Some seconds later, I had lost count, my breath was running out. It was getting harder and harder to blow, and I was now literally squeezing my lungs out trying to sustain my blowing. Sweat drops were starting to dot my forehead, and my eyes were getting dazy.

I let my last blast of air run out, and watched in slow motion as that pink paper floated gently down, before I gasped for air. My eyes slid over to the timer-- 1:49:24, a great new record-- before seeing how Hyojung-unnie was doing.

To my surprise, she was standing with the paper slip in her hand, looking content. I wasn't sure if she'd stopped after or before me; who had won?

The principal cleared his throat, drawing our attention. "The winner, everyone, is..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

GAAAH! Why was he taking so long? And why was nobody saying anything either? Why was everyone (and I mean literally EVERYONE) all masters of the Poker Face? Curse them! Curse them!

"...Jieun. Congratulations!"

Now my brain was stuck. It was just simply stuck. Frozen in place. And then I let it go. (A/N: Pun totally intended.) My breath, I mean.

Still in slight-- no, still big-- shock, I felt others come and pat me on the back. I dimly acknowledged Hyojung-unnie's sincere congrats with probably a senile-looking laugh/huff-of-breath-thingy.

"And sadly, Lee Yejin (A/N: Ailee) has fallen last."

I snapped out of my shock because of this other shock. "Yejin"?! Did he say "Yejin"?! Were my ears going bad? She was so talented! And awesome! And talented! Why?

With a bow and a smile, the unnie left quietly. Like me, Hyojung-unnie also looked pretty surprised. I really could not believe this! Yejin-unnie was known for her talented and awesome voice, and as a senior, she was very well respected. And last time we'd done this, Yejin-unnie had held out her own well, too. How could she have lost?

The principal clapped twice, sharply, to get our attention. "Well, that's that. There will be two more missions, which had been already planned before this--" he looked disgruntled as he said this "--unfortunate situation with the male side. As for the last two to remain, there will be a special round with the male side." He dismissed us with a mere wave, and we all filed out.

The next time we'd meet would be tomorrow, according to the secretary. We would be given directions at four, and we'd meet again at six. So whatever it was, we'd only have two hours to prepare.

I decided that I really do not like survival-type stuff like this.

With a heavy sigh, I trudged into studio 9 to work with Yonghwa-oppa. We'd promised to work today at the specific time, and I was five minutes early. But hey, early is good, right? I loaded the instrumental for Jason Mraz's Lucky, and started my warm-ups. By the time I was done, Yonghwa-oppa was here, apologizing profusely for being a few minutes late.

We got to work, first singing without the instrumental, then with the instrumental, and then with Yonghwa-oppa's guitar. I kept getting my part wrong, though, and this time it was me apologizing profusely. By the end of the hour, we were pretty well rehearsed, though we did have to work on our timing a little more. I said bye to him then polished up my song a little more. After a while of listening to Kibum-oppa's stuff, I glanced at my watch with tired eyes.

It read, quiet blurrily, 5:30. Yes! I jumped up and ran to the cafeteria, sure to find my friends eating dinner. I ran back a few seconds after, because I had forgotten to save everything on my flash drive. After I had done so, I started running again, only to skid to a stop when I almost crashed into somebody else.

"I'm so sorry!" the person and I said at the same time. Blinking, I got a better view and realized it was--

"Yoseob-oppa?"

"Jieun?"

We laughed at the amazing coincidence, and then ran together to the cafeteria. In huffs and puffs, I explained my situation in the midst of all that running and that staring we got from other students.

He explained, with great ease (he IS a singer, after all. He probably had mastered all the classes here!), that he had just gotten out of a faculty meeting (the reason why we didn't have class, I guess) and was rushing to the caf as well. Especially because today was kimchee stew, his favorite (A/N: I made this up. Don't know if he actually likes it. -_-)

I high-fived him real fast and then focused on running. After all, I loved kimchee stew as well.

We reached the cafeteria pretty fast, considering my failing stamina. When we arrived, Yoseob-oppa looked bright and cheerful, while I was gasping for breath and sweating buckets.

We got our dinners and, as my part was the wing-girl, I coaxed him into sitting at our table, where Jiyoon, Suzy, the Dream High crew (that was their group name) and several others sat. I made sure he sat near Suzy, who was blushing madly and giving me crazy signals of thank you's.

The dinner was awesome, which, YAY! I needed some awesome. I forgot entirely of the MC Project, the Fall Showcase survival auditions, and the fact that I was falling behind in a lot of my classes. For some reason, I felt especially happy today. Maybe because it was kimchee stew day?

What made things better was the news that I got mail. My birthday presents! I could pick it up tomorrow.

The rest of the day went by in a blur, what with more worrying and moping and cheering and homework-doing and getting tutored and all.

All in all, it was a day with many mixed feelings.

A/N: First and foremost: I'M SORRY!!!!! I know I said I wouldn't do this to you guys anymore. But I DID!!!! I must be the worst person in AFF, seriously. What if I end up like those authors who NEVER update? Scratch that-- I already AM. Forgive and forget, guys? Anyways, here's a short update, with random filler stuff. After all, the flow is kind of disrupted if time goes too fast. But sometimes I feel like I'm going too slow as well. Writing's hard, especially when I can't go back and rearrange everything, since there are people who read it. :( Thanks for the constant watch, those who are still watching. Have a nice day, I thank every single one of you reading this. :)

Preview

I had completely forgotten about my getting of directions at four for the Fall Showcase audtion thing, and so I was completely surprised when the packet thing was delivered right to my Exercise class.

I was excused right away, and I relocated in my room to read the thing. My jaw dropped open, comic style, to the floor. What in the world?! I was supposed to do what?!!!!