ong seongwoo

next was the first dance slash vocal practice slash i would rather crawl into a cave and die.

i know that sooner or later, i had to separate myself with kenta, as his green sweater did not match with the distinguishable pink color of mine. kenta, being the social butterfly he is, was able to get himself comfortable with nu'est's hwang minhyun, and it was me to realize that we were all certainly the same age, including minki and baekho.

.... or dongho.

i thought the practice room was separated, but turns out, just for mnet's  own sake and liability, we were not separated for the first practice and is placed in this big hall that would be considered as our meeting place from now on. the tutoring from the mentors, however, is different for each rank, so that's why i'd still have to separate myself from kenta.

takada kenta, how would i survive without you?

apparently they put the a-rankers far away from the b-rank, which is a relief. what made me a bit uncomfortable is the fact that they put the a-rank close to the f-rank, and that doubles our wreathing amount of guilt.

"so today, we are going to start our first relay of our title song, 'it's me'." boa announces ravingly. "are you guys ready?"

"yes!" we answer simultaneously.

"you will be given 2 hours to learn the choreography. we are going to check how well you are doing by then."

the whole crowd stood quiet. of course, mnet the dickhead strikes again. 2 hours, learning a choreo that might seem impossible. adding up with the fact that we a-rankers are expected to be better.

how am i going to survive this, a question that came back once again.

"are you ready?" boa asks again.

"... yes?" the rest of the boys became unsure. the only person was perhaps only daehwi, who had his eyes lightened up.

a short brief 5 minutes was to introduce ourselves to our fellow friends who are the same rank. i bowed politely to sungwoon and taehyun, a part of me not ready to actually talk to them (i wonder how i got much comfortable with jonghyun at this state). woojin was inexplicably quiet as usual, a couple of f-ranks had to ask who he is. sooner or later, i had to face samuel and daehwi, who just as expected is already taking turns on learning the choreo.

i smile to both of the boys. "hello,"

samuel had a big smile plastered on his face. he bows. "hello, ong seongwoo-ssi."

daehwi realizes that he had company and did the same thing samuel did. "good afternoon, ong seongwoo-ssi!"

i smile. "please, just call me hyung." i refused at euigeon calling me hyung, that i remembered.

daehwi grins cheekily, his cheery smile brightens the atmosphere. "okay, hyung."

i don't get why people see these kids as demons, they're both so cute and unproblematic.

i urge to start up a conversation. "hm, i see you're both working hard."

samuel nods. "we're planning on keeping up our place in the a-rank, hyung."

at this pace, i would consider them launching up for being the center. i nod. "i bet you'd be working for that first place."

samuel got a bit embarrassed as he looked down. "ah, i did not remember.."

"it's alright, i could see you're definitely worthy of being first place." i smile. "because of both of you, i'm even reconsidering of placing my expected rank lower than the first place."

"yeah, you should." those words slip from daehwi's mouth, and i knew that he immediately regretted it. i wasn't mad, i was just surprised that he had the tendency to say that. he immediately looked down, not able to explain what he just said. "sorry."

i pucker my lips. "talk to you later."

okay, scratch that; them as someone to talk to isn't something i'd be doing any sooner.

as we continued our dance practice, it was not a surprise that the a-rankers are also having trouble on keeping up. the one who memorized it the fastest might as well be taehyun and woojin. namhyung and i just tried to keep up with the pace rather than trying to be noticeable, as i don't think this was the best time to get screen time.

i wonder how euigeon is doing.

kang daniel

i'm doing a shitty job.

the choreo turned out to be harder than i thought. yes, the me 5 minutes ago expected it to not be plentiful to be learnt by 2 hours. yes, the me 5 minutes ago was an idiot.

little woojin made me feel a bit more relaxed though. he kept a big smile on his face and it was very comforting to see. at least there's a tiny bit of youth hanging on right here, not only a clash of torture.

we heard rumors that the a-rankers weren't doing well, and that gave us more enthusiasm on practicing.

okay, maybe it gave me more enthusiasm on practicing, but that's not the point.

after the practice, each rank were told to get into the front and to perform how well they have learnt. the a-ranks went first (ong being at the back, something unexpected in my opinion) and we were told to go last. somehow something in me theorize that because we seemed better than the a-ranks, we were put unto last as the grand finale, but that's probably my self-conscious talking.

boa fumes quietly. "i don't know about you, but why do i feel like the b-ranks are as compatible as the a-ranks— or perhaps, better?"

then it's not just my self-conscious talking.

watch mnet as they edit this scene out with an excessive use of zooming and dramatic background music.

—

i tried sO hard to finish this chapter as i'm out of ideas so ok!!! the next chapter might be a huge time jump so

btw,, my friends and i cosplayed as wanna one at our last school's exhibition and it was lit lol i became hwang minhyun

yuehwa