Sinabro
"If you go into it as straight as the first verse, it's just boring."
"If we do it your way, the stability tanks."
"If you're thinking about the choreography, leaving it open is the prettiest option, right?"
Kang Hae-sol, Seonwoo I-gyeong, and even Lee Seung-heon.
All three of them weren't simply trying to pad their own parts — each was fighting to properly realize the song he had envisioned — which made stepping in more than a little awkward.
Watching their razor-edged standoff, Ye-chan spotted Woo Hwi-gyum sitting with his knees drawn up, staring blankly into space with a look of pure misery.
Until a moment ago he had been getting shoved this way and that; once the vocal parts were locked in, he had stayed exactly like that.
It was about time to end this fight.
"Hold on a second."
No matter how productive the debate, time was gold in this dormitory training camp. Putting up with it this long already counted as patience.
"Just listening, all three of you sound fine. Since we already agreed to write our own parts and put them together, revisions are inevitable once everything's done anyway. How about we each write it the way we want first, then go with whatever turns out better? And like I-gyeong hyung said, leaving it open might actually be the way to go."
At Ye-chan's words, the three of them finally checked the time, startled, and hurriedly agreed.
"The title's already set as Sinabro, so let's write the lyrics to match that and collect them. Sinabro means 'little by little, without realizing it' — is there a particular theme any of you want to go with?"
Kang Hae-sol said, slipping back into formal speech out of consideration for Seonwoo I-gyeong. Ye-chan raised his hand at once.
"About that — I've actually got something in mind…"
Ye-chan's concept was perfect.
Of course it was. He had been thinking it through ever since the days when he first joined Choose My Prince and started laying out his real plans.
Feeling the eyes of his teammates begin to light up as they listened, Ye-chan clenched his fist tight.
Success.
At the very hour Ye-chan and the trainees were pouring everything into the practice room, a certain former office worker, Ms. Park — who had at last completed her career change from salaried employee to full-time unemployed — was editing the photos she had taken at the Choose My Prince second fan signing the day before.
"Ha. If I'd quit even a week earlier, I could've hit every single guerrilla concert."
She had been mid-handover right before resigning, so other than the Seoul concert on Sunday, she simply hadn't been able to follow them anywhere.
The helplessness of knowing full well there would be a concert tomorrow and still having to sit there sucking her thumb…!
But now, what she had left was time.
Swearing she would not miss a single schedule from here on out, she turned her eyes back to the monitor.
"No, but Ye-chan doesn't even need editing. He's just perfection itself."
Touching anything seemed like it would only make it worse, so for a while now she had only been lightly adjusting the color tones.
She had hammered the shutter without rest and expected the editing to take forever — but it hadn't at all.
"The real problem is that there's nothing to delete."
After finishing the color correction on the very last photo, Ms. Park opened the folder labeled with the signing date.
Even after she had already culled everything down to only the usable shots, there were still far, far too many.
She hadn't even been able to throw out the ones she had fired off in rapid succession. They might have differed by only 0.001 mm, but either way, sending them to the trash felt like a desecration of something sacred.
Throwing these away would be blasphemy!
Once she thought that, she couldn't casually discard a single frame.
But if she kept shooting and saving like this, her computer was going to run out of space.
Ms. Park scanned every photo from start to finish once more with cold, merciless eyes.
And then quietly ordered an external hard drive.
The photos Ms. Park had taken with such love became something of a positive sensation on social media.
Among them, a young woman named Choi — who had set as her phone wallpaper a shot of Ye-chan wearing a ribbon larger than his own face and smiling tenderly toward the fans — headed to the study room with a light step.
Until now she hadn't particularly felt that any one member's fans outnumbered the rest, but once the guerrilla concerts ended, it became obvious on its own that the Ha Ye-chan she supported sat at the very top.
You can tell just by looking at the fan photo boards.
Dozens — hundreds — of preview shots were already going up on social media.
And starting three days from now, when the second ranking ceremony aired, the fans' real support campaign would begin in earnest, starting with subway ads.
Ms. Choi had emptied out every last bit of the allowance she had been saving to take part.
She would have loved to join the on-the-ground support runs as well, but time was the problem, as always.
Still, my oppa's going to debut safely. Just wait till I'm a college student!
Ms. Choi vowed to inject some tension into a fandom that had grown a little too loose.
It was some day in March when the entrance exams looming right in front of her still didn't feel real.
"Everyone done?"
When they all nodded at Kang Hae-sol's question, he held the sheet music out toward Ye-chan and Woo Hwi-gyum.
"The three of us can't evaluate this objectively, so you two look first."
"That works!"
Seonwoo I-gyeong agreed with enthusiasm. Lee Seung-heon gave a silent nod of assent as well.
"Then we'll take a look first."
While the three of them listened to the music again, Ye-chan and Woo Hwi-gyum carefully examined the lyrics written on the sheet. The topmost set belonged to Seonwoo I-gyeong.
Wow. That is some vicious handwriting…
Suppressing the urge to just skim past and call it mediocre, Ye-chan diligently deciphered it character by character.
His face is so clean, and then his writing is like this? The content, though… not bad.
After checking all the lyrics, Ye-chan and Woo Hwi-gyum went back over the bridge section the three had particularly emphasized.
"So we go with this?"
"Yeah."
"Great, we're done!"
Having aligned with Woo Hwi-gyum, Ye-chan called the three of them over.
"The lyrics aren't bad overall, but they do feel a little disconnected from each other."
After the teammates had passed around one another's lyrics, Ye-chan delivered his assessment. With the title Sinabro and the theme Ye-chan had proposed both so clear, nothing had gone wildly off course — but in the places where different parts connected, an unavoidable awkwardness still showed through.
"Let's have one person polish this first, then we'll all look at it again together. And about the important bridge part—"
Three pairs of passionately burning eyes fixed on him with uncomfortable intensity. Ye-chan cut straight to the point without dragging it out.
"I think going with Hae-sol hyung's version is the best call."
Kang Hae-sol bit his lip inward. He looked extremely pleased.
You could just smile, you know.
Thinking, as always, what a consistent tsundere this guy was, Ye-chan quickly added more.
"There's this line in the middle, right? What if we put the choreography I-gyeong hyung mentioned right there? I think it'd work well — it creates unity with the pre-bridge."
Color returned to the faces of Seonwoo I-gyeong and Lee Seung-heon as they read over the lyrics. Seonwoo I-gyeong looked at Ye-chan and whistled.
"See? I knew I had a good eye. Ye-chan, you've got real sense."
Ye-chan's expression went flat.
"I did it together with Woo Hwi-gyum."
"Yeah, yeah. Hwi-gyum worked hard too!"
Even at Ye-chan's blunt reply, Seonwoo I-gyeong snickered, clearly delighted about something.
Shooting a sideways look at the grinning Seonwoo I-gyeong, Ye-chan finally couldn't hold it in and threw in one more remark.
"I worked harder deciphering hyung's handwriting than anything else, you know."
"Really? Ahaha! Sorry, sorry! I'll definitely practice my writing!"
I sincerely want to see that bastard look dejected for once…
Kang Hae-sol, who had been frowning for quite a while over handwriting just as illegible to him as it had been to Ye-chan, held the sheet music out to Seonwoo I-gyeong.
"I-gyeong hyung, could you read this for us?"
"Sure. Ah, this is funny. Really."
Seonwoo I-gyeong read the lyrics he had written himself. At the clean, uncluttered lines, Kang Hae-sol nodded.
"Then I'll revise the lyrics first. After that, we can all look at them again together…"
"Huh? Hae-sol, you've got to work on the choreography with me now! Your position is rap, sure, but your dancing is no joke either!"
Ye-chan was a little surprised. Seonwoo I-gyeong had precisely zeroed in on something most people overlooked because of the rap skill that ranked number one in all of Choose My Prince.
Honestly, other than Beom Se-hyuk, there's no one I can confidently say dances better than Hae-sol hyung.
That thought led him to realize he still hadn't checked Kang Hae-sol's status window. He already acknowledged the skill without looking, so he hadn't particularly felt the need.
But now that I've noticed I haven't looked, I'm suddenly curious.
Caught off guard by the sudden praise and the proposal, Kang Hae-sol floundered.
"No, but I'm the leader — I should take responsibility…"
"I think so too. Plenty of people can touch up the lyrics, so Hae-sol hyung should go to the choreography side. Hyung, let me look at that sheet again."
Saying so, Ye-chan casually took the sheet music from Kang Hae-sol's hands.
Status Window.
Status: As a leader, his heart is heavy with the weight of tremendous responsibility.
It was the first status window since Beom Se-hyuk's with this many S ranks. But it was exactly what he had expected, so it didn't throw him.
What truly caught Ye-chan's eye was the status written at the very bottom.
No. He's just a team leader — what's with the heavy heart, this hyung.
Despite how he looked, Kang Hae-sol was diligence itself. Ye-chan was freshly moved by the thought when Seonwoo I-gyeong cut in and snatched the sheet music away.
"Alright, alright, let's decide already."
Only then did Ye-chan snap back and reach for the sheet again.
"I'll handle the lyric work."
"Great. Then Hwi-gyum and Seung-heon, stick with the choreography side for now. There are parts we need to try out with a bunch of people."
Judging by the confident smile on Seonwoo I-gyeong's face, the framework of the choreography was already taking shape in his head.
Setting the sheet music down on the table, Ye-chan spoke.
"Then I'll go grab a few things we need first."
"Things we need?"
Instead of answering the teammates who asked what that meant, Ye-chan strode quickly out of the practice room.
Seeing once was better than hearing a hundred times — that saying existed for moments exactly like this.
A short while later, Ye-chan returned with the items he wanted in hand.
The teammates, who had been deep in choreography, all let out sounds of admiration.
"Whoa. That was actually a really good idea."
"Right?"
What Ye-chan had brought was a long length of fabric in a material similar to the stage costume — the dopo-style robes.
"It'd be a problem to show the actual costumes during practice, so I borrowed these."
"If we wrap them with a sash at the waist, it'll come out roughly the same. Nice. Then shall we take it from the top?"
Looking satisfied, Seonwoo I-gyeong wrapped the fabric around his own waist first and called out with energy.
Once he confirmed the other teammates were each picking up a length of fabric, Ye-chan gathered the sheet music.
I'm curious how they'll put the choreography together, but right now these lyrics come first.
After that, the teammates focused solely on their own tasks without a single word of small talk.
Once again ablaze with passion, the teammates were eyeing one another, clearly wanting to skip the meal entirely.
It was only the first day, and already Ye-chan was worried they might start treating going hungry as normal. He shoved his chair back and stood.
"We're not wrapping this up in a single day, so let's eat first."
At Ye-chan's firm words, the other four finally switched off the music and tidied the practice room.
When they stepped into the cafeteria, it was remarkably quiet — most of the other teams had already finished eating and left.
"Coming late means we don't have to wait in line. We should've done this from the start."
"Instead we have to eat and get out in ten minutes. Ah, now it's nine minutes left… hm?"
Giving a halfhearted reply to Seonwoo I-gyeong as he headed over to get his food, Ye-chan's eyes caught a familiar back of a head.