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Mari was bouncing up and down, while she waited for her staff to finish tidying up the waiting room of Inkigayo.
Mari's stage was another success and the fans had cheered her name loudly, doing the fan chants to <X> with a passion. Mari loved her fans. The way they called her name and enjoyed her music was enough for Mari to forget the actual heartache that she was always feeling.
Mari had already found dance covers to her song on Youtube and the comments on her Reality Show were always the cutest. Mari was happy that she had debuted. But she had not met the person she had wanted to meet ever since he moved away.
"Mari?"
Sora had caught Mari's attention and chuckled. "What were you thinking of?" The manager asked and Mari shook her shoulders, not sure what she should answer. "Come on, let's go home. You still have a Japanese lesson later on." Sora spoke and started leaving the studio where Inkigayo was always filmed.
Mari walked behind her manager, whistling her song and bouncing up and down when she passed NCT's waiting room. The girl stopped in her tracks and bit her lip when she heard voices coming out from the room. She turned slightly around, hearing laughs through the walls.
Mari liked NCT's music. Especially NCT127's music. In one episode of her Reality Show, Welcome to Mari-land, she had a rap battle against Twice's Dahyun and decided to spit bars with a cover of Taeyong's rap in Cherry Bomb.
But NCT also held her heartache. The girl sighed and turned away, walking out of the studio and to the car where Sora, and her stylist Jisung, were already waiting for her.
"Where have you been?" Jisung asked after climbing into the car with Mari. Sora had sat down on the driver's seat and started the engine. "I was just looking which Idols were still in there. I was just curious." Mari smiled and leaned back in her chair, looking into the dark Seoul skies that were slowly getting brighter with the sun that was going up.
― 💌 ―
Back in Blue Soda's headquarters, Mari changed her clothes into her practice gear and went to practice <X> once more. While monitoring her stage today she saw that some of her moves weren't smooth enough and she wanted to fix those.
Mari was a really talented singer. But she also found out that she was a talented dancer once she started training under Blue Soda Entertainment.
Taecyeon had chosen her for his company after she sang a Mariah Carey song in her audition and when her training started the teachers and Taecyeon were more than surprised at how talented Mari was at dancing. The decided to upload pre-debut dance covers from Mari. And one time she was even allowed to dance at the 1Million Dance Studio.
Mari was already sweating buckets when the door to her practice room opened and none other than Ok Taecyeon and his assistant Go Juyeon enter the room. The assistant held his nose as the smell of sweat reaches his nose and Taecyeon went to turn off the music.
"Why would you do that?" Mari asked and wiped a strand of hair out of her face. "Sorry to attack you like that, Mari. But please go and take a shower. Juyeon is going to give you something proper to wear. We have an appointment." Taecyeon said and Mari cocked an eyebrow. "An appointment? Sora-unnie hasn't told me anything about an appointment."
"We only heard the news now," Juyeon said and looked at Mari with disgust.
"What is all that about?" Mari asked and Taecyeon sighed. "Someone wants you for a Special Stage. They found your dance videos on YouTube and want you to collaborate with their Idol." Taecyeon explained and threw a towel at Mari while the Rookie followed her sunbae and his assistant out of the practice room.
"There's a dress and shoes in the dressing room." Juyeon, a skinny man with high cheekbones, said and Mari nodded. "We're going to call Jisung to make your hair and make-up. We need to be at SM Entertainment in three hours." Taecyeon said while disappearing with Juyeon.
Mari's hand was already on the doorknob. "Did he say ... SM Entertainment?" She gulped and tightened the grip on the doorknob to the changing rooms. The thought of possibly meeting him there was burning in Mari's head and the girl couldn't breathe properly while she walked into the dressing room.
"What if Mark is going to be there as well?"
When Mari first saw Mark Lee on stage, she couldn't recognize him. She knew it was him. She knew his voice, his face... but the young man on the stage in the flashy outfit wasn't her Mark.
They had done everything together. Their mothers were friends. They had their guitar lessons on the same day and enrolled in the same school — two Korean kids in a Canadian environment.
He had always been her Mark. Her best friend, her backbone. Her first love.
But then, back in 2012 Mark decided to try out for a Global Audition by a South Korean Entertainment Company. Mari decided to join him and try her luck. But different from Mark, she didn't make the cut. August 2013 came and Mark moved from Vancouver to Seoul and was gone from Mari's life.
Her first love left her heartbroken when she was only fourteen years old.
Mari took a deep breath when all those memories came crashing over her. The warm water that was trickling down from the shower felt cold and Mari sighed.
She remembered how she stopped singing when Mark left. She would occasionally go dancing classes because she couldn't stop being interested in Music at all.
But when Mari turned sixteen, they moved to Korea for her Fathers job. Mari's first thought was, of course, meeting Mark. But that never happened until Mari watched a Music Show and saw her best friend, rapping on stage. She remembers her heart beating and wanting to see Mark again.
She needed to see him again.
That's when Mari applied for Blue Soda Entertainment's company, that took her in and taught her well until she was ready to debut this April with <X>.
And now the Rookie had the chance to meet Mark again. But would he even recognize her, if she had the chance to see him in SM Entertainment? Would he even remember what they had back in Vancouver? Or was it too long ago to remember your childhood friend?
