BEHIND THE SCENES

"What do you think the dorms will be like?" Inshik was all but bouncing in his seat on the bus. "Back in JYP it was all really cramped we lived with like 14 guys in one room it was nuts do you think that they're gonna put all 20 of us in one room because I don't think that would go over well that's too many people-"

"You're gonna have to breathe at some point, kiddo," Bomseok said with an amused smile to the kid next to him. He was a ball of energy that was for sure. Bomseok didn't really mind. If anything the kid reminded him of himself when he'd just become a trainee. "I sure hope they won't put all 20 of us in one room though."

"Speak for yourself, I've always wanted to witness a stabbing," Hugo contributed in that half-cheerful half-mocking way of his. Bomseok frowned but elected to stay quiet, he was too busy with his own feelings to spend the energy trying to decipher Hugo. He was excited about the chance to actually perform on stage, the thing he'd wanted to do since he was 14 years old, he'd finally get to appear on television in the store, the one his parents had installed when he'd just become a trainee, hoping to see him perform live one day. He'd finally make his parents proud! 

He looked out the window at the passing traffic, the rain was softly hitting the glass.

He'd made his choice, he was trying this whole crazy thing again. All he could do was try. 

In the seat behind them Seowoo seemed to be napping, using a neck pillow. Inshik turned around in his seat and opened his mouth to say something to him. "No," Seowoo said, without even opened his eyes.

Disappointed, Inshik turned back around toward Bomseok and happily continued chatting the older boy's ears off. Bomseok just looked out the window, nodding every once in a while when required and retreating back to his own thoughts.

"Here it is!" Jeongha had his face all but pressed to the window. The building was quite big and looked more like a studio than a dorm. This is where it was? Posters of Do or Die had been plastered onto the doors, so much for subtlety, but sure enough this must be it.

The boys all filtered out of the bus and ran into the building to avoid getting soaked. "Look!" Alex poked Ted and pointed at a sign with arrow-shaped markers pointing the various ways. 

"This building will be where you'll practice, eat, and sleep, and generally reside for the duration of the show," a staff member explained. "You'll be transported to the performance venue or any other places by the staff and then brought back here after. Bottom floor are the practice rooms and sound booths, upstairs are offices and dorm rooms. There are 3 rooms, one for the vocalists, one of the rappers, and one for the dancers. Please go upstairs and sort out the sleeping arrangements. Remember that from now on everything you do is being filmed. Listen to the staff and present your best faces to the cameras."

There was an air of nervous excitement as they made it up the stairs. Bomseok caught Hyuk casting a nervous glance at a camera installed on the ceiling but Changui just waved at it cheerfully. Bomseok himself glanced at it wearily, trying to memorise where they all were. 

To the show's credit, a fresh paint job and new furniture almost masked the fact that these 'dorm rooms' had previously been office space. On the front of the door was a sign labeling each of them as the  vocalist, dancer, or rapper room. Bomseok made his way to the rapper room, which opened up to show 2 sets of bunk beds and a matress on the floor. That was an improvement to the arrangements at Stardom where the trainees had slept on the floor together. 

Hanjin and Inho already claimed one of the bunkbeds before he got inside but Bomseok didn't mind. They were older anyway they had the right to claim first. 

"Hey wanna do rock, paper, scissors to see who gets to sleep where?" Jeongha proposed as soon as he got inside.

"You okay with that?" Bomseok asked Ted. Ted shrugged and held out his first. First round Ted won and plopped down on the remained the bottom bunk. Bomseok won the second round meaning Jeongha had to sleep on the mattress. He didn't seem to mind, cheerfully throwing his bag next to the mattress and letting himself fall down on it.

They were halfway through unpacking when Alex appeared in the doorway. "Hyung, did you find your t-shirts yet?" Bomseok looked over briefly but Alex was looking at Ted and not at him so he went back to unpacking the few things they'd been allowed to take with them, making sure to hide the snacks under the bed. He'd been here before, he knew what management was like.

"Hm?" Was all the response from Ted.

"The t-shirts! They should be in the boxes on the table. "Pants too."

True enough there were boxes of identical clothing on a small table in the corner with a note to the contestants that they must wear them at all times. Red shirts and black pants as well as name tags to be pasted on the front with their names on it. 

"Well they did tell us not to bring any clothes," Haneul piped in, leaning in the doorway in his own uniform. "Bit if a clue-in wasn't it?" It was pretty cool to see Song Haneul in person, Bomseok had only ever seen him on tv. He wasn't a fan or anything but his mother absolutely loved his dramas. Maybe he could grab her an autograph later?

A staff member came in then. "Time to hand in all electronic devices. As your contracts stated, you are not allowed access to the internet apart from challenge purposes." 

There was grumbling all around as they each handed over their phones and other electronics to the staffmember. Jeongha protested the most when he was made to hand in his favourite pair of headphones but rules were rules. Honestly it had been in the contract, what did any of them expect?

In the hallway some of the vocalists and dancers had gathered around a schedule board. "It's one week before our first live show," Yoonshik remarked, leaning against the wall a little behind the others. "That's a tight schedule." 

"Nothing I haven't done before," James replied casually. 

"Oh man we have to be awake by six?" Changui lamented in slightly accented English.

Hyuk shrugged. "Nothing different from normal, have you never trained before?"

Changui shook his head, "I've never tried anything like this before, it's really exciting, but also ouch 6AM." 

"We have to be ready by 6AM," Hyuk clarified. "We have to get up even earlier, depending on showers and makeup-" 

"There's a lot of nothing," Inshik said, staring at the board. Bomseok switched his brain back to Korean and looked at the board himself. It was true, there were only a few things scheduled in. Daily dance practice with Kangho, group evaluations with each of the judges were scheduled, but most of the schedule was blank space.

"We have to fill that in ourselves with practice," Geomi supplied. "They'll put us in groups and we decide ourselves when we practice and when we sleep. Which is all we should be doing. That's how they gauge our commitment."

"You've done this before right?" Bomseok asked. He'd heard of Geomi before. He hadn't watched Mix and Match, he'd been on his last year of training back then and way too busy, but he'd heard of it for sure.

"Yeah," Geomi said brightly. "I was eliminated then but it won't happen again!"

Bomseok laughed despire his mood. "I'm sure you won't."

"Do we have to keep wearing the rankings?" Seowoo asked one of the cameramen filming them. The man nodded and Seowoo sighed annoyed and pinned the #8 to his shirt. Bomseok couldn't help but feel a little proud of his own #2 rank. He shouldn't, the ranking system felt cruel to him, but he couldn't help himself. Second best rapper of the lot, that was a good achievement. Showed that his years of training didn't go to waste. Jiho would be proud. No, wait, no Jiho wouldn't be proud until he was #1. Kyung would be proud though. 

"Looks like there's a meeting in 20 minutes," Kyungtaek noted, nodding at the board where a slot did indeed say they were to meet Yeonhee in the main practice room at 22:00. "Come on, let's get the others we should get going."

Inshik yawned. "Aw but we just got here and it's late," he complained.

"Come on," Kyungtaek managed to get everyone together and heading downstairs toward the practice room. Halfway there they ran into a bewildered staff member who'd been on her way to fetch them. It reminded Bomseok of how much of a mixed bag they all were. Part of him thought it was very interesting. Part of him was apprehensive. So many different people, so many different personalities to mix with.

Time would tell how it would end up going. A melting pot of interesting people? Or a powder keg ready to explode. 

       
 
  "We've got the two best rappers in the show," Hanjin said. Kyungtaek refrained from pointing the fact that Hanjin's friend had gotten the lowest ranking for rap. Keep the peace at all cost. "We should do a hiphop song to show off our strengths."

Their team was sitting in their own room. Hanjin had the laptop while Inho, Yoonshik, Daebak, and Kyungtaek were gathered behind him to look at the screen. Hugo was sitting somewhat back. Kyungtaek knew some of the others had made judgements about him but not him. Hugo dressed and acted different but that didn't mean anything to Kyungtaek. He'd wait to see what his personality was like and how much effort he'd put into the group. 

"We should do something from a popular boy group," Yoonshik said. "The people watching this show will be in that demographic."

"Put popular and hip hop into one equation and one gets but one answer," Hugo said, leaning back against the wall, eyes forever smiling and still wearing his mask above the plain clothing they'd been made to wear. "Those boyscouts who happen to be bulletproof."

"Why would boyscouts have to be bulletproof?" Daebak wondered out loud. "Who is shooting at boyscouts?" It took a some moments of deciphering Daebak's strong Russian accent before Kyungtaek could process what he'd just sad. 

"Idol groups have ridiculous names," Inho remarked. 

"Oh it could be much worse, my friend," Hugo's eyes grinned merrily. "Best, Absolute, Perfect, setting quite a bar for themselves. Teenager Emoboys Emoticon Next generation Talent Object Praise, they just threw around meaningless words for that one. Boys of EAst Standing Tall, but then where does the 2 come in? Music Boys Live in Absolute Quality. I never quite understood that last one, do the music boys live in absolute quality, or do they perform live in absolute quality?"

The room was quiet after that, staring at Hugo a moment, before they all turned back to the laptop. Hanjin was already typing in BTS to listen to their songs. "BTS is good, they're crazy popular," Hanjin said. "Respectable rappers too." He nodded in approval. 

Even though Kyungtaek was the leader he was content letting the group members argue it out for now. He'd intervene if there was a problem but for now he didn't mind much what song they'd perform. 

"Don't they have very complex dances?" Inho said, concerned. 

Hanjin gave Inho a supportive pat on the shoulder. "Don't worry Inho, if Kim Namjoon can learn a dance then so can you."

Inho didn't look convinced. 

"By the way, Yoonshik," Hanjin started. "Aren't you that guy who's dating that actress? What's her name? Park Yoonmi right? Good catch she's a looker."

Yoonshik narrowed his eyes at Hanjin and opened his mouth to respond. Aaand that was his call. "So which of their songs should we do?" Kyungtaek asked, steering the conversation back on track. Situation nr. 1 avoided. One of the first things you learned while managing a group of young and stressed people was how to defuse a situation in under 3 seconds. 

"Fire maybe? They play that at the supermarket sometimes and it's dope." Inho volunteered.

"Heh," came from Hugo. "I see what you did there." 

"What?" Inho blinked.

"So we're just decided on what to do like that?" Yoonshik challenged. "What if I don't agree with that? BTS don't have a very impressive vocal line."

"Neither do we, #4," Hanjin returned before Kyungtaek could intervene. Yoonshik looked like he very much wanted to give Hanjin a piece of his mind but he balled up his fist and remained quiet, eying the camera nervously.   Kyungtaek glanced at one of them too, it was weird to have the cameras point his way for once. 

"I can sing!" Daebak contributed. "I always sang on the fishing boat." Yeah, Kyungtaek was definitely worried about Daebak.

"BTS is a good idea, it plays to our strengths. Yours too, you're a great dancer Yoonshik," Kyungtaek said. Flatter and soothe. Lesson two of managing idols was learn how to manage egos.

"How about something else instead? EXO maybe?" Yoonshik suggested desperately. "Or Beast?"

"It's 5 against 1 mate," Hanjin says. "Answer is no."

"That's sunbae. Or did you forget that I'm actually your senior?" 

"Looks to me like now we're equal-"

"The question is, why settle for one?" Hugo spoke up again before Kyungtaek could attempt another difusion..

"He's right, we could show some creativity by mashing two of them together," Kyungtaek hooked into Hugo's segue.

"Run and I Need You then," Hanjin suggested, though it sounded more like he decided. "They're a pair anyhow, similar theme and similar sound, perfect for a mash up. That's settled then, let's mash these babies up shall we?"


     

"Why did you pick me first, hyung?" Jeongha asked as Yeonin and his group moved from the meeting with Yeonhee to their alloted practice room. "Why didn't you pick Haneul? It would've given you an edge for votes."

"Hm?" Yeonin looked up, remembering that the others were there. He'd been lost in his own thoughts. Well, lost in trying not to think about the fact that he'd already been picked as leader. How was he going to be able to pull this off? The thought really stressed him out. "Why is that?"

"Because Haneul is famous," Inshik piped in. 

"Is he?" Yeonin asked, frowning. He had no idea about any of that. He didn't exactly keep up with pop music.

"What rock have you been living under hyung?" Inshik looked incredibly disappointed.. "Haneul is super famous and you got to choose first. We would have been guaranteed to win if you picked him. Now James' team will be winning."

"If it's any consolation, I didn't know he was famous either," Changui said, holding the door to the practice room open. 

"It's okay hyung," Jeongha clapped Yeonin on the shoulder heartily. Yeonin rubbed his shoulder. "We'll make our performance awesome anyway. We're filled to the brim with talent. We got this, Haneul or no Haneul"

"You shouldn't say the a-word on television," Inshik pointed out.

The group settled into the room and got one of the laptops from the staff members. The internet was blocked on it but they got access to an extensive itunes library of music. Yeonin thought this was all a bit much but he supposed they wanted to keep the contestants from making any scandals online

"Okay, so," Yeonin started. "I hardly know anything about pop music. Suggestions are welcome."

"Oh!" Inshik started immediately. "We should totally do an Infinite song! There's seven of us we could totally do it.."

"We could also do 2NE1," Geomi supplied. "Doing a girl group would probably make us stand out. I'm sure the others will go with boygroup songs."

"Yes I like girl group songs!" Inshik agreed. 

"IOI maybe?" Changui suggested.

"What about something Block B? They're doing really well right now," Bomseok said with a hint of pride. 

Yeonin stared blankly at every suggestion. He pinched his nose bridge in annoyance. Why couldn't they do some Jung Joon Il, or some Kim Jung Soo. He'd even accept Lee Sun Hee even though her songs were technically pop. Fate would still make a formidable performance, though he supposed Yoon Min Soo and Shin Yong Jae had that one covered. 

Some more suggestions got thrown in from all sides and before they knew it over an hour had gone by of just suggesting songs and listening to them and nothing was getting done. Bomseok glanced at Yeonin and took a deep breath. "Okay this is going nowhere," He said. "We have to focus. Play to our strengths. We agree that we should do something popular so others are familiar with it?"

The others nodded. Yeonin was incredibly grateful Bomseok had stepped up. Give him a part to sing and he would pull his own weight and that of all his group members combined if he had to, but people? He couldn't people worth a damn. 

"So what do we have. Two rappers, four vocalists, and a dancer. We have to find a song that fits our image and these qualities but also that the crowd will like." Bomseok continued leading. 

It remained quiet for a little while. "What about SHINee?" Alex suggested. "They're popular, have very good vocalists, and have cool dances. You two could write your own raps right?"

Yeonin glanced at Jeongha, he hadn't offered a suggestion in a while. Jeongha seemed deep in hi