#45: Shall We Dance? / ep.2
“Thank you for agreeing to this sudden request, Fumika-chan.”
“Senpai has always made sudden requests.”
Sunday. The fifth floor of a mixed-use building near Meguro Station, at Kariya Lesson Studio.
Before Mikoto stood Shandy and Shandy’s former colleague, Kuze Fumika, an employee at Hotel Maverick. Beside them stood Sanae, who had also been drawn into the dance party. In the corner of the studio, Toko watched on, having come to observe Sanae.
“I am sorry for asking so much of you. The reasons are as I explained on the phone yesterday…”
“Please do not worry. I owe Senpai more than I could ever repay, and dance is my specialty.”
With a proud hand to her chest, Fumika gave an elegant bow as though she were already in the middle of ballroom dancing.
The day before, immediately after Sanae’s call, Shandy had said, “Teaching two people by myself would be difficult,” and contacted Fumika. Faced with the impossible task of learning ballroom dance within a week, Fumika had proposed private lessons here at Kariya Lesson Studio.
“Fumika-chan wears two hats: hotel worker and dancer. These days, teaching dance is apparently her main job.”
“As you can see, I mainly choreograph idols. I have not danced ballroom since separating from my partner, but my body remembers.”
Kuze Fumika taught dance under her own name. They had been able to secure the studio because she happened to have lessons scheduled that day. In one corner of the spacious room, two young women moved in perfect unison. They were Fumika’s students, probably idols.
“Reassuring, isn’t it?”
“I am more surprised by the two wholly unrelated careers…”
“So am I…”
Like Sanae, Mikoto muttered with exhausted shoulders.
Fumika was the woman who had carried Mikoto to her room when she had fallen asleep in Maverick’s lobby. It seemed she was not merely an accomplished hotel worker, but capable of teaching dance as well.
Then again, she had once worked beside Shandy. Thinking of that, it was not entirely impossible to accept.
“I must attend to those two, Rin and Akari, so please learn the very basics from Senpai. I leave them to you.”
“Certainly. Leave them to me.”
Fumika returned to the idols practising before the wall, shouting fierce instructions entirely at odds with her calm way of speaking. Perhaps she was a Spartan teacher.
“So, today you will call me Shandy-sensei. Won’t you, Sanae-san?”
“…Understood. Shandy-sensei.”
Shandy quietly laughed as she enjoyed Sanae’s expression, as though Sanae were chewing something bitter. It must have been humiliating for her, but it could not be helped.
At Shandy’s instruction to “change first”, the three headed for the changing room. They traded their everyday clothes for easy-to-move-in T-shirts and tied up their hair. For Mikoto, who had not exercised properly since leaving school, seeing her own reflection in the wall-to-wall mirrors was oddly nostalgic.
Once Mikoto and Sanae stood side by side, Shandy asked:
“Now then. Please tell me your heights.”
“One-sixty-nine.”
“One-fifty.”
“Lying to your teacher is unacceptable, Sanae-san.”
“…One-forty-seven.”
Mikoto was tall, while Sanae was small. Standing next to her wife Toko, who was roughly Mikoto’s height, made for quite a difference.
“My, so tiny and adorable, Sanae-san.”
“…And what is so special about being tall?”
Smiling triumphantly after hitting Sanae’s complex directly, Shandy opened the box she had tucked beneath one arm. It contained dance shoes.
“Being too short would not look good, so Sanae-san, these are for you. The size I asked for in advance.”
“…Must I wear them? I am not good with heels.”
“If you do not, the Secretarial Section women will laugh at you.”
Sanae wore her usual glum expression, but apparently conceded. She managed to stand in the rather high eight-centimetre heels, but tottered like a newborn fawn.
“Mikoto-san, getting any taller than you already are may injure your partner’s pride, so wear your ordinary flats.”
“Yes, I have them on.”
“Then we shall begin by practising walking. Straighten your back and walk from one side of the studio to the other, to where I am waiting. Like this.”
Shandy straightened her back perfectly. Her stance was beautiful, as though a thread dangling from the sky were holding her upright. She turned neatly and walked to the far corner of the studio, her heels clicking.
“Whether ballroom or hip-hop, the foundation of dance is awareness of your body’s centre. If your centre wobbles, it interferes with choreography and makes you more prone to injury. And it is not beautiful.”
“…I do not want to hear that from someone whose whole life lacks a centre.”
“Ahaha…”
Mikoto laughed off Sanae’s complaint beside her. Following the instruction, she went to the opposite corner and asked Shandy what to do.
“Should I walk while looking at you, Shandy-san?”
“Yes. Come and greet the woman you love.”
“Ghh…”
Even with Fumika and her students in the studio, Shandy scattered love about without concern. Feeling the awkward looks of the two students resting nearby, Mikoto stepped forward, almost as though fleeing the attention.
“Straighten your back. Keep your stride even. You are drifting off course. Walk straight, as if you are balancing on a rope strung across a valley. Your expression is too stiff, smile more softly. Do not be embarrassed!”
“Of course I’m embarrassed, people are watching!”
“People will be watching in the real event. Can you dance if you are embarrassed by people’s eyes?”
“That is true, but!”
“Mikoto-san, beautiful dancing cannot be accomplished through your vaunted beauty alone. Look straight ahead, lower your chin, lift your chest. Give off an aura from your décolletage!”
“I can’t give off an aura!”
Mikoto somehow made her way from one side of the studio to the other.
She had underestimated Shandy’s teaching. She had not thought Shandy could possibly teach dance seriously.
“All right, stop there for a moment. From there, lower your eyes and bow your head slightly. Walk towards me like that, then raise your face once you are directly in front of me. Fill your face with the feeling of finally meeting the lover you have longed to see after waiting so long!”
“Is this really a proper way to practise!?”
“Listen to your teacher!”
Suppressing her embarrassment, Mikoto lowered her gaze and began walking as instructed. Her course became unsteady because she could not see well ahead.
“You are drifting!” Shandy called. “Straighten your back!”
She was an even harsher coach than bartender.
“Now. Lift your face and look at me.”
At last, Mikoto’s vision found Shandy’s feet, and she lifted her face, thinking this was the moment. She had no idea how to convey the emotion Shandy described, the joy of seeing a long-awaited lover, so she tried making a smile.
Shandy’s face was close. Too close. Amber eyes were right before her.
“…How was that, Sensei?”
Shandy had frozen. Perhaps it was so terrible that she could find no words.
“Shandy-san?”
“…Ah, no. Not bad. I think you did well?”
Shandy answered a little too late. When Mikoto stepped back and looked into her eyes, Shandy averted her gaze. Her porcelain cheeks seemed faintly pink.
“You are embarrassed, Shandy-san.”
“I am not embarrassed.”
“Then why are you looking away?”
“It is nothing. Nothing at all.”
“I will take your word for it.”
As ever, Shandy was not honest. Finding that a little amusing, Mikoto swallowed a smile and stood beside her. Even from the corner of her eye, she could see Shandy continuing to look away. The ear visible through her blonde hair was slightly red.
“Now then, Sanae-san. Think of me as Toko-san and walk as Mikoto-san did.”
“I cannot think a woman like you is Toko.”
“Then, Toko-san, come here.”
They brought Toko, who had been watching, to her feet and began with the most basic element: walking.
As expected, Sanae walked like a newborn fawn. She was obviously unaccustomed to heels; straightening her posture was beside the point. She could barely walk on two feet.
“Do you not usually wear heels, Sanae-san?”
“No. She says she dislikes them because people might think she is self-conscious about being short. But she is cute, so I do not see why it matters.”
“Ah. I see.”
That was very Sanae-like. Unable to watch any longer, Shandy went to her side. The difference in their heights was stark even standing together. Shandy had said she was 164 centimetres and wore five-centimetre heels, which made it even sadder.
Holding Shandy’s hand so she would not fall, Sanae tottered along. She looked less like a newborn fawn than a schoolgirl encountering stilts for the first time.
“My, my. I had not thought you would be quite this athletically hopeless. Sanae-san, what grade did you get in PE?”
“I got a five in health.”
“Not the written part.”
“…One.”
An unexpected weakness in Sanae had been discovered. The road ahead looked difficult.
Mikoto was Sanae’s opposite in that regard. Through all six years of middle and high school, her height had led her into basketball. She had concentrated on it too much, and her grades had suffered as a result.
As Shandy considered what to do with the still-tottering Sanae, Fumika spoke again.
“Senpai, may I take Sanae-san’s lesson? Including getting used to heels.”
“But you have students here, do you not?”
Standing beside Fumika were those students, Rin and Akari. One of them, the woman in a white-based T-shirt—apparently Hida Akari—spoke up.
“Do not worry! We are idols, so we are used to walking runways and dancing in heels! Because we are idols!”
“Why aren’t you ashamed of saying that when you are underground idols?”
“Shut up! When we make our major debut, we’ll be above ground!”
The woman in a black-based T-shirt, Osanai Rin, answered in an exhausted voice. Matching logos were printed on the two women’s T-shirts; probably merchandise from their own group.
“Then may I leave her to you? I will drill the basics of ballroom into Mikoto-san.”
“Yes. Kurosu-san will likely be happier that way.”
Fumika began teaching Sanae. Holding hands with two active idols, Sanae tottered along as she followed Fumika’s instructions. Toko enthusiastically took photographs on her phone. Mikoto suspected Toko was enjoying this situation more than anyone.
“…Now then. The distractions are gone, so shall we begin at once? Our lesson in love.”
“It is a dance lesson.”
“A dance lesson filled with love.”
Amber eyes gleaming, Shandy wrapped herself around Mikoto. A sound nearly escaped, but this was only a ballroom lesson. It was not one of their ordinary exchanges of love.
Mikoto tried to focus—
“First, the form. Ballroom dance comes in two kinds: Standard and Latin. Sanae-san confirmed that the ball will feature the Standard dances, waltz and quickstep. So let us begin with waltz posture.”
“Er…”
—there was no way she could focus.
Their bodies were pressed tightly together, and Shandy’s face was right beside hers. Shandy normally did not wear heels; wearing them now, she and Mikoto were almost the same height. Shandy’s amber eyes were at Mikoto’s eye level.
They were looking at each other.
“Hehe. Your face is bright red, Mikoto.”
“Of course it is! You would be the same!”
“I switch modes for dancing. Besides, I am worried. What if you make that face when someone else holds you?”
“I only get like this because it’s you!”
“Yes. Please keep it that way. Now, let us check the basic position.”
Still holding her, Shandy took Mikoto’s hands. Mikoto’s left arm rose a little above shoulder height, stretched straight, and their hands linked. As Mikoto wondered where to put her right arm, Shandy whispered into her ear.
Her ears were Mikoto’s weak point. That alone nearly made her knees buckle.
“D-don’t play with me…”
“I am a bad teacher. Keep your right arm at shoulder height. Bend the elbow and support the area around my shoulder blade. Some gentlemen put their hands at the waist, but if you encounter someone like that, it is best to pretend it was an accident and step on his foot.”
“Thank you for the tip.”
As Mikoto placed her right hand on Shandy’s shoulder blade, Shandy naturally set a hand on Mikoto’s upper right arm.
“This is the Standard basic position, the closed position. I mentioned being held earlier, but only your right sides touch. You stand offset by half a body. Do you understand?”
Mikoto and Shandy’s right sides, from chest to waist, fit perfectly together. Looking down, their feet stood neatly interwoven.
“Ah, being offset stops their feet from hitting each other.”
“In principle, yes. Though it takes a great deal of practice before you stop colliding.”
“Can we manage it in a week?”
“No. It took me around three years, and with Mikoto-san, you should expect three times that. About nine years.”
“Nine years!?”
It was far too daunting. Even if famous people and heirs to great families attended, it was only a company dance party. They had no time to spend nine years on it.
“Do not worry. That is if you intend to compete in ballroom dancing. You are not aiming for Blackpool; you only need to dance as part of work. Form is enough.”
“I am only an ordinary employee at a pencil company…”
“It is proof that you have been promoted into an employee who can dance. Now, shall we move your feet?”
“Start with your left foot,” Shandy whispered. For a moment, Mikoto became confused about which foot was left, and Shandy nudged her knee to show her. The one she nudged was the left.
Mikoto slowly stepped forward with her left foot. Shandy drew back her right foot in response.
“Do not hold back. Make the movement larger.”
“If I move carelessly, you might fall, Shandy-san…”
Mikoto realised something. Moving her left foot shifted her centre of gravity. Alone, she would not need to think about it, but she was pressed against Shandy now. Ballroom dancing was, in other words, about moving the combined centre of gravity of two people without losing balance.
“Hehe. There is no need to worry. Though I am happy that you worry.”
“I understand why people say you cannot dance unless you are in sync with your partner…”
“Exactly. I have experience, and I am your partner in public and private.”
She might be able to dance well with Shandy. But on the day, her partner would be an unknown man. Asking her to become a partner with a complete stranger and immediately match his rhythm was unreasonable.
“A simple question: can you really sync up with someone you have just met?”
“Mikoto-san, dancing is communication.”
“What do you me—ah!?”
Shandy suddenly drew back her left foot. Her centre of gravity moved, and Mikoto tipped forward, but immediately stepped out with her right foot and held herself upright.
“Shandy-san!?”
“I shall teach you with our bodies.”
This time, Shandy drew Mikoto in while turning clockwise. Again, the centre of gravity shifted. Mikoto hurriedly moved the left foot she had led with and somehow stayed balanced. Only then did they stop.
“T-that was reckless! It was dangerous!”
“That movement is called a natural turn. The view has turned ninety degrees clockwise from where you began, has it not?”
The wall clock that had been in front of Mikoto was now on her right. As Shandy said, they had changed direction. True to its name, the natural turn had made them rotate neatly.
“There is no way I can do that without practice! Do I have to say, ‘I am going to do a natural turn now’ every time?”
“You communicate it through movement. Let us try again.”
They returned to the basic position, and Shandy whispered:
“If Mikoto-san steps out boldly with her left foot, her weight shifts. As her partner, I move my right foot and entrust myself to your movement.”
Mikoto stepped out decisively with her left foot. Shandy followed.
“Then, if Mikoto-san moves her right foot, I again entrust myself to your movement.”
Mikoto stepped out with her right foot as instructed, and Shandy came with her. Their balance held.
“Finally, Mikoto-san tells me to turn. Press through our joined left hands, and draw our touching right sides clockwise. Then what happens to me?”
Mikoto pressed through their linked left hands and drew Shandy in. Shandy turned neatly, and Mikoto’s view rotated another ninety degrees clockwise. The left foot she had moved first shifted instinctively to maintain balance.
“…You entrust yourself to me.”
“Exactly. Dance is communication, using your bodies in place of words to tell one another how to move your feet. In other words, I follow the movements of Mikoto-san, who holds the lead.”
“Mm-hm. So it really is Miko-Sha!”
Toko had somehow come close and was filming the scene. Mikoto wanted to die of embarrassment.
“Toko-san, delete that!”
“Aww!”
“Hehe. It is useful, actually. We can check your form.”
“No, thank you! And shouldn’t you be watching Sanae-san?”
“I got bored.”
In one corner of the studio, Sanae was still in the midst of walking practice. Her wobbling had improved a little, but even to Mikoto’s untrained eye, she was nowhere near ready for steps. If she tried to do what Mikoto had just done with Shandy, she would surely sprain an ankle on the first move.
“Right now, I am a delicate lady entrusting myself to you. You are the gentleman who leads such a lady with gentleness, even as you whirl her about. Think of it that way.”
“A gentleman…”
“Stretch yourself, stretch yourself. Think of this as antiqua, Mikoto-san.”
“Then… er. Will you follow my lead, Miss Charlotte?”
“Yes. For you, gladly.”
Even if Shandy told her to think of it as antiqua, antiqua was usually where Mikoto’s attempt at composure was exposed. And now she was pressed against Shandy’s body, gazing into her eyes. How could she possibly stay calm?
“I… no, no. I can’t. I really can’t!”
“Oh? Why not?”
“Because…”
Mikoto buried her face in Shandy’s shoulder. All the blood in her body had rushed to her face. She could neither let Shandy see it nor allow Toko to record it.
“Because you are too cute, Shandy-san…!”
“M-my. Then we cannot have a lesson, can we…?”
Shandy’s voice, claiming confusion, had risen slightly. Yet there was something happy in it too. All Mikoto could manage was an internal protest that Shandy must be embarrassed as well.
“Mmm! Delicious!”
Toko was, after all, enjoying the situation more than anyone.
The dance lesson continued.