。dance studio

@Kim Jongin Jimin caught the male's wandering gaze and instantly knew who he was looking for. Why she was alone and not with her members was a question she was already preparing herself for before Jongin voiced it himself. He was right; they should be practicing as a unit, and while Jimin wished that her members were with her, she would not ask that of them. It was way past work hours and she did not have the heart to ask them to lose sleep, just because she was anxious to get everything right.
"I just couldn't sleep." It wasn't the primary reason, but that did not make it a lie whatsoever. She had lost sleep for the past couple nights. She could chalk it up to anxiety, but she felt like it wasn't the primary reason. There was something else that kept her up. Something she had yet to put a finger on.
Jimin fell silent when the latter reached into his bag, her brows pushing together and wrinkling her otherwise smooth skin. The sound of a bag crinkling was rather deafening in the silence of the dance studio. A bag of chips? Jimin almost laughed when Jongin pulled out the item, confirming her assumption. She wasn't sure how a bag of potato chips would help her, but she appreciated the gesture, anyway.
Taking it in her hand, she gave him a grateful smile, and slowly made her way to where her belongings were neatly tucked by the wall in a little pile.
"Why are you here so late, anyway?"

@Yoo Karina to karina’s initial response, kai shook his head. he had been working at sm long enough to know the two of them wouldn’t be the last ones out the door, in fact – there would no doubt be office staff downstairs, hunched over their desks at 3am, gradually giving in to sleep after refusing to go home.
he reached a hand forward, landing a small pat on the girl’s hair, who had clearly been scrutinising herself, practicing in front of the mirror for too long.
“i guessed as much…”
he trailed off, eyes searching for her other bandmates.
“where’s winter, giselle, ningning, are they really not here? shouldn’t you be practicing as one unit? you’re a group, after all.”
gathering from the scene in front of him, jimin was, indeed, on her lonesome, no one else’s belongings in sight except for hers in a pile by the corner of the floor. jongin’s lips twisted uneasily, he could already sense she was doing more harm to herself than good, the aura emanating from her body exhausted and depleted, her words lacking playfulness he remembered from small talk with her in the past.
swinging the bag hung over his left shoulder around to his front, kai ped the main pocket and fished a hand inside, the contents rustling, occasionally crinkling until he found a packet of potato chips he grabbed hold of, gesturing it towards the younger of the two to take.
“i bought this earlier, i think i have some type of seaweed snack in here, too… go, sit down, we’re eating and taking a break.”
he spoke with gentle authority he hoped karina would hear and understand; he only meant to take care of her, no matter how tired he was.

@Kim Jongin If she was being entirely honest with herself, she felt spread thin. It had been less than two years since her group had debuted and yet it felt like years. Schedules after schedules had begun accumulating, weighing heavy on her body. She wasn't sure when she'd snap, but she knew she couldn't afford breaking. There was so much to do and so little time, and while her job consumed her energy, this was her livelihood. This was what she wanted to be. This was her dream.
At some point, a few months ago, Jimin managed to convince herself that she needed to be perfect. She needed to execute with precision, and to do it, she needed to sharpen her skills. It worked wonders, at first. Hate comments turned into praise and Jimin reveled in it like it was her life source. Until it became unhealthy, and she found herself in the middle of her company's dance studio at midnight. Alone. Only her nagging thoughts accompanied her.
That was, until she picked up on the faint rapping of the door. She looked up from the reflection in her body and saw Jongin, a fellow coworker and her senior, standing outside the door with his fist raised to the glass. She tapped at her earphones to stop her music and languidly strode across the floors to open the door.
"I thought I was the only one here," she said, offering him a small smile in greeting. She was almost ashamed that she had been found. "I'm, um, preparing for the next comeback. What are you doing here?"

@Yoo Karina no one likes to do paperwork, that includes jongin who had mistakenly left his until the last minute. in doing so, he had damned himself to a late night at the sm building, replying to emails and skimming through various collaboration proposals with draft contracts attached. this aspect of idol work did his head in, but the more his frustration grew, the more furiously he reminded himself to be grateful for the offers on the table.
nearing midnight, that gratefulness had been stretched thin. the next best thing was to remove himself from the situation, kai lifting his lethargic body from behind a desk, finally homeward bound.
strolling down the corridor on his way out, backpack slung across one shoulder, he was surprised to spot the blue, fluorescent light of one dance studio still switched on. making his way past, jongin turned his head to spy karina, awake and practicing at this very late hour. he lifted a hand, knocking on the glass to get her attention, a way of asking if his interruption is welcome.

@Kim Jongin It was eleven fifty-five p.m. Late for someone to be in the dance studio, but Jimin could not sleep. Not when she only had a few weeks until the debut of her group's new song. Which meant that she had little time to waste. She counted in her head as she stared at the mirror, watching every single detail in her body—the angle of her arms, the placement of her feet, the posture of her spine. She knew the moves. She just wanted them to be perfect. She wanted everything perfect. She'll get it perfect by tonight, she promised herself.