"DEBI! DO YOU WANT SEONSAENG TO YELL AT YOU AGAIN!? COME ON!!!!"
Bahar, the leader of the new K-pop group I was a part of called Young and Free, said, annoyed at me since I had taken an hour to get ready this morning. My mind kept going back to the comment Johnny made yesterday about Mark and girls..... Stop. No. I wasn't going to think about that now. Our debut was in just a little over a week and I needed to keep my mind focused on our goal: Not failing drastically while on stage for the first time in front of millions of people who only came for an NCT concert and we are here to interrupt their extremely loud fangirling.
I opened my locker and reached in to grab my dancing shoes. As I did so, a slip of paper fell out of the door. I bent over, picked it up and threw it back into my locker. I would look at it later. Right now, I needed to focus on learning the dance to "L.O.V.E", the second song we would be performing during our debut. I closed my locker and headed into the dance studio.
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"Okay let's take this from the start. ONE TWO THREE FOUR!"
The chorus to L.O.V.E starts playing.
~ 나는 항상 여기에 있었지만 왜 나를 볼 수 없습니까?
나는 너와 매일 이야기하지만 왜 내 말을 듣지 않느냐?
이 느낌은 L.O.V.E입니다.
나는 너를 느끼는 걸 안다 .L.O.V.E
내가 느끼게 해줄거야, L.O.V.E ~
"Step one, two, three four. Turn, two, three, four. Clap and back to back."
Okay Deborah. You remember this right? Okay. Here we go. Left. Clap. Left. Back. Turn. Right. Step. Jump. Stop. Turn...Hm...maybe the piece of paper was a reply to my letter?
"DEBORAH!"
I tripped over my own feet and crashed into Bella, who slipped and crashed into Soo Jin, who fell into Bahar who crashed into the mirror.
Seonsaeng sighed and mumbled under her breath,
"I don't get paid enough for this."
Bahar was the first to get up from the pile of bodies on the floor. She walked over to me, looked me dead in the eyes...and shoved me backward. I tripped over a stepping block and landed, sprawled out on the floor. Bahar stood on the stepping block that had just caused my glorious fall and looked at me angrily. I tried to hold back a smile as I said,
"Wow. It's amazing. You're finally taller than me."
Bahar, who looked like she was about to kill me, was not amused. Bella and Soo Jin, on the other hand, were laughing their heads off and Bella looked like she was having a seizure. Even Seonsaeng was chuckling in her corner.
"Debi. Please. We're debuting in 8 days. We can't afford to mess up like this anymore. Please. I'm stressed enough as it is. Yoongi and I are going through a rough patch and I just wanna know that at least this aspect of my life is going smoothly." Bahar looked like she was on the verge of tears.
I got up from the floor, went over and hugged Bahar.
"Everythings gonna be alright hyungie."
"Don't. Touch. Me."
Bahar growled at me.
I backed away slowly, my hands raised in the air in surrender. This only made Bella and Soo Jin laugh more.
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"Okay guys! That's it for today! See you all tommorow!" Seonsaeng tells us.
Bella breathes a sigh of relief and collapses on the floor, totally exhausted. There's a knock on the door. We all glance over to see who it is. Joshua Hong, from the group SEVENTEEN, walks in holding a bundle of flowers. Bella jumps up, runs over, then has to bend over for a bit to catch her breath. When she stands back up, Joshua goes in for a hug.
"Woahwoahwoah. I'm really sweaty and stinky right now. A hug might not be the best idea." Bella says, a laugh in her voice.
"Damn right you are." Bahar mutters under her breath.
This makes Joshua burst into laughter.
"Okay. Wait. Hold on. Just let me go get changed and then we can head out okay?" Bella says, still out of breath.
"Okay. See you soon"
Bella runs off to get changed and that leaves Joshua and us to sit there in an awkward silence. Eventually, Seonsaeng says,
"Okay now. Everyone run off. I have NCT coming in here in a few seconds and I do now want to see that traffic jam."
We laugh and exit the room. I'm antsy to go to my locker and see what the piece of paper is but I stay with Joshua and the other girls to be polite. Soo Jin breaks off from the group on our way out of the studio since she had a video call scheduled with her family soon.
After she leaves, we find a quiet bunch in the hall and sit down.
"So how is the debut coming along?" Joshua asks, trying to make small talk.
"We would be perfect if Deborah would care enough to actually learn the dance." Bahar replied, snarkily.
"Oh, but why would I do that, if that would stop you from yelling at me 24/7?" I replied, giving her a sassy glance.
Joshua laughed and looked up to see Bella walking back towards us. She was wearing her signature ripped jeans and sneakers, paired with a white shirt that had flowers on it.
Huh. I've never seen that shirt before.
"Y'all aren't trying to steal my boyfriend are you?" Bella asked in a joking tone.
We laughed awkwardly and Joshua gets up, hands her the flowers he had been carrying and shows her out the door and onto the sidewalk. Bahar and I wait until they had left the building to sigh at the same time. I guess the Yoongi thing was really getting to her.
My love life, on the other hand, was non-existent. I'm just gonna be alone forever. Pity.
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Bahar and I parted ways and I went to my locker to get my stuff for vocal lessons later and the paper slip that I had found earlier. Of course, the one time I was desperate to get into my locker, it wouldn't open. After wrestling with it for over 10 minutes, and pretending like I was normal when all of NCT walked by on their way to dance practice, I finally got my locker open. I changed my shoes, shoved my dance ones inside, grabbed the paper and locked my locker. As I headed towards the door to exit the studio, I realized I had forgotten my phone in my locker.
Ughhhh.
Of course. This would only happen to me.
Hello. My name is Song Min Deborah. I'm about to debut in a K-pop group. My greatest enemy? Locker doors.