at him, shocked. "No touching."

"Oh, sorry," he immediately pulled his hands away.

I just nodded and smiled. 

"Ok, you get it?" Junior asked.

We went on for about two or three hours then our lunch came. The camera just kept on rolling. 

"Do they really have to shoot us eating?" I asked when I sat beside Mark on the floor.

"Yeah, so don't eat like a pig again." He teased me.

I just frowned at him.

"Here," he said. Putting my food in front of me and removing the wrap that covered it. 

"Thanks."

"What are you two whispering about there?" Youngjae, who was sitting in front of us, said.

Everybody looked at us. 

"I was just giving her food," Mark said almost defensively.

They were all eyeing us suspiciously. Mark looked at them and signaled at the camera. The boys shut up and started eating.

"Thank you, guys....really...I know I'm slow when it comes to dancing. Sorry....I must be the worst student ever." I told them.

"No," Jackson disputed. "You're actually better than what we expected."

"What DID you expect?" I asked them.

"Well....sometimes, Jungshin-hyung would dance at the backstage during M Countdown." Bambam said.

I just laughed. "I know what you mean. But, I've never really danced before. I mean, not the choreographed dance."

"Don't they teach you dances during training?" JB was curious.

"Not in my company," I answered. "We only concentrated on our instruments and singing."

"Oh, right," Jackson said.

"So, shall we continue the dance?" Yugyeom stood up after everybody has rested.

"Sure," I said. I have to, at least, show them that I'm working hard. I know it's not easy for them to teach me.

"Stay here, Noona." Bambam pulled me beside him. 

Mark cleared his throat aloud looking at Bambam.

Bambam just smiled at him and let go of my hand.

What's wrong with him?

"So, this part goes like this..." JB was now the one teaching me the steps one by one.

He was about to hold my shoulders to let me face the other direction but he stopped, looked at Mark, then just told me to look the other way.

Mark was just eyeballing us from the other end. 

Hmmmm....

It was already five o'clock. I needed to go back to the company by seven. I think I would be able to pull this off. Thanks to the GOT7.

"I really want to repay you for your hard work." I told them. 

"Dinner," Youngjae shouted.

"Uhm...Do you have time tomorrow?" I asked them. I can't treat them now. 

"We're free tomorrow." Yugyeom said.

"So, can I invite you over to my house? I'll cook dinner for all of you." 

"You sure?" Mark was surprised.

"Yeah, why not? I mean, it must've been difficult for all of you."

"Ok. Thanks in advance," Jackson said in English.

"No, I have to thank you."

I went back to the company. The practice room was turned into a small stage. The CEO, some staff, and the director were sitting behind a long table at one end of the room.

"This is nerve racking," Daniel said, obviously nervous. Well, he wasn't the only one. 

All four of us were shaking.

"Ok, first up, John," the director called out from his chair.

I didn't know John could dance. He danced to EXO's 'Growl' and he looked super cool. He should've opted to be a dancer. Next was Sarah. She danced to AOA's 'Mini-skirt'. She danced awkwardly, that was a given since she doesn't like dancing, at all. I was next. I tried my hardest not to laugh at myself. I thought I did well. I could see surprised looks from the members and the judges. 

Did I do that well? I had great teachers anyway.

Then Daniel. His dance was a little sloppy. And he laughed at his mistakes. 

"Ok, that was great. I didn't expect you all to do this in a day." The CEO stood up. "I'm really impressed and proud of what you've achieved today. But, there's only one winner. And that person is..."

Daniel used his drumsticks and beat on the floor.

"Kris!"

Me? Really? 

I stood up and went to the center. 

"You have really great dancing skills." The CEO explained. "And, what really got our attention was the revision on the song. You were able to do some changes in the dance. Though John was just a point behind you."

Woohoo...everybody clapped and cheered. The director handed me the tickets and shook my hand.

"I thought I was gonna win." John shouted. 

He came up to me and gave me a hug. "There are two tickets anyway, so, how about you give me the other one." He said. He was making puppy eyes and acting cute. 

"Hmmm....let me think...." I was side-glancing him and smiling. 

"Please????" he put his hands together and tilted his head to the side.

"No," I said sternly.

"What do you want me to do? I'd be your slave for a week." 

"No," I shook my head and faced away from him.

Anyway, I have another person in mind I would want to watch the concert with.

Buzz....my phone went off.

'So, how was the performance?' It was Mark.

'Guess what?'

'You failed.'

'On the contrary, I won'

'Wow. Congrats.'

'Thanks to you and your group. I really have to prepare something good for dinner tomorrow.'

'I'll come over earlier to help you.'

'Thanks. But, it's for you. I want to prepare it myself.'

'Hmmm...can't wait...'

This is life. I wish everyday would be as good as this one. Ha....