𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐬 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐃𝐎𝐌 [𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐲 𝐊𝐢𝐝𝐬]

𝐑𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝 𝟐 - 𝐑𝐄-𝐁𝐎𝐑𝐍 🧭

[A Few Days Before]

[Hyunjin's POV]
Just as I was about to start practicing for Round 2, with the members, even though I wasn't in Kingdom, I was stopped when the CEO came into the practice room and gestured for me to follow him to his office. I looked at my members, confused before leaving to follow the CEO. 

When we arrived and were inside, he told me, "Starting from today, you will be separated from the members whenever they go to practice. Because you are not performing, you will not be able to practice with them. You'll stay in the dorm and do your own hobbies while they're at practice." I frowned and was disappointed upon hearing that, but the fact that I'm still in the dorms with them, while not being able to practice with them, was enough for me.

When he finished speaking, I exited his office and returned to the practice room, grabbing the members' attention and telling them, "Later, when you guys return, I'll tell you guys about it." They all nodded, so I quietly grabbed my stuff and left the practice room before returning back to the dorm.

[Back at the dorm]

A few hours after the members finished practice, I heard the front door open as I was currently painting. I walked out of my room and stretched as I greeted them, and they all looked exhausted and probably hungry from practice.

I went back to my room to finish up my paintings. One of them was an eye painting that used purples and blues to produce a gorgeous indigo color with a tint of yellow around it. The canvas is surrounded by blues, purples, yellows, and greens. The topic of the other artwork, which was digital, was a white spherical lollipop that had a cerise-red colored heart in the middle, and was placed in the center of an echo-blue background. I added a shadow beneath the lollipop to make it look like it was laying, as well as minor crumbles of the lollipop being shattered due to how it fell. As I completed my digital artwork, I saved it to my device and I set my eye painting on the easel in the corner of the room to dry.

I walked out of the room and entered the living room, where I found them all sitting on the sofa, so I sat down and began to say, "So this morning, the CEO told me that as of today, I can't practice with you guys anymore because I'm not participating in Kingdom. I'm going to be staying back at the dorm when you guys are at practice and filming, which is a bummer." I explained everything to them. We all stayed silent before Chan spoke up, "Well, hopefully things get better and we'll be sure to keep you updated" He said, smiling. The others nodded, agreeing.

I smiled back and nodded before proceeding to show them my artwork. I have to say, I'm proud of myself for doing both traditional and digital art. They complimented me and then suggested an idea that would be thoughtful. I liked their idea, so we agreed to do it.

[3 days before the day of the performance – April 26, 2021]
————
[Last Night]

[Hyunjin's POV]
The night before, Felix and I.N went into my room and asked me,
"Hey, what's your ring size?" Felix asked.
"Why?" I asked after giving him my ring size measurements.
"Oh, that's because we're going to go make personalized rings for all of us, and we're even going to use it as a prop for the upcoming performance!" I.N exclaimed.
"Also, what design would you like to be engraved on your ring?" Both of them asked.
"HJ." I replied.

They nodded and thanked me before heading back to their rooms.

[In the Morning]