Authors note: Inspired by Ed sheeran: thinking out loud! Listen to the song, watch the dance video, my advice to you :)
I was practicing my dancing when one of our choreographers came into the room. "We need someone to do the thinking out loud dance, the female part and I instantly thought of you!" She smiled at me. I nodded, I'd always loved that dance. I was really curious as to who I would do the dance with. The next day I showed up for practice there was no one there so I started stretching. I was sitting on the floor putting my arm over my leg when the door opened. I was rather surprised to see Shownu walking in the room. "Hi!" He smiled. I'd only met him once or twice before because he was an idol and I was only a background dancer. "Hi!" I smiled back at him and got up. "I guess we're dance partners." He rubbed his head awkwardly. I always knew he was the shy one out of the group, he was always really silent whenever a lot of people were around. "Yeah, nice to meet you." I held out my hand and shook his. I already knew the dance, I was gonna teach him his part and we were gonna preform it on a music dance show. "You should stretch a little before we start." I smiled and we both sat on the floor starting to stretch. It was mostly done in silence, though I didn't mind because I was used to practicing on my own. "So are you ready?" I stood up and held out my hand to him. He took it. "Yes, please teach me." He smiled. I had to admit he was kind of cute. We started across the room from one another and slowly walked towards each other. The practice was going well. We were practicing a specific lift when he almost dropped me, catching me almost as fast. "Sorry!" He looked worried. "It's ok, you didn't drop me completely." I laughed slightly and his face softened. "Let's try it again." I smiled as he took me in his arms again and lifted me. He had a tight grip on me, making sure I didn't fall. He was really good at dancing. We had already practiced for three hours when his phone buzzed. "Sorry." He stepped away for a bit picking it up. When he hung up he looked a little sad. "That was my manager, I have to go but we still meet tomorrow right?" He smiled at me. "Yeah of course I'll be here." We said bye and he left. I practiced the song on my own for a while before calling it for the night. I was in the rehearsal room the next day when Shownu came back. "Hi." I waved and he waved back smiling. "Hey." He put down his bag and sat next to me, starting to stretch. He seemed much more comfortable with me now. "So there's quite a lot of intimacy in this dance, and I hope that's not a problem for you." I looked at him curiously. "No...no of course not." He blushed a little and looked away. "Good, cause the lift we're doing today is very intimate." I smiled standing up. We had decided to work on all the lifts first so that he wouldn't drop me. There was one where he was supposed to pick me up and then I'd slide between his legs and he'd slowly pull me up. First he picked me up with ease, my legs wrapped around him as he turned and put me down. I slid between his legs putting mine up. He grabbed my legs pulling them side to side, then putting them on his hips and pulling me up slowly. He pulled away and put me down. "It's supposed to be closer and last longer." I sighed slightly. He cleared his throat "sure let's go again." He coughed a little and held out his arms for me and I accepted. He pulled me up and spun me around as we did the same thing over again. This time when he picked me up from the ground again our faces lingered only centimeters away from one another. When he finally put me down, I felt like I was on fire. "That's it!" I smiled and he smiled back. I had never worked this closely with another dancer before. It was hard to admit but he was making my heart race faster. A few weeks went by as we got closer and closer. He seemed to feel more and more comfortable to be closer too. He even brought me food and candies. I had to hold back so much from not kissing him when we were doing the closest parts of the song. I felt so comfortable with him. The date for our real performance was coming up and we were practicing harder than ever. We had the entire choreography down, but we both wanted it to be perfect. We had practiced a few times and was doing the choreography over again this time with as much feeling as we could. At the parts our faces were close I could feel his breath on my lips, it made my stomach tingle whenever he got close or touched me. I was sure people were like this all the time because he's an idol and it's probably just an infatuation on my part. But I was determined not to make this hard for him. We sat down and held hands for the final part as we lay down and I lay my head on his shoulder I smiled up at him "this must be the best we've done yet!" I took a heavy breath. "Definitely." We sat up. I was surprised when he didn't let go of my hand. "I don't want to stop practicing with you!" He held me in place next to him. "Me too! It's been so great working with you!" I squeezed his hand. "Can we still meet after?" He cocked his head at me. "After?" I didn't understand. He scratched his head with his free hand. "Uhm...after we finish this!" He looked at me again. "Of course! We're friends now right?" I smiled at him and he seemed a little taken a back. "Yeah right of course." He let go of my hand and got up. I felt a little sad about the sudden loss of contact but of course that was just me. The day of our performance came up and I was feeling really nervous. We were back stage getting ready. "Listen!! We can do this in our sleep!" Shownu grabbed my hands. "Yes....yes we can." I let out a breath. "Just imagine it as the two of us in the studio. That's what I'll do!" He put some of my hair behind my ear, gently stroking my cheek. He had a way with calming me that made my feelings for him grow even more. We stood on separate sides of the stage when the music started. Everyone in the big concert hall were totally silent. We started doing the dance and just as Shownu had said, everything else melted away and it was just me and him. Something felt different this time, as if we were closer than before. I felt like I held on to him more than before and he more to me, though I was sure I was imagining it. Sometimes I thought I could hear the audience gasping or small sighs. Then as the song came to an end and we were lying down on the floor the hall erupted in applause. The curtains closed and we got up. "That was amazing." I held his face in my hands and he lifted me spinning me around. "Yes it was." He smiled at me and when he stopped he kissed me. "I kissed back, letting myself get caught in the moment. Someone cleared their throat next to us and Shownu put me down, pulling away. As I looked over I saw the other members of Monsta X gawking at us. "Hey guys." Shownu turned a deep shade of pink, squeezing my hand in his. "Great dance!" Kihyun smiled at us. The others were pretty much grinning from ear to ear. "Thanks." Shownu stepped forward a little, almost as if to protect me. "You guys looked so good together, you looked like a real couple!" Joohyun grinned at us. "That's the whole point of that kind of dance." I smiled at them and for the first time they all looked at me. "It was so awesome to watch!" minhyuk gawked at us. "Thanks." I smiled at Shownu and he smiled back at me. A silent moment passed between us as he reached up and brushed his thumb across my cheek. I was completely lost in his eyes until someone cleared their throat again. "Sorry." Shownu blushed again looking back at his group mates. They all smiled at us. "We're gonna go now." minhyuk herded his group mates away, some of them still staring at us. I started laughing slightly and Shownu looked at me again. "They're cute." I squeezed his hand as he turned towards me. "But not as cute as you." He tilted my chin up and kissed me again. "Now I'm definitely gonna have to see you again!" I whispered as we pulled apart. "I would hope so." He whispered back.