PROMISES // Stepbrothers // Yeji Hwang x BTS

<Chapter 24>

Yeji

My heart pounded as I positioned myself in the middle of the stage, the other girls on my right and left side. I breathed in and closed my eyes, blending out all the cheers. Even though it was just seconds until the music started, it felt like hours.

My body started to move on itself as I danced to the beat of our song. Ryujin sang her first line. All five of us were perfectly in sync as the chorus started and I started to sing. I moved my body out of the center and to the right, as soon as I finished my part.

A smile formed on my lips when I saw my brothers and Rosé dancing to our music.

Cheers started to fill the hall again as we did our crown ending pose and the song stopped. I looked at the others, who all had a big smile plastered on their lips.

There was that feeling again. The feeling I loved the most. The feeling of performing on stage. The feeling of seeing others cheer for us. The feeling of doing the things I loved the most. The feeling of seeing others were proud of me. It was indescribable.

"Ladies and gentlemen, that was Itzy!"

We got out of our poses and stood in one line, me in the middle, as soon as the host started his sentence. I counted down from three to one as we bowed and later got up again. I quickly sent a kiss to my brothers before leaving the stage.

"That was amazing", Chaeryeong started to squeal as soon as we got back stage.

"We all did really well. I'm proud of us", I smiled and engulfed them all in a group hug.

I really was proud of us. Especially since we didn't have much time to practice. Everyone did their best in dance practices, writing the song, recording and preparing for the competition. We really were a dream team.

"Let's go and eat something now. The results are going to be announced in 30 minutes, so we still have plenty of time to fill our stomachs."

The others agreed and we went towards the food court, when someone suddenly put their arms around my right arm, hugging me like a little kid.

"You were incredible! Did you write that song on your own? I never heard it before", Rosé squealed in excitement.

I chuckled as soon as I realized it was her and nodded. "Yup, we wrote it ourselves", I proudly looked to my girls as they nodded in agreement, smiles visible on their lips.

"That song is sooo cool. You definitely have to audition or something. Your talent is out of this world!"

"We actually planned something about this topic, but don't tell it BTS", Yuna whispered in excitement.

"Really?"

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"My lips are sealed"

"Thank you. We don't even know, if any of the companies will ask us and I don't wanna start an unnecessary fight, you know?", Rosé nodded, understanding what I meant.

"Yeah I know what you mean. They can be really overprotective sometimes", she chuckled, while I nodded in agreement.

"Let's eat something now. I'm hungry!", she pouted.

We all chuckled, but went to the buffet, took some plates and filled them with food. We still had about 25 minutes left until the results were going to be announced. I didn't take as much food as the others as I wasn't used to eating much.

My eating habit wasn't getting better even though J3 hasn't shown up for some time, but it was hard to go back to normal. I constantly felt myself skipping meals or eating less than I should to release stress. It also helped me when practice was though because of the competition. I knew that I should really seek for help but some part of me always told myself I could fix it on my own, which I obviously couldn't, but I felt so embarrassed every time I wanted to tell someone. It embarrassed me that I wasn't like I wanted to be and it embarrassed me that I couldn't stop what I started on my own. It was my problem and not someone else's so I had to fix it myself.

"Aren't you hungry?", Ryujin called out to me, stopping my train of thoughts. I realized that I had just been poking my food instead of eating it.

"Huh? Oh, I was just lost in my thoughts", I quickly took a bite from my food and nervously smiled afterwards.

"Don't be nervous. I still think that you're going to win", Rosé smiled.

Lia mustered me before nodding and turning to her food again. She knows.

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???

"Hwang Yeji, now Kim Yeji, 17 years old, transferred to Saebom High, which currently belongs to Mr. Kim of KIM Industries, and stepsister of BTS. Leader of the dancing and singing group named Itzy, consisting of her, Choi Sujin, Shin Ryujin, Lee Chaeryeong and Shin Yuna. They are planning to train under one of the companies present today, if they get noticed. No boyfriend for now. Do you need any more information?"

"No thank you. I'll have to leave now. They already found out that I'm here, so I can't waste time. Let me know about the results."

I walked out of the venue and got into my crimson colored limousine. The color got chosen by myself to remind me how far I came till now, the victims of mine being traced with the same color. I turned to my secretary who was already seated.

"Keep an eye on her. We'll have to destroy their happy family life soon."

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Yeji

I squished my own hands to calm myself down a little. Every group was standing on the stage, 22 of them already out of the race for the first place. We had high chances to be the winning group, because our own song was loved by all people present and online. The whole competition was being shown in TV, live for all people to see and vote for their favorites.

"Third best group of this evening is CookiePookie!"

I breathed in and looked to my girls, who all had the same reaction as me. It was only us and the other group left for first place. I took a small glance at my brothers, who all nervously smiled as soon as they saw me looking at them.

Jennie and Lisa along with Rosie on the other side, kept their professional faces to not stress us out more than we already were.

"And now I'm going to finally announce the winner of this evening"

I scooted closer to my girls and took their hands.

"Ladies and gentlemen. You all agreed that this group showed the most of their talent with three amazing performances, stable vocals, which were hidden from us till now and even a new record, which hasn't been broken for 15 years."

I closed my eyes and slowly breathed in.

"Let me introduce to you the new highest scoring group we ever had..."

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