K stood to the side of the practice room, his shoulders heaved as he panted. He honestly had lost count of how many times they had run through the choreography.

"Hyung... I'm so tired..." Sunghoon leaned his forehead on K's back. Jay walked closer to them, ruffling Sunghoon's sweaty hair.

"Let's practice for 30 minutes more and then we'll call it quits," Jay patted the ice skaters back trying to encourage him. K nodded too, but didn't move since the younger boy was still leaning on his back. He looked around, watching some of the other contestants who were practicing none stop. He was particularly worried for Niki, who had not taken a rest at all. K was aware of how stressed his friend was feeling, everyone had lost their confidence on the young Japanese boy after the practice with Rain and Jia sunbaenim. He was worried that everyone else's doubt projected onto Niki and caused him to doubt his own skills.

They really needed to work on their teamwork, they all needed to support each other even if things are looking rough.

"Hyung, are you okay?" Sunghoon grasped his sleeve which snapped K out from his deep thoughts.

"What are you thinking about?" the younger boy asked.

K sighed deeply, "I worry that we are not acting like a team, we need to be more supportive of each other and be aware of everyone's feelings..." he looked around till his gaze stopped on Heeseung and Niki, "we were unfair to some of our teammates..."

"What do you mean unfair?" Jay, who had been standing nearby asked.

"We depended so much on the center to lead us, and then faulted them when things weren't working..." K started explaining, "I think we should have been more considerate of all the effort both Heeseung and Niki have put into leading the group," Sunghoon and Jay felt guilty since K was absolutely correct.

"Let's work harder to improve our teamwork then!" Sunghoon smiled.

"Yeah, you are right, let's do our best on tomorrow's performance so we can continue working hard as a team," Jay raised his hand silently asking both guys to give him a high five.

Sunghoon and K smiled widely and high fived their friend now that their mood was up. The boys went back to practice with more energy than ever, their cheerful vibe soon spread out to the rest of the contestants who started shouting and laughing at each other's silliness.

Heeseung smiled while he danced, watching the guys have fun really made him feel better. He was honestly fine with being part 10, he had made peace with everything after Jia comforted him. She really had managed to drain away all the stress and negativity out of his body with her gentle hug. He didn't tell anyone what had transpired between him and the idol, he wanted to keep that memory to himself. He was aware that pretty much all the contestants were smitten with Jia, some more than the others. She was probably the first ever idol that many of the trainees had ever met that was close to their age, and many of the boys hadn't really talked to girls since they had started training, so it was natural for all of them to want to impress her.

Gaining Jia's approval almost felt like a competition in itself.

Now more than ever Heeseung needed to throw all his energy into the performance, he wanted to prove to everyone that he was meant to be an idol. He wanted to show everyone that he didn't need to be the center to show his abilities. He wanted, or more like needed to show everyone that he deserved to debut.

The I-LAND contestants were really pouring all their energy into this practice, since the performance was taking place the next day. There was one boy in particular who was feeling incredibly burdened.

It's not that he can't sing well, it's that he can't sing at all.

Can you do part one?

Niki shook his head trying to rid himself of the bad memories of the meeting. The last thing he needed was to remember the sting he felt on his chest when he lost his teammates' trust.

He looked straight ahead at his reflection on the mirror. His body moved with intense energy as he followed the music.

He would show everyone that he had the ability to be the center.

0 DAY

00:05:00

TEST 1

The producer team all sat down on their respective chairs. Aside from Rain, Zico and Jia, they also had Wonderkid, Doobu, and Son Sung Deuk who were performance directors.

"So we are all gathered here for the first test," Rain looked around the room.

"The signal song test," Zico nodded.

"Just to give a brief explanation," Jia said, "we'll get an average score of the team, and that number will determine the number of members that will be disqualified. If their score is below 70, six members will drop out and we will choose six members from GROUND to bring to I-LAND. If their score is above 96, then no members will be dropped."

The three performance directors nodded in understanding, they all had their pens and papers ready to grade.

"Wonderkid, what do you think? Do you think there will be dropouts?" Rain looked over to the guest.

"I'll have to wait and see first."

Jia smiled at how chill the director was. Rain also laughed at the honest response.

"Today, I plan to be merciless, and give them a cold-hearted evaluation," Rain told them, "this first test is crucial to them, this isn't just some cover performance."

Zico nodded, "Yeah, the song they are performing was specially created for them, this test is pretty much their introduction to the kpop world," he looked at Jia and waited for her to make any comments about her song.

"You are absolutely right, to me I-LAND is not just a building, it represents the kpop world in itself," Jia explained while looking into the many monitors that showed the beautiful interior of the building, "the song Into the I-land is a symbolic representation of the journey that is becoming an idol. I wanted it to be hopeful since I know that the contestants will face many struggles along the way," she said with a serious face.

"That being said, I will be pretty harsh with the grading since I know how everything should look and sound," Jia smirked playfully. Her brother and the rest of the guys laughed at how quickly she changed her expression.

"The duality of Jia is intense!" Zico was amazed.

Soon the monitors lit up and started to show the stage. "Oh! The test is starting!" Rain clapped excitedly. The producers got quiet and watched the screens attentively. The contestants walked out of the egg and organized themselves into their designated positions.

"Oh Niki is standing in part 1," Rain commented. Jia was stressed, she genuinely hoped that things had worked out for the Japanese boy and that he would be able to perform with his best ability.

The lights in the stage started to flash red.

I-LANDERs, standby.

If someone drops out of I-LAND, he will be replaced by a GROUNDER.

Let the test of mutual destiny begin.

Jia held her breath in as the music started playing signaling the beginning of the performance. Things started out great, the boys with the starting lines sang with steady and clear voices. Suddenly when Jungwon's part came in, everyone was shocked and impressed with his stage presence. Jia felt goosebumps when his voice reached her ears, she really loved his singing.

Unfortunately Niki was off key during his mid lines, which was clearly caught by all the producers. The song was then quickly corrected by Geonu's high notes. Everyone was doing okay until Jake's microphone pack detached from his outfit effectively throwing the poor boy off. He ended up not singing his line because he was panicking, which was unfortunate since that was his only vocal part.

"Ah, Jake dropped his mic," Rain felt a bit sympathetic for the kid, "in those cases, you just have to keep going."

When the performance ended, the producers proceeded to talk about the contestants.

"About the moving stages..." Wonderkid started.

"Ah yes the stages were moving around, they really had everything working against them," Rain nodded, "But still, I want to applaud them! Jia was there to help them out, but only with basic things, she didn't coach them on the stage movement nor did she help with the distribution of parts, the I-LANDERs did that all by themselves," Rain explained to everyone.

"But I will not give them high scores because of their potential, we have to grade them as if we were looking at idols who already debuted," he said. The older males in the room were talking about the center position, going over what Niki's pitch was shaky along with his facials.

"I think most of them had issues with their facials," Jia said somewhat sad, her song was about hope and adventure, but some of them looked like they were performing a sad song, "Jungwon, Geonu and Daniel had good expressions, not only during their parts but for the entire song, the rest were tense and it showed on their faces."

"Ah yes Daniel, he was really focused and it caught my attention," Son Sung Deuk added. Everyone agreed that the boy had done really well.

As this was happening, the I-LANDERs sat on their respective white chairs awaiting for their scores. The atmosphere was tense since they were afraid of the outcome. The scores started to show up on the wall screen of their room and the temperature just dropped.

47       70       40       66       61       58

46       75       59       67       57       65

Average Team Score: 59

Everyone sat there frozen. They felt crushed. Silence consumed them as they all had many thoughts running through their mind. Their score indicated that six members would be dropped.

Jia felt sad, when she graded the contestants she had to be unbiased and cold hearted, but it still felt horrible to know that so many contestants were dropping. She wondered who the guys would be voting for, since the scores were revealed anonymously the contestants would not know who got the highest or lowest evaluation.

While the drop outs were being revealed, Jia and some staff members brought in a lot of food into the dining room in I-LAND. It was some sort of welcome gift to the newcomers and also a consolation feast for the remaining members. Once all the food was placed on the tables, the staff members left leaving only Jia who then started heading downstairs to check on the boys.

She knew that the 6 chosen members should already be gone, but the sight of the six empty chairs still gave her sadness. The remaining contestants were visibly upset, some were even sobbing, so they had not been aware of the girl approaching them.

Geonu couldn't stop his tears, he was wiping his face with his sleeves rather violently until he felt a soft cloth being pressed to his cheeks.

"Noona!" He gasped when he noticed the idol standing besides his chair, he immediately stood up to greet her, but she interrupted him and gently patted his face dry with her handkerchief. Geonu could feel his neck and face warming up from being so close to the pretty idol, but he was lucky that his skin was already red from crying so no one really noticed.

The other guys stood up immediately when they noticed Jia, but they waited till she was done fixing Geonu so they could all greet her.

"How are you guys holding up?" She asked even though she knew that they probably weren't doing great after what they had just gone through. Heeseung, Geonu and Jungwon were still sniffling while K, Sunghoon and Seon tried to keep it together. Jia frowned and waved at all of them to get close, "Come on guys, group hug," she smiled when they all huddled together in one big hug. For the next few minutes Jia gave hugs all around trying to comfort them.

K watched as the younger guys silently enjoyed being held by the girl. He would be lying if he said he wasn't jealous especially as he watched Sunghoon and Heeseung wrap their arms around her slender waist when they had the chance to hug her. K was aware that everyone except for Seon and himself were younger than Jia, so it's understandable for her to coddle them but K wasn't a child anymore. He didn't want the girl to baby him like everyone else, instead he wanted to be the one to take care of her. 

A/N- Thank you for all the votes and comments you guys have given this story! I truly appreciate all of it!!! <3 I especially love reading the comments since they really inspire me to do my best when writing! Next chapter we will have the new I-LAND members meeting Jia for the first time!