INK~~ SKZ FF

Chapter 31

Today was the day. It was time for their competition. All of the members had arrived and were starting to get ready. A bunch of other dancers roamed around the place as they were also getting ready for their performance.

Yeojin pulled out a rack that held all of the members' outfits they would wear. Each was labeled for a particular person. Their outfits were the same from a few days ago when they had their photoshoot. Beom has also brought out her makeup bag, ready to style everyone.

Jieun was excited to change into her clothes. She felt so badass when she wore it before that she had been thinking about it all the time. She went off to a place to put her clothes on.

Stripping off her top, she pulled on the black long sleeved crop top. Her pants were replaced with her red, white, and black camo pants. Placing her black belt and silver necklace on, she wobbled around trying to pull her black boots on. Jieun walked back to the others as she was inserting her pair of earrings that dangled a little below her earlobe.

"Are you ready?" Beom asked as she pulled out her makeup brushes.

"A little nervous, but totally ready to perform," Jieun responded.

Yin was standing off to the side, not even in her outfit. She was going through part of the steps with Sumi. Yeojin was nagging them to go and get changed so they would be ready whenever it was their turn.

"You can have a run through after you wear your clothes," Yeojin scolded them. She was already decked out in her outfit and had already gotten her makeup and hair done by Beom.

Beom was halfway ready. She had done her hair and makeup before they even left. Sitting in the bathroom forever as she made sure to perfect her makeup before they could even leave. All she needed was to get the others ready before she would get dressed.

Jieun's makeup was soft and fierce look. Beom had used a faint red near her eyes and bloomed out into a soft pink. Black eyeliner was a little more extreme than what she was used to as it was thicker and more noticeable behind the fake eyelashes. The blush matched her skin tone more than the other parts. To top it all off, she applied red lipstick to help match her eyeshadow.

Jieun's hair wasn't too different. Her longer bangs went with the rest of her hair as it was pushed to the right. Beom placed a clamp to add a little more volume and brushed some of it back to rest behind her. Using hairspray to keep it all in place, Jieun was finally done.

Looking around, Sumi and Yin had finally gotten dressed. They were waiting on their turn for Beom as Yeojin was sitting off to the side watching some of the other dancers.

"Jieun," Yin called out for her.

"What?" she answered.

"I want to go over the steps with you."

They moved off to the side as they practiced. Carefully pinpointed every movement to make sure they were in sync. They would pause every part, checking and making adjustments to make sure that they were equal to one another.

Slowly, all of the girls were getting more prepared for the stage. The outfits were all off the racks and clothed onto the member and Beom had just finished doing everyone's hair and makeup. All that was left was to practice a little more and wait for their turn on the stage.

Jieun and Yin then slipped away from the group as they walked over to find the list that had the order of all the dances. Glancing down the page, they looked for COS:MIC's name.

"Here," Yin said, pointing to the black ink on the white paper. "We're number 30."

"That gives up plenty of time to prepare," Jieun told her.

"I'm just ready to get it out of my system. I've been dying to perform this piece. We've worked so hard on it for so long now." Yin draped her arm over Jieun's shoulder.

"Well, today is the day," Jieun smiled.

Moving back over to where COS:MIC was, they had all gone off to focus on their own things. They all seemed occupied by their cellphones, but Beom sat there rubbing her hands together, nervously. The two sat next to her and gave her small hugs to calm her down.

"I'm so nervous. Look my hands are starting to sweat," Beom signed as she raised her hands at the end. You could barely see the little sweat beads form on the palms of her hands.

"We're going to do great. We've practiced this too many times to mess up," Yin comforted her.

"I promise that you'll be amazing. I know how Beom dances and I know she is wonderful," Jieun gave her words of encouragement.

Beom couldn't help but smile at their thoughtful words and lifted her arms around their shoulders. She pulled them closer, wanting to radiate her love off to them.

"Just look at some of our competition. I know we won't place anywhere near the bottom," Yin stated.

The girls glanced around the room. There were several other groups practicing. From all the groups, there was a variety of different dance styles. There was jazz, funk, lyrical, and even whacking. They had lots of competition, but it wasn't going to stand in their way.

The announcement allowed them to know that the beginning of the dances had started. The girls all walked to the stage, curious about the judge's critique. There were four judges. Each of them seemed to pay very close attention to detail. They were constantly writing on the papers in front of them giving, detailed feedback through their microphones that the members could barely hear.

"I didn't know they were going to be this detailed with their feedback," Sumi said as she listened to what the judges said about the first group.

"Whenever you go to one of these events, the judges will always give you things to improve on so if you decide to compete again, you'll be extra prepared since you've worked on the missing details," Yin advised them.

Since Yin had been dancing at a young age, she had been in many competitions before. Yohan and her were almost experts at performing. They had much more experience under their belts compared to the members of COS:MIC.

"I bet we'll crush the stage. We've been taught by Yin and Yohan," Seojin encouraged.

As they watched the judges, it was easy to find certain things that they liked. One was big on facial expressions and would get excited if one of the dancers gave a nice expression on stage.

Sitting next to them, the judge loved it when they were in sync. They found particular points where the dancers weren't matching with one another and gave them feedback on how they could work on being on the beat together.

Another judge loved unexpected moves. They would grow wide eyed when someone did a flip or some kind of daring move. It would receive tons of good feedback if one of those moves appeared.

The last judge was the pickiest. They focused on the structure of the dance. Being able to point out the parts where the dynamics or flow of the dance moves weren't perfect. They focused on heavy details, being able to see even the slightest mistake.

"It is good to know how the judges are before it is your turn to dance. When we get on the stage, we should know exactly how to please all four of the judges," Yin explained.

Jieun could feel the bundle of nerves starting to creep up her stomach. She was hoping that nothing bad would happen. She wanted to do her best up on stage and hearing the advice Yin gave them was making it more stressful, wanting to be able to execute everything perfectly.

Even with the criticism that the judges were giving the groups, they would still get a decent or higher score. The dancers still would do amazing to the naked eye.

"Let's not worry too much about how we perform," Yeojin grinned. "We should be having fun on the stage. They should feel your enjoyment from their seats."

"That is true, but we can't be too unfocused that we mess up," Yin nodded.

They eventually noticed that it growing closer to their turn. It was time to do final rehearsals and stretches before it would be their turn to go up onto the stage.