Chapter 9

“Aaron, do you want to know my story?” She asked him. He would be the first one to know about it, except for Ronny.

“Sure.” He shrugged his shoulder. Anything would be better to take his mind off things.

“Even I am a runaway like you.” She told him, which made his eyes pop out of the socket.

“What... How... I don’t understand.” He stuttered.

“My parents are old-fashioned. They believe that girls should depend on a guy. She should be a faithful wife, fulfilling all her husband’s wishes. She shouldn’t be working like guys.”

“But that’s crazy. This is the twenty-first century. It’s stupid to even think in this way.” He told her.

“I know that, and I never agreed with them, but I still couldn’t have done much as I was a kid. But that didn’t stop me from pursuing my passion. I always loved dancing. Even in school, I took dance as an extracurricular activity.” She smiled, thinking about her memories from back then.

“Didn’t your parents find out?” Aaron asked her curiously.

“Well, not initially, as I told them a white lie about joining home science in school. But yes, I was about to get caught, but my dance teacher covered it for me. She knew how my parents were, but she also knew my potential. So, she helped me to hide this truth from my parents, along with other dance mates of mine. Although, unlike them, I wasn’t able to perform in front of anyone as I didn’t want to take risks, I was still happy as I got a chance to learn dance.”

“Wow, how did you convince them to let you go to dancing school?” He asked her curiously.

“I didn’t. I knew that they would never agree. And before I even knew, my parents had already signed me up for some stupid art school where they teach cooking, abdication, and manners.” She chuckled.

“Do those things still exist?”

“Yes, it does. I was upset that I wouldn’t be able to go to dance school, but in the end, I got lucky. My dance teacher had already sent my application to various dance schools, and fortunately, one of them was near the college where my parents wanted to send me. So, this is how I went to dance school with Ronny, although I had to lie a lot of time to my parents. But in the end, I got the degree.”

“You were really lucky that they didn’t catch you,” Aaron said.

“I did get caught, but that was at the time when I was almost done with the course. Since my parents were not fond of me, they never made any efforts to contact me during that time.”

“Then how did they catch you?” Aaron asked her.

“Ronny and I were selected for the competition ‘Dancing Stars.’ At first, I was hesitant because it was a national-level dance show, but then I decided to keep my worries aside and take a risk. Things were going smoothly, and we reached the semi-finals, which were broadcast on TV. At first, I feared my parents’ reactions, but then I thought that if they saw me dancing and saw for themselves that I was good at it, then they might change their opinion. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. After we came second in the semi-finals, we were all ecstatic. We were so excited that we planned our routine immediately. The next day, after the result, we celebrated in the class when my parents stormed in, and my mom slapped me in the face in front of everyone. Ronny came to defend me, but my dad pushed him and dragged me out of the institute and took me home immediately.” Aaron winced when he heard from Marissa that her parents had hit her.

“Then what happened? You performed in the finale, right?” He asked her with interest.