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Thoughts: Raise the Barre, Chp. 4 by @kpopfanfictrash

This should alternatively be titled PRaise the Barre. 

Warning: now interrupting this holiday season with a special program - “long and lots of gushing ahead.” lol 

Let me just start by thanking the lovely writer so much for making this fic, that has hit so close to home in my heart. This was my ABSOLUTE favorite chapter so far, and I just want to thank the lovely The elements of characterization, of movement, both inside and out, and finally the turning of the tides...PERFECTION. 

I want to begin with the beautifully done train of thought we see in the jogging scene, that plays in so well with the tapestry of character we get in Y/N.

“but something needed to change and you weren’t going to be so pig-headed you ruined your dreams for the sake of your pride.”

I love that as physical as the dance world is, there is just as much of the emotional and the mental brought to life in RTB. The intangible world within becomes tangible in Shanna’s world of words. So rarely do I see characters’ motivations and development of thought crafted so compellingly, with such continuity and realness to it. Seeing into y/n’s head as she runs was a beautiful interlacing of the fic’s elements and plot points coming in and dancing with each other to ultimately form y/n’s decision to apologize. 

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In the vein of characterization, I also appreciate so much the nature of how y/n fucked up, interplaying with Jimin’s characterized work ethic. She made a mistake. She owns up to it. She’s so human it hurts with me as I read. And in tandem with the true core of Jimin’s character. Beautiful.

And omigoodness, the weigh in scene.....not just for the much-needed nod to the ragged edges of a beautiful art, but for the art of the characters within this scene itself. 

“A strange wave of pity swept through you, imaging what Sabrina’s life must be like when she treated everyone the way she did.”

I so so so appreciate that y/n’s instinctual reaction was to empathize with Sabrina, that there is no instant villainization. It was at this moment I realized that I might be as in love with y/n as Jimin LOL. 

Shanna has blessed these characters with a humanity and realness that leaps as a world from the screen to me. 

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I would like to take a brief interlude to just express and acknowledge how glorious these two lines were, just how much they resonated with me. 

“It had been so long since you’d fully released, since you’d let the weight of a song drag you under and come alive again.”

“Whatever way the song made you feel was the right way to move, and even ugly motions made sense within the dance as a whole. Ugly emotions, ugly truths and ugly feelings - these were just as impactful as beautiful ones.”

It is so incredibly liberating to see the feelings I’ve had swirling nebulously in me to be expressed so freely and poignantly in words. To give the dancer-of-past in me a Name. 

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And finally, to finish up today’s ramble......

“It’s just.., I’ve always loved watching you dance.”

This line...a line so simple - that was it for me. Oh man did I silent scream so hard. What I love so much about the raw intentionality of dance is that it’s literal movement pure and true it’s your deeper feelings unbidden risen to the surface through movement no thoughts no mental filters just our expression from the heart. He saw her heart dancing across her skin, and he loved it and that was why that felt like such a key moment to me and that was built so so so well. The connections between inexplicably euphoric awe, heart, and dance all colliding with the slowly emerging respect and admiration of their rivalry was just !!!! ASDKFASLDF IM GONE ! ! 

I feel like, in observing Jimin and y/n wavering dance around each other and their history, we’ve been creep creep creeping our way up to a pinnacle, and now we’ve reached the top. I feel like we’re teetering at the edge of something marvelous and blood-rushing. That line was the tipping point. 

I will say it again: beautiful beautiful moving chapter! FUCK this fic is so real, too real and I’m lost in its world. This is enemies to lovers done to an art, as an art, with layers of history interlocking with the present to build to a future that I cannot wait to see unfold. 

-  Fin. -

If you’ve made it this far, thanks for joining the ride. Now go read Raise The Barre, and feel the love!! I guarantee, it is infinitely more interesting than this ramble.

Raise the Barre (Ch. 4)

Author: kpopfanfictrash

Pairing: Jimin / Reader

Rating: 18+ (Eventual Smut)

Genre: Enemies to Lovers / Dance Academy!AU

Warnings: weigh-ins, discussions of weight and body image in the dance world

Word Count: 7,845

Summary: You and Park Jimin have been rivals for as long as you’ve known one another; ever since he tripped you in the front row of your first dance convention. When you graduate from high school and enter Russet Ballet Academy, you tell yourself you’re leaving all past quarrels behind. The main problem with this though, is that your past seems determined not to leave you alone.

Worse still, the obstacles you face while out in the real world might prove more challenging than anything your enemy has to offer.   

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