🎶 Obsession - EXO 🍎
= You cover my eyes, you cover up the truths. Let go of the empty dreams, don't make me spit out poison. =
A/N: pretty face in the pic ^
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3rd POV - night of the pizza party -
"It's nice talking to all of you," Jongdae smiled, preparing to leave the table where Doyeon and her team sat.
"Already? Aw come on, oppa. Talk to us more~" she scooted closer to Jongdae. "Do you think I'm ready to debut? What did you think of our performance? Do you like it?"
Jongdae stood up hastily and left her questions unanswered. He had stayed around long enough because the girls kept engaging him in pointless conversations, but he knew that it was time to move on. The whole point of his appearance tonight was after all, to get to the table where Jisoo was.
"Keep up the good work, everyone. Eat up!" He gestured to the untouched pizzas and moved out of the way before anyone could stop him again.
Doyeon stared as Jongdae took his leave, and noticed that he was in smiles watching Jisoo from afar. And she couldn't smile anymore. It wasn't her first time catching her ultimate bias looking at Jisoo, and every time she did, she would get more bitter and frustrated.
Though she stayed silent the whole time, she knew about their relationship more than anyone else. It was impossible not to know since she had eyes on Jongdae all the time, but what confirmed her suspicion was the night she saw them together at the outdoor court, where Jongdae put his jacket around Jisoo so affectionately after she ran her punishment rounds.
And there was no way she would give them her blessings.
Looking to the seat where Jongdae was at previously, Doyeon noticed and picked up the phone that he had carelessly left behind before anyone else saw it. She glanced over to Jongdae, who was now on the other side of the canteen and found her new excuse to approach him again. She believed that she could win Jongdae's heart if they interacted more since she was the star trainee of this program and praised by everyone for being pretty.
She was about to approach Jongdae but stopped when she saw him sitting next to Jisoo. Her jealousy quickly turned to anger, and she grew more desperate thinking of ways to split them up. Since the very first day, she badly wanted to screw Jisoo up and she had held on for too long.
Doyeon looked down to the phone in her hand and schemed. There and then, she wondered how she could put Jongdae's phone to use...
"Has anyone seen my phone? I think I left it behind," Jongdae approached Doyeon's table again. She had just sent a text to Jisoo's trainee phone using his and was trying hide it away.
Her teammates looked around in search for it, and Doyeon acted the same way for a while. "Oh, is it this?" She bent below the table and pretended to pick it up before handing it back to Jongdae. "Thanks," Jongdae flashed his gentleman smile that melted Doyeon's heart once again.
Near 8 pm when Jongdae had already left the pizza party, he received a text from an unknown number, not knowing that it belonged to Jisoo's trainee phone.
The text read: Why 3A of all rooms? Grrrrrrrrrr
Jongdae tucked his phone back into his pocket and almost wanted to regard the random message as a spam. But something about it seemed strange that he couldn't ignore even after minutes. He opened the message another time to study it. He knew that 3A was a room number at Block A, but why?
There were no other traces to feed his curiosity so he eventually went to the mysterious room for an answer. Little did he expect to see Jisoo there, in blood and tears trying to escape through a shattered window because the door was locked with a mop from the outside.
...
Jisoo POV - Day 9 -
With the report card crushed in my hands, I entered Hall F with familiar faces looking back at me. Hera, Lia, Seol Ah, Yuri, Doyeon... they were all there, and I was the latest to arrive because of the talk with Jongdae.
I couldn't tear my eyes away from Doyeon since I stepped in, but there she was wearing a friendly smile and innocently looking at me. She even bowed her head slightly to greet me, but I couldn't do the same. I simply stared back, in my head questioning over and over, why in the freaking world would a girl like her do that to me.
Was she putting up a nice and angelic front all along? And what for?
I really wanted to doubt the truth and think that the culprit who locked me up was Yuri and not her, but Jongdae's intel couldn't be wrong because he had investigated the CCTV footage and the cameras captured her.
I was troubled with anger, and really wished I could walk up to her and grab her by the collar for interrogation, but I was afraid.
Afraid that doing so would get my secret exposed. Afraid that everyone else in the room would find out about my vulnerable past and use it against me.
"Jisoo!" Hera and Lia waved excitedly as soon as they saw me, and I joined them as usual. The three of us have made it to the final round so that was worth a smile.
...
For a few days, I kept silent about the matter and focused on training. I thought that it wasn't the right time for a confrontation, because she, of all people, was my new roommate when our dorms got rearranged. With 8 trainees left, we were grouped into two teams. Me, Lia, Doyeon, and Seol Ah formed a team, whereas Hera was stuck wth Yuri and two other girls this time.
"Hey Jisoo, mind if I join you guys?" Doyeon approached my table with her pretentious smile. The funny thing is, Doyeon doesn't seem to know that I found out it was her.
We were having lunch at the canteen, and I was with Hera, Lia, and Seol Ah. The four of us have become pretty tight.
I lifted my cheeks trying to fake a smile back at Doyeon but my head was shaking no. She cluelessly waited for me to respond in words, but I refused to say a thing.
Man I seriously didn't want to engage with her. My anger for her hadn't fade one bit and I had just been controlling really well.
"Of course, just grab an empty seat," Lia answered for me.
The girls knew what happened about the window incident but none of them knew that Doyeon was the culprit for locking me up.
Wait till camp is over and I would be strangling the shit out of her.
I sighed loudly and tried to focus only on my lunch, recalling what Jongdae said to me. "Do you think you can handle the consequence?" He asked, knowing that I wasn't the type to sit around after learning the truth. But here I was, containing my anger for the sake of getting through camp in peace.
So this was the darn consequence he talked about.
I forced a big fat smile back at her. "Why are you sitting with us?" I asked, and she seemed attacked by my straightforwardness.
"Why not? You guys look like a cool bunch," she sparkled up. "Plus, we've been roommates for days but this is the first meal we're having together. I almost thought you hate me or something."
I tilted my head and dropped my smile, "you're not wrong."
Everyone looked towards Doyeon and I, and then Hera broke out laughing. "Dude! Don't scare Doyeon away with your jokes," she nudged me. "Sorry, she's just being herself. Don't take it too hard." Hera apologised on my behalf.
Even though it irked me, I ended up stuffing my face with spoonfuls of rice to keep my mouth from running. I was so tempted to spill the truth right there and then, but each time I wanted to, I thought of Jongdae's advice back then...
~~~
"Jisoo, I know what you're thinking right now," Jongdae held me by my shoulder and leaned forward to meet my eyes. "I know you have a lot of questions for her, and you probably wanna kill her because I feel the same way too, but whatever you want to do... think twice."
"I can't let this go," I clenched my jaw tight. "I don't know why she would do this, but I won't let her trample over me like that."
"I'm not saying that you should let this go, but whatever you say or do to anyone from now on may affect your debut chances. You know that."
"Then? What do you suggest?" My anger slowly dissipated. Jongdae was the first person ever who could calm me down and put some sense in me.
"Give yourself some time to think it through. It won't do you good to confront her in the middle of camp, cause if this matter gets out, everyone would know what happened with the window... and your hand too," he held up my bandaged hand.
"Ah damn it," I muttered softly, recalling that the entire crew had been talking about how the window mysteriously shattered, yet nobody found out that it was me.
"But don't worry about that. I've spoken to the security team and the CCTV footage for that night is safe with me," Jongdae stroked my hair once. "Just be careful around her. I think we should figure out what she's trying to do before you go fight it out with her."
~~~
I stared at Doyeon again through the mirror of our practice room, who seemed completely absorbed in training. Time flew, and it was the last day of our training camp to showcase the project that we had been working on. Sohee had announced that the final evaluation in this camp was based on ranking instead of grades, and it was obvious that Doyeon was working for the number 1 spot.
Eeks.
"What are you thinking about? You're frowning so hard," Lia dropped to my side, joining me for a water break.
"Uh," I tore my eyes away from Doyeon, "thinking about how I should confront a two-faced bitch."
Lia chuckled, "Yuri again? What did she do to you this time? Hera's been complaining about her too."
Thinking about Yuri now made me laugh a bit. I quite miss the times she and I dissed each other because at least, Yuri was despicable to my face and not behind my back.
"You ready for showcase?" I changed the subject every time I was tempted to expose the bitch.
"Yeah, pretty much. It's all or nothing now. I heard that they'll cut off trainees who rank after 5," Lia sighed.
"So we just gotta make it to the top 5," I commented, and then caught Lia counting fingers to herself. "Why? You're not confident?"
"Think about it," she said, recounting with her fingers. "One rank for Yuri, one rank for star trainee Doyeon, that makes three spots left..."
"God, I can't believe the two most despicable humans are set for debut..." I groaned. That was honestly the worst combination. All this while, I've been playing by the ear but if I do end up debuting with them... am I really able to handle them?
"Hey, if we end up debuting with those two freaks, do you think you can handle it?"
"Two freaks?" Lia chuckled back at me. "I'm only worried about Yuri, but I think I can handle it if you guys are here with me."
Damn I'm so tempted to tell Lia what Doyeon did to me. I just didn't want to be bitching about her yet since I haven't clarified the matter with her myself.
"Come on, Jisoo," Lia dragged me up before I could say more. "We should go. There's only an hour left before showcase and we gotta doll up and put some pretty make up on. You need to look your best for Jongdae sunbae~" She teased, reminding me that Jongdae was a judge for our showcase and I was finally going to see him again.
...
Sitting in front of the dressing table, I helped myself to the blusher to rose up my cheeks. I had changed to a white lacey crop top and denim shorts and was now adding a final touch to my make up.
Need to look my best in front of Jongdae, I kept telling myself. I haven't seen him since the day we talked about Doyeon and I miss him terribly.
"Hi, Jisoo!" Doyeon chirped, grabbing a seat beside me to do her own make up. Speak of the true devil, ugh.
I ignored her.
"You really don't like to socialise, do you?" She chuckled, as if that comment was any funny. "I mean, we've been roommates for a week but you don't talk to me. Is there a problem?"
I slammed my blusher on the table just to put it down, still refusing to respond to her. Who knows what I'll say if I unleash the anger I've contained for days? I just want to get through showcase in peace, then deal with her after camp and outside of SM.
I silently went on to select a lipstick for myself. Red was the color I was feeling then.
"You're obviously mad at me for something. Why are you trying so hard to suppress it? I'm right here, Jisoo." She probed in her usual friendly voice. "Is there something you can't speak about? Something that's locking you up?"
I froze halfway through applying my red lipstick. My grip on it tightened as I again suppressed the temptation to go berserk on her.
"How's your hand by the way? It looks like you injured it by punching something. Oh, let me guess... you punched through a window, maybe?" She joked more, even though the humor was clearly one-sided. "Is that even possible?"
I eventually gave her the attention she wanted. As calmly as I could, I smiled back. "Everyone thinks you're the star trainee, Doyeon. I'll admit that you have the skills of an idol. But what they don't know is that behind this pretty face, you're a rotten piece of shit."
She laughed in return, which terrified me more because it only proved that I was right.
"So you think I'm pretty too?" She laughed harder, and the girls in the room turned their heads to us. Then she leaned into my ear. "I don't know what Jongdae saw in you, but he'll realise soon enough that I'm the pretty face who's perfect for him."
She backed away and revealed a snigger only for me to see. "Oh, let me borrow this," she reached for the blusher from my dressing table and continued her makeup with it. Acting as if we were having a perfectly normal and friendly conversation.
But I am sooo not going to stand for it.
When I finished applying my red lipstick before she was done blushing her cheeks, I stood up and went beside her. With the bright red lipstick still in my hand, I scribbled her face as much as I could before she could react in panic.
"WHAT THE F*CK JISOO!" Doyeon exploded, jumping out of her chair and wiping her face that was now crayoned red. This was the first time she has ever shown her vulgar side behind that pretty face.
"Y-You're crazy!" She toned down a little after noticing that she had cursed out loud in front of others. "Y-Yuri was right when she said that you're rude and so full of yourself..." she cried like a miserable kid when all the girls were watching us. I caught a glimpse of Hera and Lia who seemed like they were enjoying a show instead of sympathizing with Doyeon.
"It was nice talking to you too," I said, while admiring the red smudges on her face. "Now you look prettier." With that, I left her there to fix herself up and sauntered out of the dressing room. That bitch finally had a taste of what I would do to her, and I hope she realises that this was just the beginning.
...
After the final performance, all the trainees gathered at Hall B for Sohee, along with the judges, to reveal the ranking results. We silently stood in a single row and waited for Sohee to sort out her papers. When everyone was focused on her, my eyes wandered off to the guy who was standing at the sideline.
And I caught Jongdae wriggling his eyebrows at me amidst the tensed atmosphere. He wasn't even trying to hide his flirty look and my face heated up at that. I sent him panic eyes to stop doing that, in case someone caught that look and start suspecting things between us. Yuri and Doyeon was enough to give me a headache and I couldn't let more people have it against me. He smiled at my reaction and slowly turned away from all the trainees to hide the delightful look.
"Everyone, this is the moment you're waiting for. I hereby announce that the top 5 trainees will stay with us and officially work towards a group debut," Sohee informed.
Oh god, it really is a group debut. As much as I wanted to debut, thinking about Yuri and Doyeon made my heart sank. The only thing that made me hang on after all this time was knowing that I have Hera and Lia.
"There's 8 of you, so 3 will be leaving us. It's quite unfortunate, but I sincerely wish you all the best for your future endeavours, whether or not you make it towards your debut dream." She took a big step towards us. "Okay, I will announce the lucky fifth at the end, so first, here goes the trainee in 4th place..."
I held my breath and faced the ground, praying and praying for my name to be called.
"Congrats, Hera, you're 4th."
I heard Hera gasp in joy and we all took turns to give her a quick hug. At that moment, I felt proud of her. She had grown so much as a trainee since the first day I met her, and I still remember how I assumed that she was a materialistic bitch. But this girl is now my friend, and I can say that she surely deserved a place to debut. This girl would only soar higher and higher.
The third place went to Seol Ah, the dance goddess, which I totally give her recognition for. The second place was Lia, applauded for her amazing vocal range, and the first place was quite expectedly, Doyeon.
We were down to the fifth and sixth place, with only Yuri and I standing side by side. We were the only two left to fight for the fifth spot and I was already hopeless by then since it was pretty much established that Yuri was set for debut.
Now the problem was how I should face Jongdae and where I should go next...
"Fifth place goes to..." Sohee said really slowly.
Yuri held her head high with confidence and mine just went low and lower.
"Jisoo, congratulations. You got the last debut spot."
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