Across the World - NCT Chenle

Chapter 28

One week. That's all I have left until my life changes forever.

"Again!" Kang demands, half shouting so it echoes through out the practice room.

And that means we're being worked extra hard.

"Chenle, no. Slower. Back to your positions, from the top" Seohyun tuts, instructing us to move back to our starting positions from only ten seconds before.

To be honest, it's also beginning to take its toll.

"No, no, no. Rae, that was too sloppy." Kang tells me, stopping our routine once again. "You need to be bold and precise, not just grabbing his hand but delicately taking it"

Both Chenle and I are tired, hungry and just ready to stop. That's not likely to happen any time soon though. We've been working at this for over two hours. We've finished recording our voices so that's what we're doing it to now in preparation for the actual stage.

"Come on, it needs to be on the beat. Try that bit again" Seohyun commands, noting the lift that Chenle and I have just done finished a fraction too late.

I mean, I can understand why they're being so tough. It's my first ever performance, an incredibly large one at that, and is designed for me to make a name for myself. For Chenle, it's meant to showcase even more of his talents, not for him to ruin his image the slightest bit meaning there's a lot riding on this.

We repeat it over and over again, changing the slightest bit each time. When we get one thing right, another small detail is inevitably lost. It's so frustrating and, despite our teamwork, Chenle and I are finding it hard to work under these conditions. We have no room to talk through things like improvements and necessary changes when under the constant watchful eye of our instructors.

"Come on, do it again." Kang instructs, evidently as frustrated as us.

Before today, we'd been getting virtually everything spot on. Ok, there were a few minor things that were meant to be easy to iron out but under pressure, it's proving impossible.

"No" Chenle states simply. He's braver than me, that's for sure. "We can't work like this. We need to do this ourselves. Give us half an hour at least and come back then"

"Stop being silly, we need to work on this, get it at it's best" Kang argues back.

"No, I agree with Chenle. It's getting frustrating to the point where we cannot function properly. Give us half an hour, like he said, to work this out and come back then. Watch what we've done and see if it's good enough. If it's not then we'll work on it for a while more with you. If we've made enough improvements for your liking, then we can go and come back again tomorrow to work on it again" I bargain, siding with Chenle.

"You know our strength is in working well and communicating with each other which we cannot do with you here acting like this" Chenle adds.

"Ok, I'm willing to give it a try. This isn't working but it's not my decision. Kang, what do you think?" Seohyun agrees after thinking it through for a while.

"45 minutes. That's all you've got" Kang grouches, seeming unimpressed by our demand and yet somehow pleased that he's taking a break from it all. They do say that sometimes, you just need to take a step back.

Chenle waits until they're out of the room until speaking. "Finally" he laughs, able to breathe without being told off for doing it at the wrong time. "The question is, what do we do now? How do we improve?"

"We need to figure out where we're going wrong, what we need to do. I think we need to film ourselves and then replay it to figure out the minor details since we can't do the small things as we dance" I tell him.