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Another track begins, but it’s just a synthesizer-line, no beat, none at all!

“Hyung?” Taemin grabs Key.

“Wait”, Kibum says for everyone to hear into the microphone, „stay calm.“

Just like Minho before he seems to reach the crowd as well as he reaches our Maknae. Although there is still chaos people slow down to look at the stage and I can see some are even stepping back from the exits, making room. They rely on us, on Taemin, on Kibum, on all of us.

“What’s happening now?” an officer asks me as if I know.

“We’re waiting for the beat”, I tell him, “he needs the beat to dance.”

And while I’m saying this I wonder what will happen if there is none. How does this actually work? Are there sensors in Taemin’s shoes that react to the pressure of his steps and the pattern, and if they don’t match the beat one of the bombs detonates? Is there a specific order to which bomb goes off next?   

“We don’t really know how this works”, I say, “but there is a connection and if he doesn’t dance on the beat there will probably be another explosion.”

Everybody on the stage is staring at Taemin’s shoes now. Kibum holds his hands. He’s also drenched in sweat and white as a sheet. The taser-attack certainly didn’t help. But he doesn’t stagger anymore.

“Come on ”, Jjong hisses next to me, “give us a beat.”

The blinking lights turn to red. Oh God, there will be another one.

But right then the beat sets in. Kibum immediately counts:

“Five, six, seven, eight ...” and they start dancing before the blinking stops, just in time.

After a second the lights turn green again.

Everybody exhales but this can’t go on.

Kibum lets go of Taemin’s hands and just keeps dancing beside him. It’s an easy beat again but I bet the long intro was on purpose to make it as nerve-wrecking as possible.

The officer in charge uses his walkie-talkie to contact the bomb-squad that apparently is already working on numerous devices across the place.

“Song Hee-Dong here, how are you doing?” he asks, “how many are there?”

There’s a crackling noise and then the depressing answer:

“Chief, I’ve never seen anything like this before. There are at least 40 devices all connected but with additional individual triggers. It will take hours to disarm all of them. We urgently need back-up. You better call the army.”

There is good news too, though: with the help of the newly arrived police and paramedics the chaos slowly becomes organized again. They’re channeling people to all accessible exits. But a crowd of 15.000 is no joke. The stands are still at least half-full and the explosions have blocked some of the aisles. I see people scrambling over piles of rubble. And there are casualties to tend to.

I want to help but I feel I can’t leave Taemin and Kibum. Although there isn’t anything I can do to stop the explosions I can at least try to keep distractions away from my members to let them fully concentrate on their task.

Minho seems to have the same idea.

“We need to give them room”, he says to officer Song, “please just move away from the platform.”

Song doesn’t like to be ordered around. I can see that. But he can’t come up with anything useful either. At least he accepts our explanations.

We’re clearing the stage, leaving just Taemin and Key on the circular platform. It worries me a bit to see them that exposed but I guess it’s better right now.

Looking at Tae I think he has regained confidence he looks rather angry now, his dance-moves more energetic. While I’m watching he’s even ripping off the shirt he’s wearing, messing up his hair that lights up like a halo in the gleaming spotlight: every school-girls wet-dream, Lee Taemin, and this is not even meant to be seductive.

Jjong nudges me:

“Hyung, let’s try to be helpful.”

Right.

Minho, Jonghyun and I stick together and concentrate on what happens in the floor area. Most of the injured people have already been carried away. They are evacuated via the less frequented backstage exits. We remove all the barriers around the stage to let people escape through the passages below.

It doesn’t do much but still we’re making some progress.

Just when I look at the stage again to check on my boys the voice over the speakers returns.

“SO FAR I’VE BEEN GOING EASY ON YOU. BUT THIS SHOULD BE ENOUGH OF A WARM-UP. I GUESS IT’S TIME TO START THE REAL SHOW.”