[deleted scene] towards the only path

[rhodochrosite]

so i was about 200 words away from finishing the second-last section of ttop when i watched the ep 7 preview and realised i was completely wrong because it seems like the citizen producers reranked everyone after position evals into new classes, with kiki -> b and kxe -> c. and then i had to rewrite the entire part to reflect that TT___TT but here's the original (unfinished) theme song practice scene, with the members of a class as assigned by the mentors at first evals:

 

Clustered in the A Class practice room, Xueer and her classmates wait for the staff to finish setting up the filming equipment. To one side, Yuxin’s crouched over a compact, touching up her face. To the other, An Qi and Xiai are warming up with partner stretches. In the middle of the floor, Xueer smooths a hand down her track pants, admiring the drape of the fabric over her thighs in the mirror.

 

There’s a certain wariness that keeps them all restlessly quiet, understanding that they represent the bulk of one another’s rivals on a purely technical level, if the backstage politics are stripped away. Though it isn’t quite as oppressive as the Play team’s atmosphere had been; they’ve all already seen each other’s first round performances and the ensuing rank shakeups, know more or less what to expect. 

 

Then Xiaowei says, “Yu Yan, is it true you have a back tattoo?” and the tension bursts open like a cracked dam as Yu Yan obligingly pulls up her sweatshirt and everyone promptly swarms her like a flock of pink-clad pigeons, eager to catch a glimpse of the vibrant ink. 

 

“My own art,” Yu Yan is saying, a mixture of pride and hesitance wobbling through her voice.

 

“It’s gorgeous,” Jiaqi says, reaching out as if to touch a bright swirl, then yanking her hand back. 

 

“Cameras are up,” warns one of the staff members, and Yu Yan hurriedly tugs her sweatshirt back into place, everyone dispersing across the room again. All of them get the message: broadcast-appropriate behaviour only. Nobody wants their screentime axed by the editing team, after all.

 

An Qi, ever the decisive one, speaks up. “Beats first, or straight to music?”

 

“Let’s walk through the beats first,” Xueer suggests. Everyone here should already at least have the majority of the choreography marked out, if not memorised, but she’d like to get a feel for where they’re all at. “Just to make sure.”

 

Over the next hour they hammer out any mistakes under one another’s watchful eyes. Xueer hadn’t expected such a sense of camaraderie when, unlike the position evaluations, there’s little direct benefit to helping one another out. Kindness seems untactical—or maybe she’s thinking too short-term, if these are the girls who might be her bandmates in a few months’ time. She’d chalk it up to her rank insecurity, but half the room hasn’t even cracked the top twenty. 

 

Xueer knows how to follow cues, though. 

 

By unspoken group consensus they take a quick drink break.

An Qi disappears, presumably in search of snacks. 

 

“Lisa will be here soon,” says the director. 

 

Xueer’s found herself side by side with Jiaqi, their reflections in the practice room mirror an arm’s length apart. 

 

“Are you nervous?” Jiaqi asks.

 

She’d said the same thing to her while they were waiting off to the side of the Happy Camp set for filming to begin. Are you nervous? Xueer had slid a glance sideways at her, standing in a little pocket of light. Jiaqi looked completely at ease, as though the gaze of another was her birthright. Don’t be.

 

Now, just as she did then, Xueer says, “Of course not!” 

 

 

Xueer presses the back of her hand to her forehead and pretends to swoon. “Don’t say that to me!” she says. “My constitution is delicate… I’m beset by illness.”

 

“Having Shuxin as a roommate is really rubbing off on you, huh,” Xiai calls, from where she’s sitting crosslegged by the mirror, uncapped water bottle in hand. 

 

“Oh, please, Shuxin would do it more like this.” Xueer twirls her wrist in a dramatic flourish and throws her head to the side and pitches her voice breathlessly upwards. “Shangguan Xiai how could you ever say anything of the sort I might simply faint!”

 

A smatter of giggles. Xueer drops a slight curtsey.