Chapter 12

~*Dara’s POV*~

“Well, I wish you luck.” Youngbae stops in front of me and smiles. “Even though you don’t need it.”          

I blush and nudge him, “Aish, don’t say that. There’s still one more dancer.”

He laughs and ruffles the top of my head, “Whatever, I know a good dancer when I dance with one. You’ll be fine.”

All I can do is smile at him now thinking back to everything that just happened… and G-Dragon. The phrase ‘talentless hack’ repeated over and over in my head. As expected, hearing those words come from my so-called idol was painful. I must’ve been mistaken about him. Sure, I may not be the best dancer out there, especially compared to Sohee, but I work hard and I love it. Isn’t passion and perseverance enough? I thought G-Dragon felt the same about dance as I did. I thought he’d accept my way of dancing. I thought he would understand me just like Youngbae did. But I guess in the end, I was wrong about him. He’s just another star with a huge ego. After hearing those hurtful words from him, I no longer know why I’m here.

“Hey.” A sudden pain appeared in the middle of my forehead. I yelp and massage it before glaring at Youngbae who had just flicked me.

“Aish! That hurt!” I complain and glare at him.

He laughs at my expression and pokes my forehead. “Stop thinking.”

“Thinking about wha—“

“Just stop thinking.” He interrupts me. All I can do is sigh and nod.

“Good.” He smiles, turns and begins walking away. “I’m going home. I expect to see you bright and early tomorrow morning!”

“Tomorrow morning?” I asked confused.

“Practice is tomorrow for the backup dancers, don’t be late, Dara.” He lifts his hand as a ‘goodbye’.

Psh, so confident that I’ll make it… I feel warmth bubble up inside me knowing that someone has acknowledged my abilities after all of this. Thank you, Youngbae.

“Good night, BaeTae!” I call out to him and watch him flinch before stomping away.

I giggle thinking what his face must be like right now. To think we despised each other this morning but now we speaking as close friends. It’s funny how things work sometimes.

Then I hear a whisper coming from behind me, “Pssst! Unnie!”

I turn and see Sohee hiding behind a chair in the corner. Confused on why she was whispering, I make my way towards her.

“What is it? And why are you whispering?” She looks behind me to see if the coast is clear before returning to her normal volume.

“Oh, it’s nothing. I just saw you talking to Youngbae earlier and didn’t want to interrupt!” She smiled.

“Oh… alright…?” I say unsure if that is really the reason.

“Unnie! How did your audition go?”

Remembering G-Dragon was a little painful but I still managed to produce a small smile.

“Ah… that. It was okay, but it didn’t go that smoothly.”

Sohee pouts and embraces me in a quick hug, “Aww, unnie. It’s okay. I’m sure you were just tired. GD oppa must have been tired as well after dancing with me twice.”

She pulls away and is welcomed by my clearly confused face. She nods happily and explains, “Yeah! Did he not do that with you? He said that I danced so well, he wanted to dance with me one more time! Isn’t that great!”

I didn’t know how to respond. All I could hear in my head were his words: ‘I would like to get this over with soon’. I guess he’s already made his decision.

A sharp pinch was in my chest but I tried to brush it away and be happy for Sohee.

“That’s… that’s great, Sohee! Aigoo, I’m so proud of my baby cousin. It looks like they will make a quick decision!” I laugh awkwardly, trying to hide my growing disappointment.

Sohee nods and continues that she can’t wait any longer and wishes G-Dragon didn’t have to dance with the last girl. All I could manage to do was nod and smile at whatever she was saying while I thought about my own audition. That all that energy spent, was for nothing.

Maybe that’s why he was so annoyed earlier. Maybe that’s why he said those hurtful words to me. He had already made his decision and didn’t want to waste any more time with those who were unworthy of it.

Stop thinking. I hear Youngbae’s voice echo in my head and immediately find myself calm down. He’s right, there’s no need to think about all of this now. Decisions haven’t been made yet. I take in a deep breath and release it, calming my nerves.

But my sense of calm doesn’t last for very long.

“Miss Ahn Sohee? Miss Park Sandara?” A young man comes running over to us. “The decision for G-Dragon’s backup dancer has been made. The announcement will be made in the main dance studio in 5 minutes.” He bows and runs off to find the third girl.

“I can’t believe it! It’s finally happening. Final decisions are going to be made!” Sohee squealed while jumping up and down. Suddenly, she stops and turns to me. “Unnie, you haven’t forgotten our promise, right?” She looks at me expectantly.

I shake my head, “Of course not.” I tried to sound convincing. So much has been running through my mind that I forgot I promised Sohee I’d give up the spot to her if I got it. Sadness crept up on me again slowly. Well, I guess that promise won’t matter anymore anyways.

We begin walking towards the main dance studio, but Sohee stops to turn to me.

“Actually, unnie. Can we pretend we don’t know each other?”

“Eh?” I’m taken aback by her request. “Why?”

“Well, it is irrelevant information to begin with, but I just think it might be best to keep it a secret. Also, what if you do get picked for some reason and end up giving the spot to me. If they knew that we were cousins, they wouldn’t accept it knowing you were just being a good cousin towards me.” She looks at me with pleading eyes.

“Please, it’s not something they need to know.”

I sigh and close my eyes. At this point, it doesn’t really matter. I am too overwhelmed by my nervousness and fear to be bothered by this request and in ways she was right, they didn’t need to know.

“Arraso, whatever. Let’s just hurry and get this over with.” She jumps with glee before skipping ahead of me. I let her get a head start before continuing down the hall and reaching the dance studio.

As I walk in, I see Sohee sitting at the far corner playing with her phone while the other dancer was pacing back and forth around the room, clearly nervous. I glance at Sohee who takes a quick look at me before returning to her phone. Right, we aren’t supposed to know each other. So I walk to the middle of the room and take out my phone to text Sulli.

Wow, it’s 10 PM already? I wonder if she would still be awake… I send her a quick text letting her know I’m waiting for the final results. After it sends, I stare blankly in front of me, letting tiredness soon take over. I was exhausted. The vibration from my phone woke me from my trance. I look down expecting to see Sulli’s name but instead see an unknown number.

Did you get it?

At first, it takes me a while to figure out what ‘it’ was and who was the owner of this number, but realization hits me.

Youngyang? How’d you get my number? And we are waiting for the results now o_o

After a few minutes, my phone vibrates again.

Dummy. You gave it to me, remember? Before I left. -__-

I flashback to us walking out of the studio, my eyes had just broke off from G-Dragon’s stare. Although, I was laughing and smiling, I still couldn’t get him out of my head. But then I remember Youngbae shyly asking for my number… and me giving it to him.

I face palm myself and feel slightly embarrassed that I forgot.

Ahaha… I’m just joking! I remember!

Sure… Well now you have my number too. So let me know what happens. Fighting!

I smile at his words as if I can hear him saying it to me in person. Just as I was about to reply, President YG, Jae Wook and G-Dragon make their way in and towards the front of the room. Us three girls quickly make our way to the center and face them.

This is it. My heart was pounding out of my chest.

I tried to read President YG or Jae Wook’s faces but they weren’t showing me any signs. I didn’t even want to bother looking at G-Dragon.

“Thank you for waiting. I know it has been a long and very tiring day for all of you, so we appreciate your patience and talent.” President YG begins. He looks at each of us before continuing.

“You all are amazing and talented young women. It is not easy to get to the end of these auditions, so although you may not be picked, please remember that it was a very difficult decision to make. Each of you had something different and special that the other didn’t. Therefore, by picking one out of the three, we are still losing something very valuable.”

The tension in the room continued to build as silence took over. President YG’s words sunk into every bit of me, down to my core. Somehow I felt that his explanation of something ‘different’ and ‘special’ was directed at me. My heart was beating so fast that I could feel my entire body shake. Sweat was forming at my hairline.

President YG looks to Jae Wook and then to G-Dragon who takes a deep breath before speaking.

“The dancer we have chosen to be my newest backup dancer is...”

My ears blocked out everything around us so that I could only hear G-Dragon’s next few words. My eyes were fixed on the ground. Although, I knew G-Dragon had already made his decision, I couldn’t help but to hope. To hope that somehow they all saw something in me that was special and different, that they saw something about me that made me a great dancer. G-Dragon was not my idol, so he was no longer in the picture. After this whole day of trying and pushing myself, I’ve come to learn my reasons for still being here, for still hoping. I just want to be approved and acknowledged. I want to know that the thing I am the most passionate about in life, is something that I am also talented at. I want to know that despite what Sohee or anyone says, I am a good dancer.

“Ahn Sohee.”

*BlueNote*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Yep... ;_; please don't kill me! 
I promise to make it all worth it, I swear!

Anyways, I would just really thank all of you who have been reading so far. After reading all of your lovely comments, I died and went to heaven. You are all too sweet and I really enjoy writing for all of you. It really makes me so happy to read your thoughts and what's going through your minds!
Please keep it up and let me know what you think! Even the bad, and I will be sure to improve myself as well.

You are all really the very best! Love you all, and keep your eyes out for my updates ^-^ Stay strong everyone!

*If you are confused about layout/weird details that seem wrong+right at the same time, please read the story description!*