Chapter 3: Dance Crew!

Yeah, they both slept through that alarm with ease. Kai woke up to hear Hobi whimpering above him. “Mmm. Hey kiddo, what’s up?” Kai turned and was met face to face with a black t-shirt that he did not recognize. Kai slowly looked up further and further to see Joshua’s sleeping face. He looked at his watch and saw it was already 3:00 and sighed. Kai’s eyes softened as he realized that Joshua had fallen asleep with his head in his lap. Kai could almost do a happy dance.

A groan was heard below him, so Kai quickly went back down and acted like he was asleep. Joshua stretched arching his back a lot. Kai could definitely not feel a very firm and well developed butt against his leg. Joshua looked at the time as his eyes went wide. “Shit. Fuck.” He started to try and move, but when he saw how calm Kai looked above him, he gave up. “Damnit Kai. You’re growing on me too much.” Joshua chuckled. “God, I wish I could talk to you properly.” Kai was confused for a few seconds, but then he felt Joshua’s hand on his cheek.

Joshua was a couple inches away as he moved the stray hairs out of Kai’s “sleeping” face. Kai stayed completely still as he tried to will his racing heartbeat to CALM DOWN. That plan failed the moment Joshua rubbed the pad of his thumb over Kai’s cheek with so much affection that Kai wanted to run from the foreign feeling. ‘He can hear it. He has to. He’s. . .so c-close.’

Joshua got up and carefully moved Kai’s arms to wrap around a spare pillow on the couch before taking his backpack and leaving to go to his art club. Leaving a note, he quickly made his way back to go meet with Erin for their final project that was due by the end of the month.

What he didn’t see was Hikari standing off to the side waiting for Jihyo and Yoona to come back to the meeting point. Hikari looked up from her phone and saw Joshua rapidly walking away from the apartment complex. “You’re new.” Hikari pulled her phone up and snapped a shot before slouching against the wall again. “Hey, Jihyo.” Jihyo looked up as she stepped right in front of Hikari. “Do you know anything about a boy that Kai has hung out with before? He’s Korean and has bleached blonde hair. There are a few piercings too. Lobe, upper lobe, a helix, and an industrial. He’s about 5’8 and has a small face.”

Jihyo looked through her memories and nodded. “Yep. That’s Joshua Yoon. Apparently they are close. I saw him leaning over Joshua after class. It seemed like something out of a k-drama.”

“Good. We might want him one day too. He could be a great visual.”

“We need to talk to the company about that before we go for someone else. We are here for Kai.” Yoona said. Hikari sighed as Jihyo and Yoona came in front of her.

“We’ve done what we can. We just need to wait and see if he actually contacts one of us.” The other two nodded and all left for the hotel they were staying in.

“Does that name sound familiar?” Jihyo put her pointer and thumb under her chin as she tried to pinpoint.

Hikari came over and threw her arm over Jihyo’s shoulders, leading them away from the building. “What name?”

“Yoon.”

“Maybe. Come on, let’s go find food.”

Kai got up right as he heard the door close. Leaning against the window with his forearm supporting him, he looked down. Looking out the window, he saw Josua leave in a hurry. He clutched his shirt over his heart as his other hand clenched so hard that the knuckles turned white. He sighed trying to calm his heart down to the best of his abilities. That wasn’t really working. Now he realized that what Erin was saying was true. Hopefully he was wrong about Erin liking Joshua. He turned to the clock and saw it was 4pm. His eyes widened as he ran into his room. It was time for dance practice. Stuffing his outfit into a bag he pet Hobi on the head and ran out the door.

When he opened the door to the dance studio, he was greeted by familiar faces. “Hello Kai.” A girl with short, wavy, blonde hair said. Her hand rested on her hip as Kai passed. She had this serious face that could make a grown adult cry. Her emerald eyes pierced anyone’s walls with ease. “Mind telling us what this is all about?” She pulled the small business card with SA’s logo and Kai’s name on the front out of her pocket.

“It’s nothing, Helen. They just came.” Helen did not look convinced. Helen was the leader and founder of the dance crew that Kai was a part of called Monster. She was like a mother to everyone.

That’s when it clicked in Kai’s head. Kai took long strides over and snatched the card out of Helen’s hand with wide eyes. “How much did they find out about me?” He asked himself. Something in him started to panic. Helen saw this and turned to the co-captain. “Woo Yong, can you take over for a second?” A guy with red dyed hair nodded and fixed his eyebrow piercing before getting everyone set up in warmups. Helen grabbed Kai’s forearm and dragged him out before he started to have a full blown panic attack.

Kai leaned against the wall taking deep breaths. “T-Thanks. H-How did they even find y-you?” Helen thrusted a water bottle in his direction and patted his knee.

“Don’t think about that now. Focus on your breathing.” Helen leaned against the wall waiting until Kai seemed to be a bit more calm. “So, mind telling me what this is all about, Kai?” Kai held the card up and took out the others he had shoved in his backpack and his pockets. Helen looked over all of them as her eyes widened in realization. “Is this for a k-pop company?” Her voice rose in shock as she looked at Kai’s reactions. Kai shoved his face in his arms and took a deep intake. “Hey, hey, hey. Shh, these people aren’t the same as him. Do you want me to call Sky?”

“No. I’ll be fine.” Kai tried to take in deep breaths. Helen got his water bottle and made him drink from it after he had fully calmed down. “So, they know who you are?”

“I’m afraid they know everything. No one can know everything.” Kai took a big gulp of water and fixed his chain earring before pushing his long hair out of his face and tying it behind him.

“There are only a few of us who know why you’re acting like this. Do you want me to call Joshua?” Kai shook his head no. “He deserves to know that you’re having panic attacks again. He’s still a little worried after Orlando”

“Well he shouldn’t be worried. I don’t need to burden him.” Helen sighed and lightly smacked the boy on the arm.

“It won’t be a burden. Come on, he deserves some words at least.” Helen faced Kai and gave him a huge smirk. “You do know that everyone but you know that Joshua has the hots for you. Anyone in middle school could tell. Well, everyone except you.” Helen gave Kai a cheeky smile before walking back inside. “Come in when you’re ready. Oh by the way, you’re doing Hyunjin’s part for Back Door and Doyoung’s part for Cherry Bomb for the festival in February.” Kai nodded and waved Helen back into the room with a forced smile. “I know that’s fake, dumbass. You better be smiling happily by the time you talk to Josh.”

“I’m not going to talk to him about this.”

“If you don’t I will!” Helen said over her shoulder.

“Is that a threat?”

“Possibly.” Helen held up a peace sign before walking in screaming. Kai sighed and took another gulp of water before wiping his forehead and walking inside the room.

Joshua sat in the art room trying to find any meaning to the thing he was currently painting. “Looks like inner turmoil if you ask me.” Joshua turned to see Erin frowning at the painting trying to make sense of it as well. “Well, you do look constipated enough for this one.” Joshua sighed and put his head down on the table next to him silently banging it. “Want to talk to Auntie Erin and spill all of the hot tea? Like what happened in Kai’s apartment. . ?” Joshua shook his head rapidly as every single image flashed back in his brain making his cheeks flare up.

That’s when a group of people walked into the room. The resident band cult came into the building being crackheads as per usual. Joshua could hear them down the hall, and so could Erin. “They’ll drown out your words. Just scream it. We’re the only ones in here.”

“No they won’t.”

“Let’s remember that I’m in that band. I’ve got my ways.” Erin ran outside and saw that many of the members were here.

“Hey Ethan!” Erin yelled down the hall. A tall guy with black hair in a bowl cut style and brown skin turned around. He waved with most of his body towards Erin looking odd to most, but the band cult knew it to be his signature wave.

“Hello, what’s up?” He said in an up tone. His body stayed in that waving motion and he had a small smile plastered on his face.

“I need all of you to help me get two of my guy friends together.” Hearing this, three of the other members turned around. Their letter jackets were hugged close to them since it was like 20 degrees fahrenheit in Atlanta right now.

One of the girls, Alice, came to the front. She had naturally tan skin, bright green eyes, and long light brown hair. She dragged her boyfriend with her and had this bright look in her eye. “I am so in! What are we doing?” Joshua peaked out of the art room and felt a shiver go down his spine knowing he wasn’t going to be able to get out of this one.

“Operation get Kai and Joshua to Date! Really, I’m just trying to get Joshua to admit everything!” Erin yelled shoving a fist into the air.

Joshua shook his head and came out from the art room. “No, he doesn’t need this with all of that added weight.”

“Come on, Josh, please.”

“Erin, no. You don’t know what happened back there. I’m not going to force him into anything.” Joshua glared at Erin’s direction and walked back into the art room.

Erin looked nodded towards the others as she stayed outside the art room. “Know that if you don’t say anything to Kai, I’ll get Helen involved in this.” Joshua went pale. Helen is a very nice woman, but she can scare the living crap out of Joshua when she’s teaching that dance class. Orlando might have had a deciding factor on that as well, but he won’t admit that.

Erin laughed out loud as she saw Joshua’s color drain from his face at the mention of Helen. “Come on, Josh, she’s not going to kick you in the nuts again.” Joshua instinctively covered himself, shivering at the memory of him being a total dick to Kai when he started avoiding him back then, and Helen proceeding to use her dancer muscles and kick him. “I’ll go talk to her if we don’t see any push to talk to one another, I will go get Helen. We both see that you two are just too stubborn to make any moves.” Joshua didn’t even have time to say anything as Erin had already left. He just went back to lightly banging his head against the table.