Amore||Jake Shim

twenty-four

previously in chapter twenty-three ...

"where's jake?" ava asked.

ms. park gave ava a look of sympathy and shrugged.

ava felt her phone vibrate, taking it out to see a message from jake.

jake
sorry to do this in a text
—
jake
just turn around

ava turned around to see jake dressed up for the stage as he walked up to her, "let's do this yea?"

ava took his hand with a smile and nodded, "let's do this."

as their stage number was announced, jake and ava stepped out onto the stage with the six girls following.

the soft, melodic music began and the eight dancers gracefully performed their dance just as they practiced without any mistakes.

as jake and ava came together to end the performance with their faces close together, they focused on each other's faces just as they did in practice.

leaning in, their foreheads rested against each other's. with a shaky breath, ava closed her eyes and whispered, "i'm so sorry."

jake shook his head and smiled, "you're here now and that's all that matters."

ava slowly leaned in as she gently kissed jake's soft, warm lips. almost immediately, jake kissed back and smiled into the kiss as the applauses from the audience became louder.

pulling apart, they looked back into each other's eyes as ava let out a soft chuckle.
—
"oh that was amazing girls!" ms. park exclaimed as the girls walked backstage.

"and you two! oh you two were- perfect!" she added, giving jake and ava a hug.

pulling out of the hug, ms. park went to help the girls put their dance jackets on, while ava walked over to rosie.

"rosie," ava called out, bending down to the ground.

"i am so so sorry. i owe you the biggest apology for wanting to leave you again. i'm sorry for being selfish, i'm sorry for leaving again, i'm sorry for-"

ava was cut off by rosie's arms being wrapped around her, "it's okay."

"you realized what you needed to do and you came back to us."

ava looked up at jake who was standing in front of the two and smiled at rosie, "right."

rosie pulled away from ava and got closer to her ear, whispering, "i saw that kiss," and ran away.

ava stood up with her lips parted and let out a chuckle, shaking her head.

"you know .." jake began, walking up to ava, "when you were talking to the boys by the garage door that day, i uh .. heard it all."

ava immediately froze with her widened eyes not making eye contact with jake. seeing this, jake turned himself around to where his entire body faced ava and began smiling.

"why- why are you uh smiling?" ava stuttered.

"what?" jake laughed, "i can't smile at the girl i like?"
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