Page 27 of The Five Stages of Courting Dalisay Ramos

“Hurry up! Breakfast’s getting cold!”

Dalisay sighs and drowns herself in the shower once more. There’s only one way she can snap out of this.

She wrenches the shower knob to the right and the instant change from hot to freezing cold water makes her yelp, and she forgets all about Evan Saatchi.

The next day, Evan meets up with JM at a dance studio owned by their old college friend Yoon-gi in Central Market. JM texted everyone he knew who might have space for them to practice, and Yoon-gi delivered. His studio, Dance on Main, specializes in teaching K-pop dance classes for all ages, and he has some rehearsal rooms with huge mirrors and sound systems.

When Yoon-gi was young, his parents enrolled him in a K-pop trainee boot camp in Seoul where he learned everything from dancing, to singing, to speaking Korean. While their dreams of him becoming a star were short-lived, Yoon-gi waseasily the best performer in their undergraduate class, showcasing his own choreography at every talent show and parents’ weekend. After he graduated with a BS in business admin, he opened his own studio, and while they still live in the same city, Evan hasn’t seen him since they walked across the stage at graduation.

But the second JM and Evan walk in the door, Yoon-gi rushes for Evan and drapes an arm across his shoulders, guiding him through the lobby toward the dance rooms as if no time’s passed at all. “Well, well, well, look what the cat dragged in!”

Yoon-gi is a slender, Korean American man with a flop of shining black hair and a face that kind of reminds Evan of a fox with sharp eyes and a sly smile.

“JM told me everything! Who’s the lucky guy or gal?” Yoon-gi says, teeth sparkling as he smiles.

Whodoesn’tknow at this point?Evan thinks and smiles. “It’s not that serious.”

“Not that serious? You’re doing the Five Stages! That’s serious!”

“It’s a bet,” says JM.

Yoon-gi swivels his head to look at him. “A bet! No one goes this far for a bet.” Not everyone is as serious a bettor as Evan. “Whatever you need, my friend, I am at your disposal. You just owe me dinner. A big dinner. Lobster.”

JM shoulders his duffel bag. “Two lobsters, even.”

Yoon-gi points a knowing finger at JM, then wraps his arm around him next, barraging him with questions about Pinky and what he’s been up to, while Yoon-gi leads them to one of the dance rooms. Upon entering, Evan feels out of place in his basketball shorts and T-shirt. A crowd of slender, fit dancersare finishing up practicing in front of a large mirror, their sneakers thumping on the polished wooden floor in sync to a bass-heavy K-pop song. They’re all women in their thirties of all ethnicities and they move with confidence and strength. He knows just by looking at them that they’ve been dancing for years.

The song ends and everyone claps and cheers for a job well done.

A dark-skinned Asian woman at the front pauses the music from the speakers. She seems like the instructor for the group as she turns around and addresses them all. “Good work, ladies! Excellent job! Same time next week. Don’t forget to stretch and hydrate.” When the group moves to gather their things, she looks over at the three of them. To Yoon-gi she asks, “Need the room?”

“Take your time, Mari. My friend here is going to be practicing a song to woo the love of his life,” says Yoon-gi, gesturing to Evan.

Evan refrains from snorting incredulously. No one seems to understand.

While the group packs up and Yoon-gi and JM set up the audio system, Mari says to Evan, “You look nervous.”

Evan tilts his head, casually. “What makes you say that?”

Mari smiles with tight lips and scans him. “Let me guess—The Serenade.”

“How’d you know?”

“My boyfriend did it for me way back in the day. He had that same look. Deer in headlights.”

Evan’s smile gives him away, but he lets out a breathy laugh. “It’s not what you think.”

“No?” she says, grinning. “You wouldn’t be so nervous if you didn’t care.”

Evan’s about to protest, but music blares from the speakers, and Yoon-gi and JM scramble to turn it down. The shock of it sets Evan off kilter, and he struggles to find the right way to explain why he’s here, but it gets scrambled on the way from his brain to his mouth.

Yes, he’s still drawn to Dalisay, but it’s not like he’s in love with her.

But Mari just smiles at him knowingly, like she’s already got him figured out. Before she leaves, she says, “An old stage trick to get over your nerves is to imagine that your audience is naked. It helps. Especially when your audience is a gorgeous girl of your dreams.” She winks at him and exchanges a few words with Yoon-gi before she too leaves, giving them the entire space to practice and leaving Evan feeling exposed.

He can’t help it. Dalisay, naked, pops into his mind. How smooth her skin would feel, how good she would smell when he presses his nose against the slope of her neck, how soft her breasts would be in his palms—

The song starts up again, this time much quieter, and it snaps Evan back into himself. He can’t help that he’s physically attracted to her, but fantasizing about Dalisay won’t do him any good. Mari is wrong. She doesn’t know the situation at all. Dalisay isn’t interested in him. He can’t let his own feelings get in the way.

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