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

37. NERVOUSNESS

The day of the first performances finally arrived and the girls were up at around seven in the morning to get some practice before the ones going to the hair salon left. They had been up until late to post the pictures and check the comments from the first episode as they were too nervous to go to sleep, so they soon realised their mistake when it was lunch time and they were all tired yet still had to go to Seoul to perform.

"Brighten up a little, girls!" Kasai said as he went inside the cafeteria with Hikaru. "You are barely eating! Where has Eunae the foodie gone?"

"She is too nervous to eat at the moment," she admitted.

"I think I have never been this nervous before," Nari said, genuinely looking sick. "I know it is going to be almost like another evaluation, but just thinking about all of the people that will be there is making me sick." 

Although some did not want to admit it, they were all the same. Heejin had been dieting for the whole week to look more like Nari's body shape for the performance and it had not been that difficult since she barely had any appetite due to her nervousness.

"If you are not feeling okay, don't eat. You can eat whenever you feel better or after the performances," Kasai told them. "I know it may seem strange for me to say this but eating won't help your nausea at all. Just take some energy bars or fruit with you in case you feel better before the performance and eat then."

As soon as he said that the girls who were not feeling that good dropped their chopsticks and excused themselves so they could go to their dorms to pick up their last things. Only Minako, Zia and Heejin stayed, but Heejin was not eating.

"Aren't you nervous?" Heejin asked them.

"I'm the type to eat when nervous rather than feel nauseated," Zia explained.

"Same," Minako answered as she shrugged.

While the rest of the trainees had thrown their scraps away, Heejin had barely touched her food, so she searched for a plastic container in the cabinets to store it for later that night. She had just picked rice, vegetables, and tofu, so she put it in the same container and used the label machine they had by the microwave to put her name on it before placing it inside their fridge.

"Heejin, take it easy with your diet after today, okay?" Hikaru warned her. "I will be watching over you, so you won't fool me."

"It is just for the performance!" she assured him. "It looks better when I'm closest to Nari's size."

"The difference is that due to her proportions her size still fits a somewhat healthy range, but you need to starve. I already told you I didn't approve of it more than once, so please start eating normally again after this."

"I will, I promise," she told him.

She was going to go to her room to pick up her bag then but, before she could go, Hikaru stopped her and made her lock their pinkies in a promise.

"I already told you I promised," Heejin told him with a chuckle.

"But now it's sealed." He shrugged with a smile.

If preparing for Heejin's evaluation helped them grow close, preparing «Naugthy» helped them become even closer. They had to keep some distance since they were trainee and mentor, but that did not matter since he was a very playful and approachable person, and his fans would not find it strange as he did it with every other trainee as well.

After picking up her things from her room, she looked at her reflection in the mirror for a second, checking her appearance. She had grown used to be called the girl-crush of the company, so seeing the comments talking about how unattractive she was made her feel insecure about her appearance in just a second. She had never cared about what people thought about her haircut or the clothes she wore, but she was growing more self-conscious about it thanks to them.