Stay - Yang Jungwon 양 정원

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐖𝐎

After listening to the instructions we were given, we all decided to leave our stuff in the lobby and go explore I-Land.  But the thought of voting out four people (and potentially being one of those four people) lingered in my head the whole time.

The first floor was mainly for practice.  There was a giant group practice room with floor-to-ceiling mirrors that also had a glass wall out to the lobby.  Off the practice room was a lounge and a staircase that led to individual practice rooms, the voting room.  Everything else was on the actual second floor.

After checking out the first floor we went upstairs.  We were all immediately shocked by the giant open space that acted as the living room and kitchen.  I was mostly distracted by the window on the floor that led to the lobby downstairs.  It was really trippy and was going to take me a second to get used to.

Of course, we stopped by the kitchen and pantry, and boy there was a reaction.  Everyone was excited to see the pantry that was stocked with a variety of snacks and other ingredients.  Even I was impressed, I've never seen so much ramyeon in one place before in my life. I stopped at the doorway and smiled in amusement when all the boys started yelling and jumping like kids in a candy store.

I made a quick trip around the kitchen, opening all the cabinets and drawers.  There were thirteen sets of everything.  Cups, plates, silverware, chairs.  There were probably only thirteen beds too.  Besides that, there were two rice cookers, lots of pots and pans, and a two-door fridge with a freezer.  My family would die if they actually got to use this kitchen

Breaking off from the large group, I went exploring on my own.  The hallways broke out into multiple different rooms.  For where we'd sleep, there were four different color-coordinated rooms.  Three of them had three beds while one had four.  Just like the system explained there was a game and fitness room, a medical room, and a recording studio for songs that had a variety of musical instruments. 

When I came back out to the living room, I was scared by the seventeen headshots of all of us.  I cringed seeing mine on the screen.  It was my first time doing an actual photoshoot and it was a struggle getting the perfect shots.

To everyone's agreement, once we finished looking around, we finally sat down on the couches of the living room to talk about the voting.  Some of the trainees had to bring out chairs from the kitchen, even seventeen were a lot of people for I-Land.

"Noona, what do you think?" I turned my head and saw... Niki? Talking to me. That was his name, one of the Japanese dancers that had entered the show.  "Can I call you Noona?  You're older than me right?"

I couldn't help but smile, he must still be learning Korean, "Yeah, you can call me Noona. Uhm... this place is really cool. Downstairs is the perfect practice place.  All the space for dancing," I said wistfully. 

Niki grinned his eyes lit up at the mention of dancing, "Me too! We should practice together!" I of course agreed, who could say no to this kid?

Our attention was taken when Jungwon asked a question about voting, "Should we vote without thinking?"

Youngbin shook his head, "No, we can't vote without thinking.  We're becoming a unit."

"They said now we're sharing a common fate," Seon interjected, "In the end, we have to pick twelve out of this number.  So ultimately, our goal is to make the best team, so when we see each other objectively, this is the ideal image of the group, don't you agree?"

Most of us nodded our heads as it seemed the most logical. 

"How am I supposed to choose? I don't even know these people..." I muttered.