Chapter 79: His Melancholic Past

The practice room was bathed with a warm glow early in the morning. The weather was great today, so Jisung entered the practice room with a wide smile on his face. Zeth looked up from his phone and greeted him with a smile.

"Good morning, man."

"Good morning," Jisung chimed.

Jisung wanted to wake June up, but he looked to be in such deep sleep that he didn't want to interrupt him.

So, he decided to let him sleep for a bit more since there were still five minutes until 7:00AM.

Their other teammates quickly followed, stretching their bodies and yawning due to their early rising.

As the clock hit 7, the door opened, and June came in.

Jisung gasped in surprise as soon as he saw him. His other teammates also looked over his way and frowned.

June stopped for a moment to look at their ambiguous expressions.

"What?" he asked.

Did he look awful?

Well, he did only get about three hours of sleep, so it was understandable.

"You look good, brother," Jisung complimented, giving him two thumbs up.

He looked good? June looked to the side to stare at himself in the mirror.

Damn. He did look good.

That one upgrade on his visuals definitely did him a very good favor.

"Let's start," Zeth said, clapping his hands. He was the acting leader at this point, so the other members listened to his command well.

...Or so June thought.

"Let's dance first to warm up our bodies, then let's start with training our vocals," Zeth suggested.

However, Yuri stepped in. "We had already danced to the song multiple times yesterday," he countered. "Don't you think we need to focus on the vocals now? We haven't even sung the song once."

Zeth sighed, raking his hands through his hair. "We need to warm up our bodies. We all just woke up. We can't start singing right away."

"That must be the case for you," Leo said. "But we're alright with singing first."

The mood felt better when June first came in, but now it was back to where they all started.

The tension was suffocating.

Jisung clicked his tongue. "Let's dance first. We'll sing better if our bodies are warmed up."

Leo was about to argue, but Yuri placed his hand on his shoulder. "Fine," Yuri said. "Just one round."

Zeth nodded and played the music.

They aimed to get it right in one round, but it seemed like things were not working out for them.

They didn't look unsynchronized, but their styles were a bit too different from each other—like they weren't on the same team at all.

Lin Zhi, too, seemed to be making too many mistakes.

Leo clicked his tongue and sat down on the floor. "What is wrong with you? This is our fourth round already," he scolded.

"The moves are confusing," Lin Zhi snapped. "They don't flow well with each other."

June couldn't argue with that. It was really the case with their choreography.

"Let's just do it one more time," Zeth sighed. "We need to get it down today since the interim evaluation starts after lunch."

Yuri pursed his lips together. "Don't mess up," he said as a general warning to all his teammates.

It seemed like Yuri's threat worked since they were finally able to finish the choreography without any problem.

"Take five," Zeth said, a bit out of breath.

June sighed in relief and plopped down at the corner.

Jisung soon joined him, taking a swig from his water bottle.

"I was watching you a while ago, brother," Jisung said. "How could you improve your dancing again? You weren't like this on the first mission."

June sighed.

Of course, he's already at a B-. He was merely a C during the first mission.

"I still need to practice more," June genuinely said.

"Okay, let's start with the vocal training," Zeth said, clapping his hands. "We have about two hours left until the evaluation, so let's make this fast."

Their team lined up while Zeth went to the music player to play the instrumental version of the song. The woeful piano intro set the tone of the song, helping the trainees get into character. However, it was ruined when Lin Zhi suddenly spoke.

"Wait!" Lin Zhi exclaimed. "We're not going to do anything with the instrumentation, right? We'll keep it as it is?"

"Yes," Leo said. "We're not going to make it into a pop song," he sarcastically added.

Lin Zhi frowned. "That's not what I was insinuating. I also don't want to change the arrangement. Hey, brother. Tell me, do you have a problem with me?"

Jisung's eyes widened in surprise.

Leo and Lin Zhi looked at each other with subtle hatred, and June was reminded of the person Lin Zhi used to be. He had to commend Leo, though. He's not backing down despite being in the presence of a killer.

"Let's start," June said, his voice cutting the tension like a knife.

Frankly, he was a bit annoyed by their constant 'passive' bickering. His sleep-deprived self wanted to get this over with.

His teammates lined up, and Zeth went back to the music player to restart the song.

The mellow intro of the song sent June back into the past.

Shit.

This was what he wanted to avoid.

For some reason, this song always evoked intense feelings inside him.

It must be because of the meaning it had in his life when he first sang it. The song talked about romantic love, something he was unfamiliar with, yet he could relate to the message so much.

It was when he was trying his best to send Mei Ling on a field trip, and he had to make extreme ends meet.

He would forgo his meals, lying to his sister that he wasn't hungry just so he could save some money.

However, in the end, he still wasn't able to make enough money.

Mei Ling came up to him with teary eyes, saying everything was okay and that she never really wanted to go on the field trip anyway.

However, June knew better.

His sister was holding back her sadness for his sake too.

In the end, the two of them were liars.

June was so caught up in his thoughts that he didn't even realize that his part already came on.

He only snapped out of it when Jisung patted his back.

"Brother, are you okay?" Jisung asked, concerned.

June looked at the annoyed faces of his teammates and nodded.

"Pay attention, will you?" Leo asked.

Lin Zhi sighed impatiently. "We're already short of time, so it'd be appreciated if we don't make any mistakes."

June pursed his lips. "Okay," he softly said.

These damn motherfuckers! They were acting like June had done a heinous crime.

This was the very first time he had made a mistake. Lin Zhi was big to speak about June's mistakes when he had committed plenty during the dance practice earlier.

"Let's start again," Zeth said, replaying the song once more.

Yuri started the song, followed by Lin Zhi.

Then, it was time for June to sing.

However, before June could even utter his first lines, Jangmoon suddenly burst through the room and shouted—

"The mentors got here early! It's time for the interim evaluations!"