M  in Hyuk was nervous, that much was clear.

Today was the first time Chae Young would really watch him at work and despite having known each other for years it felt like the first date all over again.

Not to mention... he looked over at the trainees warming up within the studio. It was also the first time she'd properly meet the trainees. It was a big group he was working with today, the top fifteen ranked trainees from the Youtube project, and she was going to be making the final calls about who was in, and who was cut.

He'd been watching the videos with his wife every night after work for the past few months, and he knew she already had a rough idea of who she wanted on the team. But she'd also have to account for popularity and ability to work together, which was where today's observation session came in.

At least he wasn't alone. Though his two helpers were only rookie dance instructors for the company and were mostly there to observe, he hoped they would be useful for keeping the trainees mostly in line.

Assuming they could stop bickering with each other.

"I'm telling you it makes no sense to have-" Bang Min Ho had barely started his sentence when he was cut off.

"No sense? What part of my formation makes no sense? I'm trained for this sort of thing Min Ho." Song Jae Yi sounded extremely annoyed as he glared at the other instructor.

"Do you ever shut up long enough to let anyone else finish a sentence?" Min Ho shoots back. "I was about to tell you-"

"Boys please." Min Hyuk hated having to be the voice of reason, but he needed them to calm down before the lesson started. "We're going to be working with my choreography regardless so why don't you two figure this out later? In the meantime, Jae Yi I think Kal could use some help with his warmups."

The older of the two smirked at Min Ho before heading over to help the rap trainee.

Min Ho rolled his eyes at Jae Yi's back. "Whatever, I'll go help the kids then." He grumbled, nodding slightly to Min Hyuk before moving to the opposite end of the practice room from Jae Yi.

Min Hyuk sighed in relief, and returned to mentally planning out which routines to walk the boys through today.

It had admittedly been a while since he'd worked with the trainees, having been rather occupied with keeping BTS in shape during their comeback period, so he wasn't sure if they'd even remember his routines or not.

However he had no time to ask about it as the remaining trainees entered the practice room, closely followed by Chae Young herself.

Her eyes were cast downwards, scanning through a series of files as she walked.

Min Hyuk smiled and sidled over to her. "My lady."

She looked surprised, having clearly not heard him approaching, and then rolled her eyes. "Where can I set up?" Her response was pointed and he nodded and showed her to a corner of the room where two chairs were set up. Chae Young busied herself organizing her files, and Min Hyuk left her to it.

He once again scanned the group of trainees, keeping a particular eye out for the ones he  knew tended to cause trouble.

Sunhee and Tim were doing another girl group dance in the corner, and they'd somehow dragged Moon Ho into it as well. Despite Moon Ho being the best dancer of the three he seemed to be struggling the most.

"Five minutes to start alright guys?" Min Hyuk informed them.

Sun Hee shot the choreographer a grin to show he'd heard before going back to fixing Tim's positioning.

That was Tim accounted for then. The choreographer spotted Alec Son next and tapped the boy on the shoulder to get his attention.

Alec's grin was highly flirtatious as he spins to greet Min Hyuk. "Afternoon sir, are we getting started?"

Min Hyuk nods. "Soon. I just wanted to warn you about flirting with Chae Young. She won't take very kindly to it."

Alec shrugged easily. "I'll keep my charms all for you then." He responeded cheerfully.

Min Hyuk just shook his head and looked over the rest of the contestants in the room. Kim Do Young and Oda Keiichi were having a heated argument in one corner of the room, with Joey Kim haplessly trying to break them up. In another Min Ho was still helping Song Ha Neul, August Yung, and Kim Rid Hwan with their warmups, and Lee Hyun Woo and Oh Il Sung sat nearby them, simply waiting for things to get started.

Jae Yi was still with Kalden Hanson though they seemed to have stopped stretching and were now just chatting as Choi Eun Gwang listened in nearby.

Min Hyuk looks around again, counting the trainees in his head. 12...13...14... Oh no.

Where was Yoon Min?

His question was answered when the room was abruptly filled by the sound of an airhorn.

Chae Young was quick to get off her seat and look beneath it, where the air horn had been strategically placed. She picked it up and, frowning heavily, tuned to face the room.

"Who did this?"

A snickering by the door gave away Min's position. Min Hyuk briskly walked over to him and dragged him into the room.

Min gave no real resistance, instead laughing outright. He gave a bow to the other trainees before finally looking at Chae Young, who's expression was unreadable.

"Afternoon ma'am." He greeted her cheerily. However her next words wiped the smile off his face.

"Leave." Chae Young sounded dead serious, and for a moment nervousness flickered across Min's face.

"It was just a joke-"

"You're not here to joke, you're here to train. I will not tolerate slackers in my group. Are we clear?"

Min nodded, his eyes fixed on the ground in front of his shoes. "Yes ma'am. I'm sorry ma'am."

Chae Young appraised him quietly, and then handed him the air horn. "Good. Now dispose of this and return to your dorm."

Now completely deflated, Min took the offending prank and quietly exited the room. Chae Young turned to the remaining trainees.

"Anyone else want to mess around?"

She was met with completely silence, and she nodded.

"Good. You'll be working with Min Hyuk today for the next three hours. I will be here observing and asking questions. I will also be speaking with each of you personally, starting with our highest ranked trainee. I will call you over when it's your turn. Any questions?"

A few nervous glaces are shared between the trainees, but again no one says anything.

"Good. I'll speak with," She glanced down at her paper, and made a face."...Tim, first."

The Thai trainee pouts momentarily before perking back up again and bouncing over to Chae Young, while the others are herded by Min Hyuk and his helpers into formation.

Tim sat across from Chae Young and patiently waited for her to finish going through his file, his eyes flickering around the room, watching the other trainees as they begin rehearsal.

"Alright, I only have one question for you. How good is your Korean?" Chae Young was brisk and to the point.

Tim looked quite happy at the simple question. "Really good!" He responded, but his voice was heavily accented, and Chae Young added a few notes to his file.

"Alright that's all I need. Please tell," She paused to check her list, "Kalden that he's next."

Tim bounced over to the named trainee, who shortly after came over to Chae Young.

The manager got straight to the point. "Why are you here Kalden?"

He looked extremely taken aback at her sharp tone. "What?"

"Why are you here? You have a daughter to support. You are aware that your current schedule would increase tenfold were you to debut?"

Kalden nodded. "Yes ma'am. I want to be able to better provide for Ashe."

"And where do you propose she stays? I assume you understand that she can't remain in the dorms with the boys. And that if fans were to ever find out about her her life would be made absolutely miserable?" Chae Young's tone was brisk and professional, but here eyes showed a clear challenge, and Kalden shrunk from it, stuttering a response.

"I... I had thought-"

"No, you didn't think. You may return to the group. Please send Do Young over next."

Kalden nodded mutely and walked back over to the group.

Do Young saw him coming and headed over to Chae Young without even being asked.

"Afternoon ma'am, how can I be of assitance?"

Chae Young raised an eyebrow at the polite smile that accompanied the greeting and scanned the file in front of her. "It's noted here that you often antagonize the other trainees and have spoken back to your trainers."

"Simple misunderstandings. I like things to be done properly and efficiently and I'll admit I can get a bit out of hand with it at times." Do Young rubbed the back of his neck and gave an embarrassed smile.

Chae Young wrote something in the file, and then nodded. "Understandable. You were also an SM trainee? Why weren't you in SMRookies?"

A momentary glower flitted across Do Young's features before he cleared his throat and shrugged. "I suppose they didn't appreciate my abilities."

Chae Young hummed. "That will be all. Send Hyun Woo over please."

Looking less confident than when he had walked over, Do Young did as she asked.

Three more people underwent Chae Young's questioning before Min Hyuk gave the group a water break. Sun Hee was with the future manager at the time, but the others settled down and began chatting, with those who hadn't yet spoken with Chae Young asking those who had what it was like.

"She's... kind of intimidating." Kal mumbled awkwardly.

"I'll second that." Joey agreed. "She goes straight for the jugular."

"Like that's a surprise, she kicked Min out before we even started. And he was fifth rank." Eun Gwang scoffed from where he'd comfortably arranged himself on top of August, who's happily petting the older boy's hair. "Fan favoritism doesn't seem to be factoring in for her."

Rid Hwan disagreed. "I'm sure she does keep it in mind. Otherwise why call us up starting with the highest ranked trainee? Or why not have all twenty-five of us in here today? If not Chae Young herself then the company will keep the competition in mind when making the lineup."

The others accepted his points, just as Sun Hee pranced over to the group and cheerfully bopped Alec on the head.

"Your turn Alec~"

"The dragon lady awaits." Keiichi remarked cheekily as Alec headed over to speak with Chae Young.

"She's not so bad! She thinks girl group dances are good things to know how to do." Sun Hee sounded extremely proud of himself as he flopped down dramatically next to Tim.

"And she's the only one who does."

Sun Hee managed a pout at Hyun Woo before the group was called back up by Jae Yi and Min Ho.

"Alec Son." Chae Young begins speaking beore he's even sat down. "You're known for being an incurable flirt with the staff, including ones who don't appreciate it."

Alec grinned. "Wow, you are very to the point. That's quite attractive in a woman."

Chae Young's pen didn't stop moving as she responded. "i'm one of the ones who doesn't appreciate it. Moving on."

As she continued grilling Alec, the two rookie choreographers took a break themselves, having been up to this point assiting with formations and debating music selection.

"Sad that you aren't the one being cross-examined?" Jae Yi's tone was almost sympathetic as he watched Min Ho eyeing the trainees practice.

The other dancer rolled his eyes. "Not even slightly. Since switching from training to teaching I've heard stories about Chae Young. And I wouldn't want to debut with any of these idiots anyway."

Jae Yi snorted slightly, nearly choking on his water. "I forget that you're an awful person sometimes."

"Bit of a pot calling the kettle black now, isn't it?" Min Ho fired back snippily.

As they dissolved into an argument, Alec sent Eun Gwang to chat with Chae Young.

He sat quietly across from the woman as she read his file.

"So your mother is Kim Gyu Ri? I know her, quite a talented vocal coach."

Eun Gwang nodded quietly, his expression blank.

"So how come your vocal scores from both here and JYP are consistently average at best? And with very little improvement in the three years you've been training."

Eun Gwang looked defiant as he replies. "Perhaps not with singing but my dancing has certainly gotten better. And just because my mom sings well doesn't mean I necessarily will."

Chae Young nodded, unaffected by the defensive tone. "Fair enough. And you started in JYP - why start there? Your mother is an employee and I assume she helped get you a spot."

Eun Gwang glared. "She didn't. I got in on my own merits. My mom wasn't even at my audition"

Chae Young hummed and then looked him dead in the eyes. "Even so, the people who were likely knew you and knew who you were related to. You have to admit that it was likely a factor whether you like it or not."

Eun Gwang frowned heavily but didn't reply and Chae Young moved on.

"There is a reported incident that you and another trainee got into a fight a few months ago? What was that about?"

Eun Gwang took a breath, and his eyes briefly flicked to where the two rookie choreographers were sitting before replying. "It was a misunderstanding. I was told it would be taken off our records."

Chae Young frowned and took a note in the file. "Alright, that will be all then. Please tell August to come speak with me."

She wrote silently for a moment more as Eun Gwang walked over to August.

"Hey, it's your turn."

August looked over in brief confusion, and Eun Gwang pointed towards Chae Young. The young boy's eyes lit up and he nodded cheerfully, breaking formation and walking over to the future manager while Eun Gwang attempted to findhis spot in the dance.

"Hello ma'am!"

Chae Young gestured for him to sit and he quickly did, bouncing slightly.

"August Yung. You have quite a long history in the entertainment world, and yet you have some of the lowest scores for monthly evaluations in everything but dance."

August's smile didn't waver. "I've been lots of places! It's been fun."

Chae Young for the first time looked up from the files to properly scrutinize the tall teen in front of her. "There have also been several reports from teachers that you've had some run ins with bullies both here and in your other labels."

August tilted his head innocently. "Really? I don't think so. Everyone is really nice!"

Chae Young blinked and double-checked the files. "...Alright. Well then I assume you have no bad feelings towards the other trainees then."

"Nope! We practice together and sometimes we get to have chocolate! Not often though." Now he looked a bit sad, and Chae Young sighed.

"Alright, well, I guess I have no further questions for you then. Please send Keiichi over."

Suddenly August looked less excited. "Oh. Okay."

Chae Young raised an eyebrow at the response and takes a note in her files as the requested trainee strides over.

Chae Young doesn't let him speak before she begins talking. "Your evaluations notes are almost copmletely negative, did you know? You're skilled but your attitude is a mess."

Keiichi frowned. "So I don't bow down to someone just because they're older than me, so what? everyone is created equal."

"Therefore everyone is deserving of respect. Will you be able to control your mouth in front of a camera? Can you pretend to be respectful of your elders? Korean fans are unforgiving when formalities aren't used, do you understand that."

Keiichi looked ined. "Yeah I get that, but I don't see why I have to bend over and bark like a b-"

"That will be all, Keiichi. Send over Ha Neul and then you can leave."

Keiichi looked started. "Leave? There's an hour left!"

"And you aren't ready for debut. I will not have a disrespectful wild card potentially ruining this group."

Keiichi is livid. "You're just mad that-"

"Keiichi. I believe I told you to leave. Now leave." Chae Young's voice barely changed, but there was an icy intensity in it that caused Keiichi to fall silent, and then sulk back to the group.

Ha Neul looked understandably terrified as he approached Chae Young, but the manager was back to business as the trainee sat down.

The twelve remaining trainees took another water break as he had his interview.

"Jeez she's really not messing around." Eun Gwang muttered, eyeing the door that Keiichi had stormed out of. "Though I guess that means we're all being considered since she didn't kick us out."

Kalden frowned. "I'm not sure. I certainly don't feel like I made the cut."

"Me neither." Joey sighed. "She made me feel competely incompetent."

Do Young scoffed. "Please, don't you see what she's doing? She's hitting our weak points on purpose, to see how we react. Being an idol is going to be tough guys."

Sun Hee smirked. "She totally pissed you off, didn't she?" He mocked playfully.

Tim giggled.

Before Do Young could back a response, Ha Neul returned to the group, smiling.

"That wasn't so bad! She seems nice, doesn't she?"

The group stared at him incredulously. He shifted uncomfortably under their gazes.

"U-Um, okay then, well, Il Sung i-it's your turn now." He deflated rather rapidly and quickly sat down as soon as Il Sung stood.

The young trainee made his way over to Chae Young, wondering what exactly he should expect.

"Sit. We'll be here for a while." Chae Young instructed.

Il Sung took a nervous breath in before nodding and sitting down, braced internally for whatever questions she had.

"You were one of the dropped members of BTS. Why are you still here?"

That one Il Sung was not ready for.

"Why?"

"Take your time, we have plenty of it left."

Min Hyuk had been watching his wife work out of the corner of his eyes for the entire three hours, and by the time the final trainee - Kim Rid Hwan - was sent to speak with her twenty minutes before the end of the practice he had a sense of what she was doing.

He'd seen her at a board meeting once, not long after he'd been hired by BigHit. She'd had an intensity about her as she adressed the client, but had been even more intense when watching the competitors present.

That intensity was what he saw from her now. She was analyzing each trainee, documenting their qualities and flaws and diving straight for the heart of issues. She was pushing their buttons on purpose to see how they'd react.

Really it was brilliant. Some trainees were kept longer than others, depending on reactions and how long it took for Chae Young to find what she wanted with them.

Rid Hwan's interview was shorter than Min Hyuk had expected, but when Chae Young nodded to him he stopped the music and dissmissed the group.

"Wait for me?" He asked her as the boys gathered their things and headed out.

She smiled. "Sure. I could use your opinion of a few of them anyway."

He gave her a quick kiss. "Of course. I'll be quick."

Jae Yi and Min Ho were already gathering empty water bottles when he approached them. "Great job today guys, you really did well keeping the trainees on task. You're a pretty good team when you aren't fighting you know."

"Thank you sir."

"Now can I count on you to stay in teamwork mode long enough to clear up? chae Young wants to speak with me about a few of the trainees." Okay so he was completely skipping out on his least favorite part of class, but it wasn't a complete lie.

Both men shared a glance, and then Jae Yi nodded.

He met Chae Young just outside the room. "So you think you have a lineup?"

She nodded slowly. "Maybe. I'll need to look over a few of the files again, but this was good. You can tell the CEO I'll have his project group by the end of the week."

CALI

Well this ended up way longer than expected! Ah well, it was fun to write and hopefully fun to read? As Chae Young said, the final lineup will be revealed by the end of the week! Are you guys ready to really get this show on the road??