where: starscape entertainment pop!star dorms when: june 2017 (post-week 4 eliminations) who: jeon aera
eliminations were always going to be nerve wracking, something areum quickly discovered. she had thought (rather hoped) that after the first two weeks, she would find some way of muffling her anxiety. still, after eight episodes and four weeks of practices, performances, and eliminations, it didn’t seem to lighten up. the weight on her chest every week, standing in a line with the other contestants, waiting to find out who would be eliminated.
she glanced over at aera, frown pulling her lips down. the twins were sat on aera’s bed in the designated pop!star dorms, pressed side by side after another week escaping elimination. areum had told herself she wouldn’t check any of the social media surrounding the show, that she didn’t need the extra stress of how she was being perceived to constantly plague her thoughts every week. still, it didn’t stop from whisperings of who was popular (and who wasn’t) from spreading through the starscape entertainment building. she leaned her head onto aera’s shoulder.
“you did good today.” she pat aera’s arm softly. “i’m going to miss seeing kaori unnie in the practice room every morning.” it wasn’t like she was dead, just eliminated. things moved out of the pop!star dorms and back into the regular trainee dorms. they would still see each other, but something about hearing kaori’s name come from the judges’ mouths today felt final.