For the following couple of days we just continued promoting normally although the tenth of November, the day after our celebration party, the girls were having a lot of trouble since they were pretty hungover. In my case, I just had fun laughing at them since I had warned them about stopping drinking but they had just decided to ignore me.
The twelve of November, we attended The Show once again to continue with the promotions and we were yet again nominated for first place along with Victon and TXT. It seemed like we were going to meet the boys a lot of times since our schedules matched but I didn't like that at all since I honestly wanted them to win too and not just because I had been involved in the creation of the song.
Since it would be prerecorded, we had all already done our round of camera rehearsals and were now going to do the actual recordings. That let us be a lot more relaxed and we also had time to greet other artists there.
The Stray Kids boys said they wanted to come with us to the recording, but we had told them they already attended the show in which we won, so they didn't have to and, besides, it took a lot of paperwork to do so and it just wasn't necessary. That's how we ended up almost alone backstage as the TXT boys were still getting ready.
"It's weird not knowing at least one of the groups here," Soojin said as she looked around. "I mean, knowing them as in friends, not knowing their groups. We, of course, know the groups."
"You didn't need to explain it," Lin said and chuckled.
"Just in case," Soojin said and shrugged.
Right then, the boys of 1the9 approached us and we all bowed slightly confused since they didn't say anything until they suddenly did their group introduction and startled us.
"Wonder about us! Hello, we are 1the9," they said and bowed.
"H-hello?" We all said with a smile and bowed too.
"Sorry to bother, but we are big fans of ResQ and we wanted to greet you," Yeongha, the leader, said.
"Oh, really?" Mika said shocked. "Thank you very much!"
"Although we are all fans, Junseo I think is the biggest fighter here," Jinsung said pointing towards him.
"Thank you very much, really," Leah told them. "Our Alix here also has been keeping up with your music."
When she said that, I hit her arm since I was beside her but sent a smile to the boys. It was true that I had been checking out their music ever since their pre-debut since I watched part of Under 19 but they didn't have to know that.
"It's true, though!" Leah told them and they all chuckled.
"Can we get a picture with you?" Junseo said shyly.
"Sure!" Mika said and turned to search for Yeongjae but couldn't find him.
Just then, the TXT boys finally arrived and I told them to come.
"Do you mind taking a picture?" I asked them.
"No problem!" Soobin said picking up my phone.
We all then tried to fit inside the picture and also mixed up a little, so I was left standing on one of the sides right next to Junseo. I didn't want the picture to seem all formal and forced, so I put my left hand on his shoulder and went a little bit closer to him while doing a V sign with the other hand. He ended up doing the same thing too, so I was glad he didn't find it uncomfortable and just went along with it.
"Good!" Soobin said once he was done. "You all were very handsome and pretty."
"Thank you!" I said getting my phone back. "By the way, I like your outfits today. Simple yet fun."
"Thank you," Yeonjun told me.
"Can someone please give me their KakaoTalk so I can send it to you? If not I can use Instagram, I don't mind," I said as I turned once again towards the 1the9 boys.
I then realised that the boys were talking to the rest of the girls now as I had been talking to the TXT boys, so no one was paying attention to me. Junseo, though, seemed to have been the only one who heard me and approached me.
"You can have mine," he said taking his phone out. "QR code?"
"Sure," I said opening the app too and scanning his QR code before sending him the pictures. "Here you go!"
"Thank you again," he said and I noticed he was blushing a little but I didn't want to point it out. "It was amazing to meet my favourite group."
"Wait, your favourite?!" I said shocked.
"Yes," he said and chuckled. "I have to admit I became more interested in the group after you joined."
"Why then?" I asked him curiously.
"When you joined the group I kept thinking about how you reminded me of someone and I watched a ton of stages just trying to find out why you seemed so familiar. It turns out you were the girl from the old SM rookies videos!" he told me.
"Wait, didn't they take those off the internet?" I asked him confused. "I thought they did!"
"They did, don't worry, but there are still some music videos in which you appear as an extra and some live stages in which you were a backup dancer and they can't remove those," he said. "Still, that's how I got to listen to even more of your songs and how I essentially became a big fan."
"Thank you for listening to us," I told him. "I hope you like our comeback that's coming soon."
"I'm sure I will," he said with a big smile.
Just then, the girls and I were called to record, so we all sadly had to leave and go to the stage, but I was sure we would hang out again when we were done with it.
ººº
Since our performance was going to be one of the last ones to be aired, it was also one of the last to be recorded, so we didn't have to wait for long until we had to go once again to the stage to record the winner announcement of that week.
Once again, Jeno and Yeeun greeted us when they saw us and I was glad that this time I wasn't in an awkward situation like the previous week and could greet them properly. Since we were on the stage and the fans were watching us, Jeno's manager couldn't say a thing about us two talking but still, neither of us wanted to risk it and just greeted each other politely although we both knew we wanted to talk to each other pretty badly.
"Good luck today, girls," Jeno said as Yeeun was talking to us at that moment and he found the best opportunity right then and there. "Fighting!"
"Thank you, Jeno," I told him sincerely and pretended to yawn so I could cover my mouth and tell him something without the fans being able to see it. "By the way, tell the rest of the dreamies I said hi. I miss them quite a lot."
Instead of answering, he just nodded and smiled, going back to looking at his cue cards since we were about to start recording again.
"Good luck, girls!" Yeeun said before doing the same.
We then approached the TXT boys, who were standing right next to us, and wished them good luck, them doing the same. Although we all wanted to win, we knew there were no harsh feelings and meant it when we wished each other good luck.
The 1the9 boys were standing right behind us, so they also took the opportunity to wish both groups (since Jinsung was close to Beomgyu and Taehyun) good luck.
"Airing on SBS MTV, Japan's TBS and Myanmar's fortune tv and MTV Asia in 18 countries, it's «The Show»!" Jeno said and we all turned back towards the cameras.
"It's time to reveal «THE SHOW Choice» for the third week of November," Yeeun continued.
"First, adding the votes for the song," Jeno said first.
RESQ: 3180 TXT:1640 VICTON: 2000
"Then the music video, professional votes and pre-voting," Yeeun followed.
RESQ: 3330 TXT:3030 VICTON: 2160
"And finally the live votes," Jeno finished.
RESQ: 683 TXT:312 VICTON: 358
TOTAL: RESQ: 7193 TXT: 4982 VICTON: 4518
"Congratulations, RESQ!" Yeeun finally said and the confetti was thrown. "Please, say some words."
Jeno then handed Mika the trophy and we were all honestly still in shock. Sure, we had already gotten our first win days before, but we weren't expecting to get any more after that.
"Wow!" Mika said starting the speech. "Seriously, we weren't expecting such welcoming for this song. We are very thankful to the Fighters, everyone in JYP and pretty much just everyone who has supported us along the way. It might have been a long and bumpy road, but ResQ will still stand strong as long as the Fighters join us in our journey. Thank you!"
"Fighters, we love you!" I said to the microphone once I was back from my shock and the fighters there cheered.
Jeno and Yeeun then wrapped up the show and the instrumental of Deja Vu played through the speakers. We wanted to thank all of the other artists there first so we started bowing as they left and stayed slightly longer with the TXT and the 1the9 boys at the end.
As the song played, the TXT boys decided to joke around and Beomgyu and Huening Kai started dancing to Deja Vu, which had us shocked.
"Join us!" I told them and turned to the 1the9 boys. "You too!"
Although they were a little reluctant, they finally ended up staying for a small portion of the song and then left, but we made sure to have a blast while they were with us and made them even sing a bit, which made things even more fun.
After they all left, the girls and I started singing and dancing while having fun and I stopped one by one with each of them to hug them as a way of saying "we did it".
"Everyone, sing with us!" Soojin said to the fans there when the high note before the last chorus came.
The fans then sang along with us and it was truly a magical moment. Sure, we had already had our first win, but we would never be able to get over the feeling of people appreciating our music and getting to share those magical moments with the fans. Besides, who would know when we would get another win?
Things were just getting started.