The day after I had lost my temper in front of Jiyeong and Jessica, I went to my second class with much lower expectations and tried my best to go through things as patiently as possible.  By the third day, the boys had fully memorized the routine and were working on making it look better.  Thursday through Saturday, I had a different class of boys.  I grit my teeth, told myself to take things slowly to make sure everyone understood, and tried my best to keep myself from crying out in frustration whenever I had to show them how to do a step again.

By now, I had realized that I couldn’t go as quickly as I would like to because not all of them could keep up with me.  They all needed to be in sync.  Like a team.  When I watched both classes on Sunday night perform the routine all together, even though they were all doing the same routine, they were far from coordinated.  The other instructor who was watching them along with me wasn’t pleased and lectured all of us about how we needed to practice more.  And that was what we did.

Over the next month, I learned alongside the boys in the classes I taught.  They learned the choreography and how to synchronize their movements as a group, and I learned how to teach more effectively by focusing on individuals as well as the group as a whole.  I made sure my routines were simpler, but still presented a challenge.  I learned how to be more patient and how to make sure everyone was on task and putting in all their effort without seeming too bossy or strict.  It took a lot of work.  I even went so far as to practice on Jiyeong and Jessica in my spare time, teaching them the routines as if I was teaching my classes.

My hard work must have paid off.  At the end of the month, I had a meeting with a company representative, who told me that I had been reassigned to not only a different group of Class C trainees, but also the project group.  A few days after that, Lee Sooman called me into his office and began talking to me about the boy group.  We mostly went over what and how I should teach the group, emphasizing each style of dance I should focus on at what time and how important it was that the group learn teamwork.

“That’s not something you can help with,” I remembered him saying.  “It’s something they’ll have to figure out amongst themselves, and you don’t need to play a part in it.  No matter how many instructions you give them, once they’re onstage, if they ever get to that point, they’ll have to depend on themselves.  There’s nothing wrong with being on friendly terms with them, but there’s always going to be a barrier between student and instructor.”

At my request, he had given me all of the boys’ profiles.  The paper consisted of nothing more than their names, ages, and pictures, but I spent a long time looking at it and trying to memorize their names.

Park Jungsu, Kim Heechul, Hankyung, Kim Jongwoon, Kim Youngwoon, Shin Donghee, Lee Sungmin, Lee Hyukjae, Choi Siwon, Lee Donghae, Kim Kibum, and Kang Junyoung.

I ran my fingers across the three names I was familiar with.  I had expected Sungmin and Hyukjae to be on there, but not Youngwoon.  From what I had seen during the past month I had spent with him, there was honestly nothing that great about his routines.  He could keep up with the others, but his movements had always seemed a little… lazy, as if he wasn’t really trying.  I wondered why he had been chosen.  Maybe he was secretly a good vocalist, or a good rapper, or maybe both.

I gripped onto the paper, which was titled with a single word: Juniors.  I was going to meet these juniors in less than a week, and I had no idea what to expect from any of them.  Not even Sungmin, Hyukjae, and Youngwoon because as far as I knew, they didn’t know that I would be their choreographer.

Later on, I found out that I wouldn’t be doing things by myself as I had originally expected.  Although he had hinted the opposite when we had first discussed the topic, I was not going to be the only choreographer teaching them.  The original Class C groups I had been teaching also took other dance classes, not just the ones led by me.  That made sense to me.  After all, it would have been very strange of the company to let me have them all to myself.  I had only served as an assistant instructor so that SM could get a better idea of whether or not I could handle them at all under the impression that I was doing it all by myself.

The final arrangement was that I would continue serving as an assistant instructor for the new Class C group, and start working with a group of eleven other older, more experienced dance instructors, twelve of us in total for the twelve juniors.  That way, it would be easier for us to develop choreography for twelve people.  It would also be easier because that meant when it was time for us to teach the juniors, each instructor would be assigned to one member.  But when all of them finished learning their individual parts, I would be left to monitor them by myself, which meant that I had to master twelve slightly different versions of the routines the other instructors had already choreographed earlier on.

Knowing this, I grew more nervous as the week passed and I struggled to remember everything my higher-ups had crammed into my head in such a short period of time.

The day came, and the twenty-four of us packed into one of the largest practice rooms in the building.  With the exception of Junyoung, who was my age, I was the youngest one in the room.  I wasn’t the only girl-- there was a female instructor among us, a girl named Hyelim.  But Hyelim was five years older than I was and considerably more confident, experienced, and talented than I was.

Even after teaching for a month, my leadership skills still needed work.  I knew how to manage a group, but my confidence wavered every time someone gave me a doubtful or disapproving look.  It wasn’t that I was inexperienced.  It was the fact that compared to the way the other instructors practically oozed confidence when teaching these juniors, I looked timid, unsure of myself, and the exact opposite of charismatic.

For today’s session, I had been assigned to Park Jungsu, who was rumored to be the leader of the group of juniors because he was the oldest.  He was only twenty-one and was only a few inches taller than me, but he intimidated me with the way he treated me.

“Again, Jungsu-ssi,” I said, motioning for him to repeat the several eight-counts of the routine I had taught him in the last half an hour.  Jungsu complied, but I saw him close his eyes and let out a small exhale as he backed up in our corner of the room to get more space.

He had been respectful enough since the beginning, bowing to us like everyone else had and greeting all of us.  Then there was the expected look of surprise when the head instructor pointed me out, introduced me separately and explained my individual role.  True, every one of them had looked shocked at that point, even Sungmin and Hyukjae.  But following that look of astonishment, I felt as if a general air of aloofness had settled in the room.  It didn’t come from everyone, namely Sungmin and Hyukjae, who had snuck brief glances at me but returned their attention to learning the routine.  But even now, I could feel the some of the other juniors stealing glances at me and regarding me in disbelief.  Jungsu was one of those people, and I could tell that he disliked me from the way he looked down at me, still obeying my instructions but acting as if I didn’t belong in the room at all.

He looked away from me frequently and when he did look at me to follow along, his dark eyes were blank with a hint of coldness behind them.  He barely said a word, only giving me nods and shakes of his head whenever I asked him something.

Why doesn’t he like me?  I began wondering after the first two hours were over and we had finished learning half of the routine.  Everyone had gone off for their water break or to the bathroom, including the instructors.  Only two of them remained: Hyukjae, and the one I recognized as the lone Chinese trainee, Hankyung.  The two of them were still practicing hard.  I wanted to talk to Hyukjae, but he made no move to stop and initiate a conversation with me.  Shaking it off, I told myself it was just because he wanted to prove himself.  He had always been the type to practice when the others were taking breaks, just to show that he was willing to go above and beyond to reach his goals.

Lucky .  I bit down on my lip.  That’s exactly the attitude that got him where he is right now.  A spot in a project group is better than none at all, which was exactly where you are right now, Seoyoon.  You should have worked harder.

Well, it’s too late for that, I retorted.  You should focus on what you’re doing right now, which is choreographing and teaching them.  Giving Hyukjae and Hankyung another glance, I left the room and headed down the hall to the water fountain so that I could take a short break as well.

“Hey, Lee Seoyoon!”  I heard as soon as I approached the fountain.  Jerking my head back, I saw Sungmin, who had managed to be come up to me out of nowhere.  “What are you doing?”  His eyes were wide.

“Getting water?”  I said, confused.

“No, no,” he said in frustration.  “What are you doing here?  Since when did you become a choreographer?  How did you even convince them to let you do that?”

I winced at his loud voice and motioned for him to be quiet in case other people were listening.  I gave him the clearest explanation I could manage, but he still looked confused at the end of it.

“But why us?  Why choose to choreograph for us?”

“I don’t know, it was kind of a spur-of-the-moment decision.”

“I figured, but why?  I have nothing against you choreographing, but…” Sungmin hesitated.  “I thought you were supposed to debut soon.  If you waited a few more years, maybe you could have gotten a chance.”

“I’m… not exactly great at singing,” I said at last.  “And assuming I’m going to end up choreographing your actual routines, you and everyone else are going to be debuting for me in a sense.”

“Huh?”  He looked confused.  I closed my eyes for a bit and tried to find the words to explain what I had felt when I made my decision.

“Because even though I might not necessarily be credited as the main choreographer, I’ll know that I accomplished something.  And I won’t be debuting myself, but my routines instead.  And it’s gonna be your group performing the routines.  So you’re indirectly debuting in my place.  Does that make sense?”

“Sure.”  Sungmin still looked like he didn’t understand, but it was time for us to head back to the practice room to finish learning the routine.  As the two of us walked back down the hall, I remembered something and turned to Sungmin again.

“Why does Jungsu act the way he does?”

“What way?”

“The way half the others are acting.  I don’t think they like me,” I admitted.  “They don’t look like they want me in the same room as them.”

“Yeah, I noticed.”  His eyebrows furrowed together.  “But I don’t know.  I haven’t known them that long.  Well, I know Hyukjae, of course.  And I remember seeing Donghae a few years back when I first joined.  I don’t think I’ve ever talked to him before, but he looks vaguely familiar.”

“Really?  When did you meet the rest of them?”

“We all moved into the dorm last night.”

“Really?”  I repeated, my eyebrows shooting up.  “I thought that was supposed to happen a few weeks back.”

“Nope.  Not true.  So I don’t really know Jungsu at all.  He seemed rather stressed last night, but I guess that’s because he knows how much pressure there’s going to be on him.  It doesn’t seem easy, leading eleven other people,” he shrugged.

“True.”  I looked down at my feet.  We were almost at the door now and I stopped in front of it.  “But still, I don’t think they like me.  What am I supposed to do about that?  I want to help all of you be the best you can be, but it doesn’t look like it’s gonna be easy if half of you don’t like me.”

“You know there’s eleven other choreographers, right?  We’ve got plenty of help, in case you haven’t noticed.”

“But I’m supposedly the one in charge after they finish teaching the routines and leave.  I’m gonna have to teach everyone how to be in sync and everything.  And being in a group isn’t just about learning routines and songs, you need to learn how to be a team and cooperate and become one.  You need to become a family, form bonds with each other, otherwise--”

“Hold up, what--”

“What?  Isn’t that what it means to be a team?”

“Yes, but that’s our own thing.  No offense, but we’re the ones debuting, not you.  We’ll figure things out by ourselves.  You’re not obliged to help us that much, Seoyoon, because we don’t need that type of help from you.  No offense,” he added again in an apologetic tone.

I understood his point.  There was really no need for me to get that involved.  But Sungmin was my brother and Hyukjae was my friend, and I was worried about them.  True, I didn’t know what it was like to be in a project group, and I didn’t know what it was like to work as a team.  But as Sungmin had mentioned before, there was going to be a lot of pressure on them.  Not just Jungsu, but every single member.  Things weren’t going to be easy from now on, and even though it was beyond my control, I wanted to help.

“It wouldn’t hurt to be friends with all of you,” I muttered.  “Assuming I’m going to be in this spot for a long period of time, things would probably be easier for me if we’re all comfortable with each other.”

“True.  I’ve never seen any instructors that friendly or close to trainees or idols before, but oh well, it’s up to you.  It’s something you’ll have to figure out yourself as well.  It would probably ruin things if you asked me to try and force them to be friends with you.”  He shrugged and opened the door.  Everyone was back already and waiting for the two of us.

As I resumed my lesson with Jungsu, I kept in mind the conversation I had with Sungmin, and tried my best to appear nicer.  Some of the initial awkwardness would have faded away by now, and I was ready to try and try to warm up to him and vice versa.  Over the next two hours, I tried smiling more, offering him more help when he looked like he was having trouble, and even giving him an extra water break as a reward when he finished learning the entire routine.

It was all very awkward for me because he didn’t respond the way I was hoping he would.

Hi my readers/subscribers ^^

I haven't left any author notes until this point, but to all of my new readers, I hope you're enjoying the story so far and to all my old readers, I just wanted to say thank you for being patient and rereading everything... I know it must be kinda boring, having to read similar things over and over even if there are a few differences...

To my old readers who were wondering in the pre-revamped version why Seoyoon wanted to become close to the team of juniors so badly, I hope this clears things up a little bit for you if you were confused before?  And sorry if my explanation here is still unclear...

I know I'm not great with updates but I'm going to try my best to change that and I'll try to update more often... and I know I'm not great with replying to comments either and that might be discouraging some of you from commenting, but I'm changing that from now on and I promise I'll reply to all your comments... if any of you do comment... I really appreciate all of them and I would love to know what you think of my writing and what goes on in your head when you're reading and everything XD

I actually wasn't planning on doing an update for this until 2016 because I wanted to focus on other things, but how can I resist when this is my favorite fic... so you can consider this a Christmas present I guess?  Even though this isn't necessarily the most exciting chapter...

Merry Christmas to those of you who celebrate it and happy holidays in general ^^ thank you for reading, comment, subscribe, and upvote if you haven't already, and have a lovely day everyone ^^