Stay - Yang Jungwon 양 정원

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐄𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍

The second the camera cut, I let my body relax.  I slumped against Jungwon, the sound of heavy breathing was all you could hear in the studio.  "You good?" Jungwon asked quietly, leaning his head on my shoulder.

I swallowed, feeling tears build up in my eyes, "My hair clip..." During the stage, my hair clip fell out when I was performing my solo. "Fuck," I closed my eyes tightly trying to let my body rest.  Of all stages, why did something have to go wrong during this one?  Even though I kept performing, I couldn't help but worry about what the judges were going to say.

"I-Landers off the stage!"

Everyone scrambled to get up, knowing we had to get to the lobby.  With Jungwon's help, we found my hair clip at the back of the stage. Someone had probably kicked it away.  It was completely broken into two.  The two halves just barely holding on by the hinge. "Shit..." My hands shook as I clutched the clip.  Why did this have to happen?  This is going to mess up my score.

Jungwon took my hand, "Come on, we can deal with it in the lobby," He said gently.  I nodded, letting him put his arm around my shoulder as we followed the other boys.

When we got to the gate, everyone noticed what I was holding, "You did good, don't stress about it," Heeseung assured me, ruffling my hair.

"None of you guys tripped on it, right?" I asked, hoping that it didn't hit anyone when it literally flew off.

EJ shook his head, "I kicked it away.  It was hardly noticeable."

"It made your dance look cooler when your hair came down," Jay commented making me crack a smile. "There's nothing you could have done.  It was a mistake on the stylist's part."

"We all did good, that was definitely our best," K insisted trying to cheer us all up.

"You'll be fine," Geonu said, squeezing my shoulders.

"How long do you think they'll give us to vote?" Jake asked. "Couple hours?"

"Probably, we have to leave for the camp today," Sunghoon said. "Ah, this is too much in one night."

We all nodded in agreement.  We'd have to vote for the I-Landers to go to the Ground, and then the seven remaining would go to the training camp.  Afterward, the rest would join us after whatever they had to do.  The staff really didn't say much besides that.  The minute we stepped down from the gate, the system turned on again making me roll my eyes.  Really not sparing a single minute were they?

"Voting for the Final Thirteen will begin soon. Consider all aspects of the current I-Landers, in determining three people to eliminate. Voting for member eliminations will begin in one hour,"

Jungwon frowned, "Not even two?" He asked, taking off his microphone.

"We still have to pack too," I mumbled.  I reached around my waist and unbuckled the added belt to the dress, needing some room to breathe.

"Your hands are shaking," Jungwon said softly, noticing as I bundled up the belt.

I nodded, "I know.  It should go away soon," I assured him.  Though I wasn't sure myself feeling nausea forming in my stomach. I swallowed the bile that was building up in my throat, "It'll be okay, not today, please, for god's sake," I whispered to myself.

━━━━━━━ •♬• ━━━━━━━

I sat in the green room with everyone.  All of us were discussing how we were feeling about the performance. I was silent while listening to Seon talking about going to the Ground.  I really didn't want to be voted off.  If that happened, I doubt my chances of coming back by global votes were going to be high.  I scooted over as Jungwon lifted the blanket and got into the bed next to me.