The Billionaire's Authentic Daughter ▶️

4 4 | J U L I A

"I–" I began but stopped, not even sure if I was even going to say anything.

Braxton looked at me encouragingly but he must have sensed something was wrong as he frowned at me next.

This was the moment I had waited for for days and yet I dreaded it the most now. My breaths came out in short gasps, amplified by the mic in my hands for every ear in the place to hear me panic.

Two painfully slow minutes passed. The crowd began to mumble among themselves, no doubt cracking jokes at my expense. My hands shook, my grip on the mic slipping.

"Julia?" Braxton asked concernedly. He must hate me for embarrassing him like this.

Suddenly there was an ear piercing pop and everyone including me flinched.

Park Geun stood grinning at the back, a mic pressed over a balloon which he had just popped. "Haha, got you all!" He laughed. "I love popping balloons!" He exclaimed and proceeded to pop many more.

Everyone covered their ears as the loud pop after pop assaulted their sensory organ.

"Geun!" Darius yelled. "Stop that shit."

"Make me!" He said, clearly having no intention of stopping anytime soon.

"Oh, I'll do that alright," Darius groaned, lunging at him without success as Geun took off.

He reached the system and the music started once again as he yelled, "Yeah! Let's party!"

Everyone seemingly had forgotten about me as people started dancing with me still standing frozen on the stage.

Geun caught my eye as he stopped running momentarily from Darius. "You okay?" He mouthed. I nodded. Then his face disappeared into the crowd.

Braxton rushed to me, taking the mic from my trembling hands and discarding it somewhere. Then he proceeded to take both my cold hands in his warm ones.

"Are you okay?" He asked, leaning in to ask.

I swallowed hard, rendered unable to form sentences.

"Come on," he said, tugging me into a secluded corner and off the stage.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have asked you to sing. God, what was I thinking? I didn't consider if you were comfortable singing in front of a crowd. I really am sorry for putting you in that position, Julia." He spoke soothingly, somehow making the situation better as he rubbed his hands up and down my arms which had gone cold.

I wanted to scream at him that it wasn't the case. I didn't have stage fright, at least not when it came to singing. I just didn't know what to sing after the songs I was most confident in singing were brutally robbed off of me.

"I just panicked. It's not your fault. Please don't apologize," I said quietly.

He didn't look convinced but before he could question me any further, someone called to him. Further pushing me into the dark corner so that no could see me, he told them he'd be there in a minute before turning back to me. "If this is a little overwhelming, you can go back to your room. I assure you no one with disturb. We'll talk about this later, okay?"

I nodded, wanting nothing but to escape tonight.

He gave me a small smile and raised his hand to caress the side of my head but then quickly retracted his hand as if he didn't mean to do that. My mind was too occupied to mull over his actions.

"I'll see you later. This party will be over in an hour or so."

I nodded again, just wanting to be left alone.