Bring It On! HAECHAN

01 | the case of the dirty smoothie

Deep breath.

Glide, spin, turn, trip-

Trip?

A frustrated huff escapes her lips as Chaerin stumbles over her own two feet, only barely managing to stabilise herself with the ballet barres installed in the mirror in front of her. Through her reflection, she could make out the reddening flush of her skin, partly due to the heat accumulating in the dance studio, but mostly due to-

"Somebody farted," the voice echoes yet again before it's accompanied by a chorus of boisterous laughter, and it only causes her scowl to deepen as she angrily releases her grip on the wooden pole before storming out the door.

This school, as elite as it claims to be, suffers from a chronic case of what Chaerin likes to call thin-wall syndrome— and as if that wasn't bad enough, who's idea was it to put the music room right next to the dance studio?

Because of that, she's sure her noisy next-door neighbours aren't strangers to her constant visits, and by the sheepish smile on the boy who had just opened the door for her, it's clear that they had been expecting her presence too.

"Hey, Chae." Jeno grins at her boyishly, his eyes disappearing into little crescents. It's a tactic, one he knows could melt the hearts of many girls, but for some reason, it's just never worked on this one in particular. "Sorry. Were we being too loud?"

"What do you think?" Chaerin mutters, clearly unperturbed by his good-boy act. "Could you keep it down, please? I could barely hear my music through the noise."

There's still chattering from somewhere behind Jeno, but she refuses to look past his shoulder to meet eyes with the other boys she knows are already looking at her. Though, she realises a little too late that she should have left the very moment she caught sight of the swift movement from her periphery.

And suddenly, her ears are ringing.

"Cherry's here!" The loud, obnoxious voice that booms through the bell of a megaphone causes her to wince, a hand flying up to cup her ear.

The owner saunters towards her with a smug smile, the megaphone lowering from his lips. Even with the smudge of his poorly-applied eyeliner and dark hair covering his eyes, Chaerin could still make out the mirth dancing in his irises, and that's the one thing she hates the most.

"Why do you insist on making my life a living hell, Donghyuck?" She grits through her teeth, to which the boy blinks, feigning innocence.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

While usually, she'd be more than thrilled to get into an argument with Lee Donghyuck, Chaerin simply just doesn't have it in her today. She's sweaty, her limbs are begging for her to take a break, and all she wants to do is to finish her routine so she could pack up and feed her groaning stomach.

She clenches her jaw. "Just one hour, please?"

Donghyuck raises an amused brow, and instantly, she knows that she had said the wrong thing.

"Only one hour?" He smirks as he steps closer. "Oh, I can go way longer than that, Cherry. In fact, I could go on, and on, and on-"

Chaerin snatches the megaphone from his hold before bringing it to her mouth, and Donghyuck lets out a girlish shriek as he cowers, palming both of his ears.