On the day of the arts festival, classes went on as per normal for the first half of the day. Involved parties were granted an earlier release from class to go prepare.

“Nervous?” Yooji asked the boy beside her, who was unusually quiet.

Jaehwan only nodded. His heart was thumping so hard in his chest he was sure everyone could hear it.

Yooji grabbed her friend’s shaking hands, “relax. You’ll do fine, we’ll do fine.”

Although she appeared to be calm, Yooji was feeling nervous as well. Sure, it wasn’t the first time she had performed for a crowd, but this was a new crowd with people she would see for the next 3 years. One embarrassing mistake and they would remember for as long as they would want it to last. There was no Wonshik, Hongbin or Sanghyuk by her side to tell her jokes to help her relax. Her usually goofy best friend was stiff as a stone and he was making it even more difficult for her. Hakyeon was with his dance team – he choreographed the routine for them. And Taekwoon…well things weren’t exactly cleared up between them. Yooji didn’t know if he read her note already or not, and if he did, what was his reaction to it?

Shaking her head slightly to clear her mind, Yooji went back to focusing on her songs. The duo was doing a duet, and then a solo song each.

“Jaehwan, breathe,” she patted her friend’s hands, “you’re an amazing singer. You can do this, okay?”

The boy rested his head on her shoulder and nodded, trying to regulate his breathing. Yooji softly hummed the melody of the song they were gonna sing and it appeared to be of aid as Jaehwan slowly relaxed and started singing. She smiled and joined in.

----

“Taekwoonie~!” Hakyeon called as he plopped onto the seat beside his best friend.

“How’s the dance team?”

“They’re good to go!” the tanned male looked satisfied.

Taekwoon nodded, “did you see Jaehwan and Yooji?”

“Nah,” Hakyeon shook his head, “they’re probably in the club room.”

The singing club’s room had been out of bounds to everyone else since preparations began for the performing arts festival, which explained why the two elder boys hadn’t been able to see Jaehwan and Yooji much. They didn’t even know what songs the pair of best friends were performing.

A while later, the festival finally begun. Cheers and applauses rang