Pas de Deux

o5

⊱ ✿ ⊰

BAM.

A hollow, bone-chilling bang resonates through the large, empty practice room that evening as Yuxing throws her pointe shoes on the ground with all her might.

"What the fuck? The hell are you doing?" a masculine voice rings out just as Yuxing goes to calmly retrieve the shoe. She doesn't even need to look to know who it is. She had a feeling she'd be seeing a lot more of him from here on out, anyway.

୨ ♡ ୧

It all started at lunch hour. Yuxing had been in utter revelation when the dots finally connected that she would be dancing the lead principal role with a boy who seemed to hate everything about her and spent more time goofing off with three-quarters of the female population at school than anything else. Great.

Word spread fast in this school, and while the second-years and higher didn't care about their juniors' gossip and rumours, that didn't stop the entire first-year population from figuring out that Shen Yuxing and Wang Chengrui aren't exactly best friends.

Still rooted to the ground in front of the posted casting sheet, Yuxing could feel the murmurs and stares, all excited to tell their friends about this new development. A cold, hard, irritation began to ignite within her.

"Let's go."

She turned to her friends and stated simply, she didn't want to be here anymore. That boy, Wang Chengrui, made her sick.

୨ ♡ ୧

Now, here she was, in a practice room after school because Madame Huang had informed her that the showcase preparations were already starting, and she was to meet her after school along with Wang Chengrui to go over their new parts.

The only problem was Wang Chengrui was nowhere to be found. Yuxing was in no way fond of him, but she wasn't fond of people being late and wasting her time, either.

"Yuxing, I'm going to go ask if anyone's seen that rascal in the dorms, you can just stay here and continue breaking in your new shoes," Madame Huang said after twenty minutes had passed and Chengrui was still a no-show. She'd nodded, beginning to tear apart the stiff shank and crush the box. It was a very violent process to any outside onlookers, but the process was very calm and thought out to Yuxing. 

Just a few minutes after Madame Huang had left, that's when Wang Chengrui decides to finally turn up and ask her what the hell she was doing.

"Nothing?" she responded, turning around to face him, "What are you doing? Showing up more than twenty minutes late and wasting everyone's valuable time simply because you can't manage yours?"

"Much offence, but meeting to practice with you isn't exactly high on my list of things I'd like to spend my evening doing," he drawled, setting his bag down against the wall.

"And you think I want to be here with you? Grow up," Yuxing scoffs back, putting on her freshly broken into shoes to check the fit, "This is ballet, not some petty middle school feud between two classmates with the maturity of a doughnut. At least I have enough professionalism to put my personal distaste towards my partner aside and show up on time, because I'm here to dance, regardless of who I must do so with."

When she finishes speaking, she looks up from where she's seated on the ground in the middle of the room to send Wang Chengrui a stern look.

"Are we clear?"