After firing her brain, Cheshire and I.M reentered the dorm, where I.M started yawning and telling her that he was going to go change. As she waited Chess went on ahead and dug out her pj pants and clothes for the next day so that they wouldn't get super wrinkled, and hung them on the end of the bunks in the living room. As she was grabbing her toothbrush and hair brush, I.M came back in a pair of basketball shorts and a hoodie telling her the bathroom was free. Chess nodded and practically ran to the bathroom. Once she closed the door she leaned against it. What was she supposed to do now? This night had gone far different than she had ever imagined and quite honestly she wasn't sure how she felt about it. When she finally felt her breathing come back to a normal pace she stood from the door and quickly changed getting herself ready for bed, deciding that it was much better to deal with this all later. Procrastination was one of her strongest traits after all. When she finally exited the bathroom she looked like a total bum but she was about to go to sleep so what did it really matter? Upon entering the living room she went directly to deposit her used toothbrush and clothes into her bag before looking up and noticing how the couch/bed/ottoman thing had been made up and I.M was laying on it with his arm covering his eyes.

"I figured you'd like to take the bed and I honestly don't know if there's another open one so you can just take mine while you're here," I.M slowly turned his head towards her never moving his arm but she saw his eyes widened and a faint blush crawl up his neck when he caught sight of her.

"Oh no... You, sir, have to start practicing tomorrow with your team! I am not going to be the reason that you can't perform your best! Giriboy or Vasco or both would kill me. Go on get in your damn bed!" Chess pulled him up by the arm covering his face and pushed him towards the bottom bunk in the living room. "I don't have to do tomorrow besides just watch over you guys so I mean it's not like I really need to be pampered or anything. I don't even really want to get pampered when I do have to do . Besides I honestly don't sleep all that much."

"Why? Don't you need sleep to function?" I.M walked over to the entrance to the living room and cut off the light after making sure that Cheshire was safely on the makeshift bed, not wanting her to slip and fall again.

"I do but not nearly as much as I used to. I used to rival Suga from BTS for being the best at rolling around in bed all day. I actually can say that I beat him since I have once slept for 32 hours straight," Chess laughed when she saw him freeze on the way back to the bunks in the dark. "But a lot of happened and then I went from sleeping all the time to never sleeping. For a long time I was stuck in an unhealthy cycle of insomnia but then I moved to Seoul and auditioned here. Sajangnim kept a really close eye on me to make sure that I kept myself healthy and eventually I just had to force myself back to an, at least kind of, decent sleep schedule. I generally get about 4-6 hours of sleep honestly. But it's enough for me to not look tired all the time and still be able to function as close to normal as I ever could."

"Wow. That's impressive. If I don't get at least 7 hours I look like I got hit by a bus," Chess snorted. She doubted the boy could ever look like he got hit by a bus but she'd probably get to pass judgement on that in the morning seeing as it was now 2 a.m. and they had to be up at 7.

"Well then go the to sleep cuz right now you're looking at 5 hours at best," Chess laughed when she heard I.M snort and roll over in his bed. She cuddled down into the blankets and pillows he had laid out for her and she couldn't help but breathe deep and sigh as she was surrounded by his scent. She hadn't even bothered to take off the sweatshirt she had stolen from him and it was still amazing to her how good he smelled.

"Good night Noona. See you in the morning," I.M's tired voice was just so cute she couldn't help but giggle.

"Good night Pabo. Sweet dreams," Chess heard him hum in acknowledgement already seeming like he was going to pass out and turned herself over to do the same. This could have gone much worse.

When Cheshire woke up it was 6 a.m. and her alarm hadn't even gone off. She got up and decided that she would get herself ready quickly before trying to wake up the boys. She smirked evilly. She knew exactly what she was going to do. After a quick few minutes in the bathroom, Chess looked at herself in approval. She had on her most comfortable pair of jeans and a simple scoop neck black long sleeved thermal shirt. Upon second inspection though she decided that she would throw I.M's sweatshirt back on just because. As she walked out of the bathroom she pulled her hair into a high pony tail and set out to retrieve her phone. She quickly found it and a speaker system with an aux port. She plugged up her phone and checked the time. 6:30 perfect. She made sure that the volume was as high as it would go and that all the rooms doors were wide open before opening her music and clicking a song. As Crowtit by BTS was blasting and the boys were startled awake Chess started dancing and rapping along. She watched as ten pairs of eyes came to stare at her, though by the time J-hope's rap came up Shownu had made his way over to her and joined her impromptu dance break laughing along with her until everyone slowly began to join in and by the time 'Spinebreaker' was on the whole dorm was dancing and singing along, apparently forgetting the tension of the previous day even if just for a few minutes. Jooheon came over towards her rapping Suga's part and dancing like the pabo he was, throwing his arm around her shoulder before he shoved her hip into his cutting him off and singing the chorus and leading into Rapmon's part which I.M took coming up to her following Jooheon's lead and dropping his arm on her shoulder only to have her do the same as she had to Jooheon. They all had fun for a few more songs, not even noticing the exception of I.M and Jooheon who were having a glaring contest over the others in the room.

Chess finally cut the music much to the boys dismay but it had already been longer than she planned and most of the boys were only in shorts and whatever top they could find when they left their rooms. Cheshire actually took note of how Wonho's hoodie was on backwards. She couldn't help but chuckle at the miscombobulated bunch of boys.

"Alright guys. It's 6:45 time to get ready and head out. I'm leaving at 7:15 on the dot and you all better be following. Ppali!" All the boys started to rush to get ready leaving I.M and Chess the last ones in the living room. "I'm gonna go out of the balcony to smoke so you can change but hurry I'm coming back in at 7:15 on the nose."

I.M nodded and Chess walked quickly out to the balcony and lit her cigarette. Thinking about how the day had started Chess figured that maybe today would be better than yesterday. Taking her time dragging on her cigarette Chess looked over her messages that she had ignored yesterday in favor of keeping the boys in check. Most of them were just her members wishing her luck on her mission and a few were from sajangnim thanking her for looking out for the boys and asking how they were taking the news. She quickly sent a reply that the boys were doing as well as could be expected given the situation and returned to her messages. The last one was from Giri.

Giriboy91: Are you ok? they're not doing anything stupid right? I'm not gonna have to kill one of em right?

Cheshire grinned lightly at her phone. She knew that he cared about her but when he tried to be protective it was just so funny. He wasn't like that with anyone else from what she had seen. She thought about her reply for a while before finally just deciding that it was easier to just be as simple as possible in her answer.

CheshireCat: I'm fine. Of course they were stupid, they are boys after all. I don't think murder is in your schedule for the day though.

Giri's reply came so quickly that she didn't even have time to take her a drag off her almost finished cigarette.

Giriboy91: Alright well get their asses in gear. We're already waiting at the studio. I need them to hear how ing hard this song goes!

Chess couldn't help but laugh. He could be a five year old at times where his music was concerned. It was one of the qualities she loved about him.

CheshireCat: Don't worry they're getting ready now. We're heading out in a few.

Chess checked the time on her phone and it was 7:15 exactly. She went back into the dorm after disposing of her cigarette to find that the boys were all gathered around the door waiting.

"Good job guys. I expected to have to leave a few of you behind," Chess directed her look to the three visuals that were left who as they looked down and blushed under her stare. "Let's go. Giriboy's getting impatient."

The walk to the studio was surprisingly light hearted and peppy. The boys' moods seemed to have definitely perked up since last night. Chess was happy that the tension was almost completely gone. The boys might have still been avoiding I.M but it didn't seem so much like they were doing it to be mean anymore. More like they just didn't know what to say to him honestly and Chess could live with that. It took about fifteen minutes to walk with all the boys from the dorm to the studio and when they got there Chess was already freezing, I.M's sweatshirt did not manage to block the steady wind at all. As soon as she saw the doors she ran for them almost tripping over her converse shoelaces on the way. She really needed to figure out to tie them better.

Once all the boys had joined her in the elevator, which was a tight squeeze and she found herself between the buttons and I.M and Jooheon's chests, she pressed the button for their floor sending a silent prayer out that the elevator would make it to the floor with all the weight. When they finally made it, Chess led them to their meeting place and immediately ran over to give Giri a hug. He swiftly returned it before whispering in her ear.

"You sure no one has to die? I can always make time for murder in my schedule if it's for you," Chess scoffed and pulled away as Giri gave her sweatshirt choice a confused look. This was definitely not her normal style so where did it come from?

"Nah you're good. The boys were all as gentlemanly as they could have been. I.M even let me borrow his sweatshirt. Okay so I might have just outright stolen it from him but I think he would have just offered it anyways," Chess pouted at Giri and felt Mad Clown lightly smack the back of her head. She didn't actually see him do it but she knew it was Mad Clown. He was the only person who would have dared. "Oppa! I'm gonna tell Unnie you're being mean again!"

"Why do you even think that threat will work?" Mad Clown sighed and rubbed his forehead.

"Because I know what she'll take away if you don't treat me nicely. Remember Unnie loves me," Mad Clown turned to glare at Chess who had the most evil looking smirk on her face. Before either could continue their argument thought Junggigo started addressing the trainees explaining what the mission was. 

"Well the song I wrote is ing amazing. ing cool. ing fun," Giri must have really wanted to beat Nochang. That much was obvious by the way he dropped those F-bombs. Chess was ready to hear it honestly, she had been curious about it since she heard the simple unfinished beat. Nochang was just as confident apparently though and Chess was looking forward to that one too. They didn't call him 'Genius' Nochang for nothing.

As fast as they had started, they ended their introductions and split the boys into their teams. Chess definitely was biased to Giri's if she hadn't been before seeing as he had chosen both Jooheon and I.M. Sure she hadn't really heard I.M rap yet but she was pretty sure he'd be great so long as he could keep a beat with that deep and y voice of his. She slowly followed the boys into Giri's studio and sat on the floor next to the door so that the boys could all take chairs and the couch, despite both I.M and Jooheon trying to offer their seat to her which made Giri scoff in their direction. Obviously neither boy knew her very well, she was stubborn as a mule and would never let anybody treat her delicately.

"Yah! Just because you don't have a chivalrous bone in your body doesn't mean you should be mean to the ones that do!" Giri looked at her deadpanned.

"I just know you better than to even offer at this point. You are the most stubborn I know," There was an audible gasp heard before Chess dropped the fake hurt look on her face and laughed.

"Okay, you're right. I am one hell of an ," Giri chuckled as Mad clown rolled his eyes.

"Let's just listen to the song, yeah? I want to get paid already," Mad Clown was ever so eloquent. It made Chess giggle some more biting her lips to try not to cause anymore of a disturbance. Giri set about turning the song on and Chess couldn't help the shocked look that came onto her face. It was nothing like it had been a month ago. It was sleek and dirty and... god she just wanted to hear what they would put into their raps. It was perfect! Chess wasn't even aware that she had started dancing along from her spot on the floor until it ended and she caught four pairs of eyes on her.

"Yah! Don't you think that you're being a bit to biased as a judge?" Mad Clown laughed as Chess looked at her lap before looking up at him through her thick eyelashes.

"I'm gonna go listen to Nochang Sunbae's song in just a minute, what difference does it make?" Chess pouted slightly and the other three pairs of eyes widened. Giri, Jooheon and I.M all slightly blushed and looked away. She was so damn cute when she pulled out her aegyo. Giri cleared his throat and changed the subject quickly.

"No one's heard you rap yet?" He turned his attention to I.M asking the question that was on everyones mind. After a momentary conversation Mad Clown asked him to rap for them and Cheshire was so happy that she had stayed just a little bit longer. If she liked his speaking voice then she was in love with his rapping voice. Jooheon may have him on flow but he had nothing on I.M's tone. Chess really found it hard to believe that he had never had a girlfriend before now. His voice was way too y. She had to leave as soon as he was done. She couldn't risk being asked what she thought of it, not when her brain had been fired the night before and she was sure she wouldn't be able to filter thoughts yet.

Time to compare. Maybe it'd help her get her mind off of whatever confusing feelings kept swirling in her. She headed over to Nochang's temporary set up and entered. Praying his song elicited the same reaction from her so she could feel a bit more calm.

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A/N So I love writing for I.M honestly. Him and Giriboy are definitely my favorites. Since we're close to the end of No.Mercy though I wanted to let you know that I realize I haven't put much in about RI5E and I'm not even honestly sure if you want more about them or not but just so you're aware, after No.Mercy ends and Monsta X is formed I will end up with at least a few chapters strictly dedicated to the girls. It definitely goes with the story though so don't worry eveyone will show back up eventually. As always Thank You for Reading! Kamsamnida!