Compensation

The positives of being selected as Taeyeon’s partner for a two-person performance for her upcoming concert tour: you know your talent is being recognized, you get to perform in front of tens of thousands of people, you get to do a two-person performance with Taeyeon, and most of all, you get to have these one-on-one sessions with the beautiful, talented, sexy KPop star.

You don’t know why she chose to wear the shirt she was wearing, what essentially amounts to a normal white T-Shirt that comes up short on her right side, baring that half of her stomach, but you are thankful for the pleasant feast for your eyes. What makes the window into her abs an even more mouth-watering sight is when, occasionally, her pink sweatpants slide down her slim waist and reveal what look to be upper hem of the black underwear she’s wearing.

The negatives of being selected as Taeyeon’s partner for a two-person performance for her upcoming concert tour: an added amount of pressure to be perfect, potential for backlash and hate comments from obsessive jealous fans, additional nerves from having to perform such risqué moves with such an alluring woman, and worst of all, how terrible you feel for keeping Taeyeon so late because of all the mistakes you are making during this practice session. It’s eating at you so much that not even the sight of the top part of Taeyeon’s black underwear, even more visible than before, can rejuvenate you.

While you’re beating yourself up every time you have to stop and correct your mistakes, even the ones you’ve made already, Taeyeon remains patient. You honestly feel Taeyeon is completely justified in yelling at you; in fact, you are sure that if the choreographer for the dance was able to make it, she would be chewing you out. You can see the exhaustion on Taeyeon’s face, too: at the beginning of the session, she greeted you with a warm smile and a voice full of energy. Now, the rate of her breathing can be seen in the visible rise and fall of her chest, sweat from her forehead glistening off the pale light of the studio, her lips permanently parted to help her catch her breath.

The only credit you’ll give yourself is that this is the first time you’ve done a two-person performance with such a high-profile partner, and one that’s as damn attractive as Kim Taeyeon is. However soft her skin appears in pictures, however well-defined her curves have seemed to have developed in the last decade or so, it all is amplified by a thousand while in her presence, while your hands are tightly clasping her hands, her arms, or occasionally, her exposed waist. Normally, you might’ve thanked the Lord for giving you this chance to be so up-and-personal with an idol you’ve admired for so long, but today, it only serves as a distraction and further frustration towards yourself.

“Five-minute break?”

“I can keep going.”

“Well, I need a break.”

“Oh.” You feel yourself flush a little. “Er, yeah, sure.”

She offers you a small smile before turning around, heading to her bag leaning against the wall of the practice room. You try not to stare too hard at her retreating figure, but the view of her thin waist that curves outward to her rather shapely rump is so captivating that, when she reaches her bag, you’re barely able to snap your eyes back onto yourself.

There is no time to rest. Sure, Taeyeon still looks incredibly good despite being so clearly fatigued—in fact, she’s a different kind of attractive with her slightly disheveled appearance—but seeing it is what keeps you rooted in place. Taeyeon has earned the right to rest; you, on the other hand, have not.

As you begin practicing again, your attention fades away from Taeyeon and towards fighting against the sluggishness your limbs from hours of repetition and intense physical activity. By yourself, you feel better about nailing the steps and movements, but hearing the music in your head as you dance is different than dancing with the music actually playing which is different than dancing with the music and in tandem with Taeyeon.

Pound the movements into your muscles. Do them again and again and again until your limbs shift into place on their own after each step.

“Kaiser, you should take a break too.”

You shake your head. “It’s ok, I’m fine.”

She frowns, the beckoning motion of her hand catching the corners of your peripheral vision. “Come! Let’s watch the choreography video again together.”

Hearing that causes you to stop. “Yeah. Sure.”

You aren’t being lazy. Watching the choreography video again is a productive use of your time; maybe you can glean something from this viewing, or maybe Taeyeon can point out something that will help you.

Math, science, literature, English, all of them are subjects you never really understand. Dancing, however, is different. In school, even with tutoring, your test scores were never any good, but with dancing, everything makes sense. Learning choreographies, even the more intense, complex ones, has always come pretty naturally to you. No challenge you ever faced was something a night’s sleep couldn’t fix. You figured doing a two-person choreography wouldn’t be much of an issue, not that you were ever going to turn down a chance to be performing alongside Taeyeon.

What you hadn’t anticipated is how different two-person choreographies are compared to both group choreographies and solo ones: the important part of group choreographies is to flow with the entire group, and make sure the unit as a whole look as one, while solo choreographies allow for more freedom and freestyling but also greater attention to detail, as any mistake will be easily noticeable as the focal or sole performer. A two-person choreography seems to mix the most challenging parts of both types: it requires the attention to detail of a solo performance while also demanding the conformity of a group performance. Being one of two performers, not only will your mistakes be noticeable, but it will also mess up the flow of your partner; additionally, you needed to pay close attention to your partner, especially since the main attraction is Taeyeon, meaning it’s also on you if she decides to improvise a little bit or happens to make a mistake, meaning you need to know the choreography better than Taeyeon, and also, since she’s the singer and focal point for the audience, you need to make sure that everything you do makes her shine, and also…

“Are you ok? Do you need more water? I brought an extra, if you want it,” Taeyeon turns to the side, reaching into her bag and pulling out another plastic bottle.

You start to shake your head, but having her just about pushing the bottle in your hand gives you no choice but to accept it. “Thank you, Ms. Taeyeon.”

Hearing that, the idol lets out a chuckle. “Still insisting on using honorifics?”

You hang your head. “Sorry, I’m just … it doesn’t feel right to say … to do otherwise.”

“No, it’s ok! Try it. ‘Taeyeon’.”

You can feel her expectant gaze, and with how close she is to you, you can only hope the flush on your cheeks isn’t too obvious. “Um … er, ok, Taeyeon.”

Her face lights up. “Yeah! See, that wasn’t so hard, was it?”

This is just her being nice. She doesn’t mean anything further by it. You’ve read somewhere that people tend to overestimate how attracted someone is to you the more attractive you perceive the other person to be. You’ve heard stories from your dancer friends that Taeyeon is among the kinder idols in the industry, but experiencing it first hand, could you even be faulted for getting the wrong idea?

After watching the demo through, you’re ready to get back up, but Taeyeon motions for you to stay seated. Confused, thinking she perhaps wants to watch the video again, you sit back down, but instead, she says, “You’re still sweating so much, drink some more water, you hardly touched it.”

“Ah,” you feel like you can’t even drink water normally though, especially when she’s so close and when she’s watching you so intently. And, sure enough, the swig of water you take spills the water all around your mouth, down the sides of your face, and directly onto your shirt. “Mmm—!” you quickly put the water bottle down, using your free hand to wipe your face while you swallow the water, “—ah, sh—…”

Your embarrassment peaks higher when Taeyeon lets out a small giggle. “No need to rush, I’m not going to confiscate the water bottle I gave you.”

“Ah, right, sorry…”

Taeyeon silently lets you clean up and then stands up when you’re done. “Ok. Ready?”

You internally take a deep breath and nod. Get your shit together. There’s no time to be all shy and red-faced like some lovestruck maiden. You have work to do. A lot of work. “Yeah.”

The two more hours of practice you two manage to get in are a bit more productive, but it’s still mostly you making mistakes, you fumbling and missing the beat and incorrect hand placements and footwork. Taeyeon, with her infinite patience, doesn’t complain, remaining understanding up until she decides to call it, citing it being past midnight already.

As you pack up, you can still see how heavily Taeyeon is breathing, and from how sluggish her movements are as she packs up, your guilt starts to consume you even more than it already has.

“Get home quickly and get some good sleep, ok?”

It’s those well wishes, that you don’t even feel you deserve, that push you to say, “Taeyeon, um…” she turns around, a smile on her albeit weary face, “…I’m so sorry for today. I just kept messing up and wasting your time, and now, because of me, you’re going home so late…”

“Oh no! No need to apologize! I made a lot of mistakes too!”

It’s funny that she says that because you honestly can’t recall a single mistake that Taeyeon did. Is it because you were too consumed with your own mistakes to notice Taeyeon’s, or is she just saying that to be nice? In your mind, at least, the answer is pretty clear. “Is there anything I can do to make it up to you? One of my friends works at a spa with really good reviews, I can ask them to give you a really nice discount, or maybe I can treat you to a meal, or…”

You trail off when you see Taeyeon pursing her lips, clearly pondering something. You let her think for a second, but the second becomes ten, which becomes thirty, which becomes a minute, and while you’re hesitant to interrupt her thought process, the silence is starting to eat at you. “…did you think of something?”

“Hm?” Taeyeon’s attention shifts back to you. “Oh! No, sorry. I was just … you really don’t need to think like that, Kaiser. It was good practice for me too, and a good workout! I’ve been staying at home too much these days.”

“What were you thinking about? I want to help, in any way possible.” Taeyeon seems a bit hesitant, so you push further. “Please. It’ll make me feel better.” Wait… “Sorry, that makes it sound like I’m being selfish, but I really do want to make it up to you.”

“It…” Taeyeon trails off again, but this time, the silence doesn’t last longer than ten seconds. “…if you really insist, then…”

“I do. I insist.”

“…then, maybe, there is something you can help me with?”

“Of course! Anything!”

Taeyeon sets her bag back down, and while you’re questioning what she’s doing, walking back to the center of the room, she indicates for you to follow her.

Well, it’s not like it matters what she wants me to help her with.

So, you also set your bag down and follow her, stopping a few steps short of the idol, who is situated in the middle of the room.