Page 22 of I'll Be the One

“Isn’t it so awesome that we’re here?” Imani asks. “I’ve been dancing since I was a little kid and I love K-pop, so this is like a dream come true.”

“Same here!” I smile. “What’s your favorite K-pop choreography?”

We gush over our favorite dances as we stretch together, and I feel myself relaxing more with each passing second. Melinda may have been a total bust, but I’m so glad I’m bonding with Imani.

A tall, muscular Asian guy in his late twenties walks into the room. He’s dressed in a blue muscle tank and sweatpants, so I can only assume he’s our instructor. And sure enough, hegoes to stand in front of the room after giving the cameraman a slight nod.

“Hey, guys,” he says in a really low voice. “My name is Chad. Your group has been assigned ‘Idol,’ by BTS.”

Doug lets out a piercing shriek that earns raised eyebrows from all of us. It’s hard to tell if it’s a shriek of joy or panic. Maybe it’s a mix of both.

“I love BTS,” he says. “But oh my God, that dance is so hard.”

We all mumble our agreement. It’s one of my favorite choreographies, but it’s a dance that the BTS members themselves have acknowledged is one of their hardest, since it mixes in elements of traditional Korean dance with lots of high jumps and intense footwork.

“Itispretty challenging,” admits Chad. “But I can assure you, the other groups have been assigned equally hard choreos. Let’s try not to be the group that gets eliminated, eh?”

“Easier said than done,” says Imani.

I have to agree with her. This isnotgoing to be easy in the slightest.

Well, worst-case scenario, at least I still have a chance at vocals.

Since the choreography requires a lot of space, Chad has us stand in two neat rows behind him. Doug and Imani end up standing next to each other—I shoot Imani a sympathetic look—while I end up next to Henry.

After everything is set up, Chad starts us off right away,guiding us through all the moves for the first stanza at half the original speed and then repeating himself a couple of times until we get the hang of it. I breathe deeply, slow and even, as I follow along. At this pace, the dance isn’t that bad, and soon I feel confident enough to let my eyes wander away from Chad to check on everyone else.

Doug is a stumbling mess, nearly face-planting multiple times. In contrast, Imani makes everything look really easy. Her execution of the choreo isn’t perfect, but I can tell just by the fluid way she moves that she’s probably the most experienced dancer out of all of us. Henry’s somewhere in between, moving in a graceful way as he follows all the steps. Watching him dance makes me wonder why he’s never danced in one of his videos before. Then again, it’s probably for the best that he never has. I can only imagine what kind of chaos would happen if he uploaded a video of himself dancing. He’d probably break Instagram.

Just then, I trip on my own feet, falling flat onto the ground.

“Careful!” Chad says. There’s a hint of a laugh in his voice. “We haven’t even done anything at the actual speed yet.”

My cheeks burning, I quickly get up and rejoin the others like nothing happened.

Focus!I tell myself. Too embarrassed to look anywhere else, I keep my eyes locked on Chad’s reflection.

By the time Chad goes over the choreography in real time, we’re all struggling. It takes all my effort not to make a complete fool of myself in front of the camera. Doug’s face is filledwith unbridled terror, Imani is stone-faced with concentration, and even Henry’s highly controlled expression falls into a grimace every so often.

The more I practice the dance, the more I’m determined not to get eliminated in this first round. Despite how hard it is, I really am having lots of fun, and it’d suck to be eliminated while dancing a choreo I love. I also don’t want to give Bora the satisfaction of seeing me eliminated from the dance part of the competition right away.

I can do this, I think, gritting my teeth as I try to keep up.I amnotgoing to get eliminated in the first round.

Chapter Nine

I END UP SPENDING MOST OF THE FOLLOWINGweek at school, either doing homework in the library or practicing for the elimination round on Saturday. Because ofYou’re My Shining Star, I had to drop out of the dance team and choir for this semester, but my teachers were nice enough to let me use the dance studio and practice rooms when no one else is using them.

“Just don’t forget us when you’re famous!” my dance teacher said after I told her what was going on. “And say hi to BTS for me!”

I was too amused to tell her I’m probably not going to see BTS anytime soon.

The first elimination round for singing goes even better than I thought it would. Lana, Isabel, Melinda, and I totally kill it, so much that the judges only listen to a minute or two of each of our songs before evaluating us.

“This is a group of angelic voices,” says Mr. Park. “You all have so much potential that I wish I could make a girl group out of you four right here and now.”

“The world needs to watch out for you ladies,” says Gary. “Wow, just wow.”

“Congratulations, ladies,” Bora finally says. She makes eye contact with and smiles at everyone in the group... except me. “You are all advancing to the next round.”

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