Behind the Mask

~Chapter 27~

~Lisa's POV~

When I woke up in the morning, I had a weird, angsty feeling in my stomach. I had barely slept at all through the night and right now my face looked drained and alarmingly pale. It wasn't exactly the best timing to look like that, because I had a pretty important audition to attend today.

Strange how I always thought that, once my training time would be over and I'd be assigned to a group, any auditions whatsoever would be out of the question and I'd be done with all that stress. Still, today was pretty big for me, because the dance crew I was about to perform for would further decide whether they should put me in a showcase along with a few more rookies or not. And the fear of not being ready for it yet or maybe not well-enough prepared wasn't really helping, either.

Our manager had been talking me over how this would greatly impact the image of the group if I got accepted - just to increase the pressure, because he can be a sweet muffin like that.
But I feared.

What if I wasn't going to be good enough? What if they won't like me, what if I won't be able to convince them how much I practised for this and how much of myself I put into it, to make it look perfect? I mean after all, dancing was supposed to be what I was best at, if I failed it, what would that say about me? And I couldn't let myself disappoint the girls or worse, be a step-back for the group. I couldn't let that happen. So I braced myself for whatever this day was about to bring me and I got out of bed as quietly as possible, as to not wake Jimin up.

Still, the boy slept ever so lightly, so as soon as I began to shift in the blankets, preparing to get up, he parted his eyes slowly, adjusting to the light. When he realized I was about to leave, he groaned and stood up in bed, resting against the headboard and gesturing at me to come back, making grabby hands that I just couldn't resist. I crawled back into his arms and he rested his head on my shoulder, letting out a heavy sigh.

"Will you be alright today, bub?"he asked, in a worried tone. "You know how straight-forward these people can be, I don't want them to change the way you see yourself. You're an amazing dancer and this day won't change that, you know it, right?"

I smiled at the genuine concern displayed on his face, and I nodded reassuringly.

"I know, yeah. Plus everything's gonna be fine as long as I give my best out there. Get accepted or not, at least I'll have zero regrets. Thanks for the pep talk though!" I leaned over and pecked his cheek shortly, then I finally got out of bed and began to prepare myself for the day. If I kept a positive attitude, nothing was gonna go wrong. Everything would be just the way I wanted..

~a couple hours later, at the audition~

"Manoban Lisa? Is she here?" A middle-aged woman with a thick clipboard piped her head inside the waiting room, looking around to spot me. Here I go...

"Over here, miss! I'm here." I lifted my hand up so she could see me, and when she finally did, her face gained a displeased frown.

"Oh, well come on dear, we can't let the recruiters wait now, can we?" She shook her head disapprovingly, and my heart sank a little. Was I already doing something wrong? I mean the secretary at the entrance told me to wait here, and so I did, along with the other rookies about to be tested, so why was this lady so mad at me...

I got up a bit shakily and followed the woman down a few corridors, until we reached a spacious, white room, the only decoration consisting of three chairs the recruiters were sat on. I could recognize them all from the famous showcases they had presented years past, but being in their presence now felt like being among deities. It was intimidating, to say the least.

The young woman in the middle, that went by the name of Chungha, offered me a kind, but reserved smile and gestured for me to come inside, the lady who had lead me here closing the door behind me and taking off to whatever else she was supposed to do. I took a deep breath and bowed to the three dance legends before me - Hwang Hyunjin, Kim Chungha and Lee Taeyong. These were the people who were going to decide if they would skyrocket my group's reputation or set it a few levels back.