It had been a long time since Jaejoong had prepared to go onstage with someone else than Yoochun and Junsu. Oh, they were there too, but that didn’t help much.

The backstage of the stadium where the first stage of the competition was to take place reminded Jaejoong of the SMTown concerts he had been in: too many people stuffed in a little space and the whole place filled with madness and chaos.

Real chaos.

So here’s the basic idea of what it looked like:

The producers of the show had invited every single member of every group that had a couple competing, plus their managers, stylists and a lot of useless people who were just running around like chickens without a head.

Every single member of every single group had come, so Jaejoong counted:

SHINee= 5 members.

FT Island= 5 members.

JYJ= 3 members.

TVXQ= 2 members.

MBLAQ= 5 members.

Infinite= 7 members.

EXO= 12 members.

Super Junior= 13 members.

5+5+3+2+5+7+12+13= A ING WHOLE LOT OF PEOPLE!! Like, a lot of people.

So yeah, 52 freaking idols were there, plus the baggage that came with them. That made Jaejoong feel a little claustrophobic.

He looked around the room, his eyes stopping on Joon and Donghae, who were poking their heads behind the curtains to see lots of fans that were starting to fill the place.

All the girls (and boys, because fanboys exist too) had to sit in a specific area of the stadium, depending on who were they supporting. The thing was, they didn’t have to be fans of someone to think they were going to win, so they weren’t really sitting according to their fanclub.

For example, if an A+, as much as she (or he) loved Joon and had Mir as her (or his) bias, she could sit on the Super Junior seats if she (or he) thought Eunhae were going to win.

But that was beside the point. What the hell were those producers thinking, when they decided to bring every-ing-one into this? If being paired up, as Yunjae again wasn’t enough trouble and unnecessary feelings for Jaejoong, they had also brought his baby boy into this mess.

            Well, if anyone who is a food-devouring giant can be called a baby.

             But no, he didn’t need to see Changmin too. Not yet.

            He first needed to sort things out, and he wasn’t sure he was ever going to do it. 

            “My question is, if you two don’t compete, why are we here to support you?” Baekhyun asked, not looking at anyone in particular.

           Suho shrugged. “Maybe to show that we support their decision to come out and that we will stand together through tough times and all that jazz?” Not that there were tough times to go through, since pretty much the whole country accepted the news without making a fuss.

           “Anyway, whatever reason there is, we still have to get ready, we’re starting in ten minutes.” Kris said, turning to look at their manager, who was talking to the MCs.

            Q: What were your feelings at the beginning of the competition?

            SHJH: I was so nervous I couldn’t talk properly (laugh), but I hope I can do well in every stage of the competition.

            -

            JJ: What kind of stupid competition is this? Seriously? Telepathy test?

            -

            SJ: Well, L-Hyung has always treated me really well, and we know each other well, so I think we did well during the first stage. But I’m sure we’ll do even better as the show progresses.

“Let’s get this started!” Kai said to the fans. “Okay,” he turned towards the contestants, “first stage of the competition, what we’re going to do today is a telepathy test”, he turned towards Sehun.

            The other MC started explaining. “The first part is really easy: Explosive answers.” He smiled, which was weird because he’s always got that adorable poker face. “We’re going to give you seven words, and you have to answer to them. So, If Kai says ‘tomato’, you’re both going to say whatever comes to mind first. The couple that gets the closest answers to what the other answers wins the first part”. Sehun smiled again. “So, for example, if Tao here”, he pointed at the other third of their maknae line, “said ‘salad’ and Kris said ‘lettuce’, their answers would get more points that if they said ‘salad’ and ‘red’, because ‘salad’ and ‘lettuce’ are more similar than ‘salad’ and ‘red’. Easy, right?” He smiled.

            “Of course, they would get even more points if the answer was ‘salad’ from both of them.” He added, as an afterthought, smiling at Tao.

            “So, who do you want to see first?” Kai turned towards the fans.

            The fangirls and fanboys (though the girls were less subtle) started screaming each couple’s names, so obviously, the MC couple couldn’t understand a thing.

            “Wow, okay, I can’t understand you guys”, Kai laughed. “Okay, let’s start from the biggest group of fans here today.” He turned towards the section of seats that was flooded with Sapphire Blue ballons and signs.

            “Hmm, it looks like Eunhae have the most fans…” he mused. “Okay, then. Sungjong and L, to the stage!” He called.

            The youngest couple (apart from the MCs, of course) made their way towards the center of the stage, where there were two panels for them to stand behind.

            “Let’s start”, Sehun said. “You have three seconds to think about the answer, and then you just have to say it. If you don’t, you lose the points you get for that answer.”

            The boys nodded, looking all focused and ready to start. “And the first word is…” Kai said.

            “Hello”

            “Goodbye” They both answered.

            “Minecraft”

            “What?” L said.

            “Videogame” Sungjong said.

            “Mansion”

            “Big”. “House”.

            “Song”

            “Infinite”, they both said.

            “Family”

            “Infinite”, Sungjong said, while L answered something else “Gyu-grandpa”

            “Teddy bears”

            “Sungjong”, L said. “Cute” Sungjong answered.

            “And, lastly…” Kai stopped for a dramatic pause. “Croissant”

            “Bagguete”. “French”.

            Sehun stepped forward. “Well, that was good for a first time.” He smiled and turned towards the fans. “What did you think? How did Infinite’s maknae line do?” The fans cheered, waving their banners and signs like crazy.

            Kai went to the side of the stage where the rest of Infinite were sitting, watching. “How do you think they did, Sunggyu-hyung?” he asked.

            “I’m just going to ignore L’s answer.” He closed his tiny eyes. “I’m not old!” He exclaimed.

            Leeteuk chimed in from the other side of the stage. “Don’t worry, Sunggyu-ssi, you’re not old” He smiled at the other group’s leader. “Of course, because If you were, we would have a prehistoric leader.” Kyuhyun said.

            Leeteuk glared at him. Really hard.

            But of course, no glare can subdue an evil maknae.

            “Okay!” Sehun said, trying to dissipate the tension. The fans were laughing, but Kyuhyun was sure to get into trouble when they got off the stage. “Let’s continue. Who’s the next couple?” He asked, turning to his boyfriend.

            “Let’s welcome to the stage…” Kai stopped to think. “SHINee’s Key and Jonghyun!”

            Cheers. Cheers everywhere. Deafening cheers everywhere.

            “Wow, you sure are well received!” Kai laughed. “Do you know what shipping is, Jonghyun-ssi?” He asked, causing more screams and squeals in the stadium.

            “I do, yes.” Jonghyun said, laughing. “And well, we did say we were going to get married in ten years”, he added, pointing to Key and himself. Squeals everywhere again.

            Sehun laughed. “Okay, but before that, let’s get to the telepathy test.” He gestured for the SHINee members to go behind a panel each.

            “And your first word is…”  

            “World”

            “SHINee Tour” They both said.

            “Crazy”

            “Boots”. “Car”.

            “Wow… How did you go from ‘crazy’ to ‘boots’ and ‘car’?”, Kai asked. “Well, never mind. Let’s continue.”

            “Calendar”

            “Birthday”. “Month”.

            “Love”

            “You”. “Myself”. People laughed at Key’s answer.

            “Junsu”

            “Musical”. “Blond”.

            “One Direction”

            “Five”. “London”.

            “And finally…” Sehun said. “2Min”

            “Taemin and Minho”. “Minho”.

“And that’s Jongkey’s round of Explosive Answers.” Kai said. “What do the members have to say about it?” He asked, turning to the rest of SHINee.

            “What I want to know is, why did Key just mention Minho just now?” Taemin asked. “What about me, hyung?” He tried his puppy eyes, which weren’t really effective now that his cute image had been abandoned.

            “First thing that came to mind was Minho, sorry, Taeminnie.” Key shrugged.

            “Well, you only got one answer completely correctly, but your other answers were similar too, so I don’t think you’ve done badly.” Onew smiled. “Of course, I don’t want to choose sides between you and 2Min, so I’m going to cheer for them too.”

            “Good. That’s real team spirit.” Kai said. “Now, let’s continue with the most anticipated couple. What’s going to happen here? We don’t know, but I’m sure it’s going to be intense. Let’s bring TVXQ’s Yunho and JYJ’s Jaejoong to the center of the stage!”

            Nobody clapped or cheered in anticipation. Instead, everyone observed every single movement both of them did, from getting up from their chairs to getting to stand behind the panels.

            It was the first time in four years that they were standing on the same stage together.

            Yunho didn’t like it.

            Jaejoong just wanted to tell everyone to it and go home.

            Changmin wanted to hide behind his former fellow members.

            Junsu and Yoochun just hoped that their plan to bring their group together again would work in the end.

            As it was now, the situation didn’t look too promising.

            “Colors”

            “Black”. “White”.

            “Donghae”

            “Fish”. “Super Junior”

            “Three”

            “Two”. “Four”.

            “Monster”

            “Scary”. “Awesome”. Since when were monsters awesome, Jaejoong?

            “Game”

            “Lose”. “Win”.

            “Changmin”

            “Teammate”, Yunho immediately answered. It wasn’t the same for Jaejoong, who whipped his head around to glare at the mentioned boy. Taemin and Minho discreetly moved their chairs towards the TVXQ maknae.

            “Sorry guys, you’ve lost the points for this question.” Kai interrupted the staring contest (which Jaejoong was totally winning). “Jaejoong-hyung hasn’t answered, so you’ll get no points for the question.”

            “Let’s see if you can make up for it with the last one…” Sehun said. “ your last word is…” He rolled his eyes, as if sensing the conflict that the last word would bring. “Dong Bang Shin Ki”

            But instead of the word making Jaejoong not answer again, what he said made everyone question what the situation with the former ex-member was, especially towards the band.

            They both answered with the same word.

            “Forever”.

            Q: Why did you answer ‘Forever’ when they said ‘TVXQ’?

            JJ: You wanted us to answer honestly, didn’t you? You wanted the first thing that came to our minds, right? Well, that’s what came to my mind. I’d always thought those words went together, and after thinking that for so many years, it stuck. So that’s why I answered, even if I don’t believe it anymore. To me, it’s like saying ‘Better safe than sorry’. I don’t believe it, but that’s how the saying goes, right?

“Hongki, Jonghun, are you ready?” Kai continued the show.

            “Ready as I’ll ever be”, Jonghun smiled at Hongki, who smiled mischievously back at his leader.

            “CHOCOBALL MEMBERS, GO! KILL THEM ALL!” Heechul screeched, waving his hands like the crazy AB person he is a crazy man.

            “And your first word is… Good”

            “Bad”. “Night”.

            “Spin”

            “Magazine”. “Song”.

            “Island”

            “FT”.

            “India”

            “Country”. “Bollywood”.

            “Minhwan”

            “Baby”. “Maknae”

            “Best friend”

            “Hongki”. “Jonghun”. The cooing and ‘Aww’s of the fans were overpowered by Heechul’s voice, when the singer got up from his seat faster than lightning. “Hey! Hongki! I thought I was your best friend!” He pointed a finger accusingly at the vocalist. “You traitor!”

            Hongki stuck his tongue out at the diva, which, in retrospective, wasn’t the smartest thing to do, but for now, well, he was as safe as he was going to be.

            “Star”

            “Sky”. “Night”.

            Kai looked up from his script. “And that’s it for FT Island’s Jonghun and Hongki.” He turned to Sehun, who was standing next to where Seunghyun was silently fighting with Minhwan over a drumstick. The maknae alternated between shooting daggers at the other boy and sending pleading looks to Hongki, which the vocal ignored for the sake of everyone else present. “So, Sehunnie, what do the other members have to say?”

            Sehun passed the mic to Jaejin. “I was honestly surprised that Jonghun said ‘sky’ when you said ‘star’. But I’m more surprised that Hongki didn’t answer something like ‘me’.” He looked at the pair. “He would have if we were home”.

            Heechul agreed. “He most likely would have. Of course, I’d retaliated saying the star is I. Obviously, duh.”

            “Aaaaaaaand, the show’s not about you, Chullie, so shut up”, Leeteuk said, covering his teammate’s mouth with his hand. He kept his angel smile even when said teammate bit him.

            Of course, he kicked the other’s foot for biting him, not that anyone noticed.

            “Whatever. They haven’t done very well either way, so my supporting them is useless.” He shrugged. “I guess I’ll have to support Eunhae now.”

            “See?” Eunhyuk pointed at him while he turned towards the audience. “Heechul here would never come support a member of SuJu on his free will.” His voice had an accusing tone, but it only made the fans laugh. So he shut up as well.

            “Now, now, let’s not fight, hyungs”, Kai said with a condescending smile, which caused Suho (who had been watching him to make sure he behaved) to frown at his tone. Unfortunately for the leader, Kai didn’t notice. “Instead of having a group war, let’s make way for MBLAQ’s couple and welcome them to the stage!”

            So Joon and Mir went to their respective panels and, almost immediately, started answering to whatever words the MCs threw at them.

            “Moustache”

            “G.O”

            “Noona”

            “Go Eun Ah”

            The MCs looked pleasantly surprised at their answers, and the fact that they were the same. If the other words they answered were close to each other’s answers, they would get a lot of points and be in the lead for now.

            “Rain”

            “Singer”. “Boss”. Well, yes, Mir, he is your boss indeed.

            “Nickname”

            “Dumb”. “Dumber”. Everyone laughed. Were those really their nicknames? Oh yeah. And they would probably stick, so maybe it wasn’t the smartest thing to say on TV. Surely not, but that’s why they got their nicknames.

            “House”

            “Small”. “We should get a bigger apartment”, Joon said, looking like he was talking to himself.

            “Probably, but I’m sorry, hyung, that doesn’t count as an answer, so you lose the points for this question”, Sehun said, and there go your chances of being in the lead. Even if you score perfectly now, you’ll be tied with Myungjong at best. Sorry Sorry, hyungs.

            “What? NO!” Mir cried, over exaggerating way too much. “Oh, well, continue, please”.

            “Bass”

            “Guitar”

            “Book”

            “Boring”. “Comic”.

            “And that’s it for you guys!” Kai said. “You can go back to your teammates now. Teammates, how did they do?”

            Q: Now that you’ve finished the first stage of the competition, who do you think are going to be the hardest to beat?

            Mir: Wow, I can’t be sure just from the telepathy test. It’s really hard to get exactly the same answers as your partners, even if you get close. And it’s going to be really hard to evaluate who got the most points. I wonder how they’re going to do it?

            -

            LJ: Sungjonggie and Myungsoo. They did really well, in my opinion. But I guess it depends on the kind of words we get. 

“Taeyeon”

            “Pretty”, Taemin answered, looking straight into Minho’s eyes. The other boy answered at the same time, “Noona”.

            “London”

            “Manchester United”. “Beckham”.

            “Hand”

            “Holding”, they both answered.

            “Rollercoaster”

            “Fun!” Taemin shouted, with a huge smile on his face. “Japan”, Minho answered.

            “T-Ara”

            “Jiyeon”. “Girl Group”. That they are, Minho, Kai thought.

            “Pink”

            “Tape”. “Tiffany”.

            “Eunhae”

            “Super Junior”. Taemin’s answer was a little more colorful than his boyfriend’s. “Rivals”.

            Everyone ‘Ooh’-ed at Taemin’s answer and declaration of rivalry (friendly rivalry, of course) to the Super Junior representatives in the competition.

            “Careful, hyungs, that was a declaration of war” Sehun smiled mischievously at the Super Junior seats the day was getting weirder and weirder, if Sehun was smiling so much.

            “Let’s skip the pleasantries and see how Eunhae answer to Taemin’s words” Kai said, adding to the fire. “Hyungs, don’t make your devoted fans wait anymore and step onto the stage” he made a gesture with his hand, motioning them to the stage.

            “Now hyungs, how well do you think you can do?” Sehun pointed his mic at Donghae, who just shrugged and gave him a smile. “Well, Sehunnie, I’ve always said Eunhyukkie and I have telepathy. This should be easy.”

            And easy it was.

            “Red”

            “China”

            “Milk”

            “Vacation”

            “Blue”

            “ELF”

            “Camera”

            “Basketball”

            “Kim Heechul”

            “Floor”

            “Heater”       

            “Horses”

            “Superman”

            “Socks”

“Okay, that made absolutely no sense.” Kai said. “But you’ve answered them all the same, so I guess that’s it.” He looked at the pair. “Just out of curiosity, how did you go from ‘milk’ to ‘vacation’?” He asked.

“I have no idea” They both answered at the same time.

“Okay, hyungs, the telepathy test is over now. You can stop answering the same thing.” Sehun said, looking a bit spooked.

“Well, now that everyone’s gone through the telepathy test, let’s see who the winners were.” Kai said.

It didn’t come as a surprise to Sungjong that Eunhae were the winners of the test, seeing as they got full marks for all seven answers. So now, Eunhae were in the lead, and the rest of the contestants were kind of stuck together with more or less the same amount of points.

They were back at the house now, and Sungjong was trying to sneak peeks at Myungsoo, who was going through a photography book.

“You know, Sungjonggie, I wouldn’t have ever thought we were so much alike” His hyung said without looking up. “ We got very similar answers, so that means we think alike, right?” Myungsoo smiled.

“I guess, Hyung, why?” Sungjong said, grabbing a novel from his bedside, to try and look busy.

“I knew you were going to say ‘cute’ when Sehun said ‘teddy bears’, you know.” Myungsoo smiled, now looking up to the maknae.

Sungjong frowned. “Then why didn’t you say the same thing, hyung?” He asked, feeling a bit betrayed that Myungsoo had lost points knowing what his answer would be. “We could have gotten more points!” He exclaimed.

“Well, because to me, you’re cuter than the teddybears."

“We won, Hyukkie! We won!” Donghae kept jumping on the bed, feeling all excited.

His best friend was trying to stop him before the sheets got more messed up than they were now, but to no avail. “We’ve only won the first stage, Donghae, don’t get all excited yet.” He climbed on the bed too, trying to grab the other and make him stop jumping.

Instead of getting him to stop, he was suddenly tackled by the crazy bunny on steroids that Donghae was when he was excited. The slightly younger member hugged him really tight. “Well yeah, but we still won!” Donghae said to his ear, deafening him just a bit. “WE’RE THE BEST COUPLE!” He screamed.

Hyukjae thanked the heavens they were on the basement, so that at least some of the idols in the house wouldn’t hear his teammate and would be able to sleep at night.

“Yeah, we are the best couple, Donghae…” He muttered, lifting his arms from where they were crushed underneath his best friend’s weight and drew them around the other boy’s waist. “Sleep now, Donghaek, we’ve got a busy day ahead, tomorrow.”

Donghae nodded in the other boy’s neck and tightened his hug. “Night, Hyuk.”

“Good night, Donghae.”

They fell asleep hugging each other. 

Hello everybody!! 

I is BACK!!

Sorry Sorry for making you wait for such a long time, this chapter has frustrated me for FOUR MONTHS!! FOUR FLIPPIN MONTHS!! I've been trying to get some inspiration, but NOTHING!! TT-TT But then... TODAY HAS BEEN THE DAY!! MY INSPIRATION IS BACK!! I've written 16 pages today, when it took me 4 MONTHS to write 3 pages... BUT!! I've compensated today and I've written 16 pages!! So it's 19 pages in Word format and 3965 words... I think. I don't know.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the chapter.

I want to ask something of you guys: I want my readers (if I still have got any letf TT-TT to be the fans that vote and choose in the story. SO! I'll be leaving polls and stuff so that you vote for the best Idol Boy-Couple. Let's make the competition a reality!! Even if it's just in AFF!!

I'll try to keep the story as real as I can (apart from the obvious) so that you guys have real stuff to choose from, like videos, photos and all that.

For now, I'm leaving you with a question:

Apart from Eunhae (which was totally planned), who do you think did best in the first stage of the competition?

BTW, does anyone know how to include Polls in this?? I have absolutely no idea.

Thanks for sticking with me!!!!! Love you lots!!!!

xoxoxo
 

Laura