Chapter 7 #2
Three battles down. Two to go. The screen changed again, displaying the names of the two remaining songs side-by-side.
Synapse and Kingmaker. Below them were the faces of the four remaining leaders.
Team Three versus Team Four. And Team Min Jae versus Team Andy.
They were both legendary for their difficulty.
Just in completely different ways. Synapse was a technical nightmare.
The harmonies were so complex they were practically a math problem, layered over a frantic, syncopated beat.
A test of pure, polished skill. Kingmaker was a physical monster.
A three-minute sprint of aggressive rap, anthemic vocals, and a dance break so brutal it was famous for injuring backup dancers. A test of raw charisma and stamina.
Which test were the producers about to give him?
Si Woo let the tension hang in the air before turning to the leaders of Team Three and Team Four. “Your battle song?” He paused for dramatic effect as the screen flashed. “Synapse!”
A beat of stunned silence. Andy didn’t need to hear the rest. He knew. By the simple, brutal logic of elimination, his fate was sealed.
Si Woo made eye contact with both Andy and Min Jae in turn as the cameras zoomed in for their closeups. “Which means our top two teams will take on the ultimate challenge. The all-kill smash hit from your sunbaes, DAZ3.” His voice dropped to a reverent boom. “Kingmaker!”
Andy immediately clapped, his smile shining on autopilot while a dizzying, terrifying, exhilarating rush surged through his body.
He’d just been handed the most legendary, difficult, and meaningful song of the bunch.
And he’d be going up against his ultimate rival and his team of machine super performers. Game on.
Once they wrapped filming in the auditorium, a PA handed Andy a folder with a notepad and marker, an SCG-branded thumb drive, and a key card for Practice Room Seven. “The practice rooms are in the Dragon Wing,” the PA explained.
Min Jun, who’d already used his off time to thoroughly explore the facility, said he knew where to go. So Andy and the others followed him past the anxious factions gathered near the stage to the corridor.
“Well, shit,” Leo whispered as he fell into step beside Andy. “‘Kingmaker. Go big or go home, eh?”
“For sure,” Andy replied, his mind already a half step ahead of him as he wondered about how the hell he was gonna lead this troupe.
He’d never even performed in a group that size before, let alone led one.
But the fires of ambition sometimes forged the strongest ideas.
He was a successful dance instructor. He’d been one for a few years, in fact.
And there was a reason eager students had journeyed from all over California to the state’s Central Valley to take his classes. He knew exactly what he was gonna do.
Andy paused for a second, letting the others pass him by, before moving on behind them.
All the better to start assessing his choices.
Min Jun had taken on the role of tour guide, explaining to the others what he’d learned during his explorations.
Peak was practically vibrating from excitement.
Choi Hyun Woo, a dancer, bounced along with the bright, infectious energy that had originally caught Andy’s eye.
None of the others seemed very nervous, either.
Could it be because they had faith in their leader? No pressure.
Andy paused at the door to the practice room–his new home until the first mission stage–and watched the others gather inside.
That’s when he finally saw their nerves.
Sure, some of their energy was excitement.
But the fear was there, too, rolling under the surface like fog on the horizon. It smelled like floor cleaner.
Andy grinned as he stepped inside and let the door click shut behind him.
“Okay, guys. Listen up." Everyone practically froze in place as all eyes turned to him.
Perfect. “So, we got Kingmaker. The biggest, baddest, most legendary song on the list.” He let that hang in the air for a beat so their new reality could sink in.
"And you know what?" he continued, letting his growing fire warm his voice and put a twinkle in his eye, knowing his speech would absolutely be the highlight of whatever episode it was dropped into. “I say, hell yeah. Because, out of the hundred Dream Boys in this building, I know for a fact that we’re the only team that can actually handle this song.” He paused again, grins and slow nods spreading through his assembled team. “Now, who’s ready to prove me right?”
Nine hands all shot up at once, including a slyly grinning Leo, who mouthed the words, “You got this.”
Andy nodded. “Great. Let’s get to work.” He found a tablet sitting on a table in the back of the room and inserted the thumb drive, pulling up a demonstration video for Kingmaker’s intense choreography.
The folder contained ten printed copies of the song’s lyrics, so he handed those to Peak to pass out and started the video.
Everyone crowded around Andy as the video played, the music tinny and a little bland coming from the tablet’s speakers.
The show’s choreographers had taken a six-man dance performance and reworked it into ten distinct parts.
The extra bodies gave the number a lot more heft, but the flow was intense.
Fluid to the untrained eye, maybe. But there was zero room for sloppiness or mistakes.
He played the video back twice more before gathering everyone in a seated circle in the center of the practice room.
“Now that we’ve all seen the video,” Andy began, “what are your thoughts?”
Stunned silence.
Andy chuckled. “Don’t all start speaking at once.” Kyun Woo, one of the dancers, raised his hand. Andy nodded. “Go on.”
“The full routine looks deceptively simple,” Kyun Woo said. “But it’s not. Everything depends on perfect synchronization. Especially the positioning.”
Andy nodded again. “For sure. What else? Anyone?”
“Maintaining stable vocals without a backing track will be a challenge,” Sang Chul, a vocalist and the oldest guy in the room, suggested. “Especially during the chorus.”
“I think so, too,” Andy agreed. “And I’m curious about some of the harmonies. Anything else?”
The ice formally broken, the rest of the team clamored to offer their input.
The hand work looked really cool. The footwork would be hard to master.
The tough-looking, almost angry facial expressions would be, too.
Andy nodded along, letting his team verbally wrap their heads around the challenges that lay ahead.
It wouldn’t be easy–not even a little bit–and he wanted them to understand that before they even started rehearsing.
“Let’s talk about parts,” Andy finally announced, grabbing the folder and pulling out the notepad and marker.
He began making a list, starting in English before scratching it out and changing to Hangul.
Vocal One, Vocal Two, Rap One, Rap Two, Dance One, etc.
, continuing through all ten parts. “Here’s all the positions we need to fill. Which ones do you want?”
Min Jun raised his hand. “I’m sorry, sunbaenim. Are you not assigning our parts?”
Andy chuckled. “No way. I may be the team leader, but we’re still a team. So, I'm not assigning any of the parts. We're gonna build this performance together. You all know your own strengths, so let's figure out who fits where.”
As before, Andy’s announcement was met with a roomful of startled, slightly confused stares. He just sat there, grinning, as he waited for someone to take the plunge. Hyun Woo broke first.
“Vocal One has a lot of high notes and needs a lot of power. It should go to Min Jun.”
Put on the spot, Min Jun humbly bowed. “I’d be honored.”
“That’s good,” Andy agreed. “And I could take Vocal Two.”
A chorus of nods, and several other hands shot up.
Sang Chul and Dong Yoon took on the Sub Vocal parts.
Peak and Leo briefly debated the two rap parts, settling on Peak taking the more aggressive first rap verse and Leo the more complex, lyrical second verse.
Once Hyun Woo and the other dancers divided up their parts according to their strengths and preferences, they’d nearly finished.
“Okay,” Andy said, glancing at the list. “That just leaves the Center position and the killing part, the bridge.” He looked up. “I was thinking we could–”
“You should take them,” Leo announced. Everyone turned to him.
“Look,” he continued, leaning forward. “Let’s be real about the game we’re playing here.
We’re Team Two. Our captain is the number two-ranked guy in the entire competition.
The cameras will be on him. The Dream Makers will be watching him.
The whole story of this mission is our team versus Min Jae’s team.
” He made a point of meeting everyone’s gaze in turn.
“If Andy isn't in the center, it looks like we don't have faith in our own leader. It makes us look weak. We have to put our ace out front. It has to be Andy.”
“He’s absolutely right,” Sang Chul confidently agreed. “Andy should take the bridge. The killing part needs to be delivered by the person with the most impact.”
Andy frowned, examining the faces of his teammates for their motivations. “I don’t know, guys.”
“Sunbaenim,” Min Jun said, a hint of playfulness in his voice, “it was your idea to let us all decide the parts. This is what we want.”
Andy snorted into a chuckle. He couldn’t deny that logic. Just like he couldn’t deny Leo’s. Andy wanted his team to win. And they wanted to win, too. “Well, shit. You got me there. Okay. I’ll do it.”