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━━━  " 📂 " ‍..⃗. ༉

𝙍 𝙀 𝙈 𝙀 𝘿 𝙔

! chapter thirteen ─── ʚĭɞ

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Mr Seo was incredibly nice, but that didn't mean that he didn't work you hard.

Seojun and Miyeon knew this first hand as they were his main students. The other vocalist - Maiya, Chanmi and Hyunwoo were instead assigned to Miss Takahashi who was less nice but more lenient during her lessons, or so the Han boy had heard.

But for almost an hour and a half now he had been stood on his feet, stood in front of a moderately-impressed looking Mr Seo and holding the same sheets of lyrics that he had been holding for at least twenty minutes.

"Come on, you can do better than that." Seojun cringed as his voice wavered at the end and the feedback was shouted. But he didn't let his expression show the annoyance of having to go through the bridge of a particularly tough, vocal-heavy idol-group song once again, instead just flicking his hair out of his eyes and doing it all over again.

"And twice more - don't look at me like that Mr Han!" There was an element of teasing in Mr Seo's voice as he called for it to be gone over. "Come on - just two more times and you're free to go."

Now that sounded good, and shifting his fingers out of the crease indents on the paper that had been left by his grip as he did it again. "And all the way through?" Mr Seo's voice cut through the music, walking over to the iPad attached to the speakers, looking over at Seojun.

"You told me that I could go." Seojun frowned.

"I know, I know, but you really sounded like you got it that time." Mr Seo tapped on the screen, dragging his finger over the progress bar and brought it to the point it needed to be. "Ready?"

"Fine." The Han boy grumbled, reaching for a stand and organising the sheet on it, taking his position behind the microphone. The instrumental for the idol song played through the room once more, but instead of being stopped and started in places it ran all the way through.

And by the time the last note was sung and the music came to a stop, joint applause could be heard, and Seojun's gaze flickered up to see Daehwan leant against the doorway. His habit of closing his eyes whilst practising just so he could see if he remembered the lyrics had come into play again, and he hadn't been able to hear or see the youngest boy enter.

"Hi Mr Seo." Daehwan bowed, eyes flickering nervously over to the vocal coach. Dae could be considerably comfortable with his own teachers, but being around some of the others that he didn't necessarily know well didn't feel so comfortable for him.

And thankfully, Seojun could figure this out quickly, engaging Mr Seo in a conversation as he packed up his stuff for the day, asking about his proposal to his fiancé that the vocal coach had told him about earlier. That and a few words about what Seojun needed to do as 'homework' - it really was just practise - and Mr Seo was making his way out of the practise room with words of goodbye from both Daehwan and Seojun.

"What's up Dae?" Seojun asked, reaching for the sheets of paper, folding them up and tucking them into his pocket before gathering up the rest of his stuff including the lunchbox that Chorong and Hyemin had brought along earlier.

"Heekyung asked if Kenji and Hyunwoo thought we could benefit from watching a couple of the girls' dance practises." Daehwan himself didn't look particularly excited by this. "We don't have to actually do anything but.. just watch them and learn about a certain presence that all performers have?"

"I suppose that sounds about right." Seojun nodded slowly. "I'm guessing she's figured that we can't really just stand still during out performance?"

"I think it might have been mentioned." Daehwan shrugged, holding the door open as they left the practise room, Seojun making sure that all the equipment and light was turned off. "As well as the fact that Mr Jeong mentioned there was no point us leaving when we have group practise in half an hour."

"So we're killing time under the pretense of learning about performance skills." Seojun seemed to understand now. "I'm pretty sure that Kenji could join in, but you do not want to get Hyunwoo on there. It would be a disaster."

"You know, Miyeon said the exact same thing about his dancing skills." Daehwan chuckled, mind flickering back to earlier that day. "I can dance a little bit, you?"

"No way." Seojun quickly pushed back that idea as they neared the main practise room in which they had all been gathered eating pizza just two nights before. Already they could hear the music and the shouts of numbers, counting them in and out of sequences.

"I don't envy them in the slightest." A voice piped up down the other end of the corridor, the Han and Kim boys looked up to see Hyunwoo and Kenji stood outside of the grey painted door, both peering through the small window.

"Which one of you fools suggested we do this." Seojun asked as they came to a stop on the otherside, his height allowing him to look over Hyunwoo's head and into the big, mirror-walled practise room.

"Kenji." Hyunwoo glared up at the eldest Japanese boy, who was still rather immersed in the warm-up that the girls were doing, arms raising every so often as he did a mini-version of whatever the girls were doing. "Their instructor - it's the scarier one today, Miss Jo - told us to wait out here whilst they begin." He explained.

A knock on the glass made Kenji jump back and almost knock poor Daehwan open, the grey swinging open by a rather short but smiling woman. "Alright, now you can come in. But bear in mind that if you disrupt my dancers then I will no be pleased."

"Of course." Hyunwoo arranged a diplomatic smile on his face and Miss Jo nodded and the smile turned to a smirk for just a moment. It always worked - the Song boy had a natural gift for making adults like him with just one smile.

It was far to say that with Kenji, Seojun and Daehwan's range in visuals - which were incredibly pretty yet just a little sharper than most - that wasn't so easy.

The four girls were taking a pause after the intense warm-up, bottles of water in their hands, tightening the bands in their hair and the laces on their shoes. Small smiles greeted the boys and even smaller waves.

Miyeon caught Seojun's eye and winked, stretching her arms out and helping Kai with a twisted band of her vest as the boys settled on the set of chairs near to where Miss Jo was stood.

"Now, girls, I know this is just as unexpected of a change to you as it is to these boys." She began, her voice carrying over the space with ease, the girls taking positions in the centre of the wooden floor, watching the women with the attentiveness of solider to their general.

And Seojun could understand why they were so drawn in - or at least appeared to be. Miss Jo, despite her height and warm face, seemed to radiate a commanding spirit and had the right tone and stance for an instructor.

"However, this will be useful for the both of you. Boys, you will learn more about performances and focus on facial expressions, girls you will finally get that audience I have been talking to you about. And this one is even harder to perfom in front of, because instead of strangers it is your fellow trainees and friends." Miss Jo continued, making her way over to the sound system on the otherside of Hyunwoo's seat.

"Alright, so you all know what dance we're beginning with? The one that we completed last week?" Miss Jo's focus was on Maiya at the front of the group, who nodded.

And as the loud music began, a beat far quicker to any karaoke song that Hyunwoo had attempted to dance to rang through the practise room. None of the four boys dared to let their jaws drop, but their eyes widened considerably at the precision and speed that the girls had as they danced, assigned parts mouthing the lyrics at the same time.

Twisting movements, changing facial expressions and a continuous energy.

Now they knew what the Entertainment meant by focusing on their dance - because all of them were crazy talented and so much of their debut rided on that.

But as for Seojun, god was he glad that he didn't have to dance because he didn't know if he could do it.