JPOP Housemaid

Chapter 19 - Dancing

The car drove slowly into the parking spot, the radio playing quietly. It was a cool day, and so for once Makoto wasn't complaining about wearing loads of scarves around his face.

"We're here!" yelled Takeo, bouncing in his seat.

"Stating the obvious again," teased Yaito who's mood had gotten considerably better since we'd left the house. Takeo laughed and punched Yaito's arm playfully, then the two were scrambling out of the car and chasing eachother into the building.

Isei yawned. "Sometimes I forget that Yaito's not an old man," he said.

I smiled and just as I was about to open the car door, Li appeared and did it for me. He bowed regally as and offered me his hand as I stepped out. "This way, princess," he whispered in my ear.

I felt my cheeks go red and I embarrassedly walked with him across the car park. "Are you excited?" he asked, smiling with his eyes.

I looked over my shoulder at Makoto and Isei bringing in sports bags.

"Yeah," I smiled at Li. "I am - I've been wanting to see this for ages."

He chucked. "Sorry we kept it away for so long..." I squeezed his hand.

"It's fine."

~

"One and a two and a three four five!" shouted the trainer for the third time in a row, obviously exasperated with the boys. "Where are your minds?" he screamed, throwing his water bottle down. "Think about dance and song! Think about how it make you feel! Think about the joy it bring you! Now," he calmed down marginally. "ONE AND A TWO AND A THREE FOUR FIVE!"

The boys immediately broke into dance, humming in harmony as Takeo clicked his fingers. They all swooped their arms in an arc over their heads and then kneeled on the ground.

I giggled as I saw the trainer, Mr. Weng, trying to click and hum in time with them.

Realising they were horribly out of time with eachother, he strolled over comfortably to me and looked up, seeing as he was a very short man.

"You know why I train these boys?" he asked in a thick Cantonese english voice. I shook my head. "Because somebody need to train them! How will they dance if nobody train them?" he cackled. "I use to be in boyband but one boy slept with other boy and," he bent down and picked up his water bottle, "it ruin boy band. Let us pray these boys will not sleep with eachother!" He glared at them, making Makoto falter, and so Mr. Weng threw the water bottle at him. "DANCE BETTER!"

Mr. Weng slicked his greying hair back over his scalp and groaned when Takeo tripped over Makoto's feet and they came tumbling down.

"BREAK! TAKE A BREAK!" he yelled, walking over to a wall and sinking down against it. "Kimiko, I am very tired," he exclaimed, rubbing his eyes. "You teach boys dance and sing, I will watch and maybe sleep."

I went red, feeling all of the boys eyes on me.

"I- I can't," I tried to explain to him.

"Hush, anyone can!" he said in return, wiping his brow with a grotty looking handkerchief. "These are your friends, you can teach. They will listen to you, obvious not me." He grunted in annoyance. "You yell at them, my voice is sore."

My eyes widened in embarrassment and I felt my heartbeat quicken. I can't teach them anything. They'll laugh at me.

I took a few trembling steps towards them. Yaito and Li gave reassuring smiles, whereas Isei just rolled his eyes. He wasn't even sweating.

"Um..." I said, looking around for inspiration. "Do two laps of the hall." They looked dumbfounded at me. "Come on, I will too," I sighed, then started to jog around the fairly small dance hall. It had mirrors against one wall, and the rest were simply normal walls. It wasn't going to be a long run.

After a second or two of me jogging alone, Takeo fell into step beside me. Next came Li, then Makoto and Yaito arguing for a place, and finally Isei dragged himself into a fast walk.

"You can do better than that," I shouted at Isei who was a bit behind everyone else. He glared daggers at me, but didn't protest and soon we were all in a line.

Soon enough the laps were over and the boys were clearly worn out. They had, after all, already been doing intense dancing for almost an hour. I almost felt sorry for them, but then decided two laps would hardly make a difference in their energy.

"Okay, now do some stretches, Takeo; you lead them." He looked at me with wide blue eyes, then grinned and walked to the front of the group. I partook in a few stretches, but soon became uncomfortable with Li undressing me with his eyes and so walked over to the wall.

"That's enough now," I shouted over the ruckus of Isei arguing about how to correctly perform a certain, very complicated yoga move. "Do your dance routine for me." They looked at me silently. "The one you've been practicing for the past hour..." I trailed off when they kept looking at me with blank expressions.

"We hardly know it," spoke up Yaito, tucking a strand of his still somehow beautifully fresh hair behind his ear.

"Well why don't you all talk about it, it can't be hard to remember with five of your minds put together."

"I remember the arc," said Makoto, demonstrating rather horrifically what he meant.

"You mean this," corrected Li, doing it again but much more smoothly. Makoto blushed and shrugged, pretending he knew that was how it went all along.

"I remember... Oh wait, that wasn't this," stammered Yaito, itching his arm awkwardly.

~

After another hour and a half, the boys had finally learnt their dance. Obviously they were still very rusty and hardly in time, but they at least knew the dance.

Mr. Weng had chipped in a lot, correcting them, and I had tried to help (and failed mostly).

After they had all rested and practiced a little bit of vocals, they filed out, exhausted, to the cars. I sat squeezed in between Makoto and Yaito, both who were sweating but leaning against me.

At every corner the car made more sweat was rubbed onto me. I tried not to be disgusted, but it was pretty hard - especially with the smell.

"We'll shower at home; we're running later than usual." Isei had explained grumpily. I simply agreed, I mean, who wants to argue with Isei normally, let alone when he's tired and hot?

Finally, after a very hot ride, we left the car and the boys dragged themselves into the house. I couldn't stop laughing, they were really outdoing themselves with their acting. To compensate for my 'mean' behaviour (according to a groaning Takeo), I made them all tea. I was feeling especially kind, so even went out and got them snacks.

By the time I was back, they had all showered and cleaned up, and the tea had been drained. They wolfed down the snacks, Yaito even asked for me to go out and get more. Ahem, I think not.

Once we had all settled down again, the doorbell rang.

"Finally, Azalea's here," shouted Isei, for once excited. I couldn't help but notice a little glare towards him from Makoto, but I didn't think much of it then.

As Isei pulled open the door and greeted her with hugs and joyous exclamations, I decided I preferred the happy Isei to the almost eternally grumpy one.

~~~

Hi hi hi. Sorry for not updating in so long -- please be thankful I did just now ;) No complaining!!!

I'm kidding. Complain, it's fine.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter :))) Comment anything you think would be fun to read about to happen! I'll definitely try to include it. Hopefully in the next few chapters Kimi's best friend and sister will come visit!

As I promise every chapter and always fail to actually do: I'll try very hard to update more. Lordy dordy.

Have a nice day/night! :3