{ON HOLD} Perfect Together || Bang Chan

{9}

Eventually, when the shock of the question died down, EunJi complied to Chan's request, going back to his dorm with him after sending a text to the girls in her dorm.

In his dorm, everyone was asleep already, but they quickly came to a realisation. Chan's room was occupied by himself, Minho and Woojin, leaving no space for EunJi to sleep comfortably.

"I could sleep in the living room." EunJi spoke up in a whisper. She was about to leave the room when Chan held her back.

"You take my bed, I invited you. I'll sleep on the floor." He knew that she couldn't possibly fall asleep on the floor.

After a short exchange of yes and no going back and forth she lost and went to lie down on Chan's bed while he took a blanket and pillow from the largest bedroom, making himself comfortable on the floor next to his own bed.

Chan went to say good night to EunJi, but as soon as he looked at her he saw she was vast asleep. He smiled, dimples showing to no one but the ceiling, and settled on his back once again, soon getting tired enough to fall asleep himself.

The next morning, EunJi was up at dawn, making breakfast for everyone, especially the underage members still going to school.

By the time Jeongin was up and ready for school she had packed some food for the members that had school and for the others she had some food ready to eat as soon as they woke up.

By 10am everyone had eaten and EunJi and Chan had disappeared for practice, leaving only about half of the group in the dorms.

EunJi and Chan left at the same time, with similar goals, getting ready for the company battle, but a different destination, as EunJi had been able to rent a dance studio a few blocks away.

Chan insisted on bringing her there and she let him, walking in silence while EunJi sent a quick text, informing Yedam of the time and location of their meet.

She had decided to go in by herself first, stretching and getting familiar with the song, to later start on the choreo together.

About an hour later she was dancing hard, pearls of sweat dripping down her face, but not panting. She was hot, but not out of breath. She had divided the parts in a way that would give the most impressive stage in her opinion, forming a choreography in her mind while doing so.

Soon after she had started dancing, her dance partner came walking in, a skip in his step from excitement for this duet. It had been a while since they had seen each other and he had missed her calming aura. She was like a mother, sister and friend all in one, depending on what he needed in the moment. Right now that was a friend to dance and have fun with.

They got to work immediately, EunJi explaining the ideas she had in her mind and together they worked them out into an actual dance.

After a few hours they had the choreography clear, so they decided to head to each their own company, as to not waste more money than needed, and practice their parts on their own. In a few days they would get back together to finetune everything and make their moves match perfectly together.

After practice with Yedam, EunJi walked into one of the JYP dance rooms practicing until late at night to get every detail right, and even then she was not completely content. She only stopped practicing once Ryujin came in, looking for her to take her to the dorms as is was almost midnight.

"I heard you are going along for the YG JYP battle. I'm proud of you unni, but you shouldn't forget to sleep. You wouldn't want to be a hypocrite, would you?" The younger girl laughed slightly, she knew how fussy EunJi was about Chan getting enough sleep, so she always found it weird when she herself would stay at the company building late at night.

"No trouble at the dorms while I was off? I don't expect you girls to be like Stray Kids; unable to manage normally without someone responsable in control." EunJi laughed.

"Yeah, we were fine."

The last part of the way was spent in silence as both had run out topics to talk about. Neither of them ever experienced anything interesting, so there weren't many talking topics besides childhood and even those were sometimes topics untouched for people with a sensitive childhood. It was a typical trainee experience.

A week later, nine JYP trainees were standing at the entrance of the YG building, waiting for their CEO to come so they could all head in together. Not that they actually needed him, with EunJi by their side, but they waited because of formalities.

When Park Jinyoung arrived he asked the group as a whole a few short questions before moving into the building, finding their way to the practice room where they were supposed to be.

JYP walked in first, making sure the YG trainees knew they were here for the battle, after that followed Stray Kids, nothing unexpected there yet, and then EunJi. As soon as the other trainees saw her, they looked surprised, but happy. Though they had to maintain a certain level of professionalism, they looked like the wanted to form a mass group hug then and there.

EunJi had made sure to tell Yedam not to say anything about her visit, wanting to make a pleasant surprise.

EunJi herself, though, couldn't care less about professionalism, hugging all of them immediately, starting with Yedam at one end of the line, ending with Jeongwoon at the other end. Chan then followed her example, hugging Jeongwoon too.

After talking some more with all trainees together, the battle started. It was a tense battle, both groups were amazing, provoking each other from time to time, but the dance battle seemed to have turned the win towards JYP, the originality of the dance, combined with (almost) perfect execution and great facial expressions.

As soon as the battles finished and all groups were seated once again, EunJi got up, grabbing a microphone on her way.

"Hello." She said, politely bowing down before continuing talking. "Since I came along today, and it's been awhile since I stood in these practice rooms, I'd like to perform something too." She smiled brightly, knowing that neither CEOs would probably stop her.

"What song will you use?"

"Honestly by Eric Nam."

And with that she got into position.

The first couplet, she sung by herself, softly moving on the beat, following the choreography very exactly.

Keep in mind. This is what I imagine, but there are slight differences, like the fact that not only Yedam(Eric) is singing, but EunJi(Lia) too, or the fact that EunJi starts the song to make it look like a solo, where Eric, obviously, starts the original himself.

Breathing heavily, Yedam and EunJi ended the choreo, standing next to each other facing the ground.

Claps sounded, just like how they had done for the other performances, both teams of trainees were thrilled to see this kind of synergy between the two of them.

"Well done, both of you. It makes me sad you had to leave our company with such talent, but I hope to see much of you." Yang Hyunsuk smiled. It hadn't ever been his choice for EunJi to leave YG, it was what she decided.

In the beginning, she would just boycott by the time she was done with a company, not liking the way they mentor or care for their trainees or just not feeling the style of the company. She'd practice minimal hours with minimal effort, to a point where they had to let her leave.

She knew it was petty, but at the time she didn't want to debut in that company anymore and it wasn't like she had the money to pay for the training costs if she terminated the contract herself.

For the third or fourth company, they finally let her sign a special one year contract, allowing her to switch companies in a less harmful way.