𝐄 𝐂 𝐋 𝐈 𝐏 𝐒 𝐄

𝐄𝐏𝐈𝐒𝐎𝐃𝐄 𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐄𝐄

-•-

With that thought in Yu Jin's mind, he began to move with the music. It seemed to be going well from the start, and you intently focused on him from behind the screen.

However, once he began to sing, you couldn't help letting out a quiet sigh. His sickness must have affected his vocal chords as his stability was lacking with some of the notes. He also missed out a lot of words, seemingly already out of breath, although you couldn't tell the real reason of course.

Despite all this, he managed to keep a smile on his face, yet it wasn't attitude the masters were judging, but instead technicality.

After his short performance, you slowly clapped along with others. It hurt you to admit, but his all star ranking would definitely be revoked; something you didn't want to see happen to him, but also a fact that you couldn't control.

'Why didn't he mention being sick to me. Damn it, I should've noticed as well.' Sighing again to yourself, you watched as he made his way back and sat down with the three stars a couple of rows in front. His friend and teammate was attempting to comfort him and you thought it best to allow them to have a moment as they had spent a lot of time together.

From afar, you could see him smiling, yet the way in which he did so confirmed that he wasn't doing well right now.

When you got a chance, you moved down to crouch by him and say, "I'm not going to pretend everything's okay, because I can tell you know it isn't. But I'm just going to tell you that...messing up may be a bad thing, yes, but it just means you have a greater chance to prove them wrong. In fact, I feel as if we both know you can do better, even if it pains me to say it."

Your words were a balance of assurance and truth as he looked at you with nearly-tearful eyes. "I know," he quietly spoke. It felt like the right time to give him a hug, but you weren't sure if he would prefer not to at this point, so you just placed a hand on his shoulder and smiled warmly instead.

"Then show them."

The tone of your voice was almost daring, and he couldn't help laughing airily. Right as you turned to walk back up to your seat, he hesitatingly said, "thank you, hyung."

Soon after, the masters came to announce that the signal song test had ended, yet you couldn't clap in response for very long as they added, "but this is not your final star level." It made you raise an eyebrow and you listened as they explained how different masters for groups G and K had different criteria for judging, so they watched each of the performances again. This meant that you could increase or decrease your level respectively.

'I'm pretty sure I'm just going to stay at three stars though, so it won't be as big of a difference for me."

You heard a few names called out in a row, one of them being Yoo Jong Woo who you considered to at least be an acquaintance, before they were told to move down to one star. You couldn't help raising your eyebrows slightly from shock, but couldn't dwell long as another name was called. The last to be moved was Park Gun Wook who got promoted to an all star. He was extremely happy, and you clapped politely for his achievement.

Later, you found yourselves all making your way to where the stage would be for your grand performance of the signal song. It wasn't long before you could see the giant tiered stage, each representing the star level of the trainees. "Wow," you quietly said aloud, not really to anyone in particular, but Kamden next to you agreed and laughed, "man, this is crazy."

"Yeah, I'll admit that this is pretty freaking insane."

The lights on either side represented groups K and G with their respective colours being blue and pink. So, saying a quick goodbye to Kamden, you went over to where the others from your group were standing. You didn't have a chance to talk to any of the all stars as they were the first to go up, but there were still many of you left.