Battle of The Bands

It's Over.

Chapter 13

It’s Over.

     Knowing that our leader was on the verge of giving up, every single one of us began to lose hope in Stray Kids. Changbin called saying he was considering quitting. Part of me just wanted to say ‘okay’ and move on but I chose not to. I convinced him to stay even though we both know we’re not making it to the finals. Now I’m starting to wonder, if I had let Changbin leave would he still be targeted? I mean, I guess it doesn’t matter since we’re all going to die on the night of the finals anyway. I feel like such an idiot for getting myself involved in all of this. I’m sure Chan does too right now. I mean, what were we thinking? Can five teens really win against three sirens? Results come out tomorrow but I doubt we’ll be hearing our name get called. Stray Kids is about to be over. We messed up severely and must pay the price at the finals. But.. nevertheless, in the event we do make it, we’ll have to give the finals our absolute best

     “So Chan’s truly given up, huh?” I said, Seungmin sighing and nodding his head. “He’s been wasting away in his house since the quarterfinals. He thinks that there’s no hope. That and he strongly believes he failed us as the leader.” “I mean, he’s not entirely wrong.. Towards the end he fell under the spell and has been switching between normal and pissy ever since. How can we function if our leader is.. Y’know..” “No, I get what you mean. It sucks that we couldn’t break any spells. If we could’ve just gotten one..” “Even if we did break a spell, we would’ve never known. A new round would’ve come up, making our previous performance useless.” “True, results come out today, let’s at least find out who’s performing against The Dazzlings.” “I guess.. But what about Changbin and Jisung?” “They’re in the aud waiting.” “Ah, okay.” Me and Seungmin both headed to the auditorium and caught up with ⅔ of the frat boys. It’s been a while since I’ve called them that.. Anyways, we stood there and waited for the principal, the usual. The Dazzlings were staring us down, again, the usual. 

     Once the principal came my entire body tensed up. I felt like there was a lump in my throat and my stomach was hurting like hell. I know we won’t make it but part of me wants to hope that we did. “The first group who will be going to the finals is..” The principal takes a long pause to make this seem more dramatic than it is. There wasn’t any point in waiting because we all knew who was going to get called.  The Dazzlings!” The Dazzlings walked up to the stage, talking amongst each other. This is it, isn’t it? Once they make their final performance it’s over for all of us.. Even if we did get chosen as their opponent would we even come close to beating them? “The second group, the ones who will join The Dazzlings in the finale, are..” Me, Seungmin, Jisung and Changbin all held each other's hands. This moment determines everything. So why is it that I feel embarrassed about the tears pouring down my cheeks? This is the most tense I’ve ever felt in my life. Even Changbin is shedding some tears and that guy has never cried since I met him. “Stray Kids!” Huh? Did the principal say.. Our name? I looked over to the other members who were just as shocked as I was. “Did- Did we get chosen?” I asked, very confused. “I think so..” Seungmin replied. We all reluctantly got up on stage. As confused as we were, seeing Minho absolutely furious about our placement was funny to see. “You both will have a week to prepare. Good luck in the finale.” One week!? That’s nowhere near enough time.. But we’ll just have to work extra, extra hard. 

     “Explain yourselves!” Minho yelled as they approached us. I guess Minho thinks we rigged the results. “We have no idea either, honest,” I said. “There’s no point in lying, I know you rigged the results.” “We didn’t. Even if we did, why does it matter? Are you implying that you’re scared of us?” Minho staggered back, shocked at what I said. Hyunjin tried their best to stifle their laughter while Felix looked ready to send me to another planet. “Watch it, human! In one week we’ll gain our full power and finally kill you,” Felix said, pushing past Minho to get to me. “I know, I know. I may not know how we made it to the finale but we’re going to work damn hard to make sure our performance is better than yours.” “Sure you will,” Minho says sarcastically. “Well, see you in a week, you better make the best out of this last week.” With that Minho and Felix left but Hyunjin stayed behind for a few seconds. “Good luck.” Hyunjin winks at us before catching up with the other two. “I’m not sure how we made it to the finals but we have to go tell Chan,” Seungmin said Jisung nodding in agreement. “Yeah, maybe he’ll stop hiding. If we can’t get him back to normal then we’ll lose our leader,” I said. “Let’s go see him then.”