The screen pulls down as the lights wink out, leaving us in cloaked darkness, only the soft mumbles from the crowd and my pounding heart echoing in my ears. ~Soojung.

09

Chapter

07 July 2014

❝ D-1 Chapter 09: Countdown  ❤

“No really, I’m fine.” Diamond continues to refuse help from the rest of us, attempting to make it seem as if it wasn’t a big deal to be trampled by a much of hyperactive sasaeng fans and nearly twisting her ankle last night. Turns out, a few of the fans had recognized her from her appearance in the “Maxstep” Music Video that she had performed in for the Younique Dance Unit. But according to her, the pain was only minimal and she believes they were suspicious of her wearing similar sunglasses as EXO’s Luhan —well since the male had given her his sunglasses, but whatever. But yet, she couldn’t fool me, or Emily. Now that the maknaes seemed to have bought her excuse, the two of us cornered her in her dorm bedroom, giving her concerned glances as she wobbled in midst of trying to put on her shoes.

“Oh, you can’t be for real. At least put some ice on it.” Emily says in English, making me sit silently off to the side as the two seemed to continue in a heated conversation in English. By the look of Lily’s face when she had stuck her head into the doorway, I was somewhat glad to not be able to understand what the two were saying. In the end, it seemed by Emily had won the battle, sitting our dancer down to ice her sore ankle. Either the girl had a high pain tolerance, or she was just a really good actor. I couldn’t tell.

“Are you sure you can dance for tomorrow’s debut stage?” Lily pokes her head in again, sitting down at the corner of her bed, eyeing her ankle cautiously. Thank god it wasn’t swollen. So that was a good sign. I guess. “Yeah,” she answers a bit too quickly, waving her comment of, “I’ll survive!” she puts her fist up in a fighting sign, “Hwaiting P!NK FR!DAY!” Emily purses her lips, heaving a sigh, “Well, you’re just lucky that it’s only a V Debut Showcase, so they’ll be playing our recordings. So consider yourself lucky.” Diamond grins, tying her shoelaces, “Lucky is my middle name!” Emily scoffs, “No, it isn’t.” Lily jumps in, “It’s SJ!” I laugh, “Suju!” The three of us hug her with words of encouragement.

“Sshhhh!” Eunmi nudges the side of me, putting her finger to her lips, “The countdown is starting!” I tap the rest of the oblivious members beside me, silently pointing towards the stage. On the screen, the timer was counting down from 5 minutes, marking the seconds left until the start of our debut showcase. My breath seemed to get caught in my throat, only 4 minutes and 12 seconds left until the entire crowd in the Gangnam Station would be watching our songs and debut performance! I finger the mic in my grip nervously, deliberately taking in deep breaths to calm myself.

After the video of “Dancing Queen,” we would be walking out onto the stage for our introductions and statements. And now my stomach was feeling queasy with the butterflies making it flutter with anticipation. With my quiet nature, I was shy and completely terrified of speaking out loud, let alone in front of a huge crowd that was gathered in front of the