Chapter 28

We went back to the studio after finishing our meals. It was now 1PM. The dance teacher Mi-hyang would soon be here to evaluate us.

“Let’s just do our best.”

At Jia’s words, we tried to make ourselves feel more motivated, but in truth, even I could not help but worry. Until now, we still had not managed to pull the dance off. I guess Yoo-jin was thinking the same thing because she turned to look at me and said, “But Sian is still struggling.”

“I know.”

“Don’t think about it too much when the teacher goes after you, okay?”

“Uh-huh,” I replied with a nod. I’ve already made up my mind to let go of all my emotions today. No feelings – enter through one ear, out the other.

“Let’s try one more time.”

And so we did. Just as we finished, someone opened the door and walked in. She was visibly toned and incredibly tall, taller than any other man I’ve ever seen. This was Mi-hyang Kim, YH Entertainment’s toughest dance trainer. The moment she walked in, Jia and Yoo-jin straightened their backs and greeted her with a bow.

“Hello!”

“Hey, guys.”

Mi-hyang gave us a casual wave as she greeted us. For now, she didn’t look that strict.

She dragged a chair from the corner of the room to the front, sitting down with her legs crossed. She placed her clipboard on top. I could immediately tell that she was someone not to mess with. She definitely looked like she could put up a fight. The VJs immediately began to film her and us, with us certainly looking nervous. Well, I can honestly say I wasn’t. Jun-jin looked at me, perplexed.

“Shall we get started? This evaluation won’t affect the overall results, but it may affect Producer Park’s evaluations. I’m simply going to put down what I see.”

We all nodded. Mi-hyang Kim. As a dance trainer and choreographer, she had a lot of respect from Jinwoo. If we messed up or got on her bad side, it could be bad for us in the long run.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

“What’s the matter? Go on!” Mi-hyang shouted. We immediately scurried to our positions. Yoo-jin in the center, me on the left, and Jia on the right.

“Cue the music,” Jia said after making sure everyone was in their positions.

The song ‘Fire Dance’ soon came out and we immediately started dancing.

The nervousness was palpable. We messed up all the steps and kept tripping everywhere. The rap and song parts didn’t go so well either. In other words, we completely blew it. At least, I didn’t have to feel so bad about bringing the team down. It wasn’t just me that was making mistakes.

When it ended, we were all breathless as we waited for Mi-hyang to speak. Unfortunately, the look on her face was far from happy. I’ve never seen such an unpleasant look on anyone’s face. She let out a long sigh, looked at us, and spoke, “Guys.”

Deep and angry. The fury was obvious. We immediately lowered our heads, me included. I knew we had done poorly and I didn’t plan on being the rebel.

“Hey. When I talk to you, you look at me. Understand?”

At Mi-hyang’s words, we all lifted our heads, though no one dared to make direct eye contact. Well, Jia and Yoo-jin didn’t. I, on the other hand, looked right at her.

“What are you looking at?”

“Eh?”

Excuse me? She’s the one who told me to look at her.

“You don’t think you did anything wrong?”

“That’s not true.”

What was she talking about? I did feel bad. What does she know?

“What? That’s not true? Are you joking with me right now?”

Mi-hyang smirked, though she was clearly not amused.

“I’m just going to say it. You guys have no right to be here. You call that a dance? A group of street dogs can dance better than you guys.”

“We’re sorry.”

We all apologized as we lowered her heads. And yet, she continued.

“Who the hell taught you to dance like that? What were you doing for five days? Can you guys even dance? Do you see this as a joke? Or both? There’s no way you guys are serious.”

Our heads went lower at her words. Okay, we had done poorly. But to be honest, her words were harsh. After all, it’s not like we were goofing off since the beginning. It’s just that we spent those days trying out two songs before picking up this one. We had one day to practice, so I spoke up.

“I know our performance wasn’t great, but there’s something you should know. This wasn’t actually our first song. We tried out two other songs before this one. It’s not that we weren’t practicing during those five days. It’s that we started on this one late.”

“Then why’d you keep changing the songs?” Mi-hyang demanded.

“The first two were out of our comfort zone.”

“Then make a new one! You can’t even do that much as YH trainees? You kept changing because you have no talent and no confidence in yourselves! You think that’s how the world works? You think you’re going to succeed if you just stick with what you’re comfortable with?”

She was ruthless. Jesus, this woman could really talk.

“And that’s why you don’t have the right to be here.”

I didn’t know what to say. Nothing I could say would end things well for any of us. It would be better to simply let her speak her piece so it would end sooner. And so she did.

“You. Jia. Is that all you got? You need power to perform to a song like this. What the hell was that? I didn’t feel any kind of force from you at all. All I see is you trying to be cute. You think this is a cute song? Is that the only thing you’re good at? Huh?”

By the time Mi-hyang was done, Jia looked like she wanted to bury her head in the sand.

“And you, Yoo-jin. What’s your deal?”

“Wh…what...?”

“Why are you so bad at dancing? What? You think you can just shake your boobs and all would be good? You can’t memorize some simple steps? Are you an airhead? Do you even have brains?”

Yoo-jin’s head went down as well. By the looks of it, she wanted to bury herself in the sand with Jia too.

“Turn off the camera, please.”

Mi-hyang said to the VJs. Probably because she knew how bad this looked.

“I’m sorry. We have to keep filming,” Jun-jin told her. Mi-hyang let out a frustrated breath. Then, she turned to me.

“And you. Sian.”

“Yes?”

“Sian. Do you want to dance?”

“I’m sorry?”

“The way I see it, you have no talent whatsoever. Why even bother? Why not stick to singing?”

“That...”

I had no answer. Why did I want to dance? I really couldn’t come up with a reason. I guess just because…but I knew that reason wouldn’t fly.

“I’ll say this again. Sian, you have no talent as a dancer. I’ve never seen a trainee as bad as you. I could bring a dog in here and it would do better than you.”

A dog, huh. I wonder how good of a dog that would be.

“Whatever. I’m done here. You guys are the worst team I’ve seen today!”

With that, Mi-hyang got up from her chair and left without leaving another word.

I took off the mic that was on my hip and quietly whispered,

“God, what a bitch.”

As soon as she left, the whispers began. The worst part was that since the cameras were still on, I couldn’t curse her out properly.

“If you cry, it will be a lot more dramatic,” Jun-jin said. Judging by the look on his face, he was suggesting for me to try it. Well I’m sorry, but I have no intentions of crying. Why should I? But out of my expectations, Jia dropped to the ground and started to cry. Or just cry, but outright bawling. Yoo-jin flung her arms around Jia and began to sob with her. I merely stared at them in shock. Seriously? They were actually crying? Or was it an act? They didn’t look that upset up until a moment ago. And they weren’t the type to cry so easily either.

‘What...’

I honestly didn’t know what to do in that moment.

‘Fine!’

So I joined the two on the ground and did my best to look solemn. I put the saddest expression that I could. There was no way the VJs were going to miss this chance and began to film us, even doing a close-up on Jia’s face. They even told me to pull away so they could get a better shot.

There were a lot of tears and a lot of filming.

But then as soon as one of them uttered, “We’re going to change the film,” Jia and Yoo-jin immediately stopped.

“What the…so it was all fake?” I asked in dismay. Wow. And here I thought that maybe they really had been hurt.

“Yep. Pretty good, huh?”

“Um…”

“I bet it looked really good on camera.”

“Uh…”

What a piece of work.

“Didn’t I tell you, Sian? I want to be an actress as well,” Jia whispered to me. Now that I think about it, I do remember her mentioning that to me from time to time. And you know what? She was pretty good. Even better than that time I pretended to be the victim during that Chun-ah incident. But what about Yoo-jin? Was she acting too?

“Yoo-jin, were you acting too?”

“Yep. I’m really good at fake crying.”

“Wow.”

It’s true what they say – not everyone can be in the industry. It really takes a lot, and these two had it.

“Alright, we’re ready to start again.”

The VJs called out. We immediately went back to our previous positions.

“Wait. I have to go to the bathroom,” Yoo-jin said, raising her hand.

“Yoo-jin, be sure to take off your mic. I don’t think the director wants to hear the sound of you going to the bathroom,” I said.

Sure enough, Yoo-jin looked at her mic, having completely forgotten about it. She took it off and ran to the bathroom.

“But now what do we do?” Jia asked, her expression worried. Understandable, since we were obviously in trouble.

“At this point, all we can do is practice.”

“But we only have one more day.”

“I know.”

One more day. Jia and Yoo-jin may be able to pull it off. But I had doubts about myself. First, I was not a dancer. I couldn’t get my body to move the way I wanted to. And I was expected to do that all of the sudden? There was just no way. The only reason I was even able to keep up this much was because I had good stamina.

“Maybe we should just…change it up a bit?”

“What do you mean?” Jia asked, tilting her head.

“You guys just dance the way you’re supposed to. I’ll do some martial arts.”

“Oh!”

Jia’s eyes widened at my suggestion, as if a lightbulb had turned on in her head. She had seen me kick those assholes. She knew how good I was.

“But…wouldn’t it look stupid if you just go around, kicking in the air?”

“You ever heard of martial arts tricking?”

“Tricking?”

“Yeah. It’s when you kick, but in a way to make it look amazing. Let’s try it with ‘Fire Dance.'”

I showed Jia a video so she would know what I was talking. Sure enough, it did look amazing. It started with a 540 degree spin kick, and then after landing on two feet, another 720 degree kick. Then a 1080 degree kick! That’s not all. There were aerial turns and flips that no average would ever dream of being able to pull off.

“Whoa...”

Jia could not take her eyes off the video.

“So? What do you think?”

“Can you do that?”

“Of course,” I answered confidently. This was nothing. I could do this in my sleep.