The practice room smelt of sweat and sounded of sneakers squeaking to the beat of slow cutesy song. This was Cheerleader, Cheerleader without Ju Hae, their maknae and main dancer.
The song that played was their first comeback song after debut. And the moves, despite their lacking intensity, were intricate and required correction every minute or so. Ha-rin especially.
"Woah– Ha-rin-ah, watch your arm..." Her teacher lectured, pausing the music and approaching her.
She grimaced, hadn't her other members done the same thing? But before she could dwell, her arm had been taken into the grasp of her instructor and risen just barely an inch higher than she had it. The touch was sudden and she tried to ignore how her skin crawled.
Finding the action casual, her instructor unpaused the music, and the group began to move again. But all that Ha-rin could process was the way her skin felt infected, dirty where she had been touched. And it plagued her mind so much that it overtook her mental and physical memorization of the moves.
She fumbled, stumbling over the soles of her sneakers. She stumbled and in the shock of her members, fell to the practice room floor hard.
"Ha-rin Unnie!" Gim Mi-Cha, Cheerleader's main rapper, cried. Gim Mi-Cha crouched down to Ha-rin's level, worry plaguing her pale face. "Are you okay? Should we take a break?"
Ha-rin shook her head frantically. "No– I'm fine. I just stumbled..."
Gim Mi-Chae narrowed her gaze on Cheerleader's leader with a furrowed brow. 'Okay..." She spoke with caution, helping Ha-rin up with a hand.
As the group re-assembled, they waited for the music to play again. They expected it because that's how they'd been practicing for hours at this point. But when no music came, they turned to their teacher, gazes saying 'where's the music?' in bold.
Their teacher shook his head, looking at Ha-rin with a worried expression. "No, no Ha-rin-ah. Your knee is all scratch up! How can we continue like this?"
Ha-rin squeezed her fists, "No, I'm– I'm okay." She said, dusting her knee off. It wasn't even bruised, just grazed in dust.
Their instructor resolutely stopped the music and marched over to Ha-rin, even shooing Gim Mi-Cha aside. "Take a break girls, I need a word with your leader." He instructed.
Gim Mi-Cha nodded with a short bow, signaling the others' to follow her to where their water bottles sat.
Ha-rin watched them sip on their water as a distraction as her instructor narrowed in on her. He got close, too close, close enough to where Ha-rin felt his breath on her ear.
"Ha-rin, haven't I told you to rely on me?" He whispered, as if he didn't want the others' to hear.
Ha-rin wrapped her arms around herself, "Yes..." She admitted quietly.
"So why aren't you being honest with me? You fell and it hurt, didn't it?"
Ha-rin looked towards the ground, "It... hurt, yes." She confirmed, "But– I didn't want to delay the group. You know the most that the time we have to prepare for this comeback is limited..." She reasoned with her face slightly red.
Their instructor huffed and shook his head in disapproval. "Ha-rin..." He spoke in a voice of pity, "Aren't they putting too much pressure on you? You just turned 18 at a non-Korean age, right?"
Ha-rin paused, "No– They already spent so much money on us. So it's only right that we repay the company by working hard." She replied resolutely.
YOU ARE READING
The Second Chance of A Suicidal Idol
AçãoJung Ha-rin, the infamously timid 29 year-old vocalist of the K-Pop group Cheerleader, wanted to die. Her life as an idol was nothing short of miserable. Her time in the K-Pop industry nothing short of killed her. The only way out of this hell was t...
