4 hours before the show

Breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out

For the past hour, this had been Hyun Hee’s mantra. So many possibilities were going through her head. Not a minute passed without her fawning over a blast of ‘what-ifs’.

She was so close to having a mental breakdown.

None of the actors from the cast were at the venue yet. As the director, she had been the first one to arrive.

She was not exactly the one performing and yet the nerves were getting to her.

Unstable, she kept pacing around the practice room. Exasperatingly, she brought her gaze to the big, round clock on the wall.

4:00

She sighed.

“Can you please stop doing that?”

Hyun Hee faced the one person that was with her inside the room.

“What?”

Despite the fact that she was not at all part of the production, Hyomin still agreed to come along early with her friend.

Hyomin scoffed, “Looking at that clock like your waiting for a lost lover. God knows how many times you’ve done that already.”

Hyun Hee crossed her arm, “I’m sorry. I’m just a little—“

“Worried? Jittery? Anxious? Distressed?“ her friend remarked, chuckling. “Yeah, I can see that.”

Hyun Hee rolled her eyes, but decided to take a seat beside Hyomin on the floor.

“Relax, alright? Your show will not disappoint,” Hyomin said, putting a comforting arm around Hyun Hee. “I mean, it better not. I’ll be in the front row.”

“I sure hope so.” Hyun Hee answered, leaning her head on Hyomin’s shoulder.

“It’s going to be amazing. I know it.”

Nothing will go wrong

3 hours before the show

This is all wrong

It can’t be

No

Hyun Hee looked around the faces that surrounded her.  The cast and crew were here. Every single one.

Almost.

Where is she?

Hyun Hee was experiencing a flurry of anger, worry and anticipation. A wave of emotions can do so much to a person and it was not doing Hyun Hee any good.

Where the hell is Song Min Soo?

Hyun Hee mentally screamed; she felt the gravity of it on the walls of her mind. She desperately needed a shoulder to lean on and Hyomin was no longer around to be that.

A pair of hands came up to massage her shoulders.  For a second, the wall of stress that stood over her was close to melting.

“Relax, Ms. Park.” Kyuhyun said, smiling at her. His eyes lied, though; Hyun Hee could clearly see the mirror of anxiety and concern.

She breathed, “No. I cannot and I will not.”

Hyun Hee called for everyone’s attention.

“I specifically told all of you to be here half an hour ago, right? Everyone got that, right?”

Expressions of agreement and affirmation followed.

“How the hell did Song Min Soo not get that?!” Hyun Hee belted out in frustration. “Who knows where she is?”

She was met with a bunch of blank stares.

“Does anyone have any idea at all?!”

Hyun Hee laid a hand over her eyes, shaking her head.

“Ms. Park?”

She looked up. Joonmyun was quietly walking towards her.

“I heard her talking on her phone the other day,” he said, hesitating. “She said something about an audition.”

“An audition?”

“Yes and well—“

Hyun Hee flashed him an interrogating stare.

“—She mentioned that it was scheduled today.”

In that frustratingly fre