━━━ ❝ 𝐋𝐈𝐊𝐄 𝐈𝐒𝐄𝐔𝐋 ❞

❝ 𝐒𝐄𝐔𝐋-𝐊𝐈 𝐁𝐎𝐍𝐃𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄 ❞

𝐎𝐍𝐄

"Mind if I practice with you?" Iseul leans against the door frame, peering inside the almost empty practice room, a mirrored wall reflecting everything back. She sees the panting boy, resting his hands on his knees, half bent down and winded from the intensity of the set of movements he had kept repeating over and over again.

His head snaps up, recognizing the voice belonging to the sole female around and he awkwardly smiles, nodding his head in a polite greeting. The show had already been filming for the past three days and he had not once spoken to her directly. "Of course."

"Thanks." She casually strides forward, dressed in a comfortable-looking red t-shirt and black sweatpants. "You're such a great dancer," She starts, giving him a lopsided smile while fishing out a band from her pocket.

Niki feels taken aback at the remark, taking the compliment abashed, "Thank you. I think you are amazing too." He ends the sentence with honorifics, making her lightly frown. "You don't have to call me that, it feels very awkward."

He blinks, feeling a surge of something other than the wave of shyness he usually felt near the older female. "Can I call you noona?" he feels like slapping himself as soon as the words leave his mouth, courage crumbling down into nothing once again when he realizes exactly who he is speaking with.

"Now that is better!" She beams, much to his surprise. It takes him off guard when she reaches forward with a closed fist and he stares blankly at it. Iseul raises her brows in curiosity, "It's a fist bump. You know what that is, right? Or is this something from my generation?" She sighs in dismay, "I am getting old, huh?"

"No! Sorry. I was a little tired, so it didn't click in my brain for a moment there." Niki spouts hurriedly, bumping his own, admittedly larger fist against hers that was left hanging in the air.

Iseul snickers, "Don't worry. I was just playing around."

"Were you dancing to Kick It?" she walks over to the speakers, and scans the video playing on the large iPad. Niki nods, "Do you know the moves to the dance break?" He ties the laces of his sneakers tighter, having the strings come loose from all of the jerky movements he had done.

"Have I been living under a rock? Of course, I know it. Come on, care for a round?" She pulls back the video, stopping around the bridge of the energetic piece right before the small dance break. Niki hops onto his two nimble feet, suddenly gaining the energy for the next minute.

"One, two, three, four!" She counts the last four beats right as the drop happens and then, it happens.

Everything falls int place and suddenly, it was just the two of you against the whole building, limbs frantically moving around the space as precise as sniped bullets, jerking left and right exactly when it needed it, spinning around to spontaneously change formations as if cued and pre-planned.

This was dancing with Nishimura Riki, it came to you as easy as breathing did.

You glanced at the boy lying down on the floor with a bright grin that contrasted the starless night seen through the large glass windows of the i-land, his muscles positively drained of power, chest rising up and down. "That was so much fun." Niki breathes out, winded after the non-stop dancing they had done for the past hour.

Song after song, the two had spent more than sixty minutes, battling it out in the studio. "That was the most fun I had in a long time." He speaks clearly, leaning his palms on the cold floor, a few droplets of sweat running down from his temples. "We'll have more of these when we make it to the end and debut in a group." Iseul extends a hand at the boy on the ground, a pretty confident expression on her pretty face putting his worries at ease.