Behind the stage, Jamie wipes his tears with the back of his hand as he watches the prince and Odile together, and both of them present the black swan pas de deux.

Black Swan pas de deux is not about fear, tenderness, or even love. It’s more about determination, desire, even desperation.

Joseph dances with Harith in a flashier and brighter manner than what he did with Jamie. 

Harith, who disguise as Odile, the black swan, tries to seduce Joseph in any flirtatious dances he pulls. Odile is full of confidence instead of timidity, his alluring counterpart draws the Prince into his embrace.

Odile’s dancing as skilful as Odette’s, but he’s more calculated. He tantalizes – until he vows and marries. Harith ends his dance with his arms and his head is thrown back as if he might laugh. He knows, he successfully deceived the prince; he thought he had defeated Odette and made him die in suffering.

He thought he wins.

Jamie is carried away by the agony of Odette with the fact that the prince was tricked by Rothbart into marrying the Odile, his black shadow.

But once again, what if Rothbart tries to save Odette?

Odette is a fool. It was obvious that the black swan successfully tricked the prince, he even can’t tell his true love, and he can’t keep his loyalty. But then why does Odette still pursue him?

Jamie steps inside to the stage with maintaining his gracefulness and faces Joseph, who has just realised his mistake, and it's devastating consequences. He seems utterly shocked.–Maybe the same face he would pull if Jamie confronted him when he fucked his best friend in his bedroom.

Jamie dances in loneliness, conveying his anguish of prince betrayal. 

Even Odette and Odile are in the same form, but they have an opposed manner; Odile is more extroverted where Odette is introverted. Odile is available for the prince at that time, whereas Odette isn’t. Then Odette should be understood at that point that the prince hasn’t truly loved him for his heart because if he does, he should know Odile is nothing but his shadow.

Poor prince Siegfried is tragic; the two-person in the universe he loves–and thinks are the same–are the two persons he cannot have.

Isaac enters the stage with victory, he dances in glory, celebrating the tragic end of Joseph’s betrayal. Jamie wants to join him but he needs to finish his character first; the fool Odette.

At the end of the scene, Odette and Prince Siegfried choose death; the only realm in which they will now find love – and Jamie quotes it as bullshit.

The curtain closes with the accompaniment of round, big applause from the audience, and Jamie closes his eyes, letting the last tear fall from his cheeks to the stage floor.

Jamie scurried backstage, ignoring the cheers and celebrations from the other dancers. He glads he nailed the showcase, but he thinks no need to celebrate something he already had predicted. No surprise, he knew he would nail the showcase no matter what happened. After all, he is a professional.

On his way, he snatches his crown off from his head and took off any ribbon and lace on his body. He opens his dressing room, looks at the mirror, and a smile makes its way to his lips. He still looks beautiful despite the hurricane in his head – he is still the main character of his own story.

Jamie grabs the cotton pads and applies the makeup remover liquid on them before he wipes it to his face. Erasing the make-up Janet put on earlier with a somehow disgusting feeling in his gut. He cleans his face meticulously from the mask he put on, revealing his true bare face, repealing the stain of Odette's existence on himself. He will not have the same tragic ending as the white swan. He’ll choose his own ending.

Jamie liberates himself from his character attributes, changes his dancing suit with a white tee, his legging with his tight jeans, and his ballet slippers with his ankle boots. He is about to zip his leather jacket on when someone springs the door open.

“Jamie, where have you been? We’re going to open the champagne, c’mon” Brian looks confused when he saw Jamie already changed his outfit but he seems doesn’t ask any further. He is never interested in the first place.

Jamie smiles sweetly as pulling his zips up “lead the way”

After days of beating himself, Jamie comes up with terms that Love or attraction is a fragile agreement that could be faded or even gone in a snap of fingers. No one and nothing can guarantee someone would protect their love to someone else for the rest of his life–some people even have scepticism of how someone could possibly love just one person in their entire life? It sounds never makes sense.

Jamie follows Brian after throwing the yellow flowers in the nearby bin without giving a glance at it

Discovering Joseph’s affair partner was a devastating state for Jamie at first because it strikes at so many aspects of his identity. It made him doubt his own attractiveness or judgement in people. Is he not good enough? Is he not that pretty? Or another never-ending question that will be gnawing his insanity. But to put it more simple, Jamie has just concluded that he just meeting the wrong person. Maybe he isn’t Joseph’s ideal type – sure he does not justify what Joseph did to him, but at the same time he also refuses that everything happened because of him. Jamie learns to embrace his self-respect towards himself–people might blame him but he won’t blame himself.

Thundering applause of the audience and how those comrades in front of him are waiting for him only to open a bottle of champagne convinces him that he is still the main character, not the one who should feel lost.

“Cheers!” Jamie holds his glasses up. “CHEERS!” everyone tosses their glasses to each other and they chatter excitedly. Lilith and her friends down the glass and put it upside down on their heads before bursting into laughs, Brian and Janet can’t stop talking about how audiences already booked their tickets for the next showcase, Harith raises his eyebrows staring at him before he sipping his champagne, Isaac nowhere to be seen and apparently no one cares with the villain. Joseph smiles at him sweetly before whispering to his ear he was doing a magnificent job, and Jamie has just replied with a smug smile tugging at the corner of his lips.

Jamie stands up abruptly. “I’m quitting” Jamie exclaims, shutting everyone’s babble, they stare at him confused and slight of annoyance for the sudden no sense.

“You want to go home?” Brian clarifies, “Sure, you must be tired-“

“No, I said I’m quit. I will not come to the practice, nor participate in the showcase, I’m not going to see you all ever again” Jamie clarifies.

Now everyone seems baffled, waiting for Jaime breaks into a grin and said 'gotcha, just kidding'. Unless Jaime appears more relieved as if he's been waiting for saying this for all this time.

“What- what are you talking about Jamie, dear? Is there any problem?” Janet asks after sputtering a couple of series of coughs after he and the other finally realises that Jaime isn't joking.

“You can’t just quit like that Jamie, are you kidding me?” Brian looks offended.

"Babe~" Joseph tugs his sleeve, telling him to sit down, he seems bashful to his boss and co-dancers. But Jamie just yanks his hand away with strong vigour. “Don’t call me that ever again! We broke up”

Joseph’s jaw slacked “wh- why?”

Jamie sighs tiredly “Just.. stop acting stupid. I know everything and I have got the proof. Check our group chat I sent a couple of pictures there. our working relationship should be based on trust. And I can’t work with people I no longer trust.” Jamie averts his gaze to Brian “How can I keep working if I don’t trust your bias decision in role determination?” then Jamie looks at Joseph beside him “or how I can let my body be lifted by you without worrying you might be thrown me away because apparently, you want to unite with your lover and get rid of me?” he spits with every control that left inside him.

Joseph gasps like a fish just being lifted to the land, it mortifies him

“Another dance company hired me at Seoul” Jamie informs more calmly

“bu- but the next showcase..” Panic hit Brian then and there,

Jamie just smiles with that. He snatches his bag and is ready to leave the room “I believe Harith finally can take the main role” the older just gives him a smirk and nods. Oddly, it makes Jamie’s heart feel lighter.

Jamie had read plenty of romance books and scenarios, played a couple of fairy tales roles, he took every possible plot that could happen in a relationship. Sadly, the happy endings that are written there are just a sugar-coating version of a real-life event. Somehow, people tend to read a story that guarantees them a happy ending, some are afraid, some just hate to be disappointed, and Jamie was one of them. No one telling him that reality could be this cruel. He was unprepared.

However Jamie isn’t going to let revenge detour his goals in life, he won’t invest his precious time to watch those people feel the same misery as he felt. He will just let time do his job because karma doesn’t just need a man, but also needs its own time.

Everyone expresses the pain differently. For Jamie, continuing his life is the best decision for him. Using his anger as fuel to burn his passion for dance, reaching the goal hasn’t been accomplice yet in order to boost his self-worth. The fact that almost all people he knows betrayed him doesn’t let him isolate himself from people – seeing one or two black crows doesn’t mean the whole flock is black. Sometimes people are focused on someone who hurt them until they fail to realise there are people who actually care. It could be friends, family, or even someone unnoticed before.

Jamie runs into Isaac in the hallway. He is already dressed casually and ready to go home. Their eyes meet even though they are still some distance away, Jamie just naturally smiles at him and Isaac can’t help but reply with the same smile. They both stop in the middle and stare for a couple of good seconds.

“You’re not with everyone else?” Jamie asks but sounds more like a statement

Isaac scratches his nape, he looks way more handsome without his Rothbart makeup on him “Not interested” he grimaces “so?” he arcs his eyebrows

Jamie shrugs, “I’m… well… free. I broke the spell I guess,” he grins.

They keep in silence for a while, just standing there holding each other gaze

“Isaac” Jamie calls first

“Hm?”

“is my drink still valid?” Jamie wonders, peeking under his lashes.

Isaac chuckles, “sure, you free tonight?”

Jamie just nods sheepishly before they both leave the broadway building side by side.

“Everything goes in life, people fall in love, part, fall in love again and then part again, you win some, you lose some and the cycle continues”