KIBA ; STRAY KIDS

45 ; KIBA

Changmin announced us first, so we started standing up and stretching and making sure our hair was alright before we go get our mics fixed up. Once our mics were on, we did our usual 'fighting' together and went on stage.

It was Seungmin who was starting the song, so we were on one stage to start it and the others were positioned elsewhere to continue on. Our rendition of 'I'll be your Man' is super dark and gloomy, and Seungmin had a high note to hit in the first few lines, but I heard it through the earpieces, and he hit it perfectly. It was all going good so far.

On our set, we had a stone statute of a little boy, and we decided it for meaningfulness and because we missed Hyunjin, we would place his ring on a necklace around the statute of the little boy. 

It switched to Han who sang the next part and hit another perfect high note. Then it switched to Changbin who rapped his part beautifully, there was so much emotion in his voice, and I hoped I could portray that as well as he did. His part ended with a nice fall from some stairs. He landed on a mat obviously, but he executed it perfectly. 

Then it switched to I.N, the set was simple, we didn't want to distract from the vocals of this song, so he was simply laying on the floor with cool blue images under him to bring out the despair, and he sounded beautiful as well. I quickly got into position on the floor, and then my part came so I started rapping into the handheld microphone aggressively.

I also did the choreo I had practised with the little boy who was acting for us. The camera trick happened, and he ducked out of sight as I continued rapping with a grovel in the back of my throat to portray raw emotion, although I felt the emotion and felt I didn't need to act so much with this performance.

I got down on the floor to do the choreography as Han took over to do the chorus and high notes. Then all of us exited the stage so it was just Han and Lee Know who were singing the chorus. Lee Know hit some impressive falsetto before the scene switched up to our boy Felix.

He was going deep with his rap voice once again to impress the crowd, and not only that but he was doing it while being dragged as part of the choreography. It was super cool because I was watching up close for mine and Changbin's next part. 

I came on screen rapping, and one hand on some chains as part of the choreo. I focused hard on executing everything I had practised perfectly. I went past the camera, and it switched to Changbin's part, and he made his way over to me where we rapped the same lines together. I pretended to cut my hand on the knife prop he had, and I smirked evilly to the camera before leading the camera to a glass vase of water. I had squeezed a blood pack hard to pop it and then the blood squirted into the water, turning it a red.

We quickly dispersed from the scene even though the camera would change to Felix's part where we used a dark and deep autotune on his voice to make him seem devil like. Then he jumped down, and we started the dance break choreo which made Lee Know the centre. Han and Changbin were in charge of 'knocking down' the set. I danced my soul out, hoping it looked dark and scary.

The scene changed to Seungmin who didn't dance, as he was up next. In his hand was a heart prop which we were using and after he sang his bit, he handed it to Chan for Chan to put it in the statues hand. We were all on stage now, in position and I took a deep breath as the music played loudly as it was time for my high note.

The floor turned red, so I stood up from my knees and walked forward in time with Han. The beat dropped and the high note hit perfectly on time, and I used all the air in my lungs to sing the high note - God, I hope they don't have to cover my face to protect my image because I was practically screaming my lungs out.

Changbin was rapping perfect and wasn't slowing down considering it was originally rapped by two rappers, and Chan hit a perfect high note to balance everything out. Han and I moved out of the way when we were finished, and we started the choreo so that I.N could come out and sing his part. He sang it with such raw emotion, and I was super happy with our performance.

Chan ended it with the last word as the music died out, and we all fell to the floor in unison except Chan who had the little boy actor come out and wrap his arms around him. Then that was the ending, and we killed it.

We stood up once all the lights turned on and we got together with the little boy and did some bows to the cameras and staff for working hard. Then we stepped off the stage and went to get our mics taken off.

Sadly, I noticed I.N who was trying not to cry in a far corner as his mic was getting taken off. I slowly made my way over and put my hand on the back of his head and stroked his hair lightly. 

"What's made you upset?" I whispered to him softly, making sure no one notices but me.

"I messed up." He sobbed softly, and I had never seen I.N cry before but it was hurting me to see such a thing.

"Which part?" I asked, because I genuinely had no idea.

"The end - I just couldn't hit the high note." He whispered, and I wiped off his tears and kissed his cheek lightly before standing in front of him.

"Jeongin, I think you did amazing. I couldn't even tell you messed up, honest. I think you sang with such emotion; it was beautiful." I said to him softly, hoping to cheer him up, "All you can do is practise from now on, but I don't think you messed up."

He nodded and hugged me, so of course, I hugged him back harder. Hoping that my encouragement and soft-spoken words would make him feel a little better. I held his hand gently as I led us back to the backstage room. Once we got there, Chan took over noticing I.N's sad attitude and spoke to him.

I made sure to keep an eye on him for the rest of the day, but I felt bad when we found out we had got last place, I hope Jeongin doesn't take it personal and think it was his fault.