Staring at the mirror while his stylist noona fixed his now dark brown hair, Chanwoo couldn’t help but feel at awe by his looks. Gone were the chubby cheeks, in their place strong and sharp chiseled jaw that could rival Junhoe’s during their debut days. Trailing up to the space below his eyes, his cheekbones too were more prominent, and he looked like someone who had been contoured in the most natural way by a professional make-up artist, but all he actually got was a hint of tanned-tone blush, and even then the noona responsible for his make-up had gawked, giving him non-stop praises about his good looks, how he was different than before, how it was easier to doll him up because there wasn’t much left to do since he already looked so dashing. Heck, she even asked whether he purposely styled his eyebrows by his own, seeing how they were far thinner than the usual strong and somewhat bushy eyebrows he possessed.

Chanwoo answered her with a simple ‘aniyo’, and the question was left at that.

The seven members were currently all in the assigned dressing room for iKON, getting ready for the red carpet walk for yet another huge, influential, and fan-crazed award show. YG had definitely pulled all the possible and deserved strings for their performance, and Chanwoo was ready to perform his off with the limited 10 minute frame. There was going to be a sick dance break and even though the steps were confusing and initially so hard to get right Hanbin had to scream at him every single hour during their dance practice until he managed without a single misstep, he had made it.

However, as much as he was excited with their upcoming performance, he was more excited to appear in public as Chanwoo 2.0. The youngest member of iKON himself hadn’t realized it, but it has been approximately 3 months since his official public appearance (minus all his pre-recorded Youtube content), and he couldn’t wait to show his fans, the media, the world how different he was now. A more agile dancer, a more melodious singer, the impactful maknae of IKON, a slimmer and more handsome ‘Jung Chanwoo’, the makn-

“Chanwoo?” a honey voice called from behind. It was one of his stylist noona that was in charge of their performance outfits. The boy, along with the rest of the iKON members were set with their red carpet looks, but the clothes they wore for the stage were always different. The stylist came up to the boy and stood next to him, holding up a velvet jacket in her hands, “I got this for you, it’s under short notice but I tried my best. Want to try it on?”

Stylists were known for their talent to mix and match outfits, so even if they were to buy a full set of one suit, they would add more accessories to the look or remove the vest and perhaps switch out a given tie with a bowtie. Chanwoo’s dress code in iKON for official events had always been casual formal or simple chic, but seeing how he had lost a lot of weight these past few months, the stylist noonas decided to put him into a vest to highlight his new triangular built. The weather today, however, had been deemed too cold that even Jinhwan who usually walked the red carpet in button-fronts was given a cropped jacket. Therefore, the stylists scrambled to their knees trying to get a matching jacket for Chanwoo as well.

With his bangs in place, a slight opening revealed for his forehead, he stood up and started putting on the jacket, buttoning it up before giving the stylist noona a simple twirl.

“Heol, daebak,” she had her palms on , letting out a gasp before continuing, “exactly how much weight did you lose Chanwoo? Even the jacket looks saggy on you, and it is two size smaller from what you usually wear.”

That gained everyone’s attention, especially his hyungs. Jinhwan and Donghyuk who were rehearsing the steps together in the middle in the room paused, Hanbin and Bobby gazed away from their phones, and both Junhoe and Yunhyeong who were sitting on both of his sides, themselves getting ready too stopped observing their looks in the mirror. And so now, Chanwoo had six pairs (plus one pair that belonged to the nosy stylist noona) staring at him.

He let out a nervous laugh, trying his best to ignore the terrifying yet worried stares from his hyungs that could have probably burned through his skull, “Just a couple of kilos.”

“Really?” the woman pressed, and Chanwoo just wanted her to go away already. The vest fit, and it didn’t matter how it was near 10 Celsius outside, if it meant that the stylist would stop bothering him and just drop it, he could walk down the red carpet without a stupid jacket.

“Is there, uh, do you…” well great, he couldn’t even form a simple sentence at the moment, still nervous and a tad embarrassed from the looks that were still fixated on him. “Is there a smaller size then, noona?”

“There isn’t, damn it, I knew I should have brought two!” she started mumbling, probably thinking about all the repercussions she was going to get for not styling Chanwoo properly. So much for bringing a jacket that was two size smaller.

The maknae felt bad and he supposed that it wasn’t really the stylist fault that he had shed a few kilos too many since their fitting day. Suddenly, a light bulb lit up on his head, “How about this?” he ed his jacket and rested it on his shoulders. After briefly checking himself out in the mirror, he turned back to the stylist, “This okay?”

She scanned him for a few seconds before giving him a smile, and Chanwoo thank God that the problem had been resolved. Sure, this wasn’t his usual look, and he was probably going to freeze his spine out in the cold, waiting for the photographers to take their pictures, but at least it was over.

He sat back down and let his hair stylist finish her job, but what he heard next shocked him.

“2 kilos my ,” Junhoe scoffed under his breath from the left, and Chanwoo didn’t know how to respond to that or even what to feel about it.

Wasn’t it good that he had lost a lot of weight? To an extent, he looked more like them with all his newly sharped features.

Yunhyeong who was on his right must have heard Junhoe, because the next thing Chanwoo knew was his look-alike extending his left hand to touch his, rubbing it soothingly from his seat whilst offering him a kind yet pitiful smile.

Chanwoo took in the considerate gesture, but he didn’t know how to feel about that as well.

xxx

Their intro turned out okay, one of their best performances even, if Chanwoo dared say it, because all and all, he managed through all the dance moves and transitioning without any faults. There was a hitch however, as his left earpiece stopped functioning halfway into their second song, and the boy had no choice but to remove it from his ear, the music blasting through the speakers quite possibly leaving him half deaf after the performance ended.

(He was being dramatic, of course. Earpieces malfunctioned all the time.)

It wasn’t his first time having such bad luck on stage, but when he felt slightly dizzy as he danced and danced, a sea of black with pops of white and red lights clouding his vision, he prayed to God to not let him stumble or worse, bumped into one s. No, the audience was watching, his hyungs were watching, he simply could not afford to mess it up just because he had a migraine.

And then it happened.

As Bobby took the lead in their choreography, breezing through his raps like the golden member of iKON that he was while the rest paused at the back, waiting for their next steps, Chanwoo felt liquid running down onto the space between his nose and upper lip.

Oh .

Nosebleed.

Hanbin, who was closest to him at the moment, noticed and just stared at him owlishly with eyes full of worry and fear.

Chanwoo inwardly chuckled.

Jung Chanwoo, nice timing.

But the show must go on, so with the few milliseconds he had before he moved into a position that was more visible to the camera, he deliberately raised his arms up to his nostrils and swiftly wiped off the blood. As he continued his moves, he folded the stained area and prayed that no one (other than Hanbin) would notice his little accident. From the corner of his eyes, he could see Hanbin executing their dance in a programmed and robotic manner, the leader’s eyes stealing glances at him whenever he could.

Chanwoo tried to ignore him. He had other things to worry about, like the insufferable headache crushing into him like a ton of bricks by the second and also the possibility of another nosebleed.

And his approaching solo, especially that.

There was this runway from the main stage to a smaller center stage and it was predetermined that iKON would start making their way closer to the fans as their song reached its , and (un)fortunately, Chanwoo’s part, the bridge, was when they would start their walk.

Therefore, the mantra ‘please don’t bleed’ was repeated perhaps a few dozen times in his mind, practically begging to God for the performance to be saved.

He bled, profusely, of course.

Damn it.

Maybe it wasn’t so noti