After an uneventful orientation, Hyemi and her friends got their official schedules.

"Kyunghee! Let's compare!"

Hyemi quickly grabbed her arm, scanning over their schedules together.

"Aw man...." Kyunghee said dejectedly. "We don't even have one class together!"

"It's alright, Kyung-ah, we'll be dancing together all the time."

"That right. We just better both make it onto the same team."

"We will."

"Kyunghee, Hyemi! What are your schedules like?" Jichang and Jeno quickly walked over, comparing schedules with them.

"Omg, we have almost all our classes together!" Kyunghee exclaimed as she looked at both Jeno and Jichang's class schedule.

Hyemi just smiled sadly, seeing that she wasn't in class with any of her friends. Jeno noticed her pouting and quickly walked to her side, throwing an arm around her shoulders.

"It's alright. Just like you said, we'll still be dancing together all the time right?"

She nodded her head, smiling gratefully at her best friend just as the bell rang and they all made their way to class.

Hyemi watched as her three best friends disappeared down a hallway, leaving her to go alone to her own classes. She carefully navigated the hallway and eventually made her way to her first class.

She entered the room to see a bunch of unfamiliar faces sitting around. She chose a seat towards the far end of the room, right next to a window so that she could look outside onto the beautiful campus.

She was lost in thought as she gazed out at the scenery when she heard someone sit down beside her. Turning, she made eye contact with another girl smiling at her.

"Hi! I'm Yeji, mind if I sit here?"

"No not at all!" Hyemi replied with a smile. "I'm Hyemi, it's nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too! So, do you know anyone else in this class because I don't and I really don't want to be alone."

Hyemi giggled in response, shaking her head and causing Yeji to let out a sigh of relief.

"No, no I don't. All of my friends are in another class."

"Well, at least we have each other!"

Yeji and Hyemi talked before class began, and surprisingly they found that they had a lot in common. Both of them were trying out for dance teams as well, and they found themselves quickly bonding over numerous things.

Soon, the professor walked in and class had begun.

- - -

"So, Hyemi, whats the rest of your schedule like?"

Hyemi quickly pulled out her schedule and showed it to Yeji.

"Oh yay! We have the same schedule! Hopefully we can make some friends!"

"Sounds great!"

Hyemi couldn't help but smile. As much as she wished her own group was with her, it made her happy to be making some new friends as well.

Once they entered the room, Yeji quickly brought her to an open table in the back, the two of them talking quietly.

"Hey, are these seats taken?"

Yeji and Hyemi turned to see three boys smiling at them.

"No, go right ahead." Hyemi answered.

"Thanks, I'm Xiaojun." Said the first boy, introducing himself.

"Hyemi."

"I'm YangYang." "And I'm Hendery."

"It's nice to meet you guys." Hyemi said with a smile as the three boys took their seats.

"So, do you guys also not know anyone else around here?" Hendery asked, looking around at the unfamiliar students.

"Nope, just eachother." Hyemi replied with a shrug. "I've got some friends in another class but they don't share any of my schedule."

"Can we see your schedule?" Yangyang asked, Hyemi quickly showing him.

"Well, it looks like the two of you are stuck with us. We have the same schedule minus first period." Xiaojun said with a grin. "Looks like we just found ourselves some friends."

"So," Yeji began. "What are you guys into? I'm going to be trying out for dance later today."

"Nice, we're all auditioning too. I'm going for singing." Xiaojun replied.

"Yangyang and I are both going for rap. What about you, Hyemi?"

"Dance as well."

"Nice. Well, hopefully we all do well." Yangyang said with a smile.

The five of them conversed quietly, Hwayoung easily fitting into their little group as if she'd always been friends with them. To her surprise, she never even thought of her other friends.

- - -

"Hey, Hyemi, want to sit with us?" Xiaojun asked as they walked into the cafeteria.

"Oh well-"

"Hyemi!"

She looked up at the call of her name and saw Kyunghee and the boys sitting with her brother's team. Her friend gestured her to come over, patting a seat between her and Jichang.

"Not today, sorry! I'm going to go and catch up with my other friends."

"No worries, see you at the auditions!" Yeji and the guys smiled at her before going off to a table of their own.

Hyemi turned and made her way to her other friends, sliding into the seat they had saved for her.

"So, Hye, how's your day been?" Lucas asked from across the table. "No trouble?"

"Nope, everything's been good. I've even made a few friends."

"Wow, Taeyong, your sister is even more social that you are." Miyeon joked, nudging the older boy.

"Oh shut it, Miyeon. But I'm happy for you, Hye, good job."

"Thanks, Tae. What about you guys?" She asked, turning to her friends. "How was your schedule so far?"

"Awesome! The three of us have all our classes together so we've been able to sit with eachother and everything! It's great!"

"Aw, I'm happy for you guys!" Hyemi said with a genuine smile.

"But we miss you, Hye." Jeno said, squeezing her hand from across the table.

"Yeah, it's not the same without you, but at least we'll all dance together." Jichang added on happily.

"True, true." She laughed out, putting her bag on the ground and turning to stand up. "I'm going to go and grab some food, save my sp- woah!"

She was cut off as someone knocked into her, making her fall backwards onto the ground, Kyunghee unable to hold back her giggles as she landed on her ass.

"Watch it, Lee." Jaehyun growled coldly as he stepped over her, not even sparing her a second glance.

Hyemi watched as one of the girls in his crew shot her an apologetic look before smacking the back of his head.

"Hey, are you okay?"

Hyemi turned to see Yuta standing in front of her, offering her his hand. She took it gratefully as he pulled her to her feet.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks again."

"Of course, sorry about him... again."

The two of them laughed together.

"So, Hyemi, are you-"

"Yuta!"

He turned his head to see Jaehyun calling him. When Hyemi followed his eyes, she made eye contact with Jaehyun, him shooting her a glare before sitting down.

"Never mind, I'll see you around."

With a small smile, Yuta stood and walked away. Jeno rose from his seat, walking over to her.

"Hey, you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Don't worry about it. I'll just go grab my food now."

"I'll go with you." Jeno said with an eye smile. "I feel like it's been years since I last saw you. Class isn't the same without you."

"Aw, thanks Jeno, but I'm glad you guys have eachother. I'll be fine on my own, just don't forget about me." She joked as they went to stand in line.

"Never!" He gasped, throwing an arm around her. "We could never."

- - -

The rest of the day was uneventful and as the last bell rang, Yeji grabbed her arm and dragged them off to the auditorium, only stopping to grab their dance bags.

"Yeji! Hyemi! Over here!"

The two of them made eye contact with Hendery who was beckoning them over to the other guys who were gathered on the far side of the room.

"Wow... there's a lot of kids here." Hyemi said with a slight tremble, seeing all the kids gathered in the room. "And this is just the first years, right?"

"Yeah but don't stress, its not all dance kids. Rap goes first, then vocals, then dance. It'll thin out a lot by the time it's our turn to go." Yeji said reassuringly.

"Yeah, and you better be cheering us on!" Yangyang joked, playfully bumping her shoulder and causing her to relax.

"Of course we will." Hyemi responded. "You guys are gonna kill it."

"How does this even work, again?" Xiaojun asked, all eyes landing on Hyemi.

"Why are you all looking at me?"

"You've got older brothers here, they must've explained it all to you, right?" Yangyang asked. "I want to get into Mark's team, so help a brother out with any info please."

"Yeah, Mark's team is the top team. That's the one I'm going for, too, so spill girl." Hendery added on.

"Well they basically said that each team will first do a demonstration performance to start everything off, you know, get us hyped but also intimidate us to see how we react. Then they'll call us up one by one to perform our pieces. Once each category is done, each team will step up and announce who they're going to offer spots to, and then we get 1 day to make our decision."

"How many people usually get offered spots?" Yeji asked nervously.

"Well, Taeyong said that the dance teams usually take 3-4 people, the rap and vocal teams usually 4-6. Seeing that there are 3 teams for each, that's a max of around 30 kids."

All of them looked around, seeing well over 100 kids in the auditorium.

"We'll be fine. You guys got this, okay? We're all gonna make it."

Just then the doors opened and all the teams walked in, putting their stuff down on the judging tables set up in front of the stage. She made eye contact with Taeyong who gave her a wave. Mark was there too, and she watched as he quickly pulled out his phone.

Her phone dinged the second he looked up from his, smiling at her. She pulled it out to check quickly, her new friends around her also peering over her to read the messages.

Brother Morkie
Made some new friends, I see. Any of them rappers?

She smiled to herself as she quickly glanced at Hendery and Yangyang, the two of them nervously looking at her with small smiles on their faces.

Brother Morkie

Yeah, actually, and they want to be on your team, so pay attention when they're going.

Names and numbers?

Hendery 0928 and Yangyang 1010

Alright, I'll keep a close eye.

Yangyang and Hendery dipped their heads to her, whispering a quiet 'thank you!'

Brother Mork

Thanks, Morkie

No prob. Good luck out there. Don't be nervous, you're gonna kill it.

I'm still nervous but thank you.

Taeyong says good luck too.
He says his whole crew says they're looking forward to see you dance.
And Lucas wants to add that you're not getting a free pass onto their team so give it all you've got.

Lmao tell Lucas I say thanks a lot, and I will.

Alright, we're gonna start soon, but I'm rooting for you.

Thanks Mark, have a good performance too

Ty

"Thanks for that, Hyemi! I know it doesn't mean we're going to get into his team but we really appreciate any help we can get." Hendery said as Hyemi put her phone away.

"Of course! But you guys don't need it, you're going to do amazingly well. They'll be-"

"Hyemi!"

She was cut off by someone calling her name. Turning her head, she saw Kyunghee making her way through the crowd, Jichang and Jeno with her.

"We found you! We were looking for you everywhere, come on let's- oh. Who's you're friends?" Kyunghee asked, her tone suddenly turning bitter as she noticed the other people with Hyemi.

"Oh these are some of my new friends. We share a schedule."

"Oh well... isn't that nice for you." She said bitterly. "Come on, we have a spot over on the other side, let's go."

Kyunghee grabbed her arm but Hyemi didn't budge. She turned to look at her new friends, sad smiles on all their faces.

"It's about to start, Kyung-ah, I'm just going to stay here, but there's plenty of space, you guys should join us."

She glanced over her shoulder to see the others all happily smiling at her.

"Well, sounds good to me! Hi! I'm Jeno, it's great to meet you guys!" Jeno quickly stepped out from behind Kyunghee, sitting down next to Hyemi and introducing himself to Yeji and the guys.

With a quickly glance at Kyunghee, Jichang then copied Jeno and began introducing himself to the girls. Kyunghee stayed standing for a moment, a cold expression on her face before eventually sitting down as far away from the others as possible.

Yeji made eye contact with Hyemi, a clear question in her eyes as she glanced between her and Kyunghee. Hyemi just shook her head, rolling her eyes at her friend's childish behavior.

She was about to say something but stopped as someone walked onto the stage, a mic in hand. The auditorium fell into a quiet hush as the boy raised the mic to his mouth.

"Hello, everyone and welcome to this year's auditions. I hope you're all ready because it's time to start."