“Donghae you’re late!” Prof. Leeteuk greeted Donghae when he entered the auditorium the next day “come on hurry up go to the back stage, you’re the last to perform! Here pin this on your shirt.”

He hurried off to the back stage and pinned up a number on his shirt. It was a great relief that Prof. Leeteuk was in charge of the contestants because if it was a different professor, he would be disqualified already for being late. There were at least twenty other kids at the back stage and all of them looked nervous.

“Did you see the judges from Sapphire Blue?” a kid said

“Sungmin and Yesung? They looked skeptical…” another one said

“I heard they were perfectionists… I hope I won’t get a panick attack!”

The talk continued among the other contestants but Donghae stayed at the far back quietly. He felt quite sleepy but his anxiousness took over the fact that he was awake all night. He still wore the same clothes because he didn’t have time to sleep, let alone take a bath. After a few minutes, the first contestant was called. After each performance, Donghae heard soft claps from the audience. He had to slap himself to get his focus back on the audition. Before he knew it, his name was called.

Donghae stepped out on the stage and scanned the auditorium. He was used to seeing the place empty and it sent chills when he saw that it was packed. The music started to play and he started to move. He closed his eyes for a while and when he opened them, his gaze remained on the fourth seat of the front row. Donghae fixed his focus on that seat… on the gummy smile… on Hyukjae.

Before he knew it, the performance was over. He did it. Donghae didn’t slip or even felt very nervous. He performed well. To his surprise, he didn’t hear soft claps… but a loud applause. The judges even stood up as they clapped with the audience. Donghae closed his ears to the deafening sound of praise and he remembered the words Hyukjae told him the night before… “I would kiss you every day… the way I kissed you that rainy night… just to let you know how much I love you, Hae… if only I had more time…”

Those words echoed in Donghae’s ears. He continued to stare at the fourth seat of the front row… and slowly, Hyukjae’s image began to blur and his smile faded along with him. In the midst of rejoicing people, Donghae only heard those last words of Hyukjae. He kept a smile and the people looked up at him as graceful and happy. But nobody knew what he went through the night before. Nobody knew the heartache he had to endure as he heard all of the plans and promises faded with the repeating sound of a flat line.

Tears ran down his cheeks as he smiled and whispered

“Hyukkie… thank you for being my spot light.”