The Brightest Star in the Night Sky || 时代少年团

🖤CHAPTER 16💛

The weekend passed by, and Monday rolled around, meaning it was time to practice again. This week Meiqi had to begin splitting practice with Chengxin and Jiaqi. She seemed to have eased up a little around Chengxin, and her interactions with Jiaqi have always been a little more smooth than other members.

Dance came first, which meant practice with Chengxin was first. "Alright, let's see how you guys do today. Don't disappoint me", said Jackson. They went over the first part of the song rather smoothly. Jackson gave an approving look. They moved onto the next part, this was where the body contact started happening more. "5 6 7 8, 1 2 3 4, 2 2 3 4, 3 2 3 4. Ok good. It's getting better. This is the climax of the song. They want you two to do the trouble maker move in this part".

"That move?, their heads are less than an inch apart", commented Chengxin. "You want us to do that??"

"Not me, the rehearsal teacher said they wanted that. I only follow what they want me to teach".

"Have you seen the dance before Meiqi?", asked Jackson who had noticed her confused expression.

"I think I watched it once, but I don't remember anything", since Meiqi never danced with a partner, she rarely ever watched dances that were made for couples.

"Here, take a look at it", Jackson said as he handed his phone over. Chengxin was well aware of the dance since he had watched Yaowen dance to it with other members in TF Entertainment. Dancing to it with a guy vs dancing to it with a girl was completely different. He was already stressed thinking about it.

Meiqi got up to the part where the two dancers looked like they were about to kiss and then severed away. She let out a gasp. "You're telling me we need to dance to this?" Jackson nodded.

"Are idols even allowed to do this?", mumbled Meiqi. She was talking to herself, but it came out louder than expected. "Yaowen did it before", answered Chengxin.

"He did this dance with a girl before??!"

"Well.. no he did it with Zhu Zhixin".

"That's not the same thing then. Zhixin is a guy...", Meiqi was mumbling again. Chengxin noticed she did that every time she was nervous or unsure.

"Chengxin is not going to bite you", Jackson commented.

They stood in there in silence for a minute. Jackson knew it was going to be difficult regardless of when they started. "Alright enough, you two gotta start practicing that part since Meiqi has to leave later. Ready 5 6 7 8"

Chengxin and Meiqi took a deep breath and attempted to dance to that part. But no matter how close Chengxin tried to get when they moved their heads, the distance was still rather big. "Do we need to play the game again", asked Jackson with a raised eyebrow. "No...", they both replied. "Well, I can't keep watching you two dance like this because it's not going anywhere. We're also running low on time".

Meiqi and Chengxin looked at each other in defeat. This really was not going anywhere. "Ok, you know what, I got an idea. Meiqi, you close your eyes when you guys are doing that part. Chengxin, I need you to actually move your head in during that part, you'll feel less pressure if her eyes are closed. After you get used to it, Meiqi can do it with you with her eyes open". Meiqi and Chengxin didn't have any better ideas, so they nodded and decided to try it out. As Chengxin was practicing, he realized that trick actually worked, he was getting closer to Meiqi without being as awkward.

"Meiqi open your eyes, Chengxin, try it now again". Chengxin found the distance growing again. Jackson's face showed that he was not having it, and this was also the face Chengxin was most scared of. He took a deep breath and tried again. This time looking right into Meiqi's eyes, he got extremely close. Close enough to feel the warmth of her body and then... Jackson decided to push his head even closer. Chengxin let out a gasp causing Meiqi to open her eyes too. Chengxin was an inch away from her face, and Meiqi jump back.

Jackson sighed, "Well that was worth a try. That's how close you two need to be when you perform on stage. If you can't do it now, you definitely won't be able to do it later. I taught you everything I could, all my techniques and tricks. It's up to you guys now".

"We'll work on it", Chengxin quietly replied. Although they seemed to have gotten closer over the past few days, whenever there were other people around or just the fact that they needed to perform this in front of a crowd stopped them from being able to interact naturally.

There was a knock on the door, and it was Yaxuan calling them for lunch. "Time to eat, manager wanted me to remind Meiqi that she needs to practice with Jiaqi after lunch".

Meiqi and Chengxin replied with a nod. "We'll figure this out tomorrow", Chengxin said, giving her a reassuring smile even though he wasn't too sure how their performance would go either.

They went for lunch, and after Meiqi went to find Jiaqi to begin practicing for their performance.

A/n: In case people are confused, the song they're dancing to is Manta, but they want Meiqi and Chengxin to add in moves from trouble maker. If you guys don't know trouble maker, here's a video of Liu Yaowen and Zhu Zhixin dancing to it during TF Ent's annual concert? Not sure which concert it is but omg!!