Battle of The Bands

Finale

Seungmin is right, actually. It’s wrong of me to give up. I know it’s wrong. But my mind is in such a bad state right now I just don’t think I can do this anymore. What if I make a big mistake while performing? That’ll ruin things for sure. Maybe it’s better if I just die. That way my pathetic existence can end. I haven’t felt this hopeless in a while actually. It’s true that being in Stray Kids made me happier. But that happiness was always going to be temporary. Things were only fun when we still had time. Today’s the day now and it seems like no one’s mentally ready in the slightest. Maybe I made the wrong choice. Maybe I should give Stray Kids the benefit of the doubt. But I’m just too stressed to even bother with this anymore. I’m just going to wait for my time to come up, because, well.. That’s all I can do.

I spent the entirety of my final day wasting away. I wandered around like I was an actual stray kid. I didn’t even bother to wear makeup on my final day. I always told myself I’d go out looking good but I guess not. I’m too demotivated to do anything honestly. The thought of my impending doom slowly approaching is sending my mind into a frenzy. I just couldn’t figure out what to do with the time I had left. I spent so much time worrying about what I should do and now all that time I had is gone because I wasted it all. The entire day people would whisper things as I wandered around. Talking about how I left Stray kids, some say I made the right choice. Others say outright hateful things about not just me but the guys, as if they personally hurt these people. I mean, why should I care? For all I know we’re all going to die in about an hour. People are camping outside, oblivious to the fact that they’re going to witness three dudes turn into whatever sirens look like, right before dying. “So it’s true.. You really did leave Stray Kids..” A familiar voice says, that voice belonging to Minho. Minho approaches me, their long purple hair flowing, if I was an idiot I’d think they were attractive. “Yeah, I did.” “It’s about time you gave up. Although, it’s unfortunate that Stray Kids has to suffer the consequences now. Rumour goes around that Stray Kids disbanded.” “What?” “I’m sure you’ve figured this out already, but I’ve had Hyunjin keep tabs on Stray Kids since this competition began. According to Hyunjin, Changbin admitted that Stray Kids disbanded. It’s unfortunate, really. Well, for you, not us. We planned on having our transformations be the grand finale after Stray Kids’ performance but I guess not. You'll be there though, right? Even if you’re not, we'll find you and finally put an end to you.” “I.. need to go,” I said, backing away from Minho. “Fine, but you better be outside in time, you have about.. Forty minutes before the finale begins.” With that I ran off to find Changbin, or in fact anyone in the group. 

I don’t know why I’m running actually, I know Stray Kids is over. I know that I quit. I know that me quitting probably led to disbandment but still. I need to find them, any of them. There’s a part of me that doesn’t want to leave things here. A part of me that isn’t ready to give up completely yet. If I could just find one of them.. “Jeongin..” I quickly turned in the direction of the voice that called my name. There Chan was, standing in a dark hallway. “What’s with the dark hallway?” “The light went out here a couple minutes ago.” “Oh.. Listen, we need to talk-” “If you’re here because you want to rejoin or something, you’re too late. After a very long discussion we made up our minds to disband and go our separate ways.” “Serious?” “Mhm.. You’re right, there’s nothing that can be done. We’ve got less than an hour before we die. It’s crazy to think how everyone has always been so focused on things like money and other’s identities when you look at the grand scheme of things. Those are all so insignificant yet we spend so much time on them. None of it matters, especially not now. Nothing matters anymore.” “Chan, listen. I let everything get to me and I just couldn’t think straight because I was so stressed. But I’ve calmed down a bit and I see things more clearly now. Seungmin was right. I gave up on you guys despite being the one trying to hold the group together. That wasn’t right. I want to try one more time to be a better member.” “Jeongin, it’s too late. We’ve all given up, especially me.” “Listen, please. Remember what I said about Side Effects? It’s fully capable of turning things in our favor. As long as Changbin still has the remix we can still perform.” “It won’t work, Changbin is going to delete it. I overheard him and Hyunjin. Hyunjin is trying to get him to delete it. Sooner or later it’ll be gone, maybe it already is.” “Shit, are you serious? We need to get Changbin.” “W-” I grabbed Chan’s hand and made a dash for Changbin’s favorite classroom. He has to be there. I don’t know why I didn’t go there in the first place.