"So what do you think of your new song 'Message'?" The PD asked. 

"I like it. It's a little different from our usual songs but it still represents us," I answered seriously. 

I was being interviewed for a segment on 12hour on MTV. We've had cameras following us on our schedules for about a week now. 

The PD nodded and quickly scribbled something down. 

"Is Hana a good leader?" 

I chuckled. "Surprisingly, yes. She goofs around a lot but she works hard and makes us work hard as well. Hana always tries to be enthusiastic so we forget how tired we are. She's also very serious about nutrition and exercise since she's studying that in college. She's like our...not mom...she's like our dad."

The PD smiled. "What are the other member's then?"

"Rara's the mom, Eun Mi's the baby, and Tae Ji and I are either the rebellious teenagers or hoboes living in their house," I said, laughing. 

The crew chuckled.

"Who are you closest to in 2am and 2pm?"

"In 2am, I have to say...Changmin. He's always willing to help out with my music. And 2pm...uh...Junsu...we talk a lot since he gives me my singing lessons."

She nodded. "Who is your ideal type?"

My hands twitched. "Um, I hadn't, um, really thought about this, but I have to say..."

I paused. 

"Taeyang or Seungri from Big Bang. They have good manners and smiles. I would like to be with someone who is well mannered and has a smile that would make me smile," I finally answered. 

"Interesting," the PD said. "Who fits that criteria in 2am and 2pm?"

I giggled nervously. "Seulong and Changmin in 2am and...Nichkhun in 2pm. Taec has a smile that makes me smile, but in a different way." I continued to laugh nervously. 

"Okay," she smiled. "That's all for today. Thank you."

I got up and bowed. "Thank you for the hard work!"

oOo

Jokwon and Wooyoung came skipping into 2pm's studio, where we gathered lazily. 

"Hyun Ae likes Seulong!" Jokwon sang. 

"And Changmin!" Wooyoung added. 

"And Taeyang!"

"And Seungri!"

"And Khunnie!"

"Huh?" Taec and Chansung looked up from their game of Angry Birds on Chansung's phone. 

"It's true!" Jokwon said. "She named all of them as he ideal type."

"It's not like that! You guys are me sound like a...what's the word?" I cut in. 

"You don't know?" Eun Mi's eyes were wide in disbelief. "It's-"

Rara quickly covered Eun Mi's mouth. "Maknaes shouldn't know that word either!" Her voice was sweet, but it was kind of scary. It was her infamous Mom Voice. 

"What word?" Hana looked up from her laptop. She was completely oblivious to the conversation before. 

"I could say it in English and Khunnie or Taec could trans-" I was cut off by the instant protesting from Taec and Khun. 

"Don't drag me into this!" Taec shook his head. 

"I don't even know how you would say it in Korean!" Nichkhun said. 

"Sure you do! Junsu-oppa taught you all the curse words didn't he?" Tae Ji said. 

Junsu looked up suddenly. "Oh, you mean wh-"

"Okaaay, let's not say those words in front of Eun Mi," Rara cut him off. 

Junsu shrugged. He continued to talk in a monotone voice, which was kind of odd for him. "Hyun Ae, did you practice your song again?"

"Yep!"

"Practice again tonight."

"But our MTV segment's on tonight," Hana cut in. "It's our first show all together."

Junsu shrugged and refused to look at me. His voice was tired. "Fine. You can watch your show. Just warm up well before your performance tomorrow."

He got up and with a weary "Good night", he left. 

"Hey, do you think Junsu's sick?" Junho asked seriously. "He's been like this all week."

"He's probably just tired," Chansung said. "Our schedule's been brutal this week."

For some reason, I had a hard time believing that.

oOo

"Do I really look like a man?" Hana asked. 

"I didn't say you looked like a man," I laughed. "I said you're like our dad!"

A commercial was on and my interview had just finished. 

"And Rara's the mom, Eun Mi's the baby and you and Tae Ji are the rebellious teenagers slash hoboes we're harboring?"

"In a nutshell, yes."

"Wifey!" Hana threw her arms around Rara's neck who was laughing and coughing. 

The program finished at midnight and we were exhausted. Hana made us go to bed but I wanted to practice my song one last time before bed. 

oOo

"Third place...Yuna!"

Yuna went up to take the bronze microphone graciously with a grin. I clapped and gave her the thumbs up when she got back into her place next to me. I stood with my hands empty. 

"Fourth place, Hyun Ae!"

I bowed and forced myself to smile. The rest of the places were read and the show finally ended I could go back to the dressing room to wash off all the make up caked onto my face. 

"Hyun Ae!"

I was kind of happy to hear a familiar voice. "Gunwoo-oppa! Congratulations on first again!"

He smiled. "Hey, are you going to be performing on Music Core tomorrow?"

"Yeah, why?"

"I want to meet the evil maknae and the rest of the girls. They seem really funny from the stories I've heard."

I chuckled. "Our maknae will be under control on stage but you might catch her teasing our leader back stage."

He laughed. "Well, see you tomorrow!"

"You got it!"

I began to walk away but he suddenly stopped me. 

"Wait! Sorry, but...you'll be back in the top three next week, right?"

"Right!"

oOo

I tried to sit as still as human possibly as a giant mask was pinned/glued to the side of my head along with the rest of my members. 

"We should warm up. Hyun Ae, start us off." Hana said as giant mask was being attached to her head along with a huge feather. 

I started off with a scale and everyone followed. We continued with a few more scales until we heard whispers at our door. 

We strained to see who it was through the mirrors but we couldn't see. The stylists were finally finished with our masks so we quickly turned to see who it was. 

"Chenmi!" I exclaimed and ran up to hug her. She was on Rookie Idol but on another division. We still talked though and she was a sweet girl with a nice voice too. Her group members, C-Real, stood tentatively at the door to our dressing room. We were both rookie groups but we were older than them so we were technically their sunbae. 

"We just wanted to say good luck today!" Chenmi said. She turned to her members. "One, two, three..."

"12hour hwaiting!" They said, loudly, enthusiastically, and bowed at a ninety degree angle. 

"Aww! Thank you!" Hana said. "One, two, three..."

"C-Real hwaiting!" We said just as loudly and enthusiastically but our ginormous masks needed some time to set and kind of altered our center of gravity drastically. 

"Chenmi-ah, have you seen Gunwoo-oppa?" I asked her. 

She shook her head. "I tried to go over to MYNAME's dressing room but the sound crew wouldn't let us since the sound system's been malfunctioning and they wouldn't let us through."

"Oh, well good luck!"

They bowed out and rushed to the stage since they were on soon. 

Sung Gyu came into our dressing room. "You girls should also head to the stage."

She ushered us out of the dressing room and to the stage. 

We saw our Wonder Girl unnies and quickly rushed over to them like the donsaengs we were. 

We hugged and gave each other energy (reminds me of Dragonball Z).

"You guys are gonna be awesome," I told Sunye.

She hugged me again. "You guys, too. Good luck!"

"Wonder Girls are on in a minute!" An assistant said from backstage. 

We quickly hugged one last time and they disappeared backstage. 

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Je Il walking along with his other members backstage. 

I pondered on whether or not I should say since he was in my division but he never really talked to anyone, including myself. 

I ended up mustering up all my courage and calling out to him. 

"Je Il! Hwaiting!" I smiled brightly and waved. 

Oh God. Here comes the awkward moment when he just stares at me. 

Surprisingly, Je Il's mouth stretched into a sparkling smile. 

"You too, Hyun Ae!"

I blinked and after a few moments I called back, "Thanks!"

"Well that was strange," Tae Ji said, coming to my side. 

"I know," I said. "Usually he's really antisocial."

"Maybe he gets so focused on the competition that he forgets to socialize," Tae Ji offered. "Or have manners."

Eun Mi's sudden shout out interrupted my thoughts. 

"Joon Kyu! Nice pants!"

Joon Kyu? Jun Q? Wasn't he in MYNAME?

"Eun Mi-ah-"

Before I could finish my sentence, we were surrounded by hot guys. 

"Hyun Ae! We were looking for you," Gunwoo said. 

"Same here," I said. I turned to Eun Mi. "Eun Mi, how do you know Jun Q?"

"Oh, Joon Kyu, Chaejin and I go to the same school," she explained. "We even have some classes together. Oh and Joon Kyu, those are some very interesting pants."

"Thanks, pabo Eun Mi," Jun Q teased. 

His pants were quite interesting. They were bloomer shorts that extended into skinny leg pants. It just looked...odd.

A round of introductions began to break the awkward staring at Jun Q's bloomer pants. 

"It was nice meeting all of you," Gunwoo said. "We're on next."

"MYNAME hwaiting!" We yelled out as they went backstage. 

oOo

"You got a message-ji!" We whisper-sang backstage as MYNAME was performing. We even did miniature dance moves.  They were amazing live. The audience loved them. 

When they ended, the whole place was shaking from the cheers. I felt bad for the group that would have to follow them. 

They rushed off backstage. They high fived us before leaving. 

"Good luck!" Gunwoo said to me. 

"Hwaiting!" Seyoung said to Rara. 

"Thanks!" Rara smiled. 

MYNAME left and we immediately began to tease Rara. 

"Of course, he would fall for our Rara-umma," Eun Mi teased. 

"Seyoung-oppa would be a nice dad," Tae Ji said. 

"Hell no! She's my wifey!" Hana had iron grip on Rara. 

We laughed as we waited for our turn up. 

oOo

We were doing great. I loved being on stage. Hana and I high fived as we switched verses. 

On our first live performance, I was afraid we wouldn't know how to interact with the camera or the audience wouldn't like us. I was wrong. We were completely at ease with the camera and the audience was always enthusiastic. 

This audience even began singing our chorus with us. 

We were having fun on stage. Too bad it had to end so soon. 

We froze in our ending poses, trying not to breathe too hard into our mics. 

I felt great. 

oOo

"Fourth place, huh?" 

I pulled the sleeves of my jacket over my hands in silence. 

Junsu sighed. "If you keep this up, you'll be eliminated in two weeks."

We stayed silent for a few moments. 

"What's the key to success?" I asked timidly. 

Just swiveled around in his chair to face me. "Failure."

I clenched my fists. "I'm serious, Junsu!"

Junsu looked me straight in the eyes. "So am I. You're afraid of failing, screwing up, making yourself look bad. You have to take chances, risks. That's why you're so afraid on stage."

I was fine on stage. I only had trouble on Rookie Idol. "Isn't a little stage fright normal?"

"You're not afraid of the stage. You're afraid of life."

I slowly took that in as Junsu got and gathered his stuff. 

"Where are you going?" I asked without looking at him. "I still have my lesson."

"I know you're pissed at me so you wouldn't listen anyway," Junsu said. "Good night."

I heard him leave the studio. 

I was angry at myself for being angry at him. I really didn't want to be but at the same time I wanted to be. I was so confused. 

I just wanted something in my life to go right. 

---------------

Waaaaaaaaaah!!! I'm so sorry for the late update!! School, family, Thanksgiving...crazy week. And I was supposed to post this earlier until all of it was DELETED this morning! Ugh, so I had to rewrite it today...Happy Thanksgiving everyone!