fourteen;

“Are you nervous?”

The brunette scoffs, facing her best friend through one of many mirrors backstage as she’s calmly helping another performer with their makeup. 

“That’s one way to put it.”

She mumbles, fumbling with her fingers, dressed with a few matching rings for her own piece. She looks in the mirror, a reflection of herself and today she had put on a little more eyeshadow but still to a minimal. Her hair pulled into a neat, high ponytail and the ends lightly curled and some stray pieces gracefully framing her face shape. Eunseo wanted to showcase her art, not her appearance after all. Whilst everyone had at least a month to prepare, due to rather unfortunate and ‘extremely bothersome’ events as Eunseo had described it, she was lucky to have a little over a week, 9 days to be exact to complete and rehearse her piece and it was only then that the girl was thankful that she had a solo, otherwise she’d probably be on the floor surrounded by her own tears. 

She sighs, but then in a deep breath and smiles. “Let’s get this over and done with Ji.” 

The black haired girl, sporting soft romantic curls at the ends as she tucked her hair behind her eyes to create a fresh spring feel. Eunseo thought she looked gorgeous and of course had voiced it out many times throughout the day, only to receive shy slaps in return and mumbles out of embarrassment from her friend making her chuckle heartedly.

Jiyeon was always bad at taking compliments.

The girl momentarily stops and faces the other, smiling as she uses the back of a blush brush to hit her forehead, causing the girl, who was caught off guard, to flinch before yelling a string of curse even causing the classmate being aided to laugh at her pouty reaction. 

“You’ll be fine. If anyone can pull this ‘mess’ off, it’s you Eunseo.” She reassures gently, going back to applying more setting powder on the classmate who also nods in agreement. The said girl opens to respond but the three whip their heads to the class president who bursts into the girl’s dressing room, distressed written all over her face. Jiyeon frowns and all the girls (both dance and singing majors) pause their pampering session to see the commotion. 

“For the love of god, if anyone’s free… I could really use a hand... The boys are so fricken useless at dressing themselves up I won’t finish in time by myself.” Eunseo looks around the round to see everyone preoccupied with either their own makeup of another female’s so she shrugs and gets up from her seat. 

“I’ll help out, I’m all done anyways Joohyun.” She smiles at the girl, who nods in gratefulness as she dashes out again towards the boys backstage. Eunseo yawns and waves to Jiyeon before also ducking out after the frantic class president. 

“Good luck Jiyeon! I’ll see you later. And you too Nari.”

Eunseo figured since she was decent at makeup and she wasn’t doing anything until the show that she could lend a hand since the class president really did have her hands full with responsibilities of the showcase running smoothly on top of her own assessment. 

Jogging to slightly catch up to the girl who’s speeding through the corridors to get to the designated room first, Eunseo’s eyes soften as she pities the girl who’s rushing to get everything done, barely having time to fix herself up for later.

She must be so overwhelmed.

The girl watches Joohyun, a few meters away, who pushes through the door abruptly and then she freezes, causing curiosity to arouse as Eunseo finally reaches the frozen girl who’s rooted in front of the doorway, jaws slightly dropped. 

“Hey, what’s wron-“ She questions, her voice fading off when she follows the other’s gaze to the bunch of boys staring back at the two, a bottomless Kim Jaehwan in the corner and even Park Jihoon was mid-process of taking off his shirt, quickly pulling the sheer fabric together in attempts to hide his already exposed body. 

The brunette sighs, shaking her head at the two culprits who just so happen to also be her ‘friends’ as she adverts her eyes elsewhere, falling on Daniel who sits in front the rows of vanity who looks just as lost as she was. Joohyun’s still quiet, cheeks pinked vividly which makes the brunette flustered, not knowing what to do.

“Um… we’ll be back in 5 minutes…” She mumbles awkwardly, pulling the class president out of the way to close the door. The two females stand on the other side and not even a second later, grunts and howling fill the room all over again and Eunseo knows they’re back to normal, smiling to herself at their rowdiness. Nudging the other girl who slowly regains her senses, she offers a small grin. 

“Should’ve knocked first huh?” She teases, leaning her back against the wall. Joohyun gives a small scoff before slightly tapping her