“Do it again!” SunKi yelled. The boys had been going nonstop for hours, learning their second dance in two days. There were groans of opposition and finally one person spoke up.

“Hyung. Give us a break!”

“A break? The only break you get is if you break a bone. Now, do it again!”

The music started over and the boys obediently went over the choreography they’d learned so far. When they finished, SunKi granted them a water break which they all took eagerly.

“That dude is a total slave driver,” SeungRi complained lowly.

“Save your air,” B-Bomb admonished. “It’s hard enough to catch your breath during practice. Don’t waste it on stupid comments.”

“I already have one person yelling orders to me. Don’t you start doing it too.”

U-Kwon downed half a bottle of water and looked around the room, tuning out his friends’ bickering. The twenty that had started out was already down to fifteen this quickly. Three hadn’t shown up at all and the other two had been eliminated during the course of the day. SunKi hadn’t been bluffing during his opening speech.

All too soon the boys had to go back to practicing. Over the first week they learned combination after combination. Twice they spent half the day in the gym-lifting weights, running laps, and basic conditioning under the watchful eyes of SunKi and his boys. By the time inspection came that Saturday night, the boys were used to being perpetually sore.

“Group 1: Jongup, SeungRi, Hyunseung, Kai, and Lu Han. Group 2: Hoya, Kyuhyun, Taemin, B-Bomb, and Changjo. Group 3: U-Kwon, Kiseop, Minwoo, Kikwang and Dongwoo.” The boys all gathered with their assigned groups. “Now,” SunKi continued, “let the inspection commence.”

With a clap of his hands, the atmosphere in the room changed. Everyone put their game faces on. Some of the younger ones shifted around nervously while the older ones pretended to be brave. U-Kwon looked at each of his group mates and mentally assessed their talents. He felt he had a decent chance of making it through but the whole decision was based on the next few moments.

The first group went. They weren’t given any instructions other than to start whenever the music came on. The only warning they got was the first three counts of the music to figure out which song to do. Jongup, Hyungseung, and SeungRi were easily the top of their group. Not saying the other two were bad, but there was obviously a difference in the level of the dancers.

Group One sat down after no comment from the hyungs. No one knew if that was a good thing or not as Group Two got into position. U-Kwon watched with growing nervousness as the second group went. They were good, better than he remembered from practice.

“Group 3.”

U-Kwon jumped to his feet quickly, bouncing on his toes as he lined up with the others. Suddenly, his mind went blank and he took a few huge breaths to calm himself down. The music started to play and his body fell into the combinations that’d been drilled in his head. What had he been nervous about? This was his element. Of course he was going to do well. When the two minutes of dancing were over, he felt at ease.

“Go down to the cafeteria or something. Don’t go too far because we’ll be calling you back in later to tell you our decisions.”

The boys all filed out the room, heading to the basement of the building where all the other trainees ate. They grabbed snacks and energy drinks although none of them touched their goodies due to the anxiousness they were feeling. SeungRi wasn’t even cracking jokes and U-Kwon’s spacing off was worse than ever until…

“Who is she?”

SeungRi and B-Bomb looked in the direction their friend was staring. A small girl with short, dark hair was laughing with a group of other girls, all extremely pretty and obviously dancers.

“That’s Min,” SeungRi said.

“You know her?”

“Vaguely. We went to middle school together, but I doubt she remembers me.”

“She’s pretty…” U-Kwon said dreamily.

“Don’t even go there,” B-Bomb warned. “We’re busy enough as it is. Don’t add chasing girls on top of everything else.”

U-Kwon nodded distractedly, obviously ignoring the other’s words. Min was leaving the cafeteria with her friends at the moment. She caught him staring and smiled at him. He ducked his head down and blushed.

“Smooth…” SeungRi snickered.

“Shut up man. There’s hyung.”

The dancers all went back upstairs to hear their fate. SunKi had them all line up according to their groups.

“All of you are good. There’s no denying the amount of talent here, but somebody has to go. That being said, Group One come up.”

SeungRi looked back at B-Bomb and U-Kwon as he joined his group mates in the middle of the floor. He put on a brave face but U-Kwon could see the fear in his friend’s eyes. Who wouldn’t be afraid when everything they’d ever hoped for was on the line?

“SeungRi, Jongup, step forward.”

This did not look good. Only two of the five were chosen? SeungRi’s shoulders dropped.

“You two are safe.”

“Yes!” SeungRi and Jongup high-fived each other while the other three were escorted from the room.

“Group Two.”

Again the tension in the room rose. If you looked closely, you could see B-Bomb’s legs shaking as he took his place. The announcement that Taemin, Hoya, and B-Bomb were all staying wasn’t surprising.

And then it was U-Kwon’s turn. He was so nervous that he was calm. There were no sweaty palms, his throat wasn’t dry…he would have preferred to have butterflies in his stomach or something like normal people.

“Minwoo, Kiseop, step forward.”

Damn! I’m going home. I can’t believe this! I thought I’d done well. Why am I going-

“If I called your name, good luck somewhere else.”

U-Kwon turned to the person beside him. “Did I hear that right? I’m staying?”

“We’re both staying.”

“Thank goodness.”

“Don’t get too excited. The real work starts now.” One of the other dancers brought out the red shoes. “Dancer of the week for the first week is Hoya.” The boy came forward under the envious eyes of the other dancers.

“I told you that the hardest thing besides getting these shoes is keeping them. Believe me when I say, if you really care, these shoes will kill you.”

None of them knew exactly how right SunKi was.