Stay - Yang Jungwon 양 정원

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐑

When Jungwon and I reached the practice room, everyone was already starting to practice, everyone was already getting into their spaces. "Chaeri! You feeling okay? You looked sick during lunch," Heeseung called out when he saw us.

I nodded, "Just ate too much too fast," I excused, waving my hand. "Are we practicing or nah?"

Niki grinned, "We are! Noona, you should be up here with me and Heeseung hyung," He suggested, pointing to the spot next to him.

My eyes widened when I realized he basically wanted me to lead along with him and Heeseung. I looked and Jungwon and he was smiling, silently encouraging me. "Uh..."

"Noona, pleaseeeee!" Niki begged, clasping his hands together, "I wanna dance together!"

"How can you say no to him, Chaeri?" K laughed, pointing at Niki.

I sighed, shaking my head, but obviously smiling. "Alright, fine, let me take off my sweatshirt," I said, pulling the warm hoodie over my head and placing it to the side along with everyone else's.

"Fighting," Jungwon whispered, holding both his fists up before going further into the back next to Sunghoon.

"Did you memorize the chorus? Niki did," Heeseung asked, pointing at Niki who was doing the basic motions of the dance.

"Mostly. It's just not cemented into my memory yet fully," I hummed.

"Okay! Let's go!" Niki said excitedly, going forward to click play on the tablet. To my own surprise, once the beat dropped for the chorus, my body almost started dancing on its own. I watched Niki in the mirror as I danced. He was truly a dance prodigy. It was so clean for just a couple of hours of practice.

"Wah! You guys are so good!" K exclaimed, watching us. Surprisingly, it didn't bother me as much as everyone clapped. Maybe because I was dancing instead of singing.

"They're so good," Sunghoon commented. "They memorized the whole thing.

Niki turned to me, both his hands up for a high-five, "Noona! You already memorized it, what do you mean?"

I laughed, high-fiving him, "Muscle memory is better than I thought, I guess?"

"How long did it take you guys?" Nicholas asked.

I shrugged, "Twenty minutes?"

"Ten minutes," Niki answered confidently. We all clapped, cheering for Niki who took the praise very proudly.

"Alright, guys! Let's gather and decide on parts, okay?" Heeseung suggested.

All of us agreed, taking a quick water break before gathering in a circle in the middle of the practice room. Once we sat down, Heeseung led the conversation, "First of all, the important thing is the choreography, each individual's details, and high notes. These three things—"

Seon cut him off, "But we'll be performing as a team. If you look at the parts, the chorus says "All" it means person one will be standing in the center, but everyone will be singing. So I'm questioning if the center has to be good at singing the whole thing."

"They do, don't they" I blurted out. I mentally smacked myself when they looked at me, but I really didn't want us to get a bad score, "Our performance needs to be about quality. Not convenience for us. If you can't sing the center, then you can't sing the center." I said simply, really hoping I didn't just offend anyone. "It's not all about the center, it's about maximizing everyone's ability to the best."

"I agree with Chaeri." Geonu chimed.

"Me too."

"It makes sense."