"Angel, wanna practice together?" Sunghoon asked as we left the lobby to the practice rooms.
I nodded, "sure. We're going to need to practice a lot."
We found ourselves a private practice room and hooked the iPad to the speaker.
"What part are you wanting?" I asked.
Sunghoon seemed to think before shrugging, "Like you said, we need to do good regardless. I'm thinking I should do a part I can do well at."
"Not aiming for part one?" I joked.
"Jay's probably practicing for part one." Sunghoon said with a small laugh. Just then we heard Jay's voice echo through the hallway, "See? I was right." Sunghoon smirked. "Why don't you try the high notes?"
I sighed and grabbed the ipad, reading the lyrics, "If my voice cracks, don't laugh at me."
"Why would I do that?" Sunghoon asked with an evil grin.
I hit his arm, "I'm serious."
Sunghoon laughed, "Okay, okay, I'm sorry, go ahead."
"친구가 되어 함께 걸어줘 Let's just run for our lives."
"That was good!" Sunghoon said after I finished.
I smiled, "Thanks. But I don't think I'm going to try for the center. I don't have any confidence." I wanted a part I could confidently do so I wouldn't be one of the people eliminated.
Sunghoon rolled his eyes, "Have some confidence in yourself."
"Let's just continue practicing. We also have to learn the dance." I pointed out.
─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───
After an hour or so of practice, we all gathered in the practice room to divide parts, "First of all, the important thing is the choreography." Heeseung started, "individual details, and the high notes."
"But we'll be performing as a team." Seon added. "If you see the parts, the choreography says "all" . So it means part one will be at the center but everyone's going to be singing together. So I'm questioning whether the center has to be good at singing the whole thing." He explained. "So let's volunteer and judge ourselves and see who fits which part."
"So we're voting again?" Heeseung asked.
Sunghoon laughed, "No, not the voting!"
"It's going to be a weekly thing, we have to get used to it." I added.
"Let's do that everyday then." Seon joked.
"I think we should decide everything today." Heeseung said, continuing on with our conversation.
"That's a good idea."
"We should learn everything for two days, then we'll rally for the rest of the days." he explained.
"We have to put it together." Sunghoon summarized.
I nodded, "We have to make the best use of our time. We only have seven days."
"It's too short." Daniel pointed out.
K agreed, "Yeah, it's too short."
─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───
So we started dividing up parts, "Hands up if you want to do part one."
No one dared to raise their hands. Everyone kept looking around anxiously. Even with Daniel's countdown, none of them raised their hands.
"Should we recommend someone then?" I suggested.
"Sure, so does anyone have any recommendations?" Heeseung asked.
"I do." Sunghoon and I said at the same time. Sunghoon slowly pointed to Heeseung. I did as well. Heeseung was really talented and a great leader, he could easily do part one.
Heeseung seemed quite happy about it but kept his cool, "What's the reason?"
"Because you can do both singing and dancing perfectly." Sunghoon explained.
"And you're a good leader." I continued, "I mean..." I gestured to how we were all sitting in a circle in Heeseung's lead. "You can do it."
Heeseung then started smiling widely but kept trying to hold it back, "He said it and now he can't control how he feels!" Jay laughed.
"When I first heard it, I knew this was for Heeseung." K added to which we all agreed.
Daniel raised his hand, "I want to vote for Heeseung hyung too."
I laughed when I saw how flustered Heeseung was getting, "Ah someone's shy!"
Heeseung shook his head as we all laughed, "No, no, it's not like that! I'm just a little shocked."
"It's all about teamwork. I think that's really important." K explained.
In the end we all voted for Heeseung to be part one to which everyone seemed happy about it. Even though Heeseung was a little nervous, we assured him that he would do just fine.
─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───
"Who wants part four?"
Sunghoon, Daniel, Jay, K, and I, all of us raised our hands. So we all took turns singing the part.
After Jay went, it was my turn, "이제야 나 널 만나고서야 만나고서야 그 의미를 깨달아"
At the end of the voting, I ended up with part four, which I was very happy about, but I felt a twinge of guilt seeing how frustrated Jay was. He really wanted a good part but someone else kept on getting it instead.
─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───
After deciding all our parts, we quickly started practicing as we couldn't waste any time. But while practicing under Heeseung's lead, I noticed that some of the others were falling behind.
"It's too fast!" Youngbin complained to Jake.
I looked in the mirror and saw the two of them stuttering and pausing continuously during the dance. I kept my eye on them during the rest of practice time. Noticing how they struggled to catch up.
When we all agreed on a break, I saw Jake and Youngbin leave the practice room, looking more frustrated than ever. I bit the inside of my cheek before following them.
"What should I do?" Youngbin asked. "I'm getting more nervous after we start practicing."
Jake finally noticed me, "Oh? Soojin?"
I smiled softly as I walked closer, "Having trouble keeping up?" I asked as I sat down with them.
Youngbin gave me a weak smile, "What gave that away?"
"I can help you, if you want." I offered. "I have almost the whole choreography memorized. I'll help you guys keep up with the pace."
"Really?" Jake asked.
I nodded, "Really."
"Let's go then." Youngbin said, happier than he was two seconds ago.
The three of us headed back to the practice room and were surprised to see Jay dancing in the middle of everyone while Daniel was beatboxing.
I laughed as I sat down next to Sunghoon, "What did I miss? For like two minutes?"
Sunghoon shook his head, drinking his water, "I don't even know, angel."
"Angel?" K questioned as he overheard us.
I waved a dismissive hand, "Some stupid nickname he gave me. Really stupid."
Sunghoon gasped and clutched his heart, "I take offense to that. It's a compliment, take it."
I looked at K, "He started calling me that name one day because our coach called me an angel."
K nodded, "It is a fitting nickname."
Sunghoon grinned, "See, Soojin? He agrees."
Everyone started swarming us, urging Sunghoon to freestyle, "I'm not good at freestyle."
I pushed him forward, "Go, go on and dance Ice boy." I watched excitedly as Sunghoon got up and freestyled to Daniel's beatboxing. He was actually pretty good, I had to admit.
─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───
"Make your arms perpendicular like this." Heeseung instructed as we started up practice again.
I frowned, "Are you sure it's like this?" I asked when I saw Niki do it to the front.
"Is it to the side or to the front?" Geonu also asked.
Niki ran to get the ipad, "Let's watch it first." We all gathered around and watched the video, finding out it was to the front. Not the side like Heeseung explained.
"It's like that to be exact, but the movement is too difficult." Heeseung excused. "It's originally like this... but if we want it to look cleaner, we should do it sideways." He left it at that, but the rest of the practice was super confusing.
With everyone's frustration, Heeseung left the room. While he was gone, we all started discussing without him.
"Who should we follow?" Sunghoon asked.
"I think we should be following the groove exactly the way the original creator intended." Geonu said.
I sighed, "This is more difficult than I thought." I muttered to Sunghoon, leaning on him as I was tired from all the passive arguing and practicing.
─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───
The next day, Heeseung gathered us around to do individual performances of the chorus. I felt confident doing it, but I wasn't honestly sure if that was the best idea. Everyone seemed uncomfortable with it, making the tension higher.
All of us did pretty well, but Heeseung made suggestions and added some comments to our dancing. I could tell someone's pride got hurt.
Later that night, unexpectedly, we stopped our training and gathered at the steps of the stairs. Everyone knew why, but no one really wanted to speak, but eventually they all expressed their frustrations and opinions about the team balance.
"I personally think it'd be best if I'm not the center." Heeseung admitted. "I really mean it."
That was not what I expected. Switching a smaller part was one thing, but center...
"Let's try voting at least once..." Seon suggested.
"But, even back then," K glanced at Niki, "Niki said he wants to be center. Frankly, we don't have to vote. What do you think?"
"If Niki becomes the center, he can lead the rest of us." Youngbin added.
I looked at Niki and he seemed unsure. Then I looked at Heeseung, I felt bad seeing the slight hurt on his face.
"Whatever you want to do," I whispered to Niki as he was being very quiet, "If you say no, we can choose someone else."
Niki nodded, "I'll do it."
"You're sure?"
"I'm sure."
I gave him a pat on the back as everyone's moods started lifting. They seemed happy now that the situation was somewhat resolved and we had a plan.
─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───
I-LAND COMMENTS
1. KSJHFLKAHDFHJSDfh Sunghoon calling Soojin angel is the cutest!!
2. I love the way Soojin calls Sunghoon Ice Boy
3. You can see how Soojin cares for everyone's feelings and wants them to succeed she's really a leader 😁
4. Soojin's so good at singing!
5. She deserves the part, she did so well