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

23. MISUNDERSTANDINGS

No one apart from the CEOs and a few staff members were at the company by the time Heejin arrived, so she directly headed downstairs to the practice rooms but stopped by her locker to pick a clean set of clothes and change, since she was wearing the same as the previous day. After that, however, she went to one of the practice rooms and scanned her identification card, so everyone knew she had booked the room through the screens in the other floors.

[A/N: In MusiQ there are screens on every floor showing information from schedules and announcements to the free or booked practice rooms. All the entrances to the practice rooms have an ID scan that connects to the screens in real time.]

Despite her lack of energy, the evaluations were just around the corner, so she got to work and stretched as she listened to music. She had not had breakfast yet, but she would later go to the vending machine and pick up a coffee and fruit, so she was not worried about that.

Rehearsing took her mind off everything else as she simply focused on her body, her voice, and the music. Having to rehearse with a mask on made it more difficult as it was harder to breathe, but it had not been the first time she had done it, so she was not too bothered by it.

Slowly but steadily the rest of the trainees started arriving and they all quickly started working on their own things. No one was up for games and fun at that moment because they had no time to waste, especially when they would have classes later that morning.

At around half past nine Heejin decided to finally have some breakfast since she had not had dinner the previous day and knew she had to at least eat something, so she looked around, trying to make sure no one was around and went to the nearest vending machine to pick up her things.

"Good morning!" someone said suddenly, startling her. "It seems like someone came in early today."

Finally turning around, she saw it was Kiwoo, which she was glad of since he was in many senses one of the most innocent and gullible people in the company.

"The evaluation is killing me. I should have picked an easier song," she told him. "Are you practicing early too?"

"Since you all have classes in a couple of hours, we decided to use the morning to practice so Axel can work with Juiyu and Eunae in the afternoon," he explained. "Why are you wearing a mask, by the way? Are you sick?"

"I think I've caught a cold," she said. "I'm not coughing a lot, but I have a runny nose and all. I'm wearing a mask just in case. I don't want to risk it being a virus or something and getting the rest of you sick."

"Try to take it easy, then, and have some medicine so you recover quickly," he told her with a smile. "Fighting!"

"Yes, fighting!"

Once he left, she let out a sigh and went back to the practice room to continue practicing before her singing class at eleven. Time went by in a flash and soon her alarm rang, so she picked up her things, turned on the air purifier, passed her card through the ID scan again, and headed to the classroom to wait for the rest. That day she had class with Na Hosung, one of the vocal trainers, so she was hoping her lie would work with him as well as it had with Kiwoo.

"Hello!" Zia greeted Heejin as she went inside the room, followed by many other trainees. "Did you just arrive?"

"At the classroom? A few minutes ago. At the company, a few hours ago. Why?" Heejin asked her.

"Why are you wearing a mask, then? I thought you might have just arrived," Zia said confused.

"I'm a bit sick. It's just in case," Heejin told her. "Were you practicing before?"