The soft green lights began to fade into a soft blue hue as soon as 2AM’s voices filled the MBC Music Core set. Renn could hear the fans outside screaming loudly for the One Day special joint performance and anxiety was eating up at her. This needs to be perfect, she thought as her eyes stayed glued to the screen where she monitored the performance. The last chorus to Confession of a Friend was almost over and she bit her lower lip hoping that the track played smoothly as it changed from 2AM’s soft track to 2PM’s upbeat one.

Jo Kwon had just finished his last line, and the camera zoomed in on Jay as he started his rap. Renn’s eyes widened as she suddenly panicked, grabbing the arm of the person sitting next to her inside the waiting room.

“What?” her roommate asked, looking over.

“Junsu! His mic! I think it’s off!”

“What?”

Renn strained her ears as she watched Kim Junsu on the screen. His mouth was moving but there was no sound registering on the monitor. Instead of answering, she darted out of the dressing room in search of a sound engineer to remedy the situation. She ran towards the back of the set and behind the audience to look for anyone with a headset on to inform them of the issue, that is, until she spotted the soundboard towards one side of the hall. She sprinted towards the console and voiced her complaints, screaming loudly into the engineer’s ear.

“Junsu’s mic! Switch it back on!” Her voice came out frantic as she pointed wildly to the console.

Renn turned her head back to the stage, Jay’s rap was about to end and the hypnotic beat of the Again and Again intro was about to be played at any given moment. She sighed contently as the transition between songs came out perfectly and she popped her head into the engineer’s view again as she made sure Junsu’s mic was switched back on. As soon as she saw the light indicating the mic was working, she thanked the sound crew and quickly made her way back to the waiting room where she saw her roommate in a state of distress.

Mai leaned forward towards the monitor to get a better look at the 2PM performance, only to lean back and smack her palm to her forehead.

“Aish. He forgot the choreo. Junsu, we went over this!” she complained with a sigh, more to herself than to Renn.

“Forget about the choreo, Junsu’s mic was off!”

Her roommate didn’t answer her as she continued to watch the rest of the performance. Renn resumed her seat next to her and leaned forward as well, both girls glued to the screen. At least she could hear Junsu’s singing again, and that somehow put her at peace.

Their performance finished and Renn let out a breath she didn’t realize she'd been holding. The boys made their way off stage, and loud noises soon followed as they rushed into the waiting room. The members were hugging and exchanging high-fives with each other; it was all smiles and cheers. Usually Renn would join in the celebration but she just couldn’t bring herself to jump around with them. Although she was satisfied with the song transitions, that technical difficulty that had occurred was still bothering her.

“Noona, was our performance that bad?” a voice asked, the owner slowly approaching her.

“That special stage was supposed to be perfect,” Renn muttered to herself. “My first solo mix and I screwed up. On top of that, the whole nation saw it,” she added with a sigh.

When it came to her job, everything had to be perfect. Renn had been brought into JYPE by Ian Choe, a high school classmate of hers who was now working as a producer for Park Jinyoung. The association with Ian Choe and the fact that she had gotten her job by word of mouth alone pressured her to great lengths to be more than perfect. She was afraid anything less than perfect would jeopardize her career and future, and she didn’t want all her efforts to go to waste. A weight on her shoulders brought her back to the present.

“Don’t stress about it Noona... It was a faulty mic.” She looked up and wasn’t surprised to see Lee Junho smiling at her. The smile on his face made her forget what she was stressing about in the first place. That boy always had a way of making her troubles disappear.

Tentatively she smiled back at him, moving away so Junho’s hands dropped back down to his sides. “Congratulations on today’s performance,” she told him as she looked away towards the other members. Her eyes briefly met with Jay’s and he gave her a small wink which sent her stomach in knots. She never knew what it was but she couldn’t seem to compose herself around the leader. Whether it was that contagious laugh, his slick b-boy moves or those rock hard abs, she just couldn’t rub that grin off her face whenever he was in the room. She shook her head to discard such thoughts.

The door to 2PM’s waiting room opened, and the members of 2AM poured in, crowding the room. She felt an arm wrap around her shoulders from behind.

“Congrats on your solo debut stage!” Seulong said happily, tightening his hold around her.

She attempted to wiggle out of his grasp only to fail miserably. “Solo debut?” she replied “I messed up.”

Seulong simply smiled at her and slowly shook his head. “Not your fault, besides, I think you’re the only one who noticed. The one who really messed up here was Junsu.”

She couldn’t help but laugh as the whole of One Day started teasing Junsu, her roommate included. Mai was standing in front of the culprit, and Renn could see that the younger girl was failing to keep the seriousness on her face as she attempted to scold him. Junsu merely smiled awkwardly and tried to defend himself, only to make s laugh even harder.

Renn had known the boys for almost nine months, the same amount of time she had been working under the Production Department at JYPE. This special performance was her first big solo project as a musical director, and she had spent days and sleepless nights working through both songs making sure the transition was seamless. While others saw the mash-up as a simple editing and piecing together of the two songs, Renn saw it as something more than that. It was piecing together two halves of a whole- two halves that were opposite in nature that had to be melded into one fluid piece of music. Not only that, it was also an opportunity for Renn to prove herself to all the senior staff members whom she knew doubted her and her skills.

Renn felt a warm hand on the small of her back, and she didn’t need to look to know who it was. Jay stepped closer towards her when he was certain no one else was looking and quickly brought his lips closer to her ear to whisper, “You did great today. I’ll call you later, okay?”

Another rush of color made its way to Renn’s pale cheeks as soon as she felt Jay’s breath on her ear. He was gone almost as soon as he had appeared. It was something Jay liked to do, by standing really close to her, whispering in her ear, winking at her, pushing the limits of what could be interpreted as playful behavior.

Renn saw Mai say her goodbyes and leave the waiting room just as the 2PM manager came in. Her own eyes darted across the room to meet Jay’s briefly before announcing her own departure with a wave. She slipped through the door of the waiting room to find Mai waiting for her, leaning against the wall on the same side as the door.

“Uhm...” Renn started, “I guess after I give my report we can head home.”

Her roommate nodded back at Renn, the expression on her face unreadable.

In some ways it unnerved Renn how icy her new roommate could be at times. They hadn’t known each other long, it had only been two months since she was recruited as Park Namyong’s choreographing assistant. Renn thought she was talented, a little aloof, but talented.