the first moments as necalli

"The next member will be Daehwan's counterpart..." As he was about to read out the name, the CEO let out a loud sigh, as Taesung covered his ears, prepared for the loud screaming...

"The female main dancer of the crew will be our little Megumi."

Silence. The only noise that could be heard was Jaehyuk's calm, triumphant chuckle as he looked over at the clueless Megumi. All eyes were on her, but she had been playing a game on her phone. She looked up from the screen, hurriedly hid the phone away before glancing from one trainee to the other.

"I sure am popular! Do you all like me?" she said cheerfully, still having no clue.

Then Kyujin: "Megu... did you hear what the CEO said?" Megumi smiled innocently while shaking her head. "What was it, Kyu?" Behind the little girl, Kazuki facepalmed. "You're in the group, Megu!" The girl smiled sheepishly, "Oh! That's really nice..." But then realisation struck her. "Wait a minute..."

"I'M IN?" In just mere seconds, Megumi was jumping around and running in between the other trainees while flailing her arms, making so much noise that Valentina got afraid and hissed at her. When Cheonsu cleared his throat obnoxiously, Megu immediately stopped on her tracks, staring at him with her wide eyes. "Bae Ahreum... We would like to continue because we have lots of work to do, so could you please take a seat next to Arthit?" Hansung bursted into an adorable grin as Megumi finally shut her loud mouth and approached the CEO, shaking his hand before giving Sohee a loving hug and finally sitting down on the 6th chair. This almost felt like a mini-produce 101, but that's basically what choosing a group is, right?

"Okay, we're almost done..." the CEO continued, "but I'm going to say it again, if you do not get chosen, that doesn't mean you are bad. I wish I could put you all in, but that's just a no go... right?" Some of the staff nodded, but none of the trainees really cared about what he said anymore, they all just wanted to know who was in, and who unfortunately wasn't.

"Moving on to the visual line... Two gems of people, two that I will gladly welcome to the group... Jinhee and Kojin. Welcome to Necalli, guys!" The two happened to sit next to each other, even though they were still a bit awkward. They immediately stood up and gave each other a brief congratulation hug while smiling brightly before walking out of the trainee group that was congratulating them. Jinae held Jinhee's hand as long as she could before letting her go and sitting down again. Her mood was dropping, not only hers, but most of the trainees had their moods dropping. Some pulled out their phone, because they simply knew that Necalli was not for them. Only one position was left for both gender after all, and it was a very specific one. Jinhee smiled brightly while shaking the CEO's hand with both her tender hands.

"Thank you so so so much for accepting us into the group, sir!" Cheonsu smiled at her, slightly ruffling the younger's hair. "I predict that you'll be very popular, Jinhee, you'll do great!" Then the girl went to sit down next to Baer, and while all the members were congratulating her, the CEO turned to Kojin. "You too, Kojin, you'll receive lots of love. You have star quality, I saw it in your eyes the day you set foot in our company." Kojin muttered a quick thank you before taking his seat with Necalli as well. Only two seats were left now, and everyone was getting nervous. Woo Jaehyuk had an incredibly scary and cold expression, while Hyeon and Siri were whispering ever so silently, discussing about who might be picked. Two names fell from them, Zane and Francesca. That's what those two ladies expected, but they forgot that there was only one position for both genders left.

"Okay, the last two members of Necalli also share a position, two positions... In fact... Hey- I didn't notice that at first! What a coincidence!" Cheonsu got a bit excited at his discovery, and Boyeon, who sat next to him had to poke him back to reality, whispering angrily about how he should keep on track, that they had lots of work to do. The CEO got flustered, shifted in his seat and glanced at his list for a moment before looking around at all the trainees again.

"The last positions left are, as some of you might have noticed, the main rappers," at these words, some faces lit up, others completely lost hope. "I'm just going to get over it quickly, because we still have heaps of work, but the female rapper... How can it be none other than our baby Woo, Francesca?" A very weird and dorky shriek was heard from somewhere in the middle of the group of trainees. Woo Seolhee clumsily stood up, almost falling on a male trainee that was sitting next to her. He had to hold her to prevent her from falling. The Lee brothers simultaneously bursted into laughter.

"I'm sorry, Kev-" Francesca quickly bowed at the boy who caught her before happily skipping her way towards the CEO, shaking his hand and bowing deeply at the same time. "Thank you so much, kind sir!" she exclaimed happily before sitting on the 9th chair. Now... Who was going to take that one last chair?

"As you might've noticed, little miss Woo will be the maknae, but we have a maknae for the male team as well, who also happens to be a main rapper," Cheonsu chuckled. Megumi let out a gasp that was way too loud as her eyes lit up, covering quickly as everyone's heads turned to face her like a bunch of kittens following a toy. Cheonsu didn't mind and just continued, "Well, I think there's only one boy here that actually fits those criteria. Nakano Kazuki, you're in."

The room suddenly grew very noisy as Kazu stood up calmly. Of course, it wasn't him who was making all the noise, but his squad, his children who forced him to adopt them. Megumi, Kyujin and Hansung were all clinging to the tallest boy in no time, all three surprisingly in sync as their tears started to flow, sobbing against Kazuki's poor shirt as he sighed. "Kids... Kids..." He pat all three their heads one after another before trying to free himself from the tight grip. But it was too late, Yena, who lived for these kind of scenes, had already put it on film, and was grinning happily as she saved it. "Children, children..." Taesung sighed as he tried to pull Hansung away from the last Necalli member. The three finally let go, immediately seeking each other to hug instead, shedding tears of joy together. Kazuki shook Cheonsu's hand as well before heading to the other Necalli members, shaking all of their hands politely as well.

"Okay, I want to congratulate the ten members of Necalli, who will be our very first group. To everyone who didn't get chosen, you guys shouldn't worry and take encouragement from this to work harder." A trainee had already left the room. Some were shedding tears, others were smiling through their bitterness, some knew that they weren't ready and were instead relieved.

"I want to have a talk with three of you, actually. Go Hyebin, Hwang Karleen and Violet Orton... Would you like to come with me for a moment?"