in silence ᴰᴼᴵᴸ

３０.

☁️💌☁️

Taeil was panicking.

Not only was he being late for the rehearsal, but he also felt anxious under all the stares people were giving him while he stood in the bus with his guitar case on his back. It wasn't Thursday's afternoon but Saturday's instead, yet the boy was heading to school because of his drama club.

It's been months since the play was proposed and after all group meetings, it was almost ready to be shown publicly. And Taeil underestimated it totally.

Sure, his role wasn't major to begin with but he had a few lines to say and a whole song he was supposed to sing and play at the end. The lines were now running through his mind as the boy tried to remember at least the concept of his role— so, in case his brain decides to betray him, he can improvise. It was the price for him not putting enough effort to learn his parts that he now has to pay for.

Taeil still took the time to practice the song on his own in order not to be too behind but as teacher mentioned to him with visible disappointment two days ago—that didn't excuse the fact that he has skipped a couple of drama club afternoons.

It was April already, the fools day to be exact and Taeil felt like the universe was laughing in his face.

With heavy steps, he made his way to the back of the building, skipping every second step before hurrying to the auditorium through the back door. Few people were already scattered around but Taeil sighed in relief—he wasn't the only one running late.

"Look who's here after hundreds of years!" A familiar voice called out and Taeil playfully rolled his eyes in its direction not even trying to hide his wide smile.

One thing about drama club that he still didn't understand was how friendly was everyone there. Despite him showing once in a while, he made a good amount of friends there, friends that talked to him even outside of the theatre, like when they run into each other in school halls.

Taeil waved at the group, heading to the backstage to drop his things into one of the rooms they were allowed to occupy.

By the time everyone was there, Taeil sat down on the right edge of the stage, taking his time to tune the guitar and going through his song once more. He wasn't nervous to play the notes at first, it was the singing that made him a bit anxious. And because of his hands stubbornly shaking, it also wasn't easy to hit the right string in some parts. Since the beginning of the school year, he hasn't sung one song in front of an audience and so, naturally, he expected a disaster. Even years of professional training that Taeil put on a pause months ago couldn't prepare him for the stress he's now feeling.

"Dude, you okay? You look like you just saw a ghost." A boy approached him while he was going through the same lines, again and again, having troubles with his forefinger and middle finger catching the strings they were supposed to.

Taeil puffed, putting his guitar on his knees as he stretched his back and moved legs to sit properly. He hasn't even realised how much his butt and thighs were hurting on the hard wood until now.

"Just nervous, that's all."

"Don't worry, you'll be good. I've seen you performing last year and people sure have a lot to look forward to."

"Thanks." He sent a weak smile in Taeyong's direction who patted his shoulder before walking to his group of friends.

The boy, Taeyong, was part of the performance team that are supposed to lead the two main characters throughout the whole story with all kinds of emotions represented in the songs they sang and danced to. There were other guys that Taeil recognised—Renjun and Xiaojun never hesitated to greet him anytime they met, Jaemin, Jungwoo and Chenle even going as far as making a small talk despite their age gap. It was nice.