Day before the concert

Ariel sat on a tall make up chair in front of a vanity mirror as her foot was shaking nonstop from her nerves. She was biting her nails which she shouldn’t be doing because she just painted her nails but she couldn’t help it. She was snapped out of her nervous state when she heard a sudden knock on her dressing room’s door. 

Ariel turned her head to see who was visiting her and quietly cheered it was Megan instead of anyone else. “Hi Megs.”

Megan scanned through her clipboard on her hand to recheck the schedule that was clipped on, “Kahi wants you to rehearse your dance stage with Yura and Ri-Ah before its time for your stage rehearsal.” Megan announced. “Oh and take off that hoodie. Its getting hot in this building yet you’re still wearing that jacket.” She demanded as she dismissed herself from the room to continue her duties. 

Ariel obeyed to Megan’s orders, she was only looking out for her like an older sister would to their little sister. Ariel slipped the jacket off her body and wrapped it around the back of her chair. She glanced at her appearance in the mirror one last time until something purple on her wrist caught her attention. “Oh no.”

Ariel examined her wrist and instantly realized it was a fresh bruise caused from her father’s tightening grasp from the night before. Ariel sat back down into her seat and reached over for her makeup pouch for one particular item. She rummaged through the pouch until she found her concealer and makeup pads. “Hopefully this will work.” Ariel prayed that her concealer would disguise the discoloring bruise on her work. 

After applying concealer on her wrist, she examined it one last time to double check that if it looked completely natural, which it did thankfully. Ariel threw away the evidence and exited her dressing room for the dance studio which was in a separate wing from the dressing rooms. In the doorway of the designated studio she was assigned to be in, she saw her fellow label mates, Darling, rehearsing their dance number for their special dance battle stage. Ariel peeked into the room to look for Yura and Ri-Ah, once she found them stretching in the corner away from the group rehearsing, she quietly entered and joined them. 

“Hey Ari.” Yura greeted brightly with a wave, along with Ri-Ah. “You were almost late.”

“Yeah sorry about that.” Ariel bowed her head in an apologetic way. “Something came up, but its alright now.” She assured the two with a bubbly smile. Ariel quickly began stretching her body to prepare for the rehearsal so her body wouldn’t feel tense. Thankful enough, the arm with the bruise didn’t exert any excruciating pain to her wrist as she stretched her body. Ariel halted from stretching when she felt the need for some water. She glanced around the room for a water cooler, and immediately began walking towards the cooler once she caught sight of it. 

Ariel grabbed one of the mini cups from the top of the water container and pushed the lever down for the water to flow into her cup. She took a sip of the refreshing water, stopped to stare blankly in front of her, and continued to take another sip as her eyes stared inside the cup. 

“You should really tell Kai to use the same chapstick he had on last night.”

Ariel removed the cup away from her face to see whose body that voice belonged to. 

“Candy cane flavored chapstick? It was nice.” Eunjung took a sip of her water before she spoke again, “I’m sorry about the dispute I caused between you and Kai. Well I’m not really sorry.” She smirked evilly. 

Ariel slowly crushed the cup in her hands as she felt anger fuming inside her, but she controlled herself from letting her fist do all the talking. “Eunjung, can I just ask one question?”

Eunjung slightly motioned her head for her to ask whatever. 

“Why?”

“Why did you steal Chanyeol from me?”

“Excuse me?”

“Oh don’t play dumb Ariel. I knew you liked Chanyeol when I was dating him, so now we’re even.”

Ariel raised her brow. “What? You think I took Chanyeol away from you? We’re just friends.”

She scoffed at Ariel’s answer. “Just friends my .” Eunjung retorted as she turned to leave from their conversation. Before she left, she turned her head to say one more thing before she left. “Tell Kai to buy the same chapstick for me, will ya?”

Ariel’s nostrils flared in irritation from Eunjung’s attempt to spite her. Ariel always believed that violence never solved anything. So punching the pores off her nose wouldn’t solve her anger. 

Ariel joined Yura and Ri-Ah, who were now sitting on the couch waiting for the girl group to finish up their rehearsal. 

“What did Eunjung do now?” Ri-Ah calmly asked. “She looked pretty ticked off.”

“Nothing.” Ariel huffed. “Are they almost done yet?”

“They’re about to be.” Yura replied as she played with the ends of her hair. 

Ariel nodded her head in response and quietly sat down watching the others finish up their practice. She blankly watched Sojin and her fellow members run through their dance before it was her turn to practice. She felt a presence sitting next to her and didn’t even bother to turn her head because she could tell who it was by the aurora they were giving off. 

“How are you?”

Ariel kept her eyes forward. She wasn’t in the talking mood, especially with this person. 

“Earth to Ariel?”

“I’m okay.” She finally answered. 

Not really.

Chanyeol scooted closer to Ariel. “I have a sister and I know when girls are lying when they say ‘I’m okay.’”

Ariel nonchalantly turned her head to Chanyeol and meekly replied, “I’m peachy.”

“Ariel! Yura! Ri-Ah! Come to the floor!” The dance choreographer, Kahi, instructed as Darling finished their dance rehearsal for the time being. 

“I’ll see you around.” She said as she stood up to begin rehearsal. 

“I know you’re not okay.” He said loud enough for only Ariel to hear. 

Ariel spun around with her head hanging low, “I know. But I have to pretend I am right now.” She replied low in a volume and resumed her rehearsals for the concert.

6:06PM - Soundcheck

Being one of the rookie solo artists, Ariel went last to do soundcheck on stage. She was waiting for one of the audio guys to hand her a microphone and a soundbox. She only had one song to sing as well as two other special songs she would be performing. The audio guy handed her a mic and her soundbox and she proceeded to adjust the volume levels on the soundbox. Once everything was adjusted to her preference, another stage manager motioned his arm out to stage entrance way for Ariel to walk out and to begin her soundcheck/dress rehearsal. 

Ariel walked towards the center of the stage where there was a taped ‘x’ to verify where the center of the stage was. She began warming up by singing scales that her mom taught her to do when she was only seven. 

Mom.

Ariel’s been trying to be happy about her situation. Her mom is gone. Gone. The one person who helped with her