Beautiful Target- B1A4

A crackle of excitement hung in the air. The air conditioning blew stiffly at my bare skin, but I still felt perspiration bead at the back of my neck. Machinery, stage props, sound and visual boxes and wires covered the backstage of the Inkigayo stage, all cleverly covered from the cameras outside by the thick black stage curtains.

“B1A4! You’re on in ten,” the stage director nodded, before turning back to the screens. I took a deep breath, soothing out the nerves that had built up as a result of the weeks’ worth of waiting for this moment.

What if I slipped or forgot a dance move? I anxiously ran through all the moves in my head, the ones I’d been rehearsing over and over again ever since I’d regained enough strength to stand.

“You look so nervous, hyung, loosen up,” A booming voice broke through my own personal reverie, and I turned around to give Baro a scathing look, to which he responded with a carefree grin. The three youngest were sprawled out on one of the backstage sofas, and Sandeul was scolding Chanshik noisily for smudging his makeup.

“That’s easy for you to say, you’re not the one who missed performances for three weeks straight,” I retorted, taking a seat on the floor next to the sofa.

“Never mind, hyung,” Chanshik piped up cheerfully, blatantly ignoring Sandeul’s annoyed words. “If you slip and fall we can just say you had a relapse.”

“Yah, don’t curse him, maknae,” Sandeul hit the back of Chansik’s head lightly, and Chansik whined as he attempted to fix his hair. “Don’t worry, hyung. You’ll do great out there.”

“How long before we’re on?” Jin Young joined us from the makeup station, where he’d been having his eyeliner touched up.

“Three minutes, hyung,” Chansik bounced excitedly in his seat. “I wonder what it’ll be like dancing as the five of us again.”

“Aish, you say it like Dong Woo hyung just came back from the army or something,” Baro complained, picking at a stray thread on the sofa fabric.

“The army probably would’ve been better,” I muttered, adjusting my glasses.

When the signal finally came for us to be on standby, my heart was racing with excitement. This was it. After weeks of waiting, of watching, I was finally back. The emcee’s voice echoed through the auditorium, stirring a sense of pride within me.

“…next up on Take 7, B1A4 will be performing “Beautiful Target”, and joining them for the first time, after three weeks of recovery, is the eldest member, CNU!”

On perfect cue, the music began to play, and I stepped out onto the glossy stage, the camera panning towards me at once. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Chansik pulling an aegyo smile at the lens as I crossed the stage to the centre. A pang of familiarity hit me at that moment. Words couldn’t describe how much I missed this sensation, this exhilaration.

“Jin Young, Shin Woo, Sandeul, Baro, Gong Chan, daebak, B1A4!”

I couldn’t resist smiling at the audience as Jin Young began to sing. Yes, this was something I missed too- the enthusiastic, undying support of the fans. It warmed my heart to know that someone had been waiting on the other side for me to come back.

When it was my turn to rap, I slid easily into the centre of the formation, surprised, actually, by how well this was turning out. The words flowed from my lips as though I’d been saying them all my life. The glow of the overhead lights winked down colourfully at me, illuminating the stage in bright shades of neon.

By the time we were into the second chorus, I was fully immersed in the song, the dance steps coming to me smoothly, adrenaline rushing through my veins from the exhilaration of finally performing onstage once more. The music seemed to fly by, faster than I’d ever felt it go when we performed.

Before I knew it, we were into the last verse, and broke into a sequence of spontaneous sprout dances. The stinging pains in my lower abdomen made me wince inwardly, but seeing the delight and hearing the squeals of the audience made it worth it. I glanced to my left by a degree to see that happiness mirrored on each of their four faces, and those alone seemed to help diminish the pain.

We ended the song with a flourish, and left the stage as the camera returned to the emcees.

Stumbling backstage later, feeling more energetic than I had when we first went on, Chansik began recounting excitedly about how he felt like his shoe was coming off during the performance, and Baro starting mouthing off that the music had been too loud and that Sandeul had stepped on his foot more than once.

Amidst the now comfortably noisy commotion, Jin Young approached me, a concerned look on his face.

“Well? How was it?” he asked tentatively. The other three paused in their bickering, too, to look at me expectantly, eyes hopeful. I was speechless for a moment, only able to smile a few moments later.

“It was fantastic,” I finally said, beaming, unable to express the overwhelming emotion I now felt, looking at all of them, looking at how far we’d all come. “Thank you guys so much.”

Their faces seemed to light up at my words, and Chansik extracted himself from the arguing trio to raise his hands and cheer, “hug!”

And at once, all of them seemed to catch on, and before I could protest, I was half buried under a dogpile of happy people.

Only then, as I watched Baro start to complain that Chansik’s knee was in his stomach, and Jin Young tell him crisply to shut up, I grinned, touched by their concern, concern I could only hope I would be able to reciprocate for them as well one day.

As a couple of cameramen came to shoo us away from the curtain later, however, I brought an absent hand to the dent of the scar under my shirt, realising, with a strange jolt, that the pain had seemingly vanished, now reduced to nothing but a dull thrum.

I smiled again as the five of us headed for the waiting room, the noise level returning back to its usual, echoing around the long corridors.

I wasn’t healed just yet, but I would be.

I was sure of that now.

END

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Author's Note:

Argh this took a disgracefully long time too, I'm so sorry >.< I had a Biology practical test, a Mathematics test and two Mother Tongue tests last week, a Literature test yesterday, and I'm having a Chemistry test tomorrow, an Additional Math test next week, a Biology test on the same day, and a Geography test next Thursday...then I have my oral exams and my End Of Year examinations and I'm taking a national exam next year. 

sigh... ._. This world is not a happy one.

Um I shouldn't bring my personal life into this so *kicks*

Thus another story ends D: I'm really going to miss Here and Gone (despite my apparent unwillingness to update, I speak the truth, you must believe D:) because it was one of the stories in which I could be as true as I wanted and I didn't have to mind. It's like letting a part of an innocent childhood go ._. I am insane, officially...

Are you guys still here? It must have waiting this long :( I apologise *bows* I didn't mean for the gap to be so long (I don't mean a lot of things...I don't know if that's good or bad.) I hope this chapter gave the story a decent ending, despite the shortness D: (well it is an epilogue, so to speak...) Did you guys find it okay? 

Ohohoh but one thing I must say before I go: I was watching a Beautiful Target perf on Youtube one night (ages ago, before this year started, I think >.<) and I saw a comment saying something along the lines of "I read a fic where B1A4 really won a music show, I hope they can win it soon". And I thought, hey, what are the odds, Here and Gone involved them winning a music show too.

So, like the pro busybody I was, I replied, saying I hoped that too and asking her what the name of the fic was. A few days later, she replied, saying "Here and Gone. It's quite a sad fic, actually."

And I was just like :DDDDD HAYYYY SOMEONE READ MY FIC. Unfortunately the video got taken down by copyright claims, so I couldn't reply >.< Aish. So if you're here now, mysterious Youtube commentor, do give a shoutout :D I really want to know if you're still here :P 

Oh and don't forget to catch Hello Baby Season 6 premiere on the 25th of July :) B1A4 are finally appas <3

So, I guess this is the end then? :(  Will you guys comment on this chapter? I'd love to read what you guys thought of the story overall :) (Reviews are welcome too, please! :D) A hugenormous thank you to all of you, a lot of readers wouldn't put up with this outrageous waiting. I was really touched by those who commented in the last chapter :) Thank you, really and truly ^^

I'll miss you guys.

Je t'aime <3

Sincerely
WhiteWings19