Perfectly Imperfect || Mark Lee

- 5 - Company

"I'm so not gonna let people think we're bad performers," Seoah said as they sat in the van. They were on their way back to the dorm when she'd been checking the response on their latest performance. Despite all the love, the hate comments bothered her because she knew they were good performers. They just hadn't gotten the chance to prove it yet and people simply jumped to the conclusion they couldn't sing.

"They'll see it with time, don't waste energy on them" Naeun tried to tell the girls again. Although she seemed calm on the outside she was boiling on the inside too.

"We should prove it to them somehow," Seoah said, not giving what Naeun had said much thought.

"How can we prove it?" Lina asked and seemed very on.

"That's what I'm thinking about, something spectacular for sure," Seoah said and was trying to use her two brain cells' full potential despite running on no energy after the long day and no sleep.

"Can't we just lower the backing vocals?" Mirae asked the obvious, because that was exactly what they needed to do. People were complaining that they weren't singing live, but how could they possibly hear the live vocals when they were blasting the backing vocals so high?

"Yeah, you just go ahead and ask someone in the company to tone down our backing vocals," Seoah said with sarcasm.

"What?" Mirae wondered what the problem was because she sure didn't see any problem.

"It's not that easy, especially your third performance" Manager Kim backed up Seoah.

"We will need to find a way to tone down the backing vocals without having to get permission from the company," Seoah said with a sigh.

For a while, it was silent in the car.

"Drop me off at the company" Sera then broke the silence to say. They all looked at her. It was late in the evening, it didn't make sense why Sera would want to go to the company now.

"Now? You need to sleep" their manager said in an attempt to stop her.

"No I need to go to the company" she insisted, and they all realized they wouldn't be able to persuade her. She had made up her mind already.

"But..." their manager was about to speak when Naeun stopped him.

"Let her go," she said calmly. Sera could use some time for herself Naeun figured. Something wasn't right and even if she didn't want to tell her, Naeun just wanted her to feel comfortable.

"Thank you," Sera said and a few minutes later the car pulled up beside the company.

"Call when you want to be picked up," their manager said before Sera left the car and they drove off.

She entered the company and went to their regular practice room. the whole company was seemingly empty, which it should be at this hour. Faint music could be heard somewhere down the hallway, probably some trainees pulling an all-nighter to prepare for their upcoming monthly evaluation.

Sera felt her gut twisting as she thought back on all her own monthly evaluations she'd gone through. She had only been a trainee for a little less than two years, though she sure has had enough evaluations. She always felt she was lacking compared to others. Every time she was convinced the trainers would tell her to leave. After all, she had only been scouted because of her visuals. Everyone knew that and some found it amusing to point out during lessons that SM apparently accepts anyone these days as long as they look good in makeup and a dress, every time Sera couldn't live up to the expectations.

If they'd known the effort Sera put in. After all, she always passed the evaluation. Every time she passed because the teachers saw the improvement she'd made. The hours she spent were unhealthy, and she was well aware of that, but she was picked out for the project group in the end, so she got the results she needed.