2. Green Eyes

Sejeong’s grip on Nayoung’s hand is almost vice-like.

She’s starting to worry about cutting off circulation, but not enough to actually let go. They enter the shooting room, a pyramid of chairs greets her. Several girls sit sprawled amongst the plastic seats. All eyes turn on them, the hushed whispers of ‘Jellyfish’ does not do the butterflies in her gut any good. Sejeong smiles brightly, the kind that curves her eyes, the ones that Nayoung claims to brighten the room. She hopes it actually does and that the elder girl wasn’t exaggerating.

“Unnie we should just go where the camera would film us well,” Sejeong says, only half joking. Her eyes flicker over the rows of empty seats before it settles on the large golden chair at the top of the pyramid.

Well…Go big or go home right?

“There’s a seat for first place.”

Nayoung glances up, “Where?”

“There, at the top,” she wonders how Nayoung can miss the bedazzled chair. There is no way it’s a coincidence that No. 1 is decked out in gold and looks more like a throne compared to the rest of the mundane plastic chairs. If this doesn’t get her noticed, she doesn’t know what will, “Since we came here pretty early let’s go.”

Nayoung glances at her like she’s lost her mind, but offers no resistance when Sejeong pulls her forward. Mina proves to be more reluctant as they climb the steps to the top. She can feel the other contestants’ eyes on her. Soft murmurings from down the front that may or may not be related to them. It sends her heart pounding, she resists to the urge to look back at them.

“Isn’t this a little too high unnie?” Mina asks worriedly, turning around, and Sejeong can feel her shaking through Nayoung.

But Sejeong keeps walking, “No, no, it’s fine. Come on.”

Nayoung’s hand tightens around her own, they’re clammy, born from trembling nerves and teeth clenching suspense. Her other hand is around , like she couldn’t believe Sejeong would have the audacity to do this.

After wandering around indecisively at the top for a bit, they eventually settle on seats 2, 3 and 4. After all, when are they ever going to be up here again? Sejeong knows she needs to take initiative, do something to stand out from the other ninety nine girls and this early in the competition, this seems like the best way to do so, even if it did end up giving her fellow Jellyfish trainees a mini heart attack.

“You’re crazy,” Nayoung murmurs so close to her ear that Sejeong nearly jumps out of her seat.

Sejeong grins, her hand fiddles with the audio mic in her shirt, pretending to adjust it, when in reality she’s moving it so she couldn’t be recorded, “You love me taking initiative.”

Nayoung smirks, one eyebrow rising suggestively, “Only in the bed—

 “Unnie!” Mina hisses, slapping Nayoung’s thigh with one hand, and groaning into the other one.

“Look at what you’ve done unnie,” Sejeong jokes, looking appropriately aghast, “You’ve scarred Mina for life.”

 “That’s hardly scarring, she’ll get over it,” Nayoung says with a dismissive shrug, “Probably before your claw marks on my back heal, now that’s scarring.”

“Oh my god, please stop.”

Sejeong wonders when time decided to slow down.

It’s as if Mnet’s editing staff flipped a switch somewhere and now everything’s moving in slow motion. Or maybe it’s just her nerves, Sejeong reasons. Her heart seems to be literally in and it’s thudding so hard that she’s having trouble breathing.

Are the judges trying to make her hyperventilate? The three of them have to be in the same group. Mina can be incredibly shy with strangers, not to mention her concentration issues, she needs her unnies with her to do well. Nayoung on the other hand...well Sejeong has to be with her for more selfish reasons.

“…and…Kim Sejeong,” Jang Keun-Suk announces.

Her lungs let out of a small breath, she and Nayoung are together. That’s her selfishness fulfilled—but what about the poor maknae? Well, Mina might actually be relieved to not be listening in to anymore potentially scarring conversations…

Sejeong has her hands clutched together underneath her chin, glancing nervously from the judges to Mina. Nayoung mirrors her on the other side, with her pearly teeth clenched as they always are when the elder girl is worried.

Definitely not her imagination then, Jang Keun-Suk is perfectly content dragging this out for as long as possible, and it’s not doing anything good for her blood pressure.

“…and…”

Nayoung sharp brown eyes meet her own, the look on her face is something like I wish he would hurry up already, or it could be I’m so nervous I’m about to faint, Sejeong isn’t sure. Contrary to popular belief staring at someone’s eyes isn’t really conductive to finding out their inner thoughts.

“…Kang Mina, congratulations.”

Relief floods through her, shoulders sag, but the lump in only tightens, tears pool in her eyes. She barely holds it together until they make it backstage. The tears spill out, like someone twisted the tap and there’s no off switch.

Damn it, she promised herself that she wouldn’t cry on national television again.

“Unnie it’s ok,” Mina says through her own tears.

Then she’s being pulled into someone’s chest, her arms automatically wrap around the taller girl’s, face buried into the crook of her neck. Sejeong is hyper aware of the cameras, even without Mina’s insistent nudging.

“C’mon, we gotta give an interview,” Nayoung says, gently pulling Sejeong’s hands from her face, thumb brushing the remaining tears from her eyes.

Sejeong nods, clearing and squaring her shoulders resolutely. Happy face. Gotta show their bright side.

A producer directs them in front of a camera, in front of some trainees who are waiting for their turn on the stage, and tells them to show their ranking stickers.

“Let’s do it cutely,” Mina suggests, sniffling slightly.

“You do everything cutely,” Nayoung laughs, and Sejeong has to agree.

But they come up with the greeting quickly. Sejeong can feel Nayoung’s fingers drum against her back. Once…twice…three times—They whip out their ‘A’ stickers proudly and display them to the camera.

“All A!” they exclaim in unison with genuinely bright smiles.

There’s a brief individual interview with the typical questions such as ‘how do you feel about making ‘A’?’ etc, that Sejeong mostly answers on auto-pilot. Then they’re back on top of the pyramid, sitting back down on those sofas, feeling a lot lighter as they watch the rest of the performances.

The trainees perform one by one, and Sejeong starts to nod off, and then it’s the Loen trainee’s turn. Sejeong thinks the girl looks vaguely familiar. Then she introduces herself—

“Hi I’m a two year Loen trainee, seventeen year old Park Soyeon.”

--and Sejeong remembers. The cute girl from Kpop Star. The dancer who made it to the Top 8. Sejeong leans forward in anticipation, Soyeon could only have gotten better. Heaven knows Sejeong definitely has improved in the last three years. Already Sejeong can list the differences. The younger girl is harder, both physically and metaphorically, her face is sharper, having lost its baby fat. Her entire image has been flipped, charismatic, and seductively y even, instead of the cute yet unexpectedly powerful baby dancer thing she had going on a few years back.

A jab to her side jolts her out of the past. She glances at Nayoung, who has a far-too-innocent to be true expression on her face, “Like what you see?”

Sejeong internally groans, she forgot how possessive Nayoung can be. Still, this could be fun. She plasters a smug smirk on her face, “Why? Jealous?”

“Depends,” Nayoung drawls, seemingly nonchalant, but Sejeong knows better. The elder girl can never quite get rid of her tells.

“On…?” Sejeong eggs her on, she knows she might regret it later, but Nayoung makes it all too fun not to try.

“On whether or not you’ve spontaneously developed pedo tendencies. She’s Mina’s age you know,” Nayoung points out, losing what little subtlety she had whenever the green eyes surface. Sejeong thinks it’s adorable really, no one can blame her for pushing buttons when Nayoung is being this obvious.

“It’s only three years.  In two, no one will care,” Sejeong mentions casually. She bites her bottom lip, trying to swallow the laughter that threatens to spill out and ruin all the fun she’s having.

Nayoung doesn’t seem to notice, judging by the way her fingers clench against the sofa arm rest. Oh yes, Sejeong muses, she’s definitely going to pay for it later.

As an extra bonus, during the individual interviews when the producer asks for her opinions on any of the contestants, Sejeong makes one about Soyeon.

“She was with a bob cut and had a y expression. Wow, I thought she’s going to do well.”

Nayoung is totally going to kill her after the episode airs.

Maybe choosing to sit at the top hadn’t been such a great idea after all.

They ended up being the last ones out the door, and thus, the last ones to be able to choose a dorm room. It’s Nayoung who finds a room with three remaining beds. Sejeong takes Mina’s hand and walks in after the eldest, too relieved at not being separated to notice the smirk on Nayoung face.

The rooms are rather small, with several bunk beds crammed in leaving little space for anything else. The last three beds are near the door, one pair of empty bunks, and the top bunk above the closet.

Before she can lay claim to any of them, Nayoung leans close to her and whispers, “So Sejeong-ah, top or bottom?” against her ear.

Sejeong chokes on her own tongue for a few floundering seconds, in which she is saved by Mina dramatically stuffing her fingers in her ears, pushing through the two of them and flinging her bag onto the only bottom bunk with a, “Scarred for life.”

It’s enough for Sejeong to recover and reply with an equally flirty, “Looks like we’re both tops then.”

“I need an adult,” Mina mumbles into her pillow.

It's officially my headcanon that Nayoung likes to flirt, Sejeong likes to make her jealous, and Mina is a poor traumatised baby, haha.

Also, after episode 6, I've come to the conclusion that Nayoung really wants to be against Sejeong. It's probably unintentional, but she was fighting really hard against the other girl, Lee Haein (sp?) for the Irony song, and if she won she would've had to verse Sejeong. And now she picked the same song Sejeong did and had to compete with her...Although to be fair both of them are vocalists and would've ended up competing anyway so she might've just chosen the song to hang out with Sejeong...excuse me *opens new Word Doc*, I've figured out the plot to chapter 3...or maybe 4.