Mae

Chapter 4

"Mae are you okay?"

"Yeah," she panted.

The sun was streaming in through the windows of the practise room and the air was hot and stuffy. Mae and Soobin had been practising their tap duo for two hours now and they were just about ready to pass out from the heat.

"Let's take a break."

Mae groaned as she sat down against the wall and glanced at Soobin through her messy hair. He was looking back at her.

"Hey, I really am okay."

He came over and sat down beside her.

"Promise?" he brought his face level with hers and looked into her eyes.

"Promise," she touched her forehead to his.

Mae's phone vibrated. She checked it. The message was from an unknown number.

'Cute. Can't wait to see you two on stage.'

Mae showed the message to Soobin.

"Who do you think it is?" she asked, a hint of concern in her voice. 

"I don't know, but you should be careful," Soobin warned in a low tone.

Mae glanced back at the screen before putting her phone down.

"I guess," she mumbled dismissively, "how are you feeling about the dance competition?" she asked, changing the subject.

"I'm glad that we get to do it with other schools now. Junior competitions were a bit boring after the first year, being just between our school and all. I'm excited to meet the other students in our year from around Seoul."

"Mm," Mae hummed, "I'm excited to meet the other students too."

Soobin picked up his phone and answered an incoming call from his mother.

"Hi Eomma."

"Hello Soobin. How is your dance practice going? You know I'll be coming to watch you two."

Soobin smiled, "we just sat down to take a break. We were practising just five minutes ago."

"Well done my hard-working son. Is Mae with you?"

"Yes she is, Eomma. I'll hand her over," Soobin rolled his eyes as he passed the phone to Mae.

"Hello Girlie."

"Hello Eomma," chuckled Mae, using the name that Mrs. Choi had insisted that she use.

Mae called her own mother "Mama" but Mrs Choi had become her Korean mother and so Mae had no problem with calling her 'Eomma'.

"How are you feeling dear? Are you holding up at school?"

"Yes. I miss Mama and Appa, but I'm handling school."

"If you need some mothering,  just call me, okay?"

"I will," Mae smiled.

Mae passed the phone back to Soobin and he talked to his mother for a few minutes before hanging up.

"We should continue practising."

"Yes Sir." 

⋆ ♫ ♪ ♫ ⋆

"Soobin, does my hair look okay?" Mae asked hurriedly.

"It's fine. Now go!"

Mae sprinted down the hallway in a flurry of sparkles and hairspray and entered the wings of the JYP School of Entertainment stage. She slowed down now that she was backstage and caught her breath.

"Mae?" a staff member asked.

"Yeah, that's me," she panted.

"You're up next. Don't tire yourself out already, it's only the first dance."

Mae nodded. She adjusted her outfit and then hurriedly went over the steps to her dance in her head. The competition was open to the public and Mae's grandma would be there, along with Soobin's mother.

Mae was buzzing. She loved performing and she couldn't wait to get on stage.The staff member came over and signalled that she should move to her starting position. Mae quickly moved to the edge of the curtain and waited for the music to start. A burst of adrenaline rushed through her body and the nerves kicked in. Mae forced the nervous feeling down and stepped on stage.

She directed her smile up towards the judge who was sitting up in the second level of the theatre. Mae concentrated on pointing her toes and jumping high while still keeping a smile on her face. After all of the big jumps, she could feel her strength falter for a second. She let her smile drop for a moment while she ran towards the back, before plastering it on again to face the audience. She was thankful when the last sequence was in reach.

Mae drop-rolled onto the floor and brought her arms up to fifth before twisting her shoulders around and moving her arms in a windmill motion. She turned to face the front again, and then kicked into a backwards roll to stand.

Now is the big moment. 

Mae stared out into the brightness, not able to pick anyone out in the audience due to the bright stage lights. She moved her back foot to prep before relevéing into a triple pirouette. She fixed her eyes on a point and silently prayed that she would make it all three times around.

When Mae stepped out of her pirouette into a pas de bourré, her smile was shining. She sidestepped to kneel and raised her arms with a flourish. The audience began to clap and Mae was smiling so hard that she could barely see. Now that she wasn't moving, she could feel how hard she was breathing but she tried to keep her chest still and she held her ending pose.

Mae stood and lightly ran off stage. As soon as she reached the wings she headed for the door, stopping only to acknowledge the congratulations coming from the dancers yet to perform. Mae escaped through the door and rushed down the hallway. She collapsed onto a dressing room chair and caught her breath.

She gulped down some water and then began changing into a white tutu. Her next dance was a classical group. She would be performing the waltz of the swans with five other girls. Mae asked another girl to help with her hairpiece after struggling with the hair pins for a few seconds.

After the feather hair piece was in place, she went over her hair with another round of hairspray and touched up her lipstick. After giving herself a once-over in the mirror, she knelt down on the floor and began taping her toes. She promptly pulled on her toe pads and then stuffed her feet into her pointe shoes.

Mae wound the ribbons around her ankles, tied a secure double knot and then tucked the knot under the fold of the ribbons with a hairpin. She sprayed the knotted section with hairspray to hold it in place. Mae stood up and relevéd onto her toes a few times to make sure nothing was rubbing or hurting her.

After her costume and shoes were up to standard and everything was in order, Mae exited the room to find Soobin. She found him in a room off to the side of the stage, running over his musical theatre performance. There were about ten other kids in the spacious room also practising their dances.

Mae waved to Soobin and then lightly ran over to talk to him.

"Good luck on your next dance dude."

"Thanks. You did really well. The guy standing next to me watching the on-stage footage thought so too," Soobin chuckled, "I think he's Australian. He said his name was Chris."

Mae suddenly felt excited.

There are more people from Australia here!

At her school, her and Jake were the only ones.