Burning Flame (K.Sn)

| 9 |

We were all waiting around to get a group practice going today, but we kept on missing one.

"It's Sunoo," Sunghoon spoke up after having scanned everyone that stood in the practice room. I immediately looked around in confusion and sure enough, the little sunbeam wasn't there, "do you know where he is Lin?"

"I'll go look," I nodded before quickly running off and beginning to search everywhere.

I looked in all bedrooms, the item room, the changing room, the medical room any room you could think of. All until I reached the pantry. There I found him. He laid slumped over the small round table, just laying still.

"S-Sunoo?" I carefully calmed out making his head lift as he looked up at me, "are you okay?"

"Just exhausted," he waved it off with a small smile and I quickly sat down across from him.

"Are you sure? You look pale," I pointed out to him and he just nodded and ran a hand through his hair, "I can just say you need to rest for a bit."

"No, no. I'm coming," he assured and shook his head at me.

"Seriously, you should rest if you're not feeling well," I pointed out to him, "these months are gonna be long if you don't take care."

"I'm good," he insisted making me arch an eyebrow at him, clearly showing I didn't believe him, "honestly."

"I don't believe you," I shook my head at him.

"I am fine," he assured once more making me sigh at him.

"We're gonna have group practice before the midpoint evaluation later, you decide if you can come or not," I pointed out to him, "but you should really rest."

He smiled softly at me before I stood up and left out of the pantry once again.

"Lin?" he called out and I turned around to look at him, "don't worry about me."

"You can't tell me what to do," I cheekily grinned at him before running back down stairs to the practice room once more.

"Did you find him?" K questioned as I bounced into the practice room once more.

"Uh yeah, but he seemed quite exhausted so I don't know if he'll come," I excused to them.

"Really? Because then my eyes must be decieving me," Sunghoon commented and I turned around to see Sunoo beaming with happiness.

"You got to be kidding me," I quietly muttered before we all agreed to just practice together before the producers would come to check on us.

I honestly felt so insecure about this whole ordeal. The formation were off, some were off beat, we didn't do all the tricks properly. I was just... overall I was PISSED. But you know... I'm one of the youngest so I can't really speak up about such things.

So it was needless to say that Sungdeuk and Zico were very... dissatisfied with us when it came to our midpoint evaluation.

"What did you honestly think when you didn't train more together?" Sungdeuk scolded as everyone just stayed silent.

"Well... since we'll be scored individually and our team score is just the average it was thought that it would be better to work on showing our own skills," Heeseung spoke up, and I literally had to drag my hand over my mouth to just keep myself shut up.

"From what I can see Lin doesn't seem satisfied with that," Zico spoke up, having caught up on my action.

"What do you think Lin?" Sungdeuk turned to me and I glanced over at the other boys. You know what... just screw it.

"Can I... speak in English? To explain better," I excused and he just nodded at me, "uh, from my point of view we're all here to debut in a group. In all honesty anyone who thinks we should work individually for the biggest part of practicing shouldn't be in a group. A group is about working together, helping each other and trusting one another. I don't feel we're doing either of those things with the way we've been practicing. It's like everyone is here to debut, but not to debut in a group."

"Hm, that's right," Zico nodded in agreement before quickly explaining my point to Sungdeuk who just nodded. I didn't really dare look at the other boys after having said what I had said.

"Are you very anxious about this performance?" Sungdeuk questioned and I just nodded.

"You have no idea," I spoke up making him hum at me before turning to the boys.

"And did any of you boys know this?" Sungdeuk questioned and I hesitantly glanced over at the boys who all stood silent, except from Sunoo who raised his hand, "Sunoo."

"Uh... well, she has said she didn't like the way we practices but not more than that," Sunoo revealed and I just nodded before looking down at the ground.

"Don't look down Lin, it's fair for you to feel like this," Zico urged and I silently nodded before hesitantly looking up again, "you've had the right mindset from the beginning, but you've felt scared to say it, am I right?"

"Yes," I nodded at him.

"Why?" Sungdeuk questioned with a small frown.

"Oh... well, I'm the only girl here and I'm part of the younger age division," I excused and he slowly nodded.

"I hope you all took somethnig away from this evaluation," Sungdeuk stated, "keep working hard to do better on this test."

With that he and Zico left and I quickly raised my hands up to my cheeks before sighing. I was extremely flustered at being put on the spot like that, and my cheeks were burning hot.

"You did well," Sunoo assured and flung his arm around my shoulders.

"Ah... what have I done?" I muttered to myself.

"Exactly what had to be done for better practicing," Sunoo assured me and rubbed my arm in an assuring manner.

"I think I just screwed up, once again," I sighed and hesitantly glanced around the other boys in the practice room, "ah, I should just give up already."

"What? No, no, no," Sunoo immediately grabbed my shoulders and stepped in front of me, bending slightly down to be at my eye level, "what are you saying? Are you completely insane? Of couse you shouldn't give up."

"You don't understand," I shook my head at him, "it's fine."

"No, no, tell me," he urged and I just shook my head at him.

"Another time," I waved it off making him huff out in annoyance.

"You have to tell me someday then," he stated with a small huff before straightening up, his bubbly smile completely gone as he just coldly stared.

"Yeah, yeah," I assured him with a small nod before grinning up at him, "so... practice? Right?"