Siwon was a little dubious about this new group. When he'd given up everything to be in a boyband, it had been a very educated decision.

Of course it had been.

After all, he had been thinking about the decision for a long time. It had been something that had plagued him for years. This endless struggle between pleasing his father and following his heart…it had been a constant struggle since he was little.

But when he'd seen that movie…High School Musical….it had just spoken to him. He didn't need to worry about what his father, friends, family, anyone thought. All he needed to do was follow his heart, and it would all work out in the end.

So he'd looked up the most popular entertainment company, and gone right there first. To his surprise, outside of one heated fight between him and his father, that was the extent of the problems his family had given him.

But now he was starting to get a little….doubtful about this company. Okay, fine. He was quickly put into a boyband…but why wasn't he the leader? In his opinion, that made the most sense. He was the most…um….anyways. He was the best candidate for the job.

Way better than this leader that didn't even want the job. What kind of guy turned down an offer to debut as the leader on a boyband of the best entertainment in Korea? Was he crazy? What was he thinking?

------

Leeteuk sat moping in his room. What had he done? He was crazy. What was he thinking? How long had he wanted this? How long had he wanted his debut, his precious fame, everything?

It had not been a dream of a couple weeks, or even a couple months. He'd wanted this for years. More than that—he hadn't just wanted this for years, but he'd been practicing, working, living, and breathing this dream for years. It had been his only goal, and he had worked until collapsing every day for this.

And he had thrown it away in a bout of pride. Silly, useless pride. And now, it was too late. He hadn't just turned it down, he'd told off the producer. Now, even if he changed his mind, even if he called the producer saying he'd changed his mind, he was sure the producer would never accept it. He looked at the phone, playing with the idea in his mind.

No, he wouldn’t call the producer. He already knew how that would go. He'd get told off, called bipolar or something, and immediately rejected.

Again.

No, he wouldn't call. His chance was already over. He didn't need yet another person telling him that he'd never become famous. It was time to give up on his dreams. That was it. It was done. No use getting worked up over it.

Leeteuk felt the tears fall down his cheeks, and he fell down in a graceless pile on his bed, letting the tears fall.

-------

Siwon looked over at the other bandmates, getting that worried feeling again. Donghae and Eunhyuk had become fast friends….but in a sort of weird way. They were listening to music in the back of the van, giggling and making weird noises.

Were they three or something?

Ryeowook was sleeping, head resting on the window, wrapped up in a power ranger's blanket. Siwon didn't actually have a lot of hope in that one, either. The kid looked like one of those types that got stage fright and sang in a tiny little hesitant voice that no one could hear. And his specialty was supposed to be vocals? Was he kidding? Siwon was sure that wasn't going to go well.

And the last worrisome one…was sitting next to him, a pet turtle.

"Um, hey." Siwon said, attempting to make small talk. "What's your name again?"

"Yesung." The kid didn't bother looking at him, attention fixed on his turtle. Siwon bristled. Well, that was rude. He should look at him as they were talking.

"Oh….Mine's Siwon."

"I know."

"Ummm….what do you like to do in your free time?"

"Read. And run."

"Oh…that's cool. Were you on a team or something?"

"A reading team?"

"No! A running team!"

"Oh. No. I just do long distance stuff."

"Okay. I also like to do sports and work out."

 "I don't. I just run. I think people that do lots of sports have less braincells."

 What? Did the weirdo just…insult him? "What? Did you seriously just say that?"

"Yeah…say, do you like turtles?"

"Not particularly."

"I thought so. I don't think we're really ever gonna be friends. Sorry about that."

Siwon furrowed his eyebrows, looking at the strange little man. Yeah. This was not normal. These people were crazy. He didn't know how he was expected to work with them.

He turned back to Donghae and Eunhyuk, who were giggling over something again in the back. He decided to try talking to them. Maybe they weren't as bad as he'd originally thought.

"Um, hey." He tried.

"Hey!! Did you know we like the same singer? His name is Luan Santana. Do you know him?"

"Uh…No."

"Oh. Do you like fish? Aliens? Comics?"

"Not…really."

"Oh…okay, then." They turned back to what they were doing, suddenly very uninterested. Siwon blinked at them, at a loss. Was he…getting left out? Because he was normal?? What even was that?

He knew it was the right thing to follow his heart and be an idol. I knew that. It had been such a moment of clarity, it seemed like it was God giving him a sign that it was what he was supposed to do. And he wasn't one to turn down a sign from God.

But then why was nothing going like he'd planned it?

--------

Heechul sighed. Sure, she'd told that producer guy off on the phone. But it wasn't like she was actually going to turn down the opportunity of a lifetime just because of a thirty dollar bus ticket.

The only thing she needed to do was get the money. She considered working, but quickly threw the idea away. It would take too long. First, she needed to find a job, then she needed to get hired, then she needed to work however long, and then she needed wait for the pay check to come. Yeah, no. that would never work out.

She wasn't about to ask her family for money. The money situation was tight as it was. The tiny family farm didn't make a whole lot of money, and even less this year, that went through some droughts and cold spells. All of the money she'd made from her little factory job had gone to supporting her large family.

The big problem with her family wasn't even that it was so big. The problem was that it was big and useless. Her parents were hard workers, but there was just no way for the tiny farm to make enough money to support all of Heechul's five brothers and sisters.

And as far as the siblings went, they were pretty useless. Heechul was the solid middle child, with three older sisters, and two younger brothers. Her older sisters were each more useless than the last. Her oldest sister was the responsible type, and had helped out a lot when she'd been home, but recently, she'd gotten married and moved out to Tokyo. She got all stuck up, then, and never again talked to the family. Probably embarrassed by the family's financial situation, which was light years behind her husband's family's situation.

The second daughter was nice enough, but had never really gotten the whole "budgeting" thing. She'd always seemed to spend more than the family could take, and now that she'd gotten married, it had just gotten worse. Almost every week, she and her (equally spendthrift) husband came home JUST to ask for money from Heechul's parents.

The third daughter was one of those classic spoiled princess types that never lifted a finger to do anything. She had gastritis, and so could only eat certain foods. On top of that, she had a low blood pressure, so she couldn't ever work for too long. And she liked it that way. The less time she spent in the sun was more time she could spend in front of the mirror, working on her perfect makeup and taking endless selfies.

Heechul's younger brothers were fourteen and eleven. The fourteen year old was in a reckless phase, where he didn't want to help out in anything, but instead wanted to spend all his time in parties and vandalizing. More than once, angry neighbors had gone to Heechul's parents, demanding money for the repairs of their property that he'd damaged. Yet another expenditure that they didn't have money for.

The eleven year old was basically your classic eleven year old. He helped, sure, but it wasn't with much, and only after a lot of nagging and threats. He'd much rather stay playing with his little Nintendo, than helping out on the farm.

So, that left Heechul to support everyone. Yup, the family was doomed. Looking at Heechul, you'd never call her a 'hard worker.' She looked a bit like a spoiled brat, and didn't seem to have the ability to take literally anything seriously. When she was in her high school days, she'd had many friends, but had always been both feared and admired for her strange, yet charismatic personality.

When she was younger, she was the one that snuck into the bus through the window, so she wouldn't have to pay the fare. She was the girl that skipped out on home economics so she could play poker behind the school building with the boys. She was the girl that accepted every heartfelt gift from her many suitors, but never gave so much as a kiss in return.

Wild, uncaring, crazy, the ultimate enigmatic figure of the town, she was the one who was supposed to be the most responsible in her house.

Luckily, she had something she liked more than anything else in the world. It was her sole motivator, and what drove her to actually grow up and be a responsible adult at times.

Money.

It was the thing she loved the most in the world. It actually wasn't about the bills, or about the smell of it or anything like that. But for Heechul, money was freedom. It was showing up the other girls in school, it was being able to have that special hat she wanted, and when she wanted it. It was being able to eat when and what she wanted to, and not have to worry about the cost.

That was what having money meant to her. So, that was why she started working for money at only twelve years old. At twelve, she was the busgirl at a restaurant. At fifteen, she was a waitress. At eighteen, she got a full time second job at a television factory. She wored day and night, but she at least had some of that money and freedom she wanted. Not as much as she would like, because she always seemed to have to dip into her stah to help out her needy siblings, but at least she had something.

Just that…she was getting tired of the whole thing. Working, working, working, and never having a better life. Her small earnings were barely enough to help her family, and this was with her working sometimes more than 60 hours a week.

So that was when she started to research how she could get an easier job, and paid a lot more. As she was researching, she happened to see her little brother obsessing over some girl's band. Looking at the embarrassing pink merchandise, she had a thought.

I can sing. I can (probably) dance. I'm drop dead gorgeous. Why couldn't I do that?

So she took her things, used her small amount of leftover money to buy a bus ticket to Seoul, and auditioned.

                She hadn't been expecting to get lost in that huge city. She hadn't expected there to have been so many people trying out. And she certainly hadn't expected to get rejected.

                But now tey were calling her back. She would get in. Just that….it was another bus ticket. Another big wad of cash that'd have to go down the drain. She looked at her small room that she shared with her princess of an older sister. Suddenly, her eyes were drawn to her cell phone, sitting on her bed.

                Well, there was an idea.

----

                Soo Man glanced at the rear view mirror, taking in the boys. Siwon was reading the Bible, acting as if it was the most riveting thins he'd ever read. At repeated intervals, he'd make tiny exclamations  "Wow!" "I never thought of that!" or "I can't believe he said that!" as if he was reading some sort of crazy interesting action novel. But it was the Bible.

                Nuts.

                Soo Man looked at the other boy, Yesung, who was sporting an injured lip. During the trip, he'd become so enamored with his little turtle friend that he'd tried kissing the little guy, and had ended up being bitten. It had been hard and stressful, detaching the little beast, and afterwards, Yesung had put the thing in his turtle home, and decided on doing something else. Now he was drawing ninja turtles all over his arms and legs.

                Nuts.

                Donghae and Eunhyuk were trying to sing in some sort of foreign language that Soo Man was pretty sure was made up.

                Nuts.

                Ryeowook was awake now, and muttering to himself quietly, thinking no one could hear him.

                Nuts.

                They finally reached their destination, and Soo Man told everyone to stay in their seats. The majority of them stayed put, but Siwon got out, looking over the normal townhome with disdain.

                Soo Man rolled his eyes, making his way to the door. He already had practiced this conversation about a hundred times in his head, but hadn't had all that much success yet.

                "Hello, Leeteuk. I would just like to start by apologizing. I know that maybe you were offended by some of the company's attitudes towards you…I don't really know what they were, but maybe it has something to do with mediocre. You kind of mentioned that a lot."

                "Hello. I'm here to give you lots of money to convince you to be famous."

                "Hello there. You know, I don't think you're mediocre. I think you're…awesome. And…um…"

                "Hello. Um…"

                Nothing had really worked out in his head, but he knocked on the door anyways trying to control his nerves. He waited for the kid to open the door. And waited. And waited.

                Finally, when he was just about to go back, the door opened. Leeteuk stood there in his pajamas, eyes red from crying, and cheeks wet with tears. His hair was matted on some sides, sticking up in others; with a little hair tie pulling up the top strands into a wacky little ponytail that stuck straight up.

                "Um…hello?" He said, voice obviously groggy from sleep.

                "Uh, hi. My name is Lee Soo Man. I'm here to convince you to accept our proposition. Leeteuk. We need you. You need to be the leader of this boy band. It can't be anyone else. Do you accept?"

                Well, that was a crappy speech. Lee Soo Man winced, bracing himself for rejection. Leeteuk looked at him a long, long time.

                Finally, he let out a girly shriek of excitement and happiness. "KYAAHHH! YES YESYESYESYESYESYEYSYES!!" He gave Lee Soo Man a huge hug, and a kiss on both cheeks. "Thank you thank you thank you!" He gave a little twirl. "Let me get my things! Thank you so much for giving me another chance! Thank you!"

                He went bounding up the stairs, and Soo Man was left blinking, lost.

                Wasn't this the guy that had told him off that very day? One second, the kid was rejecting him brutally, and the next, he was twirling like a ballerina with a mental problem and thanking him?

                Yup. There was no doubt about it. All of these guys were Nuts.

----

                Siwon looked at Leeteuk, who was still in his pajamas, but hurriedly shoving his suitcases into the van. His eyes glowed, smile filling his features.

                But this wasn't what Siwon was expecting. The leader needed to be manly. Mysterious. Responsible. Commanding.

                But this was him? A ridiculous, angel faced girly guy wearing pajamas and making a fool out of himself? This was supposed to be the leader of his group?

                Siwon looked from the new leader to Soo Man, who was talking to himself, to Donghae, who was giving the leader a giant hug, to Eunhyuk, who had tripped over his own feet and was unsuccessfully trying to get up, to Yesung, who was his turtle yet again, to Ryeowook, who was looking hurriedly from one person to the other like a trapped mouse.

                Yup. They were screwed.

________________________________

So Leeteuk has joined in!! Yay! Now it's just convincing the other guys :)

Thanks for your comments, I love getting them :)
If there's a specific part or character you like, that you want to have more screen time, please just comment, and I'll try to get them in there this next chapter :)
Thanks again, and hope you have a good time reading!