Perfectly Imperfect || Mark Lee

- 7 - Live performances and Live streams

It was dark and silent for what seemed like an eternity. The crowd was cheering but the noise was completely closed out. All the girls could hear were their own heartbeats, as if their whole bodies were pounding.

Seoah looked down at the crowd below her and when she saw the faces in the audience she could hear the faint sound of cheering somewhere far away. It was almost like water separated them. She took a shaky breath as darkness fell over them. They were in positions, waiting for the performance to start.

The spotlights shone down on them and music filled the room. It was like reality returned and they were suddenly fully aware of everything, including the cheers. The dance started and it was like all Seoah's nerves had calmed down. She felt more alive than ever performing on the stage, in front of a cheering audience.

There really were no backing vocals on the track, and that could be heard. They were on their own, completely live. Of course it was risky, they were just a rookie group performing for the third time, but they believed they could do it. They'd already done it many times in the practice room. Of course, this stage was nothing like the practice room.

The first part was Seoah's rap. It was like her heartbeats were gradually speeding up for the part, but she wasn't nervous. The rap started and she tried her best to make her voice sound cool and steady, with pretty good results.

Throughout the beginning, some parts were shaky, but that was only because of how tense they all were. As the performance went on they gradually became more and more comfortable.

They'd made it through a big part of the performance when the music was completely shut off.

Now the real fun began.

The audience went still and silent as they held their breaths. The room seemed to be filled with anxiety for the girls, but they didn't need to worry because the girls weren't anxious.

They all pretended to look shocked for the show, but Seoah who was rapping at that moment just continued unbothered while the others improvised some a cappella in the background.

Then Sera started singing and Seoah joined the a cappella. Sera had a pretty voice. She may not be as vocally trained as the others, and she could sound shaky sometimes, but her voice had a special color to it that just sounded good. She also had a really pretty falsetto and half the part she sang was in falsetto. She pulled off her whole part perfectly, with stability and in tune the whole time. They could even see some people in the audience get surprised by how great Sera sounded live.

This was the chance Sera was given to prove herself. She wasn't going to prove the haters to be wrong. She'd earned this spot, just like the rest of them. Pretty or not, she deserved to stay.

Almost a good 30 seconds had passed before the music started again. They'd even managed to time it almost perfectly to line up as the real music continued.

As the performance was over more cheers than at the previous performances seemed to be heard from the audience, and that really was a rush for all the girls.

They were standing in positions for the ending fairy, which was supposed to be focused on Mirae. Seoah with a pounding heart after the performance looked over at Lina to say something. She was completely unaware of the fact that the cameraman was zooming in on her.

It was first when Lina pointed at the camera and said something that Seoah noticed. A bit flustered she looked into the camera with a cute smile and held her breath to not look like she was panting so much.

What the audience found hilarious was how obvious she'd been, both because they'd seen how heavy she was breathing before she knew she was being zoomed in on, and they saw her take a deep breath the second she realized.