One In A Million | TWICE x Original Male Character

[38] Inner Demons Redux

*Your POV*

With the 'I Can't Stop Me' comeback in full swing, everyone was beyond busy with singing and dancing practices on top of the stacked promotion activities that filled up everyone's day. Right now, you were watching over a dress rehearsal of a filming of a live performance with the other managers.

While everything seemed to be going as normal, you did pick up on a certain member who looked a bit more tired than everyone else. This wasn't entirely rare, with fatigue taking its effect differently for everyone, but this looked like something else. Unfortunately for them, the day was just going to get busier and eventually end very late into the evening.

The rest of rehearsals, you couldn't help but to keep checking on them until rehearsals wrapped up and everyone was back in the green room for their break. While everyone was slowing down by stretching, sitting down or drinking water, you again noticed that this member was taking this break differently. With growing concern building up inside, you went over and asked yourself.

"Hey Jeongie, you doing okay?" You asked as you kneeled next to her chair.

"Yeah, just fine." Jeongyeon responded simply, still continuing to rub the back of her neck.

"Are you sure?" You asked again, not believing her.

"Yeah." She remained firm on her answer.

'Okay, if you need me for anything, let me know." You said before leaving her to her own devices.

From spending the last few years almost every day with the members, you knew about their mannerisms and patterns. Jeongyeon typically was one of the more reserved people in the group, and often isolated herself when she was tired, but this wasn't anything like normal.

You knew from your schooling what a nagging injury looked like and what it could end up doing to someone if left untreated, and what Jeongyeon was doing reminded you too much of it. With her repeatedly rubbing her neck like she had slept wrong, your levels of concern were even higher with the thought of a possible neck or back injury of sorts. Unfortunately, this wasn't the appropriate place to bring it up properly, since the live filming would be starting in only a couple of minutes.

So when the stage staff announced for everyone to return, you didn't intervene and just let her go back and perform. That didn't mean you weren't going to be keeping a close watch on her condition throughout the rest of the day.

Now that you were paranoid about every little thing that could be related to an injury, everything that looked even minutely out of place or wrong with her choreo and movement was interpreted in your mind as being caused by the injury no matter how hard you tried to relax and take your mind off of it.

Thankfully, the filming was over rather quickly, but that still left a radio show to record before the day's schedules would be finished. There wasn't supposed to be too much movement involved, which put your mind at ease a little bit, but that lowered level of unease spiked back up again in the van ride over to the radio station. Even though it was nighttime, you could still make out Jeongyeon in the rearview mirror fairly clearly, and she was back rubbing her neck to relieve the pain she was going through, or so you assumed. You were so distracted that at one point, you missed that the stoplight had turned green while you were fixed on checking on her.

"Hey, green light." Jihyo nudged you back to reality.

"O-oh..." You stumbled over your words before driving off.

"You doing okay? Is someone following us?" Jihyo asked quietly.

"I-I don't think so?" You said before taking a proper look in your mirrors. "Just... Worried about something."