Epitome of Her

Down Bad

Mark POV.

The past 10 months have flown by fast, especially when the company has been giving me a lot of work, as usual.

It feels like I've made 6 comebacks this past year and I was feeling exhausted. The end of year music festivals were coming up in the next two weeks. The company said that after these festivals are over, they'll give us a proper vacation period. Hopefully, that's the case.

We had been notified of all the artist collaboration stages that we were going to be doing. It was already tough preparing for all the award show performances, yet we had to prepare for our collaboration stage with Aespa for KBS Gayo Daejun that was on next week. Which was definitely something I was not looking forward to. When I had heard that the two of our groups were going to collab, I was praying on my knees to not be selected as a member to do it.

Guess my luck wasn't pulling through hard enough.

Out of the school of members we had, I happen to be one of the 4 NCT members they chose. I had tried to talk myself out of it but the managers and staff didn't budge. The last thing I needed on my agenda was to see my ex and perform with her. The other members that were chosen were Taeyong, Jaehyun and Ten.

I definitely was not looking forward to the rehearsals we had for this collab stage today either. I decided I just needed to fake it till I make it until next week.

I stepped into the company building with Taeyong and Jaehyun hyung, who were fully aware of my past relationship with Giselle. I could see pity in their eyes as we headed up towards the dance practice rooms.

"You'll be okay right?" Jaehyun asked making sure.

I nodded, "probably?"

"Have you guys talked since it ended?" Taeyong asked.

"No, not really. I've only seen her like once at the broadcasting station and we ignored each other." I answered honestly which caused Jaehyun to laugh.

"Well this practice is gonna be hella awkward." Jaehyun joked.

"Maybe you two should talk it out or something." Taeyong suggested.

I looked at him in confusion, what?

"And what would we talk about hyung?" I questioned, that was the last thing I wanted to do, be alone in a room with and her talk it out.

"I don't know? Like... Staying professional and not letting anything get in the way of showing a good performance?"

Before I could have any more time to think and daunt myself, we had reached the practice room that was already blasting music. I could hear the sounds of the girls chatting and laughing. Taeyong took the lead and entered, Ten hyung had already arrived and was stretching. I followed in after and greeted the managers that were there, the Aespa members and the dance performance directors. I tried not to look in her direction despite feeling her pair of eyes diverted on me.

We started our practice after warming up, we all followed our performance director as they showed us the choreography and stage directions. There was a part where I had to do a small interaction with Giselle and it was probably one of the most awkward moments in my life. Just avoid eye contact and continue, I told myself.

After an hour and a half of practising, they had let us go.

"Umm... Oppa, can I talk to you for a bit?" I heard her come up next to me.

I looked up at her who looked extremely hesitant. I raised my eyebrows in surprise. Even though I was over her, there was still a small bit of resentment buried inside of me which made me not feel fond of her anymore.