"I have a proposition for you, Da Shin-ssi." Hu Da Shin wondered momentarily if he was hearing correctly. After all, it wasn't every day that the CEO of SM entertainment got calls from someone on the Forbes List…and even rarer when it was the CEO of a medical company. Another CEO of an entertainment agency made sense. An advertising CEO was also feasible.

But Choi Ki-ho, Chief of Boryung Medicine was, for some unexplained reason, calling him. At….Hu Da Shin looked at his clock. 10:45 at night. Well, that was…unprecedented.

"May I ask what type of proposition?" Da Shin asked, voice groggy. He'd lain down to sleep almost an hour ago. He'd been just on the edge of distressing himself enough to enter into the dark abyss of sleep when he'd received this infernal call.

From a medical company guy.

"I want you to produce a boy band." Hu Da Shin rolled his eyes.

"I already do that every year. And?"

"I don't want just any boy band." And here it was. He wanted some sort of super boy band that would sing, dance, score on the charts, and at the same time, promote his company. Hu Da shin was already slowly coming to realize what this proposition was. The big CEO would sponsor a boy band, and in return, his company would get worldwide recognition. Hu Da Shin was already readying his response in his head, when Choi Ki Ho interrupted his thoughts.

"I want a boy band that will fail." He said, and Hu Da Shin blinked. Wait, come again? "I do not want any of those popular things end up on the top charts or any sort of ridiculous spectacle like that. I want failures. The biggest, strangest, most untalented things that have auditioned for your company. I want you to put them out into the world, and then watch them fail."

"What?" Hu Da Shin felt his eyebrows furrowing, and wondered if this all wasn't one big, and very weird, dream. Or a prank call. That made sense. It had to be some sort of candid camera thing. "But…why?"

"I am not sure if you are aware of this, but my son has been accepted into Hanyang University. Are you familiar with that school?"

"Hanyang…isn't that one of the top five—"

"Yes. Yes, it is one of the top five Universities in the country. I will tell you another thing. He was not only accepted, but he was given a scholarship in honor of his taekwondo. I do not know if you knew, but my son is an exceptional taekwondo fighter."

"I did not know. But…congratulations. I'm sure you must be proud."

"I was."

"Okay…so what does this have to do about your failing boy band thing again?"

"I will tell you. I just finished having a long talk with my son, and it appears he has aspirations a little different from what my expectations are."

"Huh?"

"He has announced his desire to simply turn down the f**king best opportunity of his life to FREAKING SING AND DANCE LIKE A F**KING FAIRY."

"Um…excuse me?"

"Oh, so sorry. It appears I lost my composure a moment. I meant…he has decided that he would like to F**KING…sorry. Please allow me a moment."

"Um, go ahead."

"All right. I will say it. He has decided to reject the scholarship and University attendance in favor of following his dream of being an idol star." Hu Da Shin could hear the contempt in President Choi's voice, and gulped nervously.

"Well, that ."

"Why, yes. Yes it does. And it appears that no amount of convincing or pleading will change his mind. This is why I decided to ask for your assistance. I wish you to  put him in a little boy band like he so desires."

"O…kay. But don't you think it would just be better to warn all the companies not to accept him?"

"I thought of that already. But I already decided against it. There is no way I will be able to bribe every company in and out of korea, and with how determined he is, I have no doubt that if he doesn't find success here, he will try the foreign markets. I do not have the power to control him in this way. So I hae decided to give him his little dream. He will have the debut he so desires. But I do not want it to last long. He has a little more than one year before he starts at Hanyang. That is more than enough time. I want that f**king gay band to fail so miserably that that miserable excuse for a son never even f**king thinks of putting his @$$ into this f**king theater mess again."

"Um…I don't know if I can…"

"Three million. That's what I'm offering. Take it or leave it." Well, Hu Da Shin didn't think twice. You didn't just say 'no' to that kind of money.

"Inside or outside of production costs?"

"Outside." Hu Da Shin felt his heart leap.

"Fine. We'll do it. But…how do you want me to do it? Surely he will know the gig is up."

"This will stay a secret between us. Even the members of the band, your producers, my son…everyone is to believe that it is a legitimate band. But it is you that will choose the members…I want them awful, but not so bad that people will suspect my plan. I'm sure you will be able to find relatively decent looking idols with no talent. That shouldn't be too hard on you. Just look at your reject lists. I'm sure they're teeming with names."

"Um, yeah, but…"

"If that is all, I will leave you to your work. I have other matters to attend to. Farewell, Hu Da Shin-ssi. It was nice doing business with you. I hope we can see each other again in the in the near future."

Hu Da Shin wasn't sure he returned the feelings, but the phone line went dead before he could object.

---

                He didn't need to spend all that much time in the reject room. He went into that cabinet first. The cabinet full of the most serious rejects the company had seen. He examined about fifty to one hundred files, before finding the perfect few.

                He'd decided on twelve rejects. After all, that would make thirteen in total. Thirteen was an unlucky number. More than that, company research showed that small groups tended to succeed more frequently than larger groups. With a large group, the fans weren't able to tell the difference between one or the other…and if they managed to find a "bias", they'd be doomed to see him in just the smallest of clips. Dividing screen time between three or four idols was already hard. Imagine with thirteen.

                As far as the name went…it would have to be something stupid. Something that made them look like unprofessional children, right from the outset. Then as for the type of music…it would have to be that kind of classic pop thing that was just coming out of popularity. That would be perfect.

                Hu Da Shin grinned to himself. Coming up with a failure of a boyband was a lot funner than he'd expected it to be.

---

                Hankyung grinned as he saw the results of the audition. He hadn't actually been planning on getting in. Who had ever heard of anything so ridiculous? The heir to the Chinese mafia, becoming a silly boyband member? Hankyung laughed at the thought.

No, his little audition hadn't been for that purpose, but instead to please his fiancée, Yi Fan. He had never seen a girl more obsessed with Kpop than that one. She lived talking about how she wanted a boyfriend that was part of a kpop band. Finally, as a present for her birthday, he'd tried out.

The purpose hadn't been to get in. The purpose had simply been to show her that he was willing to do anything for her. And it had worked. She'd been immensely happy at his little gift, and he didn't even have to spend one cent on her.

Hankyung hated spending money.

"Bao bei." He said, phone pressed to his ear. His face stayed expressionless, but his voice adopted a whining tone. "I didn't get in."

"Oh, that's okay, Jagi-ya. There are a lot of people that try out. But don't worry, you'll always be my number one!"

"Aw, Bao bei. You always know just what to say." He crooned, his face still lacking expression. "You're right. Maybe I'm not an idol star, but I'll always be your idol star."

"Well, I wanna throw up. How cheesy can you get?" Hankyung blinked, stopping in his tracks. He turned in the direction of the voice, and blinked again.

He'd just been dissed by a homeless person. He took in the figure sprawled lazily over the dirty cardboard mat, makeshift blanket of newspaper only half covering her long legs. Her baggy sweater seemed covered in stains, and draped over it was a huge, garish, purple coat that looked like it was made of some sort of fur. Her pants were some sort of torn up, stained plaid pajama, and a ragged baseball cap shaded her face.

"What the….what are you even wearing?" Was the first thing he was able to say. "It looks like you killed the purple people eater and made it into a coat."

"Shut up. I found it in the trash. It's warm. Don't judge."

"Oh, I'm judging. Aren't you worried about catching fleas from that thing?"

"I'm good, thanks. I'd rather catch fleas than freeze to death. But, just so you know, I've been using it for about three days, and I haven't had fleas yet, so there."

"Wow. Congratulations." Hankyung answered drily, looking her over. She looked up at him, and he finally saw her face. He blinked. She was….freaking gorgeous. What the heck was she doing on the street? "Where are your parents?"

"Gangwon do." She answered. "I'll be back there in a bit, but first I have to find some way to get money for a bus ticket, so I'm stuck where I'm at. You don't happen to have some cash on you, do you?"

"That's what all hobos say. And then they take your money and buy drugs."

"Do I look like a drug addict to you?" The girl looked at him with an irritated expression.

"Maybe."

"Oh, shut up. Look, I might be homeless, but that doesn't mean I don't have pride. Unlike you, I have some standards I use in living my life."

"What? Unlike me?"

"Yeah. Or did you not hear yourself just now, as you were talking to your girlfriend?"

"What? What does my girlfriend have anything to do with this?" Hankyung asked, and the girl adopted a mocking aegyo tone to her voice.

"'Oh, baby, I'm your only idol. Hugs and kisses!'" The girl imitated. "Have some self-respect, please."

"Oh, because you—"

"And what was with your face as you were doing it? Completely monotone. Are you a robot or something? If you're gonna talk like an idiot, you should act like it, too."

"Stop judging me. At least I'm not some homeless drug addict."

"I don't do drugs." The girl answered. "and I'd rather be a homeless drug addict than a lover boy without pride."

"What's your name?" Hankyung asked suddenly.

"What? Why?" The girl blinked.

"So I can give a warning to the locals about the crazy that resides on their streets."

"Oh, take a shower." The girl rolled her eyes. "Tell me your name, first."

"Hankyung." He answered readily.

"All right, fine then. I'm Heechul. Kim Heechul. I'm gonna be famous someday, so you'd be good to remember it."

"Don't worry. I generally tend to remember delusional crazy homeless addicts that insult me on the street."

"And I'll remember you," Heechul grinned. "You can be sure that when I'm a huge idol, I'll make sure to tell all my fans about your immense help when I was homeless an helpless on the street,. I'll describe in elicit detail about how I was so very cold and hungry, and instead of giving me anything, or even just giving a kind word, you insulted me and degraded me because of my socio-economic status."

"No, I insulted and degraded you because you started it, first of all. Second of all, you're delusional if you think you're ever even going to have one fan."

 "I already have a bunch, thank you very much. A lot more than you. You have, what, your girlfriend? Wow, good job. That's an amazing career you got. Congrats."

"Shut up. Don't you have trash to dig through or something?"

"You shut up. Go have fun with your girlfriend and leave me alone." Heechul retorted, and Hankyung decided it wasn't such a bad idea.

"Okay. I'll do that then." He turned away from her, and walked away. He was about halfway down the alleyway when he heard her sing.

"I'm a new soul
I came to this strange world
Hoping I could learn a bit about how to give and take.
But since I came here
Felt the joy and the fear
Finding myself making every possible mistake

La-la-la-la-la-la-la-la..."

Hankyung looked over his shoulder. The strange girl was seemingly oblivious to him, looking up at the sky, and bobbing her toes to and fro.

Well, crap. It looked like she did have some talent after all. He turned back around, pulling out a coin from his pocket and flicking it in her direction. It landed just a little short of her hand. She looked at it curiously, and then at Hankyung.

"What's that for?"

"You performance. For you to remember me by when you get famous." Hankyung smirked.

"It'll take a lot more than that to win a memory from the great Kim Heechul." She grinned back, challenging him.

"How's about this, then?" Hankyung walked closer to her, bending down into a crouch in front of her, bringing his face close to hers. He brought it closer, and closer. Heechul tilted her head, watching him curiously. He brought his lips a paper's breadth from her own, and she closed her eyes. He grinned. This is what he was waiting for. He took a twenty from his pocket, and pressed it to her lips.

She opened her eyes in surprise, grabbing the bill. By the time she could say anything, Hankyung was already up and striding away.

"Moron." Heechul scoffed, but tucked the money away in her pocket. "I bet he thinks he's cool."

---

"So it's been decided." Hu Da Shin announced, spinning around in his chair. Lee Soo Man felt a twinge of nervousness at his boss's tone. Da shin was practically glowing. That was not normal. "We're going to be producing a new boy band. Its name is Super Junior. The profiles of the members are inside. Their debut date is going to be in two weeks. It would be good if you started making the necessary calls."

"What? Two weeks?" Lee Soo Man's eyes bugged out. "With so short notice? Do they even have a concept? A song? A choreographed dance?"

"No, but don't worry about those things. I trust that you'll put them all in order ahead of time."

"Wait…do these kids even know they're about to get their debut? Who are the kids, anyways? Are they the kind that can adapt to news like this quickly?"

"They don't know anything…but don't worry. It'll all work out. You can call them today, if you like. That'll help the process go a little faster." Da Shin's eyes veritably gleamed. He'd never liked this upstart producer, and this was the perfect opportunity to make his life hell. "And—Soo Man? If they by any chance…fail. It's on your head, you know that, right? So don't fail." He directed an icy gaze at Soo Man, and the producer gulped nervously.

"Oh…okay."

"So, good luck with them! Now, better get to work." Hu Da Shin advised. "Time is short."

Lee Soo Man swore he could hear the CEO laughing evilly as he left the room.

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meh. a boring chapter, but it gets the pieces in place, so the next ones are gonna be better as we see a little more of our favorite band members being...well, them! X)