“Okay it’s official. They hate us,” Haru collapsed on to the floor of the dance studio and lay spread eagle on her back staring at the ceiling, feeling the sweat on her face roll down the sides of her cheeks.

It had been almost two months since Haru started training, and with the first monthly evaluation day looming ahead of the trainees like a storm cloud, today was the third day in a row that the three original members had snapped at the new trainees.

“They don’t hate us. They’re just stressed out like us…” Yoonhee was leaning exhaustedly against the mirror, her breath shallow. “They were meant to be a group but now us three have barged in on that so it’s understandable.”

Haru sat up to look at Yoonhee, “Uh excuse me but, in what world does, quote Eunbi: “I don’t care how you perform in solo tasks, but for however long you’re able to stay as a trainee, I expect you to at least not bring down us three in group tasks”, NOT sound like hate?”

Areum was lying on the long bench against the back wall, her jumper covering her face. With a muffled voice she responded, “Eunbi is a , and we all know it.”

Haru and Yoonhee almost laughed at Areum’s unexpected comment.

“At least one of us agrees with me,” Haru lay back down on the floor. “I’ve never sweated so much in my entire life. Sometimes I swear Eunbi actively tries to make each day a living hell for us.”

“Well Bora hasn’t yelled at us,” Yoonhee offered. “She’s been pretty nice to us, if anything. She helped us a lot with this routine.”

“Fine. It’s just Eunbi and sometimes Dahye. Dahye can be really passive aggressive… I’m not sure which is worse,” Haru wiped the sweat from her brow with the sleeve of her oversized t-shirt.

“Dahye seems nice enough. I feel like as long as we don’t get in her bad books, we’re safe,” Yoonhee sighed. “I wish they’d stop being so cliquey though…”

“We’re new trainees that threaten her chances of debuting, we’re in her bad books by default,” Areum said through her jumper.

“I swear they both have personal vendetta’s towards me,” Haru groaned as she sat up again, curling her legs against the sides of her body and dropping her arms into her lap. “I don’t think either of them have even offered me one smile since we’ve gotten here. And last time I tried to say something to Dahye across the table she completely ignored me like I was invisible.”

“How do you sit like that? You look so cute. Doesn’t that hurt your legs?” Yoonhee attempted to sit in the same position as Haru and failed. “And, Dahye ignores all of us. Don’t feel bad about it.”

Areum had finally sat upright and wondered out loud, “Do you reckon the iKON members hate their new trainees too?”

“Probably,” Haru shut her eyes in exhaustion. She had a lot she wanted to say about the situation but her body was aching from the several hours of dancing and all she could think about was showering and falling into bed.

“It’s 5 past 2 in the morning. I say we call it a day,” Yoonhee walked over to help Haru up and began packing up the dance studio.

“We have to be back here in less than 5 hours… The gods are testing us,” Areum lamented and slowly stood up to help.

“I don’t think I’m ready to be told I by Eunbi for the fourth day in a row,” Haru said bitterly as she picked up her jumper and the three shuffled out of the dance studio, switching off the light as they left.

“Stop. Stop. Stop.”

The music was cut and Haru, mid-move, felt the dread beginning to boil in the pit of her stomach as she watched Eunbi rise from her spot against the mirror. Here we go…

“Did you guys even practice properly last night?” Eunbi’s hair was knotted into a bun on her head, and she crossed her arms after tucking the loose strands of hair behind her ears, eyes burning holes into the three new trainees.

“Unni we were here till 2 in the morning practicing,” Yoonhee spoke up, her hands folded politely in front of her.

“Is that so? Then why are all three of you still off the beat in the exact same part I mentioned yesterday?” Eunbi continued to stare, her voice hard and relentless.

Dahye and Bora sat along the bench and watched without saying a word.

“We’re sorry…” Yoonhee apologized with a small voice. Beside her Areum had her head bowed down.

“You should be. You all look like robots. How is that even possible? In case you forgot, the monthly evaluation is tomorrow. Didn’t I tell you not to drag us down with you? And Haru-” Eunbi faced Haru, “-you have the most work to do before tomorrow. Your steps were still messy and you made two mistakes. I don’t think you’ll be getting much sleep tonight either.”

Haru nodded silently and chewed her lip in frustration.

“Look, we just want you guys to perform well tomorrow. Making a first impression is extremely important,” Bora’s voice broke the silence, obviously making an effort to dissipate the tense atmosphere. “Just, do your best.”

Beside her Dahye continued to pick at her nails and refused to offer any words.

Eunbi sighed loudly, “It’s 11 o’clock right now. You all have plenty of time. I don’t care how tired you feel and how much you don’t want to practice, I expect flawless dancing tomorrow morning. You have the video, so watch it and get it right.”

And just like that, Eunbi gestured towards the other two girls and they left the dance studio, leaving the three new trainees standing in their positions.

The studio was deathly silent after the three girls left and the remaining three continued to stand, their heads buzzing.

Haru spoke up, “Sorry guys. I need to practice way more than you two.”

Areum and Yoonhee both shook their heads, “It’s okay. We’re all at fault.”

For the next two hours, the three girls poured all their concentration into learning the steps from the top and focusing in all the difficult parts, dancing until the soles of their feet ached and their legs felt wobbly.

“You two should leave and get some rest. I need to just reconsolidate that last part, so I’ll stay back for a bit longer,” Haru said, eating a red bean bun.

“Are you sure?” Yoonhee looked at Haru worriedly. “We can stay and help you,”

“No really, it’s fine. Just go, you’re all exhausted. Plus Eunbi said I had to work the hardest,” Haru waved off Yoonhee’s offer and tried to smile.

“Alright, well don’t stay too late. Sleep is equally important…” Areum reminded Haru, before her and Yoonhee left the dance studio.

On her own, Haru continued to practice the parts she made mistakes on, using the video of the original three members as reference.

When she finally collapsed onto the floor, having repeated the same part over ten times, it was already 2:40 AM.

This is as good as it’s going to get, Haru thought to herself, her breathing ragged and clothing soaked in sweat.

She packed up the dance studio and left, heading down the corridor towards the stairs. Just as she was about to leave, she heard music playing in the distance and the sound of someone rapping over the top. Someone else is still rehearsing? Haru followed the music to a small practice room. She carefully peered over the top of the frosted glass on the door to see who it was.

Hanbin’s profile came into view, as he continued to practice a rap with his eyes closed unaware of her presence. Beside him on the table were two cans of energy drinks.

Haru watched him, taken by his dedication. Does he eat? It looks like all he’s had are those energy drinks… She looked down at the plastic bag of food from the corner store in her hand and had an idea. In the practice room next door, Haru grabbed a pad of sticky notes and wrote a few words:

Energy drinks are bad for your health.

   You should eat if you’re going to rehearse this late.  

                                                       - Haru

She stuck this note to a packet of sweet bread and together with a yogurt, placed it outside the door of his practice room. Satisfied with herself, Haru finally left the training building and headed back to her dorm.

The next morning, Haru’s alarm woke her up at 7 AM and the restless four hours of sleep she had seemed to do more damage than good, as her head throbbed ruthlessly.

The six girls ate breakfast and arrived at the training building at 8.30 AM for a final rehearsal before the monthly evaluation at 10 o’clock.

As the girls got ready, Haru left the dance studio to go fill up her water bottle at the drink fountain situated at the very end of the corridor. When she had finished doing so, she screwed on the cap and turned around to leave only to walk right into somebody’s solid chest.

“Oh I’m so sorry I wasn’t paying-” Haru started to apologize but trailed off when she found herself face to face with Hanbin, “…attention…”

Hanbin was in a black cap, a grey hoodie and black slacks with one pant leg rolled up mid-calf. He was staring right at her and Haru found herself averting his eyes once again and looked down at his Nike sneakers instead.

“What the hell is this?”

At the sound of his voice Haru looked up and saw him holding the yogurt she had left outside his practice room earlier in the morning.

Hanbin continued to look down at her, his head slightly tilted to one side and his eyebrows knitted together.

“A… a yogurt?” Haru responded lamely, trying to look somewhere other than his face but he was standing so close to her, there was nowhere else to look apart from the ceiling. Haru didn’t realize how tall and menacing Hanbin was until now, and she hated herself for noticing that he smelt great.

Hanbin ignored her comment and asked coldly, “What do you want?”

“A bit of personal space would be nice…” Haru said quietly, visibly uncomfortable with the proximity of Hanbin.

Hanbin didn’t move away and with the same tone continued, “I hate yogurt. And are you and I friends? No. So stop with the school girl act and mind your own business.” With that, he the yogurt into Haru’s hands and left her standing there, backed up against the drink fountain.

Haru straightened up and watched his back receding down the corridor before turning into one of the dance studios.

She looked down at the yogurt and scoffed, “You could have just said you didn’t like yogurt, you prick.”

Haru tossed the now warm yogurt into the bin next to her and returned to the dance studio where the girls were about to start.

Fifteen minutes before 10 o’clock, Manager Park showed up at the girls’ practice studio and drove them over to the YG Headquarters. Haru sat in the very back of the van with Yoonhee and drummed her fingers nervously against her knees. This would be the very first time she’d perform live in front of President Yang and the thought of him being disappointed with her made her stomach somersault in fear.

“Are you alright? You seem incredibly anxious,” Yoonhee noticed Haru fidgeting constantly.

“Yeah I’m fine. Just really nervous…” Haru laughed weakly.

“Me too. But don’t worry, your part sounds great in the song. Also you killed the dance this morning at rehearsal, even Eunbi had nothing to say,” Yoonhee whispered comfortingly.

Their van pulled up outside the entrance and as the girls got out, a second van pulled up behind them.

“Oh my God. I think our monthly evaluations are done with the boy trainees,” Areum put a hand to . She immediately began fixing her hair in the reflection of the car window.

Great, thought Haru. It’s not enough that President Yang is there and the rest of the girls are there, iKON just have to be there as well. 

The two groups greeted each other, made their way down the stairs to the right of the lobby and filed into a large practice studi