Not Alone || Jung Jaehyun

Chapter 27 | "everything is perfect"

"Fifth place?!"

The teams were all gathered by a bulletin board that had their first day rankings listed and, much to the team's disappointment, they were sitting in fifth place.

"We've never been that low after an opening day performance. That doesn't even put us in the semifinals if we stay here!" Sana exclaimed in total shock.

"Who's in first?"

"Who do you think, Jaemin, it's the Next Level team, of course." Yuta said, rolling his eyes. "This is horrible!"

"It's fine!" Hyemi said, trying to calm down her teammates. "We can bring it back. Come on, they're about to announce the next round!"

All the members let out disappointed sighs before plastering smiles on their faces, at least they weren't eliminated yet, and made their way to the stage. They all slowly sat down amongst the other teams on the stage and Hyemi immediately noticed Jaehyun next to her, his whole body tensed.

"Hey," she said, putting a hand on his shoulder, causing him to flinch. "woah there, relax. It's just me."

"Oh, sorry, just a bit uh... on edge." He muttered back.

"I know the placement isn't what we wanted but it's gonna be okay. We can bring this back." She smiled as she intertwined their hands, watching Jaehyun's shoulders relax as he leaned into her.

"Hyemi, uh I have something to tell you." She immediately turned to look at him. "I'm gonna be-"

"Alright ladies and gentlemen, let's get this started!" The announcer said over the speakers.

Hyemi rolled her eyes, whispering a quick 'later' to Jaehyun before training her eyes on the announcer and the envelope in his hand.

"As you can all see, two teams have been eliminated following yesterday's round and we are now down to our top 12, congratulations!"

The crowd applauded as Hyemi gulped, staring out over the massive amount of people. She scanned the crowd before letting out a gasp.

"What's wrong?" Jaehyun whispered to her, but she ignored him, still staring into the crowd.

"Is that...?"

She immediately broke out into a smile, seeing her mom, brothers, and Jeno sitting in the third row of the audience, all staring back at her with large grins.

'What are you doing here?' She mouthed at Mark.

He immediately laughed back, shrugging his shoulders and mouthing back a happy 'surprise?'

She just playfully rolled her eyes before turning her attention back to the front of the stage where the announcer was opening the envelope.

"The second round of competition will be... female freestyle solo! Each team select your best female solo to compete to stay in the competition. For this challenge, teams will have 3 hours to prepare, good luck!"

Hyemi was still staring at her family when she felt Jaehyun nudge her shoulder. She turned to see him standing already, holding out his hand to pull her up.

"Come on, we have to go. Is everything okay?" He asked as they made their way backstage.

"Yeah. Everything is perfect."

- - -

"So, who's doing our solo?" Yuta asked as all the members gathered in the room.

"Well, both Sana and Hyemi have solos prepared, so it's between the two of them." Chaeyoung said, turning to the two girls with a nod.