I won't lose to you

3

Over the next week, Eindra practiced like crazy. She spent practically all day in the practice rooms, training herself to memorise every detail and every expression. She barely spoke to anyone for those two weeks. Whenever someone came up to her, she would pretend to not hear them or quickly end the interaction. She just felt sick with anxiety if she wasn't distracted by practicing.

She was often the last person in the practice room at night, and one night Duri showed up. She didn't notice him at first, as she had the signal song blasting in her ears through her headphones. But once she finished dancing to the song, he stepped closer and she saw him in the mirror. She moved her headphones so one ear wasn't covered.

"What are you doing here?" she asked.

"Iseul said you were still practicing," he lifted up a can of coke,"Want a drink?"

His answer didn't really correspond with her question, but she couldn't be bothered to repeat herself. She took the coke and thanked him, placing the cool can onto her forehead and sighing.

"You're getting really good. You really look like you're having the time of your life. At this rate, you'll end up being better at this concept than sexy," he said.

Eindra felt relieved he said that. She'd watched some fancams of idols performing cheerful songs, and she'd stumbled on some videos of Jihyo from TWICE, and found she often smiled with her mouth open so it looked like she was over the moon while performing. Eindra practiced, mostly in the bathroom mirror, and became an expert at that expression.

"Glad I can be so deceiving," she said monotonously.

He laughed,"Do you not like the song?"

She shrugged, opening the coke can and taking a sip,"I don't hate it. I just don't like it... at all,"

"If you make it to the final lineup you'll never escape it," he leant against the mirror wall as he talked to her. He was wearing joggers and a loose t-shirt, which was slight more low-cut than previous shirts he wore and she could fully see the tattoo on his collarbone. It was a simple illustration of the sun in black ink.

Eindra frowned at it.

"What's wrong?" he asked, looking down at himself as he couldn't tell what she was staring at.

"You have a sun tattoo?" she asked.

He smiled at her,"Yeah, do you like it?"

She didn't answer him,"I have a moon tattoo," she admitted.

His eyes widened,"No way. Show me,"

She placed down her drink and lifted up her shirt. The tattoo of a crescent moon was just below the crevice between her breasts, so she put a hand on the under side of her sports bra and lifted them up so the tattoo was visible. She supposed it was a little inappropriate to expose so much skin to him, but he asked to see it. She was still sweating from her dance, so her skin glistened a little.

Duri was stunned, staring at her open-mouthed,"Oh wow,"

"It's pretty, isn't it?"

"Yeah," he said.

They shared eye contact for a few seconds, and suddenly Duri pushed himself off of the wall and started walking out.

"I've got to go... tired," he murmured.

Finally, it was time for the signal song test, and the girls and boys were separated into different rooms. In the girls' room, everyone waited in sections dedicated to their star number, and once reevaluated, they would go to their new section. They only got to see the other girls' performances, and not the boys', which was a little disappointing.