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

31. TRUTH

Soon later, all the girls were practicing the song and the dance together in the practice room they had assigned just for them. Heejin helped them with their recording and Eunae helped her with hers, so the only thing they had left was to finish the last details and practice the live performances together.

Although uncomfortable, it went more smoothly than any of them would have thought. Heejin did not mind talking to any of them -it was the other way around- and they all seemed to be willing to push their differences aside in favour of the program, so they went through everything together and rehearsed for hours on end just to make sure they were at their best for when they actually had to do it.

As they spent the mornings and afternoons rehearsing, the only time left for Heejin to give the song the finishing touches was the night, and she was always at the MusiQ building until two or three in the morning trying to see what could work better. It technically was already done, but she wanted to make sure everything was perfect.

"They might as well just call this Heejin's studio," Axel said as he went inside, making her smile. "Why are you still here? It's nearly three in the morning."

"I should be asking you the same. I thought you had all left," Heejin told him as he sat down on the couch.

"Technically yes, but I had to come back to pick up some things and Leah told me you were still here. Did you at least bring your car?"

"Should I tell you the truth?"

With a sigh, Axel looked around the room trying to find all the cameras. It was, after all, the studio that ResQ had booked for Heejin so she could work, so they had cameras filming all the time.

"The song is ready, right?" Axel asked Heejin, trying to make it obvious that he was hinting something.

"Yes, it is. Why?"

"Then I will take you home. You need to sleep," he said standing up. "Let me do the clap and turn the cameras off. I've always wanted to do that."

With Heejin chuckling, he clapped his hands loudly once and started turning the cameras off, playfully waving at them and making weird faces to try to make it as natural as possible.

Once all the ones he had seen were off, he turned to Heejin and approached her, staring into her eyes for a second before pulling her on a tight hug that she quickly welcomed.

"I'm sorry, Heejin. I'm deeply sorry," he apologised repeatedly. "Sorry for not texting you, for not talking to you after the other day... I'm just... drained."

"Will you please tell me what's going on? I know it's not about what happened in the company anymore."

It did not take a detective to know that whatever was happening to Axel was not just about that. He had never minded other people's comments about him that much, other than his best friends' ones, so it had to be something else. Something bigger than that.

"I'll tell you, but please don't be mad, okay? This is a thing I have to solve on my own," he said and Heejin hesitated but agreed in the end. "With the solo projects, appearances, and all, although the boys and I have not released any songs since summer, we've been gathering more and more fans. That much is nice but, in my case, I seem to be gathering all the wrong type of fans for some reason. They keep following me around, calling me, trying to hack my accounts... anything and everything. It even went as far as one of them finding out I was texting 'Ruby', AKA you."

"You had me saved as Ruby or something?" Heejin asked him, confused as to why he would save her with her English name.

"I thought it would be safer since no one knows you as Ruby. I think I've made the right decision, since now everyone thinks Ruby is Eunae. As long as they don't know her actual name is Rose, we'll be fine."