“It’s good. The perfect balance of honesty and strength… if you can pull it off”, Tablo said. “A song like this has to be performed to perfection to do it justice.”

“We didn’t expect anything less. That’s why we tried so hard to write it”, Eun Suk said, glaring at Tablo. Why did he always sound as though he expected failure in the future?

Tablo made eye contact with her for a second and then turned to the rest of Universe. Gongchan was sleeping, curled up against Kyuhyun, who was also sleeping soundly. Jaesun was barely awake, sipping on hot chocolate. His cute rabbit was propped up next to him on the wall. Chan Hee was somewhat awake but Soo Ri was sleeping like a princess with her head on Chan Hee’s lap. Sky was fully awake, going over the lyrics again and again, trying to imagine dancing to them. Shim Jang and Soori were asleep on the couch, with their jacket over them. JiHyun was standing up, also looking over the lyrics. Eun Suk was sitting against the far wall, by herself.

“Beast will be here in two hours. Sleep until they come. Then, it’s time for choreographing.”   Tablo turned to leave.

He’d barely shut the door when four members came out behind him.

“Wait, Tablo sunbae…”

It was Chan Hee, Jaesun, JiHyun, and Sky.

“What is it?”, Tablo asked.

“On the chance that we get to release a full album… We… wanted to ask permission…”, Chan Hee began.

“Yes?”, Tablo asked.

“To write all the songs ourselves”, JiHyun said.

The others nodded.

Tablo hesitated, “That’s not a simple thing to do…”

“I know”, Jaesun said, “but we need to do it.”

“Why?”, Tablo asked.

“It’s… when we write songs all together, it’s like… we’re honest… and I-“, Chan Hee tried to explain, but she couldn’t quite find words for it.

“We’re still strangers. This helps us to understand why we’re all in the same group”, Sky said.

Tablo stared at all four of them for a moment.

“Does this… have something to do with Eun Suk?”

All four of them looked away.

“Be honest”, Tablo said sternly.

“I just want to get to know her”, JiHyun said.

“She cries a lot whenever she writes songs”, Jaesun said seriously.

“When she writes, she opens up to us. But it’s not just her, it’s all of us. It was… what we needed”, chan Hee said.

Tablo stared at each of them in turn but finally said, “If this song impresses the Presidents, I’ll try to convince the Presidents to let you write your own songs.”  

They all nodded and Tablo turned to leave for a second time when he heard a voice call out, “Sunbae.”

Tablo turned around again. It was Sky.

Tablo waited.

“What did Eun Suk write to you that day we played spin the bottle?”, Sky asked.

“I can’t tell you. It’s not my right to say”, Tablo answered immediately.

“I had to answer her question”, Sky replied.

“Of course, because that’s how the game went. But you weren’t picked to see her answer”, Tablo said.

“Will it help us understand her?”, Sky said.

 Tablo hesitated for a solid minute and then said, wearily, “She wrote, ‘I would like to stop smoking. It bothers my members and the last thing I want is have another family disown me.’”  

 “Remember, you told me it was to help her.”

 Sky nodded. “Yeah. It will. Thanks, sunbae.”

Creating a dance to the song was so much fun for the whole group. As they wrote the songs, each member shaped the lyrics to fit their own vocals. But dance was not just about solos but about how the whole group moved together. Kyuhyun had choreographed a plethora of SHINee’s complicated songs before, so he and Beast helped to develop the ideas that the choreographers of Universe (AN, Chan Hee, Sky, and King) were trying to convey. Shim Jang was a hurricane and Jason watched her admiringly, cheering her on with his rabbit, before he too, contributed some of his own moves. They were tired as hell from lack of sleep, but all of them were having fun together. Tripping, falling, and trading each other moves.

It was more physically tiring than dance and less deep in some ways, but because all of the members caught on to dance so quickly, they were able to feel a great sense of accomplishment the whole practice.

Five days later, the dance was formed, except for the dance solos. The group dance featured a lot of coordinated popping and locking, busy hip hopping, synchronized acrobatics and break dancing, and even some contemporary and ballet. Throughout, jazzy and contemporary flashy dance moves were used to accent beat changes or bass rhythm changes. Hyunseung, Hyoyeon, and Kikwang were mainly in charge of helping the dance solos shape themselves. Although the main choreography was done by Universe’s choreographers, Kyuhyun and JiHyun were both a huge help to shaping the dances, having done it before.

Three weeks later, when it felt close to finished, Exo, 2pm, and Big Bang came in to supervise their dance.

All of the members were extremely happy to see their friends. They hadn’t had contact with anyone outside of their group for so long.

“KHUN-HYUNG!”, Gongchan launched himself onto to Nichkhun of 2pm. Khun laughed and ruffled the maknae’s hair.

Eun Suk smiled and waved at Wooyoung, who came over to her and hugged her tightly.

Chan Hee was immediately embraced by her brother, Chan Yeol, and her best friend, Baek Hyun, until Lu Han snatched her up and hugged her possessively. Through the embrace that was more like a trap, Chan Hee tried to wave at Jiyong (G Dragon), who was across the room.

Shim Jang joyfully greeted Taeyang and Jiyong, hugging both of her oppas warmly before telling them that they’d better anticipate 1VS’s awesome dance. Jiyong laughed and gave her a high five before heading over to Sky. The two of them had been extremely close friends for a while, also.

Soori walked over to Taecyeon and jumped onto his back playfully. Laughing, Taecyeon carried her over to where Junho was standing. Junho helped Soori down before he  picked her up and swung her around.

“All right, all right, sit down!”, Doojoon said, while Chansung pounced on Dongwoon behind his back.

“Hey, leave our Maknae alone!”, Junhyung said, and whacked Chansung on the head.

It was complete, joyful chaos for a good twenty minutes until Doojoon had managed to get everyone in their positions.

And then the dancing started.

[which will be described in detail during the debut J]

After the dancing, a hurricane of applause and suggestions came from the visiting groups. 2pm insisted for more acrobatics, Big Bang wanted to add some more y waves, and Exo was just wolf-whistling and clapping all over the place.

Tablo had been watching in the corner, smiling to himself.

These little kids… had come a long way, he thought. And they have so much more light in them than they’re showing now…

a/n: promise to introduce more groups later! esp. people who have friends in other groups. =] it was a relieving chapter though, at least it thought so. not so dramatic and not so much crying. =]  okay, so, should i have i pick you guys a couple outfits each and have you choose between them individually or just post a bunch of links and have a "come first" kindof system? please reply to these questions i ask! also, need suggestions for the album name and the debut song title! I was thinking "Eden Within".