It seemed like the toe-sucking incident had benefited June more than he expected.
Not only did Chul stop calling him 'Hoho,' but he also started ignoring June's existence!
It was definitely not ideal to ignore your artist as a manager, but June liked it better than Chul being passive-aggressive.
Two days had passed since they posted their teaser photos, and the boys were busier than ever.
The pressure of living up to their debut had finally hit them, especially after their concept photos had garnered a hefty amount of likes for a rookie idol group. All of the individual photos garnered more than 100,000 likes each, and their group photo even peaked at 212,000 likes.
Even now, when there were still two weeks left until their debut, the boys were working harder than usual.
Their choreographer, who was under the same agency as Gun, watched them with hawk eyes as they reached the final chorus of the song.
June stared at himself in the mirror, sweat dripping from his temples. It was already afternoon, and they had been practicing since morning, so the boys felt more tired than usual.
However, since the choreographer promised them that this would be their last round, the boys bust their best moves, all eager to go home.
June also observed his other teammates, a satisfied look passing through his eyes.
They really looked like a real K-pop group now. June hasn't seen their stats ever since Rising Stars ended, but June could tell that they've also improved by a lot.
As the last notes of the song faded, Akira fell to the ground, panting like a thirsty dog.
"Oh gosh," he gasped. "That's the hardest I've ever danced today. I'm definitely not going to do that again."
"We should, though," June said. "We looked really good just now."
"You were observing our group dance?" Ren asked, surprised. "I was too tired to even look at myself."
"June's right," Tank, their choreographer, said. June didn't know if it was a requirement in their company to have weapons as names, but he found it quite ridiculous.
"That was your best performance just now," he continued. "Gun wasn't lying when he said you guys were talented. Keep this up, and I think you'll be ready for your debut stage."
Zeth proudly smiled. "Thanks, Tank."
"No worries. Just make sure to control your breathing well so you'll have stable vocals," Tank smiled. "Well, I need to head home now. My wife's calling. Don't forget to cool down and stretch before going home, alright?"
"We will," Jaeyong said, although that was a blatant lie. They were all too tired to even move their pinkies.
"I'm going first," Tank said, waving goodbye and leaving the room.
The cameramen, who were filming the process of their debut, also left the room, leaving the eight boys all alone.
As soon as the others were gone, they sighed and acted more comfortably. Casper even inserted his hand inside his sweatpants and scratched his itchy butt.
"I'm hungry," Jisung said. "Should we order some food?"
"Should we? What do you want to eat?" Ren asked in a baby tone, acting like Jisung was a child. As the dynamics of their group started kicking in, it was obvious that Jisung was going to be the baby of the bunch.
He was the youngest member of the team, only two months younger than June, and he also had a really soft personality.
Ren, in particular, was very fond of treating June like a younger brother. On the other hand, Akira was the cool 'older brother' who coaxed Jisung to move out of his comfort zone and commit borderline crimes.
