yuji tilts her head to the side, watching ria finish tying the laces on her skates with a hum. she stands on her own pair, hand gripping the handrail carefully as she gets her footing in order. she slides over carefully, extending a hand out for the other girl to grab.
"here," she offers quietly, a small smile on her face. getting up and on the ice always feels a little daunting. yuji herself hasn't been in some time, so it felt a bit like a chore to finally get her so called ice feet in gear.
"you've tried it before at least once, right?" yuji asks, glancing over at the ice. it's not going to be an awful experience even if it is ria's first time, but she'd like to know what she's working with, at least. "once you get the hang of it, it's not so bad."
her schedule already jam-packed as it is, the amount of time she has to scrounge through the christmas discounts is already dwindling. during the holidays, sua would make this a sort of sport-- now, she has to shove everything she wants to look at in one day or a matter of hours.
and now? she can't find her wallet.
"i swear it was in here, i'm so sorry," sua's words leave her in a rush, the expecting eyes of the cashier waiting for her to pay. sua's digging aggressively through her bag after patting down her whole body for her wallet; her panic is obvious and her stress is apparent from the way it's etched over her face. where the fuck is it? "i'm so sorry, please, one second--" it was in here. sua knows it was-- she swears it was.
all this work comes to right now. it's not a flashy concert, it's nothing crazy-- but yuji's determined to do her seniors right. for doing what she feels like has been absolutely nothing this year, she has learned a lot in the meantime, as much as it annoys her to admit. growing older has made her grown more and more impatient, but she knows it's been futile. she can't force the company to make a debut, but all she can do is try and impress them every step of the way.
it's been a test to her. one she's fumbled and stumbled through the entire practice and preparation portion. the confrontation with nayoung had been eyeopening, another thing that aggravates her to admit and come to terms to. she overthinks, she overworks, and then gets frustrated when she can't get it right.
so she takes a step back. after her outburst, it comes along easier, even she's still stewing in something, by the time of the performance. what? she's not quite sure, but it's not on the forefront of her mind anymore. there are bigger fish to fry.
the biggest hurdle is the as you wish performance. all i want for christmas for you is simple. easy, but making her seniors proud is the goal for the night. and it's halfway through the performance that yuji finds herself thinking why do i spent so much time worrying for?
as a fan of wonderland, it's easy to channel what they want for the performance. yuji's watched performance video after video and fancam after fancam. she's been singing for years, even before lime or sr media. this is something she could do with her eyes closed-- and the bouncing high notes between eunae and her feel so deserved.
it feels good at the end, when she's catching her breath and smiling towards the children staring back at her on autopilot. it's a shot of adrenaline right to her head, serotonin nestled right on top of it.
stevie loves to dance, and he's more than happy they've been given a pretty fun choreography to work with. already a vertex fan, which has made the days of practice go by pretty seamlessly-- stevie's mood is pretty high. every year gets better he finds, and especially since becoming a trainee on top of all that healing, it's hard to knock his mood down. not even how busy training has been could get him down right now.
a lot has changed over the last few months during his time in studio delta. new people have come. some people have left. the vibes have been up and down along with the general holiday cheer and gloom it naturally brings. stevie's lucked out in the cheer department this time around, so he's been dead set on trying to spread it to the rest of the people around him.
after being dispersed, stevie makes a beeline for ren, stopping by him to playfully knock into the other's shoulders. "i'm calling dibs on you," he switches to english, cheeky grin on his face. "i'm going through the third and fourth verse. come practice with me?" stevie asks, even going as far as giving ren a pout.
humming the tune of shine, stevie bounds over to joomi. he's tired, the practice they've been putting in beating him down throughout the day. but it doesn't last long, far too excited for all the exciting things that's in store for them in the upcoming month. a mini-concert? this soon after signing? people are going to see him perform?
it's mind boggling.
it's in the lull between that he drapes himself over joomi with an exaggerated oof. taking a breath in, he begins to softly sing the lyrics to shine to the older, moving both their bodies in an awkward dance before he laughs to break it off.
"you wanna pair up with me when we start back up again?" he asks, already planning what to work on next. "the part after the...y'know--" he makes the motion of the dance in gesture. "--it goes by pretty fast. and the legwork has to be pretty precise to make it work." he rattles off his thought process, eyes flicking up to the ceiling as he recalls.
a little concert? for them? that's kinda...kinda cool.
sure, it's not a usual concert and it's not like an actual concert...but it's still pretty awesome. if they close their eyes and pretend, it's kinda like their own, right?
besides, stevie likes vertex a lot. the song choice is pretty stellar, in his opinion. an a plus choice, he might say. no complaints from him. it feels good, to know the lyrics to the song for once-- memorizing his parts comes pretty easy this time around, thank god.
"do you like your parts?" stevie asks jay, glancing over the distribution. "i think they expect me to sing too much, but..." he shrugs his shoulders. it's no the worst. he doesn't have a high note or anything, another thing to thank the big man upstairs about. he's got enough rap lines, the singing ones weren't something he really expected. "i just hope my voice doesn't crack or anything..."
don't get her wrong, yuji likes the sr media girls (for the most part), but having to spend hour after hour practicing with them has begun to grate on her. under the pressure of their first essential performance together-- yuji's hackles have been raised. too many close calls and too many instances where her tongue has gotten the best of her, yuji's giving herself a much needed break. a little bit of practice away won't hurt her any, and maybe she'll have a much clearer mind after.
"how is your group faring?" yuji asks, unable to help her curiosity. her interest for the concert has been rising and rising. what is everyone else going to be doing? what are their song choices? endless thoughts upon endless thoughts. "we've got a bit to do still, but i think we're progressing pretty well."
yuji's been tense ever since the mini trainee concert has been announced. and for no other reason other than nerves-- it's essentially their first performance as a group, a phantom image of what it could be like if they were to debut. of course she's taking it seriously. maybe even too seriously.
she's trying to be more lax. careful steps made with thought and not giving in to her base instinct to nag and correct. it's hard when all she can think about is that this could be another test-- compatibility, synergy.
"we did better this time around," yuji says, positivity the only thing she can spew to avoid the pandora's box of emotions this charity concert has been giving her. she hands over a bottle of water to jueun as she plops a seat next to her. cracking open her own bottle, she frowns, thinking it over. "at the rate we're going, we'll probably have it down by tomorrow at the latest."
