ⓖⓞⓛⓓⓔⓝ | woosan

21. Practice

(first of all, listen to Dean, thanks)

3:14 pm

Smoothly, his arm glid over the other as he stretched his body to the side.

Hair bouncing, he pulled back to a stand and jumped powerfully into the air, legs and feet forming a straight line.

"I don't wanna sound whiney but I don't think we'll be able to do that, San...", a girl in gym tights and a flowy shirt said as she stood up from her spot.

San blew a strand of hair out of his face, breathing heavily as he went to get his water bottle.

"You are all doing so well, I know you're gonna be able to do this!", he answered, voice full of motivation and eagerness.

The girl sighed loudly, San knew she was tired, just like everyone else in the sports hall.

Ever since he had detention because he scheduled dance practice for his theater club in the mornings before school, he knew it couldn't go on like that. Even though his mother wasn't particularly happy that her son didn't study in the afternoon, she unexpectedly let it slide and the boy could teach his club mates in the afternoon.

In the beginning, he really doubted the musical would take off like this since no one could dance except for him. He was proved very wrong,
his club mates learned extremely fast making him push them harder everyday.

A boy with brown hair and blue eyes laid back on the floor while spreading out his arms.

"I don't get why you don't take over the lead role and end my suffering.", he complained, "You're so much better at dancing, why are you always in the back doing props and choreos?"

Another girl came back from the side of the hall where all of their bottles and bags were put at.

Obviously, everyone seemed to struggle hard.

"Yeah, do you have stage fright or something? We can help you with that, too, you know?", she speculated as she approached the bunch.

San smiled a little tormented, it was true, he was extremely self conscious about his singing and basically everything others didn't know about.

"I'm a very bad singer, this is a musical, guys. I'm better off painting the props and stage and most of all, choreographing the show."

As he turned and put back his water bottle, he heard at least two of the girls in his club giggle rather loudly.

What was going on? Were they laughing about him?

San was about to make his way back to go on with practice as something on the other side of the hall caught his eye.

On the bleachers stood a trio of boys, seemingly annoyed and fed up with whatever they were doing. Now that he noticed them, he could make out a few muted curses coming from their mouths. In their hands were spatulas and cloths.

San chuckled. He didn't want to be mean but they really deserved this. Especially the one that was constantly looking up to three of the girls that were standing down there with San himself.

He was getting furious without realising it.

Not only did he distract his club members from their practice, he also clearly didn't give a damn about his punishment that he clearly deserved.

"HEY!", San yelled, surprised by himself for doing so, "Shouldn't you be scraping dried gum and spit off of those benches and not rest your ass on them?!"

Now he had the guy's attention.

For a moment, he could swear his only option was to run as fast as he could and hope to not end up like his best friend. To his surprise, the guy just rolled his eyes and turned around to clean bench behind him.

"Weird", San thought to himself, "...but this guy must have bigger problems than this right now..."

The group continued practicing the difficult jumps and figures for a while.
If there was one thing San really was good at, it was pushing himself and others to their max.

Usually, that strained his energy to the max as well, at least it worked though. San was proud he was able to over achieve and be at the top, he didn't do all of it only for his parents liking.

Heavy breathing filled the sports hall and provided the optimal foundation for contentment. The end of the school year brought a lot of events for which San would probably never have enough preparation.

After all, he was a perfectionist.

"Okay, I think we can wrap this up, guys.... Milly, you should maybe finally start stretching every evening and Hannah, you should be a little more confident, you're doing so great already!", San said to his club mates with a genuine smile on his face.

"Right, bye!!!", he heard answers from the other students as they packed up their bags and left the hall.

"HEY SANNIEEE!", a loud yell made him jump on his way to the pile of bags and outerwear.

A small, red haired guy with a cast on his right arm was running in his direction.

At first, San's face mirrored the big smile on his friend's but it quickly turned into a judging gaze laying on the white cast.

Hongjoong looked at him, confused. Then, he started justifying himself, the look of confusion wiped away from his face and replaced with one of annoyance.

"Hey! The doctor said I am allowed to do anything as long as it doesn't hurt me or put me in danger of damaging my hand further....so everything's fine!", the small guy complained with a cheerful tone at the end.

San smiled and nudged his friend on the side without an injury.

"Maybe you just shouldn't be so hyperactive yet, you normally aren't like that anyway", he laughed a little, "Did Yunho and Mingi visit you too often those five days at the hospital?"

Hongjoong pouted but soon put on a serious face.

"I'm just glad I made it out alive okay, I need to visit a freaking therap-", he was cut off by a hand that was placed onto his mouth.

A pair of eyes laid on the two of them, it was difficult for San to figure out the thoughts behind it. Pity? Hatred? Guilt? Hurt? Maybe a mixture of all of them.

And he better should feel guilty.

He didn't need to know all the trouble he had really caused, though. San didn't want to grant him the satisfaction of knowing he ruined a part of his friend that he now has to build up again with every bit of help he can possibly get.

If he couldn't figure out what he had done to this undeniably good-to-the-core person himself, he would never understand why he shouldn't have done it anyway.

"I should've texted you not to come and wait in front of the school, come on.", he gestured to his friend to get to the heavy door of the sports hall.

One look to the side was enough for Hongjoong to instantly agree without doing so verbally.

As he looked back into San's eyes, he could finally see what he was expecting to see in his eyes all along but was glad he didn't need to.

Fright and pain.

"Come, come on let's go.", San smiled at his friend as well as he could and dragged him out.

_____________
1238 words

Btw, really, I highly recommend the song 21 by Dean.

Go listen, it's nice :) *thumbs up*