Innocence // STRAY KIDS' Han Jisung

twelve

By the time the song finished, she was really hyped. She let out a disappointed sound when the stage went pitch dark, and just when she was going to turn to Mr. Handsome about the outstanding performance, there was a loud "BANG!" followed by an explosion of lightning.

"Whoa, that's so cool!" The boy next to her said in awe as the nine figures started performing a set of captivating dance moves that made Mirae think they'd probably be ripping their legs off.

"Yeah, that's my boy," she smiled when Jeongin took the center position and spun around gracefully before doing a cute expression and rushing back to his position on the side.

Even if she hadn't recognized the song, she enjoyed the performance. It had everything she found captivating, and their interaction with the audience made it even better. Mirae's lips were curled up in a huge, proud smile and clapped as enthusiastically as she could when they finished the third song. She even did a quick heart sign with her arms before laughing it off out of shame and sunk down on the seat, listening to Mr. Handsome's childish laughter.

"What're you laughing about, huh?" she asked him, frowning in the attempt to seem pissed.

He giggled and shook his head, covering his mouth with his hand, "You look like a kid all hyped up."

"Well, they were my friends! I have to hype them up! I'm a good friend, you know."

"Yeah, you're cute."

She tried to nod as bluntly as she could, trying to seem a lot less affected by his words than she actually was-even if it wasn't that serious, he had called her cute. He might be a total stranger, but for her to be called cute, even if it wasn't one of her top 10 favorite adjectives to use on her, it did move her heart.

Mirae's attention then drifted to the last performing group from JYP's rap category, and she almost choked when she recognized the three slightly blurry figures from Chan, Changbin and Jisung standing on stage as the song began.

As the song went by, she realized all of her friends were incredibly talented: Soobin was exceptional at modern dance and had a good control of her voice; Woojin, Seungmin and Jeongin had very distinct but sweet and soulful voices, Minho, Felix and Hyunjiin danced with such precision and grace that they managed to look like a piece of moving art, and Chan, Changbin and Jisung were very outstanding at rapping, putting out all their passion on the lyrics they were delivering without missing the beat.

It was all amazing it made Mirae feel like a complete proud mom.

The only one missing from doing something incredibly talented was herself. It was a sad but hilarious reality she had accepted by the time the auditorium's lights came back on and the MC of the event returned to the stage to announce the winners of the categories.

"I told you the KJ girls had been better," Mr. Handsome next to her whispered when the rivals of Soobin's team were announced as winners from the vocal category.

"Who cares? My friend won on the dance, and that's all that matters to me," she grinned and waited anxiously for the MC to announce the winners of the male categories.

"For the vocal competition, between the two Academies who performed, the winner is..." the man opened a red envelope and smiled widely towards the audience, "congratulations, JYP'S group!"

Out of excitement, she slapped Mr. Handsome's arm as she squealed. "They won, they won!" she yelled in between the cheering and clapping from the audience while the young man laughed out.

"Yeah, calm down-uh," he cut himself off and tilted his head, "did you ever say your name, or is my memory that bad?"

She chuckled and shook her head, "I haven't, and neither have you."