Your POV

The morning seemed to drag by as you waited for a message from Kyuhyun. Anytime your phone vibrated you heart surged with hope only to have it dashed away when it was just another regular text wishing you luck. After about the 10^th time you lunged for your phone the stylist unnie confiscated it having finally gotten fed up with your fidgeting. Who would’ve thought it’d be hard to do make-up and hair on a constantly moving person?

By the time you’d finished at the salon you were a nervous wreck. Every time someone asked you about your glasses it took all of your patience not to bite their head off. It wasn’t until you were at the arena for the dress rehearsal that Kyuhyun gave you any news. You were sitting in the waiting room with the rest of the dancers when he showed up with the other SuJu members.

“Awww Melody you look so cute with your glasses!” Ryeowook gushed while bounding into the room with his endless energy.

Though his compliment normally would’ve made you happy at the moment all it did was remind you that you were still without contacts.

“Thanks.” You replied half-heartedly.

It was then that Kyuhyun approached. “Ryeowook can I have a second with Melody please?”

“Uh-oh yes of-of course.” He stammered out.

Once Ryeowook skipped away Kyuhyun casually leaned up against the wall giving off the feeling that he had nothing better to do than stand there all day. He then discreetly slipped something into your hand.

Without looking at you he began to speak. “This is a pair of Donghae’s contacts for you to use for the time being. I was able to get a hold of an optic specialist who has your prescription on hand; however they are at his other office. He offered to have them shipped to our hotel, but the problem is that the soonest they will get here is tomorrow before our flight.”

You gripped the contacts tightly in your hand. “So basically tonight I have to perform half blind.” You deadpanned.

“It’s better than being completely blind.”

“That’s true. At least I’ll have the dress rehearsal to use as practice for tonight’s actual stage. I’ll just have to make due. Thanks for all your help.”

He acknowledged your thanks with a nod before pushing away from the wall. At the last second you called him back.

“Wait.”

He raised an eyebrow, a silent question.

“I need you to promise me something.”

“That depends on what it is.”

You looked down at your feet and spoke quietly. “If it looks like I’m not going to be able to perform to the best of my abilities I would like you to inform Dong-Sun sunsangnim to replace me.”

“Are you sure?”

Swallowing thickly you nodded giving him all the confirmation he needed.

“Very well, I will do as you asked, but I expect you to respect my judgment.”

 “I understand.”

“Well then you’d better get those contacts in and try to get used to them as quickly as possible.” He suggested before walking away.

Clutching the case tightly you made your way over to the mirror and slipped the contacts in. The need to blink was overwhelming as you stared out thru blurry eyes. It was like a gummy film was sitting on top of your eyes creating a distorted image. Carefully you maneuvered around the room doing your best to appear like nothing was wrong. You caught your foot on the edge of the couch and had to stifle a moan. Finally you reached the safety of the short bench lining the wall and sat down. In only a few minutes you’d be called to the stage for the final run-thru.

You were busy squinting in an attempt to bring the room into focus when a hand was suddenly waved in front of your face.

“Earth to Melody.”

Blinking in surprise you recognized the familiar voice of Ailee.

“Oh sorry I wasn’t paying attention.”

She plopped down on the bench next to you. “Yea I kind of noticed that. By the way do you have something in your eye because you’ve been squinting an awful lot?”

“I don’t think so. It’s just taking more time then I’d like to adjust to the lower prescription.”

“I thought Kyuhyun-ssi was supposed to find you a new pair.”

You rubbed your eyes tiredly. “He did find me some; unfortunately they are a few hundred miles away in another city and won’t get here till tomorrow.”

“That . So what are you wearing right now?”

“He bummed off an extra pair from Donghae-ssi no doubt using his force as the ‘evil maknae’ to get them.”

“That sounds like something he’d do, though I’m surprised he even agreed to help out at all. It seems kind of out of character for him. From what I’ve seen so far there are very few people he will go out of his way for. One being Sungmin and the other being Ryeowook.” She surmised.

“I think that’s why he is helping out. If I make a mistake during Ryeowook’s solo stage he will be affected by it much more than me.”

“I suppose that could be it.” She held up her hand in front of your face once again. “So how bad is it anyways? Can you tell how many fingers I’m holding up?”

Straining your eyes you took a guess. “Uh 3?”

Ailee placed her hand back at her side slowly before speaking. “Well you didn’t get it right, but you weren’t that off either.”

“How many were you holding up?”

“Ummm only 1.”

Frustrated you let your head fall back against the wall and closed your eyes. Unfortunately your moment of self-pity was short lived when you were asked to report to the stage. You slowly gained your feet and spoke into Ailee’s ear.

“I’m going to hold onto the back of your shirt so can you make sure I don’t run into anything until we get there?”

She nodded and grabbed your hand placing it at the hem of her t-shirt. Thankfully for the full rehearsals you were allowed to perform in comfortable clothes and shoes instead of the usual heels and short skirts. Once you reached the edge of the main stage just behind the curtains you finally dared to let go of Ailee not wanting anyone to witness your struggle.

She leaned down to whisper into your ear. “Are you sure you are going to be ok?”

“I’ll manage.”

Just then the first beats of ‘Opera’ blasted from the speakers signaling your entrance. Counting out the steps in your head you tried to ignore the dizzying effect of the contacts and focus on keeping your head up. The urge to look at the floor was overpowering, but you did your best to stare out into the empty audience. You’d almost made it through the entire song without a mistake when you felt someone step on your foot causing you to stumble. Recovering quickly you looked up into the smirking face of Jae-Hwa.

Ugh I’ve never wanted to punch someone in my entire life as much as I want to deck her right now!

Lucky for her the next song had you at opposite ends of the walkway saving her face from feeling the wrath of your fist. The part that seemed to cause you the most issues was when you had to change positions. You’d never been happier about the numerous times you’d practiced switching without looking than right now.

At least if I move in the wrong direction everyone else should be able to avoid running into me.

The next song was a series of ballads during which you had no role so you tried to locate your friends among the blurry faces of all the staff. You were unable to recognize anyone and resigned yourself to simply standing still. It wasn’t worth the risk of tripping to try to find them at this point.

During the second slow song you felt someone come up behind you. Relying on your instincts you whipped around to face them not trusting anyone who would sneak up from the back.

“What have we here? Do you have eyes in the back of your head or something?”

Instantly you knew it was Jae-Hwa in front of you along with two of her ‘followers’.

“No I don’t, but it just so happens that I could smell your greasy stench before you arrived. It seems to stick to you like glue for some reason.” You claimed boldly.

“Listen to her girls she thinks she can intimidate me while she is standing there squinting her eyes at me like an ahjumma.”

Her two sidekicks burst into laughter as was expected of them. You bit back yet another retort opting instead for silence. She lost her patience first and spoke once again.

She must like to hear herself talk…

“I’m curious Melody-ssi just where did you happen to find a pair of contacts even ones as useless as these appear to be?”

“Are you admitting to haven taken them in the first place?” You asked.

“Who me? I’d never do such a thing to one of my potential band mates.” She said in an overly sweet voice.

You rolled your eyes growing quickly tired of her juvenile antics and chose to turn away from her completely. She didn’t take too well to being ignored however and decided to shove you hard. You weren’t prepared for the sudden attack and fell hard to your knees biting back a yell.

“What in the hell is going over here?” You heard someone ask.

Blinking up from your position on the ground you saw the unmistakable face of Hara. She looked absolutely pissed. You recognized yet another familiar face when Victoria leaned down the help you up.

“I repeat what in the hell is going on?” Her question came out low and quiet making it that much more dangerous.

“What’s it to you pipsqueak?” One of the other girls spoke up.

“Everything when someone hurts one of my friends. Believe me when I say that I don’t get angry I get even.”

You tugged on her shirt sleeve to get her attention.

“What?” She nearly shouted. “Oh sorry I didn’t mean that.”

“Just let it go.”

“That’s it you’ve officially gone crazy.” She stated before launching an all-out physical attack on Jae-Hwa. Quickly you grabbed her from behind effectively pinning her arms at her sides. “Hey let me go. She can’t get away with it.”

“She won’t.” You whispered into her ear. “But we need a better plan than to just kick the out her as satisfying as that might be it won’t take care of the overall problem.”

All the strength seemed to go out of her and you finally felt her relax against you.

“Fine.”

You looked over at Jae-Hwa. “Get out of my sight now before I decide to take the risk and tear you limb from limb.”

Not trusting Hara completely you waited until they were out of sight before letting her go.

“I swear to god Mel how do you manage to piss everyone off?”

You gave her a lopsided smile. “It must be my endearing personality and large collection of Hello Kitty stuff.”

She punched you lightly on the arm. “This is serious.”

Letting out a sigh you grabbed her hand. “I know… believe me I know, but let’s just focus on getting thru the latest issue at hand which is me not being able to see.”

“Ugh araso.” She said reluctantly.

“Great then can you lead me to my starting position please for Ryeowook’s solo?”

Still holding hands she pulled you gently behind her to stage right, the correct place for you to begin. You looked out at the main stage which to your distorted vision seemed abnormally long. Taking a deep breath you concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other doing your best to stop at the correct place. Fortunately there was so much physical contact in the dance routine that once you made it to center stage it was easy to remain close to Ryeowook.

The difficult part came when you had to transition to the smaller outer stage which was reached by a set of 5 stairs and a narrow walkway almost 100 ft. in length. It wasn’t your most graceful performance, but you managed to get there. You felt great relief when the small platform was lowered below stage signaling the end.

On your walk back to the side area you passed Kyuhyun, who was crouched down waiting to be raised up for his own solo stage. When you were only a short distance away he gave you a thumbs up making sure you saw it.

Looks like I’ll be performing tonight. I just hope his judgment about me is right…

A/N: I'm seriously so excited by all the amazing feedback I've been getting so keep it up I love it! Welcome to all my new subscribers and readers I look forward to hearing from you. -Sarah