Page 54

Chapter Twenty-Three

BY THE TIME THE VOCAL ROUND IS OVER, BACKSTAGEis a flurry of singers leaving the venue as dancers come in. I only have fifteen minutes to change and retouch my makeup, so I pull Lana and Tiffany into another quick hug.

“Good luck!” Lana says.

“Thanks! Good luck, Tiffany!”

“You too!”

I grab my bag from the green room and head over to the dressing room. It’s pretty easy to find, since that’s where people are entering and exiting the most. When I actually get to the doorway, my jaw drops. The room is even busier than backstage, with people yelling and even crying as they get ready. Everyone is scrambling to get into their outfits and do their makeup, pushing and tripping on other people in the process. It’s pure chaos.

A girl’s hair even catches on fire, causing everyone to scream.

I close the door.Looks like I’m changing in the restroom.

Thanks to years of choir and dance performances, I get ready pretty quickly in the restroom. Since the choreography for the dance portion requires a lot more movement and flexibility, I slip into my blue dancing dress and a clean pair of beige Bandelettes thigh bands.

I can’t do my makeup as well as Lana did it for me, but I retouch it as best as I can.

After I’m done changing, I find Henry waiting for me at the edge of the stage. He’s only wearing a gray tank and black sweatpants, but he might as well be on the cover ofGQ. He looks that ridiculously good. The tank is tight enough to show that his abs are no joke.

I freeze, remembering the glimpse I had of them a few weeks ago.

He chuckles. “Hey, eyes up here.”

“You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?” I grumble at him.

“Yup. I wouldn’t be a model if I didn’t.”

I try to give him a light shove, but he dodges away with a grin.

At that moment, the stage manager walks in. “All right, we’re going to start rolling the cameras soon. Bobby Lim and Cassie Chang, since you guys are up first, please stay here on standby. Henry Cho and Skye Shin, you two are up next, so please stay here, too. I’m going to have to ask the rest of you to either go to the green room or back to the dressing room if you’re not ready yet, since it’s not safe for everyone to be out here. The third couple should come out on standby when Skye and Henry go onstage.”

I almost groan out loud. Because I was so busy this week, I didn’t get the chance to check the list of who’s going when. Now, I really regret not checking. Out of all people, why do we have to go afterBobby Lim?

Everyone else leaves. The stage manager is quiet, listening intently to her earpiece. She isn’t doing anything interesting, so I chance a glance at Bobby and Cassie. They’re both dressed in fancy matching outfits, and Bobby’s shirt looks like it’s made from the same material as Cassie’s dress. They look like they could appear onSo You Think You Can Dance. It makes me wonder if Henry and I should have gotten our outfits professionally made too.

That’s when I notice the way Cassie’s standing, with her legs crossed tightly together like she’s trying to take up as little space as possible. She’s also fidgeting, and she keeps adjusting the straps of her plunging V-neck dress. It makes me wonder if Bobby even consulted her before choosing their outfits.

“What are you staring at?” Cassie suddenly says. The venom in her voice makes me take a step back.

“Your dress—it looks really nice,” I manage to say. I don’t blame Cassie for being mad at me, but I don’t want us to stay enemies.

She blinks, but quickly recovers enough to scowl at me.

“Thanks.” She doesn’t sound any less angry, but at least she stops fidgeting.

“Isthatwhat you’re wearing onstage?” Bobby asks me then. “God, I’m so glad I didn’t end up with you.”

Anger floods into me. I see red for a hot second.

“We’re in a K-pop competition,” I say through gritted teeth. “Not ballroom. So I highly doubt the judges will care if we’re all dressed up or not.”

Yeah, my usual blue dance dress is kind of old, but it’s pretty enough. Most important, it’s very flexible and stretchy, perfect for high kicks and splits. I could have asked Mom for a new dance dress, but I doubt she would have bought me one. If I pressed her, she’d probably make some snide comment about how it doesn’t matter what I wear because I look bad in everything. Or about how “hard” it is to find decent clothes for me because of my size.

Yeah, no. I don’t need that kind of extra negativity in my life. I’d rather wear an old dress.

“She looks fine,” Henry says. “If anyone’s underdressed, it’s me.”