Chapter 2

Her voice was whiny, tinged with a crying tone.

“Bear with it. This muscle is way too stiff. If I don't rub it out, how are you going to practice later?”

I pushed the door open.

In the huge rehearsal studio, Madison was wearing an extra-short practice skirt.

Her long legs were propped up on Sean without any reservation. His hands were tightly pinching the soft flesh of her inner thigh, pressing down again and again.

He pressed until Madison's face was flushed, and she was leaning entirely against his shoulder, trembling slightly.

It couldn't have looked any more suggestive.

Hearing the sound of the door opening, Sean reacted as if he had been burned, quickly letting go and standing up.

“Babe, you… you're here?

“Um, Madison… she just had a leg cramp. It hurt really badly, so I was helping her relieve it.”

A flash of awkwardness crossed Sean’s face, and he rubbed his hands together helplessly.

Behind him, Madison adjusted the hem of her skirt and looked at me provocatively.

“Yeah, Ellie, high-intensity training makes it easy to cramp up. If you don't handle it right away, you're done for. You understand, right?”

In the past, when other students in their dance company got cramps, Sean would always keep a cold face and tell them to massage it out for each other.

Back then, he always said that his wife was particular about cleanliness and that men and women should maintain proper boundaries.

So, it turned out that boundaries depended on the person.

However, it didn't matter because I didn't care anymore.

I casually tossed the knee pads onto a nearby chair.

“I understand,” I nodded.

“He’s the coach. For the sake of the competition results, it’s only right for him to help his students relax their muscles.”

Sean froze.

He had prepared a whole speech to coax me and had even braced himself for me to make a huge scene. But he never expected me to be this calm.

This abnormality made him feel uneasy, but Madison looped her arm through mine, smiling innocently.

“Thanks for understanding, Ellie! I've always said you are the most generous and wouldn't get blindly jealous.”

I quietly pulled my arm back.

“No need to thank me. It's what he's supposed to do.”

Seeing the tension ease, Sean let out a sigh of relief. However, as his gaze fell on my empty hands, he froze again.

“You… only brought the knee pads? What about the sandwiches?”

“I didn't have time to make them, since you wanted the knee pads quick.”

He blanked for a moment.

In the past, whenever I came to the studio, my hands would always be full of bags.

Sometimes it was a homemade lunch box, and sometimes it was a big bag of fruit, enough to share with all the students.

However, he would always take just one bite of the food I prepared and set it down.

Frowning, he'd say homemade food lacked precise calorie calculations and would ruin his muscle definition. He said a dancer's body was their career, before throwing my food straight into the trash can.

Gradually, I stopped embarrassing myself.

“The competition is coming up, and you wouldn't want to affect your physique by eating, right?

“If you ate my food and gained even half a pound, affecting the competition results, I wouldn't be able to take the blame.”

Sean let out a couple of dry laughs, cornered by my words.

“Then wait for me a bit? Once I finish this class, how about we grab a bite to eat? The sushi place downstairs is pretty good.”

It was a rare moment for him to swallow his pride to make peace.

“No, thanks.

“I have some things to take care of, so I'll leave first.”

After saying that, I didn't look back at his stunned expression. I walked straight to the locker room, took out that exquisite pair of dance shoes, turned around, and left.

Not long after I walked out, my phone kept vibrating nonstop. I picked it up and found it full of texts from Sean.

[Babe, there's really nothing going on between Madison and me. Don't misunderstand.

[I'm sending you my training schedule, and you can check on me anytime. Don't be mad, okay?]

Attached below was a tightly packed schedule.

There was a time when I tried everything to find out his schedule just to see him more. But he always found me annoying, saying I was controlling him too much and not giving him any personal space.

Now, he was voluntarily handing me the leash.

Unfortunately, I no longer wanted to be the person holding the leash.

I put my phone on silent and went home to take a nap.

After an unknown amount of time, the door pushed open.

Sean stood at the doorway, his eyes watery as he looked at me, looking just like a dog drenched in heavy rain.

“Ellie, why didn't you reply to my messages?”