[Neo Zone] Population: 23 Kids

Shy Dancer

Ten sprinted into the cafe and headed straight down to the basement. He needed someone who wasn't doing something and quick, so when no one was downstairs and he had to go to the kitchen, he got a little nervous.

"I need someone to pretend to be awful at dancing but in a comically relieving way." He announced, slightly out of breath.

WinWin scrunched his eyebrows, "That's oddly specific."

"I've got a kid coming in early to get some extra help with some things, and he's pretty shy, so I just want him to feel comfortable."

WinWin brushed off his hands with a shrug, "I can help then."

"Do you even know how to be bad at dancing?" Taeil scoffed.

"I'm sure I could try."

"Why don't you get Shotaro to help you?" Jaemin piped up.

His tongue and lips were tinted a deep purple, which coincidentally matched his shirt.

"He's got a class with Tomomi. Why are you purple?"

"Jaehyun had me try out a cupcake recipe for Moonwalk, but Chenle put too much dye in the filling and frosting."

The cupcake was a vanilla cupcake with a hint of matcha and a purple vanilla cream filling. The frosting was a regular sugar frosting dyed to look like a galaxy with small white sprinkles for stars. So now Jaehyun and Chenle were in the other kitchen trying to figure out how to dye the frosting without dying the consumer.

In other words, Chenle's lips and tongue were also purple.

"Weren't you in a hurry?" Taeil asked, bringing Ten back to his original purpose.

"Yeah, who's coming with me?"

"I will." Taeil and WinWin answered at the same time, causing them to narrow their eyes at each other.

Ten looked at the possessed clock and sighed. "I guess that can work."

Taeil took off his apron and tossed it to Jaemin.

"The recipe is right there on the counter, if you need help I think Sungchan's chilling in the cafe."

Jaemin nodded as he took over the pastry.

WinWin and Taeil followed Ten to the dance studio, having to run the last stretch so they'd be there before the kid.

"I don't think I've ever been here." WinWin noted, spinning to take in the whole room at once.

They were in one of the smaller rooms in hopes the kid wouldn't get intimidated if there was less empty space. Mirrors lined a wall, the wall parallel to it having one long ballet bar. A stereo was in the back corner of the room with a smaller speaker also at the front, and Ten's laptop was already connected for music.

"This isn't my usual room. Normally I'm in the bigger one, but Shotaro and I switched for today." Ten explained.

Taeil started goofing off in front of the mirrors, trying to drag WinWin into his antics when they heard a small knock on the door.

"Come on in!" Ten shouted cheerfully.

A boy probably around the age of eleven sheepishly entered the room. His bangs were long enough to fall into his eyes, making it look like he was hiding behind them.

"Hey! I hope you don't mind, but I brought two of my brothers with me to dance with us."

"Hello!" Taeil greeted, matched with a wave from WinWin.

"Hi." The kid raised his hand slightly in a small wave.

"Kaimin, this is Taeil and WinWin. Taeil and WinWin, this is Kaimin."

The kid nodded, setting down his bag by the mirror and putting on his tap shoes. Taeil and WinWin's eyes widened. They were prepared for hip hop or ballet, not tap. They didn't know the first thing about tap.

"We're doing tap?" WinWin hissed to Ten.

"Hmm? Yeah. Did I not mention that?"

"Nope."

"Oh, well we're doing tap." Ten turned from his laptop once he was satisfied with the playlist, facing Kaimin. "What do you want to start with? Warm-up, marking, or questions?"

Kaimin hesitated for a second. "Marking. I warmed up before I came."

Not that tap really needed much of a warm-up. The only thing that could use warming up was the ankles, and a bit of stretching wouldn't hurt, but it wasn't like there would be a difference if you didn't.

Thinking they would be able to participate, WinWin and Taeil took off their shoes, prepared to ruin their socks for this instead of dirty up Ten's studio. When Ten put on a song and Kaimin got into a certain spot, they realized that wasn't happening.

"You don't have to bother with the positions, we'll just mark the moves."

Kaimin nodded, almost melting in relief when Ten joined him in the marking instead of watching him. It of course helped that Taeil and WinWin were trying to figure out what was going on.

The sole purpose of marking a dance was to get the timing down and to refresh your memory. It was basically doing the rough motion of the moves without doing them. A tough one for tap, but helpful regardless.

"Do we want to go through all the steps slowly or just what you have questions on?" Ten asked.

Kaimin looked over at Taeil and WinWin who were trying to figure out something they had seen them do.

"Probably everything." For both his sake and theirs.

Ten smiled and put soft background music on just so it wasn't quiet, and they started from the beginning. Taeil and WinWin joined them from the side to learn too, and occasionally you could catch a small smile from Kaimin.

The real trip up was the step shuffle ballchange ballchange shuffle step shuff-le step shuffle step. It had some weird name like the lasso or something because you did it twice with the left and then switched to the right.

It was complicated, but really fun once you got it. Ten remembered doing in under his desk during school when he was younger just to practice getting it down.

"Take it slow and then work up the speed. You're trying to do it fast the first try."

"Yeah, WinWin, stop trying to do it fast the first try." Taeil repeated, nudging him off balance slightly.

Kaimin took a deep breath and watched Ten do it slow once more, doing it with him once it repeated. It wasn't until he stopped, closed his eyes and imagined himself doing it that he could.

Nobody could stop Kaimin once he got it down and the motions cleaned up, so Ten put the song they were learning back on and did the whole thing with him.

Taeil and WinWin tried doing it with them, but they were more skilled in hyping Kaimin up when he got something perfect. The rest of the class started arriving shortly after that, and at Kaimin's mumbled request, Taeil and WinWin stayed for that too.

Their socks were completely ruined afterwards and their feet hurt, but seeing Kaimin look so happy that he finally got it made them come back a few more times.