Chapter 5: Dance Competition

“Annyeonghaseyo, welcome everyone to this week’s dance competition!” he greeted the audience in front of him with ease. Since the event was a dance competition for children, he wore a hat featuring popular Korean cartoon characters from recent years, Cabbage Monk and Radish Monk.

The cute hat, combined with the host’s funny and adorable gestures, quickly drew everyone’s attention to the stage.

After all, it was a children’s amusement park, full of kids and their parents. Curious parents who were still buying tickets and hadn’t entered the park yet slowly gathered around the stage with their children.

Yi Eun excitedly pulled Kwon Jiyong and Kwon Domi toward the stage. Her short legs no longer moved with the steadiness of earlier instead, they were running so fast it looked like smoke might puff out from her feet. As she ran, she shouted to the two adults, “Mommy, Aunty, mascots! Mascots!”

Behind the stage were two large mascots plush and eye-catching, immediately grabbing Yi Eun’s attention.

“Aigoo, there sure are a lot of kids here today,” the host said in a playful tone, bending over with a hand over his forehead as if scanning the crowd. “Are some of these kids coming to dance even though they can barely walk?”

His gaze landed on Yi Eun, who was rushing over with her older siblings. Her chubby little body, running in a wobbly, unsteady way, looked like she was still at an age where she couldn’t fully control her limbs.

But when Yi Eun met his gaze, she tilted her head blankly, trying to understand what the “ahjussi” (mister) had said. Then she looked up at Kwon Jiyong beside her.

“Jiyong, was he talking about you?” she asked with innocent sincerity in her childish voice.

Kwon Jiyong looked down, flustered. They had squeezed past all the other kids to get to the front row and now he was a bit shy. “Huh? Was he talking about me?” But wasn’t the ahjussi clearly looking at Yi Eun!?

Then again, even his parents used to say he walked like he was wobbling all over the place.

Kwon Domi helped her younger sister and teased, “That’s right, Jiyong has never walked properly since he was little. He must be talking about you, huh?”

The host was amused by the conversation between the three kids and couldn’t help but laugh. When he continued speaking to keep the event moving, his voice was still full of amusement: “A lot of kids have come before too. What are our rules?”

He raised a hand to his ear, and children’s voices rang out from all directions.

“Dance! The first place gets a little medal!”

“Second and third get mascots!”

“Competition!”

“This week I’m getting that medal!”

Han Lanjie and Lee Jin finally realized that this was a weekly children’s dance competition held beside the amusement park to attract kids. With just a few small prizes, it managed to draw a large number of visitors.

Now, not only was Yi Eun staring intently at the mascots on stage, even Kwon Jiyong was looking curiously at the small medals displayed on the right side of the stage.

“That’s right! Kids who win the dance competition get prizes. So, which child wants to come up first today?”

As soon as the host finished speaking, countless kids quickly raised their hands. Amidst the chaos, Kwon Jiyong hesitated as he tried to gauge how many kids there were. Just then, a small hand shot up in front of him. Shocked, he looked down and sure enough, it was Yi Eun, bouncing with excitement.

“Me, me, me!” Yi Eun didn’t even understand what “win” meant, she just stared unblinkingly at the fox mascot on stage.

She might have been short, but being in the front row definitely had its advantages.

The little bouncing toddler immediately caught the host’s attention. “Omo, can this little one really dance? How old are you?”

Yi Eun, with her eyes only on the fox mascot, tried to head up onto the stage while holding the hand of a staff unnie nearby, but Kwon Jiyong quickly grabbed her hand to stop her.

She turned to him in confusion, not understanding why Jiyong was pulling her away when she was about to get the mascot.

“Yi Eun-ah, this is a dance competition, dancing,” Kwon Jiyong glanced at his aunt and mom watching the scene with amusement, then covered his mouth and whispered to Yi Eun, “You don’t just get the mascot by going up. Can you dance?”

How would he know if Yi Eun could dance? Didn’t she only take ballet lessons? And she was still learning the basic movements!

But Yi Eun pulled her hand away and nodded confidently, “Nae!”
He could only watch helplessly as the tiny Yi Eun was led up to the stage by a pretty noona. And dancing didn’t automatically mean getting a prize! He was pretty sure Yi Eun misunderstood something…

On stage, the host knelt on one knee beside Yi Eun yet he was still much taller than her even like that.

“Can you introduce yourself, little one? What’s your name? How old are you?”
Having hosted children’s competitions for a long time, he was used to speaking in a high-pitched, gentle voice and using simple vocabulary.

Yi Eun stared curiously at the thing in the host’s hand, it looked like a lollipop. If you spoke into that, your voice became super loud?

She hesitated for a second, then saw her mom smiling and stepped forward, “I’m Yi Eun, four years old!”

The host clapped dramatically, “And where is Yi Eun’s mommy?”

Yi Eun tilted her head and thought for a moment. From the numbers she knew, she chose one and said, “Mommy is zero years old!”

The host’s eyes widened instantly, and he broke into uncontrollable laughter, trembling from trying to hold it back. Even the leg supporting his body almost gave out.
“Ani ahjussi meant, where is Yi Eun’s mommy?”

He joked, “After every competition, there are always parents pretending they don’t know their own kid. This time, let’s make sure none of the children get ‘abandoned.’”

Lee Jin, though a bit confused, still raised her hand to signal that she was the parent of the little one on stage.

Next to her, a parent who had already participated in the event several times leaned over, eyes smiling behind a mask, and explained in a low voice, “It doesn’t really matter if they dance well or not. The problem is that some kids start crying after losing, and since we all live nearby…”

Ah, Lee Jin and Han Lanjie understood. Even if the kid gets embarrassed, they themselves had to save face.

On stage, Yi Eun had already confidently begun her “dance.” She recalled what she had learned in the past two months of ballet lessons. Despite all eyes being on her, she wasn’t shy at all. With her chubby arms poised in position, her little toes pointed, her flower bun held high, she began doing basic beginner ballet movements on stage, counting aloud: “One, two, three, four.”

This little one’s “dance”… was elegant! So elegant!

There was a brief silence, then all the parents burst into laughter. In Korea, when people hear “dance competition,” they usually think of street dance or jazz. No one expected a four-year-old to come out and perform ballet.

The host was stunned too though to be fair, the rules hadn’t said the style of dance was restricted! But… was this even really dancing?

Neither the host nor the judges had any experience with ballet, and their expressions gradually turned serious. Even though it was a kids’ dance competition, they approached it with seriousness and professionalism!

After all, sometimes entertainment companies came to them looking for promising talent. So no matter how adorable the child was, they couldn’t just lie and say she danced well. It seemed this little one was destined for disappointment today.

In less than a minute, Yi Eun finished her routine, ending with a graceful curtsey as she lifted her skirt slightly.

Everyone in the audience wanted to laugh but didn’t want to hurt the child’s self-esteem, so they simply applauded, praising everything except the dancing.

“Aigoo, what a cute little one.”

“This child has been confident from such a young age really great!”

“I have to say, those few moves actually looked quite proper.”

“Omo, now I suddenly want to send my daughter to learn ballet too.”

The applause from the audience thundered. Yi Eun’s ears perked up, it seemed like she had “won”! Excited, she dashed straight toward the mascots. “Foxy, big sister is coming!”

Kwon Jiyong saw her rushing and waved his hands frantically, shouting, “Yi Eun-ah, you can’t take it yet!” Normally a bit shy, this was the first time he’d ever shouted so loudly in public out of panic.

But on stage, Yi Eun had already tuned out all the other voices. She was convinced that the applause meant she had danced well! That meant she had won!

She got closer and closer to the fox mascot, but just as her little hand was about to touch the fluffy plush toy, she was suddenly lifted up.

The tiny girl froze in place as if fate had seized her. Her limbs dangled helplessly while her little head tilted upward in confusion.

Lee Jin, now wearing a mask at some point, gently whispered to her, “We have to wait until everyone has finished dancing to know which child the mascot belongs to. Yi Eun, you can’t touch it now it’s not polite.”

Yi Eun stood beside Kwon Jiyong, tugging on his shirt, eyes brimming with tears. She was so upset she couldn’t even bring herself to watch the other kids perform.

“Didn’t I win?” she pouted, full of confusion. Her little face was full of grievance. “Everyone was clapping.”

Kwon Jiyong, who was watching the other children perform seriously, sighed. What should he do? Yi Eun definitely wouldn’t even make second or third place. Some of the kids up there looked older than him and danced really well!

Nearly half an hour had passed, and there were fewer and fewer kids left going up on stage. The host, holding the microphone, looked up at the sky and said, “Are there any more children who want to dance? If not, we’ll start announcing the rankings!”

Kwon Jiyong glanced anxiously at the host, then turned to look at his mom, unsure of what to do.

He actually did want to go up, but there were so many people watching, and he was feeling shy. His heart suddenly began pounding wildly. Even though he had appeared on shows many times before, large crowds still made him nervous.

“Jiyong! Jiyong hasn’t gone yet! Domi unnie hasn’t either!” In Yi Eun’s little mind, it was simple, she just thought everyone had to dance to get a prize.

Kwon Domi’s eyes widened in panic as she frantically waved her hands. “Unnie doesn’t dance Jiyong will dance!” There was no way she was going up. Let her little brother be the one to embarrass himself.

Already struggling with indecision, Kwon Jiyong suddenly made up his mind after hearing Yi Eun shout like that. If a four-year-old like Yi Eun had the courage to go up and dance, then as her big brother, he could too! The hand he raised grew more and more confident. “I haven’t danced yet!”

Though his heart was beating like crazy, the moment he stepped onto the stage and saw his mom, aunt, noona, and Yi Eun watching from the audience, Jiyong suddenly wasn’t scared anymore. It’s just dancing, right?
He took a deep breath and whispered to himself:
“Jiyong, be brave don’t be afraid!”