Perfectly broken

Part 3

As soon as he had stood up, the stylist had both began writing down notes furiously, making Felix a slight bit more nervous, but he tried ignoring it as the music to his performance began.

He gave it his all, still needing to prove himself to JYP. He felt sweat dribbling down his forehead as he finished, looking anxiously at JYP. But the man was unreadable as always.

Instead he tried to focus on the soft encouragements from behind him.

"That was a very powerful performance Yongbok" one of the stylists said, looking questioningly at his partner.

Felix bit his lip concentrating at the words. The stylist spoke rapidly and with a slight accent that made him very hard to understand. He felt heat rise to his cheeks as he hoped he wouldn't embarrass himself not getting what they said to him.

"Very powerful" the other stylist agreed, looking down at her notes with furrowed brows before starring back up at Felix. "-your voice definitely doesn't match your looks. We must work on that."
Felix blinked as her words came out to him as nothing more but a slur. He had caught something about his voice, but the rest...

"Sorry?" he asked, feeling the heat in his cheeks grow stronger.

The stylists both shot him an impatient glare, before the woman repeated herself in an even more rushed way that did nothing to help him. He could only blink back as he tried to guess what she might have said.

JYP sighed and began writing something down on his paper. Felix felt his heart sink.

"I'm from Australia, so Korean is new to me" he quickly apologized, hoping they would take pity in him, but that wasn't the case.

The male stylist continued, clearly not caring if his subject followed or not, as long as JYP did.

"He is very pretty in a cute way, but since his voice and movements doesn't match, I suggest we do something about that. We want something darker and rougher. I suggest leather clothing, chains, eyeliner- the whole deal."

Felix looked back and forth between the adults at the table. He had understood about half of what had been said, and even though he wasn't happy about the suggestion, he would rather do that, than suffering this much longer. He truly hoped no questions would be thrown in his direction. But it seemed he was lucky... in some way. The stylists seemed to have lost all interest in him as a human being since he clearly didn't understand what they were saying.

"I agree" the woman answered before beginning on a new sentence in such a rapid pace that Felix was sure that she was rapping it. If only he hadn't been so nervous, he might have understood her, but in that moment he couldn't concentrate on anything but how his fingers shook and the way JYP kept on scribbling down on his paper.

He hadn't understood what the stylist had said, but based on the gasp he heard behind him, he could guess that it wasn't good.

He looked over his shoulder to see the others looking open mouthed at the stylist. But she clearly didn't notice, or care for that matter. She looked at the male stylist with a questioningly raised eyebrow.

"Yes, definitely. We need the cute features gone and changed into sharp lines. His cheeks are too round. He needs to lose weight."
This time Felix had understood what had been said. He felt his stomach drop and he was sure that shock was written on his face. Never in his life had he imagined that he needed to lose weight. He was the tinniest of the group. He wasn't very tall and he had always been skinny. It had been something he had been very insecure about when he was back at school. He had wanted to be bigger and stronger, but perhaps he was wrong.

He felt a burning hot pile of shame in the pit of his stomach as he moved his weight from one foot to the other.

He looked to JYP who was nodding slowly while studying him. Felix had to fight the urge to turn around or hide himself in some way. He felt embarrassed and very vulnerable as he awaited the final verdict.

"That's it for Felix then" JYP suddenly said, seemingly satisfied. "-we'll get you a dietarian. You can sit back down."
Felix had no words. He felt his throat tighten as he quickly turned away, but before he could go anywhere Hyunjin had stood up. A furious blush had crept to his cheeks and his eyes were widened as he looked at JYP.

"I guess not eating will give him more time to practise his perfect dancing and fluent Korean- that's what you want isn't it?"

The others members looked at him in shock. No one had ever heard him raise his voice before. Seungmin almost looked scared, his eyes wide and wary.

But Hyunjin wasn't done. His fists were curled by his side as he inhaled to continue to spit out his frustration at the older man watching him with way too much calm.

"You keep on nagging him about not being confident and at the same time you criticize everything about him. Felix is unique. Why do you wanna change him? What about me? I'm standard. Change me if someone has to."

Felix was speechless. His heart fluttered by the way Hyunjin was standing up for him, clearly on protective instinct. But at the same time he felt incredible scared. He almost didn't dare turning to look at JYP. The older man was looking at Hyunjin without a concern on his face. He looked thoughtful and unbothered, meanwhile the stylists both looked more than exited.

"That's it!" the male exclaimed, clapping his dainty hands together. "That fire is what we want to express."

The female nodded eagerly and scribbled down in her block.

Hyunjin looked astounded. His mouth had fallen open as he looked between the adults.

"No! You need to listen to me."

Felix quickly turned back to him and discreetly shook his head, worried for the other. He couldn't bear to see Hyunjin get scolded because of him, or even worse- get eliminated.

But Hyunjin didn't seem to notice him. Too frustrated to look away from the desk in front of them.

JYP sighed and took off his glasses. "I thought you knew what you had agreed to Hyunjin. We are not trying to be cruel- we are trying to help you guys debut. We want to see you success. Felix understands that, don't you?"

Felix felt himself tremble as all eyes were back on him. He had a hard time meeting anyone's gaze as he quietly nodded.

"It's alright" he tried calming Hyunjin, but it didn't seem like it was working.

He was looking absolutely bewildered as he searched for some kind of help from any of the members, but none of them said anything. Instead Chan carefully grabbed his wrist and tried to pull him back down. Hyunjin reluctantly sat back down, squeezed in between Chan and Han who both clapped his arm discreetly as a slight comfort.

"Great" JYP continued and placed his glasses back on his face. "Jeongin, come up here."
Felix blew out a shaky breath and walked back to sit down, a new heavy weight on his shoulders.

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So, I guess you know where this is going. Angst is coming.

Have an amazing day!