Off-Screen (무대아래에서) | Haobin

Interlude: Hao POV Part 1

When Hao first sees him, he thinks he's kind of stiff. He's like a life-size doll, all in-proportion, with a gleaming smile and handsome face. He's wearing leather pants and a loose white shirt. Hao notes how good the leather pants look on him, but he doesn't otherwise stand out much from the other trainees.

He's incredibly polite and well-spoken with the Masters. Hao starts to pay better attention to this star-level test since he likes that about him. Hao's a music teacher, so it's always nice to see respect paid to teachers. Then the Masters ask the trainee to show his dancing, and the moment he starts tutting and waacking Hao sits up straight in his seat. The precision he has with his arms is incredible. Hao's trying to track it so he can replicate it later, but he can't -- it's too detailed and fast.

Lip J Master asks him to have a "dance conversation", and Hao's mesmerized. He stands straight up and bursts into applause when the trainee takes the dance conversation and rocks it, meeting Lip J's challenge with a fierce look in his eye that Hao didn't see before. He's got an attitude hiding behind that sweet smile, and Hao's more than just intrigued. Hao shouts his applause when the dance conversation comes to an end, and is simply shocked when the trainee gets only three stars out of four.

"What was his name again?" Ricky asks.

"Sung Hanbin," Hao replies, surprising himself. He can't remember anyone else's name, but the trainee said it so properly that Hao was secretly making fun of him for it. Now that he's seen what he can do, he's no longer making fun of him.

"That was amazing," Ollie whispers.

Half the trainees here probably just fell in love with this guy, and Hao might be among them.

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Sung Hanbin becomes a whispered name on the Global Team when the results for the audience's first vote come in and he ranks first. Hao's both frustrated and impressed by the trainee, just like everyone else, and he marks him immediately as his top rival in the Korean Group. Hao's only in seventh place, but he's determined to change that. He learned Korean for this. He came to another country for this. There's no way he's going home empty-handed.

His first real conversation with Hanbin comes, awkwardly, after he discovers Woongi and Kuanjui have occupied the G-Group bathroom yet again and he has to try the K-Group bathroom. He hopes they get tired of each other soon because he practices until late and he prefers to shower in silence when the other trainees are sleeping -- which is also when they seem to meet up. This is already the third time he's opened the door to the sound of a late-night rendezvous.

Hanbin's blow-drying his hair, and he's polite to Hao when he enters. Hao waits until the blow-dryer clicks off to start a conversation. No way he's passing up this opportunity to get to know the top-ranked trainee a little better.

He starts with compliments, in part because they're sincere and also because Hanbin always seems like he's a little distant. Hao wants to warm him up.

Hanbin smiles at him, looking as tired as Hao feels, then surprises Hao by recalling that he played violin in his star-level test. So, Hao made an impression on him too. Interesting.

Hao gets more of a formal introduction to Hanbin when they both make the center position for the signal song and they practice the additional choreography together. They rehearse the performance at the very top of the dais, and Hao watches jealously as Hanbin gets on the middle lift alone to be raised to the top of the trainees, both symbolically and literally. Hao swears that next time it's a competition between the two of them he's going to win. He's getting on that dais by the end of the show. His sweet and talented rival may have no idea he's swearing this, or even that they're rivals, but he's going to achieve it.