OPEN YOUR EYES (BLIND I) - MUSIQ SERIES PART 2

15. TRUTH (TW)

TW// MENTIONS OF SUICIDE ATTEMPTS. THE TRIGGERING PARTS WILL ALWAYS BE IN BOLD IN CHAPTERS WITH A TW. 

On Friday the 15th of September, the language lessons at MusiQ were held since early in the morning and practically no one could be seen roaming around the building or in the practice rooms. Only a few artists were practicing, especially Alexa, who was about to have a comeback.

Heejin had a busy morning that day as she was taking both the Mandarin class and the Japanese one, so she was in the company building by nine in the morning, having slept only five hours since she had been practicing the night before. She had been taking language lessons ever since she joined the company and alternated between them once in a while, so she could be considered a beginner to intermediate in Thai and Mandarin, and an intermediate to advanced in Japanese and English.

"Heejin, why is it "desu" and not "masu"?" Mika asked Heejin in Japanese as they revised the exercises they had all been working on. 

"Because there is no verb," she quickly answered, finding it simple as it was something from the beginner lessons.

Although they had more personalised exercises for everyone depending on their level, they also had many classes together so that the ones with the lower level could get a feeling of the things on higher levels and the ones on the higher levels could review what they had already learnt. The most important thing about the classes, however, was that, as soon as they stepped inside the classroom, Mika only spoke in Japanese. She would not even explain the concepts in Korean if someone had trouble; she tried to use pictures, gestures, and such to get her message across.

That, although it could at first seem counter-productive, helped them all a lot as they had to force themselves to pay more attention to what they were being taught.

"Let's finish the class. You worked hard. Enjoy your lunch!" Mika said, wrapping up the class after nearly two hours.

Thanking her, they all picked up their things and left the room chatting about the funniest moments of the class as well as things that they would be doing later. Heejin, however, still sat down behind her desk typing away on her laptop, so Mika approached her.

"Don't you want to eat lunch?" Mika asked her, changing to Korean as the class was over. 

"I am just finishing my notes," Heejin explained as she continued typing. "I came in late before, so I have not been able to take notes at the same time."

"You should have taken the day off, Heejin. You seriously don't even need this class."

"Revising old things is still useful in its own way," Heejin told her as she finally finished writing down her notes. "Now I should probably eat and start practicing. I have been too focused on the new song and completely forgot that Axel and I are filming the video for «Don't» next week."

"Heejin," Mika called her sweetly yet somehow sternly at the same time. "You also need to rest."

"I am resting, I promise. Genuinely, I am not saying it to not worry you. I really mean it," Heejin quickly told her.

"Go out later tonight, then. You may practice but go out for dinner or something. I have a night shift today, so I don't want to see you here," Mika told her yet laughed. "By the way, what is going on between Nari and you?"

The sudden change of topic made her almost freeze as she was not expecting it at all. She knew everyone in the company talked about it, but only Lee Soojin and her had confronted Heejin about it.

"I... I do not know," Heejin answered truthfully while looking down. "I have texted her and she just tells me that she has things to do and that she is sorry. I have nearly finished choreographing everything, so right now I just want us to rehearse it together to see how it would look like."