Victoria’s heart was pounding so fast, she was also nervous for Miranda. She knows for a fact that the older girl’s a perfectionist. She has yet to see her look harassed. Miranda was always put together, never a hair out of place. Miranda also has the perfect poker face; she hates being put on the spot unprepared. Throughout the show, the older girl always looked composed, but Victoria knows that underneath the façade of perfect calm, Miranda is also battling a storm of emotions just like everyone else, but she puts up these walls around her.

 Looking at her now, soft light surrounding her making her glow, she pressed the first few keys on the piano, Yiruma’s “Beloved” started to fill the dimmed studio. Miranda already enchanted everyone in the studio, poised delicately on the piano bench, back straight and her left leg elegantly tucked beneath the bench while her right controlled the pedals. Victoria suddenly felt sad.

 As her fingers danced on the piano keys, Miranda’s face would very subtly change with the music. Not everyone can see it – a slight lift of her right brow, a creasing frown that suddenly disappears when you blink, her lips would pout a tiny bit before stretching into a soft smile, and once in a while she would close her eyes – Victoria realized that although Miranda looked absolutely perfect, capable and content –overall a picture of stunning beauty and independence – her unnie must be very lonely.

Unknowingly, a tear escaped her eye. Victoria fought for control; she stealthily wiped the offending tear away, drew a steadying breath and smiled at her sister. She stood up and clapped loudly after Miranda finished the piece.

Nichkhun saw it. He saw it all. The studio lights dimmed when it was Miranda’s turn to perform. Although everyone’s attention was on Miranda, his gaze was locked on Victoria. Ever since the two entered the set looking almost alike, with Miranda only a tiny bit taller, both sporting almost the same figure and sometimes Nichkhun would spy the same gestures. Miranda might have been the talk of the night, but he had all his attention trained towards Victoria the whole time. Now, she looked nervous sitting alone while her eyes were only on Miranda. A look past between the two, and Victoria visibly relaxed.

Nichkhun still couldn’t get over the fact that Victoria is the “baby sister” of the famously private actress. He was not able to get a lot of information from his previous meeting from earlier owing for the fact that he was busily chatting with the f(x) girls and was distracted by the food. He was not even able to talk to Victoria properly since the PD arrived who looked like she was ready to faint after seeing him there. He had to leave right away.

During the performance, he saw how Victoria’s face change from relax to excited, then contemplating until slowly sadness took over. He couldn’t figure out what caused the sudden melancholy on Victoria’s expression. His breath hitched when he saw a tear roll down her cheek. He was suddenly worried – he frowned. Taecyeon must have noticed because he nudged him and leaned in, “What’s wrong with you? Stop staring at her! You are going to melt her with that laser beam of yours. You’re being too obvious, dude!” he whispered to Nichkhun.

Nichkhun panicky looked around to see if he was captured by the camera. Fortunately all of them were trained on Miranda. One just swung over to them to catch their reaction on the performance, it closed up on Taecyeon who was so engrossed on the piece, or was it on Miranda. Nichkhun couldn’t tell. I was hard for him to focus after he saw Victoria cry. He promised to get to the bottom of it after the show.

Miranda stood up and bowed to the applause from the audience after the last note ended. But before she walked away she promised that if they win the battle, the two of them will perform, while pointing towards Victoria.

“Without the piano” she told them and winked. She got another loud round of applause and cheers from the audience. Victoria nervously giggled. The MCs were flustered; they never saw that coming from the very serene actress.

Everybody had something to say to that. Team Apollo, also butted in and said that they too will perform if they win, Team Ares of course could not be bested: Taecyeon promised that Nichkhun is going to do a hundred pushups if they win. Nichkhun playfully whacked him in th