"Is Han Somi in here?" Somi gulped, Hyunwoo told her to be ready for this situation but it didn't make it any less scary now that she was being faced with it. The boys went quiet and after making eye contact with Hyunwoo, who nodded, Somi stood up, bowing as she made herself known.

"I'm here" She spoke and a woman with headphones on with a mic attached to it nodded, looking down at the clipboard in her hand.

"I need you to come with me thank you" She spoke quickly and it made Somi's limbs feel the urgency to move with the same pace. She looked back to the group once she was at the door and they all nodded, raising their fists in encouragement.

"You'll be fine" Hyunwoo promised her and Somi nodded, waving goodbye before leaving the room and running to catch up with the person beckoning her. They walked through several halls filled with doors, Somi could hear the ruckus of eager competition that would probably jump at her if the door opened to reveal her standing there. It made her move quicker, straightening out her shoulders and raising her chin as she followed one of the producers to one of the many doors. It was opened to reveal a studio and Somi entered upon command. There was a green screen with one chair and a table in front of it, several cameras and boom mics were pointed to the single chair and side table and the woman instructed Somi to take her place in the chair in front of all the cameras.

The moment she did so, several hair and makeup artists rushed towards her, checking her hair was still in place and that her makeup hadn't smudged. She let them touch and groom her until one of them announced she was good to go and Somi cleared , looking at the glass of water that they had sat on the table beside her. Somi looked around, her elbows resting on the arm of the high standing chair as the cameras all fidgeted and adjusted to be pointing right at her. She looked at them all as a woman approached the centre camera, smiling at her with a sheet of questions in one hand and a microphone in the other.

"Hello Han Somi" She greeted her and Somi nodded her head, greeting the woman back with less enthusiasm.

"My name is Shin Hyunmi, I will be the one conducting your interview today. When you are ready, the slate will be hit and I will begin with asking you questions, do you have any for me before we start?" Hyunmi questioned her and Somi shook her head in response.

"I'm ready to go"

"Ok, we'll hit the slate and three seconds after the interview will start" Somi nodded and a staff member with a slate ran in front of her, hit the slate and ran off the set again.

"From my understanding, this is your first year participating in the Great Race, can you tell us your name and what you are?" Hyunmi went straight into the questions and Somi sat up straight, looking back at Hyunmi.

"My name is Han Somi, I am an Elementalist and this year is my first year participating in the Great Race" Somi introduced herself, finishing with a bow of her head before quickly sitting up straight again.

"What is your element Somi?" Hyunmi asked her.

"I work with fire and gravity"

"So you have two elements?"

"That is correct" Somi's head bobbed in a nod again.

"Not to mention you are the only Elementalist in Blood Haven, is this a true fact?"

"Yes it is"

"Elementalists are quiet rare these days"

"I am aware" Somi answered bluntly and Hyunmi gave a tight lipped smile.

"Do you plan to win this race for your species? And how do you plan to make that possible?" Hyunmi jumped into her next question and Somi shook her head once.

"I plan to do this for my team and myself, we'll be showing everyone that we're stronger than they think" Hyunmi went quiet for a moment, looking at Somi. They exchanged no words and Somi rose an eyebrow, questioning silently if they were leaving it at that.

"Understood, this brings me to my next question, your group Monsta X, from my understanding this is the first time for any of the members to not be competing against each other in the race. How has everyone come to terms with that?"

"There is no competition between the members, we all trust each other and we are prepared to have each other's back in there, we have the mindset that a team needs"

"And there are no rivalries between the members?"

"As I said, we have the mindset of a team, we've got a bond and we'll be walking in there like a pack, there is no competition between any of us" Somi shook her head, narrowing her eyes at Hyunmi.

"I see, and who would you say is your biggest competition today?" Somi twisted in her seat, trying to get comfortable as she clasped her hands together in order to stop herself from fidgeting in front of the camera pointed at her. She took a second to ponder, blinking and her lips as she looked directly to the person interviewing her from behind the camera before speaking.

"There is a group of spellcasters that have been challenging us for a while now, I look forward to meeting Seo Eunkwang and his friend Hyunshik once we have started" Somi nodded to confirm her words and Hyunmi gave her another smile.

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"There is a group of spellcasters that have been challenging us for a while now, I look forward to meeting Seo Eunkwang and his friend Hyunshik once we have started" Changsub didn't like the way Somi looked straight at the camera, it's like her eyes were boring into their room, meeting the stern gaze that came from a tense Eunkwang. Hyunshik was snickering from his position in the room. He stretched his arms over his head, smiling as he watched the television happily.

"I look forward to seeing you too, freak" Changsub looked away from Hyunshik, briefly glancing around the room at his team before settling back to the television in discomfort.

"Going back to the members of your team, how did Monsta X come about?" The voice of the interviewer spoke and Somi had the audacity to let out a small chortle as she adjusted herself in what looked like a directers chair from the other side of the screen.

"They're interesting guys. Some of them, especially one of them would follow me around, they ran their mouths and they cared less than any other students I met. But they were adamant to be my friends, we somehow came together to be a pack, elementalists and shapeshifters fit together a lot better than anyone could have guessed. We hadn't planned to be a team until Mr Kim made myself along with a few of the others take our combat test together, after that, it just made sense that we worked together well, so one of us spoke up and we formed our team and he gave us our dumb name"

"That's it then? The eight of you met and made a team?"

"It's a lot more than that. We're the outcasts of this school, the ones people think they can push around and call names, they gossip about us behind our backs and snarl at us. Maybe some of us didn't want to be friends, but I don't really need to tell you how we all became friends. They took me under their wing and made me what I need to be to get somewhere in this race, a lot more than what some people said they 'wanted' to do" Somi drawled and Minhyuk could feel his eye twitch.

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"That's my baby" Jooheon wiped away a stray tear, moping as he watched Somi on the TV in their room. Hoseok and Hyunwoo sat seriously, tensely watching the interview and how Somi handled it. Changkyun held Jooheon, sniffling with him as they watched Somi answer Hyunmi's questions with a straight face and a straight back.

"She's not ing up" Kihyun commented and Minhyuk slapped him from his place on Hyungwon's shoulders. Hoseok stood up, unable to stay still any longer. He paced back and forth in the room, biting down on his lip as Somi answered several questions thrown at her.

"Do you think you're ready for your first race?"

"I'm fully prepared and ready to go"

"Do you see Monsta X winning this year's race?"

"I think it's time for the underdogs to shine" Somi nodded, a smirk pulling at her lips and Jooheon jumped out of his chair, pumping his firsts and hollering.

"That's my girl!" He crowed and Changkyun stood up, jumping and dancing around with him.

"And that beloved viewers was our first Elementalist contestant in almost twenty years, Han Somi"

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"Thank you for coming in and talking, you may go back to your waiting room now" Hyunmi bowed and Somi slid out of her seat, doing the same.

"Thank you" Somi walked herself out of the room, shutting the door behind her and looking left to right.

"So you're the Elementalist huh?" A bitter voice spoke and Somi flicked her head in their direction, blinking as she stared back at an approaching student. She was covered in a black floor-length jacket that opened to reveal dark red clothing. Her hand shot out and Somi looked at it as it shot above the girls head, bringing them face to face. The girl grit her teeth, her face scrunching up in the effort she used to try and bring her arm back down, but it was dangling above her head and Somi had no intentions of giving her control of the limb again.

"Is there a problem?" Somi asked as guards ran towards them from both sides of the hall.

"I will send your species into extinction do you hear me?! You're not gonna make it out of this game alive and I'll be the reason for your death!" The girl screamed as two security guards grabbed her and another two shoved Somi back into the door with a thud. The girl was dragged away and Somi waved, wiggling her fingers to taunt the infuriated girl.

"She's calm, let her go," One guard said to the other as they looked back at Somi. Somi looked up at them, batting her eyes and nodding her head.

"Thank you gentlemen" She shuffled past them and back down the hall to her room. She passed through the same several halls with all the doors until she made it back to her room where a whiteboard had the words 'Monsta X' messily written upon it. Somi opened the door and stepped into the room, gasping as an arm wrapped around her and crashed her into someone's chest.

"You didn't up" Somi recognised his smell before Hoseok spoke, shutting the door to their room and pulling Somi in for everyone to see.

"There's our girl!" Changkyun aimed finger guns at Somi as he stood on one of the chairs, wiggling his eyebrows at her as he grinned.

"I take it you guys saw it?" Somi voiced and they all nodded.

"You did good" Hyungwon gave Somi a pat on the back and Kihyun gave her a thumbs up when the two made eye contact.

"Boy I bet those spellcasters are really feeling it now they would