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For all Till felt, the car ride was going smooth. The radio was blaring whatever current pop song was trending, his mom looked chipper, and Till couldn’t help but feel a bit excited. Nervous, yes but what he really felt was excitement. Growing up, Till always had a sort of flare for music. Started young with any surface he found, rhythm just seemed to come naturally for the young boy. Year after year, he picked up a new instrument and mastered it faster than one could blink.
But now he has settled with keeping a couple of instruments, in interest with his mother’s budget.
Speaking of his mother, if she wasn’t driving you’d think she could get to the studio with the shoes on her feet and Till on her back. The dance studio where she was able to get Till to play the acoustic guitar for the dancers’ practice.
“I just know it, you are, no, you will love the place. Carmen told me the new dancers are just ripe with energy and passion. Your music will fit perfectly at practice,” Io said.
The light was still red so Io turned to look at her son.
“Don’t be nervous, Till,” she lifted his chin, making eye contact, “Your passion for music can take you anywhere you desire. Plus, you are my son, you are bound to fit in wherever life takes you.”
That got a small chuckle out of Till and he turned back to face the window. The light turned green and they continued on their way.
“…Thanks, mom…really.”
“Anytime, mijo.”
—
They arrive shortly after, sitting in the car for five minutes as Io insists on accompanying Till inside. Only for the drop off, she swears by it. As soon as Io opens the door, the receptionist snaps her head up and Till feels his mom radiating joy that he hadn’t seen in a while. The receptionist calls out a name and out comes a woman around the same age as his mom, only slightly taller than she is.
“Io, goodness! It’s been so long! How have you been?”
The two women hug as if they hadn’t seen each other in years. Though, that probably is the case as Till had never met the woman prior.
“Carmen, it’s so good to see you,” Io’s voice comes out muffled.
“Really Io, I don’t think I’ve seen you since graduation—and who is this young man?” Carmen breaks the hug holding Io’s shoulders as she turns her attention to Till.
“Carmen, this is Till, my son,” Io shifts to face Till and then back to Carmen, “and this is my childhood friend, former classmate, and the owner of this dance studio, Carmen.”
Carmen fully turns her attention to Till, smile reaching ear to ear as she gets closer to Till. They touch cheek to cheek as Carmen holds a steady grip on Till hand. As much as he’s grown up with the greeting custom, it is as the older he gets, the more awkward he feels doing it. Especially with his big, clunky guitar on his back.
“My, you’d think he’s just a clone of yourself. Like I’m looking into the past,” Carmen’s head moves back and forth from Till and Io as she speaks, “Well, I won’t hold you too long, practice isn’t going to start for a while but you can warm up in the studio until the dancers start arriving.”
Till nods and murmurs a thank you before he leaves his mom to catch up with her friend.
But maybe he should have asked for more explicit directions before he dashed off into this hallway of doors.
Till just keeps walking down the hall, hesitating at each door as he reaches for the knob as quickly as he pulls away. It takes around five more doors, seriously how big is this place, before he hears a familiar voice opening a door two doors behind him.
“Till? Is that you?”
Till stops in his tracks, looking like a deer caught by headlights as he slowly turns around to the owner of the voice.
“Oh uh hey Mizi, I wasn’t expecting to see you here.”
Really, he wasn’t. The drive was around an hour and a half from his home and it’s not like there weren't other studios around the area. It just happens to be easier to play for a studio when you already have your connections in place.
“Me? I wouldn’t have expected to see you here in a billion years. Oh! Are you here to dance perhaps?” Mizi said as she approached Till.
She was dressed in a simple, mid-sleeve black dress with her hair all wrapped up into a low bun. Maybe years before, this would have painted Till’s face into a bright pink hue almost bordering red. That was until the night before the school’s student government elections when Mizi slept over at Till’s apartment and she just unpacked everything. She told him she was as scared of losing as she was of winning, worried about starting ballroom dancing as she saw how it could financially weigh on her mom, but most of all—she liked girls but never had the courage to tell anyone.
That night, Till hugged and comforted her, gave her extra candies from their snack mountain they collected for their sleepover and closed the chapter of his life that revolved around childhood crushes. Not without a little heartbreak, of course.
Back to present times, Till replied scratching his head, “No actually I’m here to play, you see they, the studio owner happens to know my mom and she mentioned something about trying live music for some of their practices.”
“Ahh, I see,” Mizi said as she linked arms with Till, “then you can walk me to the practice studio then!”
They started walking in the opposite direction from where Till was walking and walked up to one floor, through a door on the left, walking down the hallway and then taking a right where Mizi opened the door to a sizable dance studio. Seriously, they should rename the place from Curtain & Stage Studio to Maze Central, it’d take weeks to memorize the layout here not to mention there are two more unexplored floors.
Till sets down his guitar and takes it out of its case as Mizi does her warm ups by the mirrors. He takes one of the foldable chairs and makes sure to tune his guitar before he embarrasses himself with an off tune riff.
Soon after, people start trickling in and before Till realizes it’s a full house or at least he thinks it is. He meets the two other musicians, Hookyun and his son George who play violin and piano respectively, and learns that he is to play for the first half of the class and then they transition to another dance style for the rest. Luckily, they happen to have some guitar sheet music to lend to Till but he was allowed to freestyle. Within a reasonable limit, though.
The teacher hadn’t arrived yet so most were left to chatter or do some warm up stretches. While Till finishes skimming the music sheets trying to get a gist of the music, he spots Mizi in the corner of his eye approaching him. With Mizi peaking from his side over his shoulder, Till finally looks up.
“You mentioned your mom knows the owner,” Mizi tilts her head, “does that mean Auntie Io’s here?”
“Eh, I don’t know, she said she’d only come in to drop me off at the lobby, but you know my mom”
She chuckles, “Well, I hope I’m able to at least say hi before you leave.”
They have some more idle chit chat until a question springs back into Till’s mind.
“So, I forgot to ask earlier but why’d you choose this studio when there are closer ones back at home?” Till asked.
“Oh right, you must have been more surprised than me when you saw me here, huh?”
“Ya think?”
A silent chuckle escaped from Mizi this time.
“Well, it was easier for my partner if I came out here for our practices. Plus, it’s the least I can do since their family also pays for my classes and stuff.” Mizi leans back against the wall, arms crossed.
“Par-Partner?” Till’s eye widening dramatically as he turns to look at Mizi.
“Oh relax,” her hand pats Till’s shoulder, “He’s only my dance partner. The closest thing I can have to a partner only sees me barely once a week and every time, I am barely able to get a word out before I embarrass myself in front of her.”
”Oh…”
—
The class went without a hitch as it appeared that the first half was geared more to beginners or intermediate dancers, at least that’s what Till thought, as the teacher only showed a couple of new moves and techniques before he let the students go off into a freeform style of practice.
Till started out with a couple of the simpler pieces, adding his own flare here and there and before he realized, the first half of class flew by. The teacher, Mr. Mateo, had invited him to stay for the remainder of class and with nothing better to do, Till agreed. Not before a little break outside the class room, though. He didn’t walk away too far, fearing he would lose his way again in this maze of a studio.
He got some water at the water fountain and then did some stretching. Even though he was allowed to take a break whenever, Till just couldn’t. Every note he played would just keep pushing him to play more and more, feeling like he wasn’t even playing for the length that he did. However, all of that culminated in a hunched back aching to be cracked and stiff shoulders that would make boulders jealous.
He thought back to his conversation with Mizi, realizing he missed the part where she mentioned her partner’s parents were her benefactors. He’d remember when she expressed her worry of the financial burdens her mom would have but it slipped his mind about how she was able to fix that situation. She had fully dedicated herself to dance after she won the president spot on the student body in that year, continuing even after securing the spot for their Junior year. He just figured, well, he didn’t really think about it as he was really getting into music, perhaps in an effort to fully eradicate his childish crush of the past.
This benefactor must be rich or something to be able to pay not only for Mizi’s lessons but also her clothes and makeup. He’d only seen Mizi go out for a big competition in their state once and thinking back, there was no way Mizi would be able to pay for all that… glam. Heck, they lived in the same apartment complex and his part time and additional funds from his mother were barely able to afford Till’s current guitar. Regardless, he realized this mysterious benefactor, partner, what have you, was probably not in the studio as Mizi really only stretched and practiced dancing on her own for a bit before sitting next to Till for the remainder of the first half.
That wouldn’t matter though as Till heard footsteps approaching, snapping him out of his thoughts. He turned his head to see a tall, slender man, maybe around his age with piercing black eyes which seemed to have an almost red glint to them. He kept walking closer and closer to Till, eventually meeting eye, actually nose to eye with Till. Till could only tilt his head slightly up, feeling his neck and ears heat up by their proximity to one another.
The taller looked down, a serious almost vexed countenance stared back at Till. Suddenly, his lips turn upward into a smile that doesn’t quite meet his eyes.
“You know, you’re blocking the changing room,” the man said.
In stretching, Till hadn’t realized that he had ended up leaning against a door, let alone the door to the changing room. He didn’t expect anyone else to come as in the short time he left the studio, he’d only heard silence in the halls. Not even the pitter-pattering of any other room and barely the conversations from the ballroom studio.
“Oh uh sorry…” Till moved out of the way, dashing to his left. Tragically, his left side happened to be where the door handle was and Till bumped in once more into the mysterious man as he tried to grab the handle.
“Watch yourself,” the mystery man said in a low tone, too close to Till’s ear.
Till dashed to the other direction rapidly. He winced to the side where the man’s breath touched, rubbing his ear with a fist. And as soon as the man appeared, he disappeared with the click of the door.
Till froze there for a couple of seconds.
“Fucking hell, what a weirdo,” Till cursed as he kept rubbing his ear. With enough rubbing, maybe he can get rid of the strange feeling that tormented his left side.
—
Back in the studio, Till asked Mizi to write down a list of instructions on how to get back to the studio so he could leave to call his mother without interrupting the class.
He called her, saying that he’d stay a while longer and that the playing portion went well. Returning back, even with the instructions, Till managed to get lost once more before finding the studio room. As he got closer to the door he could hear music playing and when he opened the door, it wasn’t the only thing that fully blared into his face.
In the middle of the studio stood Mizi hand in hand with weird changing room man. Then, faster than the blink of an eye, their dance commenced. Quick yet poised, meticulous and energetic were the only words that could be used to describe the scene in front of Till. Mesmerized was the only feeling Till could consume. At least he was sitting down now, fully ogling the scene before him. Spin after spin, Mizi could only look graceful as she danced in the arms of mystery man. Quick flashes of pink and black hair could only be seen as their speed was tremendous. Her arch complimented by the man’s grasp, it was a sight to behold.
The dance came to an end and the pair posed before bowing in the direction of the teacher and students. As they rose back up, the mystery man glanced to Till’s direction with a smug look. It peeved Till, first he just happened to expect Till to know that blocking the door, which was completely on accident, and now he’s just, just, well whatever he’s doing now just irking Till for no reason. What an impertinent man! Or what ran through Till’s mind, what a dick!
Pair after pair went up, performing different dances but none quite caught Till’s attention as the first one did. After a while, the teacher allowed everyone to freeform practice, approaching each pair to give advice or fix certain parts of their performance.
Till started gathering his things as he received a message from his mother saying she’d be arriving soon. He said goodbye to Hookyun and his son and then to Mr. Mateo and started heading to the door before Mizi caught up to him.
“Hey! Don’t think you’ll be able to leave without saying goodbye to me!” Mizi exclaimed.
“Sorry Mizi, I didn’t want to bother you in your practice,” Till said, noticing the mystery man was tailing right behind Mizi.
“Ha, as if,” Mizi waved, “Oh but before you leave, let me introduce you to my partner, Ivan.”
“Actually, we already met,” the mystery man, Ivan, emerged from behind Mizi.
“Oh really?”
“Yeah, if you count bumping into me in the changing room as a proper introduction,” Till scoffed.
“Oh pardon me, good sir,” Ivan over exaggerated a bow, flipping his hand and arm dramatically, “Allow me to properly introduce myself. Hello, the name’s Ivan. Pleased to meet you…”
“Till.”
“Till,” Ivan rose up, looking straight into Till’s eyes with a smile.
Till’s phone buzzed, bringing him back to reality.
“Well, I gotta go, nice meeting you… Ivan and I’ll see you in class Mizi.”
“Likewise.”
“Bye! Cya!!” Mizi waved at Till as he opened the door and left.
He still couldn’t put his finger on it as to why Ivan’s appearance bothered him so much. He thought about it walking back into the lobby, into his mother’s car, and back home. Whether it was his annoying attitude or his piercing eyes, those thoughts kept nagging him.
He’s so… infuriating.