The team decided to meet up the next day of the afternoon. Rayen headed toward the practice room on the 2nd floor. When he arrived at the front door, he tried to gaze inside but the glass door was too frosted to see. The only thing he could see was that the lights inside had already been lit.
'There's only one practice room in this 2nd-floor lobby, so how do the other teams practice?'
Rayen glanced around, finding no other rooms as he put his device in front of the door scanner.
"Participant Rayen of Team Haru"
Click.
The door opened.
As soon as it opened, he was greeted by a dark aura looming around the entire room. Rayen stopped at the entrance, blinking. He glanced around the dark room and found six figures lying limply on the floor.
'What... the hell happened here?'
As the people inside noticed Rayen's presence, they all turned to him with dead eyes.
"Ah... you're here?" Haru exclaimed in a raspy voice. "You're a bit late, Bro."
With that, Rayen quickly guessed the reason for this scene. They must have been practicing the song.
"... Sorry about that," Rayen apologized.
Haru did not comment more on it and instead sat up, glancing at everyone. "Everyone's here. Let's start over."
The others tiredly stood up, looking like zombies. Among the zombies, Rayen immediately found Liam and headed toward him.
"Hey."
But Haru butted in, breaking the reunion between the two. "Your catching up should go for later. We have to focus on our first performance!"
"....." Rayen closed his mouth.
Well, he actually had a valid point.
"I actually already did the choreography," Yeo Haru said.
Everyone turned to him in surprise. Even Rayen was astonished at the news.
'Wasn't the song assigned just yesterday?'
Suddenly, Haru felt embarrassed by their intense gazes.
"W-Well..." He scratched the back of his head, blushing. "It's not yet finalized. And we can't really start practicing if we have no choreography at all."
'... I guess I'm taking back what I said. He doesn't seem incompetent as I thought.'
The team curiously gathered in a circle to watch the choreography that Haru composed, which he filmed and edited the night before.
Seven Harus danced simultaneously with each of their own parts. Each one of them wore a shirt with a single letter on its chest.
What could Rayen say about the choreo?
Well, it's amazing for a first draft choreo. However...
'How do I even dance this?!'
By the time the song reached the first chorus, Rayen's eyes could no longer keep up with the steps at all.
Yes, it looked flashy. Yes, it's amazing, but everything would be worthless if he couldn't even follow it!
At one second, Haru A was in the center, and then he was suddenly pushed back to the very end of the formation.
Haru B was in the side. Why was he in the center all of a sudden?!
Haru C...
Rayen's eyes were filled with Harus who kept dancing steps that Rayen's eyes couldn't follow. Unable to keep up, his eyes turned white.
RIP_Rayen.gif
Confused, his teammates turned to him.
"What happened to him?"
"....."
Liam, who was beside Rayen, silently shook him to try to bring him back to life, but he didn't.
'Ugh. My head hurts. Stop shaking...'
His head only cleared when he felt something cold pour over his head. When Rayen looked up, he found Liam holding an empty bottle of Revitalizing Water above him.
"....."
Liam silently put the cap back and sat back down.
"Are you okay now, Bro?" Haru asked. "What happened to you?"
"....." Rayen remained silent, the corners of his mouth twitching into a smile.
How could he admit that he passed out because he couldn't follow the dance steps?
No. He couldn't.
'Smile. Just smile.'
Rayen chanted inwardly as he kept smiling at Haru.
Haru stepped back. "W-Well, I think you're fine."
Rayen feigned a cough. "What to do next?"
"Should we choose our parts next?" Kate, the only female participant in this team asked.
"I want this part!" Minho said, pointing excitedly at Haru C onscreen.
Despite his throbbing head, Rayen tried to watch the performance again carefully.
The Harus onscreen weren't moving in one place. Every time, one of them would move to the center position.
'So, this is how idol performances work...'
The center position... Whoever was in that position would shine the brightest in that particular part.
Taking note of that, Rayen tried to observe once more. This time, focusing on which parts each Haru was assigned while they were the center.
Not every part has equal spotlights. Some parts were more iconic than the others. For example, Haru A was the one assigned to the chorus part with the most memorable lines in the song.
So...
'I have to get this part.'
But, can he even do it?
The more Rayen watched it, the more his expression fell.
'This is... hell.'
His dance skills would be put to shame.
Should he just choose another part? There should be a part that's easier than this.
Once again, Rayen focused on watching, but the corners of his lips would visibly twitch from time to time.
Even the easier parts seemed impossible.
Meanwhile, his other teammates also made up their minds which parts they wanted to get.
"I want part D," Binh announced.
But Renjiro also chimed in, "I... want part D too."
The two members glanced at each other with serious determination.
"You want my part?" Binh crossed his arms.
"Yes."
"Bring it on!"
Once again, Haru butted in on the confrontation between the two. "Wait! You can't just decide among yourselves the part you want."
Binh and Renjiro glanced at him with questioning eyes. The rest of the members followed after, as well as Rayen.
"What do you mean?"
"I want to hold a part audition for all of us."
'Audition?'
Haru smiled widely, his face beaming. "If you want a part, you have to fight for it!"
L