There’s probably 100 hands all over her. At least according to Hayi, that’s what it’s like.

She’s at a complete stand still as the crew surrounds her with fiddling hands busying themselves with attaching mics, powdering her face, doing touch ups to her hairdo, etc. etc.

The girl is kept captive as she stares blankly at the mirror before her, noticing that these people are a mixture of her close staff and of unknown faces. Hayi doesn’t even know why she’s there and what exactly she’s suppose to do. She holds a stack of cue cards full of questions highlighted here and there and frowns. She ponders if she could somehow sneak out of the place without notice and just avoid the possible embarrassment. But she’s wearing heels five inches too tall and any escape route through the window is not an option.

“Ten minutes til we air!” A voice roars from the sudden opening of the dressing room door, snapping Hayi into realization that she’s going to have to wing it.

A hand pulls her tiny self and leads her to another room. This one is much smaller with nothing but cameras and large fixed lighting glaring down to cast an obnoxious spotlight. She receives no time to prep, but is handed a mic and given a wink by the head PD who for god knows why, had decided to put trust in her to MC this thing.  

Hayi smiles warily in return, hoping that her concerns are disguised. She glances back down to her cards, where everything written looks like a bunch of gibberish. Why YG chose her out of all people to host this event was beyond her comprehension. Anyone’s guess was as good as hers.

“Annyeonghaseyo~” A bustle of low toned voices greet as footsteps grow close.

She lifts her head up and catches the stares of seven very familiar faces that contribute to the newly debut iKON. And while she was approached with some reassuring smiles, she couldn’t help but see the playful giggles of a rabbit toothed rapper and the overconfident tall June. The seven bodies swarm her way, contorting themselves to match the limited space provided. But arms are pushed against the other and feet accidentally step over here and there. Hayi folds herself to the best of her ability to steer clear from the traffic jam of testosterone beings.

Junhoe finds his friend dwindling away at the end of the corner and so he places his hands atop her shoulders and guides her to an area ‘safe’ for her to stay in front of him. He pushes his hyungs off to the side an inch or so with his tall frame. Hayi takes awhile to adjust her balance. She turns to thank the singer for the help, but bites her tongue when she notices him teasingly mouthing ‘munchkin’ at her. And so she purposely steps on his brand new J’s instead, receiving a slight nudge by the boy in return.

To her immediate side is the other mischievous member, who decides to play around with her hair. What was once a perfectly tied up ponytail, which was carefully attended to by her stylists is now coming undone and is barely hanging on for dear life. The staff is glaring at the American boy trying to make him stop, but Bobby is just too absorbed in whipping the thing back and forth like a tetherball to notice that his actions aren’t exactly praised upon.

In comes Hanbin who bows his head an infinite amount of times who then pulls Bobby’s hands down from the girl’s hair before receiving a pout from the older one as his ‘game’ comes to a stop.

The equally small Jinhwan enters with a soft smile while Chanwoo and Yunhyeong follow toe in toe glued to each other. Lastly, Donghyuk flows on in and disregarding the route that the others had systematically made out, the young boy flies on by, walking past the hyungs before claiming the vacant spot to Lee Hi’s other side.

Hanbin’s about to lose his at the youngster’s actions, preparing to recite a long soliloquy of some sort of how Dong Dong can’t just come in and walk wherever he wants to...he’s suppose to follow them perfectly as planned. However, Donghyuk was always a little too happy to focus whenever it came to Lee Hi sunbaenim. Hanbin had taken note of this ever since the Mix & Match days when the guy had a little too much fun practicing with her cut out when she was unavailable. But Hanbin stopped when for a second, Hayi’s confused face falls to amusement. She welcomes Donghyuk’s unconventional self with a high five before taking note of the countdown beginning.

She reads through the interview questions exactly as written down on the cue cards. Junhoe behind her notices her robotic self and decides to liven up the atmosphere by mimicking her slyly.  

Hayi knows that something is up by the obvious sounds of a chuckle coming from Bobby who always had a hard time covering up his mouth. Determined to push through, she ignores the noises and finishes up her part.

Despite the tricky questions, Jinhwan easily takes charge and answers, making Hayi’s job much easier. Yunhyeong shoots a sly reply here and there, but his puns are dismissed as being corny by the staff behind the scenes. The boy is baffled at how difficult they are, not even trying to pretend to enjoy his humorous lines. Chanwoo tries to console the member, patting him gently on the back while still holding onto the cackle that is threatening to come out of his mouth.

June and Bobby have joined in and began to ridicule the lip balm lover for his fail much to the annoyance of Hanbin who is struggling to keep the kids calm and collected.

Dong finds himself at a standstill, wanting to give his own two cents about the topic but is troubled by the fact that the microphones given are being hogged by the hyungs. One remains in the hands of Jinhwan, where it rightfully should likely stay, while the other is equally shared by the laughing duo to his side...who he fears would likely jab him with it. So the boy stays quiet with a distraught face as he continues to have a debate in his own mind.

Jinhwan’s soft eloquent voice thankfully is heard above the clamor as he figures that he’s just about the only one in this. Hayi sends him a grateful glim as she can always count on the eldest of the group to stick to the agenda when the others fall through the cracks and have their minds stuck in the gutters.

Hayi has no clue how she’ll live through this chaos, but she continues onto the second question:

“The fans would love it if you could teach them the main dance point in your new song Rhtyhm Ta.”

With the hyungs’ decision, Donghyuk comes forward with a slight smile, his time to shine has finally arrived. With precise lines, he draws his arms out and swings them while matching the wave with his equally sharp body rolls.