Jungwon gazed at Jia as she was talking about each position, she was so excited she was even waving her arms around as she spoke. He couldn't help but think she was really pretty.
"Hey, you're staring too hard," Sunghoon whispered at him with a smile. Jungwon snapped his gaze away unconsciously flashing his red ears.
"You're blushing so much," Sunghoon teased him. Jung-won nudged him lightly trying to get him to stop.
"It's hard not to stare..."
Both Sunghoon and Jungwon turned to look at K who had been seating next to them.
"Ah, you too hyung?" Jungwon whispered.
"I've always admired her, so it feels unreal to see her in person," K murmured.
"Well, that is all for the positions. I will be leaving you guys so you can distribute parts or start practicing. I'll be back in a few hours to see what you guys have decided on," Jia smiled at them.
"Thank you so much sunbaenim!" Jake immediately bowed to her.
"Thank you for your help!" Daniel waved at her. Soon enough everyone had thanked her before she waved at them goodbye.
They all sat down on the floor of the practice room as they watched Jia leave.
"I was so nervous having her so close..." Heeseung said, laying down on the ground.
"I still can't believe that she wrote the song for us!" Geonu shouted, "I don't want to mess it up!"
"I really want us to do great, I don't want her to regret making a song for us," Jay added.
"I always wondered how idols were like off stage," Seon said. Some of the boys nodded in agreement. Every idol tries to keep a good image in front of the camera, so it's always hard to tell what their real personality is like.
"Jia and Rain sunbaenim are both known for being very humble, not only that but they are always donating to charities and doing community service," Heeseung added. As he stared up at the ceiling, he couldn't help but think about the song. He wanted to be center so bad so he could stand out and impress Jia with her song.
Sunghoon looked around the room, everyone was so serious. He knew that they all wanted to have the best parts of the song, I mean who wouldn't, but not everyone had the skills for it. He himself had wondered how great it would be if he were the center, but he was aware that he wasn't ready for such a position.
"Are you okay Sunghoon?"
Said boy turned to see K who was looking at him with concern.
"Yeah I'm good hyung, just thinking about the positions. I don't really mind which part I get, I'll make sure to do my best," Sunghoon smiled reassuringly to the Japanese boy.
K was awed at how mature Sunghoon was but managed to smile back at him.
"I know you'll be amazing, I know you'll have everyone falling for you the second you step on the stage," K joked.
"What are you talking about hyung, it's you who they'll fall for!" Sunghoon laughed.
The guys kept on talking amongst each other for a few minutes till someone spoke up.
"I think the first thing we need to do, since none of us know the lyrics, is to practice. Let's memorize the main choreography, and think about what part you want, then come back again to decide parts." Heeseung interrupted everyone's conversation. Everyone seemed to agree with him, so they all started spreading out and started practicing the dance.
6 DAY
21:30:00
Jia entered the I-LAND and noticed that all 12 participants were inside the main practice room. As she walked closer, Jake noticed her presence through the glass wall and grabbed everyone's attention even before she opened the door.
"Jia sunbaenim is back!" He shouted. As everyone gathered up, Jake ran to the door and opened it for the idol.
"Oh! Thank you so much Jake! You're such a gentleman!" She thanked him with a small bow and a bright smile. Sunghoon bit his lip, wondering why it didn't occur to him to open the door for the girl.
"How are you guys doing?" Jia looked around, she noticed that some of the participants were more livelier than others.
"Good! We practiced the main choreography and also decided the parts that everyone would have," Daniel said.
"That's great! I'm glad you guys already started learning the dance!" She said.
"We were about to start practicing together just now," Seon explained.
"You guys are not wasting time! That's awesome!" Jia clapped in excitement.
"You guys keep on doing your thing, I'll be sitting by the corner so I don't interrupt anyone, if you need me just call me over okay?" She smiled at them.
Jia sat down on the ground and pulled out the profile papers. What the participants didn't know was that Jia also had to take notes on everyone, especially on their teamwork. Everything that she wrote down should be then reported back to her brother, Bang PD and Zico.
The boys went back to rehearsing the choreography, with Heeseung leading the pack.
Jia could tell that there was slight tension between the guys, but she was not supposed to step in at all. She knew that some people were unhappy with their song parts, but there was something else that seemed to be brewing amongst them.
While she analyzed the guys, she noticed that some of them kept on glancing back towards her but would avert their gaze immediately. Were they nervous because of her? Well there was nothing she could do since she needed to grade every individual throughout the competition.
Half an hour later, the guys took a small break to go over the choreography video again. Jia took this chance to walk over to them.
"I noticed that some of you guys were a bit tense? Is it because I was observing you guys?" She asked.
The guys looked away from her sheepishly.
"We just... Since you..." Geonu scratched the back of his head nervously, "Since you wrote this song for us, we want to make you proud... We just don't want to disappoint you..." he murmured.
"You guys..." Jia's eyes widened in surprise at his words.
"I really appreciate that," she smiled warmly at everyone.
"But you guys need to practice hard to make yourselves proud, not me," She added, "You guys need to give a performance that will leave you with no regrets!" Everyone nodded in agreement.
"So, how's practice going?" She asked. Before anyone could really say anything, Sunghoon stepped forward.
"Sunbaenim, I was wondering if you would help me with my part? I'm having issues getting the tone of my line right..." he looked at the floor feeling king of silly for asking for help, but he wanted to do things right.
The rest of the boys looked at him in surprise, but also in slight envy.
"Oh, yeah of course! Let's go over this corner so we don't interrupt the others," Jia led Sunghoon to the corner she had previously been seating at.
"I don't have many lines since I'm part 7, but I was having some problems..." Sunghoon murmured.
"Sunghoon, I hope you aren't feeling discouraged, it's barely day 1 and you just got your part assigned, it's normal to have difficulties in the beginning," Jia patted his back reassuringly.
Sunghoon looked up at her feeling slightly better.
"What was the issue that you had?"
"If I'm not moving around then I can sing my part properly, but whenever I try to do so while doing the choreography I get the tone wrong, not to mention my voice shakes a lot," Sunghoon explained.
While Jia and Sunghoon were working together, the rest of the contestants continued their practice. They could hear them singing from the corner of the room, they were going over the entire song together, almost as if they were singing a duet.
"I'm so jealous right now," Geonu whispered to the guys as he looked at the couple from the corner of his eyes.
"I want too sing with her too..." Jungwon whispered back.
"Come on guys, we gotta focus, you can ask her for help after she is done with Sunghoon," Heeseung added.
"I bet you want to ask her for help too," K poked Heeseung's back.
"That's not true!" Said boy hissed at his hyung.
"Sure thing," K said with a smile.