Blue: English
Black: Korean

“Lin, you alright?” Jinuk asked with his hand on the girl's shoulder. She looked up from having her head held in her hands to lock eyes with his warm, gentle ones. He and the members had been watching her for the last twenty minutes, trying to conceal her nervousness inside. While they all battled with their own feelings, he as the leader, had to watch out for the youngest. Little did they all know, they were being secretly filmed by their personal camera men, consisting of four from the corner of the hall.

“I honestly... feel like throwing up. It's been awhile since I felt like this, man.” She laughed and folded her cold, sweaty hands together. The rest of the boys eyed her, all knowing the same feeling inside. "The last time we did this... I don't even want to recall that time." She laughed, dryly.

Jinuk removed his hand from her shoulder to wrap his arm around her shoulders.“Just think of it as us practicing together or our other small performances around town.” He smiled and held her head close to his shoulder, "We'll get through. It won't be like the last time. I can feel it."  He gave her a reassuring squeeze on her shoulder. 

“Right.” She exhaled to relax herself, “Right.” She repeated and he lets go of her. They all waited around for another few minutes until they saw the apparently, very attractive PD lady walking down the narrow hall with her clipboard in hand. They watched her walk over with the clicking of her red heels. All of them anticipated their names to be called. 

"Please come with me." She smiled brightly. From that very sentence, most of the calm and reserved members felt panicked. Lina especially choked up and became nervous again, though seeing her tense up, Jinuk held her wrist and helped her up from her seat. "Are all of you here?" The PD lady asked and Jinuk nodded. The lady stepped back so that the members could surround Jinuk for his usually words of encouragement, but he only held out his hand that held onto Lina's. Instinctively, everyone placed their hands on top of his.  

“All for one..” He shouted and everyone pushed down.

“DREAM!” They shouted in unison before breaking up. With that very chant, the levels of confidence raised and all nerves were suppressed. The PD giggled at how cute she thought the kids were before leading them down the hallway. 

"I wish you all good luck. I'm sure you'll make it." She stepped aside from the door, "Don't tell anyone that I'm rooting for you though." She winked at Lina who smiled gratefully.

“We can do this.” Lina whispered to herself. With one hand on the door knob, Jinuk led the members inside.

Lina peeked over Hyunseok's shoulder to find them walking into a very brightly lit room. She quietly followed her tall group members in a line and continued to line up to face the three judges who sat at a judging panel closet to the wall. The attention of the many cameras next to the judges nearly made her cower in fear.

“Wow, there's many of you.” The middle aged man with black hair slicked back, commented. He adjusted his glasses and eyed Lina with suspicious. Lina avoided his gaze which brought him to look at his notes. “You guys sure have a lot to offer.” He muttered.

“Hi everyone, we're the writers of this show. You can call me Mr. Jo” A younger looking man smiled invitingly and gestured to the older woman beside him.

“Ms. Kim.” She waved with both her hands.

“Mr. Yang is the director of this show.” He gestured to the man on the lady's left, “So for your first official audition we will be evaluating you.”

“Judging by the looks on your faces, it seems like you guys didn't know this is the first audition.” Ms. Kim laughed.

“Introduce yourselves first before we start talking.” Mr. Kim coughed and Seoncheon hurriedly nudged their leader.

“Right, yes of course.” Jinuk cleared his throat. The members looked at their leader for the hand cue before all bowing simultaneously.

“Hello.” They all bowed, “We're FxTION.” They said and gave the three judges their signature hand movement which was a cross between a salute and wave. The judges laughed warm heartedly and clapped to welcome the group.

“I liked what you guys did there.” Mr. Yang tried to mimicked their movement, but only caused more laughter. “You there, do it again. I want to learn how to do it the next time I see you.” He chuckled. Lina pointed to herself since it seemed like he was referring to her. “Yes, you.” He smiled. Like told, Lina did the gesture, but in a slower motion.

“So, you keep your hand like you're saluting someone, but before doing the salute, you slide it across your forehead like the look out action kids do when the pretended to be pirates. Then you salute and move your hand coolly to the side like those idols that do that to the cameras during performances, get it?” Mr. Jo said to clarify.

“I had no idea what you said, but he did it nicely so I followed.” Mr. Yang scowled at the man which brought even more laughter.

Him? Did he call me a him? Lina thought and gave Hyunseok a weird look. He just shrugged and faced the judges again, He probably spoke to fast. She brushed it off.

“While you two were goofing off, I read their application.” Ms. Kim shook her head before facing FxTION. She scanned the faces of every single one of them. “Before I get into the information you've written here, what do you have for us?”

“We have prepared Ulala Session's rendition of Lee Seungchul song.” Jinuk spoke politely with his hands folded, “I'm sure you're all familiar of 'Western Sky'.” The judges compared the group's application to see if they had the right group before them. Each of them had the exact same application, but was confused by the song choice the group has chose.

“May I ask why you've decided to sing this song?” Mr. Jo asked solemnly and leaned in towards them.

“Surprisingly enough, I grew up listening to Lee Seungchul's songs. Also, as a group, the members and I actually watched Superstar K3 together and we really enjoyed watching Ulala Session. Out of all the songs they performed, we really liked this song. So, we decided to perform this as well as to pay tribute to Lim Yoontaek.” Seoncheon answered on behalf of Jinuk. Ms. Kim and Mr. Jo both clapped.

“It's nice to hear someone other than you talk.” Mr. Yang chuckled, referring to Jinuk. “Can you all speak Korean?” He teased.

“All of us can, but we choose not to." Namsoo smiled and awkwardly spoke Korean, "Our Korean isn't as fluent as them.” 

“Alrighty then, give us what you got.” Mr. Jo gestured the sound director to play the track. The camera man closest to the front handed the members each a microphone. They hurriedly passed down the mics as soon as the first note left the speakers. The judges watched them intently as they readied themselves to focus. The first to sing was Seoncheon. He composed himself like always and kept his voice steady. The type of control fascinated the judges for they presumed to be a amateur singer. Following Seonchun was Seungjun and Hyukmin. Despite their positions as rappers, the were able to deliver a soothing sound even with their short lines consisting one for each. They were able to match each others different vocal range and harmonize with each other. Lina watched nervously as Jinuk and Namsoo shared the pre-chorus with everyone else, but her supporting them with soft ad-lib. Unintentionally, she made eye contact with Mr. Yang, the only judge that made her extremely nervous. She swallowed hard and forced herself to look away and concentrate. Right next to her, Hyunseok gracefully lifted the mic and sang beautifully to the first two lines of the chorus.

“Every rainy day, I miss you so much..." He placed his hand on his chest and closed his eyes, "Waiting for the day when we will meet again.” Adding a small touch of his ad-lib, it gave her time to prepare herself. Once he finished, she got herself in the zone and sang almost to par with his. Almost as soon as she sang, Mr. Yang and Mr. Jo fell back into the back rest of their chairs with their hands on their head. They were mind blown by the fact how amazing she sounded and how they could tell the emotions she put into the words.

“Is that a boy or a girl?” Mr. Yang whispered to Mr. Jo who had his eyes still locked onto Lina. She finished up the chorus and right when the instrumental break came, Hyukmin softly rapped in English which faded away when Namsoo brought the first line of the chorus back. Hyunseok picked up where he left off with Lina following. Seonchun took the harder part of the song, having him to belt out the notes. Jinuk went right after and expressed the wanting within the song with all his emotions. Lina and Seonchun harmonized the line after each belting out the note as well, though, because of her higher octave, she held the last note longer. With the slowed instrumental break, Seungjun finished Hyukmn's rap, but in Korean. Hyunseok and Lina both brought the chorus back and took their respective turns. Hyunseok gave her the practiced look which meant for her to take the last two lines. She signaled him an 'okay' with her eyes as well and took the two lines.

After the many applause from the camera crew and judges, Mr. Jo put them all to silence. “Let me ask you this, are you a girl or a boy?” He asked with a smile of disbelief, “That was amazing by the way. You guys aren't amateurs at all!”

“You should of read their profile to begin with.” Ms. Kim shook her head, “You two should start reading their information instead of just their name.”

“That's perfect. I want you guys to edit this for the show, okay?” Mr. Yang turned to the main camera guy who nodded in understanding. “You, missy, really took me by surprise.” She smiled in response and pulled down her hood. “For the first ten minutes, I thought you were really a boy. I only found it weird when you seemed to have a face of a girl, the height and weight, but the members around you are all male. I couldn't tell because of that hoodie you're wearing.”

She looked down at herself right when he mentioned hoodie. This hoodie is Hyunseok's so it's very baggy on me since he's tall. And it does cover my lower part of the body and I do have small s to begin with. She shrugged.

“I can’t wait to let the real judges see you.” Ms. Kim interrupted, “Despite here listing B-Boying as your specialty dance, you all have lots of skills to be an idol. It was sure a surprise when you told us the song choice despite what you all normally do. I'm a definite yes.”

“I'm a yes as well, but please don't do that to me again. It tripped me out.” Mr. Jo pointed at Lina and laughed, “This is the only large group I've seen so far. I expect a lot from you all.”

“I feel that you guys are an interesting group. Can't wait to film you all.” Mr. Yang winked.

“Thank you!” FxTION bowed in unison and turned to exit. A camera followed them closely behind as they walked out of the audition room. Once the door closed behind them, they erupted into happiness and total relief. They hugged each other passionately and gave out encouragement to one another.

“We did it!” Lina exclaimed with relief written all over her face. She clasped her hands together in front of her and mentally thanked all the blessings she received from above. Jinuk pulled everyone around her and they all gave each other a big group hug. Ending the audition with another chant, they bid goodbye to the cameras and went home.

A/N: Comment and subscribe! Also, here is the song from Ulala Session. RIP <3