2 Months Later

“All right. Universe, show us what you got”, the JYP President said, and cued for the music to start.

Softly, the piano song to their debut song, Eden Within, floated out. Yiruma, at Jaesun’s urging, had recorded the part for them earlier that week. The notes were sweet, soft, and lingering. Yiruma had given his all for his former student and close friend.

 The members moved gracefully, yet powerfully now. They had truly mastered the song’s concept, as well as the difficult physical aspects of the dance. All of them could dance this song in their sleep. They’d practice it so hard, and loved it the more intimately they got to know the dance.

They opened their mouths to sing their notes, and one could sense the meaning of the song from within. Thus is the power of writing your own songs.

The song ended with a collective, “WELCOME TO OUR UNIVERSE”.

“Well, can’t say I’m not impressed”, the YG President remarked; he looked very pleased. There was a hint of shock in his face as well, as if the skills of the group had exceeded his expectations.

“Well done”, the JYP President said, smiling at them.

“Yes, well the problem isn’t their musical skills anymore, clearly. But I’ve heard from Beast and Tablo that all of you go home right after practice. None of you stay after anymore. And I wanted to warn you that you aren’t successful yet. You haven’t even debuted yet. That’s why we’re asking you to perform in front of us two months earlier instead of the usual four months, in hopes that you would shape up and practice as you used to. But it seems… all of you still leave early.”, the SM President said sternly, looking at them one by one.

There was a short silence until JiHyun stepped forward. “Tablo sunbaenim and Beast sunbaenims are right. We don’t stay after anymore and we don’t practice our individual skills as much as we used to. But we’ve also come early knowing that you would require an explanation so we brought one.”

Kyuhyun stepped forward and handed each of the three a CD.

“It’s true they are rough recordings and not finalized… but these are the songs we poured our hearts into for the past two months. Our debut song is special, but so are these. This CD contains the collection of our songs up until now. This is why we went home early every day. We want to debut Universe as Universe, with our songs and our hearts”, JiHyun said, more serious than he’d ever been. 

 “Please consider it”, Sky said.

“Yes, please consider it”, Soori repeated.

The three presidents sat, stunned at the amount of work Universe had managed to produce in two months.

The JYP President recovered first. He cleared his throat and said, “Yes, of course we will. Thank you, all of you. We will call you back in tomorrow, you are excused.”

“Now that we’ve written the songs, we will practice diligently again”, Chan Hee said, and Universe trooped out together, single-filed, serious.

As soon as they were out of earshot and sight though, all of them reverted to their childlike manners.

“Did you see their FACES-?!”

“Man, that was pretty awesome.”

“-Did you, did you, did you?”

“OH!, and by the way, good performance everybody!”

“I wish our Beast sunbaenims were there, they would’ve enjoyed that priceless moment…”

“I almost burst out laughing right there and then!”

“This calls for cake!”

“You never get enough cake, do you, Shim Jang?”, JiHyun said affectionately.

~~~~~
 

“We are willing to spend 2.5 million on your first debut. Not including hotel rooms, airplanes, and such. For your clothing, stages, teasers, and recordings only. Everything else will be paid for separately by the trainee’s companies. It’s the most we’ve ever spent on a group, but there’s always a first. And I think you will be a first…”, the JYP President announced.

All ten members gasped at the amount of money presented to them, even in their wildest dreams, they hadn’t thought of anywhere near that amount of money.

Sky stepped forward and said, “What about the album we gave to you? Will you let us write our own songs?”

“Yes, on the condition, that you continue making these previewing CDS so we can approve the songs beforehand”, the YG President said.

“There’s something I wanted to ask about that CD. When I listened to it, there were many different types of songs… did you write them all together or individually?”, the SM President asked, “And who wrote what song, then?”

“Also, is there choreography for these songs?”, the JYP President asked.

“Some songs were written together, some contributed by individuals. We all… have an individual song somewhere in there”, Kyuhyun explained.

“And the choreography is set for almost all of the songs. We often get them reviewed by Beast and sometimes Big Bang, 2pm, or Exo will stop by”, Gongchan added.

“Hm… very good. We’ll look into it sometime then. Anyhow, will you take the 2.5 million dollars or would you like to bargain?”, the YG President asked.

Everyone was looking at JiHyun and chan Hee, but both of them were looking at all their members.  

  “One moment, please”, Jihyun asked, and led the group out of the door. They entered an empty off room next door. As soon as the door was shut, JiHyun started talking.

  “Well, first off, is there anybody who rejects the price? Sky? Kyuhyun? Soori? Eun Suk?”

“As long as they let us write and choreograph our own songs, I’m fine with anything”, Sky said.

“Seems likes a darn good deal to me”, Kyuhyun said.

“I- I don’t know that much about finances… but it seems like enough”, Soori said meekly.

“Well, like President said, it’s the most they’ve ever offered…”, Chan Hee said.

Eun Suk flinched. Everyone turned to her. “Well… it’s just… it’s just… that’s a whole lot of expectations, isn’t it? They expect so much of us… If we don’t make it… it would feel like being in debt…I mean, are we really going to be the reason for more than 2.5 million dollars to be spent by fans? ”, Eun Suk said, avoiding everyone’s eyes.

There was a pause.

“Yes”, Soo Ri said, “we are going to be the reason that people spend trillions of money.”

“Yeah”, Gongchan joined in, smiling, “it’s our names that will be shouted by people worldwide.”

“And our music that will be heard and enjoyed”, Jaesun said.

Eun Suk half-grinned, though she still looked worried. But she said, “All right then, I’m in.”  

The rest of Universe nodded their support, and gave the leaders permission to accept the money for the group. 2.5 mil. It is.

a/n: short chapter. calc finals tom and friday. ^^ thank you for the sudden plethora of comments. XD just waiting for aegyohwaiting. where the heck did that kid go?

okay, so here's what i'm going to do about the debut stage clothing situation. since fashion is totally opinion, i don't want to accidently insult you by sending you options you hate and giving all the clothes you like to someone else, so private links is out. but i see the injustice in first come, first serve. so what i'm going to do is to put up 10 links for each group (Chrome & Epik Love!) and i'll tell you what time these will be posted. then it's "first come, first serve". and there are MANY fashion chapters to come, so if you don't specifically get the one you want, don't be too heartbroken, okay? :]

working on album cover art and track list...

and calculus, of course. <3