01. Coming out

“A-ah, achoo!” sniffling, Bongjoon feels his eyes begin to water before the unfortunate boy sneezes again. After a series of rapid fire sneezes, Bongjoon eventually makes his way to his bag, where he rummages through it for a packet of tissues. Grabbing said object, Bongjoon drops the pack twice before manages to rip a tissue out and wipe his nose. Blinking away the tears in his eyes, Bongjoon balls up the tissue before attempting to throw it out. Watching as the tissue ball misses by a good thirty centimetres, Bongjoon sighs before getting up and throwing it out again.

Returning to his previous position on the floor near the corner, Bongjoon shifts his things further away from the dusty corner of the room and goes back to pouring over the lyrics in his hands. Reading through them in order to familiarize himself with them, Bongjoon eventually finishes memorizing them. Repeating them softly to himself in order to make sure he had them down, he jumps when he hears the practice room door open suddenly. There weren’t a lot of trainees at Yunrae – more than before of course, but the company was still relatively new – so Bongjoon hadn’t been expecting anyone to come in.

“H-hello!” Bongjoon says, tripping over his words. He smiles awkwardly at the intruder before waving hesitantly when he realizes who it was. “How are you today Chihu ssi?”

“Its night time,” Chihu replies simply, snorting at Bongjoon confused expression. “So technically it’s no longer today since you know, day means when the sun is – you know what? Forget it,” Chihu rolls his eyes. The older male settles down, leaning on the wall across from Bongjoon, and wrinkles his nose at the mess of papers around said boy.

“O-oh,” Bongjoon blinks, still not fully understanding the situation but deciding to let it go anyways. “So what are you doing here?”

“I don’t know,” Chihu shrugs. “The girl, what’s her name again? Seohyun? Whatever, she found me on my way to the washroom and told me to come here after I ‘relieved myself’,” Chihu imitates Seohyun’s higher pitched voice before rolling his eyes. “Don’t know why though.”

“Oh,” Bongjoon replies, and the two lapse into an awkward silence. Chihu pulls his phone out, scrolling through various social media, before deciding to play a random game he had recently discovered. Bongjoon on the other hand, fidgets with his sleeve and the papers in his hand, trying to think of a conversation topic to engage Chihu with. Everything he could think of however, was immediately forgotten when he looked up and met Chihu’s eyes. The older boy gave him a look which clearly meant, ‘talk to me and I’ll make you regret it’ and, for once, Bongjoon understood the social cue and stayed silent.

The two kept their silent truce for another ten minutes, the only sounds coming from Bongjoon’s papers shuffling and the occasional curse from Chihu when the boy made a mistake in his game. The tension in the air however, was soon destroyed with a simple noise. Well, not a noise per say, but a thump coming from the other side of the room – farthest from the door.

“What was that?” Chihu looks up from his phone, pausing it when Bongjoon speaks.

“What was what?” Chihu inquires, inwardly groaning at the spooked look on Bongjoon’s face. He didn’t particularly want to deal with the awkward boy in front of him, but to not deal with him was probably a lot more annoying in the long run.

“Didn’t you hear that? T-that noise!” Bongjoon reiterates, flailing his arms in an attempt at making Chihu understand. Judging by the unimpressed look on Chihu’s face however, the older boy was not having any of it. Luckily enough, or, rather, unluckily for Bongjoon, the thump was heard once again – followed by a scared squeal from Bongjoon and a shaky laugh from Chihu.

“What are you playing at?” Chihu raises an eyebrow at the younger, shaking man in front of him. “I ignored you and now you’re making random noises to get back at me? What are you? Twelve?”

“I’m not doing that,” Bongjoon stammers out, biting his lip when the noise is heard once again. “I think it’s coming from the storage closet.” The younger boy points nervously at the seemingly harmless closet near the back of the room. It was filled with various cleaning supplies – for when the trainees were done with practice – as well as a couple extra water bottles and towels. “A-are you going to go find out what that noise is?”

“Why do I have to do it?” Chihu retorts, jiggling his left leg slightly when the noise is heard again, louder this time. “Y-you’re the one that heard it first.”

“B-but!” Bongjoon is practically wailing at this point, tears in his eyes as his paranoid mind conjures up scenario after scary scenario of what could happen. “I’m scared.”

“Yeah well no ,” Chihu wrinkles his nose. “Anyone with half a brain could see that dimwit.”

“T-that’s mean,” Bongjoon manages to get out, blinking back tears at the hurtful words being flung at him.

“Well then prove you’re not stupid by going to check what’s in the closet,” Chihu replies, standing up and taking a couple steps away from the closet. Bongjoon stands up as well, although the scared boy decides to stay where he was. “So? What are you waiting for? Don’t you want to be cool and stuff?”

“Cool?” Bongjoon tilts his head to the side, not unlike a puppy, and looks at Chihu with slightly less tears in his eyes.

“You know, like super heroes and stuff. Saving the day by checking what’s in the closet,” Chihu explains, jumping again when the closet door seems to move. Normally he wouldn’t be this scared; if he had been with literally anyone else, Chihu would’ve walked right up to the closet and swung the door open. But Bongjoon was affecting him, with his scared demeanour and easily frazzled nerves. Besides, the multiple ghost stories he had heard circulating the company didn’t really help either – but it was mostly Bongjoon’s fault, so of course the younger boy should be the one checking the closet out. It wasn’t like Chihu was scared of course not; he was just trying to teach Bongjoon a lesson. What lesson he wasn’t sure of yet, but he’d figure that out when he knew what was inside the closet.

“But I don’t want to,” Bongjoon whines as a couple tears spill over. The poor boy wanted to be seen as courageous, like a super hero or whatever. He mainly just wanted Chihu to take his mean words back. But he also didn’t want to approach the scary closet and deal with whatever monster it was hiding inside.

“Well, I’m not doing it,” Chihu declares, sticking his nose in the air. “I’m leaving,” Chihu quickly slips his phone into his pocket, not wanting to deal with the spirit haunting the storage closet, and races towards the door.

“W-wait! Don’t leave me!” Bongjoon sniffles, struggling to collect all his papers and things before Chihu opens the door. Before Chihu could run out of the room however, he ran smack into someone else’s chest.

“Argh!” the disgruntled boy groans, falling to the ground. Chihu tentatively touched his forehead, wincing at the small bump that was starting to grow, before looking up at the offending giant he had run into.

“What’s going on?” the newcomer asks, glancing around the room and taking into account the tears running down Bongjoon’s face and the redness of Chihu’s face. “Did I hurt you?”

“Why is everyone so goddamn tall,” Chihu swears in response to the question.

“Junho hyung!” Bongjoon wails, shoving his arms into the air in a sort of greeting. “There’s something in the closet!”

“What?” Junho blinks, looking at Chihu for confirmation. The shorter boy nods begrudgingly so Junho switches his attention to that of the offending storage closet. It wasn’t like he didn’t trust Bongjoon, but the younger boy tended to blow things out of proportion so it was always smart to get a second opinion when dealing with him. Walking around Chihu, Junho slowly approaches the closet. As he stands in front of the door, Bongjoon and Chihu trails behind him, unconsciously gripping onto each other when Junho reaches for the handle. Right before he opens the door, the thump was heard again and the wooden panel swings forwards without Junho moving.

“Ah!” Bongjoon screams, smashing his face into Chihu’s chest.

“!” Chihu swears, half in surprise at the door opening and half in disgust at the fact that Bongjoon’s snot and tears had gotten over his new designer shirt.

“Taewoo?” Junho asks, staring at the form in front of him. Said male had practically fallen out of the closet, one arm awkwardly clutching onto Junho’s shoe while the lower half of Taewoo’s body was still inside the closet.

“Oh hey!” Taewoo greets, struggling to stand up. Reaching over, Junho untangles Taewoo’s left foot from the head of a mop and gives the other male a hand in getting up. Looking around, Taewoo waves at the shivering forms of Chihu and Bongjoon before turning back to Junho. “I’m glad you got me out of there.”

“What were you doing in there in the first place?” Junho replies calmly, despite the very weird scene he had just witnessed. It wasn’t every day that a fully grown man drops out of a closet, but Junho had long ago figured out that no trainee was normal.

“I heard someone say there was a ghost in the closet,” Taewoo starts explaining. “So I wanted to check it out. But then I got stuck in there and the door locked I guess. I tried to make some noise but no one came so I fell asleep. Then when I woke up my leg was asleep so I was trying to wake it up but I guess I somehow unlocked the door while doing so.”

“Get off of me!” Taewoo’s explanation is cut short when the two trainees turn to see Chihu shove a still shaking Bongjoon off of his form. The petit male looks down at his shirt in disgust, picking at the wet stains Bongjoon had left with a finger, before letting out a distressed noise. “Do you know how much this cost? You better pay for it – either that or dry cleaning because there’s no way I’m simply washing this.”

“Calm down Chihu,” Junho steps forwards, and the other boy gives Bongjoon one more glare before quieting down.

“Oh! You’re all here!” a happy voice exclaims, causing the boys to look up. “Well, not all of you, but I was only sent to find – you know what? At this point it doesn’t matter.”

“Hi Seohyun noona,” Bongjoon greets the female manager as she walks into the room. She bows, and the boys say their own greetings in return, before Seohyun stands a little ways in front of them. “How are you doing today?”

“Fine thanks Bongjoon,” Seohyun smiles cutely, causing Bongjoon to smile back, relieved that at least one of his attempts at social interaction had succeeded today.

“I’d say you look absolutely beautiful today noona,” Taewoo winks, causing Seohyun to brush slightly and wave her hand in front of her face. “But then again, you look perfect every day I see you.”

“That’s just implying she’s not pretty when you don’t see her,” Chihu points out, looking down at his nails at Taewoo’s cheesiness.

“It’s okay, thank you anyways aha,” Seohyun giggles awkwardly, hand still covering her face in embarrassment. “Anyways, I have some exciting news for you four!” Perking up at that, Chihu stops dramatically picking at his fingernails and fixes his attention on the manager in front of them. “So you’ve all heard about YRT2016 right? The new trainee project Yoo-nim is putting together?”

“That’s the project group where the trainees who are most likely going to debut will be joining right?” Taewoo pipes up. “It’s going to be split into boys and girls too I think?”

“Occasionally, there will be times where you’ll promote as co-ed as well,” Seohyun corrects.

“Promote? We’re going to promote?” Junho furrows his eyebrows. “Like pre-debut promotions?”

“Oops, that’s not for me to explain,” Seohyun holds a hand over delicately and giggles slightly. “But in any case, I’m just here to tell you four that you made it. The other trainees will be notified by the other managers.”

“Oh! Does this mean you’re going to be our manager?” Bongjoon asks, excited at the notion. Seohyun always treated him just a little nicer than the other trainees – she had a soft spot for precious things and Bongjoon had always reminded her of a puppy so she had taken it upon herself to help him as much as she could.

“I’ll be one of the managers of YRT2016 yes,” Seohyun nods. “This trainee project is a kind of test for us trainee managers too. If we do well in leading you guys then we’ll be able to become full-time managers when some of the trainees debut.”

“So we’re in this together,” Chihu scoffs. “If we screw up then you’re screwed and if you screw up then we’re screwed.”

“Y-you don’t necessarily have to say it like that!” Seohyun flushes a bit. “Don’t think of it so negatively, just think of it like, we’re collaborating together!”

“Whatever,” Chihu flips his hair out of his eyes. “Who are the other members of the trainee project?”

“Well there’s the original three, you know them,” Seohyun starts. Upon hearing Seohyun’s words, the rest of the boys nod at the mention of the ‘originals’. Chihu snorts in amusement, Bongjoon shivers slightly, Junho merely nods, and Taewoo grins happily. “And there are a couple female trainees that have been selected already – although that’s still a project in progress. The other trainees will be notified of their acceptance into the program soon enough, and then you’ll all begin training together by the end of the week.”

“Alright, let’s do this,” Junho declares, awkwardly yet decisively leading the other three men and an amused Seohyun into a group cheer. As the four boys break apart and Seohyun goes off to report her successful mission to Sanghee, a new face appears by the door. Easily walking past the joyful female, the new woman peers into the training room where the four younger boys were talking before smirking.

“And so it begins,” the woman mutters thoughtfully before leaving to go upstairs. She would come back later to check on the rest of the project members, but for now, she had some important business to attend to.