Chapter 1

I slipped down the stairs, careful not to step on the creaks. My phone in hand, I neared the door.

Someone from behind me gasped, making me jump. I swiveled around to face the accuser.

"Sujin!" they cried, and I looked down to see a eight-year-old boy in front of me - but not any eight-year-old. Hurriedly, I put my finger to my lips.

"Be quiet!" I hissed.

"Where are you going?" Chin-hae, my best friend asked me. The glimmer in his curious eyes made me feel bad for his worrying.

"Out to practice."

"Again?" he asked.

"Again," I confirmed. He looked up at my 13-year-old height. "My dancing isn't getting any better and I need a talent if I want any chance of getting adopted, Chin-Hae. I've told you enough times."

"But I don't have a talent... So I won't get adopted?" he asked, looking on the verge of crying.

"Your art is amazing!" I told him, thinking about the many attempts he had tried to draw me. To be honest, they all turned out pretty good. Almost professional-good, for his age at least... Seriously! He had a talent. "You've got that, like, you could literally be a professional. And, you're young. People want you." I told him, then grumbled. "I'd just be another person to feed."

"Why don't they want you?"

"I'm too old," was my short answer. "Chin-hae, I need to go. What were you doing?" I asked him. His eyes searched for an answer to give me.

"I couldn't sleep. It- it's adoption day."

"Chin-hae, like I said, you'll get adopted."

"I know," He answered, and I raised my eyebrow in question of his small answer. "That's the problem. If I leave then you'll be all alone." He explained, and I thought about it for a second.

"Oh." I thought out loud. "I'll be fine. I'm here to help Ae-cha," I told him as he looked down. "Now I really gotta go Chin-hae. I'll be back. Go back to bed."

"What if you don't make it back before Ae-cha wakes up? She won't let you in the adoption line today."

"As I said, I'm not getting adopted anyway, " I concluded, and stepped out the door into the cool air.

-----♡-----

"When you move your right arm down, you lift your left leg. Okay? So all together," the dance instructor on Youtube told me, going through the six or seven steps she had broken apart all at once. I followed along, but as I got to the last few steps, I stopped, forgetting what to do. I huffed. Why was I suddenly struggling with my dancing?

I went back to the dance practice video. The dance I was learning was a cover of a boy band named BTS, which I was unfamiliar with, but they were amazing dancers and I gave them credit for that. Once I learned a dance, I'd watch their dance practice and dance along, pretending I was right there with them. I hadn't ever taken the effort to memorize their faces or names, just watch their dance practices and listen to their music.

I watched them, following along in my head, knowing what move was next for each of the boys as they danced, flowing along gracefully as if it took no effort. I sighed, longing to be like them or any other K-Pop singer or dancer. The instructor made many covers for many different K-Pop groups, and BTS was just another one of them, so again all I really knew about BTS was their music and dances.

I turned around as the choreography told and waited, counting until I was supposed to turn around when I spotted from the other side of the orphanage building, a group of boys approached the front door.

"Darn it," I whispered as I shut off my phone and tried to walk behind the men to get back inside.

I hadn't realized what time it was. If people were already coming, it was at least 8:30. Ae-cha would be awake and so would the others.

Just as I was slipping in the door, the last person whom I had sneaked behind instinctively grabbed the handle of the door, about to close it. He caught my eye and smiled.

"I'm sorry." He told me, opening the door wider and letting me pass through.

"Thank you, excuse me," I responded, keeping my head down as I crawled through a large collection of boys.

I bolted up the stairs toward my room. I sprinted, getting closer to safety, but something suddenly blocked my path and I collided.

"Ae-cha!" I screamed as I looked up at my mother figure.

She was usually nice and not too strict, but when she wanted to be, she could be stern. She was in her olderother thirties, and was fun to hang out with. She was great with the kids, but could also be good with discipline.

"You were out again," She said, more as a statement than a question.

"Ae-cha, I just needed more time to practi-" I tried to explain.

"Your dancing? You absolutely know you can not get out of your room, nor the house until eight when we all get up. You've broken that rule three times this week."

"I'm sorry," I said. I looked into her bright blue eyes and then to her long black hair.

"I'm sorry too, but those rules are for your safety." She pulled in a breath and let it out. "And so will be asking you to stay in your room while these young men pick out someone to adopt. You will not tour them today, nor will you be in line for adoption." she harshly lectured. I took a moment to let it all soak in, but quickly decided it wasn't anything fussing over. "Now, please head to your room. I expected more of you, being the oldest here." She scolded, but I merely shrugged.

"Okay." I feebly replied, and turned around to head to my room.

And then it hit me. I swiveled on my heels to face her again.

"Wait! Chin-hae! Please Ae-cha, let me say goodbye to Chin-hae! He's bound to get adopted today." I explained.

"Well, maybe you should have thought of that before you decided to break the rules."

I thought for a second staring into her bright eyes, before I turned around and ran. As I reached my room, I snapped open the door and then flipped it closed behind me. Walking to my bed, I looked out the window of my room. I huffed in defeat. There was a nice, large car sitting outside that in my rush I hadn't noticed.

They were rich, that was one thing I knew for sure. Lucky Chin-hae. I hoped with everything I had that today would be his day and he'd go home with a wonderful new family.

-----♡-----

I flopped onto my bed and stared at the ceiling. I really didn't mind being excused from this month's adoption day. It gave me more alone time - and time to work on my dance now people were awake. Pulling out my phone, I resumed the dance video and centered myself in the middle of my room.

Starting from the beginning, I followed along as I watched the instructor on the screen. I concentrated hard, acing every move. When I was done with the whole song, only barely messing up twice, I grinned to myself. There was a sudden clapping.

"Woah, you're a good dancer."

I gasped, turning around to face two or three boys, and then noticing that there were even more behind them. They were the same boys that I had seen earlier.

"Oh, I didn't notice you." I stated, I was a blushing mess.

"I'm sorry we surprised you, I'm Kim Namjoon." One of the boys approached me. He had dark blonde hair that was styled a bit differently than the others, and I remembered him as the one who seemed to take responsibility out of all the boys. I smiled, taking his hand as he offered it.

"Oh, it's fine. . .how much did you see?" I asked, nervously laughing.

"Eh, maybe the whole thing." Responded one with light blonde hair and soft eyes. "Do you like BTS?"

"Oh, they are great, but I just love to dance. They are pretty talented, though. Their dances are unique and really fun to do." I explained, trying to be talkative with these strangers.

"Ah, well that looked really good, I mean I've done it before and, well, it took a while. . ." Namjoon told me.

"Oh, well thank you."

"Sorry for barging in, we were just passing to a room to talk to one of the boys here and heard some music, we've heard it before." He told me. "But we didn't think anyone would be inside because I guess your caretaker didn't want us seeing you for adoption, as she told us to skip your room."

"Oh," I said, slightly embarrassed and wondering what to say. Thinking fast, I decided on a response. "I'm not really up for adoption today, I have to stand out just this time, but we were guessing nobody would want me anyways. . ." I started to mumble at the end, then wanting to disappear because that probably wasn't the best thing to say to them. "But do you need help? Ae-Cha isn't with you, I see." I asked, quickly changing the subject.

"She said she'd come shortly after she did something," One with brown hair answered. I nodded.

"Well, good luck in the future. Maybe we'll see you later. " Namjoon bid farewell.

"Thank you, nice to meet you . . ." I tried to smile but I felt like a fool.

Some of them waved or nodded to me as they all left and trailed down the hall. I smiled, noticing it was Chin-Hae's room that they were headed to. I closed the door and smiled.