She remembered the last ranking as clearly as if it had happened five minutes ago. Remembered representative Jang call her name after announcing the number of votes that had graciously allowed her to once again be a part of the top 11. However--In that second that passed before she stood with an excited smile, all she could think about was "what if"?

It was difficult to be proud of her place when she knew that she was only there because of the vote benefit she had gained from her teams success in the previous round.  It wasn't that she felt as though she was undeserving of the win, after all, her whole team had put in hours of practice in order to get the standard they'd achieved and at the end of it all, they'd gone on stage and performed to the very best of their abilities. There shouldn't have been any reason for her to feel so empty and unworthy and dissapointed as her rank was announced- but there was. Something about the whole situation made her feel sick to the stomach.

Not like anybody knew of her inner turmoil though. Well- almost nobody, she thought as she covertly glanced to left, only to see the worry hidden behind the celebratory smiles of her teammates. She knew instantly that neither Yoojung or Soomin were fooled by her smile, they knew that the tears shining in her eyes were not entirely from joy. 

Still, she'd torn her eyes away from her worried friends and walked up the podium. It was easy to say her thanks to the nations produces because every single word was completely sincere. She was was thankful for those who supported her consistently, it was only her own lacking performance that she was disappointed in. 

At this point, she was grateful to have even remained in the top 11. From then on, she swore that she would ten times harder to show everyone a performance that she couldn't regret. 

                ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

They'd barely shut the door to the van when Yoojung rounded on her. She should have seen it coming really,  but she'd been out of it ever since they were ushered from the building and into the chilly spring air. 

The older girl didn't even really give her time to react before she'd thrown her arms around her, squeezing her to the point where she couldn't tell if Yoojung was trying to give or receive comfort. It stayed that way for a while, Yoojung's head buried in her shoulder while Soomin watched intently with slightly downcast eyes, as if she felt as though she was intruding on a private moment between the two best friends.

"Why are you sad Doyeonie? " At first she wasn't sure of she'd even heard correctly,  muffled as the older girls words were. 

I