"Oh you're all already here!"

shrieked Arena from joy as she opened the studio door 4 days later to find 7 idols already inside and stretching.

Arena'a burgundy beanie matched well with her burgundy backpack as she stepped through the door smiling. She had her laptop under her right arm and the left was holding her water bottle which she put down on the table soon enough.

During those last 4 days Arena had achieved quite the many things.

First of all she had finally finished the dance break after pulling an all nighter at the studio two nights before. She had taught it to the backup dancers already and was now completely ready to introduce it to Monsta X as well.

She had also met up with Wonho two times to discuss and work on his solo part together, which had actually come together very neatly and looked amazing among the newly choreographed dance break. As he had said, Wonho changed only a few bits and pieces of the movements Arena had put together. Arena thought it gave the part a little part of Wonho and was very awesome.

Though she still didn't know how to feel near Kihyun, even if it was finally starting to feel like the awkwardness was one by one falling away. It was still there, obviously. You could tell by the way Arena avoided accidentally touching Kihyun or having to exchange more than 5 words with him.

The man himself was okay enough with the awareness that Arena did not in fact hate him. He wasn't happy either as he knew that they could be so much more than they were now. Unfortunately she just didn't want to spend time with him or talk to him or aknowledge his excistence during practices.

Naha had been Arena's emotional support during her nightly choreographing sessions in the studio, but had stayed in the hotel bingeing kdramas for every actual practice with MX.

Arena had a small scheme forming in the back of her mind, but it wasn't the right timing and she still needed to figure out if and how she was going to pull this off.

As a perfect example of Arena and Kihyun, it wasn't exactly that easy to rekindle the attitude and emotions they had shared in their text messages.

Practices with MX themselves hadn't been bad either. So far they had had 3 practices in total, this in patrticular counted as the 4th and the second to last one before the music video shoot. Of course the boys had time to practice by themselves before and perfect the movements, but counting the actual number of lessons Arena had to give for them to pick up the choreography entirely, was five.

5 x 3h which made 15 hours of practice with Arena in total. Not that bad but actually not the most fun time in Arena's life either.

She had to teach the backup dancers, teach MX, practice with both groups seperately and then together at some point.

AND she had those lessons/meetings with semi-soloist Wonho + all of the time she spent perfecting the choreography in the studio alone.

"We didn't want to do push ups and crunches again, so we came early," smiled Hyungwon as he was reminded of those 2 times they had all been late a couple of minutes and then gotten some annoyingly tiring punishment excercises.

Arena checked her wristwatch and pulled out her USB drive, onto where was Monsta X's new song downloaded, still unreleased and known only by the company workers.

Company workers including producers, the members, managers, CEO, Arena and other staff working in recording and production and choreography areas.

She adjusted the volume levels and plugged in the USB, "So today, what we are going to do, is learn the dance break."

She dusted off her hands onto her grey sweatpants as hoots and hollers sounded throughout the room. Arena smiled and flicked her hair over her left shoulder.

Then she cringed at her own action and laughed. The boys laughed too, excited to learn one of the killing parts. Even Kihyun scoffed a laugh for a second as he looked at Arena from the corner of his eyes.

Arena rubbed her hands together and stood in front of the mirrors with her face toward the guys, "Okay so...since the entire choreography is now finally completed, would you like to see it?"

MX was confused as they raised their eyebrows one by one and bombed Arena with questions ranging from how? and when? and right now? to will you dance as well?

She held up her hands to stop the flow of questions and walked backwards to the studio door, all the while trying to push down her growing grin.

"You will soon find out," Arena's voice echoed through the room as she opened the door from the inside to reveal her 6 trainees who all started pouring into the studio at once.

Arena gestured to them proudly, as Taemin closed the door behind them, "Monsta X, meet your incredible backup dancers." Arena smiled as she took in the expression on each of the member's faces. 

Recognition, excitement, happiness, jealousy, eagerness and competition.

These were the 6 different emotions that Monsta X was currently struggling with, as they still did not completely understand what exactly was happening. Was it already time to start training and putting the choreography together with them? They still had 5 days until their music video shootings.

Jooheon was the first one to interact with the trainees, recognizing some of his friends during their commonly shared trainee days. The started chatting and hugging and clapping each other on the backs, and soon everyone was talking to everyone and rekindling old connections.

Arena stood in the corner with her hands crossed over her chest. She was leaning her back against the wall and was smiling at the guys. Arena had no intention to go and butt in on their reunion and pressure everyone with the dance. She had time.

And so did they.

10 minutes later Kihyun noticed Arena standing in the corner, waiting calmly for them to finish catching up. He instantly felt bad for them making her wait. She didn't have to do this for them. No one was making her. It had been her own free will to teach them and now they were just chatting about all kinds of things while she was left waiting.

He hushed the others and jerked his chin toward Arena, but not violently enough for her to actually notice. The boys soon understood Kihyun's intention as they all spread out across the room, some members of Monsta X running to Arena and pulling her into the center of the room with joy.

"Sorry, we got too caught up."

Arena smiled and shrugged, "It's fine, really. I'm just happy if you all are happy."

12 smiles and one concealed smile was what she received as an answer to her statement.

"So how exactly are you going to show it to us?" Asked Minhyuk as he finally again voiced the question that had pained everyone just minutes before the dancers had entered.

Arena glanced at the dancers, who nodded in return and she looked back at Minhyuk, gesturing to the floor in front of the mirrors. 

"Please sit down and enjoy the show."

"WHat"

"She said sit down you punks," laughed Taemin as he gently pushed the members towards the mirrors. Arena strode to Wonho to discuss something with him and then trusted the music station remote to Shownu's steady hands.

"Press play when I say so, please."

Shownu gave a smiling salute as Arena ran back to the standing dancers. 6 members had already taken their seats in front of the mirror, some of them gently leaning their backs against the fragile reflective surface.

None of them actually noticed that the 7th was missing.

The dancers gathered into a placing behind Arena as she stood with her hands behind her back. 

"So, to answer all of your previous and future questions, then yes, we are going to dance the choreography to you from start to finish. Each person has been given a certain member so try to find yourself and pay attention to the movements and the switches of placings." 

"Have you been teaching them longer than you have us?" Asked Hyungwon as he lowered his hand that had shot up in the air at first chance of asking a question.

Arena bit her lip and nodded, repeating one more time, for them to pay attention. She jumped into her own spot and nodded at Shownu, who pressed the play button.