We would be performing on the second half of the show, just a few minutes after the Stray Kids boys, so, as soon as their performance ended, we all left to go backstage to change, not before the ITZY girls, the Mamamoo girls and the Monsta X boys wished us good luck.
When we got to the backstage, the Stray Kids boys were still there, so we quickly approached them to congratulate them.
"You were seriously amazing!" Mika said. "The whole performance was absolutely brilliant!"
"Thank you," Chan said and pecked her lips. "Good luck with your performance too now. We will be cheering for you."
Although Jisung and I couldn't so blatantly kiss like them or like Hyunjin and Soojin, he still approached me and threw his arm over my shoulder pretending to just act friendly.
"What did you think, Alix? Did I look cool?" he said snobbishly.
"You won't see me admitting that," I said grabbing his hand and pulling it off my shoulder but still held it as I looked at him. "Sometimes your ego is over the moon."
"Don't pretend you don't like it," he said and touched my nose, making me roll my eyes.
"Yes, whatever you say," I said and finally released his hand although I squeezed it before I did.
"We should get going now," Mika said.
"Fighting!" the boys said and Felix squeezed my shoulder lightly as I passed by him.
We then quickly hurried to change our clothes and the stylists also retouched our hair and makeup to make sure everything was perfect.
As time passed by, the girls and I were unconsciously taking over more and more of the stylists' job as the girls and I chose the clothes we wanted to wear most of the time. The stylists showed us different options every time and nowadays they even asked us if we liked the pieces before even buying them. I was glad that we were able to do that as that way we could show our true styles on stage, but most importantly I was glad that they trusted us that much.
"Good luck, girls," Yeongjae told us as he was there. "Don't be too nervous. This is just like another music program."
"Thank you," Leah told him. "Cheer for us, okay?"
"Of course I will! ResQ, fighting!" he said cutely and we all chuckled before leaving to get our microphones and in-ears.
"Lin, can I have your hair?" I asked her and played with her ponytail she was standing in front of me. "It's so soft!"
"Well, part of it is extensions, so I would be mad if it wasn't soft!" she said making me chuckle.
"It has grown quite a lot since last year, though. You all cut your hair and I think yours is the longest now," I pointed out.
She wasn't able to say anything as Nell, the band performing before us, was finishing their performance and the staff called us to get ready.
When they finally finished, we all headed on stage and the lights dimmed.
Since in the part we were doing of Lion Leah had no centre time, she would walk on stage in front of us before beginning the performance to open it and the rest of us would follow her lead by me since that part was allegedly mine although we weren't singing.
It would directly then skip to the chorus, where Mika would start off as the centre followed by Lin. After them, Soojin started the second half of the chorus, a part that we would actually sing, and I went after her.
As soon as we started singing, all of our fans there cheered for us and that made us a hundred times more excited. Sadly, though, that was just a teaser and we had to change positions to start performing Deja Vu.
I was honestly trying very hard to focus only on the cameras and not so much on the people watching us since it made me really anxious. As we changed positions and things like that, the girls would send me encouraging smiles, which actually made me feel more relaxed and at ease.
The song then finally came to an end, so we had to quickly get off the stage. Since no one was performing after us, we didn't have to go through the backstage, though, and simply headed to the artist area.
As we went there, they announced that Twice had won another of the Global Artist Top 12 awards, so we applauded for our seniors as we headed to our seats.
When we finally go there, the Stray Kids boys were there already to cheered for us and even mocked us with some of the dance steps from Lion, but we just laughed along and thanked them.
Just then, the Itzy girls stood up as they had to leave because they were performing shortly after, so we all wished them good luck before heading to where they were previously sitting as they were the only free seats. I didn't really know why, but the staff seemed to have counted the seats or something so that the groups leaving would leave space for the groups who had just performed.
The Mamamoo girls then turned to us to cheer for us too, so I was very happy, but I was startled when I felt hands on my shoulders all of a sudden.
"Chill, it's just me!" Bambam said.
"You scared the hell out of me!" I said trying to recover from my mini heart attack.
The girls were still talking to the Mamamoo girls but I didn't want to leave the boys hanging, so I turned my attention to them knowing that I wasn't going to speak much to the Mamamoo girls anyways as I didn't know them as much as the rest of the girls did.
"What did you think about our performance? Did you like it?" I asked them.
"It was amazing!" Yugyeom said. "Seriously, Alix, you are a really good dancer."
"Thank you," I said blushing a little since Yugyeom of all people had said that when he was a dancing king.
"I want VIP tickets for the showcase!" Jackson joked. "I won't accept anything less than a first row!"
"Said and done!" I told him. "Seriously, if you want to come you are more than welcome."
"Of course we will go! We haven't missed a single showcase!" Jinyoung said. "We need to be there to support our younger sisters."
We had to end our conversation there since another award would be announced right then and we didn't want to be rude. It was the 'Most Loved Artist' award and, as expected, BTS won. I was actually very happy for them, so I didn't hesitate to applaud for them even though they weren't at the venue.
Next, they would be announcing one of the 'Global Rookie Top5 awards' and, since they had said the winner was at the venue, I quickly checked who could be winning and hoped and prayed it was TXT. They surely had a big chance of winning, but I still couldn't help but be worried.
Thankfully, my prediction was right and they ended up winning. They were sitting right behind the Got7 boys so, as they passed by us, I cheered for them and the boys sent me some smiles as they headed to the stage to receive the award.
"It's almost as if you had received two awards tonight already," Soojin whispered to me covering her mouth so no one was able to even lip read.
"They were just my songs. I didn't really do anything apart from that," I said doing the same.
"'Only'?" Soojin said looking at me with a weird face. "What?"
I just laughed at her face and turned my attention back to the award show. The TXT boys had finished their speech already and the comedian Lee Sangjun was commenting on some of the live comments.
"'Stray Kids. I think their skills are awesome. They crushed the performance'," Lee Sangjun read.
"Wise words. What an intellectual! Let's make that person president," Soojin joked.
"'ResQ look so different on stage and off stage! Just minutes before they were being playful in the artist are but now showed their charisma on stage!'" Sangjun read next, making the girls and I laugh. "They really excelled their performance. Let's see if we can chat with them later."
They then showed some slow-motion snippets from the different performances and one of them was my part during the chorus, so I was a little bit embarrassed as the fans at the venue screamed.
"Stray Kids, who showed us a cool performance as the ending for part one, should we meet them?" Sangjun said.
The camera then pointed towards the boys and Jisung, who was holding the microphone, greeted everyone. He seemed to be kind of awkward, but I found it really cute and couldn't help but smile.
"We looked at the comments together right now, right? The fans said that you crushed the stage and they were going crazy," Lee Sangjun said. "Han! Do you agree with this comment that you crushed the stage?"
"Actually, I'm not sure, but I think that means many people enjoyed our performance, so I'm really grateful. We'll become a Stray Kids that shows even cooler performances. Thank you," Jisung said and smiled awkwardly.
"And where are the ResQ girls," Lee Sangjun said and the staff handed Leah, who was standing at the side opposite from mine, a microphone.
"Hello, everyone, we are ResQ," Leah said.
"The fans said that you really showed your charisma on stage compared to when you were in the artist area. Leah, do you agree with that?" Sangjun asked her.
"I think one of ResQ's strongest points is our duality on and off stage. For that, we'll have Alix demonstrate us," Leah said and I looked at her shocked since it wasn't planned at all. "Show the fans your cute and chic expressions!"
Sighing, I then smiled and did a V sign before changing into the sexy-sultry look I normally put on stage, making the people at the venue cheer but making me cringe really badly and lean onto Soojin to cover myself embarrassed.
"Please, kill me!" I muttered and Bambam even pat my back as he laughed. "Better, kill Leah."
Just then, the lights dimmed and I heard the intro of Dalla Dalla, so I quickly sat down properly to watch the girls.
To say they crushed the performances would be an understatement. The girls were really synchronised, their vocals barely faltered and their stage presence was, as always, on point. They were really strong performers and I just couldn't be any more proud of them.
As soon as they had started performing, though, one of the cameramen quickly approached me and I found it quite burdensome. Sure, I had revealed that I nearly debuted with them, but that didn't mean they needed to film me during the whole thing. Still, I just had fun and sang and danced along with the rest of the girls, who noticed my distress.
ººº
A while later, after Got7 and Monsta X had won an award and Mamamoo performed, the third part of the award show began and Anne Marie, a British singer that I obviously had listened to more than once although I wouldn't define myself as her fans as I had only listened to some of her music and nothing else. Still, I really enjoyed her performance as well as the rest of the girls and it truly was a great way to start the third part of the show.
They would then reveal another winner of the Global Artist top 10 and the group would be on the venue, so the girls and I immediately held hands expectant to see who it would be.
The first two hints they gave were that said group had a lot of energy and passion, was from JYP and produced their own music, so we knew that could be either the Stray Kids boys or us, so we were happy already no matter who it was.
The last hint, though, was KIDS so we immediately knew it was the boys and we were smiling towards them already, just waiting for the presenter to say they had won.
When he did, the girls and I cheered very loudly and embarrassed them, even yelling random things at the top of our lungs.
"Stray Kids, woo!" we all said at the same time imitating their chant from Miroh before we burst out laughing.
When they reached the stage, though, we stopped and sat back down to listen to their speech.
"Step out! We are stray Kids!" they all said after receiving the award.
"We received the award for 2019 V LIVE AWARDS V HEARTBEAT. First, we want to say thank you to so many people..." Chan started.
"Thank you!" Jisung said making the girls and I laugh.
"First off, thank you so much to JYP and our JYP family..." Chan said.
"JYP!" Jisung said this time and I even face-palmed.
"He's such an idiot..." I said but still chuckled.
"...and our families and friends who are always beside us. And STAY!" Chan continued and the girls and I cheered. "We are really able to get this award because of STAY. Thank you so much!!
"Thank you!" Jisung yelled once again.
"Another word for our international fans. Through V Live we can always reach out to you guys, give you guys great energy and you guys give us so much good energy too. We just want to say thank you so much and I know that Felix has something to say to you guys as well," Chan finished.
"STAY, we love you!" Felix just said and they all repeated it before going back to the artist area.
When they arrived they were already announcing the next award, so we all waited to congratulate them until AB6IX was done with their speech and all. As soon as they were done, though, they started announcing the next winner of the Global artist top twelve and we weren't able to even move an inch.
"So the first hint is versatility," Oh Sangjin said reading it. "This group is widely known for being able to switch between very different concepts but still show their own colours with every performance."
The girls and I were already holding hands after that since we were regarded online as the 'confusing' group because one day we could promote Oh! My Mistake and Eung Eung and the next NO or Deja Vu.
"The next hint is JYP. This group is, like Stray Kids, known for being artists under JYP who produce all of their songs and also have a producer line inside the group," Oh Sangjin continued. "Although I think you already know who they are, let's read the last clue."
A Q then appeared on the screen and it was then already clear that we had won the award but we still waited for him to announce it. As soon as he did, though, the girls and I did a quick group hug and bowed to all of the artists sitting close to us before heading to the stage. As we had to pass in front of the Stray Kids boys and the Itzy girls, they did the same as us and playfully cheered for us, making us chuckle but not being able to say anything since we had done it too.
We then finally got to the stage and Oh Sangjin handed Mika the award but she then handed it to me, making me look at her confused.
"It's your first award!" she told me before approaching the microphone. "Fighters!"
The whole venue then cheered and Mika chuckled lightly before we introduced ourselves.
"Thank you VLive for giving us the opportunity to be on this stage but most importantly to be able to communicate to all of our Fighters out there," Mika begun. "Thank you also to our families, friends, JYP and our JYP family, our staff and basically everyone who has been supporting us, no matter if it was since the start or since recently."
As Mika said that, Lin, who was standing right next to me, gave me a back hug, so I couldn't help but smile. I was so happy that we had gotten that award. I didn't care about it being precisely that one but rather about it being a token of us making it far and being appreciated by the fans.
"Alix, say some words," Mika said shocking me yet again as I hadn't been prepared for that.
"So, to our international fans, thank you for always being there for us. Although we aren't able to interact face to face unless on tour Vlive lets us interact with all of you and you should know that we love and cherish all of you. Fighters, we love you!" I said in English for the fans and the girls repeated it before we headed back to the artist area.
Although they were going to announce another winner after that, the girls and I didn't care anymore and approached the boys and the ITZY girls right after that. Thankfully the AB6IX boys were kind enough to let us temporarily sit next to them, so we didn't disturb that much while doing so.
"Congratulations!" Ryujin said hugging me.
"To you too!" I told her.
After hugging all of them, I turned to the Stray Kids boys but, just then, they announced that NCT had won an award and I was startled as I had completely forgotten Doyoung, Jaehyun and Johnny were then.
I then turned back to them as I applauded and, when they passed by us, Jaehyun and Doyoung sent me a smile but Johnny even winked, which made me smile even brighter. Sure, I wasn't able to talk to them, but just seeing them made me happy already.
As they went to the stage to pick up the award, the girls and I sat back down and I noticed that Jisung whispered something to Changbin before trading seats and sitting down. I was right beside Changbin before that, so I then was beside Jisung.
"Congratulations!" he said with a smile although trying to not make obvious that we were dating and just acting friendly.
"I seriously want to jump and scream right now but I'm controlling myself," I admitted, making him laugh. "It may not be ResQ's first award, but it is my first award!"
"By the way, your expressions before..." he said and imitated my cute and chic poses, making me hit him in the arm before covering my face embarrassed. "Don't worry, you were cool."
"Idiot..."