"One, two, three, four..." Yeo Haru counted.
All the team members were breathless as they sang the highlight part together while dancing.
"Take me!!!"
As Binh uttered the last lines of the song, they collapsed on the floor. They were so dead tired.
However, there was still someone who didn't even falter. Rayen replayed the song once again and danced.
'Brother, can't you rest?!'
Seeing that Rayen was going at it again, Binh, Renjiro, and Minho reluctantly joined in.
They had been at it for more than an hour.
After practicing the routines last night, Rayen thought that with Boom Boom Body, he would be able to easily learn and memorize Yeo Haru's choreography, but dancing with a group and dancing by himself was an entirely different concept.
Aside from the dance steps, he also had to take note of his and his teammate's position. The timing should also be considered as they had to execute some plays that required them to be in sync.
There were just too many things to memorize, so he couldn't afford to stop right now.
Yeo Haru actually wanted to rest, but this D-ranked dancer wanted to keep practicing the whole new choreography. Binh and the others had also been infected by this person's practice addiction and had looped the entire song for the seventh time.
What's wrong with these people?
Yeo Haru was just late for a few minutes, but Rayen had already taken these three under his wings.
He could only turn to Liam for help, but this silent producer was also going along after seeing them standing up once more. So, Yeo Haru could only try to convince them by himself.
"Let's take a break, guys," Yeo Haru said.
Binh, Renjiro and Minho breathed a sigh of relief when they heard their leader. These three were actually anxious.
Yesterday, after their practice had ended, Liam gathered them and said that he noticed Yeo Haru eyeing them with dissatisfaction.
It's not that they deliberately ignored it, they were really just oblivious to his gaze. If Yeo Haru was dissatisfied, he should have said it himself.
So today, they had been practicing hard and going along with Rayen's madman spree to show their leader that they weren't just dead weight. However, they didn't think that Rayen was a superhuman who didn't know the word "rest".
The three all slumped on the floor, while Liam also reluctantly sat down.
Meanwhile, Rayen was too fixated with a dance step and didn't even pause to listen to Yeo Haru. His mind was filled with images of the dancing Yeo Haru, replaying like a broken film. Then, after commiting it to his memory, Rayen would imitate it.
Looking at Rayen with strange gazes, his teammates' minds were all in unison.
'Practice maniac!'
Yeo Haru couldn't take it anymore. If Rayen continued a few more times, Yeo Haru was afraid that he would just drop dead in front of them. The "he" referred to himself—Yeo Haru.
"Brother, you should rest too."
Feeling someone's hand on his shoulder, Rayen was pulled out from his own world. That's when he noticed that everyone, except for him, wasn't dancing.
"Ah?"
"Take a rest."
"But I'm fine?"
"Rest for a while."
Yeo Haru's mind was screaming at the same time.
'Rest for us too!'
Rayen also noticed their begging expression and understood.
Laughing, he said, "Why are you trying to keep up with me? You can take a rest. I will practice by myself."
"But Bro, you slept late," Yeo Haru said.
'No, I haven't slept at all.'
Still, Rayen thought that he could keep going. And besides, he felt like he was about to realize something. Watching their performance today made Rayen notice a little bit of pattern in their choreography.
Ding!
Rayen's phone buzzed from the corner. After making his way toward it, he unlocked and tapped the notification from the Idol:Revive app.
[Congratulations! You're halfway to memorizing the whole choreography. To help you with reaching your goal, you can get a Revitalizing Drink for only 499.99 MC.]
'What's this? Advertisement? Why not just give me one for free?'
Despite feeling a bit disappointed, Rayen still bought the discounted Revitalizing Drink. Too bad, he could only avail once for the discount, if not, he would have bought more in bulk.
The book page suddenly appeared out of thin air, which quickly transformed into a transparent bottle of liquid that caught his teammate's attention. They stared at it, feeling their throats parched and dry due to their nonstop dancing.
Seemingly a little different from a normal bottle of water, the liquid inside the bottle was glittering like a magical sparkling springwater under the sunlight.
As Rayen gulped down the last bit of droplets left, his Adam's apple bobbed up and down, enticing the five eyeing the bottle with wolf-like eyes.
Binh couldn't hold back his curiosity anymore and asked Rayen, "Brother, what's that?"
Turning his gaze toward his teammates, Rayen lifted the bottle. "Oh, this? It's a Revitalizing Drink. I bought it because I got a *****."
'Eh?'
"A *****," Rayen repeated.
'What the hell?'
His words were censored by the beep.
But why? Yeo Haru didn't even get censored while uttering something sensitive during the open broadcast filming.
Wasn't this an obvious preferential treatment? So being in the top five was that favorable?
"What did you just say?" Binh asked again.
"I got a *****," Rayen responded.
'Ah! I give up!'
"Just look at it from the shop."
Was their filter for sensitive words malfunctioning? How come the word "discount" could be considered sensitive?
"The Memory Shop?" Renjiro confirmed but made a mistake with the term.
Minho stopped fixing his sweaty hair and corrected him, "Memorial Shop."
"Oh."
Yeo Haru took his own phone to take a look and exclaimed, "It's expensive! Is Brother rich?"
Rayen's lips twitched.
'What rich? I only got a discount.'
Now that Rayen was feeling refreshed again, he went back to practicing. Everyone just stared at him in awe.
Yeo Haru and the others were feeling conflicted whether to fork out a thousand coins to practice again. But just thinking about it made them feel nauseous. How could Rayen even stomach not resting?
Actually, Rayen wasn't doing this anymore because of the mission. Aside from the near-realization he was feeling earlier, which was motivating him right now, the feeling of being in full control of his body was also exhilarating. He had never felt like this before, so he was quite enjoying the sensation.
'Is this how dancers feel?'
And so, Rayen continued dancing.
The rest of the members continued watching him, feeling a bit guilty that he was the only one doing something. So, once they felt their strength had regenerated, they stood up and joined him on dancing.
As his teammates were one by one able to complete their formation, the unfinished picture in Rayen's mind was suddenly pieced together. He could clearly see the patterns from the dance routines that he had practiced were deeply integrated with Yeo Haru's choreography, forming a whole new dance step.
Because of that realization, Rayen was able to easily stick the dance steps in his mind, only struggling a little bit about the member's formation and timing during the transition in their positions. But those were easily solved with a bit more practice.
After a few more tries, Rayen was finally able to dance the whole song without any mistake.
Ding!
Running to his phone after a successful attempt, he saw the notification on his screen and quickly tapped on it.
[Skill Ranking Mission successfully passed!
"A dance step is just a pattern of body movements. So what is a choreography? It is the art of piecing these steps together to tell a message.
Congratulations! You have concluded one principle of dancing and sucessfully ranked up your skill."
Dance: D+ ››› C-]
'Phew.'
Rayen sprawled on the ground with a wide grin on his face. His chest caved in and out, but the exhaustion he was feeling couldn't overcome the overwhelming satisfaction.
At first, he thought he wouldn't be able to do it, but now, he still had a few more hours before the deadline of his mission, yet he had already achieved it.
"Feeling tired now?" Yeo Haru asked, puzzled as to why this practice maniac had suddenly run over and laid down on the floor.
Rayen nodded. Even though he drank a Revitalizing Drink, it didn't fill his stomach. It was almost lunch time soon, so it was already growling in hunger.
"Let's eat," Rayen said with a wide grin.
"You seem so happy, Brother?" Binh asked.
"Yeah. You bet, I am."
'I just memorized a dance choreography!'
Before, it was something he wouldn't even dare think about. Him, dancing? No way.
Still couldn't believe himself Rayen stood up and strode towards the practice studio's door. The others also didn't refuse. This practice maniac had miraculously come to his senses, so why would they refuse an early break? Yeo Haru also didn't disagree.
Binh and Minho, who had been brought together by Rayen's teachings, talked among themselves.
"I hope the cafeteria isn't full of people yet," Binh said. "When I went there last night, I couldn't even sit anywhere."
"Yeah, the only available table last night was that table at the corner."
The two shuddered, recalling that particular area.
Meanwhile, Renjiro was busy with his phone and browsing the Memorial Shop, "What do you think should I buy, Bing?"
Realizing that it was him who was called, Binh said to Renjiro, "Brother, my name is Binh, not Bing."
"Oh."
Yeo Haru, while listening to them, seemed to also look at the three differently after witnessing them working hard. It seemed like it's not that bad being with them.
Liam was just as usual, tagging along.
When all of them exited the door and reached the corridor, a small commotion was happening near the entrance.
Binh and the others stopped talking. The team approached the gathering of people and saw a newly-installed bulletin board in the wall.
There was an eye catching announcement posted at the center of it.
[First Round Interim Evaluation
11 November (Tomorrow)]