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

84. (UN)DEFEATED LEADER

The following day they all went back to the training site after saying goodbye to the Enhypen members. They had had a lot of fun during the MT, but they had to get back to work as the final was right around the corner and they could not slack off. Their future was at stake.

As the trip from Busan to Paju was very long, by the time they arrived it was already too late to do anything, but they were all gathered at the assembly hall so they could at least know what they would have to do and start working as soon as possible. They had time, but they could not waste any of it.

When making their way from Seoul to Paju, Soojin left and instead Lin joined them. Soojin was meant to be the one helping them, but after knowing she was pregnant it was obvious she wanted to spend time with Hyunjin. The producing trio knew the performances as they were the ones who made them, so it did not matter who helped them that much. What made things more interesting was that she brought Fan Chengcheng, her husband, with her.

The final task was simple in theory but hard in execution, and Axel was in charge of explaining why to them. Basically, they would have to prepare any song they wanted, regardless of the style or theme, that would allow them to fully show what they had to offer. The difficult thing was that they had to take care of all aspects of the performance at the same time, including what went on backstage and on stage. They already knew the money they could use, and they had to use it wisely to prepare the best performance they could. Whatever they did, regardless of how expensive, had to be big.

With that out of the way, the girls could already start deciding what they would do. They knew they technically should wait until the following day, but Onyx had too much at risk, and they did not want to waste even a millisecond, so they went to the recording studio to start working at least on some ideas off the bat. 

Or at least that was their intention until Axel grabbed Heejin and Eunae's ears and dragged them away from the studio.

"Hey! Hey!" both girls exclaimed while the others laughed.

"You are meant to rest. Stop working for even a second!" Axel told them and finally released them.

"But we have a lot to prepare!" Heejin argued. "It's not like we were going to be working until ungodly hours. We just wanted to have the first discussions."

"Yeah, and I'm Victor Hugo," Axel rolled his eyes. "I know you, Heejin. Don't try to lie to me."

He definitely knew her. At least well enough to know that Heejin did not know the difference between discussing the first draft and finishing the whole song. She was a workaholic from head to toe, and although the rest of the girls followed whatever she said because it had always worked, they sometimes had trouble keeping up.

"You are the undefeated leader. Just rest," Axel pleaded.

"But I'm not anymore."

Silence.

Since everything had been so chaotic after the previous task, the rest had not realised that for the first time since Heejin became a trainee her team had lost. Her contagious determination and perfectionism had always been the perfect combo for success, but it seemed like that was not the case anymore. That no longer seem to work.

She had not discussed it with any of the others because it technically was just a joke, but it had definitely affected her. As the leader she always shared the success but blamed only herself for the failures, meaning that after knowing her team lost she blamed herself for everything and tried to find ways to redeem herself.

She did not even try to explain that to the others, but just with her facial expressions Axel knew what was going on and immediately pulled Heejin in a tight hug. She was teary eyed, almost actually crying. She just wanted to do things right not for herself, but for the other members.