chapter six
〈 ♞ 〉NIGHT CIRCUS13 JANUARY 2015
12:47 PM
12:47 PM
THE SIXTH CHAPTER
Jiwool winces when she lands on her left foot hard, stumbling briefly before turning back around to get into the choreography. She pants, continuing on with the dance and watching her every move through the mirrors to make sure she’s getting every move right. She watches as Jaesun does his part before she gets ready to do hers, thanking the heavens that she’s wearing knee pads so she can skid easily into place as she sings her part.
They continue on with the choreography, most of them frowning when they hear Minseok holler ‘higher!’ when they aren’t kicking their legs high enough during one part. And then the part she still hasn’t mastered yet comes up, and she feels fear engulf her as Min simply crouches down and then she just jumps over her before turning, cartwheeling, and doing a flip in the air. She winces when she feels pain shoot up through her ankle again. They haven’t perfected throwing Min around as well.
They finish the rest of the dance without throwing Jaesun up in the air. They’re not ready for that either.
And then they collapse on the floor.
“How long have we been dancing?” Seungheon breathes out between pants of air, trying to get the much-needed oxygen back in his system.
“Almost four hours straight,” Minseok answers back just as Jiho and Minkyung come in with a CD in hand. “I think it’s time for a break.”
They all cheer to the best of their abilities, Jaesun turning onto his hands and knees and feebly making his way towards his water bottle off to the side of the room. He almost falls to his face at how wobbly his arms are.
“You okay, Jiwool?” Min suddenly asks, breathing harshly as she tilts her head in the direction of the girl.
Jiwool looks to the elder surprised, slowly pushing herself up to sit and look around as everybody else tries to find some sort of ice cold water to push down into their burning systems. “I’m fine,” she easily lies even as Minseok walks up to her and drops an ice pack onto her affected ankle. “Oh!”
“I’m a dancer too, you know,” Minseok simply says as he gives her a small quirk of the lips. “Ice it up.”
Jiwool gives him a sheepish smile in return as she moves her leg and the ice pack like how she wants it. “Sorry,” she mumbles right before Minseok waves her off.
“We know you guys have been busy,” Minkyung interrupts as she makes Jiho fix up the computer to play the CD for them. “And that you’ve all missed watching out on any awards shows within the past month–”
“Minho won’t stop complaining until I finally watch that MAMA award show,” Hyemi groans out in annoyance, flopping back onto the couch and half on top of Jaesun who grunts at the added weight onto half his torso, “But I haven’t had time to watch anything from it.” There is too much sweat and it’s too uncomfortable but they’re far too tired to do anything about it.
“I haven’t even heard anything from Minseokkie,” Min mumbles to herself, staring up at the ceiling in thought.
“So, we were able to get a copy of the full MAMA awards since that’s going to be a big show we’re going to try to get all of you to go to next year,” Minkyung finishes and a blanket of silence falls over them.
Sookhyun and Suhwan are still trying to towel the sweat off their heads and drink some water against the wall next to the door while Min is blankly staring up at the ceiling trying to control her breathing and decide whether it’s worth the effort to actually get up and get her own water bottle to re-hydrate. Right now, it’s not.
Jiwool is still sitting with her right leg partly folded while her left leg is extended and the ice pack is doing its own thing on her wounded ankle. Seungheon is currently sprawled next to his bag, cell phone in his hands as he’s busy texting whoever, and Hyemi is leaning against Jaesun on the couch still grumbling about how annoying Minho is getting while Jaesun just laughs at her complaints every few minutes.
After a reasonable amount of time has passed and they’ve finally got the video up and paused, Jiho breaks the silence with an annoyed grunt. “Did you even hear what she said?”
“What?” Jiwool questions immediately without much thought, looking up after gesturing to Seungheon to grab her phone and try to throw it over to her.
“I’m going to break it,” Seungheon answers back before they all play catch with her phone to get it to her. It lands on Min’s stomach and she flinches, curling up on herself and letting out a quiet, “Oomph.”
“Sorry.”
Min grunts as she tosses the phone to Jiwool who hurriedly catches it in the air, “There.”
“Thank you!” Jiwool beams before checking for any messages.
“Guys,” Jiho calls, louder than before.
“What?” Hyemi calls back, finally looking away from the sidewall and shifting to be able to look at them.
The three instructors sigh as Sookhyun and Suhwan quietly move to sit in front of the computer stand and lean against each other, Sookhyun shivering when the room air blows over his cooling skin.
“Come over here, all of you,” Minkyung orders, gesturing to the open areas around the two youngest. “Are you listening? Your break is going to consist of watching the whole MAMA awards from the red carpet to the ending credits.”
Before any of them can get a word out, Jiho continues. “We are focusing on the MAMA awards we have missed on the screen for the sole purpose of scrutinizing every little thing we can to prepare you for next year.”
“Hopefully,” Minseok continues after he drinks some water from his tervis water bottle, “We get the chance for you to perform at the next MAMA awards.”
“Especially since we have Min and the awards have been held in China for the past three years,” Minkyung adds before looking to Min who’s still lying on the ground looking at them. “Min will be the spokesperson for Night Circus when you do any activities overseas.”
“Wait,” Jiwool interrupts, turning to face them completely and making sure the ice pack stays on her ankle. There are sparkles in her eyes as she stares up at the vocal coach. “Does that mean Min is our leader?”
“Nope,” Jiho easily answers with an apologetic smile towards the Chinese member. “We haven’t decided yet. More importantly, our CEOs haven’t even decided yet.”
Min simply waves her hand in response, indifferent expression on her face. Jiwool pouts at the false hope that statement brought her. She thought Min would make a good leader, but maybe she was just biased with her own friends. She looks over her shoulder to see Min giving her a small, reassuring smile.
“Actually,” Minseok amends, looking at all of them curiously. “Each of you will be a spokesperson somewhere since you’re all so diverse.”
All the members look up at him curiously just the same before Minkyung clears and gestures for Hyemi, Jaesun, and Min to finally come forward so they can all watch the video together. “Mind you,” she warns, turning around to press play as the rest settle down in their seats, “This whole thing is about six hours altogether.”
“Six hours?!”
“I forgot it was that long!” Sookhyun whines, leaning further onto Suhwan who doesn’t really seem affected by the whole thing.
“Are we going to eat soon?” Suhwan questions instead, voice soft as he looks up to their teachers curiously. “Is it too soon?”
The questions have everybody going quiet, the only sounds coming from the computer, as they all turn to stare at Suhwan amazed, save for Sookhyun who’s too busy pouting at the computer screen in front of them. Why was this awards show so long?
“You spoke?” Jaesun speaks up after a few minutes of silence, Suhwan easily turning red at the attention on him.
“Of course he speaks,” Sookhyun mumbles as he finally leans away from Suhwan to go grab his jacket on top of his bag across the room. “He speaks like the rest of us.”
“The sarcasm in that sentence,” Seungheon drawls out with a proud smile on his face. “I approve.”
Sookhyun turns back to them with wide eyes, already holding his jacket in his hands. “Huh?”
“I’ve just never heard him speak so much before so willingly,” Jaesun says in response, still staring at Suhwan amazed. “Speak again.”
Suhwan flushes even more, looking down to the ground as he mumbles, “Are we allowed to eat while we watch this?”
There’s a bright smile on Jaesun’s face as he quickly turns to the teachers, “Can we? We’re not exactly on a strict diet yet, right? You can’t refuse him!”
Jiho rolls his eyes at the requests before quickly grabbing Minseok’s arm and shoving him in the direction of the hallway. “Go order some chicken or something. Not too much though,” he eyes the group again briefly, “You’re returning to dance practice for another two hours after this and doing some late-night studying.”
There’s a collection of moans and groans before EXO suddenly appears on the screen, Jiwool reaching out to slap Min on the arm multiple times because – “Unnie! Look at Yeollie! He’s on the screen!”
“Ow! Ow, Jiwool!”
“Look at them!” Jiwool continues before her hand is suddenly caught by Min’s and she holds it down just as Junmyeon appears from the mass of EXO members. She instantly quiets as she stares up at the screen. “Oh.”
The change in atmosphere is noticeable, Min and Jaesun looking over to Jiwool worriedly as Minkyung sighs softly next to them. And then Junmyeon is leading the group in Mandarin and Jiwool and Min think it’s weird. Even Jaesun, Seungheon, and Hyemi know it’s weird. The group looks off-balanced.
Wu Yifan led them last year and Kim Junmyeon is the one leading them this year.
Jiwool’s heart clenches as she hears Junmyeon speak, Min squeezing her hand next to her. “Yixing looks like he’s about to cry,” Min softly says, both of them wondering why they never stayed up the extra hour or two to see all the highlights and their friends’ performances.
“You two can’t let this affect you when you debut,” Minkyung advises as EXO finally leaves the red carpet and another group makes their way for it. “Events like this happen and there is no way to tell what the future holds for your friends and SM Entertainment.” They don’t notice her worried stare directed at Min.
WINNER appears next, and they hear Hyemi chuckle lightly at seeing Minho on the screen. The distraction has Jiwool and Min coming out of their sad thoughts to focus on WINNER and they turn to see Hyemi’s amused stare directed towards the computer. “Of course he’d wear a leather jacket.”
Seungheon laughs at the comment, looking to her with a teasing smile on his face. “Isn’t that his style though?”
“Yeah,” Hyemi simply agrees, trying to ignore his teasing like she does with her family, as she focuses on WINNER’s interview. It isn’t any different from other interviews she’s seen, but she somewhat expects Minho to say something small or do some weird hand gesture just because that’s something Song Minho might do during interviews. She almost laughs when the interview ends and he looks confused, trying to decide whether to go ahead and lead them off the red carpet or not.
“He looks cool,” Sookhyun comments as he clutches onto Suhwan’s arm. “Is he?”
“Nope,” Hyemi instantly answers, laughing when Sookhyun releases some type of squawk in protest. “He’s not that cool.”
“Nice to know what type of friend you are,” Jaesun jests back, laughing when Hyemi turns to whack him on the arm. “It was just a comment!”
Suddenly, Minseok enters with his cell phone high in the air as if he’s carrying a trophy. “Chicken has been ordered and will be here momentarily!”
“Wait!” Min suddenly exclaims, causing those around her to flinch at her outburst. She looks away from the group coming onto the screen to look at the instructors around them. “What did you say earlier?”
The three give her a look before Minseok speaks up first. “Chicken will be here shortly?”
“Not that,” Min waves off, giving their choreographer an apologetic smile before looking to the other two in front of them. “What did you two say?”
“About what?” Minkyung questions back, tilting her head in her confusion. “That you and Jiwool need to settle your concerns with those EXO boys before debut?”
That makes Min falter for a second, Jiwool frowning at the simple request, before shaking her head again. “No. Prior to that.”
The other two look at her confused, only remembering talks of chicken and practice, before Jiho looks to her surprised, a smile slowly forming on his face. “You mean when we said we’re going to try and get you on that stage at the end of the year?”
“That,” Min says with relief, smiling up at him happily.
The instructors immediately get what she means while the rest of her band mates look at her oddly. “What does that have to do with anything?” Seungheon questions loudly, staring at the rest of his friends to see confused frowns and pouts on their faces as well.
Jiwool seconds his question, turning to Min and shaking her shoulder gently. “Unnie. What are you talking about?”
Min’s smiling at all of them now, and for once, Suhwan is smiling brightly as well just as quickly with Sookhyun looking at him just as confused. “We’re debuting in nine months,” Min announces when nobody else speaks up, knowing Suhwan probably wouldn’t. She then looks to the computer screen. “In eleven months, we could be there. We might be on that red carpet, anxious and excited to perform on that stage.”
That stuns the rest into a more awed silence, Jiwool’s eyes widening in shock before slowly turning to watch as several artists come and go on the red carpet. She thinks Min’s thinking process is still weird, and she can’t believe it. “In nine months?” she whispers, disbelief evident in her voice. She suddenly feels tears well up in her eyes. Is she going to cry? She lets out a rush of air when she feels a hand plant itself on her free shoulder and shake her. When she looks around, she sees Jaesun smiling at her.
“We’re finally debuting,” he quietly tells her, knowing exactly how she feels.
They’re the two who have possibly trained the longest out of the whole group, even longer than Junmyeon in Jiwool’s case. She’s hitting her eighth year and she thinks Jaesun is exactly the same. She trained at SM Entertainment for five years while Jaesun trained at Jellyfish Entertainment for five years. They were the same and they were finally going to achieve their dreams.
Jiwool smiles back at him, reaching up to grab onto his hand too. “We are,” she murmurs back, smile brightening when Jaesun’s does. She chances a look at Seungheon who’s looking incredibly happy too, and her smile widens. He’s hitting his seventh year of training, originally training with CUBE Entertainment for five years as well. She looks back to her teachers in front of her and they’re all smiling at them proudly.
“You’re going to be ready,” Minseok announces directly towards them – they’re like his own siblings – before looking to the rest of the group, “You’re all going to be ready.”
“Now,” Jiho quickly says afterwards, smile turning into a small, annoyed scowl even though they could all tell it’s heavily forced. He points his thumb in the direction of the screen behind him. “Focus on this. There’s going to be a leader and co-leader and various spokespersons. We need you to learn as much as you can from your future seniors so you know what to do within the next three months when more staff is hired to help you with this.”
Hyemi looks up to him shocked. “Wait, what?”
“You didn’t expect us to do your makeup and clothes, did you?” Minkyung questions back with a smirk on her face. “You also need teachers to help prepare you and help you memorize song introductions and everything.”
“We’re going all out on you guys,” Jiho reminds them, annoyed scowl turning into the rare frown heavily laced with concern on his face, “The CEOs chose all of you for a reason.” He turns to look to the screen afterwards, releasing a soft sigh when he hears knocks coming from the hallway signaling their food has arrived. He takes a quick look back to see Jiwool already massaging her ankles again.
They continue on with the choreography, most of them frowning when they hear Minseok holler ‘higher!’ when they aren’t kicking their legs high enough during one part. And then the part she still hasn’t mastered yet comes up, and she feels fear engulf her as Min simply crouches down and then she just jumps over her before turning, cartwheeling, and doing a flip in the air. She winces when she feels pain shoot up through her ankle again. They haven’t perfected throwing Min around as well.
They finish the rest of the dance without throwing Jaesun up in the air. They’re not ready for that either.
And then they collapse on the floor.
“How long have we been dancing?” Seungheon breathes out between pants of air, trying to get the much-needed oxygen back in his system.
“Almost four hours straight,” Minseok answers back just as Jiho and Minkyung come in with a CD in hand. “I think it’s time for a break.”
They all cheer to the best of their abilities, Jaesun turning onto his hands and knees and feebly making his way towards his water bottle off to the side of the room. He almost falls to his face at how wobbly his arms are.
“You okay, Jiwool?” Min suddenly asks, breathing harshly as she tilts her head in the direction of the girl.
Jiwool looks to the elder surprised, slowly pushing herself up to sit and look around as everybody else tries to find some sort of ice cold water to push down into their burning systems. “I’m fine,” she easily lies even as Minseok walks up to her and drops an ice pack onto her affected ankle. “Oh!”
“I’m a dancer too, you know,” Minseok simply says as he gives her a small quirk of the lips. “Ice it up.”
Jiwool gives him a sheepish smile in return as she moves her leg and the ice pack like how she wants it. “Sorry,” she mumbles right before Minseok waves her off.
“We know you guys have been busy,” Minkyung interrupts as she makes Jiho fix up the computer to play the CD for them. “And that you’ve all missed watching out on any awards shows within the past month–”
“Minho won’t stop complaining until I finally watch that MAMA award show,” Hyemi groans out in annoyance, flopping back onto the couch and half on top of Jaesun who grunts at the added weight onto half his torso, “But I haven’t had time to watch anything from it.” There is too much sweat and it’s too uncomfortable but they’re far too tired to do anything about it.
“I haven’t even heard anything from Minseokkie,” Min mumbles to herself, staring up at the ceiling in thought.
“So, we were able to get a copy of the full MAMA awards since that’s going to be a big show we’re going to try to get all of you to go to next year,” Minkyung finishes and a blanket of silence falls over them.
Sookhyun and Suhwan are still trying to towel the sweat off their heads and drink some water against the wall next to the door while Min is blankly staring up at the ceiling trying to control her breathing and decide whether it’s worth the effort to actually get up and get her own water bottle to re-hydrate. Right now, it’s not.
Jiwool is still sitting with her right leg partly folded while her left leg is extended and the ice pack is doing its own thing on her wounded ankle. Seungheon is currently sprawled next to his bag, cell phone in his hands as he’s busy texting whoever, and Hyemi is leaning against Jaesun on the couch still grumbling about how annoying Minho is getting while Jaesun just laughs at her complaints every few minutes.
After a reasonable amount of time has passed and they’ve finally got the video up and paused, Jiho breaks the silence with an annoyed grunt. “Did you even hear what she said?”
“What?” Jiwool questions immediately without much thought, looking up after gesturing to Seungheon to grab her phone and try to throw it over to her.
“I’m going to break it,” Seungheon answers back before they all play catch with her phone to get it to her. It lands on Min’s stomach and she flinches, curling up on herself and letting out a quiet, “Oomph.”
“Sorry.”
Min grunts as she tosses the phone to Jiwool who hurriedly catches it in the air, “There.”
“Thank you!” Jiwool beams before checking for any messages.
“Guys,” Jiho calls, louder than before.
“What?” Hyemi calls back, finally looking away from the sidewall and shifting to be able to look at them.
The three instructors sigh as Sookhyun and Suhwan quietly move to sit in front of the computer stand and lean against each other, Sookhyun shivering when the room air blows over his cooling skin.
“Come over here, all of you,” Minkyung orders, gesturing to the open areas around the two youngest. “Are you listening? Your break is going to consist of watching the whole MAMA awards from the red carpet to the ending credits.”
Before any of them can get a word out, Jiho continues. “We are focusing on the MAMA awards we have missed on the screen for the sole purpose of scrutinizing every little thing we can to prepare you for next year.”
“Hopefully,” Minseok continues after he drinks some water from his tervis water bottle, “We get the chance for you to perform at the next MAMA awards.”
“Especially since we have Min and the awards have been held in China for the past three years,” Minkyung adds before looking to Min who’s still lying on the ground looking at them. “Min will be the spokesperson for Night Circus when you do any activities overseas.”
“Wait,” Jiwool interrupts, turning to face them completely and making sure the ice pack stays on her ankle. There are sparkles in her eyes as she stares up at the vocal coach. “Does that mean Min is our leader?”
“Nope,” Jiho easily answers with an apologetic smile towards the Chinese member. “We haven’t decided yet. More importantly, our CEOs haven’t even decided yet.”
Min simply waves her hand in response, indifferent expression on her face. Jiwool pouts at the false hope that statement brought her. She thought Min would make a good leader, but maybe she was just biased with her own friends. She looks over her shoulder to see Min giving her a small, reassuring smile.
“Actually,” Minseok amends, looking at all of them curiously. “Each of you will be a spokesperson somewhere since you’re all so diverse.”
All the members look up at him curiously just the same before Minkyung clears and gestures for Hyemi, Jaesun, and Min to finally come forward so they can all watch the video together. “Mind you,” she warns, turning around to press play as the rest settle down in their seats, “This whole thing is about six hours altogether.”
“Six hours?!”
“I forgot it was that long!” Sookhyun whines, leaning further onto Suhwan who doesn’t really seem affected by the whole thing.
“Are we going to eat soon?” Suhwan questions instead, voice soft as he looks up to their teachers curiously. “Is it too soon?”
The questions have everybody going quiet, the only sounds coming from the computer, as they all turn to stare at Suhwan amazed, save for Sookhyun who’s too busy pouting at the computer screen in front of them. Why was this awards show so long?
“You spoke?” Jaesun speaks up after a few minutes of silence, Suhwan easily turning red at the attention on him.
“Of course he speaks,” Sookhyun mumbles as he finally leans away from Suhwan to go grab his jacket on top of his bag across the room. “He speaks like the rest of us.”
“The sarcasm in that sentence,” Seungheon drawls out with a proud smile on his face. “I approve.”
Sookhyun turns back to them with wide eyes, already holding his jacket in his hands. “Huh?”
“I’ve just never heard him speak so much before so willingly,” Jaesun says in response, still staring at Suhwan amazed. “Speak again.”
Suhwan flushes even more, looking down to the ground as he mumbles, “Are we allowed to eat while we watch this?”
There’s a bright smile on Jaesun’s face as he quickly turns to the teachers, “Can we? We’re not exactly on a strict diet yet, right? You can’t refuse him!”
Jiho rolls his eyes at the requests before quickly grabbing Minseok’s arm and shoving him in the direction of the hallway. “Go order some chicken or something. Not too much though,” he eyes the group again briefly, “You’re returning to dance practice for another two hours after this and doing some late-night studying.”
There’s a collection of moans and groans before EXO suddenly appears on the screen, Jiwool reaching out to slap Min on the arm multiple times because – “Unnie! Look at Yeollie! He’s on the screen!”
“Ow! Ow, Jiwool!”
“Look at them!” Jiwool continues before her hand is suddenly caught by Min’s and she holds it down just as Junmyeon appears from the mass of EXO members. She instantly quiets as she stares up at the screen. “Oh.”
The change in atmosphere is noticeable, Min and Jaesun looking over to Jiwool worriedly as Minkyung sighs softly next to them. And then Junmyeon is leading the group in Mandarin and Jiwool and Min think it’s weird. Even Jaesun, Seungheon, and Hyemi know it’s weird. The group looks off-balanced.
Wu Yifan led them last year and Kim Junmyeon is the one leading them this year.
Jiwool’s heart clenches as she hears Junmyeon speak, Min squeezing her hand next to her. “Yixing looks like he’s about to cry,” Min softly says, both of them wondering why they never stayed up the extra hour or two to see all the highlights and their friends’ performances.
“You two can’t let this affect you when you debut,” Minkyung advises as EXO finally leaves the red carpet and another group makes their way for it. “Events like this happen and there is no way to tell what the future holds for your friends and SM Entertainment.” They don’t notice her worried stare directed at Min.
WINNER appears next, and they hear Hyemi chuckle lightly at seeing Minho on the screen. The distraction has Jiwool and Min coming out of their sad thoughts to focus on WINNER and they turn to see Hyemi’s amused stare directed towards the computer. “Of course he’d wear a leather jacket.”
Seungheon laughs at the comment, looking to her with a teasing smile on his face. “Isn’t that his style though?”
“Yeah,” Hyemi simply agrees, trying to ignore his teasing like she does with her family, as she focuses on WINNER’s interview. It isn’t any different from other interviews she’s seen, but she somewhat expects Minho to say something small or do some weird hand gesture just because that’s something Song Minho might do during interviews. She almost laughs when the interview ends and he looks confused, trying to decide whether to go ahead and lead them off the red carpet or not.
“He looks cool,” Sookhyun comments as he clutches onto Suhwan’s arm. “Is he?”
“Nope,” Hyemi instantly answers, laughing when Sookhyun releases some type of squawk in protest. “He’s not that cool.”
“Nice to know what type of friend you are,” Jaesun jests back, laughing when Hyemi turns to whack him on the arm. “It was just a comment!”
Suddenly, Minseok enters with his cell phone high in the air as if he’s carrying a trophy. “Chicken has been ordered and will be here momentarily!”
“Wait!” Min suddenly exclaims, causing those around her to flinch at her outburst. She looks away from the group coming onto the screen to look at the instructors around them. “What did you say earlier?”
The three give her a look before Minseok speaks up first. “Chicken will be here shortly?”
“Not that,” Min waves off, giving their choreographer an apologetic smile before looking to the other two in front of them. “What did you two say?”
“About what?” Minkyung questions back, tilting her head in her confusion. “That you and Jiwool need to settle your concerns with those EXO boys before debut?”
That makes Min falter for a second, Jiwool frowning at the simple request, before shaking her head again. “No. Prior to that.”
The other two look at her confused, only remembering talks of chicken and practice, before Jiho looks to her surprised, a smile slowly forming on his face. “You mean when we said we’re going to try and get you on that stage at the end of the year?”
“That,” Min says with relief, smiling up at him happily.
The instructors immediately get what she means while the rest of her band mates look at her oddly. “What does that have to do with anything?” Seungheon questions loudly, staring at the rest of his friends to see confused frowns and pouts on their faces as well.
Jiwool seconds his question, turning to Min and shaking her shoulder gently. “Unnie. What are you talking about?”
Min’s smiling at all of them now, and for once, Suhwan is smiling brightly as well just as quickly with Sookhyun looking at him just as confused. “We’re debuting in nine months,” Min announces when nobody else speaks up, knowing Suhwan probably wouldn’t. She then looks to the computer screen. “In eleven months, we could be there. We might be on that red carpet, anxious and excited to perform on that stage.”
That stuns the rest into a more awed silence, Jiwool’s eyes widening in shock before slowly turning to watch as several artists come and go on the red carpet. She thinks Min’s thinking process is still weird, and she can’t believe it. “In nine months?” she whispers, disbelief evident in her voice. She suddenly feels tears well up in her eyes. Is she going to cry? She lets out a rush of air when she feels a hand plant itself on her free shoulder and shake her. When she looks around, she sees Jaesun smiling at her.
“We’re finally debuting,” he quietly tells her, knowing exactly how she feels.
They’re the two who have possibly trained the longest out of the whole group, even longer than Junmyeon in Jiwool’s case. She’s hitting her eighth year and she thinks Jaesun is exactly the same. She trained at SM Entertainment for five years while Jaesun trained at Jellyfish Entertainment for five years. They were the same and they were finally going to achieve their dreams.
Jiwool smiles back at him, reaching up to grab onto his hand too. “We are,” she murmurs back, smile brightening when Jaesun’s does. She chances a look at Seungheon who’s looking incredibly happy too, and her smile widens. He’s hitting his seventh year of training, originally training with CUBE Entertainment for five years as well. She looks back to her teachers in front of her and they’re all smiling at them proudly.
“You’re going to be ready,” Minseok announces directly towards them – they’re like his own siblings – before looking to the rest of the group, “You’re all going to be ready.”
“Now,” Jiho quickly says afterwards, smile turning into a small, annoyed scowl even though they could all tell it’s heavily forced. He points his thumb in the direction of the screen behind him. “Focus on this. There’s going to be a leader and co-leader and various spokespersons. We need you to learn as much as you can from your future seniors so you know what to do within the next three months when more staff is hired to help you with this.”
Hyemi looks up to him shocked. “Wait, what?”
“You didn’t expect us to do your makeup and clothes, did you?” Minkyung questions back with a smirk on her face. “You also need teachers to help prepare you and help you memorize song introductions and everything.”
“We’re going all out on you guys,” Jiho reminds them, annoyed scowl turning into the rare frown heavily laced with concern on his face, “The CEOs chose all of you for a reason.” He turns to look to the screen afterwards, releasing a soft sigh when he hears knocks coming from the hallway signaling their food has arrived. He takes a quick look back to see Jiwool already massaging her ankles again.
co-author's note: WE'RE BOTH IN THE PHILIPPINES AND THE INTERNET IS SLOW (except for this website??? which is weird??) AND THIS CHAPTER HAS BEEN TYPED UP SINCE AT LEAST A MONTH AGO. PLS FORGIVE ME BECAUSE I DIDN'T DO SO WELL ON THE TEST I HAD BEEN STUDYING FOR THE PAST TWO MONTHS. otl is anybody else bad at standardized tests? ;; anyways. we didn't know how to quicken this trainee period to finally get to their debut, but author and co-author has found a way to speed it up because we think you all know all our characters do is train for hours on end and have little meet-ups with their idol/non-idol friends every once in a while ;u; but i need to create part of a new layout for the next chapter to work so... the story might be updated again when i go back to the states on august 10 ;u; just to keep everybody updated~
maybe AT THE MOST, 5-7 more chapters will be posted of their trainee period. and then it's debut time!
question of the day: did you guys read the extra parts of the fifth chapter? i created little extra scenes for every character and their friends, meeting up after a while ;u;
ps. yeah, leaders haven't been decided yet. i was thinking maybe having a vote between all the creators later on? idk yet though ;u;
updated: july 21, 2015
maybe AT THE MOST, 5-7 more chapters will be posted of their trainee period. and then it's debut time!
question of the day: did you guys read the extra parts of the fifth chapter? i created little extra scenes for every character and their friends, meeting up after a while ;u;
ps. yeah, leaders haven't been decided yet. i was thinking maybe having a vote between all the creators later on? idk yet though ;u;
updated: july 21, 2015
created by -catalyst
〈 ♞ 〉i swear i'm going to spam this entire story with new chapters by september/october! ( 1 aug 2017 )
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