I hardly slept that night. Hyuk’s party ended relatively early since everyone was a bit party’d-out from N’s birthday, America day, and now Hyuk’s birthday. But the tablet and internet access that Ravi had suddenly provided me was like a gateway to a whole new world that I needed to explore. I started off easy, just going down the list of videos and performances to watch. But then something would catch my eye, and I would head down the YouTube rabbit hole of tangents. I felt so many things as I found more and more talent in these Korean artists. I also used the internet to figure out how to type properly in Korean, which I used to figure out how to turn my keyboard English, which I then used to figure out how to use a Korean keyboard on my phone which I then used to send Taemin an experimental text message to see if that function would work properly internationally.

First of all, I felt intense regret by the fact that I didn’t know who GD was when we met. This guy was crazy talented, both solo and with his group. I just hoped my ignorance didn’t ruin my chances at working with the guy. Second, I felt a sense of competition. Clearly some of these groups and individuals were orders of magnitude more popular than VIXX and with more resources, and it lit a fire of motivation that I had been lacking the past few days. I needed to work harder, be better, so my boys could compete with these big-budget superstars. I felt excitement that I was being sought out by several of these artists, whether to just meet or to discuss a future opportunity, it didn’t really matter. I felt apprehensive at the thought of what this might mean for my career.

I was scheduled to meet with Henry Lau, so I did my research on him. I found out he had done a collaboration with Taemin and someone named Kyuhyun- that someone having the most incredible vocal tone I had ever heard. So then that set me on a tangent to research him, which lead me into the black hole that was Super Junior, which lead me to Girls’ Generation, and so on. Eventually I found that I had covered most of Ravi’s list on my own. And then it was four in the morning, and I forced myself to put the tablet down. I had renewed drive to work with Hongbin the next day. His silly notion that a baritone wouldn’t fit into an idol group was unfounded, and now I had proof. TOP was just one example, but I found several low-register vocalists in my first foray into the kpop realm. I had material for him to practice- to sing along with in preparation for his own part. My excitement made it difficult to sleep, despite the fact that my body screamed for rest. Eventually my body won, and I succumbed to the need to sleep.

I managed to wake up the next morning without a giant headache, so I got ready as quickly as I could in order to go fetch Hongbin. It was late into the morning already, and I had so much planned. I grabbed the tablet once I was ready to go and made my way down the hallway, finding the door to the VIXX apartment already open. I knocked casually on the doorframe before walking in, looking for any sign of activity. It was mostly quiet as I poked my head into the common room.

Hongbin was lounging on one of the couches, his red folder open in front of him. I leaned against the wall and watched him study his sheet music for a moment before I needed to interrupt him, “Hey Hongbin,” I called gently.

He twisted to look at me, a smile lighting up his face immediately, “Hi Mira,” he answered as he scrambled to his feet.

“Where is everybody?” I asked, looking around at the unusually serene room.

“Oh,” he stretched quickly, “Well you told us we can’t rehearse together yet, so everyone has found some hiding place to practice.”

I couldn’t help but laugh a little. It made me incredibly proud that they felt the need to get to work immediately. After my new wave of inspiration, I was prepared to work them hard to get this thing as perfect as I could. “Well good, I guess we had better get you ready then,” I beckoned for him to follow me as I turned to leave.

“Oh, Mira,” he called after me suddenly, jogging to catch up to me. I stopped to look at him before he continued, “Thanks for throwing Hyuk that party yesterday.”

“Hey,” I reached up to ruffle his hair, “it was my pleasure. I can’t believe that for someone that young he was that selfless.” I started to walk again, “There’s not another surprise birthday I should be getting ready for, is there?”

He laughed this time, “No. Mine’s next, but it’s in September.”

“Plenty of time for me to prepare then,” I mused.

We walked side by side down the hallway now, “Will you still be here?” he asked, clearly excited by the prospect.

I grinned. The fact that he would be eager to have me at his birthday was a testament to how integrated I had become in this little group. The thought was truly touching, “Well if I had to give an estimate, we should be ready for a September or October release.”

“Wow, that long?” he glanced over at me.

Nodding, I did some mental calculations. Rehearsal time, then recording, mixing and mastering, choreography, directing and filming, and promoting all added up to a rather long span, “And I’ll be damned if I’m not at your comeback performance.”

“You’d better,” he agreed as we made it down to the studio basement. “Ah I figured he’d be down here,” Hongbin said suddenly, nodding his head to the piano room.

It was Leo, clearly rehearsing while sitting at the piano. “Bastard took my piano,” I mumbled. I didn’t actually need the piano, but I had become oddly possessive of the thing.

Hongbin looked legitimately nervous, “Do,” he paused, “Do we need to kick him out?”

I chuckled at his hesitation, “No, no, we need the stereo room anyway,” I gestured to the room with the biggest sound system, “I have some things for you to listen to.”

Leo either didn’t notice our entrance or just didn’t care, since he hadn’t moved when I glanced through the lightly tinted window. We settled into our studio, and I sat him in the chair before hooking up the tablet to the sound system. Hongbin stayed silent while I fussed about, trying to get the perfect set-up.

“Alright,” I said with a deep breath, “We’re going to just listen first and we’ll see if you can sing along to these.” I leaned on the wall behind him, next to the shelf I set the tablet on.

He turned to look at me, his face a mix of worry and surprise. “You think I can?” he asked quietly.

“I know you can, now hush and listen,” I said with a little chuckle, hitting play on the Bigbang track called ‘Monster’ that I felt featured an incredible example of what I was wanting Hongbin to do for ‘Error’. As soon as the piano started, though, he turned around and looked at me with a deadpan face.

“You’re kidding, right?” he spoke over the music, and I quickly paused. I tapped my foot impatiently. I didn’t say a word as I approached his chair, grabbed the back and used my full strength to drag it back towards where I was sitting. He gripped the sides of the chair to stabilize himself, clearly surprised by my actions. “What are you doing?” he asked incredulously. “I can’t sing like-“

I physically cut him off, covering his mouth with my hand. He flinched hard, yet again looking at me with a confused look in his eyes. “Don’t look at me,” I ordered, holding him still, my other hand on his shoulder as I stood behind him, still covering his mouth. “You’re going to listen,” the sternness in my voice was borderline demanding, but I wasn’t going to accept him giving up so easily when we hadn’t even begun. “I was just going to play the intro, but now we’re going to listen to the whole thing, then a few more examples. You can and whine when it’s over, got it?”

To be honest, I was glad I couldn’t see his face, because I felt his sad defeat in my hands. Eventually he gave a little nod, and I restarted the music. I played the entirety of ‘Monster’ the intro to Super Junior’s ‘Spy’ and a few other examples for him, keeping my hold on him. Midway through one of the songs, a tap on the window drew my attention. Luckily, Hongbin seemed too focus to notice, so I didn’t need to pause. I looked over to see Leo’s dark silhouette looking through at us, his face clearly stunned. It took me a minute to realize what it must look like, having me grip Hongbin’s shoulder and my hand still covering his mouth. I simply raised my eyebrow in question. Leo responded by pointing and shrugging. Releasing Hongbin’s shoulder, I held up a finger, telling Leo to wait. Once the song was over, I let go of Hongbin completely.

“Okay,” Hongbin said, a little breathless, “I get your point.”

“Good,” I said with a smug little smirk, “Now listen to them some more if you want, I’ll be right back. I think Leo's convinced I’m torturing you.”

Hongbin laughed, catching Leo’s eye through the window and giving a little wave. I swiftly walked out, closing the door behind me. “Can I help you?” I asked Leo impatiently.

He was clearly thrown off by my tone, “Oh,” he stammered, “What are you doing to Hongbin?”

I sighed, “Taekwoon, you of all people should know I’m not afraid to do whatever it takes,” pausing, I glanced down at his collarbone, remembering our little singing encounter.

He seemed to be unable to come up with an adequate response for a while, his eyes narrowing at me slightly. Finally, he spoke, “Go easy on him.”

“No.” I spoke simply, “He has a lot more potential than the rest of you give him credit for,” I put a hand on my hip defiantly, “If he has an issue, he can tell me.”

“But,” Taekwoon started, his voice clearly growing irritated, “I don’t think he’ll have the guts to tell you if it’s too much for him.”

While he had a point, I wasn’t going to budge, “You don’t think I’d be able to tell?”

He sighed. His voice was quiet still, but he still managed to grumble as he spoke, “Fine. I trust you.” That certainly wasn’t something I had expected to hear.

“It’s about time,” I smirked a little, recalling our initial spats revolving around his trust issues.

A little smile finally broke through his face, and he fiddled with the sleeve of his favorite black sweater, “I think I have my part down,” he said suddenly.

“Good,” I smiled up at him, moving to catch his eye, “I’m counting on you to be prepared for when I bring everyone together. You’ll be the only one to have pretty much heard the whole thing.”

He nodded, “I’ll do my best,” he spoke quietly, but his smile grew just a touch. “You’d better get back to it,” he nodded through the window, where Hongbin was making faces at us.

I laughed, “You’re right. I’ll see you later, Taekwoon,” I gave him a little wave as I went back through the door.

Once I had closed the door behind me again, Hongbin was back in his chair, grinning at me. When I stopped to simply look at him, he finally spoke, “You certainly have figured out how to handle Leo hyung.”

A single dry laugh escaped me, “Not quite,” I admitted, “but I’m working on it.” I moved back to the tablet, “Ready to try singing along?”

He sighed, “I know I wasn’t supposed to whine anymore, but you’re asking me to sing like TOP.”

“I am,” I said simply, “What’s the problem?”

“There’s no way,” he said, clearly hopeless.

I rolled my eyes, “I already know you can, you just need to try.”

I had to admit, the rest of the day was probably the most difficult I’d had since arriving in Korea. The combination of convincing Hongbin that he was capable, and then coaching him in a register he and I were both unfamiliar with was aggravating. There were a few moments where Leo’s words ran through my mind, and I considered pulling the plug on the whole thing for the day. But Hongbin, despite his hesitation, wasn’t ready to give up. Finally, I was pretty satisfied with him singing along with the other artists, but it was time for me to get him into his own part.

“Noona I don’t know if I can sing from just sheet music like this,” he admitted, fiddling with the paper in his hand.

I thought for a little while, “I have an idea,” I stood, moving to face him, “You’ll sing with me.”

He looked at me as if I’d grown an extra head, “You can sing this?”

“Hell no!” I laughed, “But I can bring it up an octave. It won’t be as easy for you, but it’ll at least give you an idea what it should sound like.” I regretted not bringing my laptop for the backing track, but I had to make do with what I had.

I started singing the part by myself. It was nice and short, so I sang it a couple of times until he was ready. “I’m going to sound so bad next to Leo or Ken,” I heard him mutter to himself.

“Hey, I’m not stupid,” I laughed, “I wouldn’t flank you with either of them; that would be too harsh of a contrast.” When his face remained blank, I continued, “I have Hyuk and N singing before this bit, and then Hyuk and Ravi after. The purest voices will flank you to make as smooth of a transition as possible.”

“Smart,” he said simply, but a relieved smile crossed his face. “Okay, let’s try.”

Hearing Hongbin’s low register on its own was actually quite striking. It made all of this effort worthwhile, and I was glad I wove in some lower harmonies throughout the song for him to contribute. It was still rough, of course, but after an innumerable amount of rehearsals, I managed to get him to sing it on his own without a problem. “See?” I finally said, my face unable to hide how proud and smug I felt.

He laughed, clearly exhausted, “Okay, you win.”

"I always do,” I threw him a wink, “Think you’ll be fine for the rest of the song?”

“Yeah,” he flipped through the pages, “A lot of harmonies.”

“You and Hyuk are what make this group work vocally, you know,” I spoke offhandedly as I disconnected the tablet, “I can’t wait for you guys to come together and see what magic I’ve written.”

“Confident, I see,” he said with a laugh as he stood, stretching his legs.

I looked back at him, “Of course. Now that Ravi’s made me research the entire history of Kpop, I know who we’re competing with.”

“You sound like Leo,” Hongbin laughed, “No wonder he looked like death when he came back from practicing with you.”

I smiled, “Yeah, it was one of the harder battles of will I’ve fought.”

“Explains a lot,” He walked toward me, “You’ve managed to gain his respect.”

“It was his trust I needed,” I admitted with a deep sigh, “And it was hard to earn.”

Hongbin held out his hand for me, and I looked at it in surprise. It was a simple gesture, but I couldn’t help but hope it meant he was finally comfortable with me. I took it, and he pulled me to his side, “Finally,” I breathed in relief.

“What?”

“You were the only one who was still nervous around me,” I pointed out, then gestured to the nonexistent space between us now, “So this makes me happy.”

“So easy to please,” he said with a little chuckle, but he said nothing else on the subject. We simply walked together, but before we left the main studio room, I stopped us.

“Wait,” I said suddenly, looking over my shoulder at the now vacant piano studio, “Can we do one more thing?”

He looked confused but nodded once, turning us and heading into the room in question. “And here I thought I had passed,” he joked as he let me go.

“Oh you did,” I said matter-of-factly as I pulled the tablet out one more time, doing a quick search, “This is for me.” I found what I was looking for as I sat at the piano, setting the table up on the sheet music holder. Gently, I patted the spot to my left on the piano bench.

He sat gingerly before looking at the tablet, “Monster lyrics?” he asked questioningly, giving me a little look.

“Sing with me one more time?”

With a bright smile, he responded, “Sure.”

I had procured some headphones so we could quietly listen along for cues. I had listened to this song close to a hundred times last night, analyzing it, so the chord progression was pretty well ingrained in my head as I started the piano intro myself. I gave him a little nudge to cue him in, and he came in on the low vocals, and we had a conversation- half rapping, half singing, passing the song back and forth until the chorus began, and I just sang my little heart out. He came in for harmonies when the song called for it, and he got to feature his low register a few more times. It reminded me that, while I had felt like pulling teeth while working with Hongbin, he was still a talented musician with a great sense for rhythm and tune.

When it was over, we were silent, just the sound of our slightly labored breathing lingering once my hands were off the keys. I looked over at Hongbin, who was smiling at me warmly, “You look so happy,” he noted.

I laughed once between breaths, “Easy to please,” I reminded him. “And plus,” I began again, gently plucking the earbud from his ear as I put the tablet away, “at the end of the day, I’m just a girl who loves music.”

We said nothing more as he brought me under his arm again. And that was how we left the studio. It had gotten pretty late, so we stopped by my room. “Are you sure you don’t want to come over for a while?”

“Apparently I have people to meet tomorrow,” I spoke with a little groan. I was excited to do the meeting, but I was also pretty tired.

“You’ll like Henry,” Hongbin simply offered, his dimpled smile reassuring me.

I returned it with a little half smile of my own, “Thanks for working so hard today, Hongbin.”

“No. Thank you for not giving up on me.”