My Idol

Part 4

"So these are our dorms. Aren't they awesome?!" Billie said as he and Huang enter the dorms of royaltA. "We recently got upgraded to these new rooms. Man, I wish you were staying here with us. I do not want to deal with Min-Joon every time I visit you " He shuddered "That guy scares me"

"I could tell," Huang said as he admired a gorgeous painting hung near the entrance of the dorms. 

"oh! Here we go!" Billie exclaims. He grabbed Huang and began to pull him away from the painting towards a blue door "This is my best friend's room. We met back when we were trainees like you. She is a crazy hard worker and works on improving herself a lot, So she's so experienced in this stuff she'll be able to help you a ton. Plus she's super nice, you won't feel judged and awkward!" He knocked on the door.

"Hey, Billie! What's up?" The door was opened by an energetic-looking brunette. "Who's this?"

"This" Billie announces, gesturing towards Huang "is my incredible new backup dancer" He leaned in and mock-whispered to her "Dae, he's amazing"

She raised an eyebrow and smiled"Come on in! I'd love to hear what makes this dancer so special. I don't think I've ever seen you bring a dancer to our dorms" She opened the door allowing the boys to step into her room.

They entered the room to see a tall girl with striking dark brown hair and even darker eyes look up from her phone. "Hey Billie," She said. Huang vaguely recognized her, she was a member of RoyaltA. However, she was less known than the others. She barely ever got lines in the songs and didn't have as extroverted a personality as the others, causing her to fade into the background. Many trainees were scared of falling into a place-holding role like her.

"Hey, Bong-Cha! I'm glad you're here too! I need a favor from you guys" He casually sat down on Dae's bed and the mattress next to him, motioning for Huang to join. "so despite how incredible Huang is, he has a bit of a problem with stage fright"

"So you want us to be those quirky, evil but super amazing dance teachers from movies that teach him how to deal with failure by heckling him?!?" Dae shouted, "I've always wanted to try that!!"

She turned to Huang "This is going to be great, trust me, and we'll help you improve your stage fright"

"Okay, I guess," Huang said. This girl had as much energy as Billie. And while he's never had a problem when surrounded by one super-extrovert, two at a time overwhelms him "Thank you"

The four marched determinedly toward one of the dance studios. They stopped to collect Jong-in because as a Geon victim, he deserved to take part in saving Billie.

"So I just, start dancing?" Huang asked as they entered 

"pretty much" Bong-Cha answered  as she turned on the music "Good luck!"

Huang took a deep breath and began to dance. Within seconds the four began to heckle him relentlessly, and not hold back.

"You suck!"

"Please tell me that wasn't supposed to be impressive"

" Dude, like fix... Everything "

"My dog can dance better than you!"

It took a total of ten seconds before Huang, feeling thoroughly attacked, tripped and fell to the ground. He got up, wincing "Should we try again?"

"Take two!" Bae shouted, with a smile that made it clear she was thoroughly enjoying herself. 

Huang took a deep breath and began to dance once again. This time, he managed to mess up later in the song. Unfortunately, on the next try, his failure was in the very beginning.

Half an hour of dancing later, Billie clapped his hands "I think it's time" he said "We've heckled you for half an hour, and you've been dancing much worse than you do normally. Now is time for you to dance uninterrupted, and since you know that the heckling is the worst that can happen, you should do better than you used to "

"Okay," Huang took a deep breath.  The four idols forced their faces into the nicest expressions they could. And Bong-Cha started the music. Huang began to dance and immediately felt something was wrong. He didn't feel as bad as he did when being heckled, but he felt no better than he normally does when performing in public. He could feel all the idols eyes on him, and the eyes caused him anxiety. No part of the dance lived up to his potential, and he missed a few moves in the second half.

"Sorry guys," He said softly "It didn't work"

"Its okay," Billie told him "We'll come up with another way to help you, I'm sure Kija sent you here because he figured we'd solve this"

"Sure" Huang lied. In truth, he was beginning to wonder why he was really sent here. Maybe it was some trick to get him to quit. Maybe it was a way to get rid of him. Whatever the reason, there was no way anyone believed he would actually succeed. "I'll work on it myself, sorry for wasting your time"

"you aren't wasting our time," Bong-cha said softly, "I think we've been going about this wrong, just because something like this works on TV doesn't mean it will work in the real world" She paused thoughtfully "Fixing anxiety on your level takes time that we don't have. We need a temporary fix, not a solution"

"Well, what exactly are we fixing?" Billie asked, "What is it, besides the obvious, that makes dancing onstage so hard for you?"

"I have a different question," Jong-in said "Why are you able to take videos of yourself on camera? What makes it so different?"

"I guess I know I can take as many takes as I need" Huang answers "Plus not having any eyes on me feels pretty good"

"Can you take a video of yourself live? While we're in a different room?" Biliie asked

"I don't know... I've never tried" Huang said "It might work"

"Let's do that!"Dae exclaimed, clapping her hands together "I'll put my phone here and do a zoom, and we'll watch from another room!"

"Yeah!" Billie, Jong-in, and Bong-Cha cheered as Dae began to set up her phone 

"Okay!" The 4 idol's enthusiasm was influencing Huang and, despite the fact that performing in front of a live camera wouldn't help Huang at all in the long run, He found himself excited by the possibility of being able to do it.