Curtain Call (j.jk)

Chapter Nineteen

Polly's hand slammed down on her headmasters desk.

"This is a bloody disgrace!"

Her principal shifted nervously under his student's fiery glare but he wouldn't, couldn't back down. To her right stood her head tutor, Christine, her arms crossed but otherwise her expression unreadable and to her left stood Jungkook, who scoffed slightly at her outburst. Polly's hands tightened into fists as she tried to remain calm in his presence.

"Miss. Stewart, you must understand, there's only three days until opening night, no one could possibly take your place and learn the dance Mr. Jeon has devised for you."

Polly snarled. "Mr. Jeon has nothing to do with it. He taught me the dance in just over an hour. I'm sure his girlfriend who is a trained singer and dancer can easily learn it even quicker than me. God knows he would rather dance with her."

Her glare turned murderous as she heard a grumble of "you got that right." And she whirled round to lunge at him only to be held back by her teacher.

"Let me at him!" She screeched, "I'll rip his bloody head off, I swear to God!"

His rolled his eyes at her while Christine struggled to get Polly to calm down.

"Please, Polly, this is getting us nowhere."

Polly glared at her ex but sighed, nodded dejectedly and shrugged her teacher off her.

"Why can't you just cut the dance?" She demanded.

Christine sighed. "Because we've already told the sponsors that there was going to be a dance with Jungkook and one of our performers. How were we to know that...um..." The tutor trailed off awkwardly and Polly raised her eyebrows.

"That, what? This dickhead would turn out to be a total and complete prick?"

"Miss. Stewart." The headmaster warned, raising an unimpressed brow and Polly frowned, apologising to her principal.

Polly crossed her arms over her chest. "Well I guess you leave me no choice. I didn't want to have to do this but I quit."

Christine blanched at Polly's comment and if Polly had turned to look at the Kpop idol, she would have seen Jungkook freeze at her words, what little colour was in his face rapidly disappearing.

The headmaster however looked unimpressed.

"Miss. Stewart, I don't want to have to play games with you but if you quit this concert, not only will you receive no extra credit but will also immediately drop a grade for deserting your work."

Polly stared incredulously at the man in front of her before letting out a howl of outrage. "That's bullshit! There's no way you can do that!"

Her principal shrugged, "I'm the headmaster of this college; I can do whatever I like."

Polly narrowed her eyes, preparing for all-out war when she heard Jungkook mumble something. She turned on her heel, shifting her gaze to him to see him  staring at the floor.

"What did you just say?" She snapped and the boy sighed, looking up once again to meet Polly's furious stare. Gone was the hard, piercing and obnoxious glint to his eyes and instead stood regret and so much misery that Polly's glare faltered immediately.

"I said please just drop it, Polly. Please." His whispered answer was so soft, there was no condescension in his words, only tired pleading that for what reason Polly couldn't explain- after everything she had suffered by his hands- deflated her argument in a flash.

But fuck did it hurt. The ice that carved its way into her heart melted just a fraction and the feeling was one of having a heart attack. She desperately tried to stop her hand rushing to her chest because how could he still affect her after everything that had happened? How could she crumple into pieces by him saying a few words to her in the way he used to talk to her? Back when everything didn't make sense per-se; she never truly understood why he wanted her but when she was just a girl falling for a boy and everything was normal.

She sighed, running a hand through her brown locks. "Fine. But I better get a good grade for this."

And without another word, turned on her heel and stormed out of the office.

oOo

She could feel his black eyes raking over her form as she confidently moved across the floor with Hoseok. Jungkook had wanted to see what the dance looked like from an audience perspective so had asked Hoseok to dance with Polly. She was fine with that; maybe she could do the dance with Hobi instead? Then she remembered that the sponsors had already been told it was Jungkook dancing and frowned, the hopeful thought disappearing from her mind.

The music came to an end and Polly threw Hoseok a weak smile and he beamed back at her.

"I see what the problem is now."

She turned her focus to Jungkook who had been sitting cross-legged on the floor, watching them. He crossed the room and pulled Polly flush against him. She let out a tiny squeak at the action and tried hard not to let her racing heart be felt through her chest.

"At the end, you don't do the twist properly." He muttered, "you need to turn at a full 90 degree angle." Ever so slowly he brought his hand around her waist and twisted her. This was have been fine apart from the fact she was wear a sports top that went only over the top part of her chest. Leaving her midriff completely bare. As his hand skimmed along her stomach and round to the side of her body, a trail of fire like she had been scorched remained. She leapt away from him like he had burnt her (it felt like he had to be fair).

"Okay, I get it, you don't have to twist and turn me like a toy. I can do it myself." She sneaked a glance in the full room length mirror and sighed; damn it, she was blushing like crazy.

Jungkook threw his hands up in defence. "Cool it, Polly, I was just saying."

Suddenly the door opened and in flounced Sana. Polly immediately turned away, going over to her bag to get a drink of water.

"Kookie!" She cooed, rushing over and bounding into his arms. Polly glared at her bag as she rifled through it. Don't look, Stewart, it's okay.

"How's it going?" She asked, shifting her gaze from her boyfriend to his dance partner. "It's such a shame I can't dance with you. It would be way better."

Hoseok, who had been silent the entire time, scoffed and Polly turned around, eager to hear what he was going to say.

"Polly's one of the best dancers I've ever seen; so no, I don't think it would be better if you were dancing."

Polly's mouth popped open in surprise. Hoseok had his lips drawn into a tight line and he was frowning intently at the other girl. It was a odd sight to see; he was usually, always a ball of sunshine.

"It's fine, Hobi." Polly muttered, eyes on the floor.

"No, it's not." Hoseok marched up to Polly and took hold of her wrist. If Polly had looked up, she would have seen Jungkook's eyes narrow on said action and glare at his bandmate. "Come on, Polly, we both need a break. Let's go get something to eat in the canteen."

Jungkook shook Sana off him and stepped forward. "We need to practice, hyung."

Hoseok made a slight tsking sound and shook his head. "You really don't, Polly's fantastic." Polly kept her gaze to the ground, not seeing the pleading look Jungkook was throwing the rapper who sighed in return. "We'll be back in 20 minutes, she hasn't eaten all day so if you don't want her to faint then let her take a break."

Jungkook growled but let it go. "Fine. 20 minutes." He shifted his gaze to Polly and feeling his eyes on her, she glanced up. "If you're not back by then, I'll come looking for you myself."

Polly resisted the urge to scoff and instead simply ignored him, (much to Jungkook's indignation) letting Hoseok pull her out of the dance hall and into the corridor, looking back to see Sana sneak her arms around Jungkook's neck and bring his lips down to hers. She immediately looked away.