20 Twenty

"This is hard." I pursed my lips and ran a hand through my hair. We were all in one of the meeting rooms, trying to pick a song.

"There are too many to choose from." Yeojun leaned over the table, arms outstretched before him, still seated. "We have 5 days left to prepare too."

"5 days are enough for us." Mingyu said, clicking his click-pen against the paper in front of him as he thought. "As long as we decide on a song tonight."

"Does it HAVE to be a cover?" Yeojun asked.

"They want a cover and 'To You'. Besides, we have been performing just our tracks for a while. We also need the content."

"Mm." Jaehyeon hummed thoughtfully. "Do you want to go back a few years or stick to the recent releases?"

"The show usually gets all sorts of covers." Hanseol said. "The era doesn't really matter but… newer songs might help us in the sense that there may be more people who will know them."

"Good point." Jaehyeon nodded.

"Then… something after 2012?" Mingyu asked.

"Yeah. 5 years seems good enough." Hanseol agreed.

"What about a girl group? If we could re-arrange some song to fit us and work on the choreo-" Mingyu began speaking but I interjected immediately.

"We have 5 days, Mingyu. I know at least some boy groups' choreography. If we pick a girl group's song now, we will have a lot of work and I don't think I'll make it in 5 days. 2 days after that is the dystopian performance too. I need to practice for that as well." I cursed myself for being a slow-learner but I did not want to commit to anything I knew that I wouldn't be able to follow through with. "I'm sorry."

"No. That's okay." Mingyu gave in understandingly. "Even Hanseol-Hyung's got shooting and we have other things scheduled."

"Mm." Jaehyeon looked at me. "That song that you've been listening to a lot recently… Whose was it? Uh… Oh! Finite Sunbaenim!"

The song that I have been listening to? "You mean 'The I'?"

"Oh. That's a good one." Yeojun perked up.

Hanseol thought for a moment. "Rearranging it won't be too hard."

"I trust you know the choreography?" Mingyu looked at me.

I nodded. "I know the song pretty well. It's the title track of the album that they released last year. I've liked it ever since."

"Well, then." Mingyu wrote something on the paper and sat up straight. "Shall we decide on this?"

"I'm in." Yeojun said and Hanseol shrugged. Jaehyeon was the one who had suggested it and I loved the song anyway. None of us had any objections.

"That's decided." Mingyu smiled. "Now, what concept do we go for?"

"It's a rather melancholic song, if we think about the lyrics." Hanseol said. "Rearranging it… we could portray strength."

"Strength?" I asked.

"Yes." He sat forward. "It's got build-up. And it talks about finally saying goodbye after the never-ending break up, right? Let's, say, raise it fast and drop it at the chorus. We can slow down the dance significantly and the vocals… without accompaniments, slow yet heavy choreography. Heavy in the sense that we don't move around too much but we throw power. Synchronised dancing could help."

"Oh. That would look great!" I mused on imagining it.

"True. What do you think about adding a story line to it though?" Mingyu suggested. "Even Finite Sunbaenim had something to show in the MV."

"A story line, huh? And going by what they had done too… A break-up of friendship?" Jaehyeon asked.

Then, I thought of something. "How about this?" I perked up, starting to like the idea all the more as I played it out in my head. "At the very beginning itself, we can show that we have drifted apart and at the chorus, even if we are doing synchronised dancing, we can somehow show the disconnect… Maybe we could all face different directions or… be spread out onstage or something like that. And then, we can probably show something that we all used to enjoy together at one point but had forgotten about and then towards the end, reintroduce that element to remind us about what we once had and the chorus after that can be in perfect sync and tight because we have all realised it."

"And in the end, we could all come together again?" Hanseol asked.

I nodded. "It has a story and I think it's relevant to how relationships work nowadays too."

"Heh." Jaehyeon smirked. "Speaking from experience?"

"I-" Of course, it probably did sound like that. "I wasn't thinking about Changmin Hyung." I said softly.

"We'll have to think about how the disconnected synchronised choreography might work." Yeojun said. "I like the idea though."

"What about that one thing that we used to enjoy doing together?" Mingyu asked.

"A game?" Hanseol suggested.

"Maybe… school? Thoughts about school days…" Jaehyeon said.

"It doesn't necessarily have to be something that we all used to do together, does it? It could just be something we have spent time together on." Yeojun said. "Like… watching one of us dance?"

"As in, one among us is a really good dancer and we used to always cheer him on and, now, after we have gone our separate ways, we happen across him dancing again and… remember." Mingyu nodded.

"Yes." Yeojun pointed a finger-gun at him. "Precisely."

Then Jaehyeon whistled and crossed his arms over his chest. "I have an idea."

"What, Hyung?" I asked. Just say it aloud like the rest of us. What was with the suspense.

"Jeongwoo, you just recently revealed that you can play the piano." He said and looked at me meaningfully, not saying a word more.

"Ooh. That would work beautifully." Mingyu grinned and turned to me. "Looks like you're taking centre a lot nowadays, Hyung. This is Choi Jeongwoo's season."

"You want me to play the piano?" I asked, surprised.

"Why not? We can rearrange the song to fit in a live piano recital too. Play a powerful piece. Draw us in." Hanseol added, liking the idea.

"True will love that. It'll be a big reveal moment." Yeojun agreed.

"But I haven't played in a long time. I will need to practice…" I liked the idea too but I was concerned about being able to pull it off.

"We'll give you less intense dance parts. You can focus just on the chorus mostly. The rest can be simple. Plus, you already know 'The I'. We'll try not to change much." Yeojun said reassuringly. "You can work on your piano properly then."

"Are you… sure about wanting me to do this? Someone else can-"

"What? You think you're stealing the spotlight with your piano performance here and by taking centre in the performance after that?" Jaehyeon asked. "No, Jeongwoo. It's just two performances, firstly. Secondly, do you think that the rest of us are that weak and incapable of standing out?"

"No. That's not it." It wasn't that they were incapable, it was just that I wasn't used to standing out that much myself. "The piano…"

"It's something you and Changmin Sunbae used to do together, right?" Jaehyeon shrugged.

I gaped at him. "Why is this increasingly becoming mine and Changmin Hyung's story?"

"It just fits really well." He replied casually.

"Never mind that." Mingyu stepped in. "Jeongwoo Hyung, piano."

I… don't really want to step back from this either. "Jeongwoo, piano." I gave them a thumbs-up. "But this has nothing to do with Changmin Hyung."

"Okay. Fine." Jaehyeon chuckled. "It'll turn out fine, Jeongwoo. Don't worry. We know how good you are at what you do. We trust you."

"Are we all in agreement then?" Mingyu cross-checked. "'The I' by Finite Sunbaenim. Jeongwoo Hyung's piano and our friendship break-up storyline."

"Sounds good to me." Jaehyeon said and Yeojun nodded. It was a mutual agreement between all five of us.

"For us to be able to pull this off, we need at least 3 days of practice." Mingyu stood up. "That gives us 2 days to rearrange and record. Jeongwoo Hyung can also work on his piano in the meantime."

2 days. "Okay." I needed to work hard on this.

"Good. Then we're done with this meeting. Shall we make a move? I don't think that any of us will be getting to sleep much these 2 days." Mingyu sighed.

"Can we just stay here?" I slowly asked. We had equipment back home for rearranging the song but… "I need a piano."

"Oh, right." Mingyu set his things down again. "A piano."

"If you guys want to go, you can. I'm okay with practicing on my own." I couldn't possibly have them all stay here for my sake. "I'm okay."

They looked at each other a moment, then Jaehyeon spoke. "I'm staying. I'll use whatever is here and start on the song rearrangement."

"Mingyu Hyung and I can start thinking about how to use our stage." Yeojun said. "We can work on the choreography too."

"I'll help Jaehyeon Hyung with-" Hanseol began saying but Mingyu cut him off.

"No. You will rest up, Hyung. You have work going on for your Mixtapes as well. I won't allow you to work tonight, Hyung." That was said rather sternly too.

Hanseol looked a little taken aback by that. "But I-"

"Sleep, Hyung." Our leader had put his foot down. "You can join us tomorrow after you get sufficient rest."

"I'll just… sleep here then. I have to be here in the morning for recording anyway. There's no point in going home by myself." He gave in.

Maybe it was because I was already tired and it was well past 11:00 pm but watching this exchange before me, I felt a little overwhelmed. Just because I had said that I wanted to use the piano, they all decided to stay.

That was all the motivation I needed to work hard.