Notes to my Heart | TAEIL

Chapter 16

Taeil was watching his team's performance from the side, glancing at the judges every now and then.

Aside from Jaehyun, there were two more idols that were judges, one male, one female. Taeil recognized the male as Yuta, a famous idol known for his soft voice but strong dance skills.

Taeil was nervous, seeing how intense the faces of the judges were as they watched the performance. Taeil had watched them comment on the other performances, and even Taeyong's which was full of strong dancers, had a lot of intense feedback.

It was also different for Taeil to see Jaehyun like this. He had always been the cute maknae of the trio but during the time that Taeil had been inactive, he had grown up. Jaehyun's face was quite serious as he watched the performance.

Yuta also kind of intimidated Taeil. His eyes looked like they could pierce through his soul and hope the intense look wouldn't throw his team off. They had already lost four members from the first elimination, and Taeil was worried that they would lose more with this upcoming one.

His team was doing well though, and Taeil knew that him and Ten had made a good choice, putting Haechan in the centre. He was also glad that Iseul was doing her part well. Taeil and Ten had given her more vocal parts where she could do smaller movements, hiding her weak dance skills. Taeil was worried since this performance was different from her usual image, but she had risen up to the challenge.

Soon, the performance was over and Taeil was called onto the stage to join his team for the feedback.

"Good job." Taeil whispered to them as he took his spot between Jungwoo and Haechan. He put his arm around Haechan, giving the male a small smile in hopes of reassuring him.

"Now for judges feedback." Jungwoo annouced before smiling at Jaehyun. "But before we begin with that, we have one judge tonight that was particularly looking forward to this performance. Jaehyun, would you like to comment first?"

"Yes, thank you." Jaehyun said into his microphone, smiling at Taeil.

Please don't say something stupid.

"I have to compliment all of you on your performance skills because they were much better than hyung's when he debuted." Jaehyun said with a mischevious grin before adding, "just kidding."

Jaehyun's smile then faded as he pointed out a few flaws, giving the competitors a bit of advice on how to improve their performance before passing it to Yuta.

"Haechan?" Yuta said, glancing at the paper in front of him that had all their names and faces.

"Yes?" Haechan said, stepping forward.

"I think you shone very well in this performance. It's very obvious that you belong on the stage and you did the centre part very well. Keep up the good work." Yuta said.

"Thank you." Haechan said, stepping back in line. Taeil felt very happy when Haechan turned his head towards him, a wide grin on his face.

"The second comment I have is for Iseul." Yuta continued.

Taeil was more nervous for this one as Yuta's face was much more serious as he lifted the paper, scanning it.

"Yes?" Iseul said, stepping forward. Taeil could tell she was nervous as she bit her bottom lip and Taeil couldn't help but feel the same.

"It says here that you have no prior dance experience, but I wouldn't have believed that otherwise. I can tell that you worked really hard, and even though I would still say that you're lacking a bit in comparison to the others, you didn't stick out negatively for me, which is what you want. Good job." Yuta said, giving the girl a small smile as he placed the paper down.