The stage lights were so bright that Soo Ri could barely see anything when the doors slammed open. But it felt like Soo Ri’s hearing was even sharper, now that she had lost her vision. She could hear the crowd screaming, and more intensely, feel the energy directed at them. It was absolutely incredible and overwhelming at the same time.

And then she heard the song “Be” start to play.

Her feet took her forward and she found herself at the spot she had walked to during morning rehearsal, but her mind was somewhere else. In another universe.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the spotlight land on JiHyun and JiHyun began to perform his short dance solo, which began with a smooth jazz section and finished with a beautiful pop and lock segment. His movements were so smooth and flowed so well. Soo Ri realized that JiHyun was glad to be back on stage; his feet caressed the stage lovingly; a warm reuniting gesture. Then, it was Chan Hee’s turn. Her style of dance was a little more stiff, and sharply dramatic. She completed her pop and lock segment, adding a few y waves of her own, and then pulled off a dramatic hip hop finish, pointing her hands at Sky, who picked it up smoothly. His short solo was composed of complicated hand tutting, difficult chest popping, leg locking, and finished with a glorious spinning windmill and a flare. Sky's dancing was simply effortless; he was dance itself, at that moment. His dance passed off to Soo Ri, who started with a simple side-to-side hip hop move, and elevated up complex jazz footwork and hip movements. She was elegant and classic, and she drew quite a lot of cheers from the crowd. Her last pose was that of a supermodel’s, with her hands confidently on her hips. The spotlight drew away from her and landed on Jae Sun, who immediately broke into an extremely quick tutting section, and then he broke into y and feminine waves. The girls voices got shriller and louder at the sight of Jae Sun dancing in an extremely feminine way. He was definitely working those hips! Jae Sun finished with a classic 360 spin and froze as the spotlight faded from him and approached his sister. Soori immediately sprang into a graceful jump and landed in splits. From there, she, in true ballerina form, rose and spiraled over to Gongchan. She tapped his shoulder, and Gongchan danced ballroom with her for a few moments. They were the a whirlwind of gentle charisma and soft power, as they swept the floor together. Gongchan dipped her, and then let her go, to spin off in darkness, as Gongchan performed his own style of intense acrobatics, including backflips and no-hands cartwheels. He finished with a triple back flip. Then it was Eun Suk, who started with a few whole-body hip hop movements. She threw herself across the stage with spins, drop spins, and flips, before she got into a baby freeze and performed a passionate flare. Her dance was so intense, nothing like the girl before. She was fearless, throwing herself out there, nothing but pure charisma and honest skill. It was then Kyuhyun’s turn. He began with a fantastic windmill before performing six backflips across the stage. Now, he was at the center and front of the entire stage and the audience was screaming at his hot, sweaty, beautiful, charismatic, and powerful dance and persona. Kyuhyun began to krump, and even got down to perform Kikwang’s American dance! The crowd went absolutely insane. And now it was Shim Jang’s turn. Everyone wanted in anticipation. This was the girl who’d blown everyone away by her teaser videos. Shim Jang was still for just one moment, before she went at light speed. She managed to cram popping, locking, hip hop, alternative, jazz, and break dance, all into the space of 40 seconds. The audience went near absolutely quiet, absorbing the energy that Shim Jang was sending to them. Shim Jang’s dance was so energetic, so passionate, that it spread across hundreds of people, and all of a sudden, Universe felt it.

The roles were reversed.

Now Universe would be the raw wall of energy thrown at the energy, and the audience would be the receivers. 

The stage went black.

From the ceiling, twelve gorgeous chandeliers, all shaped to represent Universes, dropped. The digital background became a gorgeous backdrop of glittering night and glimmering day, all at once. Ice blue and silver icicles huge from the curtains of the stage and colored gems littered the edges of the stage. The members quickly got into place, still infinitely anxious, but now ready, in their hearts, to perform with their absolute all.

And then the first drops of the piano fell like raindrops on a dry windowsill. Shortly thereafter, gentle strains of violin and cellos filled the air. JiHyun & Chan Hee, or- Shin & Chan Hee -strode forward, and Shin lifted his microphone to his lips.

His voice came out, still soft, but no longer sweet. It was absolutely bittersweet, filled with something like longing, something very close to aggressiveness and anger. This was the voice he had been working on two and a half years to create.

“Have you ever been to Heaven?”, he voiced.

And Chan Hee’s crystal clear voice rang out, “Nee geh chung gook eh gahs suh?”

“Have you ever been to Hell?!”, JiHyun roared out to the audience.

The audience was getting riled up, enthusiastic with the obviously live, and wonderful voices of JiHyun and Chan Hee.

“Nee geh gee oke eh gahs suh!?”, Chan Hee followed him up; their voices ringing throughout the stages like bells of different pitches ringing harmoniously.

They separated different ways to make room for Sky and Shim Jang, who rapped their next two lines with equal passion; Shim Jang was indeed close to spitting into her microphone, while Sky’s calmer, but filled with “swag” voice was the perfect counterpart.

The sharp solo violin and thrumming bassline began to play, and Sky and Shim Jang performed a short dance where they popped in synchronization and then Sky dipped her before sending her twirling to the other side.

Thus, they were standing two to a side, and saluted the next six members that came onto stage, led by Jason, whose higher, but incredibly sweet-sounding voice rang out over the audience. There was a slight moment of silence and then the electric bass and drums joined the picture, giving the song a hip hop feeling. Jin stepped forward, and getting the crowd to wave with her, let loose her powerful ballad voice. She joined Chan Hee and Shim Jang on the side and joined the background dance. They were all sweating already, but they loved it. This was it. This was the passion, the energy, this was everything they had dreamed of…

I know how you feel now, Chanyeol, Chan Hee thought to herself, as she watched King stir up the crowd even more with his gorgeous, melodious voice. He had improved so much from before… they all had. There was nothing to regret with this performance, Chan Hee thought, and allowed herself to lose thought and just ride the powerful flow of energy that the audience was giving in response to AN’s sorrowful, but powerful vocals. And then Laiqa and L1GHT’s collaborated chorus had the crowd screaming and crying; so gorgeous and charismatic they were, and their voices were so absolutely controlled and yet so passionate.

And the whole entire concert continued like that; absolutely flawless, so lovely, hitting all the right chords- musically and emotionally, and THEY WERE THE ENTERTAINERS.

At that moment, there was no regrets, no nothing, only fantastic enthusiasm, the sweet, sweet sound of the members’ singing perfectly on pitch and with ferociously wild passion.

The Presidents, Beast and Epik High had gathered together to watch Universe on the television. They had wanted to see them live, but both groups had had to start their own albums now.

Hyunseung clapped when Shim Jang began her dance, and Kikwang said, “Wow, she pulls it off so easily! She has so much power… especially for a girl.”

They watched Chan Hee dance as well. “Her style is different, but she’s also so eye-catching, right? I mean, her moves are so sharp, so clean…”, Junhyung commented.

And then Shin was rapping. Tablo and Junhyung both clapped. “Damn, I’d thought he’d never get past that flower boy image, but there it is!”, Tablo remarked, grinning. “Looks tough, right?”

“Looks like a leader”, Doojoon said proudly.

Jason’s lovely and piercing high-pitched voice has Yoseob shaking his head, “That kid needs to teach me how to get his range”, Yoseob commented. And when Jason’s y American dance made the audience roar, Kikwang laughed.

The spotlight landed on AN, capturing her intense beauty. “The girl’s gorgeous, and for being such a chill girl, she pulls off the classic beauty really well”, Dongwoon remarked.

“I remember when she didn’t know how to pose”, Kikwang said, smiling warmly.

“King! Oh my god, is that the same cute kid!?”, Doojoon yelled when the camera landed on King, who was singing passionately. He looked so fierce! Mithra shook his head, ‘”These kids all understand what it means to be an entertainer.”

L1GHT’s voice was so strong, even amongst the amazing vocalists of Universe, it stood out. “He makes a hip hop song sound like a ballad!”, Yoseob said, watching L1GHT intently. L1GHT was sweating like crazy, but his arrogant smirk was still in place.

The camera swung around to feature Laiqa next, and from her tiny body, came a powerful gust of emotions and voice. It drew the audience in even more.

“I wish I was there. I wish I was watching her. Her voice comforts me; it’s so confident, you know? There’s no way she’s going to mess up”, Dongwoon said.

Then was Sky, and his flawless dance featuring all kinds of crazy tricks drove the crowd crazy.  The screaming got louder and louder.

“Wow, I must say, I’m impressed with that kid. I thought he would be too quiet but…”, the SM President shook her head, “his dance speaks for itself.”

And then it was Jin’s turn. Everyone glanced uneasily at each other, except Tablo, who watched the screen more intently.

She opened … and belted out in a strong, relaxed, and controlled ballad voice that had her own team members glance at her in surprise. Everyone looked at each other with open mouths and wide eyes.

“What!? Was that even her? I’ve never heard that voice from her, have you?”, Mithra said.

The JYP President nodded, “I had… once… during a recording. She must have practiced a lot… to get that voice out on stage…”

“Who do you think is loving this concert more? Universe or the audience?”, the YG President asked.

DJ Tukutz grinned and said, “I think we are.”

The songs all ranged to show off their different vocal, rap, dance, and charisma skills. Some of the members glittered, some glowed, some shone, and some glistened, but they all, in their own light, felt themselves appreciated by the audience, and by each other.

‘

But throughout the whole show, they rode on this wave of amazing energy, and it was present in all their songs: Be, Eden Within, Not Over, Hello, Breath, Mama, Blue, and finally, Tonight.

And the last note was hit, the last dance step done, finished, and accompanied by a let-loose of blue and white fireworks.

Sweating like crazy, Jason looked up and out into the audience, still cheering, still waving their arms and blue and black glowsticks were waving everywhere, hundreds of them. People were chanting, chanting, roaring. What were they chanting? Jason listened harder:

“SHIN, CHAN HEE, LAIQA, L1GHT, SHIM JANG, SKY, JIN, JASON, AN, KING! CHROME, EPIK LOVE, UNIVERSE, UNIVERSE, UNIVERSE! HWAITING! RAHRAHRAH!~”

The noise was so deafening, so many different voices welling up together to form those words. Jason felt so touched, so…so… He felt a warm arm encircle him. He looked up through his tears and sweat to see Laiqa warmly wrapping an arm around him. King had an arm around Laiqa, and Shin had an arm on King. Jason smiled and pulled in Sky, who continued the chain all the way to the end. They bowed as one, and the audience roared loudly. A girl near the front yelled out, “Saranghae, AN unnie, Sky oppa!~” AN waved down to her, and Sky blushed. Another boy was holding a sign that said, ‘”Laiqa! Jason! Jung family, Hwaiting! <3” There were so many of those signs, that one could not possibly read them all. But the fact that they existed at all, L1GHT thought, makes one feel appreciated. Universe stood for there, waving and feeling so warm inside, and then the curtain slowly began to come down. Universe bowed one more time as a group before disappearing into the darkness to become JiHyun, Chan Hee, Kyuhyun, Sky, Shim Jang, Eun Suk, Gongchan, Soori, Soo Ri, and Jae Sun again…

 a/n: you guys have a lot more concerts and award ceremonies coming up.... thanks for everyone who commented, although only 5/8 did. :/ well, i understand. we're alll reallllyy busy, i bet. hope you liked the chapter. i know it wasn't my best, but i tried to make it decent, at least!