TPA | MW [✔]

05. Wonwoo/Mingyu

Wonwoo

The scent of sweat permeates the air of the ballet studio. We've been at this for hours. My fellow dancers watch themselves in the floor-to-ceiling mirrors lined along the walls as they practice. There's the soft scuff of ballet shoes across the studio floor. Someone thumps loudly as they practice a sauté, not having mastered the control of the landing.

Eric goes through my choreography one last time. I memorized it after the first run through, but he likes to give us several chances to catch everything. I'm hoping after this year's winter ballet I get promoted to principal dancer.

I'm the only male omega in Eric's company. All the other males are alphas or human. We're a mix of humans and shifters. The handful of other guys look so different from me.

In my youth, I struggled with body image, wishing I could look like the strong powerful alphas or humans with their pretty muscular frames. Despite training exactly as they have, my body has stayed slim with some definition, but not nearly as much as the others.

As I aged, I changed my outlook. I'm smaller than the other guys, making en pointe easier for me. I prefer it to the typical male dances and beg Eric to allow me to show off, which he usually allows. Today's choreography is no different.

Our winter ballet is usually plotless, focusing on emotions and themes. Some companies like to do story ballets like The Nutcracker, but Eric dances to the beat of his own drum and has the entire time I've known him. It's one of the things I like most about his company.

He's explained that my solo is the embodiment of youth. He said I'd be perfect for the piece because of my innate playfulness. Usually, I can't contain my excitement, but when it comes to learning choreography, I do my best to pay attention. There are so many technical elements of the dance and I can't wait to start.

The one thing that distracts me is Mingyu.

I haven't seen him in three days, but that's fine. He's given me his number and we text. Somehow, it's easier that way. I still feel like an idiot, but I'll blame youth for not wanting to mend our fences when we could have. I think perhaps I'm wiser now, though. It could be like Mingyu said. We needed time apart, and Fate knew it.

"Ready?" Eric asks.

I nod, and he waves a hand to the pianist to start my music. Once it does, all thoughts of Mingyu fly out of my brain, I'm only song and dance.

*****

Mingyu

I can't get Wonwoo out of my head. We spent eight days together in the end. As soon as the roads were passable, I left, but I hated leaving him. We'd gotten to know each other again. Like how damn much he loves the snow. And the cute little noises he makes in his sleep. How he cheats at checkers. And pouts when he doesn't win at crazy eights. Or how engrossed he gets watching documentaries of any type.

While we cuddled during those extra days, we never got intimate again. Wonwoo still needed recovery time from his heat, but had he wanted to, I would have gladly done anything he wanted. Most of our conversations stayed on the surface level, much to my sadness, but I didn't want to push him to the deeper conversations of our youth. I gave him my phone number and I'm glad to get to know him again. I guess not being face-to-face makes conversation easier, because we chat nightly. We haven't mentioned our Fated status again. I'm not sure if Wonwoo is afraid, but I want him to make the decision about when or if we even discuss it.

I'm on a roof doing some repair work when my phone vibrates. Making sure I'm secure, I check it to find a message from Wonwoo.

Wonwoo: Would you be available to come to the studio and talk to Eric about a project? Several projects.