Tension [JEONGMIN]

Chapter 7

Jeongyeon

The nine members of Twice made their way off the small stage, thankful that they hadn't been asked to wear heels this time.

It was the day of the Melon Music Awards and they had just finished their opening red carpet interview.

The girls were guided into the venue by a cadre of managers, executives and bodyguards.
As they got closer, the loud buzz of their spectators could be heard. It was like a constant roar and Jeongyeon felt even more overwhelmed when they entered the premises and she saw a sea of people.

All fans from different fandoms waving their respective lightsticks, though it was mostly exo-ls. They looked like colourful floating heads and their attention was directed at the idols sitting at the center.

Jeongyeon hurried to their seats, dragging Tzuyu who was holding onto her. She felt extremely self conscious as the fans and some idols who had noticed their arrival turned to look at them.
They had barely sat down when they heard loud cheers ,to see that the members of Exo had entered the arena. They were all wearing shades of red and maroon. Jeongyeon stood up with the other members to bow at their seniors. Exo was at the top of their game, they won every big award and they had a massive fanbase. It always felt like she was in the presence of some top government officials or a family of royals when Exo was in the vicinity.

More groups and soloists kept entering the arena with increasing pace and finally BTS came in as well.
Much to Jeongyeon's dismay, they came and sat right behind them.

Nayeon who was sitting at the opposite corner from Jeongyeon turned her whole body to face her and wriggled her eyebrows comically.

"HERE?? Was she kidding!!?" though Jeongyeon glaring at Nayeon and turning away.

The others chuckled in amusement and she felt her irritation grow. She sat staring fixedly at the stage, making sure not to spare a single glance at BTS.

Jimin

They entered the arena and were greeted with a spectacular scene of thousands of floating lights and roaring chatter.

Namjoon walked confidently to their seating area which, coincidentally was right behind Twice and he followed with the rest of the members.

They all felt weirdly nervous that day, not because of their performance but because they knew they were nominated for a big award. Album of the Year, one of the four big awards.....they didn't expect much. Things had never been in their favour and they had hardly been appreciated for their music by awarding bodies. There were many other artists nominated as well, much bigger artists than them. However at the back of his mind Jimin couldn't help thinking, "Just maybe we have a chance.. ."

Time seemed to fly by. Various artists performed and then came Twice. They performed TT and Cheer Up.
He quite enjoyed the performance. The stage production was very impressive and had a strange goth like appearance which was an interesting contrast with the actual songs. He unconsciously closely observed Jeongyeon during her parts. He liked her voice, it had soul and he suddenly realized that she had the prettiest smile.

"She's a really good dancer" he told Yoongi, who was sitting right next to him, as Momo came into the spotlight.
"And the other girl..Mina..her contemporary is really good"

"Oh are they both in that ballet segment you guys are planning?" inquired Yoongi in interest.

"Yeah"

They had already witnessed many performances before Twice including Blackpink, the rookie group who had debuted just a few months prior, Red Velvet , Exo, Mamamoo, Ikon and GOT7.

He was very impressed with Blackpink and Taehyung, Jungkook and Namjoon even knew the words to their songs. Seokjin already knew the eldest member, Kim Jisoo as they shared the same circle of family friends, both coming from wealthy families.

During Red Velvet's performance of Russian Roulette his attention had mostly been fixed on Seulgi, although he had tried his best to not look like a whipped idiot.

As they had to perform a few acts after Twice they quickly made their way backstage just as Twice ended their performance.

Artists, stylists and managers were running here and there. Organizers were standing in corners with their clipboards, looking extremely stressed. And on top of that, there were camera crew, capturing authorized backstage footage. This was the chaos fans never witnessed behind all major award shows.

The boys quickly changed into their performance outfits and after a good 20 minutes they were all glamed up.

Jimin escaped from the stylist still fussing over his outfit and made his way to a common corridor because the room was starting to feel a little hot and crowded. He needed some air.
The right side of the corridor was empty.

He turned to the left, only to knock straight into someone.
"Whoa!..sorry I didn't see you" he quickly apologized.

Jeongyeon's face was flushed from the performance and she was breathing heavily. She just stared at him, looking startled.
They held eye contact for several seconds before Jimin realised that he was holding her by the shoulders to steady her. He quickly dropped his hands. It hadn't escaped his notice that there had been building awkward tension between them for some time and right then it was making him uncomfortable.

Then to his relief she blinked several times, as if coming out of a trance and spoke.

"That's ok. No harm done"

She then bowed at him politely and continued her walk down the corridor without looking back.
He stared after her, shook his head and walked in the opposite direction.