[Book 1] M. L. M. I. (My lover, My Idol)

CH8 - Getting There

As per the message she received from the Team Familea custodian, all contestants under Lea's tutelage are supposed to arrive at Studio A at exactly 11:00 am.

The rehearsals for the upcoming knockout rounds will be taped with all of them together on the first hour. After the group gathering with Coach Lea has been taken, they will have their one on one session with their coach to discuss what songs they will be singing individually.

Like always, she arrived thirty minutes earlier than the announced call time and as she enters the function room where they are supposed to have the meetup,  she saw the other contenders and Lea was already there. 

Coach Lea was brimming with freshness as she's always been. Ellie can't help but blush as she sees Lea smiling and waving at her.

"Hello El. Good you're already here."

Everyone knows for a fact that Lea doesn't tolerate tardiness. She had mentioned before that one of her work mantras is that - 15 minutes early is on time, and on time is late. And being an avid fan of her, Ellie had also applied this ethic into her daily life.

"Good morning all." Ellie shyly walks towards the group as her coach motioned for her to come closer. She looked at the faces of the other Familea members present, there were some guys and pretty girls as well. Her introverted self is starting to take over her presence at that moment. She feels that she does not belong to this group, that she does not deserve to be there.

"All right, were just waiting for two more. Hope they get here on time." Lea said to the group. 

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When the group members have all been completed, the assistant director and staff then asked them to move to the area where their group session will be recorded by the camera. And so, their taping started right away.

Accompanying Lea as her guest mentor is none other than her very own brother, Gerard Salonga. She explained that even if they're doing an acapella version, it will still be best if there will be guidance from a musical director as to check if they have good arrangements for the song since there will be no musical accompaniment on their performances, only the rawness of their voice. And upon introducing Gerard to everyone, the one-on-one session with each artist started inside a separate music studio on that set. 

Unfortunately Ellie's turn is actually the last. She had to wait for others to finish their mentoring session with Coach Lea and Gerard and she is not allowed to leave the premises for anytime her name might be called. So to kill time, she took out her phone, checked her social media accounts and opened her emails. 

Just as boredom strikes, her agent never fails to bring her unwanted  news at the moment. She just received a request for her to modify a material she had already submitted last week. It is against her contract agreement to have any revisions on the materials she'll be providing to her agent. But she thought, since she doesn't really have anything to do right now, why not humor Daniel's request?

Time has passed so quickly that Ellie hadn't noticed that it has already been four hours since she sat there at the lobby waiting for her turn. She is still  immersed on her phone, pressing its screen with complete focus and composure.

Meanwhile, Lea just got finished with  her eighth member for today and so she's excited to call on the last one. She somehow feels guilty for this person as it took her hours to get their mentoring session. Lea enthusiastically opened the door for the mini studio to call on Ellie but as she looks into the outside couch she's sitting at, she noticed that the young lad is all serious and focused on her smartphone. 

Somehow, she felt a little discomfort seeing that this girl's attention is onto something else. She could not understand why she doesn't feel good about it. After like two minutes of just staring at her, she then called El's name for their coaching session to start.