A couple of days later, Infinite was preparing to appear as guests on a popular variety show. They had a comeback coming up, and since Hoya and Dongwoo had created a subunit and Sunggyu had gone solo, there was even more stress on all the members to be perfect. They practiced dance for up to eleven hours a day, and on certain days they would make an appearance on certain shows to promote their upcoming album. Today, they were going to join some respected sunbaenims on a variety show. The managers had just woken up Infinite, and they were already running late; the dorm was a mess and tempers were running high.

"Yah, Sungjong, those are my sneakers! I’m watching you – put them back!”

“Sunggyu hyung, don’t think we can’t tell you’re sleeping just ‘cause your eyes are tiny.”

“Aish, Dongwoo, quit hogging the bathroom – the stylists are going to do our makeup anyways.”

“NAM WOOHYUN, GET YOUR GREASY INTO THE VAN THIS INSTANT!”

Finally, they were on their way to the recording set. Their van was big enough for all the members and one manager, so the rest of the managers were following them in a smaller van. Jungryoul manager was driving and talking furiously on the phone to one of Woollim’s coordinating directors, while Sunggyu silently followed the conversation.

“You just fired the previous main stylist a week ago, how are we going to get them ready in time? No, the stylists at the salon don’t know the concept of the album well enough. We need someone who works for Infinite.” The manager paused, listening to the other side of the line.

“You hired her THIS MORNING? How do you expect her to be better than the stylists we have right now? We might as well let Infinite wear nothing on the show. Hmm…might be good fan service.” Jungryoul bitterly murmured. He was annoyed that the CEO wasn’t overseeing this to clear it up, and the coordinating director obviously did not feel his pain.

“Forget it, I’m just going to make Hyojung the main stylist. She was the next best to the one you fired. Aish…don’t bring up the CEO. He doesn’t need to know. Arasso? Send the new girl in anyways, we can make her clean up afterwards. Okay, I’m hanging up.” The manager threw his phone down, and made a sharp left turn, earning a few angry honks.

Sunggyu looked up curiously. “Why did the CEO fire Jihyo noona?” Sunggyu had personally felt uncomfortable with her; she always seemed to lurk around the changing rooms, bullying the coordi-noonas and some staff members.

Jungryoul rolled his eyes. “She was found with lots of…erm…exposing pictures of you guys in the changing rooms. God knows how she got those pictures. Luckily, we got her phone and disposed of it before she could put them on the internet or something.”

Sunggyu looked back at Sungyeol who had been following the conversation and smirked. “Yah, you should be happy your belly fat wasn’t exposed to the whole world.”

“Ha. Ha. Hyung should be happy your chest hair wasn’t revealed to all the Inspirits. They would have fainted.” Sungyeol jabbed back.

“Aish, this kid! I don’t have chest hair.” Sunggyu pulled his collar down to reveal a bare chest.

“Guys, be quiet, 2NE1 is on the radio.” The manager turned up the volume to diffuse the situation. “I swear, you guys have the mental age or three year olds.”

Woohyun sat in the back, listening to his iPod and the conversations going on. He felt a sudden pang of loneliness. He usually talked to the members if he felt down, but now that all of Infinite was really busy for their comeback, Woohyun kept mainly to himself. Sometimes it got tiring, listening to Sunggyu yell at them during dance practice, and then the CEO chide Woohyun’s singing abilities, and then come back home to get calls from his parents, telling him how much they missed him. Woohyun wanted to tell somebody all his worries, but he knew he couldn’t just pour it on the other members. He sighed and closed his eyes, drowning himself in his music.

Next to him, L stared blankly at the ceiling of the van. He hadn’t been able to sleep all night, and even if he closed his eyes for a second, images of his nightmares came searing back into his mind. So L decided to keep staring with his eyes open for as long as he could. As long as he could.

Hoya watched as L nodded off to sleep, unable to stay awake any longer. Hoya didn’t know why L was trying so hard to stay awake, but he told himself to remember to ask L if anything was wrong once he woke up. He pulled L’s head onto his shoulder and closed his own eyes to get a few minutes of sleep.

Dongwoo sat in the middle row, next to Sungjong and Sungyeol, who were sitting together and talking quietly. He hadn’t thrown up again, but his head began to hurt more often. Even now, there was a slight pounding at the base of his neck, and it felt as though thousands of tiny pins were pricking the spot above his eyebrows. Dongwoo tried to hide his pain and leaned back into his seat, turning his face towards the window and away from the members.

Sungjong and Sungyeol leaned over Sungyeol’s phone and listened to their solos in previous albums. “Sungjong-ah, open to your chest voice more over here, like our voice instructor tells us to.” Sungyeol remarked.

“Yeah, hyung. But you need to project your voice over here. Remember what our voice instructor Noona said? We have to pretend we’re throwing a ball with our stomach.” Both boys nodded and went back to analyzing their vocals.

Sunggyu sat in the front, humming to the 2NE1 song, lost in thought. Infinite reached the recording studio soon, and the staff, stylists, coordinators, and managers accompanied Infinite into the tiny backstage room. The stylists flocked about anxiously, trying to fix everyone’s hair and makeup, but without their previous main stylist, they were lost. The coordi-noonas tried to help with the makeup, but it was no use. Infinite was a mess and they had less than thirty minutes to get to the recording room to respectfully greet their sunbaes, but everyone was yelling at each other, accomplishing nothing.

“SHUTUP!!!!” Geonam manager bellowed into the room. There was an abrupt silence. “The CEO is calling me.” His voice was shaking slightly as he picked up. The CEO would surely fire him – and possibly everyone else in the room - if he found out the situation they were in. The CEO hated it if Woollim Entertainment was made to look bad or disrespectful – which is exactly what would happen if Infinite went into the studio late.

“Hello? Oh, yes, we’re in the backstage room right now. Mhm, we’re okay. No, the new stylist isn’t here yet. Oh, will she be here soon? Ok, great.” Geonam hung up and looked around – dozens of eyes stared back at him in panic.

The room sat in complete silence for a moment, when suddenly, the door banged open and a young woman walked inside. She had on several layers of clothing, making her look slightly plump, and there was a large, thick scarf wrapped around her neck which hid half her face. There were large, wiry glasses that hung crooked on her nose, and her hair was messily twisted into a bun that sat on top of her head. Her eyes were nearly hidden by her bangs, and she was carrying several large bags.

“Annyeonghaseyo. I’m Park Minji.” She said, bowing to the whole room. Nobody said a word or moved a muscle as they stared at her. Minji looked up to see what condition the room was in, and smiled to herself. This is what she was best at…time for her to shine. 

Hi everyone. It's been a while^^ 

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I'll try to make the chapters shorter and update more often. 

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