NO ONE'S POV
After the red carpet event was over, all of the artists were led to their seats inside the venue. Only the most experienced senior who had been in so many award shows that they couldn't even count how many didn't appear to be nervous in the slightest, but the rest of them and especially the rookie groups were even trembling.
ResQ and Stray Kids were told to sit down between UNINE and ATEEZ, which had Mika trying not to fangirl very badly. She was an ardent ATiny, so being so close to them already had them nervous.
"Mika, calm down," Alix told her. "They are just people. Instead of seeing them as artists right now, imagine they are just random people."
"Easier said than done," Mika answered back as she sneakily looked at San, her bias.
Although Soojin was sitting at the opposite side from the two girls, she had been able to guess what was going on due to how Mika was moving, so she decided to take some action and tapped Hongjoong's back.
"Sorry," Soojin said after he turned around. "We just wanted to introduce ourselves."
"Soojin!" Mika exclaimed when she saw her. "Don't bother them."
"Oh, you are ResQ!" Wooyoung said as he had turned around after Mika exclaimed. "Nice to meet you!"
"You know us?" Leah asked him confused.
"Well, of course, we do! You are one of the biggest girl groups at the moment!" Hongjoong said. "Besides, some of our fans have been spamming our social media with that time you went to Idol Room and danced to Hala Hala. You were amazing, by the way. We were very impressed."
Just because of his simple comment, Mika looked like she was about to faint. The girls were very shocked and confused because she had always said Hyuna and GDragon were her absolute favourite artists, but it seemed that ATeez got her flustered more easily.
"Mika is an ATiny," Lin told them. "That's why she was telling us not to bother all of you."
"Thank you very much," San said.
Although she was very flustered, both groups talked for a long while about both their music and more trivial things that got their minds off the upcoming stages, which both groups appreciated even if they weren't that nervous compared to some of the other artists there.
After a while, the award show finally began and everyone turned their attention to the stage and the presenters there. ITZY were the first ones performing, so Alix was especially nervous for them. Even if she wasn't in the group, she always found it difficult to not see their performance as her own one and monitor them. She, after all, had been the leader of the group before leaving and was in charge of monitoring the rehearsals, so it came naturally to her.
She shouldn't have worried, nonetheless, since, just as always, the girls did a flawless performance that had the audience waiting for more from the very first minute. What she had to admit, was that the stage props had turned out to be very underwhelming and the girls didn't stand out from the background with the clothes they were in, but that wasn't a big problem since they shined every time they went on stage.
After them was TXT, another group who Alix was very close to and had a special relationship with. Sure, she had never been in a group with them as with the ITZY girls, but they were performing her song and that always was something special.
Just that night, six songs she had produced and composed were going to be performed during ITZY, TXT, Twice, Oneus and their performances. She had never made a song for Oneus, but they were doing a medley of songs from other artists and two SM ones she made were in the list.
Time seemed to go by far quicker than they thought it would as soon more than an hour had gone by and it was time to announce who the composer of the year would be.
Although she had already won two other awards in that same category, Alix still didn't think it would be her but, yet again, she was announced as the winner and had to go to the stage to pick up her award with no speech prepared.
Although she had found a way to be confident when performing, she still hadn't managed to find out how to do it when doing speeches, so she was very fidgety from the very first minute and couldn't look as confident as on stage no matter how much she tried.
"Thank you, everyone, and thank you to the Mnet Asian Music Awards for this award. Never in a million years would I have imagined I would be standing on this stage accepting the Best Producer of the Year award," she said nervously. "Thank you to my groupmates and Stray Kids for supporting me and also to all of the groups I have made music for both this year and in previous ones. This award also belongs to you too. I will make sure to work hard and put out music all of you love. Thank you!"
With that, she left the stage with the whole venue cheering for her. She was still wearing the same clothes that she wore during the red carpet and although she didn't find the shoes uncomfortable and could even dance on them, running wasn't an option taking into account how high they were and the few stairs at the artist area were definitely a nightmare.
Jisung noticed that and since he was standing at one of the sides and wouldn't need to make everyone else stand up, he quickly approached Alix when she was near the stairs to help her reach her seat and even the other artists there as well as their own groups were surprised by that seemingly small gesture.
"We wouldn't want any broken bones before our stage now, would we?" Jisung said and Alix thanked him while blushing.
ººº
One would think that the fact that the new album wasn't eligible would be a hindrance for the group in that award show, but that seemed to not be the case at all. The girls were all expecting a quiet and peaceful evening up until their performance, which was the closing act of the whole show, but that wasn't the case.
Not only did they end up winning one of the Worldwide Fans' Choice Top 10 awards, but also Soojin won the Best HipHop & Urban Music award with «Cider». The evening was going better than expected and nothing seemed to be able to ruin it.
They were all even louder than usual when watching the performances, even more so than usual, which was already pretty loud. At first, that shocked the rest of the artists there, especially the ones they weren't acquainted with but, after a while, they all ignored them or even laughed at their weird antics.
JYP was also there as he performed with Hwasa and he had decided to sit down with them for some reason after his performance was over, so everyone thought they would tone down their excitement as, after all, their boss was there, but that wasn't the case at all. JYP did tell them to calm down, but they all ignored him for the most part.
"Why didn't you perform «Fever»?" Soojin teased him as he still had no clue about what we would perform.
"They wouldn't let me!" he said seemingly pissed off. "I tried negotiating with them the songs I would perform and they just wouldn't!"
"Pity, it would have been fun!" Lin said trying very hard not to laugh.
"I guess they didn't want me to promote my song here or something..." he said.
The fact that he didn't know made them even more excited to see his reactions, which they knew the staff would surely add in during their performance.
After a very long while, and a dozen awards later, they were all told to go backstage to get ready as the winners of the Daesangs were announced. They were starting to get very nervous as no matter how much they had practised, things could differ from the rehearsals, but Jisung and Alix were by far the most nervous ones for an obvious reason.
"Can someone please get me the chain?"
"Where are Leah's boots?"
The stylists ran around the room as they all got dressed since they didn't have any time to waste.
They all went for a pink, black and white theme, which was something rather unusual for both groups taking into account the songs being performed, but it somehow looked very well put together and rather fitting despite the music styles.
"Leah, Lin, remember that you need to change positions with Seungmin from behind, not going in front," Alix reminded her groupmates as the makeup artists touched up their makeup.
"Yes, don't worry. We'll make sure to do it properly," the youngest said.
A couple of minutes later they were all ready and went out of their changing room to meet the Stray Kids boys, who were waiting for them outside with their new outfits on.
"You look really nice. All of you," Soojin said. "I would have never thought baby pink could look rather sexy."
"It was honestly a strange choice of colours, but our stylists knew how to pull it off nicely," Chan agreed.
"Guys, you need to go to your positions now," Yeongjae said gathering their attention. "You are about to start."
In that instant, Alix's heart started beating faster than ever before. Just those few simple words had managed to get her to start panicking again about the stage.
"Alix, calm down!" Jisung said quickly aiding her. "It's okay!"
"I'm just very nervous. What if they hate it? What if JYP ends up hating us for not letting him promote his song?" she asked no one in particular.
"Don't worry, Alix. No one will hate it," Hyunjin said putting a hand on her shoulder. "Besides, we will all be there to support you, so you have nothing to worry about."
"You even have all of the dancers with you. If you fall, we fall together," Leah said. "We are a team, remember? We are a family."
Although their kind words were helping her calm down, they had to bring the conversation to an end as the staff rushed them to their spots.
The girls would be appearing from the centre of the stage raised by a platform, so they all headed there while the boys went to the sides of the stage to appear later on.
After a while, their VCR finally began and the girls cheered for each other quietly as their microphones were already on before getting into position and finally starting.
(THE BACKDROP)
For the first few seconds, the girls were alone on the stage performing. All of the nervousness from seconds before seemed to have vanished and was replaced with confident gazes that caught the eyes of everyone in the audience. No one had expected the stage to look like that nor how they somehow seemed to grab everyone's attention when they had a background like that with "StrayQ" written in the middle, but they did.
After the first part with Adios, the boys finally joined them on the stage and they performed the pre-chorus of Side Effects all together. By then, if there was absolutely anyone who hadn't been paying attention they then were.
The chorus was just the same, with all of them dancing and singing along together for the chant-like parts. With the thirteen of them and the background dancers, it really seemed like a war chant more than a normal stage. There were probably around thirty people standing on that stage but they all caught the attention, not one of them stood out more than the other.
Since both songs were well known, the people in the venue, both fans and artists were singing along and enjoying the song to their fullest. It was difficult to see the artists actually reacting to a performance, but somehow they had managed to do that.
After that performance came to an end, they stayed in position for a few seconds as everyone there cheered and the lights dimmed. Quickly, everyone but Jisung and Alix ran off the stage. Both of them ran to their positions to start their performance.
The introduction was then heard through the speakers and different lights turned on on either side of the stage to show the backup dancers pretending to act like couples flirting in a bar.
After that small introduction, the lights finally turned on on Jisung and he started singing, the venue erupting into cheers. Alix appeared soon after to join him and the crowd erupted into cheers yet again.
The faces of all of the other JYP artists at the venue were priceless, but nothing could compare to JYP's reaction as he had his jaw hanging low. He would have never expected them to perform his song and much less Alix of all people taking into account the dance.
Both of their groups' reactions backstage weren't that different from the rest's. Even if they had already seen them rehearse many times, seeing them on stage together performing exceeded their expectations and their chemistry was even better than usual.
When the second verse began, the couple on stage started getting nervous but tried not to show it too much as they knew what was coming. Soon enough, Alix's rap part came and, right when it was about to come to an end, he grabbed Jisung's shirt and pulled him closer, kissing him when she was meant to sing "you're my everything".
The crowd then cheered even louder than before as the couple continued performing as if nothing had happened but they didn't know what a small thing like a kiss had caused.
Both of the groups backstage looked at each other shocked by what they had seen. None of them knew they were dating and, although some of them had hoped they were together on multiple occasions as they knew they liked each other, none of them were aware of the fact that they actually were already dating, so they all were frozen in the spot, not even being able to cheer as they were overwhelmed.
"Did they just...?" Minho tried to ask but couldn't even finish a proper sentence. "Are they...?"
"It seems!" Soojin answered.
On the artist area, things weren't much different. From Got7, JYP, Twice and ITZY to WayV, TXT and Mamamoo, everyone there had their jaws hanging low at what they had just seen. Somehow, even if two of the couples had done basically the same the previous year, this time everyone was even more shocked than back then.
The performance then came to an end and Jisung and Alix held their pose for a few seconds until the music from the MAMAs sounded through the speakers and the lights dimmed, signalling the show had come to an end; signalling that everyone finally knew that they were together; signalling that their secret was out and that things had just begun.
So stay.
-THE END-
(A/N):
So... that was the end of Stay! Did you all like it? What do you think about this last chapter? Did you like their performances?
As always, but now more than usual, thank you so much for reading the book and staying tuned for non less than 143 chapters! That's like an Anna Karenina, I'm telling you! (Sorry about all of my books being so long, btw. I know it can be very hard to keep up with a very long book and especially when it isn't finished and you need to wait for updates)
I hope you all have enjoyed the third part of the ResQ saga. This year marks the second anniversary of the beginning of the whole saga with Lin joining Idol Producer and I still can't believe some of you have read all of them since back then. That book was the first one I ever wrote and I'm very thankful for all of the support you have been giving to all of my work ever since. I can't thank you enough.
As you all know by now, the saga isn't over and the fourth and last part of the whole ResQ saga will be released next Wednesday at 11 am (CEST). Stay tuned for that. On Tuesday, I will post the last spoiler already in that book so that you can all save it on your library and get a notification when the first chapter is posted. That spoiler will be the name of the book (obviously) and the meaning behind it. I will remind all of you through notifications in the case that you follow me. If not, I'll remind you the day before when I post the spoiler over here.
Again, thank you very much for following the story and I will see you tomorrow with the next spoiler. Now, let's reveal today's one:
SUBUNIT(S) DEBUT
Thank you for tinting my grey clouds with so many colours.
Yours truly,
徐小雯 （Xu Xiaowen）
By the way, that was referencing my nickname here on Wattpad. 雯(wen) means multicoloured clouds.
Now I'm really done. Bye!