March 1st 2014

“Today is the big day, Myung.” Chang Namjoon smiled, looking up at the nervous boy. “Today is the day you get to meet the rest of your group. Are you excited?”

“Nervous would be the word I’d use, Manager-hyung,” Myung replied sheepishly, running his long, thin fingers through the wild, recently dyed, acid blue hair on the top of his head.

“There’s no need to be nervous, Myung. All of you have been training for a long time within the company, so I have no doubts that at least a few of you will already know each other. You’re all going to get along just fine.”

“But... Manager-hyung, are you sure about my position? I’m not the oldest in the group, and I know it is very unlikely I’m the most mature…”

“Don’t worry, Myung. I believe you’re going to do great. If you go and wait in the practice room, the others will be arriving shortly. Make a good first impression, okay? All of you are going to be nervous. I bet this feels like it’s real now, huh?”

Myung smiled a little bit, taking off his glasses and rubbing them clean with the bottom of his t-shirt. “Yeah, it does… Anyway, thank you hyung, wish me luck!”

Namjoon smiled a little, leaning over and ruffling the shorter boy’s hair. “You’ll do great, you don’t need my luck.”

Myung just gave a small smile before taking a deep breath and walking into the green practice room, letting the door shut behind him with a light bump… this was it, no backing out now.  Walking over to the far side, Myung let himself sit down, leaning against the wall below the balance bar, and let out a breath to steel himself, to calm his racing, nervous heart.

Barely 5 minutes had passed before the door opened, a boy about the same height as Myung himself walking in. His hair was black, shoulder length and straight, his face quite feminine. Myung smirked a little to himself, thinking of Ren from NU’EST. Whoever this guy was would look good crossdressed.

The heavily lined eyes caught Myung, a small, nervous smile coming to his face as he walked over. “Hello,” he greeted, bowing slightly. “My name is Kim Jae-hwa, main dancer of Acid Teochii. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

Myung smiled in response, bowing back while his polite smile turned into a sly smirk. “Hello,” Myung replied in English, having to stop the giggle escaping when he saw Jae-hwa flinch upright, eyes wide with shock. “How are you?” He asked, once again in English. Jae-hwa just stared at him, confused. Myung could almost hear the gears turning in his head as he tried to figure out what Myung was saying.

“Okay,” The other said in heavily accented English, before sitting where Myung had been previously.

One by one, the members made their way into the room, Myung introducing himself to all of them in English.

After Jae-hwa had been a short, bubblegum pink haired girl named Park Cho, who was their female visual and lead singer, her waist length hair swaying behind her no matter how little she moved. She was short, very short in fact, unable to be more than 5 foot tall at most, then Choi Ae-Cha, their other female member who’s hair was dyed in a rainbow of colours, shaved on one side… she claimed to be the maknae of the group, as well as the main rapper, but Myung was 99% sure that Ae-Cha would kick his if he said the wrong thing.

After Ae-Cha came Hwang Hanyeul, who although he had a baby face, was insanely tall, his hair also shaved on one side, but completely bald, his remaining hair, black, flung over his right eye. Hanyeul was the main vocalist as well as the male visual for the group.

Then came a boy that Myung actually knew from their training days, a tall but frail boy called Kwon Bon-hwa. His hair was black and parted in the 2:8 style, his eyes appearing to have once been a chocolate tone, but they were covered with a milky film, making them seem more the colour of milky tea. In his right hand, Bon-hwa held a long, battered white cane that he moved in front of him. When Myung greeted him in English, he knew that his voice had instantly been recognised at the smirk that had pasted itself on his face. It was refreshing to see someone he knew. He introduced himself as the main vocalist.

Next came a boy with ash blonde hair, almost silver in tone, with pale skin and kind eyes. Taller than Bon-hwa, but not quite as tall as Hanyeul. Right now, apart from the two girls, Myung was feeling very…insecure about his height. The boy introduced himself as Yoon Jin, the main rapper, his accent telling Myung instantly that he wasn’t Korean.

Next in came a boy who, if it wasn’t for the facial features themselves, wouldn’t look Asian. His hair was a bright, fire truck red, sticking up in all directions, his eyes green, most likely contact lenses. Under his left eye was a scar in the shape of a slanted cross, but he smiled brightly, introducing himself to all the members as Kwak Hyun-ki, the main dancer. When Myung introduced himself in return in English, however, Hyun-ki’s smile just grew more as he continued the conversation in fluent English.

“You only speak English?” Hyun-ki asked, sitting beside Myung.

“Nope,” he replied, secretly happy that it appeared none of the others spoke English. “Just thought I’d mess with you all a little is all. Great first impression, I’m the leader of the group and I’m a jokester! Yay~” He grinned, Myung’s own blue eyes meeting Hyun-ki’s fake green ones.

“Contacts?” The redhead asked, pointing at Myung’s eyes.

“Nope, got them from my father who is British, it’s rare apparently considering my mom’s brown eyes should have been the dominant gene…but I quite like them.”

“I see… do you think this will be everyone?” Hyunki then asked, turning to look at the rest of the group who stood awkwardly apart from each other, trying not to catch each other’s eyes.

Myung shook his head. “No, apparently there’s 11 of us in total… Myself, You, Jae-hwa, Cho, Ae-cha, Bon-hwa, Jin and Hanyeul makes 8… so 3 more I suppose.”

Just as the blue haired leader said this, an amber haired boy walked in, his hair styled quite like Bon-hwa’s, and quickly but timidly introduced himself as Kim Mal-chin, before sitting in the corner alone, his deep set eyes staring at the polished floor below him. Myung frowned as the boy trembled a little. Cho was the first to stand and make her way over to him.

However, Myung’s attention was stolen from the apparent anxiety stricken boy when another walked into the practice room, holding himself tall with confidence. His hair was extremely long, pulled back into a pony tail yet still managing to brush his lower back, a thick, unsightly scar making its way diagonally between his eyes and ending on his cheek, another thinner one next to it, almost looking like claws had been dragged down his face. “My name is Lee Hyo,” He told the group, his Korean slightly broken. “I am lead dancer.”

“I better go over to him, that’s Hyo, he’s Chinese, and his Korean isn’t great. I speak Mandarin, so I’ll go introduce myself. Good luck, Myung-ah.” Hyun-ki told him, before going over to where Hyo was looking a little lost.

Myung stood, counting the people in the room. Himself, Hyun-ki, Jae-hwa, Bon-hwa, Mal-chin, Ae-cha, Cho, Hanyeul, Hyo and Jin…that made 10. They were just waiting for one more.

As if he heard his calling, the final member walked into the practice room. He looked older than the others, his face longer with slight bags under his eyes, the way he holds himself just screaming the training he’d gone through to get where he was. He held himself proudly, with purpose, but his eyes were warm as he looked over everyone in the room. “Hello, my name is Lee Dong-sun, I am the oldest of the group as well as a main vocalist.” He bowed low. “Please to meet you all.”

Myung took his chance and stood, taking the piece of paper that had been pinned to the notice board.

“Alright! So, soon all of us have to get to know each other, after all, soon we’re all going to be sharing a dorm together, but first, I’ve been told I have to give out everyone’s stage names. Now, management have chosen who gets stage names and what they are, but I’ve been told I have to give them out. It’s recommended that this is what we call each other, so we can get used to the names more, but if you want to call each other by your real names, I don’t mind either way!” Myung announced in perfect Korean, causing a few eyes to widen and murmurs to spread through a few of them. “I’m sorry for greeting you all in English and tricking you by the way, I just thought it was the perfect first introduction of myself! I am the leader of Acid Teochii, Paul Myung, I come from England but I am fluent in Korean since my father’s English is poor. Although I have been appointed leader, I don’t see myself above any of you, in fact, I don’t feel as though I should be leader. So please, don’t expect too much of me! I’ll do my best!”

Myung took a deep breath to steel himself once more, despite his confident and happy exterior, he was freaking out inside. What if they didn’t like him? What if they disagreed with the fact he was leader? Especially Vann, who was the oldest and obviously much more mature than he was…

“Okay, so first thing’s first… Mal-chin-hyung, according to this, your stage name is Hope… Dong-sun-hyung, yours will be Vann… Hanyeul-hyung, yours will be Hanni…Jae-hwa-hyung, yours will be Yuuki… Bon-hwa-hyung, yours is Sherlock…and Hyun-ki-hyung, yours is Marco…I believe that’s all of them…Please remember your stage name, but if you forget, don’t worry, I’ll be keeping the list.” A chorus of agreements and nods met him.

“Now, today is just for us to get to know each other, so spend it however you like, but remember, we’re all going to be living together for the foreseeable future, our debut single and our first performance comes out on May 20^th…and I guess if you have any other questions, feel free to ask me.” Myung smiled and bowed, before putting the sheet of paper down. “Okay, enough of that ‘Leader’ act, I brought food!”

Myung hurried over to the radio in the corner of the room, flipping on a CD, and began to set food out, watching everyone begin to mingle as Vann approached him.

“Oh, Dong-su-I mean, Vann-hyung,” Myung greeted with a smile. “What’s up?”

“I just thought I’d let you know… they asked me to be leader first, but I turned the role down. I’m glad you were chosen, I think you’ll do great, Myung-ah.”

Myung frowned. “Thank you, hyung, but why did you turn it down?”

“Well, I was honoured to be asked, but my Korean isn’t the best and I… I don’t know, it just didn’t feel right. You’ll do a great job, Myung-ah, but if you need any guidance, please don’t be shy.” Vann smiled, before walking away over to where Cho, Sherlock and Ae-Cha had congregated.

Myung began setting the food out with a smile on his face, glasses steaming up a little from tears.

He couldn’t wait for them to get started.