Hyemi and her team continued to practice together and soon she felt like a real member of their family. She roomed with Chaeyoung and had grown close to all of the girls. She still remained in contact with Jeno, and hung out with her new friends every week.
As far as Kyunghee goes... she had completely shut Hyemi out and replaced her with Iseul. The two of them did everything they could to get to Hyemi, and eventually Jichang joined in too. Jaemin told her just to ignore them and she did her best but it was tough.
Jaehyun hadn't let up on her, being as tough as ever and making her work that much harder, but it was making her better. He had a new found respect for her ever since that combo performance. After her talk in the quad with Yuta, the two of them had grown closer as well.
"Alright people, we got the Regionals assignment list. We'll be going against the teams from Chung-Ang, Sogang, Hanyang and Korea University. The requirements for this year are one male and one female solo plus a group cover dance." Jaehyun announced, walking into the room and reading from a sheet of paper.
"Who's gonna do the solos?" Jaemin asked.
All the older members shared a knowing look, leaving Jaemin and Hyemi confused, before Jaehyun turned back to them.
"Well, I think we should give it to you two."
"Us?" The two of them asked in complete shock.
"Yeah. You guys have been doing well in rehearsal and we want to see how you do on stage." Jaehyun said with a nod. "Go and pick out your songs and get started choreographing while the rest of us figure out the group."
He shoed the two of them away as the older members gathered around the computer.
"I can't believe they're going to let us do this!" Jaemin exclaimed, excited.
"It's crazy... we really can't let them down." Hyemi whispered out, starting to already feel the pressure.
"Dont stress. We have a whole 2 months to nail this down. Let me know what song you choose!" Jaemin said with a smile, walking away from her to grab his phone.
Two months better be enough.
- - -
"Hyemi! Can you run to the athletic director's office really quick and pick up our costumes? They should've arrived today and Jae wants to check them before the competition." Yuta said with a smile as they took a break from rehearsals.
It had been seven weeks since they started working and Hyemi was proud to say they were looking good. Her solo was finished and now it was just a matter of cleaning it and perfecting it.
"Yeah, sure, I'll be right back."
She rose from her seat and left the room, walking quickly to the office.
She grabbed the box of costumes and began to speed walk back to practice. As she was going, she bumped into someone, causing her to drop the box.
"Ow!" A voice said.
"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry!" Hyemi replied, quickly grabbing her costumes and turning to see who she had hit.
"Oh, it's you." Kyunghee said with a disgusted voice, Iseul standing right beside her.
"Hi, Kyunghee, I'm so sorry, I wasn't watching where I was going." Hyemi dipped her head apologetically and picked up the box, beginning to walk away.
"Where the hell are you going?"
Hyemi stopped as Kyunghee called out after her, spinning around and face her.
"I'm sorry, I just have to go right now. I'll be more careful." Hyemi turned and began to walk away.
"Dont fucking turn your back on me."
Hyemi let out an exasperated sigh as she turned back to Kyunghee again.
"Look, Kyunghee, I saw I was sorry. I really have to get back to rehearsals now." She turned once again and began to walk away when Kyunghee called out after her once more.
"Is that what your dad taught you? To just leave and walk away all the time?"
Hyemi froze on the spot at Kyunghee's words.
"What?" She whispered out.
"I wonder how you're brothers would feel if they knew that you're the reason your dad left your family? How does it feel to be a mistake. No wonder you're okay with clinging to the All Stars team, you're used to being a mistake I guess."
Hyemi couldn't move, feeling the tears forming in her eyes. Her mind was telling her to leave. Go walk away before they could say anything else but her body didn't listen.
"Oh, hit a sore spot, did I? Now that you're on the All Star team you think you're untouchable, but you seem to have forgotten that I've known you long before University. Back when you were the joke of our studio. I was only nice to you to get on your brother's good side. You might've gotten better but at the end of the day, you were born talentless and you'll forever stay that way!"
"Kyunghee, enough. She doesn't deserve this." she could hear someone say as a crowd started to form.
"She deserves everything that's coming to her. Stuck up bitch thinks she can dance now just because she's wearing that black jacket. If it wasn't for me, she wouldn't even be standing here! If I had just let you jump off the building that day, it would be me in your place, and you know that!"
"Hey! What the hell is going on here? Hyemi?" Jaehyun burst through the crowd followed closely by Yuta and Jaemin.
"Oh, Jaehyun!" Kyunghee exclaimed, quickly plastering a smile on her face. "We were just talking to Hyemi here. She's having a panic attack about Regionals next week and we were just trying to help her calm down."
Jaehyun looked at Kyunghee skeptically, going to stand in front of Hyemi, the tears now streaming down her face.
"Is that true, Hyemi? Or did something else happen?"
"Hyemi? Why are you crying?"
Jaehyun was shoved to the side as Taeyong ran up to her, holding her at arms length and seeing the tears on her face. She looked up, gazing past her brother and making eye contact with Kyunghee, the smirk back on her face.
"Just tell him, Hyemi, or I can tell your brother the real reason you've been crying."
Hyemi gulped, shaking her head.
"It's nothing. K-Kyunghee was right. I-I started getting nervous and s-she was just helping me calm down."
"Well there's nothing to be nervous about." Taeyong said, pulling her into a hug. "And thank you for helping her, Kyunghee." Taeyong said with a grateful smile to his teammate. "Are you okay now?" He asked his sister.
She nodded.
"Alright, good. We have to go practice now, but text me if you get nervous again. Everything will be fine."
Taeyong turned with a smile, Kyunghee and Iseul following behind him after casting one final smirk at Hyemi.
The crowd slowly disappeared, leaving Hyemi still frozen with Jaehyun, Yuta, and Jaemin looking at her.
"Come on, Hyemi, let's go practice. Get your mind off things and calm your nerves, hmm?" Yuta said with a smile, grabbing her hand and pulling her to towards the practice room, Jaemin picking up the costume box.
She just nodded her head and allowed him to guide her. As she walked past Jaehyun, his arm shot out and he gripped her shoulder, stopping her from walking.
"Are you really okay?"
"I-I'm fine."
With a hard look at her, he let her go. He watched as she followed Jaemin and Yuta to their practice room. Jaehyun stood there for a moment, something still not sitting right with him. He saw the fear in her eyes, the tremble in her muscles, and the panic written all over her face.
That wasn't a panic attack. Something happened. She was lying.
He shook off the thought, unable to do anything for the time being and then followed the group towards their practice room.
- - -
Hyemi was a mess for the rest of practice. She had no facial expressions, her moves weren't sharp and she kept forgetting small parts of the choreography.
Jaehyun watched her continuously mess up but held his tongue. He knew something was off and, despite his usual asshole tendencies, had enough sense to know to let her be.
"Alright guys, let's call it a day. Regionals in less than a week so make sure you're eating good and getting lots of sleep. See you tomorrow."
The members began to pack up their things and get ready to leave. Hyemi moved slowly, basically trying to hold back from crying at all times.
"Hyemi! Want to go grab some food before heading back?" Jaemin asked as they walked to the door.
"Sure I-"
"Hyemi!"
She was cut off by Jaehyun calling her name.
"Uh, yes Jaehyun?"
"Hang back. I need to speak with you." He asked with a cold tone that made her nervous.
"Oh yeah sure," she mumbled out, dropping her dance bag. "I'll see you later, Jaem."
"Good luck." He whispered out with a nervous smile. "Have fun."
She watched as he shut the door behind him, leaving her alone with Jaehyun. Hyemi turned around to face him, nervously going to stand in front of him.
"Why did you, uh, why did you want me to hang back?"
"What's going on with you today?" He said, staring down at her.
"What do you mean?"
"You're distracted, unfocused. You forgot moves, had no energy, no emotion, nothing. I don't know where your mind was today, but it wasn't here. We have less than a week until regionals, and you're juggling both the group dance and a solo." He said with frustration.
"I-I'm sorry."
"I don't want to hear apologies because I know you're not doing this on purpose, but I want to know what the hell is up."
"I-I don't know. There's just a lot going through my head right now, I'm thinking about a lot of things and I guess it's distracting me."
"Then dont think."
She met his eyes, his gaze still cold as she looked up at him in confusion.
"What?"
"Don't think. Just dance."
She remained silent, still unsure of what to do.
"Like right now, I mean dance right now. We need to work on your solo and I know you don't have any meetings today, so we're gonna stay here until you get your shit together."