Chapter 1

"For mad I may be, but I will never be c o n v e n i e n t."

- Jennifer Donnelly, Revolution

A deep pounding bass pulsed from the speakers situated around the room. Jaejoong's voice followed shortly after it, filling the air of the den. Bodies moved uniformly to the beat of the song, played back in the screen of the camera propped in front of them.

"Yah, Kim! Faster! You need to keep up with the music. Follow Eunyee!" Lin barked the orders out shortly, clapping the beats for the youngest member to follow. As the oldest and the leader, it was her duty to make sure the entire group looked good. She wasn't much older than the other girls at 17 years old, but she acted much older, like a mother and a drill Sargent. This was their third practice for the Mirotic cover video and she didn't want to disappoint any of the fans with sloppiness. Once they were done practicing, they could make the real video and upload it online.

Lin scowled, the lag in Kim's movement was very evident. Eunyee kept up with the beat well enough and her mimick of Yunho's part was spot on. Kim was always a scraggler, a few seconds behind but she made up for it in enthusiasm. Eunyee, on the other hand, was always on beat, but her movements were methodical and less emotionally involved.

Kim dutifully tried to keep up as the music progressed and move into Junsu's part. She quickened her movements, shaking her short hair out of her face. Sweat accumulated on her brow, but she ignored it as she tried to increase her pace. Her feet began to move instep to Eunyees's and the two girls remained synced together until the end of the song.

Lin pursed her lips, watching the other girls dance and lowered her hands to her hips. It was only her, Kim and Eunyee practicing in Lin's den, like always. She already knew her part. It was just down to them to clean up the dance for the video that night.

She remained silent for the duration of the song up until it faded out, moving to turn the camera off instead. She was quiet as she regarded dancing on the video. She made mental note of Kim's slowness and her eyes gazed over at the younger girl. Kim worried her lip, adverting her eyes to the ground. She hoped that they wouldn't have to dance it again. The den was still, only panting disturbed the air as the other girls sat down on the ground and waited in anticipation for their leader's approval. If it wasn't up to par, they'd have to dance Iagain and again until it was. No breaks, no exceptions.

“That was pretty good," Lin said finally, nodding her head at the other girls, “ Make sure you keep up, Kim.” A collective sigh was let out and the tense air dissolved as Kim nodded enthusiastically, her black bob fanning out in the air.

"Let's go get changed. I'll set up the camera again and then we can start." Lin set the camera back on her dad's tripod and checked to see if the dance space was centered in the middle of the screen. Once she was sure it was, she started for the door with Eunyee, the only one remaining on the ground was Kim. As was expected, Kim began to whine. She wasn't the maknae for anything.

"But, unnie! The binder makes my chest all sweaty," she complained, pouting from her place on the floor. Lin rolled her eyes. They'd had this conversation many times before. It always ended the same. She knew how much Kim hated wearing the chest binder, but it would defeat the whole point of the dance. Lin understood, but she was not in a mood to humor her, especially with her falling behind already. Eunyee must have noticed, because she stepped in to intervene.

"Come on, Kim-ah," She cooed to the younger girl from the doorway. "The sooner you get dressed, the sooner you get to take it off."

Conceding, Kim got up from the ground and followed the older girls to change into their outfits Lin had meticulously picked out for them. Kim complained the entire time and as a result, a old surgical mask from one of their previous dance sessions was flung into her face. Getting over the light moment, the girls became serious and continued getting dressed in dark outfits, complete with some borrowed surgical masks from Eunyee's mother that they used to conceal most of their faces. It was all a part of the act.

Once they were done, they filed back into the den and took their places. Lin pressed the record on the camera and hit the button on her iPod for the song to play, moving quickly into place as it started. They'd done the dance many times before, every since they'd pick it as the dance for their next video, and it showed their hard work The fans definitely wouldn't be disappointed. At least, she hoped.

The dance was over rather quickly, like they had been practicing for the past week. Fluid motion and determination wove together to form the dance and by the time the last note sounded, they were drenched in sweat but tried to remain composed until Lin turned the camera off. They were going to edit the last few seconds off, but the ending had to be nice. Lin ran a hand through the stringy, normally copper colored hair that was now a dark brown because of sweat, moving it out of her face as she played the video back, making a satisfactory noise in the back of . She disconnected the camera from the tripod and let out a sigh of relief as she flopped into her computer chair.

Eunyee fell back against the plush carpet on the floor, her long black hair contrasting the whiteness of the carpet, having already pulled her shirt off and using it to try to cool herself. Kim combed her fingers through her short apple haircut, attempting to get the wet strands out of the way and circulate coolness over her forehead. It didn't work very well and she found herself in the same position as Eunyee, strung out and breathing hard on the soft carpet.

The girls winded down from their workout, in various states of undress as they situated themselves around the room, Lin taking up her spot in front of the desktop computer and plugging the camera in to upload the video for editing. It would only be a few minutes before they could post it online and then tomorrow, after school got out, they would meet back at Lin's house to see if people liked it.

“You guys wanna watch Goong? I brought the DVD," Kim volunteered and Lin nodded, without turning to look. Kim struggled for a second, but she managed to crawl over to her backpack and pull out the DVD. She knew her way around Lin's house enough that she put the DVD into it's player and by the time she hit play, Lin was already done editing the video and reclining back in her seat and Eunyee sprawled in front of the television on the floor.

With a final press of the "Upload" button, their video was finally online.