Jun raised his left brow, answering plainly, "No. At least the chorus is not criticized. It means you and Daeho did well."
"But they think I was not being helpful enough."
When Jun observed closely, Seth's face was quite pale, and he became more worried. He grabbed the other by the shoulders and replied, "Look here. Like I said, don't be discouraged because we still have a few more days to perfect our performance. Seth, we got an unexpected mid-check, which was supposed to be scheduled for tomorrow. None of us are ready."
As if he were talking to a small kid, he added, "But do you think we will stay as we are right now for the next few days?"
Seth shook his head.
"Do you trust me?" Jun asked.
Seth nodded this time. Jun smiled and slapped him on the back. "If so, then don't worry. We will work on it as a team."
The boy hesitated but nodded once more after a moment.
Jun led the boy to the pantry and even grabbed a carton of juice for him from the refrigerator. "Here, cheer up ASAP. If we don't want to get scolded again, we have to practice like crazy."
"Okay." Like an obedient kid, Seth took the drink from the other's hand.
Time passed. As promised, Jun put his team into rigorous practice where it would be no wonder if one would just suddenly faint. By trial and error, they worked hard to figure out where humming, Bel Canto, and vowel vocalization should be added. Jun demonstrated how to do it and what melody to use to harmonize with the rap. In the end, it was decided that Jun would be a backing vocalist in the performance for the latter part of Xavi's first rap verse.
They incorporated light choreo in the chorus as well. Daeho and Seth would be alternating anyway, so it would not put much burden on them.
'Time check, 12:45 am.'
When Jun arrived in his room, his friend Juwon was already fast asleep. He, too, felt too tired, so he quickly washed up and then jumped into his bed. Sleep immediately claimed him. He did not even notice that his pajamas were not worn properly and that his flat belly was exposed.
When the alarm rang from the semi-useless phone given by the staff, his eyes shone with deep resentment 'again.'
Why does time pass by so quickly for hours that it should be slow? He technically already slept, but he still felt tired.
He begrudgingly reached out to stop the ringtone and listlessly got off his bed. Juwon was long gone. 'Again'.
Half an hour later, he came out of the room and headed directly to the rap team's practice hall.
"We all look like ghosts." Hollow laughter came from behind.
Jun glanced past his shoulders to see a yawning Xavi. "Correction, vampires."
"Do vampire eyes become red whenever they lack sleep?"
The two days of great fatigue still lingered. So Jun's half-asleep brain only became fully awake when he heard the reply from Daeho, who had just entered.
"According to various lore materials, vampire's eyes only redden when they're hungry. Ghosts too."
'Huh?'
Jun slowly turned his head and stared at Daeho's face.
Deja vu. Deja vu.
A conversation that had already taken place before and was freshly still in his memories. Expressions that he already saw a day ago.
'Am I in a dream?' Seconds passed, and he remained standing there.
Seth, who arrived the earliest, set up the speaker and started playing music.
If yesterday were just a dream, their youngest member would only have played the song after he answered 'Whatever' to Daeho and sat down. Then Xavi would take the spot next to him to help him analyze and improve the rap lines.
"My watch tells me it's June 11, 2020, now. Damn."
Fear momentarily consumed his mind.
He intentionally let the pointy tip of his pen graze his palm when he uncapped it. The pain was too vivid.
'I regressed?'
With his heart racing, he sat down and Xavi also did the same. Half an hour later, he started the first rehearsal and midway, two mentors barged in to conduct the mid-check.
Although Jun had already memorized the new routine which was fixed after the evaluation, he stuck to the old one in order to not change the events that should happen today.
As his wits returned to him, Jun became afraid that the changes he had caused had caught up with him now. He figured out that he needed to confirm what just happened and what caused 'it' to happen again. Did he really go back in time once more? If so, how? What triggered it? And why was it a much shorter time interval this time?
Everything unfolded the same way.
The mentors raged at them because they messed up. Seth became depressed. He comforted him. Then, he led his teammates to fix their arrangement.
After the practice that lasted until 12:45 am, he went back to the room he shared with Juwon and stayed in his bed.
However, instead of sleeping, he forcibly kept himself awake. By this point, he was not feeling too well. His roommate was dead asleep, so there was nobody to stop him from drinking too much coffee.
'If I'm guessing it correctly, there's something about this timing. Or it must be something related to Best in Idol show itself.'
It was a painful struggle against his eyes that wanted to close and his body that badly wanted to rest. But his mind was very much active. Thanks to enough grit of teeth, though, he persisted.
When 5 am showed on his phone's screen, the date written below indicated June 11, 2020. In other words, it was clear as day that he regressed.
'It really happened again.'
Jun closed his eyes and let his body slowly fall onto the cushion. After verifying his guess, all he felt was exhaustion. For several days, his body had not gotten enough rest and sleep.
His mind had barely recovered from the fact that he had been sent back to the past. Now, does he have to deal with this again? Seriously?
'The reason that I am seriously participating in BOI once more is to regain what I lost. But I am not even sure if re-debuting is equivalent to that.'
He laughed inwardly.
Who could guarantee him that this timeline would head towards his 'real timeline' when a lot of things had already changed?
Jun's mind turned black. Before he knew it, he opened his eyes only to stare blankly at the ceiling.
An hour passed, and Juwon woke up. The guy was following his dance leader's schedule, so Juwon woke up earlier than he used to. Naturally, he noticed his roommate, who looked weird and not in good shape.