Counting on Stars // NCT Ten

Practice

When Byeol got home after a solo walk, her mother called her as she walked through the door.

"Byeol! How was school?" Mrs. Choi asked through the phone. She was on lunch break and decided to give her daughter a call.

"It was fine, Mom. The school is just a vast maze," Byeol said, and they continued to talk as the younger grabbed a bite of chocolate. In the end, Mrs. Choi told her daughter to finish any work she had before she started dancing again. She knew her only child loved using dance as a stress-reliever.

After finishing up the planning worksheet from English and some history work, Byeol set aside her chair and started stretching in front of her mirror. She pulled up Fake Love on her laptop and watched the choreography a couple of times to recall all the moves, then started dancing the third time it played. The boy was right, that bit before the chorus was quite confusing. She slowed it down, watched a section of a tutorial, and by no time she had it figured out. Byeol smiled to herself in the mirror, brushing her hair out of her face as she breathed deeply, tired but content from the practice.

The next day, Ten didn't say a word to Byeol throughout both of the classes they shared before lunch. The girl was a little disappointed, since it wasn't like she had many people to talk to anyways, but she didn't think too much of it. Byeol planned on going to the dance studio after school- it was a Wednesday, and she didn't want to interrupt the mysterious boy from yesterday, in case he usually practiced during lunch. Besides, she needed to eat.

After another lonely lunch (Byeol was right, the boy was there again) and some more classes, it was finally 2:45 pm.

"Hey, Elaena?" She asked her classmate who also shared math class with Byeol.

"Yeah?" Elaena threw a glance at the new girl as they packed up their stuff.

"Could you tell me how to get to the dance studio?" Byeol asked, and Elaena paused. Byeol stared at her, wondering what was taking so long.

"I'll take you to it," Elaena chirped after a long pause. Byeol shrugged it off and followed the pretty girl out of the classroom and down to the first floor. They walked together until a turn in the hallway. Elaena said she had a club that was about to start, so she gave a couple of instructions to Byeol before they headed off in different directions.

"I don't understand why we're still talking about her," Ten shook his head as he walked with Jaehyun down the street. They had taken a quick trip to a coffee shop down the block and were returning to the school for some dance practice before the evening.

"Come on, Ten, you sit next to her in chem! You can ask for me," Jaehyun begged. Ten shook his head again for the hundredth time.

"If you need help in chem, ask Kun! He's good in every single subject." He retorted.

"But, like, she's new right? She probably needs some friends- wait, is that her?" Ten followed Jaehyun's gaze through the glass wall of the dance studio and found Byeol, huge grin on her overjoyed face, dancing to a song Ten recognized. Her butterfly clip glimmered in her hair as it flew around in sync with the music.

"Damn, she's not that bad," Jaehyun mumbled as they watched. Ten tilted his head slightly, starting to understand her style when she suddenly stopped. Her gaze fell on them through the mirror, and she turned around to face the two boys. Ten blinked. Jaehyun waved. Byeol smiled lightly, looking out of breath.

"Dude, cut it out," Ten elbowed Jaehyun as he grinned, dazed. Jaehyun ignored him. Ten rolled his eyes and pulled his friend away from the sight, unable to bare the embarrassment.

"Wait, where are we going?" Jaehyun frowned as the smaller boy led them inside the building. "We were going to practice today." Ten stopped.

"Huh, you're right. But she's here, so-" Ten was saying when Jaehyun cut off his friend with an excited grin.

"Yeah, she's right here! I can talk to her right now! And she's pretty good at dancing... what if we practiced together? Let's go!" Before Ten could even think of a response, his friend walked down the hallways to reach the studio. Shaking his head, Ten had no choice but to follow him though the music room into the dance studio where Jaehyun was already conversing with Byeol.

"...you're so good at dancing!" He was saying as he leaned against the wall, not wasting a second to flirt. Byeol smiled, flicking her eyes to Ten as he walked into the room. She waved, and he waved back out of politeness. Jaehyun continued.

"So, how's your second day of school going?" He asked.

"Oh, it's okay..." she replied.

"Have you made any friends yet?"

"I barely talked to anyone... just Ten and that girl who sits next to me- Elaena." At the sound of Elaena's name, Byeol could see Jaehyun visibly tense up and glance at Ten, who kept his face rock-like. "What?" She asked with furrowed eyebrows.

"Oh, nothing." Jaehyun looked back at Byeol and she had to admit; he was really handsome... and she loved the way his brown hair brushed over his beautiful eyes...

"Let's be friends," He held out his hand for her to shake. She glanced at Ten, who was busy looking at something on his phone, and hesitantly shook Jaehyun's hand. He smiled, keeping flirtatious eye contact as he looked down at her with a sideways smile, and she averted her gaze as she felt her cheeks heat up.

"So, what song were you practicing?" Ten asked, ready to do anything to keep Jaehyun from playing this new girl. He knew Jaehyun was going to try, but if Byeol stayed away for long enough, Jaehyun might end up loosing interest. Ten was only doing this for the new girl's sake. She barely had any friends; she needn't be heartbroken before third quarter.

"Fake love by BTS. Do you like BTS?" She asked them, and Jaehyun nodded lightly. She continued. "I saw some guy dancing to it here during lunch yesterday and felt like I should run through it for fun again- I haven't danced to BTS in a whiiiiiile," she said, glancing at herself in the mirror.

"You don't know who was dancing yesterday?" Ten asked with a raise of his eyebrow. She shook her head and added with a chuckle, "he hit himself with his own hand." Jaehyun started laughing loudly, making Ten shoot a glare that he completely ignored.

"Wow, he must be such a bad dancer!" Jaehyun mumbled and Ten took a deep breath to keep himself from punching his friend.

"Anyways!" Ten cut into their laughing fit. "Why are we here, Jaehyun?" He looked at his friend pointedly, who gave him a blank stare.

"Oh, were you two going to practice?" Byeol asked with wide eyes. "I can go-"

"Nonsense!" Jaehyun glared at Ten, placing a hand on Byeol's shoulder. "We know the choreography for Fake Love as well, wanna practice together?"

"I've never practiced with other people before." She said simply, and even Ten was surprised.

"Wait, really?" Ten said. She nodded with a smile.

"Well, my best friend before I moved here and I used to dance together sometimes, but that was only because I kept asking her to... she's not that good, you see." She chuckled to herself, but the small smile turned sad after a few moments. Ten guessed she was nostalgic.

"You know what? That'll change from now." Jaehyun said confidently. "We'll dance with you if you want! Ten here has won a bunch of competitions and I'm a decent dancer as well!"

"I mean..." she looked away, thinking, then looked back to Jaehyun who was waiting with a soft smile. She couldn't refuse that beautiful face. "Ah, okay. But just saying, I'm not a competition-winning-worthy dancer or anything, I just dance for fun at home." She was saying as she went to replay the music and the two boys stretched. She was just about to ask the boys something when Jaehyun's phone started ringing. When he checked the caller ID, he gasped.

"Shit, it's my aunt's birthday today! I totally forgot! Oh my god..." Ten and Byeol glanced at each other as Jaehyun panicked. He added, "You both go ahead without me, I gotta go!" And without another word, the brown haired boy ran out of the studio.

A few moments passed.

"Well..." Byeol said awkwardly as Ten shook his head in disappointment at his friend. "That was interesting."

"This kid..." Ten sighed with a chuckle, then looked at Byeol. "So, are we starting from the top?"