If I Were You (Stray Kids Lee Know X Female OC)

Ch. 10: Pleasant Surprises

"Wow, she's amazing as always!"

"That's Park Doyoung for you!"

"She's my idol! Look at my idol!"

When Doyoung's performance ended, the lobby room of Bluebird Entertainment immediately filled with trainees and others expressing awe at the female idol's highly-anticipated comeback performance. Clearly, she did not disappoint.

"Did you see that! She was amazing! Doyoung-sunbae really is something, isn't she?!" Sunoo asks, filled with excitement as he turns back to Minho. But the latter seems to have been in a trance when the younger trainee turned to him.

"Hmm? What was that?" he asks, his eyes slightly widening as he looks up at Sunoo.

His reaction, rightfully so, brings a confused expression onto the boy's face as he tilts his head at his fellow trainee. "Hyung? Are you okay?"

Minho blinks before shaking his head quickly in response, especially once he realizes that he had blanked out for too long. "Yeah, of course, I'm fine. Just... nervous."

And then that makes Sunoo remember their current situation. "Oh, right!... Yeah, I almost forgot," he mumbles, before he sits back down beside Minho and looks back at the screen of the announcement board. Just in time as they were getting ready to present the monthly evaluations.

Starting from the bottom 20!

Minho's brows were furrowed as he scans the names diligently, making sure not to skip a single one in case his name was there. None. Thank goodness.

Top 20-11!

Once again, Minho's eyes go through every single name, searching for his own. But in the process, he finds Sunoo's name right at number 12, and it seems Sunoo himself had spotted that, too, around the same time as him.

Sunoo breathes out a sigh of relief as he leans back on the wall, and Minho turns to him briefly just as the younger trainee mumbles to himself. "Thank goodness! I'll just have to keep trying harder for this month."

And then the Top 10 to 4 appears on the screen. And Minho turns, expecting to see his name there now. Nothing, still. And that began to bother him.

"Wait. No... It can't be?" His brows furrow as he looks at the screen, confused and suddenly feeling really nervous.

Sure, it was possible that he could be one of the Top 3 trainees, but he just couldn't bring himself to believe that at the moment. Instead, what bothers Minho is that his name might not have even appeared in the top 50.

What if he was completely removed?

Top 3 appears: Go Sungho.

Top 2: Ban Jihyun

And then... Top 1.

Suddenly, all the trainees in the room had their eyes pointed straight at the screen. The room is quiet, but filled with tension. And the more seconds pass, the more everyone seems to be getting more nervous.

"Top 1..."

"I wonder who it is..."

"Maybe it's... Nah, that's crazy..."

"I really do hope it's me..."

"I hope it's me..."

The last one, Minho thought as he was getting more and more nervous by the second. Not that he was aiming to be the best. He just didn't know what he would do if he was completely out of the list. How could he keep going? How would he approach Doyoung who had done so much to help him?