I am a Pioneer

Helping Hayashi pt.2

2 days after the announcement of the rule change, my group was practising in the dance studio. We had just run through the second section of lucifer. The cameras are recording everything. the staff had set them up in all of the rooms, except for the bathroom and bedrooms. Akira and I had already figured out our parts for the first and second sections and were working on syncing them up. Hayashi was having trouble with the advanced hand movements and coordinating them with his feet. He hadn't gotten past the first section. "ARGHHGH! I can't do this! We are doomed!" Hayashi yells in frustration after his 25th failed attempt at the synced arm jolt moves. He got the wavy arm, but then lost focus and bombed out every time. "Relax Roh, you are thinking too hard, and your movements are too stiff as a result. You need to Loosen up and move freely. The rest will come naturally as you create more muscle memory." Asahi says.

"But I just can't! This dance is so hard, and to actually sync my arms and legs is just a nightmare!"

I Sigh loudly and grab Hayashi's hand. "Come with me," I tell him. I lead him back to the dorm, where I grab a speaker and get changed. I then tell him to get changed. As he is changing, I prepare my little 'therapy' session. I message Myung-Ki about the plan and soon after a camera crew is ready to follow us out. Hayashi exits his room, now changed into a tracksuit. "Where are we going?" he asks me, now curious after seeing the camera crew behind me.

"You'll see in a minute" I reply. We exit the JYP building and get into a car that has been organised for us. It takes us into the centre of Gangnam where we are dropped off. I proceed to set up the speaker in a flat area. I then signal to Hayashi to come over.

"Right, now we are going to perform some choreography for the public. I will play the music, we just have to dance to it ok. I promise it is only songs that you know the dance to."

"What?! No way, I can't do this!" Hayashi complains.

"Too late, we're doing it," I say, pushing play on the music.

A crowd has begun to gather, seeing the speaker and camera crew filming.

The first song comes on as I step into the centre. I begin the dance to GOT7 Girls, Girls, Girls. The crowd starts to cheer. The song stops after 25 seconds, and a countdown starts. I push Hayashi into the middle. The crowd claps. Hayashi looks at me for help. I give him thumbs up to signal that everything was fine. Black Suit by Super Junior comes on next, and Hayashi performs it perfectly. Next was Runaway also by Super Junior, I jumped in and started to dance. The crowd was beginning to get larger, and Hayashi was also becoming more confident as time went on. We started to dance together after the fifth song. Now we were dancing to every single song. Hayashi was in the zone. He was paying no attention to anything but dancing. He had loosened up too. He was dancing freely, without any weight in his mind. It was easy to tell as his movements looked more natural, and they flowed from one section to another. It was the perfect time to execute my plan. I snuck over to my phone and hit play on the next song. Instantly Hayashi, who was now in a good mood thanks to the crowd and full of confidence began to dance. The intro was perfect, the second part flawless. He reaches the peak of the song, me now just dancing in the background. He expertly executes the chorus before the song stops. We had been dancing for nearly 4 hours, and so I decided to call it quits. My plan was executed perfectly.

We then returned to the JYP building. Hayashi was buzzing. He wouldn't stop rambling on about how much fun he had. He kept asking me when we would do it again. I told him just to calm down and wait. We would do it again when we had time. We then split from the camera crew, who were gushing about the footage that they had captured, and headed to the dorm to have a shower.

Once Hayashi had changed and returned to the living room, I was already sitting on a couch, looking at my phone and smiling. "What are you so happy about?" Hayashi inquired.

"This," I say, showing him my phone. On the screen was a Twitter post with the title:

SPONTANEOUS RANDOM DANCE PERFORMANCE IN GANGNAM! Below it was a video of Hayashi and me dancing. Hayashi watches intently. I can see him analysing everything. Soon, a familiar song comes on, and Hayashi is shocked. "This is me?"

"The one and only" I reply to him. What he had just witnessed, was him perfectly dancing to the choreography of Lucifer. "I told you, all you needed to do was think less and you would be fine. Although you were a little weak at parts, you seemed to already know most of the dance. You were just thinking too much in practice."

With this realisation, Hayashi seemed to gain a large amount of confidence. "I can really do it!" He yells out in joy. "That's right," I say. "So how about from now on, you have a little more confidence in yourself. Let's work hard and pass this challenge." I say. Hayashi nods his head, now full of drive.

The rest of the week passes by quickly, and we are learning and perfecting the dance at a rapid pace now that Hayashi has more belief in himself. The background dances have finally arrived. We only need two of them as SHINee was a five-man team. This made it a lot easier to adapt to the formation, and so most of the second week was spent getting in Sync, and cleaning up any parts that weren't right. We adapted a few movements that our bodies weren't able to do, but overall we were looking very solid.

Finally, the day came when the challenge was to be completed. The groups were all bundled into cars and taken to a square somewhere in the middle of Seoul. There was a dancefloor and Speaker systems set up. As well as a voting board. Cameras were placed all around the square, and a crowd had already gathered. The groups were all going to perform here in the square. The public was to vote on the best group. This would not result in elimination, but as an indicator to us as to who was doing the best so far. It was specifically there to increase our determination and to sow a little bit of discord amongst the trainees for drama purposes.

The first group up was of course Group One who had Super Junior's Twins. The song was easy to dance to compared to the rest. But it made up for that in how it entertained the fans. Everyone in the crowd knew the song and some danced along to it. They received a large number of cheers once they finished. Hyun-Shik's team then performed MAMA by EXO. They looked very good in the robes and boots. The crowd loved them too. They looked like the team to beat. Then came DongBang and his insane talent dancing to If you do by GOT7. They far outdanced everyone else here and the crowd certainly agreed. They were cheered throughout the performance and even received a standing ovation afterwards. Kyu-Bong's team completed the dance without much difficulty, but the reception was pretty lacklustre following DongBang's team. Finally, our team was up. We walked into the middle of the dance floor. Lucifer began to play. The crowd, all-knowing the song began to cheer and chant. Hayashi was slowly beginning to regain confidence. He was looking very nervous earlier. The song began, and we danced our hearts out. Hayashi was working the hardest. Fuelled by the cheers and claps from the crowd, his performance was on par with a professional. His stage presence was huge, and the crowd seemed to be focusing on him. Before we knew it, the performance was over, and the last group danced. Unfortunately, they did;t seem to have much harmony. The person who was selected as the main dancer wasn't very good, and multiple errors were made.

Following the final performance, we all thanked the crowd before returning to the dorm. The results of the public voting would be revealed later. We all returned to the dorm and had a shower. 3-hours later we were called into the living room, where the results were revealed.

6. Bad by Infinite

5. Rocking by Teen TOP

4. Twins by Super Junior

3. MAMA by EXO

At this point, we were surprised that we hadn't been called. Everyone was expecting DongBang's team to win, as they were all very good dancers. But what came next surprised us. "The winners of the first challenge and public vote are:

Lucifer by SHINee. Hayashi was the first to jump out and shout. We had one over DongBang's team. The celebration lasted for a few minutes before calming down. We congratulated the other teams before sitting back down.

"That is the end of the first challenge. Take some time to recover. Your next mission is coming soon" EVE says, before shutting down.

With that, the second episode of filming was complete, and we were free for a while before filming started again. Hayashi was now more confident in his dancing, and for that I was happy.