What We See, What We Forget

Part 15

As my flight arrived in Jakarta, I was constantly reminding myself of the impending doom of the practices. The vacation that I had was nothing but a faint memory by the time I walked through the jet bridge, and leaving the plane. Nevertheless, the thought of that interaction was burned in my memory. I was then yearning for something like that again. Moving on, I made my way back home to prepare for my practice, which will be conducted immediately that afternoon! That meant my schedule was placed back right where it should be; nothing but singing and dancing would fill my agenda. Once I reached home, I went straight to unpack my luggage and pack my practice bag. With only four hours of sleep, I went back to the training facility. The girls were in between ecstatic and peeved that training was resuming. We have one huge thing to prepare, however, the New Year's celebration! The top-of-the-top Indonesian celebrities would be there, not to mention an orchestra would also perform as the opening act. I can't wait for that day, but that feeling of impatience is superseded by the dread that I would ALSO be performing on the stage, too. This would be the pinnacle of our time as trainees, performing alongside the main members in front of the nation! Yes, in front of the country! The event would be televised throughout. Before the meeting started, our choreographer gathered us around to brief us about what we should do from step one all the way through step God knows what. The chart he showed us was more than complicated, and I couldn't understand anything. I zoned out for a bit and snapped back in when the choreographer asked me if I understood all the information presented to me. Turns out he was talking to me personally. I gave a little shrug to signify that I didn't, and the choreographer just twisted his head in disappointment. He went back to the chart and explained everything again to me. I was supposed to run on stage with a train conductor after the others got up the stage because we were collaborating with the city's transit company to promote their new transit system.

I had never heard of such a thing where we would run up on stage with a train conductor, so it was the most unique thing I've done so far in my idol career, but I'll accept it. I asked why I was doing it, and the choreographer said it was because the main members would've already been in their second song before we went up there and joined in. Apparently, the transit company had already planned and prepared a choreographed dance number for us to do in between the set list we already had. We expected that the dance number wouldn't be too complicated to rehearse since it was an Indonesian state-owned company making it. Boy, we were wrong. It required two girls to do a flip right at the moment I would run on stage. They would greet me, and we would immediately start the transit song. Our choreographer played the music, and it was surprisingly catchy. It sounded like what people expected an 'idol song' to sound like. What followed next was a ceaseless training session that lasted until two days before New Year's. We were shown a drawing of the stage layout later when we performed. It looked massive compared to our homely little stage at the theater. It was precisely on the twenty-ninth when the scheduled practice was over, and we all thought that there would be a day of break between our final practice. But when the day was over, our choreographer ushered us all together to be taken away in a bus to the semi-ready stage.

It was already late at night when the bus arrived, but it was not like we could go home immediately. Surprisingly, a second bus was also present in front of our bus. I took a peek at who might be inside the first bus, and it was the main members! We weren't told that we would be practicing alongside the main members, but logically, I wouldn't know how we would fare on that big stage if we did not practice with the members; this is a combined performance, after all. A quick ride to the National Monument later, and we were there. On our arrival, the stage was not fully set out yet, and only the outlines were seen. It was not another two more days until New Year's, so this was nice of them to let us get a grip on the stage and its surroundings. The layout felt bigger when you were there to see it, and I couldn't imagine the field once it would be filled with people. The grounds were closed off to the public (though by the time we arrived, it was already closing time for the National Monument). Our choreographers would then group us all to sort our appearances when it was time for us to get on stage. The setlist would have five of our songs, with the transit song placed after the second. The main members would do the first song without the trainees, and the trainees would follow suit on the second suit. I would be the last member to climb onto the stage on the transit song, where I would lead it. We huddled together to start our combined practice, and for the most part, it went well. We were synergized with each other enough not to miss a beat on our songs. But we twisted around like spaghetti when it came to that transit song. The part where I had to run, and two girls do a flip simultaneously was ridiculously hard to time. The girls doing the flip would have been done with their flip seconds earlier than my arrival on the stage. We needed the flip and my arrival to be timed perfectly because the track should start playing when I arrived on stage, and the girls did the flip. After sixteen back-to-back attempts to make it happen, we finally did it. After the transit song, the train conductor who came on the stage with me would leave to let us continue the setlist. Once we finished our songs, we would take a bow and let the MC take over.