doyoung drowsily enters the dimly lit kitchen as he slowly rubs his eyes awake. he pulls his right hand away from his face to his side once his eyes land on donghyuck. the younger boy sits alone at the kitchen table eating a bowl of brightly colored cereal.

“why are you up so early?” doyoung asks, opening the door to the fridge. he scans its contents, his hands stopping at a carton of milk. the milk swishes around as he places it on the counter. the fridge door snaps back closing with a soft thud

“i’m always the first up here,” donghyuck laughs. he twirls his spoon through his bowl, his hold loose, as it almost slips out of his hand.

“do you mean you’re always up last? seriously, you’re up really early.” doyoung turns his back to donghyuck. donghyuck catches the sound of the cereal pieces hitting a ceramic bowl followed by milk splashing. the noise stops, and doyoung turns around.

“i guess you could say that i couldn’t sleep well last night. my mind was a bit preoccupied with things,” donghyuck says, his attention focused on breaking the milk soaked pieces of cereal with his spoon. he corners the floating pieces as they spin in circles and traps them. he smashes the cereal and repeats.

“so what kept the greatest sleeper in all of seoul up last night?” doyoung asks donghyuck between large bites of his sugar-coated breakfast, his words blending together with his chewing.

“i guess that for some reason, i’m going to be singing for a teaser or something,” donghyuck says, still unsure. his eyes are drawn to doyoung’s face, whose eyes are relaxed.

the older boy has pretty eyes, donghyuck notes to himself.

“i heard,” doyoung says, taking a spoonful of pink-stained milk to his mouth. he swallows and continues, “i was too.”

“you what?” donghyuck puts his spoon down on the table. doyoung neatly wipes his mouth clean and nods.

“i said i was too. the company called me yesterday when i was out eating lunch with the others. they said something about wanting to notify you and i about being selected although it seems like the company didn’t need to tell you.” finished with his cereal, doyoung pushes his bowl aside. he scoots his chair closer to donghyuck and leans in.

“aren’t you excited? i know that i sure am. i still can’t believe that i will be debuting with my favorite dongsaeng,” doyoung says, reaching out to hold onto donghyuck’s hand.

◉

doyoung tells donghyuck that the company expects them to be present at eight am sharp, so they leave their dorm before the rest manage to wake up. to that, donghyuck finds that he has no complaints. he’d rather not have to face any of the other members today just yet (in particular, mark).

the taxi ride to the company isn’t too bad. in fact, it’s pleasant and fairly relaxing. no words are exchanged during the ten-minute commute. instead, doyoung fills the car with his lovely singing as donghyuck hums along. his eyes are closed as his fingers drum against the car window.

♪baby baby baby, a little bit closer,

baby baby baby, a little bit slower,

actually, i don’t want to be obvious,

i try to be cool and talk to you♪

when they arrive at the company, it is quiet. employees are just beginning to trickle into the building, and like ants, they enter quickly, orderly, and one by one. this is when donghyuck finally realizes exactly how large sm entertainment is and how lonely it feels to be inside of it.

in the main lobby, they meet the same manager from the day before. he smiles at them and asks if they are ready. doyoung answers for the two with a quick and firm yes. doyoung grabs donghyuck’s hand, and they follow their manager, who guides them to a hidden conference room on the other side of the building. it is an extremely cramped room that expertly fits in one table and six chairs, three on each side, and nothing else.

after instructing them to sit next to each other, their manager tells the duo he will wait outside of the conference room.

“you guys should expect someone in a few moments. please be behaved and good luck,” he says. their manager gives them one last glance and heads to the door.

with his eyes, doyoung follows their manager as he exits the room and enters the hallway. once their manager is out of doyoung’s sight, he snaps his head back to donghyuck and silently mouths,“this is exciting”. nodding, donghyuck giggles.

his giggling stops when two men walk through the door.

dressed in a simple navy blue suit and hair neatly styled up, the first man walks in with a cheerful smile. following behind him is a taller individual who is wearing both a black sweater and a black pair of skinny slacks. his most prominent feature is his solemn expression.

the boys get out of their chairs and bow to the men. laughing, the first man tells them to stop.

“greetings to you too boys. my name is park jihoon. i am a senior producer here at sm entertainment,” he introduces himself. jihoon points to the other man and says, “this is lee hyunwoo. he is also a senior producer at sm.”

doyoung opens his mouth to speak but is cut off.

“don’t worry. you don’t have to introduce yourselves. hyunwoo and i know all about you two, dongyoung and donghyuck,” jihoon says. he and hyunwoo sit down. doyoung and donghyuck follow their lead and also sit. hyunwoo goes through his briefcase and pulls out a laptop and a thin manilla folder. he hands the folder to doyoung, who pulls out all its contents. hyunwoo’s laptop is set down and .

“today we are going to discuss the song you two will be singing for our upcoming promotional video,” hyunwoo says, speaking for the first time. unlike jihoon’s voice, hyunwoo’s voice is deep and indifferent. his emotionless voice makes donghyuck uneasy.

“the song is titled synchronization of your dreams. we believe that your vocals skills complement one another. dongyoung your voice is stable, and your range is high as you are one of the better singers in the group. donghyuck your voice is also stable yet still childish. that is good as it will potentially bring the song a more dream-like feel,” hyunwoo explains as jihoon follows along. jihoon takes the papers from doyoung’s hand and spreads them out the on the table’s surface.

“here are the lyrics to the song,” jihoon says, pointing at the first sheet from the folder. the two boys lean over the sheet of paper and scan over the lyrics.

close your eyes to the cold world

lie on your bed

block both your ears

i walk through a depths of darkness

get over yesterday, look at the real truths that hidden

open your eyes

quietly open your eyes

inside a weak, flickering flame

the story that i’ve hidden really deep

open its eyes

through this song

your dreams can be read

(the dreams) which are awoken from a deep sleep

my seventh sense

opens your eyes

see the truth, open your eyes

open your eyes

doyoung’s face scrunches together after he finishes looking through the lyrics. the boys look up to the two producers. “aren’t they just great?” jihoon asks expectantly looking at them with a grin while hyunwoo quickly types on his laptop.

“they’re pretty dark and a bit depressing,” doyoung says hesitantly as he looks past jihoon’s shoulder trying to avoid looking him in the eyes. donghyuck doesn’t say anything and stares at his hands.

“i knew you would love them,” jihoon says as he glosses over doyoung’s comment. hyunwoo turns his laptop around to face donghyuck and doyoung.

“now that you have somewhat familiarized yourself with the lyrics, i shall play the guide version of synchronization of your dreams. please note that you two will have six days to prepare for recording. you two will be excused from your regular dance practices until everything is finished,” hyunwoo says, pressing play to the audio clip.

◉

after going through the song their nth time, jihoon tells the boys to go eat some lunch and return within an hour. after greeting the two men goodbye, donghyuck follows doyoung outside the studio. walking out, donghyuck shields his face from the light let in by the large windows surrounding the building. his eyes take a moment to adjust.

from across the hallway, donghyuck can see their manager walking up to them. he hands them new water bottles, which the two boys gladly drink the entirety of. he asks them how practice had gone so far.

donghyuck finds practice going differently than he had initially expected.

per jihoon’s request, they had moved into a completely different room, a recording studio. with the studio being large but semi-dark, time was nonexistent within its brown painted walls, and for the next few hours, doyoung and donghyuck diligently practice singing the song with the two producers.

hyunwoo was intimidating, to say the least. he was silent throughout most of the time they were together. he was writing notes, lots of notes. the times he did speak were short, blunt, and to-the-point pieces of criticism, not that donghyuck minded. although hyunwoo was harsh with his words, donghyuck did not dislike him. his comments were always followed by meaningful advice. to that, donghyuck knew hyunwoo was a man who taught others.

however, it was clear that he found himself more comfortable around jihoon.

jihoon, despite being uncannily eccentric, was very good at his job. being one of the top and highly respected producers at sm entertainment, he had lots of experience working with singers from all different types of backgrounds. therefore, he was knowledgeable beyond donghyuck’s belief. the man guided the two boys with absolute patience, and for that, donghyuck was thankful. although he had been introduced to jihoon only hours before, he felt like jihoon was someone that he enjoyed being with.  he felt himself have a growing respect for the man, who was not only a singer, producer, and songwriter but like an uncle full of wisdom.

◉

when they returned from their lunch outside the company, they were met with a surprise, two surprises to be exact.  surprise one came in the form of seeing mark and taeyong waiting for donghyuck and doyoung inside the recording studio. surprise two came in the form of jihoon telling them that mark and taeyong will be joining them in the recording.

jihoon explained to them that during their lunch, both producers came to the conclusion that the song was missing one thing, that thing being an element of rap. who else could be better candidates for rappers than mark and taeyong? it would extend the length of the recording process because the producers must account for the two rappers, but the producers were willing to work a bit more.

donghyuck didn’t care about how long it would take or who needed to make it happen, for mark would be debuting with him. that’s all he needed to be sane.

he feels a small smile tug at the corners of his mouth. as jihoon explained the news to them, he pulled onto doyoung’s shirt. the older boy looked down at him for a moment and flashed his white bunny teeth.

he is pulled back to reality and stops smiling when they are told practice is to resume. hyunwoo hands them a sheet of paper and says, “this is the new line distribution. some lines have been switched around while others were added to make it flow better.”

“let’s try going through them out loud once again as a sample and see how that goes,” jihoon says, turning on the instrumental to the song.

◉

donghyuck has seen mark perform countless times, but each time he is still equally amazed as the last.  mark was always so confident. he had charisma. that made him different from others when he performed. donghyuck loved it. watching mark in the studio was like watching a fish swim. it just came to him. it felt natural. it felt right.

now that i am debuting with him i have to do my best to make him proud, proud of me

to record the progress of the members, hyunwoo typed his observations as they sang, but hyunwoo suddenly stops typing and listens when it comes to donghyuck’s turn. donghyuck sings harder than before, and it is beautiful. all eyes are on donghyuck as he finishes his line.

“where did that come from?” jihoon asks him, “your voice was perfect.” donghyuck bows to jihoon and denies the compliment waving his hands and shaking his head, his face red. he fears that him doing well was pure luck, so he continues to push himself.

to his surprise, he continues to impress the others for the remainder of the practice. for them, practice ends without a hitch.

◉

the four of them say their greetings to the two producers at the door. jihoon waves to them, telling them they did well. hyunwoo gives them a nod before heading back into the studio. their manager thanks jihoon for his hard work and calls for the boys to follow him.

naturally, donghyuck finds himself walking next to mark. donghyuck assumes mark must be tired because he is quieter than usual, so donghyuck doesn’t mess around with him. he smiles when he feels the older boy pull donghyuck to his side. looking to his right, he sees doyoung talking animatedly to taeyong about his day.

in the car, doyoung continues his conversation with taeyong, despite taeyong sitting in the passenger seat while he sits in the back. donghyuck is squeezed in the middle, between mark and doyoung. donghyuck doesn’t mind the slight tightness because he can hold mark’s hand comfortably. donghyuck looks out of mark’s window. there is heavy traffic, and the sky is dark. he closes his eyes and the red lights fade to darkness.

to kill the silence, their manager asks doyoung and taeyong how the two liked working with sm entertainment’s biggest producers.

“well jihoon-ssi was very nice, but gosh hyunwoo-ssi was pretty scary. i feel bad for jihoon-ssi because he has to work with hyunwoo-ssi,” doyoung says, shuddering.

“i agree. i was only there for half the time doyoung was, but i could tell that hyunwoo-ssi is pretty intense,” taeyong says, pulling the sun visor down to look at himself at the mirror. he touches his hair but stops. in the mirror, he looks past his reflection and sees mark and donghyuck. he chuckles. he can see donghyuck resting his head on mark’s shoulder. both boys are deep in sleep, their mouths slightly agape. cute, he thinks.