WALK THROUGH WALLS

FIFTY SIX

Jackson made true his words. By the evening, he had already sent me a well planned clip of different moves of the song bad by infinite. I had to spare my time so much being that the rest had already gone far with their practice. I also noticed that Rae was having a hard time but she was putting up airs so as not to show her weakness.

The practice henceforth was very thorough being that no one wanted to go home. We had also told that the Friday night talent show was to be a joint competition between the boys and the girls and the word to use was' Bang.' Funny as it sounded but we were to sing any three songs from all over the world but a song with the title BANG had to be sang by both boys and us. They had even planned a meeting for the leaders to square out the songs so as to avoid repetition. That was also a challenge for us the Pink girls team being that it was agreed that if I made it through the elimination stage, Rae was to stop being our group leader.
" P', why so you seem to be lost in your own world?"
I guess I was under a lot of pressure to perform well being that I did not want my mother to blame Kai, Jimin and Teamin again. I had to strategize in such a way that even though I might not be the best in our team, but I just avoid going to elimination round again. I just looked at Ai Tem then went and sat down on the bench that was near there.
"Ai Tem, do you think that I will make it to avoid the elimination round again because I am giving up on my ability really..."
"Please P', don't be like that. You are one of the forces to reckon with in this competition. Don't give up just because of the stupid mistake of your haters. The Rae girl can feel the potential in you that's why she is fighting you."
"You are just saying that because you are my friend. I can see how people here talk behind my back being that I am an African and all. I understand their whispers. You know that at times I wish that my brother Tae never tricked me into joining the competition at the first place." I said while lying down on the bench, placing my head on Tem's laps.
" And then I could have not met you... seriously Lensah, you are really disappointing me. You are really talented that's why they talk about you. My mother always told me that the people who talk behind your back already know they are below you, the only thing they can do is admire you from a far. I believe in your talent..."
"Thank you P'. I guess you are the tenth person telling me about your trust in my talent it is starting to become a burden because you have expectations on me."
" That many and then you are doubting yourself seriously..."
"Maybe coming from you will convince her at last." Cai said and then he came and forced me up to sit well," your display of affection is becoming too much bro, remember she is happily married with two children... and trust me, my dad is a jealous type."
" Hahahahahahaha" P'Tem laughed as he stood up, " note taken but don't worry Kun gege, I am harmless. She just needed a doze of reality that she is a force to reckone with. You all are. I will leave you to your family meeting. I think they are going to assign the songs for the Friday night activity."
" oh, there is that... Cai I thought you were the Yellow boys' team leader..." I asked looking at him with a confused face. The last time I was told that he was too bossy much that the yellow boys' team decided to make him the group leader so as to tone down his bossiness.
" yes, I am the group leader but I dint remember them sending me an invitation letter officially and formally inviting me for the meeting... I am not being paid any revenues to be a leader and if I attend any meeting called in a wimp then what will the so called assistant group leader do? Let him attend the meeting." He said while lying on the bench and placing his head on my laps the same way I was doing to P'Tem." Don't look at me that way, I am allowed to do this, she is my beloved mother." And with that said, the boy closed his eyes .

Tem just shaked his head and then walked away smiling. I took out my phone out again to look at the dance clip routine from Jackson. The moves were the same as the original but he made it easy by doing it in slow mortion.
" Jackson made true his promise ahh!''
"Yeah, that is Jackson Wang for you. He always takes advantage of helping out so that he can use it against me later when he does something or he wants something from me. Don't be shocked but he has even written today's date somewhere so that he can quote it in future." I said while still looking at the clip.
" Waah, so he is that petty..."
" Not petty par say... I always do that to him also so I think you can say it is our thing kind of.. I guess if you ask the GOT7 members, they will a test to this because that is what makes Jackson Jackson. With Mark, he is always so forgetful much that you can make up a story up and you can make him seem like the villain. Kia and Taemin never forgets. You remember when you peed on Taemin when he was feeding you... Ah sorry, you were young."
"Seriously... I did that to him..."
" Yeah. You were so fuzzy that day that Jimin and I could not calm you down, Taemin decided to help us out. Kai had told him to hold you with a cloth but he never wanted to do so just to prove to us that he was good with children... When you peed on him, I was so pissed off, he threw you on the bed and went away leaving us dying of laughter. Since then, he had to make sure you were in diapers before carrying you but he promised to make you pay when you grow up..."
"But I was just a child, how can he still hold it against me?
"That's a very hard question to answer. Just pray to God that he has forgotten, but as I told you, he never forgets, trust me."
"Now am scared!" Cai said while sitting up straight.
"Don't be but if you do anything bad to me then I will do the honors of reminding him about the unpaid revenge..."
"Seriously mum, do you even love me..."
"So much that Asenath even complains sometimes."
"By the talking about her, did you have a very hard time bringing her up alone in Africa?"
"Yes, I was young when I had her. My parents were there for me.. it was a very challenging experience that I learnt the hard way. Whenever I went for the prenatal and post natal clinics, they really disturbed me with questions about the father. When I gave birth to a light skinned child in an African hospital, it also raised many eye brows. The support from my family in South Korea and Kenya made the burden lighter. Kia, Taemin, Jimin, Jackson and Mark made sure to call me time to time to know how I was holding up."
" What about Felix and Bambam?"
"We were not that close at that time. For Bambam, I had already known him through Mark but we never talked as we do now. Felix, our meeting was through Fr. Cyprian who my mother made me consult when I had a problem about accepting my new situation of being a young mother. When I had to join the local school, I never knew how to speak Kiswahili. I got bullied because of that, they said that I was pretending to be an English lady and yet I was as dark as them. In high school it was worse especially when they discovered that I was from the land of Kpop. At night I could be made to sing Kpop songs as a lullaby for them to sleep. "
" Woooh!"
" yeah.... As if the victimization at South Korea was not enough, my own people made my life a living hell. If you have heard EXO sing, they have Chen,Beck and Xuimin who can really hit high notes or even Jungkook and Jimin but trust me that I can even go high than them."
" really?"
" Yeah, I had to sing for the whole dorm and not in the comfort of my bed but while my head is inside my metal box.... "
" Damn, that was harsh..."
" Yeah, I got traumatized. I could not even join the school choir or even the church choir because I felt like I was reliving my nightmare." I said while wiping the tears that had started forming in my eyes.
" I guess that's why Mama and Taemin decided to bring you to Seoul to join this contest."
" you think so?"
" I know so becase I heard it from Kia and Taemin one of the weekends at the house. When they heard about the Rae girl bullying you, it never gave them peace. I have wanted to ask you what is that all about but I was not brave enough but now I understand. I am sorry you went through so much."
" I am fine now. It was horrible but I got used to it. Felix had a part to play with all this because he had also gone through the same experience but not as extreme as me. We shared out and that's how we became close.
"Oh, that's why he is always gentle with you?"
"Is it that noticeable?"
"Yeah, but I have also noticed that he has started being assimilated to the family."
"He has a beautiful heart... Anyway that's my story. I really talk about it. Kai, Jimin and Taemin don't know the detailed version and I hope they will never know. I guess if I feel that the completion is getting to me, I will just walk away"
"I don't think you should do that. Yeah, I know sometimes the pressure will be too harsh but we will fight it together. I will support you through this. I know that I am in the Yellow team but with P'Korn and P'Tem in the pink team, you will be ok. You also have Miki, Aggie and Eugene who are like our newly recruited family members."
"Well. If you put it that way, I guess I will keep fighting. Thanks for being here" I said while hugging Cai. Truth be told, with him among the contestants, I feel that I am at peace. I might be older than him but he always has this soothing effect around him just like Jungkook. Yes, I know that I was not fond of him at first but since the day he bribed me with frozen yorgurt, he has become among one of my favourite BTS that is after Jimin, and V.
"So now you just hug each other everywhere just to make us feel jealous that we are foreigners or what?" Eugene came and stood behind us complaining.
"Shiiiiyaaaaa!" I shouted making the people who were near our bench to stop whatever they were doing and look at us. The rest were laughing at my reaction.
" Oh sorry, did I startle you?" Eugene said while pretending to be concerned about me.
"No, you just massaged my heart" I said while glaring at him. He then went infront, pushed Cai away from me and sat where Cai was seated earlier.
" by the way Lensah, how is the practice coming. I noticed that you had a hard time with the routine." Aggie asked while handing me a bottle of water
" where is mine?" Cai asked
" When did you start drinking water?" P'Korn asked while giving him a bottle of juice," this will be better for you."
" Anyway, what was the meeting all about?" Cai asked innocently
"I thought the last time I checked you were also a group leader" asked Eugene
"Oh, he claimed that they never invited him formally" Tem answered
"Oh, I once heard the coaches talking about this arrogant group leader who is so bossy that everything he says goes" Miki said
"Are you sure you heard it right because I don't think I am even bossy more than my mother here" Cai tried to clean up his name.
"But P'Lensah is not a group leader" P'Korn said
"Yet..." Eugene added wile looking at me with a smile on his face
"What do you mean by yet!" I asked startled
"Oh, during the meeting, the Rae girl was told that she was there just as an assistant to you." Eugene explained further
"Damn." Miki cursed
"Double damn indeed..." I said
"Oh, I guess that is why she came back crying after meeting. She started complaining in Korean..." Miki said.
"Stupid girl, what is there to cry about. It is not like there is any payment while you are a group leader. You are more of a servant" Cai said in annoyance
"That is what you think. Maybe for her, she was benefitting" P'Korn added
"Wait, so whose big stupid idea was it to make me the group leader for that weird team that hate me?" I asked
"I think it was the deal if you managed to survive the elimation round" Tem tried to remind me.
"When was that contract signed?" I asked again being more confued than before
"Lensah, you were there. I guess you were so stressed about the elimination so much that you blocked everything around you." Tem tried again
"In a good way also because if she knew that her winning the elimination would make her the group leader..." Aggie said
"She would have made herself loose!" Cai said
"So that's how stupid you take me to be ha!" I asked
"Sadly but yes" Cai said
" Thank you dear son for the vote of confidence." I said angrily
"Anyway, the meeting was very interesting. We have been told that we are to mashup three songs but the twist is that it will be competition between the boys and girls. The base song is BANG BANG BANG. Then a song by the NCT or SEVENTEEN and the last song is to be from latino pop or African musicians. The group leaders are the ones to come up with everything." Eugene told us.
"That's not hard..." Cai said
"This will be a sight to behold." Aggie said
"Why are you saying that Aggie?" P'Korn asked
"You have not noticed that the mother and son will be going against each other." Aggie said
"How is that?" P'Korn asked
"Oh. Yes... they are both group leaders." Tem answered
"I don't see the big deal." I said while taking a sip of my water
"Oh, they are both good at mashups so it will be drama indeed." Tem said
"I never knew that..." P'Korn said
"Have you forgotten that last week's competition was won by the Yellow boys team." Eugene added
"Yes... and?" Aggie asked
"Cai is the group leader and bossy one at that so he came up with the routine, the costume choice, the choreography they made changes to the original dance routine and when they were on stage, they looked like girls..." Eugene elaborated
"Even more beautiful than the girls themselves..." Aggie lamented
"Oh, I heard many people praise the performance claiming that it was the best, even better than the girls' themselves..." Miki at last voiced her thoughts
"Yes, that was our Cai's hand work. He is very talented at that." Eugene said
"What about Lensah?" P'Korn asked honestly
"Eugene, it seems like your White team has already perfected their performance that is why you have so much time in your hands to collect data from different groups..." I said
"My mother is good at anything music" Cai said which made me glare at him in anger
"She was the brains behind the success of the red girls' team. She was training the Thuy pink monster girl. She was the best in their team. It was just that the Pink team never gave her the chance to show her talent." Eugene added
"Eugene, did you make any major decisions on the matter yet because with your praises I think I will be sick at anytime" I said while hitting him
"Hahahaha, P' you could have just told us to talk about you..." Tem added
"It's more of gossiping about me shamelessly in my face." Cai said
"Sorry about that." Eugene said while smiling. We were approached by visitors suddenly.
"Sorry but can we borrow our group leader..." Ahn Mi said. Behind her were the other pink team members.
"I guess that is our que to leave. P' lets meet later ok?" Cai said while standing up from the bench. He also helped Tem and Korn up as they were seated ion the grass. Eugene also stood up.
"Yes.. later then. Thanks Aggie for the water" I said while cupping the bottle and looking at this delegation infront of me.
"No problem leader pink team..hahahahahahahah" and with that she ran away from the flying empty water bottle that I had threw to her
" Be really afraid Pink team, your leader is very violent... Good luck.."