It took us about two weeks of work to get the choreography right. There were several factors that slowed us down. For one, Hakyeon liked choreographing with everyone present, and people got tired of doing tiny variations of the same moves over and over. Another issue was that I had never choreographed for more than two or three people. Six was awkward because there was no center, but we needed to find ways to feature whoever was singing. Luckily, Hakyeon was actually brilliant at this. I wanted to keep the choreography precise, but not physically demanding. ‘Error’ in particular was meant to feature their vocal ability, and I didn’t want them huffing while singing live due to exhausting dance moves. I also insisted on having them interact with one another more than usual. That was mostly just because I wanted them to. Ravi even had the brilliant idea for Leo and Ken to sing back to back, as a subtle throwback to our brutal rehearsals.

At that point it was September. I made it a point to visit Taemin on a regular basis to keep tabs on his health and well-being, but eventually all of his fellow SHINee members returned to take up that role once again. Even after that, though, I made sure he kept in touch. I also met with GD on several occasions, and was given the distinct pleasure of meeting his two younger members. As advertised, the three of them were adorably close, none of them shy to push or pull each other. Seungri, the youngest, had a habit of draping on his friends like a scarf. Daesung, the middle child of the group, was one of the giggliest and goofiest idols I had met so far. All three of them stressed how excited they were to work with me. It was emotional manipulation, but it worked. I had all but signed a contract promising my contribution to their next album.

After some discussion with Jellyfish’s director of choice for the music video, I would essentially help with the video as an artistic consult and then as an editor. It was a decent compromise. I had handed over all of my storyboards, and filming was scheduled to start in a few days’ time. The choreography was done, but the boys rehearsed for several hours of the day. Once it was time to put on portal mics and sing while dancing, we ran into some trouble. Since they had to dance and sing simultaneously, I couldn’t use my silly tricks to force them to do what I needed. That meant we had to work through it the hard way- constant practice.

I got frustrated long before they did. As they continued rehearsing in the practice room, I simply lay on the cool hardwood floor, looking up at the ceiling. They were certainly improving, and I was proud of them, but it was hard for me to not step in and help when they needed it. Unfortunately they needed to hash this out themselves, so I simply lay there as they did their best to time the choreography with their admittedly complex vocals.

My eyes were closed when I felt someone drop next to me. I cracked one eye open to see Hyuk sitting there next to me, “Hi Mira,” he greeted with a little wave.

“Hey Hyukkie,” I smiled a little, opening both my eyes to look at him properly, “You guys are sounding much better.”

He laughed, his wide smile a familiar and welcome sight. “We’ll be ready,” he said confidently.

I squirmed, propping myself up on my elbows to look around. All of the guys were resting on the bench seat along the back wall, except for Hyuk of course. “Break time?” I asked him.

He nodded, looking over at the rest of the members as well, “A short one,” he said, a bit weary. I collapsed back onto the floor, resting an arm under my head. Hyuk and I stayed together in silence as the boys recovered for yet another run through.

The next few days passed just the same. Hyuk had been right, though, they were more than ready once the production team announced that they were ready for us. It had been explained to me that we would film everything in one go, and they had a solid 48 hour block booked just in case we needed. This seemed perfectly normal to VIXX. “Forty eight hours?” I asked N incredulously.

He shrugged a little, “I would say average is thirty six.”

I shook my head, but it wasn’t my call, “Well, alright then, let’s do this.”

There was one last thing to take care of before filming began. A trip to the hair salon was in order to exert my will upon the poor boys’ hair. We made a trip of it, Ken driving us as usual. “Mira,” Ravi leaned in to speak quietly to me in my usual spot between him and Leo.

I turned to look at him, and he had removed his beanie. I had almost forgotten that he had any hair at all, that hat had become such a permanent figure on his head. It had grown out a bit since he had to buzz it all off. I reached up with a smile and ruffled the little tufts that were there, “It’s enough,” I assured him.

He seemed to relax a little, “If you say so,” he grumbled before sitting back in his seat. I felt eyes on me, so I turned to find that Leo had been watching us. When I met his eyes, the corner of his mouth twitched up a little in a smile. His concern for Ravi and his vanity was rather touching. I couldn’t help but remember that day Leo had carried him down into the studio in order to recover from the grief of losing his precious hair.

“We’re here!” Ken announced loudly from the driver’s seat, causing Leo and I to break our eye contact to look out of the van. We all made our way out of the vehicle and into the salon which had been closed down in preparation for our arrival.

I met with the stylist, but the boys were having none of it. “We want our hair to look like hers!” Hongbin called from behind me, pointing to my fiery hair.

Rolling my eyes, I shook my head, “Closer to maroon,” I corrected, pointing to Leo’s already dyed hair, “Maybe a bit more muted,” I decided. All six of them were corralled and sat down at their respective stations.

“Should we do yours, too?” one of the stylists approached, prodding at my rather unruly hair.

I laughed nervously, “That’s alright,” I began to back away a little, but I heard N call from his chair where his stylist was already washing his scalp.

“Come on Mira!” he goaded me, “If you match us, we could put you in one of the posters or something!”

His logic was sound, but I was reluctant. Despite being an American musician, I had managed to avoid having to do anything drastic to my hair. At least it would still be red. “And you said I was vain,” I heard Ravi call from farther down the line.

I sighed angrily, defeated. Ravi did know me well. The challenge was made, and I couldn’t back down now, “Fine,” I relented, and the stylist lit up in excitement.

“I’ve never worked with hair like this!” she exclaimed happily. That didn’t make me feel better. She must have felt my tension, “Don’t worry,” she tried assuring me, “I promise you’ll like it.”

I was lead to yet another salon chair, and I let myself surrender to the treatment. Calling me controlling is admittedly an understatement. I preferred the word assertive, but it didn’t change the fact that having someone else being able to single handedly change something about me made me a little uncomfortable. I took a deep breath and did my best to let it go as the young woman began to wash my hair.

Eventually I was able to relax, having the six members of VIXX there was like having a security blanket. If I felt anxious, I would just listen to Ken and Hongbin’s silly banter. Eventually they were all finished, their short hair playing to their advantage. They all pulled chairs around mine, and even convinced the stylist to turn me around so I couldn’t peek in the mirror at every opportunity. The scissors came out and I nearly panicked.

Thankfully, none of them laughed at me. Instead, Ken scooted closer to me, “I know you said you don’t want to be in the video and stuff, but do you think you’d be willing to appear on stage with us?” he asked me hopefully.

It was strange for Ken to be so sincerely suddenly. I identified it was to distract me, but it was working. His question was intriguing, “But you guys have the choreography down already. Throwing me in the mix isn’t going to help.”

“The dance intro!” Hongbin sat up, “You can be in that, for sure. It’ll be a cool intro.”

“Piano,” Leo said, sitting up a little himself.

Hakyeon snapped his fingers, “Brilliant, Taekwoon, we can have her replace Hongbin in the dance intro then she can play! It’d be an amazing comeback performance.”

I was beyond fighting at that point. They all seemed pretty enthusiastic about the idea. With a sigh, I once again gave in to their silly idea, “Clear it with management,” my voice defeated.

They continued to scheme together as I relaxed again, doing my best to ignore the butchery that was happening to my hair. Eventually, it was all over, and I opened my eyes to see all of the guys staring at me. Once again I began to grow anxious, but before I could move, the stylist turned me around.

It was pretty amazing, I had to admit, how such subtle changes had made such a difference. “I feel like a Disney princess,” I said with a little laugh, breaking the silence. It was certainly darker, but the biggest difference was the usually unruly ringlets that had been neatly set into gentle, larger curls. Not much length had been taken, just enough to clean up the ends. She had even trimmed the shorter pieces around my face, making more deliberate layers. This young Korean woman had put my stylist back home to shame.

“It should last about three months,” the stylist sounded perkier than ever, turning me back around to the rest of VIXX. They were still quiet, all with various expressions of surprise.

“Wow,” Ravi finally broke the silence, “Good job,” he turned to the stylist, giving her a little thumbs up.

The dam broken, they all began to speak at once, “No way they’ll turn down putting you in the photoshoot for sure,” Hakyeon said confidently as we began to gather our things to make our way out. I thanked my stylist profusely, and she simply grinned back at me, clearly satisfied.

Eventually we managed to get everyone back in the van and drive back home. Each of them insisted on feeling my newly minted hair. I felt a bit like a dog. Regardless, it was actually quite adorable how easily impressed they were. The salon had been a nice break, but the video filming would commence the next day.

Jellyfish Entertainment drove us and the crew to a nearby warehouse for filming. When we walked in, I was honestly impressed. They had really taken my storyboards seriously. It was like my imagination had been built into reality right in front of my eyes. As the management was coaching the boys on the daily procedures, I walked around the sets. There was the laboratory set, the futuristic living room of sorts, and then the large open geometric space intended for the primary dance sequences. Lastly an area with a green screen was available for individual shots.

“Mira,” I heard a voice call to me, so my exploration ended for the moment as I jogged back to where everyone was waiting. The director introduced me to the actress. Apparently she was also an idol, but she was understandably more interested in her counterpart Hongbin than in me. “I got these just as you asked,” a member of management handed me a little package.

“What’s that?” Ravi popped up, peering at the little box in my hands.

I laughed a little, “You’re not going to like it,” I warned as I opened it. There were several sets of colored contacts inside. I heard them all groan when they saw them.

“Contacts again?” Ken whined as he peered over my shoulder. “At least they look pretty cool.”

I handed them all a case of them, “Let get this bit over with while you’re all well-rested so you don’t get redness.”

The director approached me again once I had sent the boys away to get their contacts in and their makeup done. “If everything goes well,” he began, looking around the set, “The effects team should be able to get the CGI footage to you within twenty four hours of filming.”

“That quick?” I raised my eyebrows, “Impressive.”

He smiled graciously, “We did pre-prepare most of it; we just need the green screen shots.” He and I surveyed the set again in silence before he spoke up again, “I’m grateful for the opportunity to work with you.”

The compliment was rather sudden, so I just looked at him for a moment before speaking, “Likewise. I think our aesthetic preferences are well matched.” It was a true statement. His directed videos honestly helped push me to make the decision to work with VIXX in the first place. It gave me hope that this process would be relatively smooth.

Nodding, he looked back at the corner with most of the cameras and equipment, “Good luck,” he said to my before turning and walking towards the rest of the crew.

The boys filed out, herded towards the green screens by members of the styling team. I quickly made my way over to them, and was pleased with the results. The light blue circuit board contacts looked great. We had gone with a relatively simple design for their makeup- just a few lines to suggest plates, with some dark spots for screws. It was a nice compromise, and I could only hope I could make it look right in post processing.

We filmed them one by one, mostly just different angles and expressions. I did have them sing though the chorus and a few verses just in case I wanted to do some cuts with it. Especially Ravi’s rap. It was the joy and burden of being the editor in the end. I knew I would end up with all this footage and I probably would only end up using 1% of it for the final product. I had Hongbin go first so he could get his makeup redone and get going on the drama portions of the video, which I had pretty much 100% delegated to the Jellyfish director.

I was on the third run through of Leo’s cut when I noticed that his makeup wasn’t quite connected. “Cut, cut,” I said suddenly, stepping out onto the set. Leo looked at me, eyes slightly narrowed, clearly agitated. “Oh don’t give me that look,” I said with a little laugh, “You’re doing great, you just have a smudge.”

One of the stylists tossed me one of the pencils they had used. “You’re going to fix it yourself?” he asked me quietly, his voice was odd, though. It was almost as if he was afraid for me to touch him with the soft pencil.

Shaking my head, I looked up at him with a little frown, “Don’t trust me?”

He sighed, “Go ahead,” he relented quickly, turning his head cooperatively when I gently touched his chin. He was still and quiet as I carefully wiped away the smudged bit that went from the corner of his eye to his temple. As I was filling the line back in, I couldn’t help but notice he was still watching me out of the corner of his eye. It was slightly eerie with the contacts in, but I still smiled at him.

“They suit you,” I mentioned as I touched his face to get a better angle again. When I saw his eyebrow twitch, I continued, “The contacts, I mean.” This garnered no response from him, he just continued to watch me. I brushed his hair aside momentarily to get better clearance. Thankfully he was able to stay steady as I redrew the line. “Good as new,” I said, taking a step back after replacing his hair just as it had been.

“Thanks,” he murmured, looking away.

We got through another take and I went to check the monitor. “What?” I said to myself, peering down at the image on the screen. I turned and walked back towards Leo, and sure enough, he had another smudge. “What did you do?” I asked him as I reached up to push his hair away again.

“Do what?” he asked me shortly, clearly he had no idea what I was talking about.

I sighed, “It must be your hair, but your lines are smudged again.” Shaking my head I took his chin in my hand again, guiding him so that I could fix it quickly. I had to do this after every take until we finally got through the sections I wanted. Leo ended up taking way more time than usual, but luckily the rest of the boys were off doing their other solo lip synching parts so the time was no wholly lost.

Nearly twelve hours had passed and we were taking a break. I understood then why we got 48 to work with. We essentially had to shoot the entire video six times for most parts, each with camera focus on different members, some in different outfits, on the different sets, etcetera. I was used to multi-set videos, but having the six members to cycle through made the process much more tedious. We were reviewing footage on the monitor while the sets were being cleaned up. I sat in my little folding chair while the boys were gathered around me. Hyuk draped over my shoulder, clinging to me loosely. His face was right next to mine so he could get the best view. “How is it looking, Mira?” he asked me.

“Pretty good,” I said slowly, “it’s always hard with this stuff because I won’t know how it will really look until I get it on the computer.” I sighed, thinking, “Do your computers in the dorm have software, or will I have to edit in the studio?” I turned my face slightly to see him, but he shrugged.

“Mine does,” Ravi spoke up, and I twisted to look at him. He was holding something in his hands, inspecting it.

I narrowed my eyes at it. It looked like a piece of wall insulation or something, “Wonsik what is that?” I finally caved in, asking him directly.

“Not sure,” he said, but looked up at me with a grin, “but now it’s my hat.”

I leaned back, shrugging Hyuk off of me as I snatched the thing away from Ravi, “No it is not,” I asserted, handing it back to him.

He pouted, “Please?” he asked. When I simply stared at him, he continued, “My hair still looks stupid.” I looked at the thing again. I had no idea how he thought that was a good idea.

“You should just let him,” N said with a sigh, “or else he’ll whine about it all day.”

Reluctantly, I agreed, but only under the condition that it was only for solo spots. Soon enough, we were fed and then filming started again. Thankfully the drama sections had gone smoothly, and the actress was allowed to go home. Hongbin seemed pretty pleased with himself, so I trusted it went alright. I wouldn’t be able to properly judge until I got my hands on the film.

It was finally time for the group dances, and I took my seat, ready to settle in for the long haul. Since the official video would be an extended version of the song, Jellyfish had wanted me to get enough material to also produce a dance version of the video in case fans didn’t want to watch the drama each time. It wouldn’t be difficult in an editing sense, but it would be rough on the boys, since I would need to film the entire choreography on each of the three open sets. I promised to use as much overlap as I could. Thankfully this was a serious song. I’m not sure if I could have asked them all to be smiling throughout this painstaking process.

The twenty four hour mark approached, and we were all exhausted. I was taking a quick break, grabbing a snack from one of the tables when I heard a commotion from the set. When I turned around, I saw something that I really shouldn’t be surprised by anymore. On set, Leo had he knee on Ken’s chest, pressed to the ground. This time, though, no one was laughing. I ran over, but Hongbin stopped me, “You should probably sit this one out,” he said quietly, stepping between me and the commotion.

“What happened?” I asked him, trying to peer around him.

He rolled his eyes, “Jaehwan hyung made an inappropriately snarky comment,” he said with a little sigh. “Everyone is tired, so they’re both a little cranky.” Shaking my head, I tried to push past him, but Hongbin simply grabbed me in his arms, holding me still, “Let N handle it,” he said seriously.

Giving up, I relaxed a little, and he let me go. “You win this time, Hongbin,” I gave him a little half smile, and he returned the gesture. Reluctantly I slunk away, sitting back in my little chair behind the monitor, reviewing some more raw footage while I had the opportunity. As Hongbin had promised, N resolved whatever stupid conflict had erupted between my two main vocalists. I wanted to recommend an extended break, but we were almost done. The decision was made to press onward.

There was an uncomfortable tension for the rest of the shoot, but luckily the guys were professional enough to keep it off screen. However, every time there was a break, a heavy awkwardness aded the set. At long last, I made the call. I had enough footage. “Let’s go home, guys,” I approached them, trying to smile, but I was met with flat, tired faces.

When it was time to drive home, I shuffled the cars around so that all of the guys except Ken were in on car. They were clearly confused by my choice, but I simply dragged Ken with me to one of the other vehicles, pushing him to the back seat with me. Once the doors were closed, he let out a long groan, “I already know what you’re going to say.”

“And what is that?” I challenged, watching him carefully as we began to drive.

He huffed and looked away from me, out the window, “I shouldn’t pick fights with Leo hyung,” his voice became nasally and a few pitches higher as he spoke.

I laughed a little, causing him to look at me curiously, “First of all, was that supposed to be your best Mira impression? I thought you were supposed to be good at them.”

It wasn’t hard to see he was trying hard not to smile when he spoke again, “I am good at impressions. It sounded just like you.”

Shaking my head, I pressed onward, “That wasn’t what I was going to say, anyway, Jaehwan.” When he said nothing, looking away, I continued, “I was going to ask if you were okay,” I softened my voice considerably, craning around to look into his face.

His brow creased as he looked at me. “I’m alright,” he finally sighed, his shoulder slumping.

“So will you tell me what happened?”

“I definitely stepped over the line with Leo,” he started, glancing out the window, the sun rising again. “But he overreacted, too.” It was always so strange to see Ken get serious about anything.

“I don’t doubt it,” I chuckled slightly, trying to lighten his mood, “Everyone was pretty much working nonstop for over twenty four hours, I don’t blame anyone for getting a little testy.” I reached my arm out, gesturing for him to come closer. After a brief hesitation, he scooted closer, leaning against me. “You guys have some time to rest now while I work on all this stuff.”

He was quiet for a moment, “And then we’ll be ready to release?” he asked, tilting his head up a little to look at me properly.

“Yes,” I said simply. The implications were unspoken, but it was clear we were both thinking the same thing. My time here was coming to an end. We were quiet, Ken simply resting his head on my shoulder.

“I wonder what it’ll be like,” he mused quietly as he shifted to get more comfortable, “When you’re gone.”

I sighed a little, “I don’t know,” I answered honestly. I turned my head, pressing a light kiss to the top of his head. “You all better remember everything I taught you.”

“Yes, Professor,” he finally relaxed, that happy grin returning to his face.