After Evelyn finished singing, she pressed her lips together.
Since no one reacted, she ended up singing the whole song. There wasn't a single sound coming from the producers who had been listening to her. It was kinda awkward.
The words she sang with such intense passion had poured out of her lips one after another, and she simply couldn't stop herself. But since she would most likely have to sing it again, she let out a deep sigh.
When no one still said anything, she whispered toward the microphone.
"Should I sing it again from the beginning?"
The producers had been whispering among themselves for a while, but Evelyn wasn't close enough to hear what they were saying.
Her question made them shift their attention back to her.
"Evelyn, you did a much better job than we expected," said the muscular man, wearing a white baseball cap.
The man with glasses beside him nodded in agreement.
"Your voice came out really clean! We might not even need to edit it."
Some of the staff waiting in the corner of the room started clapping softly, and Evelyn realized she was beginning to feel embarrassed, so she hid behind the microphone.
She couldn't believe they were serious. Were these people really praising her right now?
I don't mean to brag, but I also think I sang well, too. I guess since I'm the main character of the game, everything I do probably performs a little better than it usually does…
"But I think you can sing some parts even better. Let's redo that section before the bridge and the pre-chorus."
Yes, that's what I'm talking about! That's more like it.
At the producers' request, Evelyn repeated several parts a few more times.
And honestly, she liked the criticism, because doing everything perfectly in one go would've made it too obvious that this world wasn't real.
Not doing everything flawlessly was better for her. That way, this world felt more alive.
After repeating the parts a few times, she finally finished recording her lines for the title track.
Since Evelyn had more lines than the other members, it took her a bit longer to complete everything. So before moving on to the next members' recordings, they decided to take a short break.
As the producers and staff scattered in different directions, Evelyn stepped out of the recording booth and returned to the members.
When she looked at each of them one by one, she noticed that most of them seemed shocked. Since no one said anything for a while, she parted her lips to speak, but Ivan and Angelo suddenly rushed toward her.
"Oh my god, that was amazing!" Angelo said, holding onto one of Evelyn's arms.
Ivan clapped his hands together in a silent applause. "I've never seen you this determined before!"
Evelyn couldn't stop herself from smiling at their reactions. Ivan could barely stand still from excitement, while Angelo had already started rambling about how beautifully she sang. After she responded to them with a smile, she watched Kian and Julian slowly approach her.
"You need to give me vocal lessons," Kian said as he stopped beside Ivan.
Julian, on the other hand, bowed slightly as if greeting a princess.
"No less can be expected from you, my princess…"
Evelyn saw Julian bowing in front of her, she immediately moved to correct his posture, but the moment Julian lifted his head on his own, their faces ended up inches apart. Evelyn found herself staring closely into his deep blue eyes and at his lips.
As her heartbeat began to quicken, she got shocked by her own reaction and quickly pulled back. When she did, she caught the sly smile forming on Julian's face.
Turning away to distract herself, she focused on Angelo, who was still talking to her.
"…Especially the bridge part, you sang it beautifully. I don't think it needs to be changed at all."
As Evelyn listened to him, she noticed how genuinely his eyes looked at her from up close. The light in his light blue eyes looked like it could never be dimmed.
Then, as Ash approached the small crowd forming around her, Evelyn realized just how short she seemed among them.
Normally, she was a bit taller than the average, but the members were all unusually tall. Especially Ash — the height difference between them became even more obvious when he stood close.
Well… I guess this is normal. I did want Ash to be designed this tall in the game, after all.
"If they think something needs to be fixed, I can sing it as many times as they want, it's no problem. Actually, I like it when they tell me to redo a part, because that way, I can notice my weaknesses and work harder to improve," Evelyn said as she turned to answer Angelo.
At that moment, Raven also approached them, cutting off Ash, who had been about to speak.
"You're definitely acting weird today. Evelyn I know would lose her mind the moment she heard that any of her lines needed to be retaken."
Ivan put on a face as if a new idea had just occurred to him.
"Ah, yes! Raven is right. There was that one time you got rejected and yelled at the producers while your mic was still on. I'm pretty sure your screaming could even be heard from outside the recording studio that day."
Evelyn couldn't help but feel embarrassed on behalf of the main character. And Ivan looked like he was about to keep talking, so she tried to distance herself from him and lowered her head.
Raven, on the other hand, crossed his arms over his chest and didn't take his eyes off Evelyn.
"That's why this behavior of yours feels strange to me. The performance you gave there was far better than what I'd expect from you..."
"Evelyn hasn't even shown her full potential yet."
Ash cut Raven off and placed a hand on Evelyn's shoulder. When Evelyn lifted her head to look at him, he smiled.
Evelyn returned his smile. Meanwhile, Raven was frowning as he looked at the two of them.
Seeing Evelyn smile, Ash added, "Do you remember our high school days? The way you sang so sincerely just now reminded me of the band we formed back then."
Before Evelyn could answer, Angelo looked at Ash. "You had a band in high school, didn't you…? You mentioned it a long time ago," he said, an unreadable expression on his face. His smile had slowly faded.
"Yes, they did, but Evelyn never liked it being brought up," Raven cut in.
"It's probably because the band fell apart so badly," Julian said, keeping his smile as Raven turned to look at him. Julian just shrugged.
It's strange that my sister gave the main character a past so similar to mine. She never mentioned this. But from what they've said, her personality and the choices she's made are very different from mine. I wonder why she didn't want this to be mentioned…
When Evelyn couldn't answer because she was lost in thought, Ash wiped the smile off his face and spoke.
"Anyway. Let's go down to the cafeteria and get something to eat."