She couldn’t help but bite her thumb. Her fingers were starting to fidget. Nervous would be an understatement to describe what she was feeling at the moment.

You should’ve taken some! She mentally scolded herself. She had been suffering from anxiety for a year now. She had been taking medications for months for it. But then if she were to take them now, she might feel drowsy, worse, fall asleep just before her performance.

She took in a deep breath before turning to the side. ‘Contemporary Dance Team Auditions,’ the sign says on the door since it was a closed door auditions. Yes, she was part of the contemporary dance team.

Dancing was something she had always loved. In fact, she started doing ballet ever since she was a really little girl and she did it for 11 years. She pouted, looking back at the reason why she stopped.

Now, she’s back to dancing and why did she start again?

Speaking of the devil. She said at the back of her mind, eyeing the newcomer.

“You’ll do great,” her eyes widened at how close the proximity of her face was to his. She moved her face back a bit as the newcomer sat beside her. He had a huge grin on his face while looking at her, as if trying to ease her nerves. Well, it always worked on her.

“I saw the dance clip you sent in, you were amazing,” she knew he was honest with her. Here he went again with his signature smile, making his mesmerizing eyes disappear.

She sighed. How could she fall for that smile? Every time he did this, it would never fail to make her heart skip a beat. This was the same smile he showed to make her say yes to join the contemporary dance team.

Earlier this year, he was desperate in recruiting new members. He just flashed that smile of his on her and that was all it took to make her say yes. Take note, her roommate had just introduced her to him and her roommate’s best friend then, as she was still a freshman in the university while he was a year older than her.

She was fine with it as weeks have gone by until she discovered that they had to do a dance presentation by the end of the semester and they’ll have to audition for it. She wanted to smack the head of the guy beside her. If only she didn’t need the extra credits then she wouldn’t be doing this.

“All it takes is for you to do the same routine as the clip and I know you’ll be amazing!” this made her smile. He always cheered her on and she was thankful for this.

“Myoui Mina,” she looked up. It was her turn for the auditions. She took in another deep breath.

“Here,” she saw his hand in front of her. She looked up at him who was now standing in front of her.

“Take my hand, I’ll walk you to the door,” this was something he always did when he knew she was having second thoughts or just plain nervous.

She slowly laid her hand on his. He grabbed it lightly, making her stand up. She turned to him, he smiled at her again. Now, she didn’t know if it was the auditions that was making her heart beat thrice as usual or if it was him.

He had walked her to the door. “Fighting!” he said before patting her head.

She let go of his hand, but she wished she didn’t have to, as she walked closer to the door and was about to rotate the door knob, “Yah! Park Jimin!” she called out. He raised his brows.

“You owe me some ice cream after this,” he just did a thumbs up to agree with her.

“I told you, you’ll make it!” he said, grinning at her. She just smiled at him before biting on her cone of Baskin Robbins. Of course, he had kept his promise.

It wasn’t really long before they got close yet it felt like they’ve known each other for years. Well, they were almost always together, thanks to her and his roommate. Also, he always tagged along with her. She didn’t know why but she didn’t bother. She enjoyed his company anyways.

“You don’t need to be so nervous every time,” he started. “You just have to believe in yourself,” he continued.

They were walking around the University Park, the place where they always frequented. He stopped by a swing, something she always enjoyed sitting on when they’re just hanging around. They sat on the swings.

“My anxiety issues started when I stopped doing ballet,” she opened up. This was one secret she never told anyone but she was just about to unveil it to him.

“I was supposed to be Princess Odette. But during the final rehearsals, I messed up the routine and worse I hurt my ankle,” there was a sad smile painted on her face. She could see him looking at her by the side of her eye. He was silent, wanting to listen to her more. This was one of the reasons why she was starting to like him, he was a good listener.

“We discovered that it was not the ordinary, I actually fractured my ankle,” she continued. “My understudy took my role as the presentation couldn’t be called off just like that. I saw how amazing she did. Everyone then started talking that she deserved it better than I did and I only got the role because my dad was one of the shareholders of the school I was in.”

She faced down, looking at her now melting ice cream. Her heart ached remembering all that. Her parents had sent her to different counseling appointments apart from the treatment she needed to go through to heal her ankle fracture.

 “Don’t believe in them. Let them, be them. Let us, be us. Whatever others say, don’t listen to them,” she looked to her side as he broke the silence. This made her smile.

“Promise me you won’t give a damn about others,” he said as he offered his cute pinky, she nodded at him and they made a pinky promise.

“Just believe in yourself,” she saw how his hand went to caress her cheek. “Just believe in me,” she nodded to this. Her heart skipped a beat once again at how close their faces were. She was sure he was starting to lean towards her. She gently closed her eyes.

“Look, your ice cream is melting,” she opened her eyes. His face was now away from hers. She looked down to look at her ice cream. It had almost all melted.

He handed her some tissues to wipe her hands with. She threw her ice cream to the bin close to her, he did the same. Her hopes had melted with that ice cream. It would be hard to say but she did feel some disappointment.

“Let’s go?” he said as he stood up and reached his hand out. She sighed. Why did he like doing this? She scrunched her face as she stood up, avoiding his hand.

“Let’s go,” she said as she started walking. She was a few steps away from him. She did this on purpose as one hope crushed was enough for the night.

“I’ll go inside now,” she excused herself as she was about to enter the girls’ dorm.

“Mina~yah,” he called. She didn’t want to turn to him as he knew how to read her. But he walked to her and stood in front of her, stopping her from walking away.

“Good night,” she couldn’t help but close her eyes as she felt his lips on her cheek.

She couldn’t help but smile as she closed the door.

“Ooh, what’s with that very lovely smile Minari?” her roommate teased.

“Shut it Tzu,” she eyed her roommate. “You should see how you smile whenever you’re with Jungkook,” she teased back.

“Ani!” her roommate, Tzuyu, denied.

“Deny it all when you can Tzu,” she smirked as the other lady just put headphones on.

She walked to the bathroom and looked at herself through the mirror. She couldn’t help but smile widely and touch the very spot where his lips were.

She was panting as she entered the practice room. She thought she was late. Her last class had to be extended as they were planning on their end of the semester reports.

The dance practice didn’t seem to have started yet. She didn’t see the instructor as well which was a good sign. She squat down behind the wall mirror. She looked around, her brows met as she saw chaos on the other side of the room. Not really chaos though, there were just girls flocking.

She