you can stay|skz

|three|

Song recommendation:
Panic Room by Au/Ra

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I turn down the hall and head toward the group of rooms I've never seen before. Chan's studio has to be mixed in amongst them. I peek in the window of each room as I pass by trying to find the right one. There's a total of five rooms left to check. One of them has to be the right one. I jump as one of the doors open and someone slips out.

"Oh—I was just coming to find you. Chan was worried you got lost." JiSung smiles as he motions me into Chan's studio. He holds the door for me as I step inside.

"Hey—how was your dance lesson?" Chan asks casually as he adjusts the volume of his speakers.

"It was fine—I guess." I mumble shyly as I sit down on the couch behind him.

"Just fine? Wasn't Felix in charge?" Chan spins around in his chair to face me as JiSung sits next to me.

"Yeah, he was. I had a hard time catching on to some of it, but it's normal. I usually struggle—especially when it's really loud." I shrug as I place my hands in my lap.

"He had you stay after—was he correcting something from the lesson or for your eval?" JiSung asks as he glances up from his phone to see me.

"It was supposed to be for the lesson, but MinHo came in and had me run through my eval song. Felix corrected me for both. I'm supposed to practice later before I meet up with them again." I explain casually as I tap my foot on the ground.

My heart races uncontrollably as I realize just how secluded his studio really is. I didn't see anyone in the hall—it's a lot dimmer down this way than it is by the practice rooms, too.

"Calm down. We're just going to work on your vocals. The only thing we're going to correct today is your tone. We'll work on your lisp later." Chan leads me through the plan he came up with for the day.

I nod and slowly set my things down on the coffee table. I take a shaky breath as Chan turns to find the song we settled on last night. It's not the one JiSung and ChangBin had suggested. While we were looking for a dance song, we stumbled across a new song for my vocal eval.

"Are you sure you want to stick with this one?" Chan asks as he clicks on the song and increases the volume so we can hear it.

"Yes." I state confidently as JiSung smiles beside me. He was the one who suggested I sing it. I'd played it for them to see if they thought it'd be a good song to dance to, but JiSung said it'd fit my voice really well. He also pointed out that the song is literally written about me. I'm constantly having panic attacks—so there's nothing better to sing about than a panic room.

Chan restarts the song and turns to face me again. I run through the song once without any advice from them. The moment the song ends Chan claps. I meet his gaze for a brief second before looking away embarrassed. I know it wasn't perfect. I know I made a lot of mistakes.

"You did really good. It's just little things that need some touching up. Sung do you want to help her while I edit or do you want to edit?" Chan turns toward JiSung in search of an answer.

"I can help her." JiSung chirps as he shifts his body to face me.

"I'll be here. Just tap me if you need me." Chan puts his headphones on and goes to work on their new song while JiSung pulls his phone out. He finds the song for me and pulls up the lyrics.

"So—the biggest thing is your confidence. You're so caught up in making a mistake that you hesitate way too much. When you sing, you want to imagine that you're completely alone. It'll help if you close you eyes the first few times. I'm not here. Chan's not here. It's just you. I want to hear what you sound like when you're alone." JiSung encourages me to close my eyes. I hesitantly obey.