Kristal||ONC 2020|| {Complete}

Chapter 11: One Last Preparation

Five... Six... Seven... Eight...

Morning disruption was unpleasant. He had chosen to arrive early at the academy to practice so that he could monitor his own performances without any disturbance, but the shattering sound of glass robbed him off of his peace. Harold landed on his right foot, turning his head towards the direction of the vexatious company. He headed over to turn off the music before whipping his head to look at Jeremy who had an apologetic smile on his face, picking up the ruined glass from the ground carefully. 

"Good morning, Jeremy," beamed Harold, wiping the sweat off his forehead before jogging over to meet his director and knelt down. "Here, let me help you with it. Why are you so early today?"

Harold shifted his attention towards the tiny piece of glass by the corner, picking it up gently before placing it on the paper that housed all the pieces together. He glanced around one more time to make sure there were no more glass pieces. He would prefer to sweep the floor again later before his student's practices. He did not want to risk their safety since two of the groups would have to remove their shoes before dancing.

Bleeding and bruised feet didn't sound like a preference at all, especially when its only two week away from the event day.

Brushing his palms with the dark pink handkerchief, Jeremy settled himself down by the stage.

"I thought I would drop by to see how my best performer is doing. Besides, I saw the logbook you signed yesterday. It was written that you would be here early," he said turning to look at Harold's grey eyes and added. "So, how's your performance going? Is it going as well as it should be?"

"So far, it is," said Harold truthfully with a sigh and gulped down the bottle of water he picked out from his bag. "I think I'm mostly through. There would be certain movements that I need to change. I am still looking for the perfect outfit, to be honest. Nothing seemed to please me at this moment."

"Ah, I'm sure you are going to work on that well. Show me your dance, will you?" Jeremy questioned, hope glimmered in his eyes as he watched the younger stood rooted in his spot. "It's about time I see your progress. I gave you five months anyways. A dancer like you can do it in one night."

Rude much.

Harold didn't know if it was a compliment, but he brushed those thoughts away. He had been here to dance, to enjoy himself not to immerse his mind in unwanted dramas. He pressed his lips into a thin line, trying not to spit out the words that were dying to swim out of his throat.

"Speaking of that, you are the only performer whose dance moves I have not monitor," said Jeremy as he watched Harold turned on the music. "I heard from the others that your performance was outstanding since the first day."

Harold laughed, placing his towel down next to his bag.

"They are just exaggerating. Besides, the first day is impossible for perfection. The only person in this academy who can do that is you," winked Harold before turning back to face the walls and turned to face Jeremy. "But, sadly you are not performing. Maybe you might whip out a perfect one a day before."

Jeremy grinned, turning to look at his phone with his smile disappeared for one moment.

"Alright," he said pointing at Harold. "Let's go."

For this performance, Harold picked a different song. It was short and covered three different genres. He put this idea on much thought before choreographing the movements. It had been a piece of his father's unfinished song. Harold loved it. He marvelled at the hanging ending that allows the audience to perceive what the dance meant.