old cigarettes | min yoongi

xxxix.

"are we all ready for the second performance?"

silence. it sounded like he was really trying not to be patronizing, but it really failed. like, really. you were sure that if chiaye wasn't such a suck up, she would've scoffed.

instead of doing what you thought though, she bat her eyelashes, making a ripple of annoyance go over everyone in the room. "of course, i'm sure i've prepared a performance just as stunning as the last."

you resisted the temptation to get up and slap her right then and there. if you did that, you might get kicked out, but it would be worth it.

"good to hear!" mr. sagong said, and you sensed a hint of force. "if you'd all follow me, we'll be following the same procedure as last time, and roughly the same order. which means, miss yong, would you please follow minki for filming?" he waved his hand to his right slightly at a staff member to his right, who bowed as jinju stood up to hurry after him.

mr. sagong started back down the hall he came through, not looking over his shoulder to check if you were following. you all looked at each other before shrugging and following him, where you were lead to the same waiting room as last time.

after you'd all taken a seat at the couches, mr. sagong turned around just as he was about to walk out again. "oh, before i forget, since this is 'the next stage up,' not only is our stage itself better than the studio we used before, but we also have given each of you access to our stylist's storage room to find a costume for yourselves. consider it part of your mission, i guess. find an outfit that suits your concept." and with that, he left again, leaving the room in silence.

a costume? you had a good eye for fashion, but what would you even wear as a proper stage costume? what counts as stage fashion?

sensing your internal mental breakdown, minjae tapped you on the shoulder. "need a little help?" you nodded furiously, causing her to laugh. "well, the song you're doing wouldn't be that hard to make a costume for. you'd need something simple. maybe just a plain button up shirt with some dress pants and an accessory of some sort? like a ribbon, maybe?"

you thought for a minute. that was a good idea, but what were the chances they had a ribbon in the storage room? fiddling with a strand of your hair, it hit you. you're an idiot; you're literally wearing a ribbon in your hair.

you delicately untied the ribbon from where it was threaded into your hair tie and pulled it out to sit in your hands. the ribbon was long and of a brilliant scarlet. you'd found it this morning when you were mindlessly searching through your drawers and decided, hey, why not.

a few minutes of mindless chatter and terrible jokes (mainly made by kwan), jinju came back into the room, visibly puffed out. "your turn, nari."

"oh, yippee." you said sarcastically, making her smile as you walked out into the hall and followed a staff member to a new room. looking inside, it was huge, but extremely cramped full with clothes of all descriptions. a nagging sensation in the back of your mind said that so much as one of these shirts could buy off your apartment.

you looked back at the staff member who was standing in the doorway, but he just nodded towards the room as if to say "all yours." swallowing, you started sifting through the first rack of clothes. it was a bunch of clothes that would fit a summer concept, like Red Velvet's Red Flavor.

wrinkling your nose slightly at all the bold and bright colors, you moved onto the next rack. no luck with that one, either. the next rack looked like it was for a more badass concept, but you still had a little look. and good thing you did too, as you found a nice pair of dark ripped jeans that looked just about your size. not exactly what minjae had in mind, but you could make it work.

you hung them on your arm and continued looking. there was a lot of clothes there. just when you thought you'd had to have gone through the whole room, something on the end of a rack caught your eye. it was a nice, white button up shirt, exactly what you were looking for. but on closer inspection, you found that it had a nice embroidery of a blue flower on one side.

you thought it was a tad weird, but who are you to complain; you finally found something close to what you were looking for. you silently made your way back to the door where the staff member was still waiting patiently against the door frame, scrolling through something on his phone. at the sound of your footsteps, he looked up and wordlessly made his way down the hall to the elevator.

scrambling to follow him and not drop your clothes, you only just made it into the elevator as the doors were about to close. it only took a few minutes before the doors opened up to a basement studio, filled with tons of bustling staff members. there were two sections. one that looked almost identical to the place where yuki interviewed you last time, and one that was a slightly more glorified stage than the one you'd performed on before.

which wasn't really saying much, since the last stage was just a white room.

a staff member came bustling up to you and directed you to a change room on the other side of the studio. before you had a chance to say much of anything, you were practically shoved into it. well, time to change.

you changed quickly into your costume before looking yourself up and down in the mirror, deciding where to put the ribbon. hearing a staff member ask if you were done from outside, you quickly tied it around your wrist, not really thinking about where else to put it.