Later that night, after dinner and all, the girls, Yeongjae, Chengcheng and I were all hanging out in the small backyard listening to some music and just relaxing while Lin's father worked upstairs. He told us we could be noisy because what he was going to be doing wasn't that important, but we still weren't being too loud just in case.
All of them were sitting at the table chatting and playing cards against humanity but I sitting on one of the swings trying to call Jisung. I had been trying to text and call the boys for the whole day but none of them answered, so I was starting to get worried.
After more than ten minutes of trying, I finally surrendered and went back with the rest, sitting down between Yeongjae and Chengcheng and throwing my phone on the table.
"What's wrong?" Chengcheng asked as me as he put his card on the table and waited for the rest to do the same.
"I've been trying to call the Stray Kids boys all day and none of them is answering," I told him. "I'm getting worried."
"They aren't answering your calls either?" Soojin asked me and I nodded.
"I've texted Chan a bunch of times today and he hasn't even read them. Maybe they are busy," Mika told me. "Let's not worry yet. They are working very hard on the album and are promoting Double Knot, so they may just be working or resting."
"I hope you are right..." I said and yawned. "I should have slept on the plane."
"I told you a thousand times and you didn't listen to me," Yeongjae said and made me lay my head on his shoulder. "I know you won't leave, so sleep here and I'll carry you to your bedroom later."
"Thank you," I told him and closed my eyes.
ººº
The next morning, I woke up to the sound of music coming from downstairs but Leah and Mika were still sleeping. Still, I stood up and put my hair in a ponytail before heading downstairs to see what was going on.
When I got to the living room, I saw Soojin, Yeongjae and Mr Zhu sitting down on the couch while Lin and Chengcheng danced to «Dream», one of the songs from Idol Producer.
"Good morning!" Lin said when she saw me but continued dancing. "Sit down and enjoy the show."
I then just watched them and saw Lin trying to tease me, but I thought of a way of making things a lot more fun and, when the bridge part came (2:32), I joined their dancing.
"Go for it!" Chengcheng said.
"Woo!" Soojin and Yeongjae said from the couch.
I then just continued dancing with Lin and Chengcheng since I knew the whole dance and, when it finished, they both high-fived me.
"You even learnt the choreographies?!" Lin asked me shocked. "I knew you liked the program, but not that you liked it that much!"
"I always learn dances that I love!" I reminded her. "I even learnt the «Agent J» one."
"Wait, «Agent J»?!" Chengcheng said now completely shocked.
"Nothing can top you two dancing to it, so I will leave my performance to your imagination," I said and sat down on the couch.
"Hell, no!" Lin said grabbing my arm and pulling me up again. "You are dancing to that! I want to see it!"
"It's a couple dance in many parts. I can't show it to you even if I want to," I reminded her.
"You can dance with Chengcheng, I don't care!" she said and even Chengcheng looked shocked.
"What?! I'm not dancing with your boyfriend!" I exclaimed.
"Why not? It's just a dance!" Lin said and turned towards Chengcheng. "Do you mind?"
"I mean, I don't but-" he tried to say but Lin cut him off.
"Then it's settled," she said and sat down on the couch, picking up her phone to play the song through the speakers.
"Is the dance that bad?" Soojin asked us as she had never seen it before.
"You'll see now," Lin said with a smirk before turning to us. "If you know the lyrics, sing too. I want to hear you singing in Chinese, Alix."
"Wait, there is nothing to use as the platform," I told her.
"Just use the table," she told us. "Don't stand on it, but you can use it for the rest."
Sighing, Chengcheng and I went to the table and removed the chairs so we could dance before fist-bumping and going to our places.
For the first part, it was just Chengcheng, but then we both had to lay lightly on the table right before starting the main dance.
During that dance we were supposed to be looking at each other almost as if flirting, so I really had to hold back my laughter and I noticed Chengcheng doing the same too.
"What the heck?!" I heard Mika exclaim from the door as we did the body rolls. "G-good morning?"
"Come here!" Soojin said patting the couch. "You have missed way too much."
Regretting every single decision I had ever made, I continued dancing trying not to pay much attention to the girls, Yeongjae and, wost of all, Lin's father. I wanted the earth to suck me whole.
When the song finally came to an end, I crouched down on the floor and covered my face with my hands from the embarrassment while the rest, including Chengcheng, applauded.
"Alix, what the heck?!" Leah exclaimed. "Since when are you sexy?! Did «Ah Yeah» mess up your brain and now you are into sexy dances or what?"
"Why do I feel as if I shouldn't have been watching this?" Yeongjae muttered and the girls burst out laughing.
"Seriously, it was amazing," Lin said standing up. "I bet that Alix would have nailed Idol Producer, don't you think so, Cheng?"
"You are absolutely right," he said and tapped my shoulder. "Don't be embarrassed, Alix. Just think that I had to dance this with who was my teacher up until a couple of days before the actual performance. I can assure you this wasn't that awkward."
"If that was meant to comfort me, sorry but it didn't work," I told him but still tried to calm down and pretend nothing happened. "Let's just continue dancing to random songs, shall we?"
ºººº
ResQ's Alix reveals having anxiety, eating disorders and depression on a YouTube Interview.
Wu Alix from ResQ reveals mental health problems.
Kpop community shocked with ResQ's Alix's mental health problems.
Every single news outlet there was in Korea and sometimes outside the country was talking about my video with Korean Englishman just the day after it was released. It already had more than 20 million views even though it had just been a day and when normally their videos didn't pass the ten million mark. It was really getting out of control and we were all shocked by the impact it had.
JYP quickly called me after the video was released but, surprisingly, not to scold me or anything like that, but rather to tell me that he was there if I needed to talk and also to tell me that if things started to get too overwhelming, I could take a break from promotions. I was really happy to see he was being supportive instead of scolding me like I supposed he would have done. It showed me that he really cared.
The "fans", though, seemed to be pretty divided. Ones were really supportive and telling me that they would root for me and support me, but others were saying that I shouldn't have even joined ResQ if I was like that because it meant I wasn't strong enough to survive in the Kpop industry.
The girls had been taking care of me a lot since then because they were worried that the negative comments would affect me. I was trying to stay away from them, though, so they had nothing to worry about.
What had me the most worried, though, was that the boys weren't still answering any texts or calls. I had been trying to call every single one of them but I would be sent straight to voicemail. Mika was still telling me to not worry, but I could sense that she was just as worried as I was. Soojin, on the other hand, was just like me trying to contact them.
Eventually, the day of our concert in Tokio came and we couldn't keep thinking about the boys because we had to really prepare for the concert. Mika's parents were allegedly coming to see us, so we wanted to make the concert as enjoyable as possible for them.
"Girls, remember our special unreleased track is today right after Call Call Call. Let's make the fans really feel special with that one," Mika reminded us as we were fixing our in-ears and microphones. "Don't hint it at all. We want it to be a surprise."
"But it's so good!" Soojin said. "The line distribution is honestly a mess, but it's so good!"
"Hey, let's be honest: it is like that because Alix knows absolutely no Japanese and I suck," Lin said. "It's only fair."
"I told you many times that your pronunciation in Japanese isn't that bad but you never listen," Mika told us.
"Be glad I even agreed to record the five-member version of Call Call Call," I said. "It's weird to sing not knowing a single thing I am saying. I don't even know why I agreed to re-recording Call Call Call and realize. I could be saying a curse word instead of the actual lyrics and wouldn't notice."
"That would actually make the concert even more fun and it would lead to many memes so I don't see the problem," Leah said.
The cheers then started getting louder and louder, so we guessed we didn't have a lot of time left and quickly did a group cheer before going to our places on stage.
The VCR had already started and it was the second version we had filmed. There was the first version with NO and the second version with Lady and it just depended on which song we would be performing first.
This one was less serious and more lighthearted but it was just because the song itself was more lighthearted than NO, so we had the two opposite versions. I liked both of them a lot, so I didn't really mind which one was shown.
After the VCR, it was finally time to start the show and Soojin opened up with the intro.
"Tokyo, make some noise!" I said through my microphone and the concert finally began.
ººº
"This is sadly coming to an end!" Mika said in Japanese after we finished Call Call Call and I only understood that because Leah was translating it to Lin and me real-time. "Don't worry, we still have a few more songs left, right, girls?"
"Right!" we all said at the same time.
"Then let's go!" Mika said in English and we all gathered together to start performing the new song.
(A/N: Fun fact! I saw the Faky girls early this year at a concert and they were honestly amazing. I even got to get their merch signed and took a picture with them. If you haven't checked them out before, I seriously recommend their music, they won't disappoint you.)
Although we had all worked a lot on the song and it took us a while to create, Lin, Soojin and I had finished creating the dance literally at Lin's house two days before while messing around. It wasn't meant to have one at first, so we didn't make it difficult at all and just fun.
The fans were all very shocked to hear the new song and many of them had taken out their phones to record the performance, so I was sure there would be some fancams by the next day. I didn't care at all because that way more fans would be able to see and hear it, but I didn't like it that much when the fans were always recording everything because they just wouldn't enjoy the concert the same way they would if they watched it with their own eyes.
Right when the song finished, we moved straight to «Streets of Gold», a song from the first album I was in and that was completely in English, so it was one that we didn't have fan chants for and just let the fans sing along with us.
[Alix]Like a silver spoon, Like a di-a-mond,In these streets of gold bling-ay (Bling-ay)
Like a silver spoon, Like a di-a-mond,In these streets of gold bling-ay (Bling-ay)
[Leah]You give me that picture perfect
I don't know what to do with it
[Lin]Only you can do it like that
Only you can do it like that
[Soojin]Screaming at the top of my lungs
And I don't care who knows
[Lin]Only you can get me like that,
Only you can get me like that
[Soojin]Oh, oh When you gimme that gimme that sexy smile
Nobody else baby you're all mine
Gimme that gimme that all the time
[Alix]Oh, oh Got me loving you out of my mind
And you show me a world that I've never known
[Mika]Now when I see the clouds,
There's nothing but nothing but silver lining now, now
I can't remember life before you came around
There's nothing but loving you in these Streets of Gold oh...Gold oh...
[Leah]Baby look what you look what you done
Bring it back bring it back now you're my only one
Look what you look what you do
Bring it back bring it back always comes down to you
[Lin]I gotta get some more
There's nothing but loving you in these Streets of Gold oh...Gold oh...
[Soojin]I'm a stone cold fox Not a part time lover
All these other boys never saw me coming
I'm thankful for ya cuz I never need another
And with you by my side there's more we can discover
[Lin]We're a cut above the rest never break a sweat
Snap a pic we break the internet
[Soojin]Only we can do it like that that
Go together silver and gold
[Leah/Alix]Oh, oh Got me loving you out of my mind
Bring it back bring it back one more time
[Mika]Now when I see the clouds,
There's nothing but nothing but silver lining now, now
I can't remember life before you came around
There's nothing but loving you in these Streets of Gold oh...Gold oh...
[Leah]Baby look what you look what you done
Bring it back bring it back now you're my only one
Look what you look what you do
Bring it back bring it back always comes down to you
[Lin]I gotta get some more
There's nothing but loving you in these Streets of Gold Oh...Gold oh...
Halfway through the song, we stopped dancing and moved around the different areas of the stage to interact with fans and really sing with them but, when the bridge part came, I noticed none of them was paying attention anymore and they were just looking at their phones and talking to each other.
As it was my turn to sing, I crouched down and waved my hands in front of them asking them to sing along too, but one of the fans moved her phone towards me and I picked it up to see what was going on while Mika sang her high note.
"Hello, this is JYP Entertainment.
Woojin, who has been with Stray Kids as a member until this time, has left the group due to personal circumstances and terminated his exclusive contract. We express apologies for causing trouble to many fans with the sudden news. As a result, Stray Kids' mini-album "Clé: LEVANTER," which was scheduled for a November 25 release, will be delayed to December 9. We once again express apologies to the fans who have waited for a long time.
We ask for much support for Woojin who will be going on a new path, and we also ask for the warm support of STAY for the eight Stray Kids members who will once again go on the road towards their dreams with their compass.
Thank you."