4*TOWN: Unfiltered

Prologue: Who Knows What's Up?

The sounds of black and white boxes first hit their ears outside of their door, to make it more obvious, it was a rushing point that caused a frenzy, if you get what we mean, a rack of clothes rattling against one another as the crew paced through each corner, trying to keep everything on track ahead of a very tight grip, like it's the end of the world, lights mirrored reflections of hardwood floors flickered in the distance, experimentation with pyrotechnics came on display, already blocking one's nose before they could hint a smell.

It had been 6 whole years in a row...

"Evening, Mrs Clervin, can you help me carry this b-" One of the members of the crew was half way to saying a word until their manager came into the area, he knew because of her footsteps, one thing about her is that she's going to cause such loud footsteps so that his ears could be blended with the noise. From the way she interrupted the speech, she looked like she was on a hectic schedule of work.

"No time, the show starts in 7 minutes!" She snapped as she gestured her watch right near the crew's face.

"Oh, okay." He nodded, continuing to carry the boxes in a steady pace.

By the looks of it, you could tell that whenever something like this was centre stage of their lives, our manager would make sure that everything was to go the way she wanted it to be before it is too late, as she walked, her eyes moved at every place where it drew a focus on what the commotion was: on one corner, a trail of reporters squashed by her with such questions that referred this specific night, all she knew was that it would become spectacular, or at least, that's what she thought: on the other corner, a woman with a makeup brush came by as a sheet of white outfits held the weight on her shoulder which led to a door that said "4*TOWN" in bold letters...

She bursted the door open with such force, holding their outfits in her hands: this made us turn the complete opposite direction to face her while their hair and makeup were still getting polished.

"Guys, why aren't you dressed yet?" The first words came out of her mouth that forced our attention.

"Sorry about that, I don't know." The oldest member replied while he scratched his short, blonde hair and grabbed the outfits for all the others to get changed into their makeup was completed.

One member however, didn't even say a word when he looked at the manager up and down: while the stylist finished off his twists, his eyes looked at one member in specific, all because of him... His shadow, his silhouette grew and grew, making him almost look invisible, like he's powerless, defeated, gotten the better of, all because of what fame did between the two... Separate them into two different beings, one drawn in with the accolades and fortune that he wished for, like a rich king whereas him, himself slowly lost power, everything he held in his pocket, was reduced in the pit of nothingness...

"Hey Z!" The leader caught his attention after he just got changed into his matching outfit.

"It's your turn to put your outfit on! You'll be fine, I promise." He noticed a solemn look on his face but he then took it from his hands to get changed into the dressing room.

While he was getting changed, the rest of the boys were given a microphone, well, not exactly a microphone but a headset microphone, what was so distinct about them was that at each end, they had a different colour beside it for a much more bold effect. The manager put four of them on their heads and warned them about the rules as soon as they enter the main stage, while she explained the rules, she paced forward, backward, forward and backward like a soldier preparing his team in a war movie.

"Now guys..." The manager grasped her hands in front of her. "The last set of rules are: whenever something trips during your performance or if anything suspicious happens, let the staff know by signalling us with this finger, if the mics aren't on, or they won't work for some reason, press this button on the bottom of the set to make sure that your voices are loud and clear, and finally, if you make any form of mistake, just roll with it, laugh yourself out of it, and most importantly, have fun! "

"Yes, Mrs Manager." They nodded in agreement until Z came out of the door in his new outfit, it was previously like his basketball outfit but fully coated in white.

"Sorry... Did I miss anything?" He panted, hands on his knees to catch a breath.

"Nah, you didn't bro, we just got explained the rules of what to do when on stage by our manager and..." Interruption made its call as soon as the walkie talkie alerted to the manager.

"Show starts in 2 minutes, I repeat, show starts in 2 minutes." The staff alerted with a distorted noise from the walkie talkie in a frantic manner.

"2 minutes already?!" The manager's eyes glued towards her watch in amazement as she looked at the boys as well, who also were stunned. "My gosh, we got to go, come on boys, this is your moment!"

And at that moment, they slammed the door of their dressing room as they steadily sprinted to the stage, barging through a swarm of people that followed their way, past the pyrotechnic crew, past the lighting equipment, past the stack of boxes draped behind a crimson curtain that led all the way to the main stage: they were nearby to it, as the manager soon looked at the time, she grasped the boys' hands that prevented them from catching a breath on the way.

They finally arrived to the stage, how immense it looked, it looked like one of those podiums where you give out a speech in a university but much more larger, a beehive of people overflowed the area with many chatters, some were seen holding large banners of coloured font emphasising their full-on excitement, the lights were made up of different positions as each one loomed down over to where the cages were standing, they were a little bit like bird cages but were even more bigger than you'd ever think they'd be, little did you know is that this was going to be a huge part of their story, as the members eyed the cages, with a reflection of them on the very corner of their mind...

"Boys..." The manager grasped onto the leader's shoulder as he was about to enter the stage which gave him another attempt to listen to her as did the other boys.

Silence.

She stood there, arms crossed, stood up on her own two feet, looking at the members as they slowly gazed a smile upon her, she slowly smiled back with her thumb up which covered her insignificant arm cross...

"You got this." She whispered as a tear trickled down her cheek, she was close to making her distance to work.

The boys grinned back and then turned to each other, they all knew they had come this far in their journey, the concert was already starting and fans couldn't wait to get a clear definition as to what this group meant, as people, as millennials, as a group who just wanted to release their inner selves and break free.

It was almost time, they held each other's hands as they stepped in sync on their way to the stage, to let every single trace of humanity know, who knows what's up...