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When Joohyun first accepted the offer to be a dance teacher at SM, she definitely did it for the money. She’s heard the rumours about the entertainment but the single digit sitting in her bank account and her looming rent gave her no other choice. Her girlfriend, Seulgi, told her it would be a good learning experience, a step closer towards owning her own studio. Joohyun just hoped that the kids wouldn't drive her crazy.
She knew what it would be like. Trainees who had five other classes before hers, higher ups that were all sleazy and think they were better than everyone and hours spent perfecting routines that would barely get looked at twice. What Joohyun didn’t expect was Jimin and Minjeong.
“Have you had your first class yet?” Another dance teacher, Momo asks her in the teacher’s room. Momo was nice and welcoming and the first teacher she had met when she arrived. Joohyun checks the time on her watch. “Nope, it’s in half an hour.”
“Do you know which group it is?”
Joohyun opens her phone to find the email SM sent to her. She scrolls until she reaches the timetable they provided. “The G1 group?”
“Oh G1? That’s the group of female trainees that are up for selection. To debut. ”
“Wait, is that Jimin and Minjeong’s group?” Another teacher in the room, Jennie pipes up. Momo’s eye’s light up at the names and Joohyun looks between the two teachers in confusion.
“Oh my gosh yeah it is. Listen unnie, you have to put those two in the same group,” Momo tells her seriously.
“Why?”
“Because it will be the best thing you’ll ever do for me! Jisoo unnie and I have been speculating for months about what's going on between those two. Last month, Minjeong came to class wearing Jimin’s hoodie for a whole week!”
Joohyun has never been one to participate in gossip, especially about her students. That was more up her sister Yeri’s alley. So what if this Minjeong girl wore Jimin’s hoodie for a week? How did Momo even know the hoodie was Jimin’s? She gave Momo a tight lipped smile, hoping the girl wouldn't notice the way Joohyun was slightly judging her. Don’t get her wrong, Joohyun was all for lesbian relationships, she’s in one right now, but she was never one to care about whether two people were together or not.
Maybe it was due to the younger age of her coworkers, but Joohyun isn’t going to change up her teaching methods for some gossip.
“That sounds… like not that big of a deal.”
Momo dramatically gasps and Jennie speaks up from where she’s sitting, a smirk on her face. “Trust me unnie, you just have to see the two to understand.”
—
Maybe it was by chance but when Joohyun checks the groups for her first class, she realises that she already has Jimin and Minjeong together. She had made the pairs last night, in preparation for her class today so it was by utter luck that the two girls were put together. Well, at least Momo’s wish came true, Joohyun thinks as she waits for the trainees to arrive at her first class.
She can’t lie, she’s a bit nervous. It’s not her first time teaching but it definitely will be her first time teaching students of such calibre. Trainees are different from Joohyun’s normal students. Joohyun’s normal student’s dream is to be a trainee, that’s what Joohyun tries to help them become. These girls are already at that level and are striving to become the best of the best.
The door creaks open and Joohyun holds her breath in anticipation as a group of twenty odd girls walk in. Some come in with earbuds in, clearly drained from the other lessons they had today. Others talk amongst themselves in small groups. She catches a few questioning glances sent her way and she feels her heart start to race. She takes a deep breath to calm herself, she can do this, it’s just another class.
She waits a few more minutes for any late stragglers before introducing herself to the class.
“Hello everyone! I’m your new dance teacher, Bae Joohyun. You guys can call me Ms Bae.” She forces her voice to sound more cheerful than it usually is, there’s a slight wobble to it but she prays none of them notice. They don’t need to realise how nervous she is.
“Hello Ms Bae.” The class bows in unison.
“Ok. To start off this class, I’ll be splitting you up into pairs. Each pair is expected to perform the routine I have prepared in front of the class. Your performances are due next week, you have the rest of the lessons in the week to practise which I deem to be plenty enough time. You can also practise in your spare time if needed.”
None of the trainees speak up after Joohyun finishes speaking and she realises maybe she isn’t the only one who’s nervous.
“Do you guys understand?”
“Yes Ms Bae.” They speak in unison again. Damn, Joohyun could get used to this.
“Perfect, that’s how I expect you guys to answer me from now on.” She pauses for a second and another resounding “Yes Ms Bae” echoes throughout the room.
“For the pairs, I have…” Joohyun starts listing off the pairs she made last night. She stops as she reaches the name of two trainees that she has become a bit too familiar with. “The next pair is Jimin and Minjeong.” She curiously waits for some reaction amongst the group of girls sitting in front of her. Most of them had gone off with their partners after she had told them their pair, leaving only a handful of them on the floor.
A black haired girl stands up, her height towering over Joohyun. Joohyun notices that this girl has the looks of an idol, she had a face that made you want to stare at her all day. Her features were sharp, almond shaped eyes that drew your attention to her. Another girl from the other side of the group stands up, her hands clasped together in front of her. She has her hair tied up into a ponytail, her puppy-like features shining on her face.
The puppy-like girl has a disgruntled look on her face as she stands, a slight frown on her face. The other girl sends her a look and it causes the frown to deepen. Joohyun watches the two girls in confusion. For two people who, according to Momo, are apparently on the precipice of being together, they don’t seem all too happy about being paired up.
The pair walk off together, the taller girl pinching the puppy girl’s waist which causes the shorter girl to smack her. “Stop it Jimin unnie.”
So the taller one is Jimin. Joohyun tries to commit the name to her brain as she continues to rattle off the rest of the pairs.
—
“How was the first day?” Seulgi asks her as Joohyun finally arrives back at their tiny apartment. After the G1 class, she had two other lower level classes that were much more troublesome.
“Tiring. I don’t understand how those boys expect to become idols when they muck around all day. Seriously, they need to get their priorities straight.” She sighs as she collapses onto the couch. She closes her eyes, her body exhausted from the back to back classes. Two hands come to rest on her shoulder, gently massaging her and she feels herself succumb to the feeling.
Seulgi has always been good to her, sometimes too good Joohyun thinks. The hands travel up to massage her neck and it causes a moan to escape her mouth.
She feels Seulgi hands pause on her neck and she whines in response, too out of it to hold herself together.
“More, please.” Her voice sounds desperate to her ears and Seulgi chuckles from behind before continuing the massage. Joohyun lolls her head back till it rests on her girlfriend’s stomach. She thinks back on her day, her mind finally getting a chance to rest, when she remembers the conversation in the teacher’s room at the start of the day.
“You know, some of the teachers think two of the female trainees are dating.” Seulgi gives a hum in response, indicating that she was listening while her fingers continue to work on Joohyun’s neck.
“But today when I put the two trainees together, Jimin and Minjeong, Minjeong did not seem happy to be with Jimin. She looked like she would rather be with anyone else. I don’t get what the teachers see in those two. I thought they would actually look like a couple together, not like two people who can’t stand each other.”
“Do you not remember what you were like before we were dating Hyunnie?” Seulgi asks, slightly amused.
Joohyun tries to think back to before she and Seulgi started dating. The two had met in a dance class around ten years ago and started dating a year after they met. All Joohyun could recall was being mesmerised with the way Seulgi had danced that she could barely concentrate.
Seulgi speaks up again, noticing Joohyun’s silence. “You acted like you hated me half the time, Hyunnie. I remember being scared of you for months before you finally approached me.”
“I didn’t hate you Seulgi-ah!” Joohyun thinks she could never hate Seulgi.
Seulgi laughs at her girlfriend. “I know you didn’t. But that’s just how some people act around someone they like. To the rest of the world, it looks like they are repulsed by the other person but to them, it’s because they secretly fancy them.”
“You make me sound like a second grade school boy.”
“Maybe you are one.”
Joohyun lifts her hand off the couch to hit Seulgi. She hears her girlfriend shout and Joohyun rolls her eyes at Seulgi’s dramatics. She doesn’t even hit that hard. “Ow, you even slap like one.”
Joohyun turns to face her girlfriend fully, the massage from earlier long forgotten. “Take that back.” She glares at her girlfriend, a pout forming onto her lips but all Seulgi does is place a kiss on her pout. The gesture makes her blush and it reminds her of when they first started dating. Back when Seulgi was too shy to do anything and would ask for permission to hold her hand on their first date. It made Joohyun swoon at the time, a pink tint stained on her cheeks throughout the whole date. She thinks only Seulgi could ever bring out this side of her, the side that would blush and pout and beg for more massages.
Seulgi taps her shoulder, breaking her from her thoughts, a hand signalling to the clock on the wall.
“C’mon, let’s go to bed.”
—
Joohyun wouldn’t say she was excited for G1 class the next day. She was looking forward to it a moderate amount, just like how she was looking forward to her other classes. Actually no, the other classes are a disaster compared to those girls. So yeah, maybe she’s a tiny bit more excited about her G1 class than the others but that had nothing to do with Jimin and Minjeong.
Today, all the pairs are spread across the practice room, learning the choreo Joohyun had created. It was a routine she had made with Seulgi, one that she holds very close to her heart. It requires a certain chemistry with your partner to nail it perfectly, you have to trust them to be precise and exact. Joohyun has given this choreo to many students before and only a few have managed to capture the essence of the dance she was looking for.
Joohyun wanders through the maze of trainees, stopping at each pair to give them feedback and helping them if needed. She’s in the middle of helping Aeri and Yizhou with the ending of the duet when suddenly, a loud bang echoes through the room.
Whipping her head around, she finds the source of the sound to be a curled up Minjeong on the floor with Jimin kneeling above her. Joohyun strides over to the two girls, a tinge of worry in her chest.
“I swear to god unnie I’m going to murder y—”
“It’s not my fault your hair tie was on the floor! How was I supposed to know you left it there?”
“You should’ve been aware of your surr–”
“What happened here?”
Minjeong stops mid sentence as both girls flick their heads up to meet Joohyun’s stare. Jimin shrinks under the weight of her stare, a look of panic splashing across her face.
“Um well, Ms Bae, I was just lifting Minjeongie up and then I didn’t realise there was a hair tie behind me and I kind of stumbled on it, causing Minjeong to fall,” Jimin explains sheepishly, her eyes avoiding Joohyun’s.
Joohyun furrows her brows as she thinks back to her choreo. She didn’t recall any parts of it requiring any lifts.
“Why were you lifting Minjeong?”
This time, it’s Minjeong who speaks up. “Well, Jimin unnie told me she couldn’t do the leaps in the middle section. So she suggested changing it to a lift which I heavily disagreed with Ms Bae.”
“That’s not true! You were the one who said we should do a lift!”
“Well I wouldn’t have to come up with a new idea if you could just do the jumps!”
“You could’ve just done the jumps and I would just have um–”
“Done nothing? Just stand there and look pretty?”
“You think I’m pretty?”
“That’s not the point right now!”
“Um, girls?” Joohyun has watched as the two girls inched closer to each other, Minjeong’s face fully flushed from arguing that she decided to put an end to their argument before Minjeong ends up killing Jimin. Or kissing, a part of her mind helpfully supplies and Joohyun blames the fact that she spent the morning listening to Momo giving her a timeline about the wonderful relationship of Minjeong and Jimin (or as Momo dubbed Jiminjeong) for that thought.
Realising how close they were, Minjeong jolts back immediately, her face so red that in any other circumstance Joohyun would be genuinely concerned for her. Jimin also moves back, but only by a bit, her eyes go back to staring at the ground, refusing to make contact with any of them.
Her eyes darted between the two girls and she pauses when she realises she was suppressing a smile. They were kind of cute together. In an old married couple kind of way. Oh gosh, she thinks Momo has really influenced her.
Clearing her throat, she gets the attention of the two girls again. “Minjeong, are you alright?”
“My butt’s kind of sore.” The girl whispers in response. Jimin tries to hide her laughter but Minjeong manages to catch it anyway, smacking the girl’s shoulder.
“Ok. Jimin?” The black haired girl looks up at the sound of her name. “You’re going to carry Minjeong to the nurses office.”
“Ms Bae, you want her to carry me again? She literally just dropped me!” Minjeong protests.
“I’m sure if Jimin knows what’s good for her she will take very good care of you.” Both girls blush at her words and Joohyun looks at the two fondly. “Also, I will allow a slight altercation to the choreo. But maybe not a lift. Think of something else to replace the jumps with instead.”
“Yes Ms Bae.” The two girls respond in unison.
“Ok, off you two go then.”
Joohyun watches Jimin bend down to lift Minjeong up, one hand under her knees and the other one around her back. Minjeong automatically hooks her arms around Jimin’s neck as the older girl bridal carries her out of the practice room. Joohyun can’t help but wonder if the Jimin had carried Minjeong like that before, the way it came to them so naturally.
“Ms Bae?”
She blinks and breaks out of her daze, her feet already wandering off to the next pair that needed help. Ok so, maybe she wasn’t totally against the whole Jimin and Minjeong thing, but she still needed a bit more convincing to be totally onboard.
—
In Momo’s lengthy rant about Jiminjeong, Joohyun remembers her mentioning the reason she first got so invested in the two girls.
(“It was the way they danced unnie. It’s like something so personal, so raw being presented to you. It really takes your breath away.”
Joohyun had just aimlessly nodded at Momo’s words. It was too early in the morning and she didn’t have her cup of coffee yet to fully process what the other teacher was saying.)
A week has passed since Joohyun had first started her new job and it was time for the G1 group to perform for her. She had watched the trainees perfect her choreo last week and she had high expectations for today.
Her fingers drum on the table as she waits for the first pair to perform. She smiles at the two girls that walk in a few minutes later. Chahyun and Narae. They start performing and Joohyun notes down anything that jumps out at her. The two didn’t have the chemistry Joohyun was looking for, it honestly seemed like the two girls barely knew each other. They had gotten down the choreo well, a few minor mistakes here and there but only Joohyun, the choreographer, could pick up on it. Overall, she was satisfied with their performance.
“Thanks girls, please stand to the left side of the room.”
Joohyun had a theory about duets. She believed that with the right person, any duet could make someone feel something as long as the dancers had the right chemistry. So she wasn’t judging them too harshly on their basics, they had other classes for it. She had been hired specifically to find the best chemistry among the trainees.
The next pair came in and it was the same story as the first. The choreo was almost perfect but it just lacked that feeling.
“Left.”
And the next.
“Left.”
And the next.
“Left.”
By the fourth pair, Joohyun was starting to think that maybe randomly generating the pairs wasn’t the best way to find the best chemistry. She sighs as she looks at the eight girls on the left side of the room. Maybe this one was the one.
The next two girls that walked in sparked a little hope in Joohyun. She had helped Aeri and Yizhou closely to learn the choreo and she had felt the chemistry between them. Please don’t let me down.
The music started and Joohyun was more than impressed. When the girls finish, Joohyun lets a genuine smile take over her face as she proudly says.
“Right.”
Aeri and Yizhou look at each other in confusion, the rest of the trainees are all huddled on the left side of the room and they hesitantly walk over to the opposite side. Finally, Joohyun thinks, that’s what I’ve been looking for.
She was almost three quarters of the way done with the pairs when it was Jimin and Minjeong’s turn. Only two more pairs had joined the right side of the room while the rest of them were spread out along the left wall.
Joohyun had recalled that Minjeong had to sit out of practice for a few days because of nurses order’s after Jimin had dropped her so she didn’t know how much of the choreo the two girls had learnt.
When the first beat of the music starts, Joohyun didn’t realise she was holding her breath as Minjeong and Jimin started to dance. The two girls clearly didn’t have the choreography down as well as the other pairs but they still managed to captivate Joohyun.
There was a gentle push and pull in their dance, Minjeong would sway one way and Jimin would reach out to grab her, before whisking the two off to the next section of the routine. The way their fingers would brush against each other, a certain understanding between them on what to do next. Joohyun thinks that if any other pair danced the way they danced, it would look like a disaster.
But with Jimin and Minjeong, there was a certain fire to it. A hidden beauty behind the unpolished moves that makes you not want to look away. They have a connection between them that you just can’t deny.
Once the music stops, both girls look embarrassed as Joohyun breathes for the first time since the two started dancing. “Wow,” she whispers to herself. She understood what Momo meant now. It was like magic when they danced together.
“Thanks, Jimin and Minjeong. You guys can go to the right side of the room.”
Joohyun takes a second to reset herself before calling the next pair in.
—
After the last pair finished performing, Joohyun stands up and gets ready to tell the trainees what this whole exercise is for.
“I know some of you might be wondering why I have you on two sides of the room. I assigned this duet to you guys to help see which pairs have chemistry with. For the girls on the left side of the room, I want you to pair up with someone different. Someone you think you will have better chemistry with.” The girls start chattering among themselves, some immediately leaving their partner to run to their friends while others just stay sitting, watching the chaos unfold.
Joohyun turns to the other side of the room. “And for the girls on the right side, congrats! I believe you have found your duet partner for the rest of the year.” Joohyun can’t help the way her eyes search for Jimin and Minjeong’s reactions. She watches as the taller girl has a small pleased smile on her face at her words while Minjeong was biting her lips to stop the smile spreading on her face. They shyly looked at each other, both of their cheeks turning pink as their eyes met and Joohyun knew she was done for.
She had been convinced; Jimin and Minjeong were meant to be.