Setting: Saturday morning, 4:00AM, L and Sungyeol's apartment

It had been an eventful night in the city of Seoul. The temperature dropped to its lowest levels, and with each falling raindrop from the sky came a frozen raindrop to create a bed of white snow on the bustling streets. As both teams performed the snow started to pick up into a storm, and once the competition ended many concert attendees attempted to leave through the half meter tall snow that surrounded all of Hongdae. Eye Candy and Strawberry Fields both stayed together onstage alone after the reveal 50:50 score by judges to much of their dismay, and in a pivotal decision both groups agreed with Sungyeol's plan to become one idol group and pursue their dreams as singers.

Everything happened in a split second, and all 7 of them had yet to completely process the idea they were now one band. It had finished snowing a couple hours ago, and much of the snow on the rooftops had already melted. Sungyeol sat down on the edge of the rooftop, reclining his back against the railing. He wrapped his arms around L, who was perfectly cuddled in the curves of his body. Sungyeol took pleasure in watching L's chest rise and fall with each breath he took, immersed in every little sound and movement he made. To warm their bodies further, Sungyeol used one of his blankets to cover the both of them as they romantically gazed at the Seoul skyline in their usual spot, observing the different skyscrapers and smaller buildings with snowy rooftops. 

"I can't believe we're actually a band now," L started, closing his eyes and reflecting on everything that happened earlier that day. "I never thought anything like that would ever happen to me."

"Me neither," Sungyeol chuckled, rubbing L's stomach in circles from under the blanket. He remembered the band competition in vivid detail, from receiving his new bass from L to proposing to Eye Candy and Strawberry Fields to form one group. He remembered every moment that happened that night and no memory was hazy. "I didn't think everyone would be ok with the idea, but neither of us got the results we wanted."

"That the tie really got to everyone. Even I felt empty after we didn't win," L yawned, scratching his eye. "I never thought you would even suggest something like that, for all of us. I swear, you're a ing surprise every single time. I never ever know what you're going to do next. Don't you ever confront people before you make rash decisions?"

All Sungyeol could do was laugh. He never thought he would suggest it either. "When the director asked me to call him back, I've never felt so uncomfortable in my whole life. A once-in-a-lifetime shot to becoming a music idol, and it was only for me? There was so much pressure." He took a deep breath before continuing to talk. "My band played the best we ever could, and I had never played so well in my life without my lucky guitar pick. On that stage, I realized that I didn't need to rely on luck to play well because I had your bass. Because you were there."

"Really?" L smiled in embarrassment.

"Really. And I have to admit, your band played really well too. And that's when I realized... I don't want to be an idol alone. I want it to be an idol with my best friends. I want to be an idol with you, and even though I'm not exactly friends with everyone on Eye Candy I want to be an idol with them. I think that we can all see this through. That tie made me realize that neither of us are better than the other, but if we all stick together maybe we can be something great. In a weird way, I think we all need each other."

A chilly breeze passed, colder than usual due to the snow. L shivered, so Sungyeol held onto him tighter.

"So I guess we're idols now, huh?" L remarked.

"I guess we are. I don't really understand how to be an idol. I thought music was a passing hobby, you know? Almost every adolescent middle school boy creates a band with his best friends. This is going to be an interesting journey, nonetheless," Sungyeol chuckled. "Not only with the band, but with you. As always, the risks are worth it."

In that moment, L let out a loud snore.

"Myungsoo?" Sungyeol called out.

From comfortably snuggling with Sungyeol and being wrapped around a warm blanket, L had fallen asleep on the rooftop. Sungyeol rolled his eyes. "Of course you're sleeping."

Setting: Monday lunch, Woollim High

It was the first day of school after the widely attended band competition, and the news spread like wildfire over the weekend that the two bands would combine and become an idol group. There was not a waking moment when the Woollim High students were not about their competition or their newly formed band, especially with fangirls. "I can't believe that they're turning into one group." "They're going to be the hottest group in all of Korea!" "I wonder if they will all get along." "When they have their first concert, I'm gonna be first row cheering for my Sunggyu-oppa." "Woohyun and Dongwoo on one stage? What a treat!" "I don't think their band is going to last, I don't think they'll get along."

During lunch, every student stayed in the cafeteria due to the snow. Sungjong and L sat together during lunch towards the windows, and many students tried to catch a lunch table near them so that they can bask in the presence of the kings of Woollim High. Both of them ate the served lunch of the day, a warm bowl of chili soup with rice and kimchii on the side. Sunggyu walked up to their table grinning, holding his metal tray of chili soup and a newspaper in his hand. Many fangirls started to squeal as he walked by, each of them reaching out to touch his school blazer and get a piece of a future idol. Sunggyu placed his tray on the table and held out the newspaper in front of Sungjong and L, pointing out the front page article which had two pictures of Strawberry Fields and Eye Candy performing at the competition.

Sungjong's eyes widened as he excitedly dropped his chopsticks and snatched the newspaper away from Sunggyu to read the headline out loud. "'The future of K-pop: two talented high school bands in Seoul become one idol group.'"

L's jaw dropped, his mouth still filled with kimchi. "There's a newspaper article about us?!"

"Read on Sungjong," Sunggyu commanded.

Sungjong nodded. "'The biggest rock band competition throughout high schools in Korea ended in a monumental tie between the top 2 teams, Eye Candy and Strawberry Fields. After their tie, both bands agreed to sign and become the most highly anticipated idol group the country has seen in years.'"

"Chincha, this can't be happening!" L was shocked with disbelief.

"And look at this hyung!" Sungjong pointed at a line in the newspaper. "'Both bands have been immensely talented rock bands for the past couple of years; Eye Candy for 3 years and Strawberry Fields for 2 years. Due to their popularity between middle school and high school, in a span of 24 hours their fancafe has reached over 2,000 members without an official debut. The curiosity has many people curious, including Lee Jonghyun from CNBlue.' Hyung, CNBlue!!"

"LEE JONGHYUN IS TALKING ABOUT OUR BAND?" L exclaimed and stood up from his seat hyperventilating.

"Look at what Jonghyun posted on his twitter last night," Sunggyu said, passing his phone to L.

L grabbed the phone as fast as he could and anxiously fumbled around to read the tweet. "'I've seen youtube videos of both Eye Candy and Strawberry Fields perform. They will be the next big group in Korea, kekeke.' This can't be happening right now." L refused to believe that his favorite band actually acknowledge his existence, prompting a mental breakdown in the middle of the cafeteria.

"Hyung, so we're really one band now huh?" Sungjong grinned, shaking the newspaper in excitement. 

"Yeah, Sungyeol made the call to the director and our first meeting is going to be this Saturday," L explained. "Is this really happening right now? This is happening. This is actually happening." L had no other words to say and wrapped his arms around Sungjong, digging his head into his shoulder for comfort. The reality was finally hitting with the former Eye Candy members.

"I never thought anything like this would happen, becoming an idol let alone becoming idols with our old rivals," Sungjong commented.

"I have to admit, it's still a pretty strange feeling knowing that from now on we're going to be working with them," Sunggyu admitted.

"Why would that be strange?" Woohyun and Sungyeol walking over to their table with lunch trays, looking at each former Eye Candy member before sitting down at their table to join them for lunch. Many people in the cafeteria started to murmur about the 2 bands and pay close attention to their table.

"I don't know about you Woohyun, but it's a little strange for me to be together in a group with a bunch of nugus?" Sunggyu joked.

"So you mean the rest of Eye Candy?" Sungyeol barked, unwrapping his chopsticks and taking a bite of his kimchi. He saw L at the corner of his eye holding onto Sungjong. You're really clingy. Sungyeol let out a small corner smile.

L looked up from behind Sungjong's shoulder and saw Sungyeol eating his food. He smirked. Typical Sungyeol comment. 

"In all seriousness I'm still not completely on board with this 2-in-1 band deal," Woohyun said, directing his stare and words at Sunggyu.

"But the chance to become an idol?" Sungyeol added.

"Something like that only happens once in a lifetime," Sunggyu said, realizing that this is his shot to make it big.

"Exactly. I mean do I like you guys? Never. But sometimes dreams are more important than differences, and we all have to put them aside for now." Woohyun agreed, taking a sip of his soup.

The 5 boys sat together, united by music but yet to be in friendship. Their popularity skyrocketed overnight, from newspaper articles to celebrity promotion, all of them realized that they had a potential to become famous idols. From now on, their bands must try to get along or else they will not become close to making it in Korea.

"Way to go Woohyun. That was very deep and philisophical," Sungjong said sarcastically, clapping his hands together to applaud him.

"Hey, I do what I can," Woohyun winked, taking another sip of the chili soup.

Setting: Saturday, company studio

The new band's first meeting was on Saturday and lasted the whole day, serving as an orientation to their new company. They arrived at their new company at 8 o' clock in the morning, all of them nervous yet eager to start new lives as idol trainees. Their first meeting was an introduction guided by Lee Jong Yeop himself, the director who called forth Sungyeol to become an idol. He discussed how excited he was to have their band on board and how much talent he sees in each and very one of them. The introduction served as a warning and described the hardships of training to debut as an idol, but that with hard work and perseverence he sees a lot of potential in them going far. With the looming idea in mind, Lee Jong Yeop asked if any of the Eye Candy or Strawberry Fields members wanted to back out before moving on. Not a single member hesitated and accepted the offer as a trainee, all of them filled with drive to fulfill their musical dreams.

A tour immediately followed to show the facilities of the company. There was a gym and locker room for the members to workout as well as a game lounge for everyone to relax. The company also provided a study area for the members to do homework, each table providing a top-of-the-line computer for everyone to do their work. There was a practice room for different reasons, a practice room for instruments, a practice room for dancing, and the list went on. With many other resources around, the room that the members fawned over the most was the music room. With the best equipment they had ever seen, the velvet red walls of the recording room made everything feel real. 

To end their orientation, Lee Jong Yeop went over the terms of their contract. Their group would be a fusion of Korean pop and rock to show off their variety of skills. After school they will be required to go to the studio to further develop their singing skills and learn to dance, a skill that only Hoya and Dongwoo were proficient in. The band would start strict diets in an effort to maintain muscular figures for their debut. Their popularity was rising faster than anyone had expected, the members had to be in the best condition to maintain it.

Lastly, Lee Jong Yeop declared to everyone their band name: Infinite.

Setting: Sunday afternoon, company studio practice room

Hoya sat alone in the middle of the instrument practice room and lay on his back listening to music on his MP3 player and twirling a drumstick with his hands. He was 15 minutes early to their practice and the first one to arrive. The next one to arrive was Dongwoo, who walked in carrying his guitar case. Hoya sat up once he saw Dongwoo walk in.

"Hey, Jong Yeop-sshi said that we're allowed to keep our instruments in this room, right?" Dongwoo asked.

Hoya nodded and pointed to the corner, where his drum set was already set up. "He said it was cool."

"Good." Dongwoo walked in the middle of the practice room to join Hoya on the hardwood floor. He dropped his guitar case on the ground and plopped on the floor, unbuckling his guitar case to set everything up.

"Dongwoo," Hoya started, sternly looking at him and placing his hand on Dongwoo's shoulder.

Hearing Hoya's voice made Dongwoo nervous, and his touch sent a chill down Dongwoo's spine. There was something on his mind. "What's up?"

"I have a really bad feeling about everything," Hoya admitted, looking down at the floor.

"You're not the only one," Dongwoo agreed, looking off to the side to stare at the strings on his guitar. He picked it up by the neck and placed it on his lap, meticulously tuning each string to the guitar's highest potential. At the corner of his eye he still saw Hoya's hand. His touch was that of nervousness and fear, feeling Hoya's palm sweat on his t-shirt. "I think we're both thinking the same thing."

Hoya took his hand off Dongwoo's shoulders and leaned back, holding himself up with his hands. "This is all too good to be true. Do I want to be an idol? There's nothing I want more than to sing and dance for the world, but will it all work out? Were all really different people, you know?"

"I know exactly what you mean, maybe we're all being a little too optimistic."

"And then the obvious problem, Sungyeol and L," Hoya brought up.

Dongwoo closed his eyes and shook his head, realizing that their relationship was a potential issue for the group. "Sungjong, Sunggyu, and Woohyun still don't know huh?"

"Not at all," Hoya frowned. 

Just then, the other Infinite members came in walking into the practice room together with their equipment in hand and huge smiles on their faces to finally start practicing. Sungjong, Sunggyu, and Woohyun walked in first, coolly walking in with confidence. L and Sungyeol followed from behind, the both of them walking side-by-side with their shoulders brushing. They both shared a look at smiled at each other before proceeding to join the rest of the band. Dongwoo and Hoya shot up from the floor to greet their friends, both of them showing off fake smiles to hide their discontent and fears for the band. 

"About time you guys came," Hoya smiled nervously, scratching the back of his head.

"Well now that we're all here, let's set everything up and get started." Sunggyu took a lollipop out of his mouth and pulled his paper wrapper from his pocket, concealing the lollipop to eat for later. While they were all together, Sunggyu wanted to immediately get to business. He knelt down and placed his guitar case on the floor, unstrapping the case and swinging it open.

"You sure came prepared," Woohyun joked.

"I'm always prepared," Sunggyu smirked.

On top of his guitar were 7 stapled packets labeled individually for each member of Infinite. The packets were of a song called "Hysterie" and were personalized for each member, highlighting certain parts according to the instrument they played and the lyrics they sang. The members stepped forward to look at their song. "I wrote and composed this song last night, and I think it would be a good song for us to start with. It has that pop appeal without losing our roots in rock," Sunggyu explained, passing each member their packet.

"Wow, good job Sunggyu. Was this the first song you ever wrote?" Woohyun scoffed, grabbing his packet and flipping through the pages. Sunggyu rolled his eyes and ignored him.

The members flipped through the pages of the song, observing in great detail the musical lines for their song. Everyone was concentrated on their roles, everyone given a singing role as well as an instrumental role to be involved in. Because there were doubles of instruments, Sunggyu specified a switch off halfway in the song in which Strawberry Fields would play their instruments for the first half and Eye Candy would play their instruments for the second half. It was their very first practice as Infinite and the packets were meant to be detailed to ensure a smooth practice.

"Sunggyu?" Everyone turned and saw Sungyeol holding his packet, looking a little distressed.

"What?" Sunggyu called out.

"I don't... have any singing lines in this song," Sungyeol commented.

Woohyun and Hoya looked at each other and raised their eyebrows. Sungjong and Dongwoo turned to look at Sunggyu, anticipating what his answer would be. L bit his lip nervously, flipping the pages through the packet to make sure that what he said was the truth.

"I know," Sunggyu acknowledged.

Woohyun looked over at Sunggyu. "What the hell?"

Sunggyu stood up to explain himself. "An important part of the song is the bass line, so I figured it would be really important for you to just play it instead of worrying about singing."

"But... L is singing in this song," Hoya questioned, showing his packet and pointing at the lyrics. "He has a whole verse to himself during the second half of the song."

"You gave your band more lines than us," Woohyun realized, his eyebrow furrowing in anger.

"Woohyun, it's ok," Sungyeol tried calm his friend down. Sungyeol caught L making eye contact with him, his eyes looking concerned for him. He took a deep breath. Even though he was bitter about the song distribution Sungyeol knew that now was not the time to get angry, especially in a professional studio. On a regular basis Sungyeol would blow up the situation and fight for his role, but in seeing L's facial expression and the rest of the band he knew that he had to let it go for the sake of keeping the band together. "Let's just play the song, alright?"

"Your whole band has more lines than us," Hoya complained, his face buried in the packet and analyzing each individual line. "Sunggyu, you have the most lines."

"Did you honestly think you would get away with this?" Woohyun challenged, dropping his song packet on the ground and crossing his arms.

Sunggyu shrugged his shoulders. "I mean, it would only make sense that we use the best voices in our songs."

"And what makes you even decide that? Since when were you the leader of us?"

"I don't exactly expect you to understand the standards that I expect out of a band because you guys clearly had none."

Sunggyu's hard hitting words silenced everyone in the room, the tension heating up in the room. Hoya and Dongwoo looked at each other in complete disbelief at what Sunggyu said. L and Sungyeol also looked at each other nervously, unsure if one of them should step in. Sungjong hooked onto Dongwoo's arm, feeling uneasy at their situation.

"Take that ing back," Woohyun demanded, taking a step forward towards Sunggyu.

"Make me," Sunggyu threatened, staying still and raising an eyebrow at Woohyun's imminent attack.

"Hyung, stop it right now," Sungjong asked.

"You think that we're the only ones with problems? Let me go ahead and start. Sungjong has no idea how to project his voice, it's like I'm listening to a ing mouse," Woohyun started. "Dongwoo over here doesn't know how to control his voice and seems to never be on pitch." With each insult, Woohyun took one step closer towards Sunggyu.

"Woohyun, please stop it," Hoya begged.

"Seriously, we shouldn't be doing this right now," Sungyeol agreed.

"Anything else you want to say?" Sunggyu smirked.

"L's voice is way too raspy, and not in a good way either. It sounds like he's a chain smoker," Woohyun continued. "And lastly there is you. You think you're so good because you have that rocker sound, but have no good tone and you scream all of your notes. You force everything out because nothing is natural, so maybe you should stop forcing things onto people when you can't even control your own voice." At this point, Woohyun's face was inches away from Sunggyu, the tips of their noses almost touching.

"Stop it!" Sungjong screamed.

And in that moment, Sunggyu clenched his fist and held it back for a quick second until landing a violent punch at the side of Woohyun's eye. Woohyun straddled back from the blow, letting out a booming scream that echoed in the practice room. The impact made him dizzy, walking around to try and catch his balance until he ultimately fell to the ground grabbing onto the side of his face. He moaned in pain, curling up on the floor into a ball and scrunching his face from the pain. 

"Sunggyu!" Dongwoo scolded.

From his throbbing hand, Sunggyu realized that he punched Woohyun in the face. His jaw dropped in disbelief from his actions. He tried to act confidently, but instead he hurt his new team member. His mouth wavered nervously, regretting the moment as fast as it happened. He looked around and saw the shocked looks of every other member. Sungjong's eyes watered looking like he was about to cry, Dongwoo and L's mouths were gaping open from the shock, Hoya's hand covered his forehead in anger, and Sungyeol had an unreadable face of mixed emotions. Sunggyu's limbs felt weak, and he walked out of the studio to get away from everyone before he collapsed to the floor.

L looked around, desperate to find an ice pack for Woohyun. Sungjong ran to Woohyun's side and tried to help.

Sungyeol looked down at his friend, who was screaming at the top of his lungs for help. It was all too much for him to take in and stressed him to a great deal. He let out an exhale, struggling to keep himself together. Unable to control his feelings, Sungyeol ran out of the practice room to escape and ran down the hallway in the opposite direction Sunggyu ran, trying to find a refuge from everything. He felt the walls as he ran down, feeling emotional from everything. 

Will Sunggyu and Woohyun makeup? Will the band workout? The name of the next chapter is Gotta Talk to U. Do you think you know what will happen in the next bonus chapter??