ɪ'ʟʟ ʙᴇ ʏᴏᴜʀ ʜᴏᴍᴇ ➻〚𝙣𝙘𝙩 𝙙𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙢 𝙤𝙩7〛

Flashback: Voice of an Angel

"Since when were you the leader?" Jaemin quips at Mark, hand resting sassily on his hip, causing Mark to roll his eyes.

"Since never," Renjun answers, smiling mischievously, "I consider myself a better leader, if you ask me.

"I object to that," I retort. I would be a better leader simply because I'm Chenle.

"At least I'm funny, unlike Mark."

My friends' ridiculousness distracting me for what's to come, I try to redirect to conversion, "So why did you follow these idiots, Jeno?"

"Because I thought it would be fun," he responds innocently, shrugging his shoulders.

"It's because Jeno is lame and succumbs to peer pressure," Jaemin states, hands still resting on his hips.

"What does 'succumbing to peer pressure mean?'" I ask, confused. I thought Mark was the smart one, not Jaemin. He can be pretty stupid sometimes. I still love him, though.

"I dunno. I just heard my parents saying that in a situation similar to now."

"It means-" Mark starts before being interrupted by Haechan, who knows that Mark is going to school all of us with his intelligence.

"We don't need to hear what it means, smarty-pants," Haechan spouts, rolling his eyes at Mark, who's just scratching his neck awkwardly.

"Anyway, how did you get past security?"

"Well, we couldn't have done it without someone small to go scope out the situation and give us the all-clear to proceed. Guess who we chose, Lele," Haechan suggests, smirking at his mastermind plan.

"Renjun?"

"Yup! Good job, Chenle. You may be challenging Mark in intelligence now," Haechan teases, causing Mark to pout even more, "Junnie is the skinniest stick I've ever seen, and he's light on his feet, so he was the obvious choice."

"Renjun is a twig," I add, looking at my friend's scrawny legs, and thin torso. He's naturally skinny, though I do worry sometimes that he's too skinny.

"Hey! You can call me a stick, but don't reduce me to a twig now. I don't deserve that," Renjun groans comically, leaning himself on Jeno with an exasperated expression.

"Anyways, we sacrificed Renjun, and at some point, he gave us the all-clear, so we rushed over to the room with your name on it. And then those two losers," Haechan points to Mark and Jeno, who roll their eyes at him again, "finally decided to come along, hence why Mark was out of breath when we got here."

"Wow," I say incredulously, pausing for a few seconds. Jaemin and Haechan look so proud, "You all are stupid." Their faces drop, worried that I'm upset.

"Come on now, Lele. We-" Jaemin starts before I interrupt.

"But I love you all so much!" I exclaim, jumping out of my chair to go squeeze Jaemin. He looks happily surprised, embracing me back as I hug each one of the boys, finally reaching Jisung.

I look in his eyes anxiously, remembering once again why I'm doing this. I don't want to see him or his brother, Taemin, struggle any longer.

"Good luck, Lele," he whispers, hugging me softly. All of the boys wished me luck before him, but it's so much more special when I hear it coming out of his mouth, simply because there's more meaning to it. Hearing Jisung say that to me gives me reassurance. I pull away, facing everyone.

"Thank you...really. Now, get on back to your seats. My parents will get worried, and plus, I'm performing soon.

"We loooove you, Chenle!" Renjun lulls, waving like a queen as he makes his way out. Gosh, that boy has really broken out of his shell since we've met. He used to be so quiet, but being all around all of us really caused him to open up.

"Aww, my baby is growing up," Jaemin whines, wiping stray tears away dramatically as if he's teasing me, but I can tell that he's actually shedding a few tears, which touches me.

"You're only one year older than him, Nana. He can't be your baby," Jeno retorts, pushing him out of the room. Haechan and Mark give me looks of pride, and Jisung is last to leave. He smiles brightly, eyes crinkling, before quickly hurrying out of the room, warming up and slowing down my nervous heart.

A stagehand soon enters, leading me to the area right next to the stage, "You'll be performing next, Mr. Zhong."

The butterflies return to haunt me again, but I try to think of good things to make them disappear. So I picture each one of them in my head: Jisung with his cute, awkward smile and great work ethic, Jaemin with his protectiveness and positivity, Haechan and his slightly annoying, but bright personality who draws people toward him in a snap, Jeno, with his determination and cute eye smile, Renjun, who is boisterous and bubbly unlike he used to be, and of course, Mark, who is dedicated to us and our well-being, constantly doing so much for us. As much as I hate to admit it, he does make a great leader.

"You're on, Chenle," another assistant says. I gulp nervously, straightening my tie, as I bashfully walk on stage, the audience immediately clapping. As these are auditions for the program, there are maybe 2,000 people at most watching. A few judges sit about 10 feet from the main stage, looking very intimidating despite the bright smiles plastered on their faces.

A male judge, dressed in sunglasses and fedora, speaks into his microphone first, "Hello there, buddy. What's your name?"

"Zhong Chenle."

"Are you Chinese?" I nod my head, slightly frozen up from the size of the crowd. The most I've ever performed for is probably ten people, all of whom were family. "You look nervous. Did anyone come to support you here today?"

"My parents, and my best friends." the camera focuses on them, and all of my friends are waving so excitedly and Jaemin is even blowing kisses to the camera, much to the embarrassment of Jeno and Jisung, who are sitting on either side of him. My face lights up, feeling so much strength in seeing them and being near them.

"What song will you be performing?" A youthful female judge coos, looking as though she wants to hug me.

"You Raise Me Up. It's my favorite song," I say into the mic, thinking about the powerful vocals and rich, nostalgic melodies of the song.

"Great choice, Chenle. Start whenever you're ready."

I realize that it will just make me more nervous to wait, so I stick my in-ear device in and give the backstage people a thumbs-up to start. The instrumentals flow into my ears, as I sway to its slow, flowy pulse. As soon as I open my mouth and let a note ring out, a collective gasp is heard throughout the auditorium, and I continue to sing with conviction and passion, showing everyone how much I want this. This song has meaning to me, so I pour my emotion to it, carrying out the impactful and melodious tune.

My brain clicks out of this world, as I focus only on the music and my voice, and the song is over even before I realize it started. Thunderous applause roars throughout the crowd, and I see my family standing in the distance, all putting their hands together for me, proud looks in their eyes. I lay my eyes on Jisung again, and we make eye contact, and my dream of winning seems just a little closer.

The applause dies down, causing me to turn my attention to the judges, whose eyes are light up like stars in the middle of the dark, cold night as if they've witnessed an angel in person.

"Chenle, you have the voice of an angel."

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I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Though it was short, I think it was pretty cute and I'm happy with how it turned out.

Please consider giving this chapter a vote if you enjoyed it, and please leave comments, as I love reading my reader's thoughts on my books!