After Being Reborn, He Became An Ace In A Boy Band Chapter 8

Chapter 8: Duet Choreography

Tang Ruining’s expression worsened.

After the initial song recording was complete, the choreographer began teaching them the dance.

Over the past few days, Li Xun had been going to the Practice Room daily to work on his fundamentals. The agency arranged the most basic dance lessons for him, and he worked hard to pretend he was learning to dance from scratch. The dance teacher praised his talent, saying that his previous poor performance must have been due to a lack of effort, as he learned incredibly fast when he took it seriously. Li Xun offered a guilty smile, saying, “Maybe, haha.”

Despite his busy schedule, he still found time to Play Guitar in the Company Dormitory. Initially, Yuan Zhiyan tried to learn with him, but his three-minute enthusiasm faded quickly, and he mostly just listened nearby.

One time, when Tang Ruining returned to the dormitory, he heard guitar music coming from Jiang Yilan’s room. He was about to head to his own room, but his steps paused, and he slowly walked toward the source of the sound.

Jiang Yilan was playing Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, a song Tang Ruining loved so much that even with his poor English, he had memorized the entire lyrics. As he approached the doorway, he could hear Jiang Yilan singing softly.

The song had a gentle, narrative style, and Jiang Yilan sang it with a great sense of storytelling, his English pronunciation smooth and comfortable. Tang Ruining stood by the wall outside his room, intending only to listen to a few lines, but he found himself unconsciously listening until the entire song was finished. It was only the sound of Yuan Zhiyan clapping and cheering that seemed to startle him, making him quickly walk away.

The next day in the Practice Room, Tang Ruining also arrived early and sat watching Jiang Yilan practice for a while. He had only intended to glance casually, but he became increasingly absorbed. He had never thought Jiang Yilan possessed any talent for dancing. His physique was good, his muscle lines were beautiful, and standing there was enough to make him eye-catching—that was undeniable. But he didn’t know how to coordinate his limbs gracefully or how to make his body serve the dance movements. Most importantly, he simply didn’t put his heart into learning. If he had been willing to try, Tang Ruining would have been willing to teach him for the sake of the team. But clearly, spending effort on him before was a waste of time.

Now, however, Jiang Yilan faced the large mirror in the Practice Room, practicing repeatedly to the music, tirelessly repeating simple movements. He executed the movements smoothly and lightly, his footwork clean and precise, never missing a beat, and his core stable. He could also spot his own mistakes and adjust them repeatedly.

He was highly focused and didn’t notice Tang Ruining’s arrival. He only consulted the teacher when he was dissatisfied with himself; otherwise, he dedicated himself entirely to practice. He closed his eyes and listened to the music for a moment, seemingly resting, his body swaying slightly with the rhythm. The movements were casual, yet very beautiful.

He was wearing a gray hoodie and loose black sweatpants. Pink strands of hair were stuck to his forehead and neck with sweat. After one song finished, he put his hands on his hips and shook his head down, trying to toss his bangs away, but it didn’t help much. He looked up at himself in the mirror and suddenly smiled, seemingly amused by his own messy hair. Then he pulled the hair tie off his wrist and tied his hair up.

He tied it casually, tucking the stray strands behind his ears. His sweaty face was slightly flushed from the exercise.

For a moment, Tang Ruining was lost in thought, staring into the mirror, unsure what he was thinking. When he snapped out of it, Jiang Yilan had noticed him. He flashed a smile at the staring Tang Ruining in the mirror and waved.

Tang Ruining turned his head away, pulled his phone from his pocket, unlocked the screen, opened WeChat, and then closed it.

After repeating the meaningless action of opening and closing a few apps, Tang Ruining looked up again. Jiang Yilan had already returned to practice.

The choreography for “Imbalance” was primarily contemporary dance, incorporating some street dance elements. There was a dance break that was a duet, the most striking part of the entire routine. The choreographer, Le Miao, was new. She didn’t follow the suggestion of another teacher to immediately assign the Main Dancer, Tang Ruining, and the Captain, Rong Xiao (who was also good at contemporary dance), but decided to wait until after teaching the group dance to assess their skill levels.

After the teacher finished teaching, everyone practiced individually. Although they knew Jiang Yilan had been working hard on his dancing lately, his learning speed still shocked everyone else.

“He’s naturally cut out to be an idol,” the staff members whispered nearby. “Who would have thought that a bout of Temporary Amnesia would make him turn over a new leaf and become a new person?”

In truth, Li Xun had deliberately slowed down his learning pace. However, his consciousness sometimes overpowered his body. The habits formed from practicing day and night were ingrained in his brain, and pretending to dance poorly was harder than he had imagined.

“You two.” Le Miao pointed at Tang Ruining and Jiang Yilan. “Dance this section for me.”

The first movement of this section required the two of them to break away from the group, standing back-to-back while the others cleared the center space. They then had a segment of back-to-back dancing, where they couldn’t see each other but needed highly synchronized movements, requiring extensive practice. Next, one person sat down, and the other turned around, pulling the seated person up from behind. They then completed a duet movement where one person loosely circled the other’s arm. Finally, they turned to face each other, palm to palm, pushing the other person away. The movement needed to be graceful yet forceful to achieve the desired visual effect.

Regardless of his relationship with the other person, Tang Ruining was absolutely serious when it came to dancing. They practiced briefly, breaking down the movements step by step. During the first attempt, Tang Ruining rushed the movement when pulling Jiang Yilan up, straining his arm muscle. Jiang Yilan winced, “Hiss…”

“I’m sorry,” Tang Ruining quickly apologized. Jiang Yilan shook his head, rubbing his arm, and grinned at him, “It’s fine. Your movement was okay; my point of leverage when standing up was wrong.”

Seeing this, Le Miao said, “Let’s put the pulling movement aside for now. Finish the rest of the section.”

After a rough run-through, even though the movements weren’t fully synchronized yet, the feeling was right. Le Miao nodded in satisfaction. “The effect when you two partner up is great. Practice more.”

Nearby, Wu Xingye leaned toward Rong Xiao and whispered, “It was supposed to be you and Ruining, but I didn’t expect Jiang Yilan to become this good so quickly.” He spoke with a tone of surprise, seemingly just marveling at Jiang Yilan’s progress. Rong Xiao didn’t seem bothered and affirmed, “Yilan is genuinely dancing well.”

Chemistry is cultivated through repeated cooperative practice. After mastering their individual dance steps, they practiced together, focusing on synchronizing the back-to-back section and hitting the turning cues. The teacher recorded them a few times and played it back. The two quick learners improved significantly after just one more run-through.

When they hit the cue perfectly once, their eyes met. Li Xun gave him a look of happy relief, and Tang Ruining’s gaze lingered on his face for a few seconds before shifting away.

The initial day of teaching ended. When Li Xun woke up the next day, his arm muscles were even sorer. He rummaged through his drawer but couldn’t find any medicated patches, so he went to ask Rong Xiao.

“Ruining has more of those patches,” Rong Xiao said.

Just then, Tang Ruining came out of his room. Rong Xiao called out to him, “Ruining, give Yilan a patch to put on.”

Tang Ruining glanced at his arm, turned back into his room, grabbed a whole box, and handed it to him. He still asked, without much emotion, “Is it serious?”

“Not serious. Normally, I wouldn’t even need a patch, but since we’re rushing the choreography, I’ll put one on so it heals faster.” He had just washed his face, his bangs pushed up by a hairband, revealing a clean forehead and clearer features. His eyes curved into a smile: “Thanks for the medicine.”

Tang Ruining didn’t say anything and sat down at the dining table to eat breakfast.

Li Xun asked Rong Xiao to help him apply the patch. The painful spot was on his tricep. He rolled his sleeve up as high as it would go, but the shirt was a bit tight and made application difficult. Rong Xiao said, “Just take your shirt off.”

Li Xun took off his shirt. Rong Xiao peeled open the patch, chuckling, “Why are you so pale?”

Suddenly, a coughing sound came from the dining table as Tang Ruining choked on his milk.

Rong Xiao turned to look. “Eat slower, alright?”

Li Xun also turned his head to look. Tang Ruining was bent over, using a tissue to wipe up the milk spilled on the table.

Once the patch was applied, Li Xun put his shirt back on. Only then did Tang Ruining look up and stand to clear his dishes.

They went to the Practice Room to continue dancing. Tang Ruining told Jiang Yilan, “Let’s practice the duet part later. Let’s perfect the group choreography first.”

Li Xun nodded. “I’ll follow your lead.”

Aside from the professional teachers, Tang Ruining usually led the practice sessions. The members relied on him for this part. Although he often seemed strict, he was also very reliable.

Li Xun started the song. For the opening formation, he stood in the center while the others knelt around him. After his part was finished, the formation broke up, and he and Wu Xingye, who sang the second line, turned and swapped positions.

Tang Ruining watched their transition movement closely. Li Xun’s turn was perfectly on beat, but Wu Xingye’s movement wasn’t clean enough, forcing Tang Ruining to ask them to restart several times.

Wu Xingye’s dancing had always been his weak point, though he was still better than the old Jiang Yilan. Now, however, he realized he couldn’t keep up with Jiang Yilan.

Wu Xingye pursed his lips and lowered his head. “Sorry.”

Tang Ruining wasn’t angry; he simply demonstrated the move again and said, “One more time.”

The music started. Li Xun turned, and Wu Xingye stepped forward, but this time, he mistimed the movement even worse, nearly colliding with Li Xun.

Tang Ruining’s vision and reaction were quick. He reached out and steadied Wu Xingye, blurting out, “Don’t hit his arm.”

After saying that, the expression on his own face seemed to worsen. Li Xun looked at him. “Thank you.”

Tang Ruining’s expression grew even colder.

“If you hit him, his injury will worsen, and it will slow down our progress,” Tang Ruining said.

“Yes, you’re right,” Li Xun smiled. “I’ll be careful.”

During the break, Li Xun went to pick up a delivery—the drinks he had ordered. He got Yuan Zhiyan his favorite Oreo milk tea. Yuan Zhiyan nearly hugged and kissed him. “You know this is my favorite, Ge!”

“You told me yourself, did you forget?” Li Xun patted the messy hair on his head. “You’re burning a lot of calories now, but you can’t have anything this sweet when we shoot the MV soon.”

“Mhm mhm mhm! Don’t worry, I know the drill.” Yuan Zhiyan stabbed the straw in and took a massive gulp, finishing almost half the cup in one go.

He had ordered the others the types of drinks they usually drank. Li Xun took the last cup and approached Tang Ruining, handing it to him. “Sugar-free latte. I know you only drink this. I’ve tried this one, and I think it’s good, so I ordered it for you. Try it.”

Tang Ruining quietly looked at him for two seconds, then reached out and took it. “Thanks.”

This latte was slightly bitter than the one he usually drank. Tang Ruining frowned slightly as he swallowed a mouthful. He hadn’t expected such a subtle expression to be noticed by Jiang Yilan, who asked, “Is it a bit bitter?”

Tang Ruining paused. “It’s fine.”

“I thought it was a little bitter on the first sip too, but then I thought it was quite fragrant.” Jiang Yilan picked up his own cup, which was still unopened, and leaned closer. “If it’s too much, why don’t you drink mine? It has a little sugar, and I haven’t touched it yet.”

Tang Ruining’s gaze swept over the unopened coffee cup, and he shook his head. “No need.”

He tilted his head back and took another sip.

It really wasn’t that bitter anymore.