Stay With Us

I woke up the next morning from someone lightly poking me on the side. “Jagiya.” I hear whispered followed by another poke. I turn my head to see Jimin standing there. “Good morning!” He greets with one of his eye smiles.

“If you don’t want to get caught by Tae then you probably shouldn’t call me that out loud.” I say sitting up in bed. I reach up and pull him down for a quick kiss before getting out of bed. “I’m going to go take a shower then we can head out.” I say grabbing clothes.

“I’ll meet you in the living room then.”

We both walk out of my room and I go to get ready. I chose a cute t-shirt, nice pair of jeans and flip flops to wear there but put a tank top, yoga pants, and sneakers into a bag to take with me to change into. Knowing I was going to be moving I just put my hair into a tight bun to be out of my way. I walk in the living room seeing Jimin on his phone.

“Ready?” I ask him walking to the door.

“Yep. Let’s go.” He gets off the couch putting his phone in his pocket following me out the door.
We make it to the bus stop right before it left. We quickly hop on and find a couple empty seats.

“That was close.” I say to him laughing at our almost lateness.

“Yeah. We would have been late if we missed this one.” He looks around the bus seeing most people are sleeping then puts his hand in mine. I felt my heart skip when he touched me.

We sit in silence most of the way there just enjoying being together. I started wondering what to expect today though. It was my first day as a backup dancer so I was nervous. “So other than dance and learn choreography what do I do?”

“You will be in music videos, travel with us to perform on stage, you may be a stand in girl for some songs. Those kind of things. You will like it. And it gets your foot in the door to be noticed by someone looking for a choreographer.”

I start to get excited when we walk into the building. “Yah! Jimin.” I hear someone then call from across the room. We look over to see their choreographer walk over to us. “Is this the girl?”

“Yes, sir. This is Maranda.”

“Nice to meet you.” I say bowing.

“When you said she was American I didn’t expect her to be polite.” He says referring to my bow. “Take her to get a key card and ID then I’ll meet you both in room 327.” He says walking away.

Jimin takes me to an office that looks like a DMV. I get my picture taken for my ID tag. They print it off with my name and other information on it then print me out a key card for the building.

We meet Mr. Kwon in the practice room with the other backup dancers. He sees us walk in and introduces me.

“Ok everyone. This is Maranda Kim. She is taking Jisoo’s place on our team. I know everything has been sudden but I expect you to treat her the same as anyone else.” He says to the group. He then turns to me. “Go change in there and we’ll get started. Jimin the other boys are waiting for you in the other practice room.”

“Good luck.” He says giving me a hug. “You got this. You already know our choreography. We went through everything yesterday.”

“Thanks. Meet you for lunch?”

“You bet.” He says walking out the door leaving me by myself. I quickly go change then come back ready to work.

“Alright before we start. Maranda, What songs do you already know?” Mr. Kwon asked me.

“All of them.” I say putting down my bag.

I hear the other dancers start to whisper to each other in Korean. “All of them?” He asks me.

“Yes sir.”

“Did you self-teach off videos?”

“No sir. Jimin and Taehyung taught me.”

“Geunyeoga siljelo geugeos-eul hal su issdaneun geos-eul uimihajineun anheundaneun geos-eul algo essgi ttaemun-e.” I hear one of the dancers say to Mr. Kwon. (Just because she knows it doesn’t mean she can actually do it.)

“Naneun geugeos-eul jeungmyeonghal geos-ida.” I say back to him. (I’ll prove it.) You could tell by the look on his face he didn’t expect me to speak Korean. “You pick the song or songs.” I say stepping up to him.

“Alright. Why not?” I hear Mr. Kwon say behind us. “Minhyuk. Pick a song.”

The guy I was staring down spoke up. “Fire.”

“Oh, you couldn’t pick a hard one?” I ask walking in front of the mirror. As soon as the song started so did I. I didn’t miss a single step through the song. I quickly turned around to Minhyuk. “Anymore?”

“I think that was enough.” Mr. Kwon says before he can give me another song. “Let’s get to work.”

We spent the rest of the morning going over different songs. During Just One Day he walked around tapping certain people’s shoulders. I quickly realized it was only the women he was selecting. I was one of the girls picked.

“Alright everyone whose shoulders I tapped go to lunch then come back in an hour. Everyone
else is dismissed for the day.” He then goes to his office. I grab my wallet and phone letting Jimin know I was on lunch.

“Wait for me in your practice room. I’m on my way.”

I put my phone in the waistband of my pants and waited for him. I then see Minhyuk stand in front of me. I look up at him. “Can I help you?”

“I wanted to apologize.” He says to me. “Jisoo was my partner, so when I found out some American was replacing her I was a little upset.”

“Oh. Well I am sorry you lost your partner. I understand why you guys would all be skeptical of me.”

He then puts one hand on the wall leaning in. “Your dancing is pretty amazing. So you want to go get a drink sometime? Maybe go over a few different moves.”

“No thanks. I’m not interested.”

“Well we are partners now.” He then tucks a stray hair behind my ear. “Shouldn’t we get close?”

“Like I said.” I swatted his hand away. “Not interested.”

“Is there a problem?” I hear Jimin say next to us.

“No he was just leaving.” I say to Jimin while staring down Minhyuk.

Minhyuk stood up straight. “See you tomorrow Maranda.” He said before turning and walking away.

“That guy is not coming back tomorrow if I have anything to say about it.” Jimin growls in his direction.

“How do you think I feel? I replaced his partner.” I turn to see he is still staring in that direction with anger. “Let’s go get lunch.” I say to him walking toward the cafeteria.

He follows me to the elevator. “So other than that. How is your first day going?”

“Good I think. Mr. Kwon was walking around tapping different girls on the shoulder asking them to come back after lunch and everyone else was sent home. I was one of the girls picked.”

“Must be for one of the new videos.” He says smiling down at me. “He must already like you.”

We get through the line and each paid for our own lunch after I objected.

“Maranda.” He then quickly scans the room then leans down close whispering. “I’m your boyfriend now. I’m aloud to buy your lunch.”

“I’m not taking your money. Especially since I’m making you hide this right now.”

“So when V knows I can buy lunch?” He asks with a mischievous grin.

I roll my eyes at him. “Fine you can buy one after I tell him without me complaining.”

“Deal!” He says to me looking accomplished. “Oh I forgot to tell you I’m done for the day.” He says taking a bite of food. “I want to go over the new choreography though so I’ll be in the other practice room when you get done.”

“Ok I’ll meet you there then.” I check my phone to see what time it is. “I better head back. We only had an hour for lunch.” I say taking one more bite.

“Good luck!” He shouts after me as I bus my tray.

I hurry back to the practice room. There were a couple girls already there but most of them weren’t back yet. I went over to my bag putting my phone and wallet away.

“Hey I’m Hyosonn.” I turn around seeing a girl standing there with a smile on her face.

“Maranda.” I say smiling back.

“I thought you did really well today. Don’t mind Minhyuk. He is still upset about Jisoo.”

Not too upset to hit on me. “Yeah I figured. It must be hard.”

“So where are you from?”

“Florida. My parents moved back there from South Korea when I was four.”

“Oh they lived here?” She says happily. “I didn’t expect that.”

“Well my dad isn’t my biological dad. My mom had me before she met him. He is from here. My mom was raised in the states.”

“Oh that’s cool.” I notice everyone has finally gotten back and Mr. Kwon walks in to get us started.

“Alright ladies. For their new music video we need seven girls. Just do the dances to the songs that start playing. This time if you feel a tap on your shoulder you’re done for the day. No hard feelings it’s just not what we are looking for.” He then picks up the IPod. “And begin.”

We all started dancing. After the first song he started walking around tapping shoulders. The girls would just stop immediately and walkover to get their things before leaving the room. I would get nervous every time he walked by me watching me. We started with 25 girls and were now down to 10. I only had to get passed three more girls.

He sent home two more girls then walked to the front of the room watching all of us. Once the last song was over he turned off the music. I look around to see who is left and notice Hyosonn is still there too.

“Alright this is the last song.” He says turning to start the music.

It was a song I hadn’t heard before. I realize none of the girls were dancing. I took this as my opportunity. I listened for another second to get the feeling of the song and just started making my own steps up. Hyosonn started following me and soon the other girls were too. Mr. Kwon stayed where he was watching us. Eventually he walked around us watching carefully. Right before the song ended he went over touching one of the girl’s shoulders. She then turns to him.

“That’s not fair! There is no choreography for this song.”

“I know. This is the song you were competing for. Only one of you did what I wanted and that was Maranda. The rest of you just followed what she did thinking it was a song she learned from the boys. You where the last one to start dancing. That is why it’s you.”

She then stormed over grabbing her bag and leaving the room.

“Good job today ladies. We will get started on the choreography to this tomorrow with your partners.”

Mr. Kwon then walked out of the room. I walked over gathering my bag to go find Jimin. “You really saved our asses back there.”

I turn around to see the six of them. “I’m Jiyeon. This is Aejung, Bora, Eunah, Misook, and you know Hyosonn.”

“Nice to meet you guys.”

“We were gonna go get coffee. We wanted to know if you would want to go with us.”

“Oh! Thanks but I can’t. Jimin is waiting for me.”

“I thought you were V’s cousin?”

“I am. He just has a longer day then Jimin so he is taking me home. My dad doesn’t want me by myself in the city yet.”

“Oh ok. Well just let us know when you are free.” She hands me a paper with all of their numbers on it.

“Will do!” I say smiling then walking out of the room with them. I turn to go to the other practice room. I find Jimin in there going over the new song. “Hey.”

He turned to face me. “How did it go?”

“They needed seven of us.”

“And?” He asks knowing I’m avoiding the real question he asked.

“This one girl yelled at Mr. Kwon.” I sit down on the floor giving him a playful smile.

“Aish! Jagiya did you get one of the spots?” He asks trying to stay quiet.

“Of course I did!” I say smiling bigger at him.

He then picks me up spinning me in a hug.

I start laughing at his excitement. “He actually gave me a complement. The last song was this new one and obviously there is no choreography for us yet so I just made up my own.

Everyone started following me thinking you or Tae had taught it to me.”

“I’m so proud of you. We should celebrate.”

“No! I had too much of a hangover last time we celebrated.” I say laughing.

“Then let’s go get coffee or something.”

“I already turned down coffee with the other six girls. I would feel bad going with you.” I say pouting. “Let’s rent a move and order take out.” I say turning around to start walking home.

“Sounds good.” He says taking my bag from me to carry it. “What movie?”

“Tazza 2 The Hidden Card.”

“Works for me.” We get home with the movie in hand and snuggle on the couch to watch it. We hear a car pull up to the dorm.

“That must be the take out.” I say to him moving off him so he can get the door. He gets off the couch walking to the door with his wallet out. The bell rings and he opens the door to see Minhyuk standing there.

“What do you want man?” He asks trying to stay calm.

“Not my fault I work at the Chinese place.” He says handing Jimin the food. “Hey Maranda. Good job today. I can’t wait to get started tomorrow.”

Jimin then hands him money and shuts the door in his face. He then turns to me. “Start on what tomorrow?”

I look at him shyly. “I knew you would get mad.” I pause before continuing. “We are learning the choreography with our partners tomorrow. One of the other girls must have told him.”

He then pulls his phone out of his pocket calling someone. “Hi Mr. Kwon. Sorry I know it’s late. I wanted to know what the concept is for the new song.” He then comes over sitting back on the couch with me and pulling out the food. “Ok. Well wouldn’t it be better if they just worked with us from the start? This way we are all learning it together.” I pick up my chopsticks to start eating. “Ok yeah. Sounds good to me. Thank you. Good night Sir.” He then turns to me. “Change of plans you girls won’t be dancing with your partners. You’ll be dancing with the seven of us.”

Notes