Broken Promise | Monsta X Jooheon

38//This One's For The Girls

"This one's for the girls who love without holding back. Who dream with everything they have, all around the world. This one's for the girls. Yeah, we're all the same inside, from one to ninety-nine." — This One's For The Girls, Martina McBride

The scarf was too thick, even for this weather, but the concern in Jooheon's eyes when he wrapped it around me before I left the house made me determined to keep the damned thing on until I got indoors, even if I suffocated in the process.

Plus, since it was his scarf, the scent of his immensely pleasant cologne and aftershave was embedded into the fabric, almost making it feel like he was right there with me.

I don't know why I opted to go to my new psychiatrist's office on foot. Sure, it was a Friday afternoon so more people were out than normal, meaning traffic would be even more unbearable than it normally was, but something seemed to be going on today — on the last few streets at least — that meant walking was almost as slow as driving.

Snow crunched under my boots as I checked the time, speeding up a bit in an attempt not to be late to my appointment.

As I turned the corner, only about ten minutes away from my destination now, I could see a crowd surrounding something — the throng of people was too thick to see past — and I huffed, finding myself more and more curious. This wasn't the first crowd I'd seen on the street, far from it actually and whatever they were looking at was the majority of the cause of the sidewalk traffic today.

Deciding that I could spare a few minutes out of my schedule to  see what the hell was going on, I jogged over to the crowd of people, careful not to slip on the icy sidewalk as I gently maneuvered my way through the crowd until I was at a point where my height allowed me to see what was causing the holdups on the street.

Rap music played loudly through a speaker that I assume was connected to someone's phone as, in the center of the crowd, a group of three people about my age give or take a few years, danced along.

Their specialty was obviously popping, limbs moving detached and isolated like they were more machine than human.

As they danced, there was a person standing near them with a hoodie on that displayed a logo that I definitely recognized. It was the bright purple and blue-ringed infinity sign that belongs to Infinity Saturn Dance Studios, a place actually not too far from my mother's studio, and one of the best dance studios in the state, arguably one of the top studios in the nation.

Plenty of the people I danced against at the Slaughterhouse eventually moved on to start dancing there.

While my mother's dance studio was more of an independent contractor type place with tons of empty studios and equipment for whoever wanted to reserve a room — whether they wanted to teach or just practice by themselves — InDa was a proper dance academy with a class schedule, teachers, choreography classes for the general public and actual dance classes for those who wanted to make dance a bit more than a hobby.

I'd seen videos of their choreographies before and, while their teachers seemed to be insanely talented, I'd never actually given any thought to actually trying to join InDa.

You have to actually be able to play nice and communicate with other people, something that was completely out of my purview a few months ago but now was entirely possible for me.

It's obvious that dance is pretty much the only thing in life that I've actually been serious about, career-wise, maybe it's time for me to suck it up and learn from someone other than my mother.

When the song ended, the dancers bowed a bit as the crowd clapped profusely and, as the pedestrians began to dispense, the person in the InDa hoodie started to walk around handing out flyers for anyone who wanted to join.

"Promise?" I jumped when they got to me, hand outstretched for a flyer that was now pushed completely from my mind as I tried to look under the cap and hoodie that was obscuring the person's face.

"Lisa?"

Her face was still shadowed under the hat and hoodie but it was definitely her.

Lisa was a dancer that used to frequent the Slaughterhouse almost as frequently as I did and we'd competed countless times. She stopped competing a few months ago even though she still showed up to a few of the competitions.

I'd wondered idly what happened to her a few times and I guess now I have my answer.

"Long time no see, huh?" she grinned. Lisa and I had a weird understanding, having competed against each other so many times. We weren't friends but any stretch of the imagination but I'd seen her do all kinds of choreographies and express her emotions in various different ways and vice versa so we sort of knew bits and pieces of each other that we wouldn't otherwise, even if this is the first time we'd actually had a conversation.

Over time, she seemed to just learn not to be scared of me and I just gave her space and never bothered or said anything mean to her.

"You've been MIA from the Slaughterhouse dances the past couple months? Has a studio finally snatched you up?"

I chuckled, shaking my head. "Nah, life's just been really crazy and I haven't had time for the Slaughterhouse. I mostly dance by myself for right now."

Lisa's grin widened even more as she all but shoved a flyer in my face. "Perfect! You should audition for InDa! It would be so cool to have you there! If we weren't the best studio around before, we definitely will be now!"

I smiled at her enthusiasm. In a lot of ways, Lisa reminded me of Jiho. Bright and happy, laid-back, unable to hold a grudge or rivalry, and even more impossible to dislike.

"Thanks, I think maybe it is time to do a bit more with my dancing." I said, taking the flyer and pausing a moment before continuing, "Uh, do you think I can have another for a friend of mine. He might want to audition as well."

"Of course, the more the better!" Lisa chirped, handing me another flyer before giving me a look eerily similar to Jiho when he was about to do something stupid or mischevious or both.

"So you have friends now, huh?" I could tell the statement wasn't meant to be malicious, I don't even think Lisa was capable of malice, and the teasing grin on the corner of her lips gave her away anyway. I wasn't even surprised at this point that Lisa was already being so bold with me when some of the people sharing the sidewalk with us were still giving me suspicious looks and a wide berth.

"Yeah, I know right, sometimes I can't believe it either. A lot of self-improvement has happened these past few months."

Lisa smiled like she was genuinely happy and proud of me and it was such a kind, simple gesture that I couldn't help but give her a smile in return.

"That's great! I'm really happy for you. It's nice to see you doing better. Maybe now we can actually be friends and dance partners instead of rivals. I know this might be a weird thing to say and the timing may be off but," Lisa seemed much more awkward now, shyly rubbing the back of her neck as she said, "You were always a really big inspiration to me. Just seeing how much you loved dance really pushed me to work harder and love it too. Our battles became something that I really looked forward to and I probably wouldn't be the dancer I am today without you. To be able to actually be friends with one of my inspirations without her biting my head off would be great."

If I was the crying type, I'd probably be bawling right now, but instead I just settled for giving her a soft smile and pulling her into a hug — very hard for me as I didn't know her that well but the smile on her face was definitely worth it — and letting out a quiet, "That would be amazing, Lisa."