“Give him! Give him!” The crowd was chanting in unison in Chinese. Jin Young did not understand the words but he figured that they were asking Lay to hand him a towel, which would mean that he made it into the top hundred.
However, to everyone’s surprise, Lay ‘s face was stoic. His eyebrows were knitted into a frown, the ends almost touching. Jin Young felt confident in passing at first, but slowly began to feel nervous. He bit his lower lip, trying to read Lay’s expression but failed. His shoulder slanted more and more downwards with each passing second.
“I thought you could have done better.” Lay shook his head, then he repeated his exact words again in Chinese so that everyone else could understand.
“Huhhh!” Everybody started to talk amongst themselves, there were also people who thought they should just give up without dancing at all, thinking if someone of Jin Young calibre could not pass, then how could they stand a chance?
“Just kidding, bro!” Lay broke into a wide grin and he went forward to hang a towel around Jin Young’s neck. Jin Young heaved a sigh of relief and playfully punched Lay’s arm.
“I have not seen you dance like that after Got7 disbanded!” Lay exclaimed with his eyes opened wide and eyebrows raised.
“Your Korean seems to have deteriorated.” Jin Young teased in retaliation for the scare earlier. They gave each other a friendly hug and Jin Young quickly moved to one side so that the audition can continue.
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As each captain holds a limited number of towels, they cannot decide too hastily on who they should give each towel to. In order to shed a ray of hope for contestants, the host of the show announced that in five minutes, there would be a one on one battle. The captains can choose two contestants whom they have allowed to pass, to battle a contestant from another section and the winner would be awarded with a towel for their captain. So the maximum a section can win would be two towels. And that meant two more people from their section could pass the auditions.
Upon hearing this announcement, everyone’s ears perked up and Jin Young saw the fire in Lay’s eyes. His own eyes lit up for a different set of reasons, another chance to grab Jackson’s attention. If their section is up against Jackson’s section, and should they win, Jackson and the contestants in his section would probably be disappointed. But Jin Young knows Jackson well enough that he absolutely hates it if people do anything half-heartedly.
Jackson is a perfectionist. Not only does he strive for perfection in one thing, but as long as he tries his hand at something, he would aim for perfection. So without saying, not only does he aim for full marks in terms of his career, he tries to go beyond. This is applicable to other parts of his life, like relationships, both platonic and romantic. Hence, Jackson was very pissed three years ago when Jin Young brought up the topic of breaking up. Back then, Jackson believed that as long as both sides are willing to put in effort, distance is not an issue. Now, he still thinks the same. He thought he had successfully suppressed all the anguish but now that he saw Jin Young again, it was like the dams were lifted and everything came flooding back.
It did not take much to convince Lay and the other contestants of the South Section to choose Jin Young as one of the two representatives. The other representative that Lay had selected was from the popping genre. Jin Young intended to make full use of this spotlight to grab Jackson’s attention, for he would not be able to look away from an opponent.
Jin Young inhaled and exhaled deeply as he warmed up by the side, feeling nervous and slightly pressured. His own intentions aside, he would wish to win the towels for the contestants in his section. Not to mention, his reputation was at stake.
All four captains stepped out to draw which section they will be facing, and turns out, the south would be up against the north.