Lookism In K-Pop

Chapter 16

...

Vasco and Bum Jae stared at their envelopes.

It held the final decision of the audition.

Vasco's hand trembled as he held his envelope.

Eyes focused, he turned his gaze towards Bum Jae.

Despite not wanting to go through the audition in the first place, Bum Jae seemed to be just as nervous as Vasco; he was better at hiding it, though.

Bum Jae noticed his stare as he stared back before nodding.

Somewhat knowing when the other would open their envelope, they ripped it open at the same time.

Vasco would've been impressed and thought about their 'telepathy', but he was too focused, making his mind only think about the results.

Both opened their paper, stalling to see what was written on it.

Mentally preparing themselves, they read it.

...

Jin Sung came home to an envelope on his desk.

Recognizing it, he immediately grabbed the envelope. Not hesitating to open it, he ripped it open.

The only thought going through his mind was that if he got in, Mi Jin would like him.

Tearing it open, he stared at the results.

Reading it, he couldn't stop the overwhelming emotions from flowing through him.

...

Big Hyung Seok had checked his mail the moment he got back to school.

Surprised to see something not related to money, he grabbed his mail. Blinking at the words on it, he ran inside his house.

Staring at his envelope with sheer intensity, his shaking hands opened it.

Reading the contents of the letter, his eyes widened.

He passed.

...

In the building of DY agency stood the final contestants.

All waiting for the CEO.

While waiting for him, the contestants stared at the people inside of the room.

Only eight people in total passed.

Some were surprised that a lot had passed while the rest thought that it was smaller than they thought.

While checking people out, three people couldn't stop from silently gawking at a certain person's looks.

Hyung Seok.

They knew that DY agency took pride in picking one of the more good-looking people, but the boy was beyond that. He was one of the more handsomest people they've ever seen that they were left breathless.

Looks like their rivals were more challenging than they thought.

They all observed their rivals while half of them were surprised to find familiar faces.

The door opened, making them temporarily stop their observation as they turned towards the person.

The CEO.

The sunglasses wearing man stared at them.

Not wasting any more time, he read off his list of final contestants:

"Chi Hoon," the boy answered, "Present."

"Jiho," the long-haired male smiled, "Here."

"Tae Jun," the CEO had to stare at the said boy, wondering about something.

The male answered, "Present, Sir."

As if dismissing the thought, he continued, "Jang Hyeon."

He gave off his more better smiles, "Here."

"Hyung Seok."

Hyung Seok was kind of not paying attention, so the moment he heard his name, he stuttered:

"H-here!"

The CEO ignored the stutter and went on, "Eun Tae."

"Here, CEO, Sir."

The weird greeting made the CEO stare at the boy for a while before brushing it off as nothing, "Jin Sung."

The pompadour-haired boy smirked, "Here."

"Jae Yeol."

Jae Yeol didn't say anything, but instead, nodded.

The CEO stared at him before remembering that he wasn't going to talk. At all.

Turning his gaze on Hyung Seok, he waited for him to say something.

Hyung Seok caught on as he frantically answered, "Jae Yeol's here!"

The others wondered why he answered for him, but didn't care enough to question why.

The CEO couldn't stop a small smile from slipping onto his face before managing to wipe it off.

"And Bum Jae."

Bum Jae nodded, "Here."

The CEO nodded before closing his list.

"Seems like everybody's here."

Everyone stilled, waiting for the next announcement.

The final audition.

"For the final audition, you'll have to form a group from the people here."

They all stared at each other, surprised that they'll have to work with people so soon.

Continuing, the CEO cleared his throat to gain their attention, "That means that you can't use any of the failed contestants or someone you know who didn't even audition."

Staring at them, his sunglasses gleamed, "You have until tomorrow to find your group members. After that, you have two more days to make up a group greeting and possibly, if you want more of a chance to debut, you'll have to prepare a performance in a week."

"If you happen to finish early, you can show what you have earlier. If not, we'll meet in a week."

Waiting for the words to kick in, he continued after a few seconds.

"If you have any questions, you can read the paper you were handed the moment you entered the room." He gave a dismissive move of his hand, "You are dismissed."

The moment they left the room, the delayed reactions started to appear as their eyes widened.

Observing the other auditionees, the atmosphere grew awkward.

Seems like the audition was going to be much harder than they thought.

...

A/N: Hello! I'm late in my update... Sorry? I might update another chapter soon, but maybe not since it's already 12:40 AM... It's been awhile since I wrote two days in a row, so I kind of wrote this chapter late. Sorry! I'm starting to get used to it again, though! Also, when I copy things from Microsoft Word, it shows extra stuff and replaces my quotation marks and apostrophes with other weird stuff when I paste it somewhere other than Word... I think it's because I updated something without bothering to think of the consequences... I'm so sad right now. I have to paste it to Note before I can copy and paste it here (I know that's not much work added, but the fact that it added to the things I had to do to post this, makes me sad)...