one.

“I want you to be ready within the hour.” Shindong had told the group of female trainees sitting in front of him. A couple of the girl’s gasped, many of their eyes flickering around to look for the clock- they had fifty two minutes to perfect their routines. Hurrying to get into their small groups, Shindong turned to join Eunhyuk at the water cooler. Leaning next to the younger after filling a cup with ice cold water, he took note of the other’s condition.

It seemed that lately, Eunhyuk was battling a nasty cold. A pretty vicious one, it seemed, from the persistent cough.

“You need to get more rest, Eunhyuk-ah.” Shindong scolded lightly, knowing it wasn’t much use. Eunhyuk didn’t listen to many people. Simply nodding in agreement, he waved a hand to brush the older away, wanting the focus to be on the trainees instead of on his own health.

Since their students were working on their current assignment, he let his mind wander, curious how long this cold had lasted. The cough had been around for nearly a month already, but it wasn’t too bad. It just never seemed to want to leave him. Not just that, though, there was the random chest pains, usually leaving him a bit too winded to dance properly. That alone lead to a bit of wheezing, or a hoarse voice from the coughing. Assuming that it was all linked to the annoying cold, Eunhyuk hadn’t bothered to get himself checked out. There wasn’t much a doctor could do about it, other than give him some cold medicine, maybe. At this point, it was just an annoyance, getting in the way of his job.

This was the first year Label SJ was working with their own trainees, not SM’s. It was a big deal for them to take this next step- for years it had just been them working on their own music and sub-units. It had taken nearly two years of negotiation with SM to allow this, they couldn’t screw it up over little things like Eunhyuk having a cold. Hence why he was working for the sixth day in a row.

Shortly before the group’s fifteenth anniversary, the boy’s came together and made the decision that they wanted to start building Label SJ into a proper company, not just a shell for themselves to hide in. Luckily, they were almost all in agreement- it was just up to SM to allow it. After so many years, they knew exactly how to work with each other and explore what roles they could take in training potential idols. Leeteuk and Kangin would focus on the managing aspects, while Kyuhyun, Yesung, and Ryeowook did vocal training. Donghae, Shindong, and Eunhyuk were the appointed dance and physical exercise trainers. Heechul, along with help from Eunhyuk, taught the students how to rap. Sungmin decided to hang back, only working minimally with those who knew instruments, working alongside Siwon. While some things were a group effort and involved outsiders, like a female vocal trainer to help with female trainees, and various stylists and makeup artists to do the things they couldn’t do. On occasion, they even brought in Henry and Zhou Mi to help, especially with their non-Korean trainees. The best part of their set up was that all the members had equal power in decision making.

Glancing at his watch, he noticed that it was a quarter to eight a.m. already. While Shindong was busy watching over the girl’s practiced movements, Eunhyuk had spaced out for over thirty minutes. Mentally slapping himself into shape, he pushed himself off the wall and began to stride across the room, using his sharp eyes to pick up any possible mistakes in the girl’s steps.

Shindong began to clap his hands to get their attention- time was up!

“Sit in your groups against the back wall,” He motioned them to hurry, not needing to glance at Eunhyuk as he moved to stand beside him. “As you know, today is your mid-quarter trials. Though none of you are going to be removed from the program after this evaluation, keep in mind that it can add or remove points for your next end-quarter trial.”

“We’ll examine group A first.” Eunhyuk announced, pointing to the group of five girls still catching their breaths from their intense practicing. As the trainee’s made their way to their spots, Eunhyuk grabbed the remote for the stereo system and waited briefly before pressing play. Immediately, a song began to play; Lion Heart by Girl’s Generation. Although they had encouraged the groups to venture outside of SM for their song picks, this was the only group that didn’t.

Both of the Super Junior members made notes in their respective notebooks, occasionally whispering to the other about something they noticed. As soon as that group was finished, group B made their way to the front. This time, when Eunhyuk pressed play, Boombayah by Blackpink . It was slightly adjusted to fit their five member group, but they worked it well, despite clearly being out of breath by the end of the song. Despite the moves not being the most complicated, it was definitely a good choice to show their energy and teamwork.

The real challenge appeared with group C, who made the daring choice of using Gfriend’s Rough for their choreography. Eunhyuk paid close attention to this group, noting that it was risky to use a group known for their precise and knife like movements. If someone asked, he would have to say he was impressed.

Next on the list, group D, took a bit of a safer route by using Apink’s LUV as their choice of dance. Still, this was their first evaluation where the group had picked their choreography, and because the girl's had done well, it didn't matter that the moves were a bit easier than others.

And finally was group E, clearly going a unique route by deciding on BTS’s Dope choreography. A week ago, when this group project had begun, Eunhyuk had scolded the girls for using a boy group for their lesson, but after watching their rehearsal the next day, he allowed it. Sure enough, after a week of practicing, the group certainly pulled it off, much to his surprise.

Once all of the groups had performed, the two older men let them go to the cafeteria for a late breakfast.

“I really enjoyed group B’s passion,” Shindong noted, tapping his notebook with his pen. “But they clearly need to get in better shape. I could see the sweat dripping off of some of them.”

Eunhyuk hummed in agreement, scribbling a note on his paper. “I have to say, group E surpassed my expectations. I didn’t think they’d be able to pull off a boy group’s choreo.”

“Well they certainly proved you wrong.” The older chuckled, glancing between their notebooks to see if they had conflicting notes.

Forty five minutes passed before they were done with their evaluations, adding the score changes to the whiteboard on the wall. All of the girl’s had a score, based on their improvements since first joining the trainees, their individual performances, group performances, and various other criteria that the Super Junior boys came up with to keep track of their skill level.

Despite not having done much but watch and talk for the past hour, Eunhyuk felt like he couldn’t breath as he was standing up. The tightness in his chest faded quickly, but it still managed to catch him off guard. He was thankful that Shindong had left the room first, giving him space to lean against the wall and catch his breath without being scolded like he was a child.

“Are you ever going to go to the doctors?” A voice piped up from the doorway, but Eunhyuk didn’t bother to look. He’d recognize Donghae’s voice anywhere.

“What are they going to do? It’s just a bit of a cold, I just have to rest and drink some herbal medicines or something.” He waved off the concern, letting out a small huff as he pushed himself off the wall and headed towards Donghae. The younger of the two looked worried, but didn’t voice it. What was the point? They had argued enough over the past few weeks, and nothing ever changed.

“What am I going to do with you?” Donghae sighed softly, lightly grabbing the hem of Eunhyuk’s shirt, tugging on it to pull him closer. “This pabo calls me a kid, and yet I go to the doctor when I get sick. Why don’t you?”

Eunhyuk couldn’t help but roll his eyes, letting himself get tugged closer. “Don’t you know by now? I’m hard headed. Nothing will change my mind once it’s set on something.” His voice was teasing, a wink following his words as he slung an arm around Donghae’s shoulder and lead him away from the dance studio.

“Don’t I know it, you’re like a bull.” The younger retaliated, chuckling softly. He let the subject go, instead asking what the two should have for lunch later, after their meeting.

All Donghae could do was hope that the cold wouldn’t turn into a flu, or something worse.