“I know what I came to do And that ain't gonna change”

As a giant yawn pops his jaw, Sung-Won sits up in his hotel room bed still drowsy from the day before.

"Fifteen years of performing and I'm still not used to the schedule," he chuckled sardonically to himself.

Sung-Won had been a member of his band, Pandora, for thirteen of his fifteen years in the Korean pop industry. Throughout his career he'd been to many different performance shows and he didn't relish the thought of going to yet another one this evening.

It had been well over three years since their band had last made an appearance at a show after their enlistments, each one coming right after the other. They'd been training for six months leading up to today for their surprise comeback and Sung-Won could feel the familiar buzz of excited energy in his belly at the prospect.

Sung-Won slowly stood and haphazardly threw on a pair of sweatpants and a face mask. Grabbing his phone, he made his way down to the private conference room he knew their band would be having breakfast in.

Their schedule was a bit tedious: go to breakfast, go to the dressing studio for clothes and makeup, go to Studio G downtown for the Korean Music Video Awards early to avoid people, hide out in their unnamed room until the MC gave them the cue to line up backstage, and perform. After that, Sung-Won looked forward to finally sitting down at a regular table to watch the rest of the performances and eat the mediocre dinner they provided, though he admitted he was nervous they'd be the center of attention for much of that as well.

Sung-Won was so distracted in his own thoughts about the performance that he didn't notice his own band mate, Jun-Seo, nearly ramming the conference room door in his face.

"Oh, god," Jun gasped. "I didn't see you there, hyung. I'm so sorry!"

"It's okay, Jun—"

"I'm just not myself right now, I'm so distracted. I'm kind of nervous too. Well, maybe not nervous but definitely excited. I mean. It's been so looooong since we had a performance. How do you think the crowd will like us?" Jun-Seo managed all in one breath.

"Jun, I was—"

"I don't even know what to expect of the rookie groups. That's so weird to think! They look up to us, hyung! How am I gonna act around that? I could mess up, or say something dumb, or forget what to say at all," the excitable youngest continued.

"Jun-ah! Calm down," Sung-Won said, exasperated. "I doubt it's that big of an issue. You just said they'll look up to you. I guarantee you some of them would pay money just to hear what your favorite water brand is for performances versus practice."

"Hyung!" The younger whined.

Sung-Won chuckled. "Tell me I'm wrong?"

"I mean," he started, "I guess you're not. It's just weird."

"Yeah, I guess it is," he agreed, opening the door wider to let himself in the room. "I remember being a rookie myself. Weird to think we're the guys we once looked up to."

"Seriously! I can't imagine how I'll feel," the younger sighed, following his hyung into the room.

"Jun-ah, you aren't bothering Sung-Wonnie-hyung with your nerves now, are you?" Chung-Hee, the second oldest, sighs from his place by the fruit bowl.

"No, of course not," Jun-Seo blinks innocently.

"He would never do such a thing, obviously," Woo-Sung, the third oldest, says sarcastically.

"Oh, certainly not. He's too mature for that," Hyun-Shik, the second youngest, agrees with humor.

"Shut up, both of you," Jun-Seo groans.

Hyun-Shik gasps holds his hand over his heart dramatically. "I can't believe you'd speak so poorly to your hyung. And after all the food I bought you yesterday too," he wails dramatically.

"Hyung. I bought takeout yesterday," Jun says with a roll of the eyes.

Sung-Won just sighs as Hyun-Shik squawks again in outrage, resolving to ignore them until he has something in his stomach.

"Sleep good last night?" Yeon-Seok, the middle member, asks softly as Sung-Won approaches the drinks.

"Hn," he grunts around a gulp of orange juice. "Still tired though."

"Same," the other laughs. "But I'm excited enough to be back in the game it doesn't bother me too much."

"Spare me some of your energy, then," Sung-Won waves his hand as though looking for a handout.

"If only it was that easy, yeah?" Yeon-Seok laughs quietly.

"Yeah," Sung-Won smiles.

"Just a heads up, the company has gotten word that a few groups will be arriving to the KMVA's sooner than planned," Yeon-Seok says, stretching from his perch on a chair. "Kyung-Soo is going to announce the changes to our schedule in a sec," he finished, gesturing to their current manager.

"Excellent," Sung-Won sighs. "Why can't people just arrive during the set hours?"

"Apparently they flew in today and wanted to make a good show of things," the other said mildly, "and it might be a good idea for you to go ahead and eat before we leave."

"Right, let me do that," Sung-Won said, spearing a big chunk of watermelon as he goes while going to grab a bowl of rice and some boiled eggs.

"Guess we'll get to talk more after the show," the younger man rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, guess so," Sung-Won laughed.

As the older boy went to take a bite of his rice, their manager walked to the front clearly intent on announcing something, true to what Yeon-Seok had predicted.

"Listen up, everyone," their manager clapped to get everyone's attention, band and staff. "We received word that several of the younger groups are set to arrive sooner than expected. I expect all of you to be finished with your breakfast in five minutes and in the cars out back in six. They're waiting by the rear entrance near the dumpsters to pick you up. Don't be late!"

Sung-Won raced to gulp down some rice and managed to choke down three eggs and the rest of his juice before his band mates started migrating towards the exit doors.

Throwing his bowl in the trash and grabbing a bottle of water, Sung-Won quickly slung his mask back on his face and raced after the others. He would not be getting any slap on his wrist if he could help it.

_________________________

The car ride over to the makeup studio was uneventful, thankfully.

When Sung-Won walked into the studio, however, all of their staff was racing around to set up their palettes and hang their uniforms out for each band member to put on. Their theme for this particular performance was very bad-boy with a hint of goth. They each had a mix of stretchy black faux-leather pants, black shirts, black leather jackets or vests, and black lightweight combat style boots that Sung-Won could already hear Woo-Sung complaining about having to dance in.

A sweet stylist noona (Chae-Won, if he remembered correctly) quickly ushered him into a seat in front of a bright circle light to start on his makeup.

"Please relax your face for me," she mumbled hurriedly.

"Of course," he said, "let me know what you need when you need it."

"Thank you," she smiled a bit worriedly.

As the stylist began working on his eyebrows, Sung-Won could see Woo-Sung being ushered into a similar position in the chair to his right.

"Can you believe they want us to dance our routine in those monstrosities?! Of all things," he heard him complaining, likely to Chung-Hee.

Silently, Sung-Won cheered to himself about being right. He also silently mourned the lack of glide his band mate was currently shunning the shoes for having. Or not having, he supposed.

"It's just one performance, Hyun-ah. We'll get through it," Chung-Hee soothed from across the room.

"'Just one performance,' he says. One performance can make or break, you know," the younger groused.

"We've been practicing a while, Hyun-ah. Even if the shoes are a little cruddy, we have the routine down perfectly," Sung-Won tried to soothe.

"Practice doesn't fix a poor wardrobe," the other snipped.

"No," the older agreed, "but it does make it easier to modify any of the parts we may have needed to slide. And thankfully, there were only two of those anyway."

"I don't care. I'm still going to bitch about the shoes, hyung. You can't stop me," he griped.

Sung-Won just sighed and shut up so the stylist could apply his foundation better.

The rest of their makeup and dress session seemed to fly by in a whirl of hairspray, eyeliner, leather jackets, setting spray, and the dull noise of the members gossiping.

Before he knew it, Sung-Won found himself in stretchy leather leggings, a black v-neck with laces up the v, combat boots, and a snug leather jacket rolled partly up his forearm. As he looked in the mirror, practicality of the shoes aside, he couldn't help but admire the way the dark outfit offset his silvery-blue hair. The deep turquoise eyeshadow and jet-black eyeliner finished off his look nicely. He looked like a bad-boy, but a pretty one. He hoped he wouldn't see anyone that had any pictures of the "seven cat ker-fluff-le" incident to prove otherwise, too. He'd like to actually maintain a decent reputation for longer than two minutes for once, especially after Eun-Seok from the band LaLa Land decided to put him as a dork at the last show he went to.

"Ready to go everyone?" Kyung-Soo announced more than asked.

A resounding chorus of "yes" met his ears as they all piled out the rear of the studio again, still encountering no cameras or fans. It was a miracle, one that could only be attributed to their magnificent management. The only people who knew about their show had been in that room and it had stayed that way, so far.

The band all piled into the back of a van from a catering company that would be concealing their arrival further.

As the van pulled off, Sung-Won felt his heart speed up. This was their first show in nearly three years and he was feeling the nerves.

"You good?" Chung-Hee asked under his breath, nudging the older with his boot.

"Yeah, it's just surreal. I wasn't even sure we'd all get to perform together again," he answered honestly.

"It'll be all right, you know. This isn't anything we haven't done before," the younger shrugged with a laugh. "Well, I guess the song is new. I'm just saying performing is kind of old-hat to us, you know?"

"Yeah, yeah," he rolled his eyes in humor. "We're old, I get it."

"Sung-Won! That's not what I meant," he shoved him playfully. "I'm just saying," the other said more serious, "we've got this. You know your lines, too, and you're an excellent dancer. Just trust yourself."

"Oh don't go all 'responsible leader' on me now, Chung-ah. I heard you complaining like a little brat about your makeup earlier," he laughed.

"Hey! Hyung, how dare you! The eyeliner felt like it was really close to my eyeball, s'all!" Chung-Hee said in mock-exasperation.

They chuckled together as they sat back, though they were both noticeably less tense.

"Really, though, I am excited. I hope we live up to what our fans have been begging for during the hiatus," Sung-Won said.

"I know we will," said the younger, "because we've been training so long and hard. Our fans are good to us. I look forward to getting back to making songs for them."

"Me too, Chung-ah, me to," he said with fondness.

_________________________

Pandora successfully arrived before everyone else did to the venue. The band was swiftly ushered out of the van and in through a staff entrance, as their manager showed them to their room.

Sung-Won felt his nerves try to build again, but as he pictured the song and the steps, that nervousness quickly morphed into excited energy. He may not be as young as some of the idols out there, but he was damn talented, damn good at vocals and rapping, and he was damn attractive to boot. He couldn't wait to remind the world just why Pandora was still number one on all of the sales-charts to date.

When the show finally started some two hours later, each of the boys were given a bottle of room-temperature water they sipped off and on. They verged from excited muttering to anticipation as they watched each of the other performers go up, sing, rap, and dance their hearts out.

Several of the five and six year groups in particular stood out, including Bon Appetite (a girl group whose vocal abilities rivaled the best) and D1scord (a boy group whose voices and moves had the entire venue of idols bobbing their heads along and mouthing the words).

Finally, after what felt like both forever and not nearly long enough, the MC did the two-fingered hand-wave they'd been waiting for.

The band snuck through the stagehand's hallways as quietly as they could and lined up behind the staff entrance to the stage.

While putting his in-ear monitors in, Sung-Won could vaguely hear the MC, who was walking down the steps, pretending to confusedly explaining that there appeared to be a blank spot in the program they hadn't accounted for. Right as the MC went to apologize for the setback, the entire stadium went from blinding lights to nearly pitch black in a split second.

Amid the anxious and concerned whispers of the crowd, the MC attempted to placate them. "We have staff checking in the breakers as we seek. No need to worry, everyone!"

During all of this, Pandora took their places in the center of the stage, monitors in, shoes powdered, and mics all hot. With one last deep breath, Sung-Won relaxed into position and let his stage-persona come to the forefront.

'Goodness gracious,' he though to himself. 'It's been far, far too long.'

In that precise second, a low bass track started to swell into the speakers. The floor to the entire venue was vibrating with the sound, the crowd of idols hushing in excited anticipation to see what was happening.

Finally, the backlights to the stage lit up, showcasing the six members' silhouettes, and the hungry silence of the crowd in the massive auditorium could be cut with a knife.

Finally, Yeon-Seok sung a low bar, a simple vocalization into the microphone as the drums finally started up, each member rising to harmonize with the short 5 second bar before the music cut out entirely.

The lights went dark again.

Then, Sung-Won knew it was time.

He chuckled lowly into the mic, a familiar sound to several bands present.

"Guess who's back for good?" Sung-Won asked rhetorically, a deep, growling drawl to his voice.

He could barely see as finally, finally, in a blinding flash, the stage lights and spots lit up the group in all their glory.

"Pandoraaaaaa!"

As the music abruptly restarted, all six members moved in one fluid line, and as they glanced out into the crowd, they could see that not a single chair in the arena was occupied.

Though they couldn't hear it through their in-ears, they saw the crowd collectively jumping, cheering, waving, hollering, and frantically motioning with their phone flashlights and light sticks.

"It's good to be back, baby."