I was awaken by the sound of my phone.

Somebody called. I checked on the screen, it showed "Agency-hyung."

"Yo, hyung, what's up?" I answered in a very hoarse voice. I had just finish shooting for a new drama which forced me to stay awake for 3 days straight till yesterday.

"Photo shoot? Interview? Next week? What's my schedule, I don't think I have anything to do."

"Who will be my partner? There will be 6 of us? Who"

"Minwoo, Dongwan, Hyesung, Junjin and Andy!?"

"But, aren't minjindy still in LA?"

"Oh, they have confirmed to come. Good. I'll be there. Thanks, hyung."

I was not sleepy anymore. The chance to work with Hyesung has made me feel like I have 6 shots of espresso, fully awake and light headed. I mean, we do live in the same apartment building but we rarely met as he's busy with his albums and tours. Yes, he is a professional singer right now. A very famous one, since all girls melted once they listen to his voice. Dongwan is lucky enough to be able to meet him more often, since Dongwan is also in music industry. His band has been constantly releasing an album every 2 or 3 years. Ensuring the quality, he said, because he has to arrange his schedule with his other job as an actor. In fact, he will appear in the next drama with me. He and his band also assist Hyesung, either writing a song or being the supporting musician for his album.

MinJinDy are now in LA. Their dance unit has become famous and they are often invited to perform in USA, more than in Korea. That's why they decided to stay in LA. I still keep in touch with them, I often skype with them, and the last time I met them in person was last year when I visited my parents.

Finally, the photo shoot day came. The photo shoot theme was about reunion. That's why the producer invited us, seeing that the 6 of us, old friends, has been working in different type of entertainment industry but keep in touch with each other.

We were given 3 sets of costumes, a school uniform (different from our school's tho) for the setting of school's extracurricular; next is uniform related to occupation.. I got chef's uniform which I think looks very good on me.. Last one is tuxedo. The setting was a high-class bar. It looked so graceful, and I have to say Hyesung looked soo good in tux, I nearly fainted. We had a lot of fun during the photoshoot. Dongwan and Junjin never stop joking around. I guess we kinda miss each other.

After photo shoot session the magazine ask us to do a short interview. When asked what will be our next plan, Dongwan answered with a very serious face that we are going to do a project together and release an album together. Junjin and Hyesung reacted very quickly to this impromptu answer by hitting his head. Yes, we never talk about this before. 

But actually this is not a bad idea! I actually start to learn rapping years ago in order to be able to meet hyesung more in music show. And I manage to win of national rap battle under the name Miclarge1 (the name that hyesung gave to me - because he said I often act like a loach - mikkulaji in Korean, it has the same pronunciation as miclarge). Nobody know the real identity of miclarge1 as I always use a huge sunglasses and beanie everytime I perform.. except for Junjin and Andy who also learned rapping while staying in US (the follow every rapping news in Korea, and instantly recognize my voice). Dongwan knows this as well because somehow he got a good network in music world including the underground one, and probably because he knows me he could instantly recognize me even with my glasses and beannie. A day after I won the national battle, he texted me "you are miclarge1 aren't you!? Nice work last night."

Minwoo who always interested in dance are learning to make music as well. He became interested because dance is inseparable from music, and he started to think that dancing to his own music would channel his emotion perfectly. So all of us actually have our own musical skill now.

"Yeah, we named our project Shinhwa." - legend. A very appropriate name for what we are going to do. My answer got me a satisfied nod from Dongwan and a shocked stare from Hyesung and Junjin.

"The genre would be dance." Minwoo added. "So do expect to see Dongwan, Hyesung and Eric dancing." He grinned widely that his eyes gone. Junjin and Andy nodded in agreement on this as this is their specialty. Hyesung looked like the blood has been drained from his face. 

"Wait!! Wait!! We haven't agreed on this! Interviewer-ssi please don't note this!!" Dongwan complained.

Minwoo covered Dongwan's mouth with his hand. "You started this, now you have to take the consequence." Minwoo silently mouthing this to Dongwan. "Please make sure you note our Shinhwa project when this interview is released will you, interviewer-ssi. Be sure to note that our genre is dance." Minwoo gave his remarks to the interviewer who looked amused by what had just happen.

"Noo... Hyesung.. please tell me you disagree too.." Dongwan manage to free his mouth from Minwoo's grab.

"Hmm, I think it's ok to try something out of your genre once in a while. It'll be boring to do just one genre right. I believe trying dance music will bring a new color to my voice in the future. It'll be quite a challenge, but I'll try my best to do it." Hyesung had his professional singer sense back. We all nod to Hyesung's professional answer except Dongwan.

Dongwan looked like a statue, he sat still, jaw dropped, and pale as ghost.

Later, that the word were already spilled. We often conduct meeting for Shinhwa's preparation.  We collected songs from Minwoo, Dongwan and Hyesung. Minwoo rearranged some of Dongwan and Hyesung's songs to fit in our dance concept, but kept some of them as it is because if the song is already good, especially for ballads. MinWanSyung are in charge for the lyrics while JinDy and me in charge of the rap lyrics.

Once we decided our main track, MinJinDy starting to create the choreography.

And when it's time to learn the choreography Dongwan would complain here and there. Hyesung also had some trouble with the choreography but still, he master it faster than Dongwan. Realized that he got no other option than to master it, Dongwan no longer complained and started practice harder. He often stayed longer accompanied by Minwoo who acted as his personal coach.

Finally the D-Day for our CD sell came. A TV station contacted us that they are interested in inviting us to a music show. We showed them our songs first before agreeing to their proposal, afraid that it might not be good enough for their standard. They gave good signal, saying that it's awesome and they predicted we’d top the chart on the first week. 

I was so nervous, so were the other. Our individual fans have gathered on the TV station to watch our live performance. We did our best on TV, although Dongwan did make some mistakes on the dance moves but it was minor. The fans seem to enjoy our song, which was a good relief for us. Although finally our album selling only manage to reach the top 5 of the chart but we were satisfied and realize that we do had fun doing this project. After this "Shinhwa" became our permanent project, and we keep releasing an album once on a while other than doing our main job.