You fidgeted a little as the whole family sat together at the dining table, and your parents looked at you, waiting for you to start.

"I...I want to take a temporary break from ballet."

"We know, but go on. What plans do you have for now?"

"I want to explore other dance forms. I want to see more, explore more, before I go back to ballet. It's not that I want to give up on ballet all together," you shook your hands, "but I really want to broaden my perspectives, and get a better sense of 'dance' as a form of art. I think I would learn a lot more from absorbing a little bit of every other form of dance, and then use it to influence the way I see and do ballet. I know this sounds really strange but-"

"No, it's good. I approve."

Your mouth fell open in surprise as your mother nodded, and subsequently so did your father. You hardly expected them to agree to your plans so soon, and was in fact expecting to do a whole lot more explaining and reasoning.

"Really?"

"Yes, but you have to promise us that you won't regret, and that you will go about this whole-heartedly."

"Of course."

"Another thing."

"Yeah?"

"We are thinking about sending you overseas for a sort of dance 'cultural' programme where you get to interact with dancers from different dance backgrounds from all over the world, since you said that you were interested in doing so. It'll mean that you have to travel constantly from one dance academy to another, or even doing hands-on in streets, festivals or even stage performances, but it'll fit your goal perfectly, right?" 

"R-right."

Sending me overseas? 

Somehow, you weren't too sure right now, not when your feelings and your heart were in a tangled mess.

A text message alerted Kai, and he was pretty sure it was from you. He read through the whole text and smiled contentedly, knowing that things were going smoothly, until he read the last line. His face fell, and he threw his phone back into his bag and decided to spend time in the dance studio alone before the next dance practice with EXO. 

He danced alone, running through the choreography he had come up with specially for you. He felt the sweat rolling down his whole body, and it felt satisfying to let himself and his emotions run free as nothing but the music and the natural instinct to move ran through his mind, his limbs, his entire being.

If only dance could keep you by his side.

"Kai, watch your step!"

"Kai, focus!"

"Kai, you just missed the beat!"

"Kai, you stepped on my toe!"

"Kai, you-"

"Okay, stop calling my name, I heard you!" 

The atmosphere in the studio stiffened as Kai finally lashed out at everyone who had been criticizing him ever since practice started. They kept silent as the sound of Kai's heaving breathing sliced through the air. They knew that Kai had an attitude that put people off sometimes, but he never did show this side of him again after he transferred to your school and became friends with you. They were convinced that you had changed him for the better, but now he was back to his old self.

"What's wrong with you? We're all going along fine, and then you - you are so distracted today! YOU are supposed to be our dance machine, and you're messing up the steps!"

Sehun didn't mince his words, and Kai flinched at how Sehun could have lectured him in such a way when he was in fact younger than than himself. Maybe it was because they were close friends, but Kai was still deeply offended by Sehun's straightfowardness.

"You know what? I'm done. I'm done with you guys. I understand if you don't want me here."

Kai pushed past everyone else and stormed out of the studio, not forgetting to slam the door at the same time. Kris and Suho sighed in disappointment at how immature he had acted, while everyone else was buzzing among themselves, trying to figure out what had gotten Kai into such a bad mood.

"I haven't seen him blow up like this in a long while." Kyungsoo turned to Chanyeol, who shrugged.

"Sehun, I think you went overboard just now. You know how Kai's like, he's actually really sensitive even though he acts tough..." 

"Sorry Luhan-hyung, I just thought that Kai needed a wake-up call. He's been so distracted recently, to be honest. I highly doubt his mind is even on the dance-off-"

"It's her, isn't it?"

"Not entirely..."

"Something must have between the both of them."

"Since when was Kai ever concerned about a girl? He's Kai, for goodness sake. The one who doesn't get swayed by girls." Sehun rolled his eyes.

"She is a pretty nice girl, and she's talented. You know Kai, he's always had this thing for talented girls." Kyungsoo pointed out.

"Let's stop speculating, and give Kai a break. He's been exhausted and stressed from the dance-off tomorrow already. He'll come back later when he's thought things through, or settled whatever problem he has." Kris put a stop to the discussion, and everyone nodded their head while getting back to practice.

Myungsoo slurped his udon heartily at his favourite udon shop. To him, udon tasted good anyday, anytime, and anywhere. Just then, his phone vibrated and his eyes lit up when he saw that it was a call from you, but he remembered what had happened earlier and was about to ignore it.

"Why don't you answer your phone?" The owner of the shop asked as she served the table next to him with two steaming bowls of udon. "It could be important, and you might regret it later."

"It's from someone I don't really want to talk to right now." Myungsoo shrugged. 

"Ahh, had a squabble or misunderstanding? There aren't any problems in this world that can't be solved. Not if you have udon." The owner smiled, and Myungsoo was instantly reminded of his own grandmother.

"I might call back later, but for now I really don't think we'll have a proper conversation."

"You do that, young man. Don't live with regrets."

He's not picking up...

You gave up after attempting to call Myungsoo for one full minute, and laid on your bed massaging your temples.

Why did things suddenly become so complicated?Is it really better to remain as friends?

Is it even possible to be friends anymore?

Kim Myungsoo, why must you be so hard to understand?