Not Around

Chapter 5

"It's so nice here."

The new I-Landers take in their new training area. The sound of emblems dropping in the background got some of them turning their heads. An addition of 6 new faces has replaced the empty banners, completing the new batch of I-Landers for that week.

After their greetings, some who were fresh from Ground were still standing around by the egg a little awkwardly, unsure of what to do next. Ta-ki had glued himself to K's side as soon as they reunited. Taeyong and EJ were social butterflies who blended in very well with the others.

"You can get your nameplates now." A kind voice speaks up. Geonu ushers them to the stack of nameplates. Sunoo perks up and ecstatically grabs his name.

"My nameplate! My very own nameplate!" The boy happily skips toward the back of an empty chair and plops the magnetic slab onto it. It fit perfectly with a click. Sunoo stumbles back at the contact. Y/N could almost see his fox-like eyes sparkling in excitement.

The girl makes her way to her own nameplate and goes to a seat to the left of Sunoo's. Like Sunoo, she gasps with much more exaggeration and stumbles back after putting on her own nameplate with a clear intent of teasing the older boy, to which he responds with a crinkled nose.

Jaebeom, calmly sits to Sunoo's right, ignoring his two friends' banter as he looked around awed. I-Land is as ginormous and extravagant as everyone had described it to him. In front of them is a practice room that had the overall size of Ground, he couldn't even begin to imagine how well the living accommodations looked.

"The second test to determine your shared fate." Right away? It won't be surprising if it were to be harder than the first.

Teamwork. The lone word displays itself.

"This test will be a performance that will test your cooperation." That's to be expected, of course, that's one of the prime factors in making an idol group work.

A familiar melody echoes across the room.

"Fire!" Ta-ki couldn't contain himself. She's heard how big of an inspiration the idol group was to him. His auditioning for BeLift said a lot about his love for them. As for Y/N, she wasn't that familiar with their entire discography, but she knew some songs.

Y/N's co-worker once said that it would be blasphemy if she didn't know who BTS was. From their music blasting on Gangnam's busy streets to the pretty faces plastered on canned goods and products that the teen had delivered on her part-time job, it was kinda difficult not to know who boosted Korea's economy.

"BTS sunbaenim.." Heeseung mutters under his breath just loud enough for everyone to hear. It was clear to Y/N that Ta-ki wasn't the only fanboy around. Everyone around her giddily listened to the song as they focused on the screen where the choreography had been shown.

Then the beat drops. She doesn't remember this part of Fire.

"A dance break!" Someone, EJ she guesses, exclaims. She doesn't look his way and instead focuses on the choreography. The new mission's all about teamwork alright. One wrong move and the formation would be a mess, not to mention all the stunts in it.

The numbers on each dancer told her that they probably represented a part. Should she aim for a part with a lot of lines or play it safe with smaller exposure? Y/N's eyes dart at the other trainees who were probably contemplating the same thing.

The girl decides that whatever part is given, she'll take it and do her best. All she needs to do is survive.

"It's hard." "Yeah, it's really difficult this time, hyung." An exchange between Jungwon and Seon got her to agree. This was much more difficult than Into The I-Land.