“No, I don’t like this. This does not definitely work! Can any of you think of anything innovative when we have our board meetings?”

This was the first time Mr. Sawatomi seemed livid in front of the faculty. Usually he was very energetic and happy but this time he seemed highly stressed but what exactly?

“I called you all here cause I thought you were the best of the best but this is all you can give me?Every idea you've placed on the table is so generic and overused.” 

“But sir, coming up with a boy group concept and deciding their group name is a bit harder than it looks. There isn’t much to venture with Boy Group concepts. Whereas with Girl groups it is a bit more-”

“Well Mr. Sun, are we working with a girl group this year? No, we are competing with a 12 membered boy group against another boy group we don’t know about yet. Let’s keep thinking. There’s not much time before we debut these boys to the public and to our rival school.” 

While everyone started going back to the drawing board, Mr. Sawatomi tiredly sighs and tries to calm down by looking at the stars outside. Tonight was a beautiful night. Stars shined and the moon beamed brighter than usual. 

As a boy he didn’t want to grow up and be an entertainer or be anywhere in the entertainment industry. What he did want to pursue was to become an astrologist. To him as a child it was pretty cool to study the many significant signs of new life and planets outside of their world. 

It was quite comical remembering his younger self. He used to go on and on telling his Mother how he would find a new planet and find other inhabitants like them but they would probably be more extraordinary, extraterrestrial. One particular thing he remembered was his mother explained that finding another planet outside of the solar system would be called an exoplanet. 

It already sounded like it was already an existent planet. The Planet EXO with its people that are far from this world…..

”Well son of a gun I got it!” 

Some of the faculty members were startled awake from the headmaster’s alarming voice. However, he didn’t care because this idea he had was fresh and needed to be written down so he could divulge on it more. 

Yes, this idea was the best one yet and no surprise there that he was the one who came up with it. He was confident that no one in the entire entertainment industry has ever thought of it yet. It was a simple but perfect enough concept to lure in a lot of fans and with these twelve boys, and Ms. Jeong he was sure this boy group’s name and concept were going to be legendary.  

“Ms. Park. Get Mr. Henry and Mr. Gyu on the phone. There is much work to be done tonight people.” 

Nari had a very long night, she had been writing music the whole night again but seemed to have trouble writing lyrics for her melodies. She mindlessly walks down one of the school hallways thinking about her new song on loop. She wasn’t even aware of someone charging right at her. 

“Nari!!” She turned around and was greeted by Wendy who seemed to be overly energetic this morning. “I’ve been looking for you everywhere girl. I thought you got taken away by one of those buffoons for one of those challenges again.” 

“Oh no, there's no more challenges Wendy.” 

“Thank god! I also heard you finally got all of them to join now! I’m so happy for you.” even though Nari should feel happy and just as excited as Wendy, she didn’t feel settled at all. 

Ever since Baekhyun’s challenge she never saw him around the dorm’s often. As a matter of fact not even Kris has heard from him. He said that Baekhyun has been keeping to himself and either goes to the gym or jog around the school in the morning before anyone could talk to him. 

She knew he wasn’t going to take this well but what would happen when the headmaster tells them they need to start practicing? Would he go? Would he ruin it for the rest of them and make us look like fools? Or maybe she would get the end of his humiliating torture more than usual. 

“Hello? Earth to Jeong Nari!!” 

“Oh sorry Wendy! My thoughts are just flooded with this whole band thing today. I still haven’t put together a song that I know the headmaster will like.” 

“Hey, don’t sweat about it. You got a composer's block. Everyone’s had it before. What’s important is that you keep your passion for your music with you. If you keep writing and making music the perfect song will come along.” 

Nari smiled for the first time today thanks to Wendy’s encouraging words. By then they had finally reached their lockers. “I just hope I can come up with a perfect song before I get a call from the headmaster for the band’s first meeting.” 

“Hm when do you think that’ll be?”

"MS.JEONG!!! " as soon as Nari had opened her locker, confetti shot out and recorded fanfare music blasted out of her locker. Wendy looked scared out of her mind and Nari paled feeling her heart had stopped for just a split second. 

Of course the only person crazy enough to do all of this was the headmaster. He comes swinging out of nowhere and laughs maniacally before bowing towards the two ladies. Did I mention some of the students were watching this fiasco before classes started?

“Headmaster nim you nearly gave us the jump there.” Wendy grumbled before getting all her books out from her locker. 

"I hoped you would’ve enjoyed it. It’s my way of saying congratulations for Ms.Jeong’s success on getting all the boys together.” 

“Oh um thank you Headmaster.”

“But that’s not all I’m here for. It’s also about time that we talk about the band’s long awaited DEBUT~~"

"Debut?" 

"Yes Ms. Jeong. Since this is a competition, we need to introduce the boy’s to show our competition how serious we are. So not only do they need to learn a new song, new dance, but also need a band name. Something that sticks out amongst groups of all groups. Which is why I’m having you all gathered in my office right now."

“Oh alright wahh!” She immediately gets dragged by the headmaster not even able to say goodbye to Wendy. 

In the headmaster’s office, everyone was finally gathered here. Everyone seemed uncomfortable all being together. Surprisingly Baekhyun showed but it was probably because he was forced to.

"I like to thank you all for coming."

“We were forced to gather here headmaster; it wasn’t particularly our choice.” the headmaster blatantly ignores Kyungsoo’s remark. 

“Yeah this better not take too long. I have a lot of work to finish by today.” 

“Mr. Junmyeon I believe you can have enough time to squeeze this in your busy schedule. Besides don’t you boys want to know about your group name and the concept we- well technically I came up with?” no one seemed particularly excited to know but shrugged and let the man continue. 

“You see I wanted your group to shine brighter than any boy group that exists. Usually boy group fans want a concept they can cling to something that fulfills their romance fantasy. So that’s why I came up with your official group name EXO.” 

No one reacted. They didn’t really get what was so significant about the word EXO. Mr. Sawatomi was a bit disappointed at the lack of reactions going around before further explaining the concept. 

“You see you boys are all fairly good looking, possibly looks that are far out of this world. So I thought about how twelve aliens who came from an exoplanet or homeworld EXO Planet come down to earth and also a little bit of an extra fun detail it wouldn’t be cool if aliens didn’t have some sort of super power so I had each of you placed with a super power. So what do you think of it now?”

"It sounds cool if you ask me." of course Tao would be ok with it but the others thought it was a bit cringey to be playing as hot aliens from another world and enchant girls with music. What’s more is they have some weird powers.

"Ok we sorta get the whole weird alien concept but you said something about performing for the first time. Our debut stage?”

“Yes yes. Your debut stage is what’s going to set your fan base. Your first song as a group has to be something no one will ever forget. That’s why I called the best of the best to come and help.”

Some of them looked expectantly towards Nari but did not expect the headmaster meant the new person who walked inside the office. He wore a gaudy suit and had gelled hair plus wore an expensive watch that stood out amongst his outfit.

“Everyone I like you all to meet one of the best music composers out there Mr. Henry. He has written more hits than you can ever imagine.” 

“It’s nice to meet you boys.” he takes a good look at them all and nods. “Hm not bad not bad. Later, if possible, I’m going to have to test all your vocal ranges and once your headmaster tells you your role in the group I can arrange your debut song.” 

“Wait, our roles in the group?”

“That’s right Mr. Luhan. Everybody in an idol group needs to have a specific role that they represent. Either you’re a singer, a rapper, a dancer, leader, the visual even counts as a role. I considered what each of you would be based off of what you did in the audition. So our main vocals will be Mr. Byun, Mr. Jongdae, Mr. Luhan, Mr. Kyungsoo, and Mr. Junmyeon. Then our main dancers of course will be Mr. Jongin, Mr. Zhang, Mr. Sehun, and Mr. Minseok. Finally, our rappers are Mr. Park, Mr. Wu, and Mr. Huang.”   

"This is ludicrous. Next thing you know we have stage names too."

"As a matter of fact why didn’t I think of that before Mr. Zhang?!" Yixing looked like he regretted saying that out loud as the headmaster felt so excited moreso than last night.

"Well obviously I won’t change all of your names since some of them are already fine as they are but some of your names need to be shortened like a nickname the fans will definitely remember you by! Hm for example Mr. Zhang. Was there any kind of nickname you were called in your primary days or a nickname you preferred perhaps?"

“No.” he curtly answeres but Tao’s big mouth had to say something.

"But didn't you say that your friends back home always used to call you Lay?"

"Tao." Yixing stressed his name making the younger assess what he just did

He chuckled awkwardly before looking at Yixing apologetically. "Opps"

"Lay…..I like it! Lay,the main dancer of EXO! It fits!"

“Not really.” the headmaster ignored Yixing’s disagreement before going to the next person. 

“Now since there seems to be four kim’s and three of them have the same surname we need to come up with stage names that people can remember between all of you?”

Jongin just shrugs and raises his hand. “Well people always addressed me as Kai because it’s my stage name in the dance department so I’ll stick with this name.” 

“And I’m mostly called Chen more often than Jongdae because it’s actually a particularly funny story see I-”

“Chen and Kai are both good. So how about you two Mr. Minseok and Mr. Junmyeon?”

“Xiumin!” Both Chanyeol and Sehun had shouted out his nickname before he could even reply. He just growls at the both of them before the headmaster decides it as his stage name. 

However, it seemed Junmyeon didn’t have a nickname in particular so it was something he could later come up with. 

“Well I think that covers that and I believe I said everything I wanted to cover with you guys.”