Rise of a Star - a Minsung Story

Chapter 22

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The group did work hard. Two weeks full of music production, lyric writing and choreography learning passed in what felt like seconds. Everybody was exhausted. But the boys were thrilled. They were incredibly well prepared, they had perfectioned every single one of their choreographies, they knew exactly what to do and how to act on stage, and technically, nothing could go wrong anymore.

But of course, nothing could ever go to plan. The night before the performance at maybe 2 in the morning, Jisung woke up hearing silent sniffles next to him. He carefully moved his hand around, trying to find the button to turn on the light on his nightstand. Once turned on, Jisung saw Minho curled up next to him, a hand over his mouth to try and be quiet. "Baby? What's wrong?", Jisung carefully asked, his voice still raspy from sleeping. He brought one hand up to softly caress the older boy's back. Minho visibly flinched at that, halting in his movements. "Will you tell me what's wrong, love?", the younger asked again, gently pulling Minho's shoulder, so the boy would face him. The sight of Minho's tear strained face and red swollen eyes broke Jisung's heart into a million pieces. His boyfriend looked so incredibly hurt. "I-I-", Minho started, but interrupted himself as a new wave of tears rushed over him. Instead of saying anything else, he just pulled Jisung's arms around himself and hid his face in the other's chest. He listened to Jisung's heartbeat for a while, calming himself down. The younger boy just had his arms around him, trying to soothe him as best as he could.

"Do you want to tell me what's on your mind now, love? If not, we can just stay like that for a while", Jisung suggested, and he felt the older nod into his chest. "I had a nightmare", Minho whispered hesitantly. Jisung had a feeling that there was more to it than just a nightmare. Usually, Minho wouldn't start sobbing just because of a bad dream. For now, Jisung decided to leave it at that. Perhaps Minho would tell him later after getting up. Eventually, after lying awake and cuddling for a while, the two fell back asleep.

"Alright, boys. Is everyone ready? You'll be on stage in exactly 40 seconds", somebody from staff said, clapping his hands. It was about to be 1pm in South Korea and the final pre-debut stage was soon to be opened. Minho and Jisung hadn't talked about the older boy's breakdown all day. Minho wasn't ready to talk about it yet and Jisung accepted that. Besides, they were too busy to talk about it anyway. Early in the morning, some of the boys, excluding Jisung and Felix, who didn't feel like eating, had breakfast and the group headed to practice right after. They worked on final details and checked if everything looked nice on stage. Satisfied with their work, everybody got ready to perform and here they were – eight nervous wrecks in pretty clothing, about to perform in front of a hundred people. The members were excited, thrilled even, but small waves of fear rushed over them every once in a while, knowing that this performance would decide whether Minho and Felix were allowed to debut with the others or not.

Minho pressed a quick kiss to Jisung's cheek and gave him a reassuring smile. "I love you", he whispered, before the countdown came down to zero and the boys walked on stage.

Without a word or further announcements, every member walked over to his starting position and the music started playing. Minho, Jisung and probably all the others as well were functioning on autopilot. They had practiced these dances so many times, they didn't need to think about the steps anymore. The first two songs with all eight members passed by in what felt like seconds. 

Only when Chan made an official announcement and welcomed all the fans watching, Jisung realized that they had already performed two songs. Perhaps JYP had already decided? The consequences dawned up on him and within mere seconds his nerves got the best of him. Now he was nervous, now he saw how many people were looking at him, now he noticed the firm expression on his boss' face. His eyes widened slightly, panic rushing over him. Changbin, standing right next to Jisung, noticed and carefully rubbed his back without looking at the younger. "Calm down, it's going perfect so far. We are continuing without Minho and Felix for now. Focus on us, focus on your rap, ignore the rest. They love you; we love you, everything is fine", he quietly said. The squirrel-looking boy nodded, he appreciated his friend's words, and much to his surprise, they were in fact calming him down.