Jackson came into the living room, throwing his phone on the couch. Rae could feel the tension. She tried to ignore it, but her eyes kept darting in his direction. Jackson saw her glancing at him.

 “Kokorana said she be home by noon so we could go get something to eat but now she's out on a date with Mark." He pouted. “I was really hungry, now what am I supposed to do, go out alone?!”

Rae's eyes shifted to the time clock on her computer screen. She sighed. “Well if you want, you and I can go grab something to eat. I have to head to the office after that, but if you don't mind tagging along, it might help take your mind off of things." 

“I just want to make sure Koko's safe, I worry about her.” Jackson commented.

“She'll be fine, she's with Mark. He's been friends with me probably as long as you've been friends with her. So can you have some faith in that?”

Jackson just sighed and nodded his head.

"Good." Rae said standing up and grabbing her purse. “You coming?” she asked, already out the door. Jackson grabbed his jacket and hurried after her.

They ended up at some seafood place and both ordered so much, you would have thought there was a party. Jackson talked the whole time about his old life, and how much he was enjoying this new start. Rae only nodded as she shoved food in . “So you don’t mind me living with you guys? I really hope I’m not being a burden.” Rae started to laugh, “No you’re not. You’re actually really easy to live with. Kokorana, on the other hand, is very stubborn. So the first couple of months we lived together were pretty stressful."

Rae spoke a bit of the tough times between her and Kokorana as they ate. She almost lost track of time, and they quickly finished their dinner to make it to her company's building. Jackson decided to tag along and see these trainees that her and Kokorana had spoken of. Jackson was good at dancing himself, so maybe he could learn something from them or maybe even teach them something. It took a while to get to the company but Rae always enjoyed car rides. She explained to Jackson everything she needed to do and that it would be a while. Jackson just nodded.

They finally got to the building. Rae fixed her hair and motioned for Jackson to stay close behind her. The minute they stepped inside, everyone came running up to Rae asking her to sign papers or to look at something. She did so, seeming to enjoy controling the things around her. After an hour or so they broke free from the needy crowd and stopped in front of the room that the boys were in.  She opened the door and snuck them both in quietly.

Rae walked in front of the boys, arms folded. She used a small remote to turn off the music.  When they saw her, they all stopped what they were doing to bow and greet her.

“Continue as you were.” Rae spoke and turned the music back on. Rae walked around while they danced, she nodded here and there. Jackson just stood back and watched, amazed at how talented these kids were. He would say they were flawless but Rae kept pointing something out to each of the boys that even he himself didn’t see.

“Sanmoon straighten your leg, you’re going to cause yourself a cramp if you keep bending it that way. Chaebin, you're not doing that move properly.” She motioned as she did the step herself. The boys just nodded to every correction and kept going. After another thirty minutes Rae allowed them to take a break. The boys fell to the floor and it looked like they were about to die.

Jackson snuck over to Rae, “Are they going to be okay? They look dead.” Jackson asked, concerned for the boy’s health.

Rae nodded “These boys are strong, they've been doing this for a few years. Their debut is coming up and they need as much practice as possible.”

“This is the life of a trainee, we know what we are getting ourselves into. If we want to debut we need to always use all of our strength to show we deserve it.” A boy spoke up, answering Jackson. 

Rae smiled. "That's right." She looked back at Jackson, a wide smile on her face. "That's Chaebin, I've appointed him as the leader. He was the perfect choice, I just know it."

Before the break was over, Jackson was introduced formally to each boy.  Rae went to a separate area of the practice room to work with the vocalists, the rest kept working on the dance. Winten and Woohan decided to work on some rapping. Jackson was drawn to the rappers and listened carefully. He had done some rapping before, but not anything public. Woohan saw Jackson looking over his shoulder and ask if he wanted to try some rapping.

Jackson shook his head no but Winten asked again with a sweet look in his eyes. “Come on, its fun!” Jackson gave a small laugh and thought why not. He took the sheet and the boys gave him a section to rap. As he started rapping, he remembered how much he had enjoyed it. It was a good stress reliever, and Winten was right, it was fun too. When he was done, he realized that everyone was staring at him.

“I didn’t know you could rap.” Rae said, walking over to Jackson. “Have you taken classes before?”

“No. I just do it in my spare time, really. I use to do it all the time, but it’s been awhile.”

Jaeyoung came over and looked at Jackson with a smile. “Maybe you should come to our practices more and work with the rappers. You could see what it takes to be a trainee and you could have more fun rapping! ......of course only if Rae doesn’t mind.”

Rae and Chaebin looked at each other, then over at Jaeyoung. Rae shrugged “If you want to, Jackson, I wouldn’t mind. I think having you around could even be a good influence on the boys.” Chaebin kept staring at Jackson with his arms crossed, like he wasn’t happy with him. Rae put a hand on his shoulder. "Aren't you tired of just dealing with me all the time?"

Chaebin laughed, but immediately changed his face back to serious to look at Jackson "I guess it could be good for our rappers. You seem really talented, even without professional help."

Jackson nodded, “I'll come when I can, but I don’t want to get in your way too much.” He grinned sheepishly.

Rae clapped her hands together and told the group that she wanted to see the routine done perfectly before anyone went home. Groans arose around the room and she laughed.