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Jiyeon didn't have any answer to the question on Heeseung's face. She wasn't sure how to explain why she randomly called out his name, and was going to say sorry when she suddenly met his eyes again. The moment her eyes locked with his, she was a mess. All coherent thoughts flew out the window, and suddenly, she lacked the ability to form sentences. "Um, well... so you see...... uhm so JYP opp...", she blabbers, trying to give him an answer. She can feel the disappointment and embarrassment radiating out of her friend's bodies, and she feels her cheeks flushing. Heeseung on the other hand seems to be enjoying the effect he has on her. He smirked slightly, and Jiyeon would be lying if she said that wasn't the most attractive thing she had seen in a long time.

For once, luck was on her side and she was saved from further embarrassment by movement of the platform. She broke eye-contact with Heeseung, and looked in front to see a pair of girls entering the room. They were from Cube Entertainment, as the huge LED screens implied. The boys were all from Belift or Big Hit, but Hybe wasn't really strong in the female trainee department, hence when auditions opened for possible positions in a girl group at Hybe, everyone was sending trainees over, to show off the potential of their companies. Jiyeon prayed silently for the two girls to debut here. She didn't want them going through the pain that every girl group seemed to face in that company.

The two girls nodded at the JYP girls, and sat down on the other side of room. The room started filling up little by little, and soon almost all the empty seats between the boys were full. The more social ones were introducing themselves to each other. The introverts like her were just sitting back, trying to calm themselves before their performances.

Jiyeon was nervous, and for good reason. There were people from companies like SM and Pledis. YG wasn't participating, quite surprisingly. There were some long time trainees, like her, whom she had known from various auditions and projects. They were the ones she would have to look out for. She was deep in her thoughts, analyzing the competition and Jinae was avoiding eye contact with a cute boy in a brown flannel who kept running his hands through his hair for some reason, and staring at her. Just as she was starting to get annoyed at sitting around, doing nothing, everyone was startled when a sudden alarm started blaring, and red lights began to flicker.

Jiyeon wasn't scared of many things, but she was easily startled, making her the victim to many pranks courtesy of Jinae. Thus, the sudden alarms shocked her, and she immediately grabbed onto the nearest thing she could reach and shut her eyes. Once the initial shock wore off and she could feel Jia squeezing the life out of her, Jiyeon opened her eyes to find herself in the strangest of positions. Jia, who is easily scared, was hugging her and quite frankly, was cutting off her air supply. And Jiyeon? Well, turns out the nearest thing to reach was Lee Heeseung, and she had held his hand tightly. She blushed, and immediately snatched her hand back. "Sorry," she muttered while looking at the ground. Had she looked up, she would have seen the faint blush on his cheeks as well.

The ground beneath them lit up, and the lights formed a rectangular shape on the ground. They were all staring in awe at the flashing lights when a deep voice started speaking. "Dear 46 applicants, welcome. This is the stage of I-Land, and this will be the place for you to prove your skills." Jiyeon's determination rose even more as she heard those words. This stage was hers to take over. As she heard the instructions, she knew she would have to be one of the twenty four people to make it into I-Land. There would be 12 boys and 12 girls voted for by everyone based on their performance, so she knew she would have to win the hearts of her competitors. Jiyeon weighed their chances, and knew she would have to make a decision when she heard they could decide the order of performances. She decided to let her instincts decide for themselves. Before she knew what was happening, she found herself standing up and rushing to the stage, just a step ahead of a tall boy. The boy accepted his defeat and took a step back, and Jiyeon turned to look at the JYP girls. They seemed nervous and unsure, but they trusted their eldest member. And so the girls nodded at her and followed her up to the stage.

All eyes were on them as they introduced themselves one by one. Jinae went first, followed by Jia, then Hana and finally it was Jiyeon. Jiyeon stepped forward and confidently spoke. "Hello everyone, my name is Hwang jiyeon, I am 19 years old and my talents are dance, expressions and choreography." They all bowed at the participants and went into their positions.

Jiyeon was now getting anxious. They needed to put on a great performance, and set the standard high as the first ones. They had practiced day and night for this performance and they were going to give it their all. As soon as the opening beat of Whatta Man by IOI was heard, Jiyeon felt her nervousness evaporate, and she transformed into the performance monster she was. Soon, they reached the dance break of the performance, and finally ended in a fierce pose, feeling satisfied with how they had performed. Everyone was silent and a shadow of doubt began creeping into the minds of the girls. Were they really that bad? Jiyeon was starting to get insecure, and her worrying demons took their place in her conscience. Her performance wasn't good enough. She didn't deserve to be an idol. She is worthless and wasted 4 years of her life for nothing. The girl was overwhelmed by her dark thoughts until a slow clap broke through the silence. Jiyeon finally looked to the source of this clapping, as others soon joined in and she was pleasantly surprised as her eyes caught his. And even as it was soon announced that all 4 girls would be entering I-Land, and her teammates hugged her tight, her eyes remained on Lee Heeseung, still smiling and clapping for her.

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"𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚 𝙖 𝙢𝙖𝙣𝙣𝙚𝙦𝙪𝙞𝙣, 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙞𝙨 𝙨𝙤 𝙖𝙬𝙠𝙬𝙖𝙧𝙙. 𝙞 𝙨𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙡𝙙 𝙟𝙪𝙨𝙩 𝙖𝙘𝙩 𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚 𝙞 𝙙𝙤 𝙣𝙤𝙧𝙢𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙮 𝙗𝙪𝙩 𝙬𝙝𝙚𝙣𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧 𝙄 𝙨𝙚𝙚 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙞 𝙖𝙘𝙩 𝙨𝙤 𝙨𝙩𝙪𝙥𝙞𝙙"

note!

heeseung is such a sweetheart, i swear to god i love him so much. anyway, jiyeon made it into i-land, now let's see what the future holds for her and heeseung. also i might not have a regular updating schedule as i am going to be a little busy with the start of school, but i'll try my best. please do vote and comment if you can, i would love to know what you all think about my writing and the plot so far!