IDOL PRODUCER 2 - DISCONTINUED

29.

After a few days and many more lessons, I could still feel the desperation in the groups' eyes. I didn't know how to be a leader and that was pretty evident, but I thought that gathering us all on a meeting was the only thing I could do.

"Li Wenhan," I called him as we were on one of our breaks. "Can you go to the small room, please?"

"Why?" He asked confused.

"Meeting," I just answered and he nodded before leaving.

One by one I told them the same but I couldn't find Jia Yi, who seemed to be hiding from me the previous days whenever we weren't rehearsing.

As a last resource, I went towards the bathrooms and saw that Li Zhenning was going out, so I stopped him.

"Sorry, Zhenning. Do you perhaps know if Jia Yi is there?" I asked him.

"No, I don't, but I can check it for you," he told me with a smile. 

"Thank you!" I told him before he went back inside.

A few minutes later, he went out with Jia Yi and I thanked him once again before he left and I approached Jia Yi.

"Did you need anything?" He asked me.

"I was searching for you," I said not daring to look at him directly in the eyes. "I called on a meeting in the small room but couldn't find you."

We both then went there in complete silence as I didn't know if he was angry with me and he didn't seem to want to talk to me either.

"Finally!" Wenhan exclaimed once we arrived. "Where were you?"

"Just walking around," Jia Yi answered simply and sat down with them. "What is this meeting about, anyway?"

"Before that," Wenhan stopped him. "Let's appreciate the fact that this is the first time we've been called for a meeting."

"Now, what did you want to talk about?" Jia Yi asked again.

"Well... I have realised that ever since our classes with the mentors and the praise Team B has been receiving, we aren't at our best. I know it's hard, but I want to try to make our team really bond together so we can perform in front of the mentors and show them how much we actually desire to be on that stage," I explained. "I feel that we get along but we haven't... gotten closer? If that even makes sense."

"I think I get what you mean. We have fun together and get along but we haven't really become an actual team yet," Guan Yue said and I nodded.

"I'm sorry for not being the best leader you could have," I apologised. "I feel somehow like a burden sometimes."

"Don't be an idiot!" Wenhan told me. "You are a great leader! You've noticed this issue and I hadn't, that already makes you a good leader."

"Come on, let's go back to practice now!" Hanyu said standing up. "We need to overtake Team B and there is no way we will be able to do that if we are sitting down here!"

"Look who is full of vigour!" Jia Yi joked.

"It doesn't last long on me, so take the opportunity before it goes away," Hanyu joked back.

ººº

"...and five, six, seven, eight..." I counted as we rehearsed the dance. "More strength!"

For two days we had been rehearsing non-stop to catch up and perfect every single movement but our team spirit seemed to be at it's best. Unlike during the previous break times, we were always together having fun and joking around, so I was happy with how everything was going.

"Jia Yi, you missed the tempo there!" I said over the music. "Hanyu, make your movements sharper!"

I could see some boys peeking from the door as we were making a lot of noise and attracted many curious eyes, but I decided to ignore them and just focus on our performance. I was a dancer mainly, so it was the thing I always focused on more.

"Please, five minutes!" Guan Yue said laying on the floor drenched in sweat. "How many times did we do it on a row? Eight?"

"Nine to be precise," I said picking up a water bottle and throwing it to him. "But you improved so it was worth it."

"You are worse than the dance teachers here," Hanyu told me. "I haven't been so tired in my life."

"Oh, come on!" I protested. "Wenhan nor Jia Yi are complaining, are they?"

"That's because we are still trying to catch our breaths!" Wenhan managed to say, making me roll from laughter. "Don't laugh! You tried to kill us!"

"Sorry, big brother. I love you!" I said hugging his arm. "Urgh, you are all sweaty!"

We then decided to monitor our performance and hopefully find some more memes to add to our collection. We already had a really funny one of Hanyu with his tongue out as well as some others, but one has never got enough memes.

"Oh my god, do you have a superpower or what?" Wenhan told me as he looked through the video. "No matter where I stop it you never have a funny face! We have no memes of you!"

It wasn't that I was photogenic but rather that I focused so much on my expressions when dancing that you could clearly see they were all intentional and, therefore, not meme approved.

"You are looking through the wrong parts of the video for memes," Jia Yi suddenly said before approaching us. "You need to look through the parts where she isn't dancing to find them."

"Don't tell them my secret!" I exclaimed approaching them and snatching the phone from Wenhan's hands.

"Hey, give it back!" Jia Yi said trying to catch me but I ran away. "You are always making memes with our faces, it's only fair we do the same with yours'!"

I then realised it was the first time in about a week that Jia Yi joked and acted playful with me. It's not like we hadn't talked to each other, but he just wasn't that smiley.

"I got you!" He said as he managed to catch me. "Give me that phone now!"

"Never!" I said sticking out my tongue.

I had to seize the time now that he was back to normal. Who knew when his cables would cross and he would go back to not talking to me.