Under the Umbrella // A WooSan Story ✔

Chapter 17

The changes San proposed were not much and they all knew, that they needed more ideas how to improve their performance. At the end, everyone except San and Wooyoung left, but they all were bummed by the slow process.

Finally, San and Wooyoung were alone again and suddenly it became awkward. They continued to practise their main performance and tried to get more synchronised, but Wooyoung wasn't able to concentrate at all.

He wondered what it was now between them. They haven't talked about what happened yesterday and Wooyoung was nervous as to what San thought about it. The kiss they shared after their intermezzo was so rich of emotions but right now, San didn't behave any different than usual.

"Let's stop here", San proposed, "and practise our cover dance. We should work on our positions before we start the other one. Okay?"

"Mhm, good idea", Wooyoung answered and pushed back his hair. He watched San in the mirror as he walked to the laptop to change the song. His backside was as attractive as ever and Wooyoung remembered his fingers digging into San's hips last night. Wooyoung's mouth dried down and a lump formed in the back of his throat. The look on San's face when he came on top of Wooyoung was the most attractive thing, Wooyoung had ever seen.

"Woo!", San called him out. A grin was plastered on his face as he watched Wooyoung staring at him. "Let's practise some more."

"Yeah, of course", Wooyoung said and looked away in embarrassment. He pushed up his jeans and tried to give himself more space.

They continued their practise and tried to synchronize their movements. Especially the part Wooyoung proposed yesterday was challenging. They needed to be on the same beat every single time. It was exhausting. Especially for Wooyoung. Getting close to San's face on every turn made this practise more cruel to him than anything else.

But to Wooyoung's surprize the look in San's eyes was not any different than his. He was equally aroused by the sudden closeness during their choreography.

They didn't stop though and finished their first cover dance pretty quickly. There was still time to start with their second song, so they went over the choreography one more time together and re-learned all the moves.

Wooyoung began to think that they should have chosen another theme, because seeing San dance in a sexy way made him even more flustered with this song. But at the end of the day he made it through and they went home together.

They were both beat up from the training so they didn't lose many words before they turned off the lights and went to bed. As if it was normal for them, they cuddled as they both drifted off to a deep sleep. And so, the day passed and neither San nor Wooyoung had brought up what has happened the night before.

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As it was Monday again, they went to school together and Wooyoung didn't expect to see San until lunch break. As he walked to their table on the school grounds, he saw that he had a missed call on his phone. He quickly called back and found out, that the workers who managed the damage in his flat have finished their job and he could move back in today. But they also told him the costs for the reparations and all his happiness about them being done vanished in thin air.

Wooyoung had to sit down for a moment and opened the calculator on his phone. They offered him payments in instalment, so at least that was nice. But as he was calculating his debt and his salary, he realized he'd have to work for at least four months to pay it all back. And to top it off he also needed new furniture and other things that were broken – like a washing machine. And like that his dream of being on stage this year suddenly disappeared from his future plans. If he wasn't able to practise, they wouldn't allow him to be on stage. But he couldn't practise, if he had to go to work every day for the next six or more months.

For the first time since Wooyoung came to Seoul to become a dancer the thought of quitting dancing came to his mind. Even quitting school for that matter. And find a job that would provide him with more money to pay back his debts. Maybe he could start dancing again after he payed it all back in a shorter timeframe? Would they let him back in the same class, if he'd quit now? Would they even allow him to come back to the agency at all?

Wooyoung's thumb hovered over the screen of his phone. Without even knowing he had pulled out the phone number of his parents. He could call them and ask for money. He could. But he also couldn't. He stared at the number and thought about it. In the end he put his phone away and went back to school for the next period. He knew they wouldn't care.

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After school Wooyoung went straight home to his apartment. As he figured there was a lot of construction site dirt and he quickly cleaned everything. He also made some space in the living room for his mattress. With a few other changes he quickly was able to make a pretty comfortable bed there since there was no space for it in his bed room as long as the broken frame was still there. As he was working on that Wooyoung thought even more about his situation. Dancing was everything for him and even the thought of quitting changed his mood entirely. He didn't want to quit. It was the last thing he'd ever do. But at least for now, he didn't know any other way. He hated doing things only halfway, especially when it came to dancing. And doing it for half a year ... it was just too much for him to handle.

He decided to push the decision about quitting dancing to a later date. First, he had to finish their mission. It wouldn't help anyone if he'd quit now and leave the others in the middle of the preparations. But he knew that this wouldn't leave his mind so easily.

After work his mood hadn't improved even a bit. All he could do was focus on the thing he loved most in the world – dancing – and forget about it for now.

San and him practised for a couple of hours before they decided it was enough. As they left the building, Wooyoung remembered, he hadn't told San yet, that he was moving back in his apartment.

"San, wait", Wooyoung said, as San began to walk home. "I won't come with you today."

"What? Why?", San immediately asked and came back to Wooyoung.

"The workers are done at my place. I can move back in."

"Since when? Why didn't you say anything?"

"Since today. They called at lunch break." Wooyoung scratched the back of his head.

"Oh", San said. They became quite for a second. Neither knew what to say to the other. "I thought there was something up, since you didn't show up for lunch."

"Yeah ... I ... Eh ..." Wooyoung wasn't sure what to say. "Thanks for letting me stay over ... San", he finally said, but he said it to the ground. "You were a lifesaver there."

"Don't worry about it", San answered.

They stood there in silence again, until Wooyoung awkwardly wished San a good night and went the other way to his apartment. As he turned on the corner he looked back and saw that San still stood where he had left him in front of the agency. Wooyoung quickened his steps and was gone from his view.

The first night back in his own apartment was weird. It was Wooyoung's home, but it suddenly didn't feel that way anymore. It was kind of strange and Wooyoung quickly went to shower and got to bed. Something was missing, he knew it, but he couldn't point his finger on it. So, he just thought it was because he was sleeping in his living room and tried to fall asleep. But that was easier said than done. Wooyoung was awake for quite some time. The thoughts about his debt came to his mind again and Wooyoung suddenly felt a lump in his throat. Was he really going to quit everything he'd worked for since he was seven years old? He couldn't even imagine himself doing anything else than dancing. There was nothing else he wanted to do. There never was.

As Wooyoung finally fell asleep he didn't notice the tears that wet his pillow.