1% || I-LAND

ii. I-LAND

To say that Aeri was nervous was an understatement. After four years an a half of being a trainee and being away from her family, she could finally see the end of the tunnel. But she also knew that her journey was far from over.

Being one of the only female trainees under BigHit had never put her in a good position. For a long time, she thought that she was going to debut alone even though she had always been quite vocal about wanting to be in a group.

Groups were the one thing that got her into k-pop, so she couldn't imagine herself doing it on her own. But after such a long time of being a trainee, she finally got into her head that no matter how much she didn't want it to happen, it was probably going to.

Imagine her surprise when it was announced to her that she was going to participate in a survival game to be put into a group--a boy group.

She didn't know how to feel. Being surrounded by boys wasn't what scared her the most. It was that she knew that the boys would walk in feeling like a girl had no place among them and that she'd have to work twice as hard to prove herself.

"Is that everyone?"

"Is there a total of 23 people?"

"Wait no, it's moving again!"

Aeri could hear the boys' voices farther down her path and took one last big breath, hoping to calm her beating heart before walking towards their direction.

"Someone's coming!"

"Wait, is that a girl?"

She could feel her nerves going up after hearing the observation come out of one of the boy's mouth. She put her hands behind her back, while looking at each of their faces carefully. She knew some of them by names and was sure that a few recognized her as well.

"It's Aeri noona," she heard, making her smile a little.

She continued watching the commotion happening in front of her eyes, all while making patterns with her fingers behind her back, not letting any of the boys in front of her guess her nervousness.

"Hello, my name is Aeri, nice to meet you," she bowed before silently taking a seat on the side, naturally creating a space between her and them.

Some of the boys bowed back on their seats, while other stayed whispering with the people they arrived with. She tried to pretend like she didn't know they were talking about her but she could hear her name leaving their mouths.

Thankfully, their conversations were cut short when an alarm blared through the room making a few of them let out noises of surprise.

"Dear 24 applicants, welcome. This is the stage of I-LAND and this will be the place for you to prove your skills. Past the gate, you'll see the unknown place called I-LAND that only existed in our imaginations," a voice began explaining to all of them. It was only the first few seconds of the competition but she could feel that later on, she was going to absolutely hate this voice.

"However, not all 24 of you may enter. The capacity of I-LAND is only 13 people. The power to decide those 13 people is up to you and every destiny in I-LAND is upon your hands as well.

"Now, we're going to start the entry test with the performances you've prepared. The test will be assessed by yourselves. Only those with the majority of votes can go into the I-LAND. If there are more or less than 13 people after the test, there will be another one."

Aeri could hear the surprise in each of the boys sitting with her in the room, but nothing came out of her. She wasn't even sure she was capable of saying a word with the anxiety running through her veins.