"Now that I'm an idol, will you date me now?"
I pulled out forcefully from the hug and flicked her forehead. "NOW that YOU'RE an idol, you need to be careful with your words."
"Says the guy who rejected IU-sunbaenim on VLIVE." She retorted as she rubbed her forehead from the pain.
"That was a different case, okay?" I fought back.
She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. "Whatever, JayB-ah."
"But seriously though. You can't joke about that anymore. Got it?" I told her.
She looked at me with a confused look and said, "But I wasn't even joking."
I face palmed. "Ya… Park Sooyoug. We both know how much you like Yook Sung-"
She covered my mouth to stop me from talking. "Are you crazy?! What if someone heard you?"
I raised an eyebrow and put her hand down. "What? I thought you like me?"
"Okay! Okay, okay. I won't mess with you anymore. Just keep your voice down. I don't want my secret crush to be exposed on the day of my debut." She said.
"Alright. Kidding aside, you really did well tonight. I'm going to give you your album after our promotions soon. Okay?" I told her my surprise.
She then grabbed both of my shoulders and shook me. "Seriously?! You can't take back what you just said. Okay?!"
I chuckled. "I don't plan to. So just wait for it."
She then hugged me tightly again.
I patted her back and said, "I'll go now. I only have a few minutes to prepare."
She let go of me and gave me a fist bump.
_________
"How are you feeling?" S.Coups asked me.
We were backstage together with them. The awarding ceremony is after our performance. After that, SEVENTEEN would perform on stage next.
"Nervous. You?" I bounced back the question.
"Same." He said as he was jumping up and down.
Woozi then came up to me and said, "Hyung! Thanks for the song. It's really good! It sounded amazing!"
Why do these composers keep on telling me that? It's your song! You made it! I just gave it to you!
"Sure thing. In fact, I'm planning to make an album for you guys. I'll message S.Coups if ever I'm done." I told them.
They were really happy about what I just said and they promised to treat me to a meal one day. I, in turn, refused but still, they insisted.
I feel like I don't deserve all these free meals. Well, first off… the songs are not even mine to begin with. Secondly, I can actually treat their entire company if I wanted to. Not bragging though.
"Oh by the way. I'll do the choreography for some of the songs. Will that be okay?" I asked them.
"Okay?! It's more than okay! You can choreograph all of our songs if you want!" Hoshi happily exclaimed.
You're the real choreographer here Hoshi.
"That's too much. Besides, I have my own group as well." I told them which made them laugh.
"Well either way, that's a promise. You better keep it." Jeonghan said as he offered me a fist bump.
I happily bumped my fist with his. "You got it."
"Alpha? You're on in a minute." One of the staff for MAMA said.
I turn to them and said, "That's my cue."
They gave me an okay sign before I ran towards my position.
"Anyone would be lucky to be friends with him." Dino said.
"Totally." Mingyu agreed.
___________
And so…
The trailer for our presentation begins.
Thunder and lightning sounded from the speakers before the screen flashed with Dominic on the screen. He slowly lifted his head which showed his battered face.
His voice then sounded out. "We started our fight even before the battle began."
We could see Matt-hyung and Jiwoo in a battle like scene with their bare top.
"We battle against ourselves." Matt-hyung said.
"Only to lose against ourselves." Jiwoo continued the sentence.
Zee's part then came as he looked like an insane person laughing out inside what appears like a room from a mental hospital. He was in a strap jacket, laughing maniacally in a muffled sound.
His voice then came, "We tried to fight our inner demons…"
Then the angle of the camera shot the side of his face as he tried yelling before fangs grew from his mouth.
"Even bearing our fangs at the wrong people." Zhang continued to say before a shot of him was shown outside the door of Zee's room.
He was sitting down while leaning on the door. As he slowly tilted his face to the camera.
Then it went black…
The next thing that was shown was a silhouette of Jeong Do being chained up while being hanged by these same chains. He was soaked in water just dangling there.
"But the battle we're facing now is not our own." He said as the chains broke loose as he fell down then the camera showed Yo Chul jumping off a cliff in slow motion. The video then rewound which showed white figures trying to stop him.
"We have people who have our backs now." He said.
Then everything turned to white. The camera seemed to zoom only to find me in the center sitting. I was wearing an all white outfit while sitting down and hugging my knees. I was just revealing the top half of my face which was in tears.
Seiji-hyung's voice then sounded. "Even when we feel so alone…"
A hand then appeared in front of my face. I slowly turn to look at the owner of the hand who was Seiji-hyung. He was smiling at me. I grabbed the hand before he started pointing out to everyone else behind him who was smiling at me.
"We are never truly alone." I said as I slowly smirked. The trailer then ended. With my eyes turning red and a pair of fangs growing slowly from my mouth.
A loud howl from a wolf sounded throughout the venue before it went eerily quiet. Then from the different entrances of the venue were the backup dancers who rushed out of it. They were wearing wolf fur and treating the head of the wolf as a sort of hoodie and a cover for their head. They really looked like people from a tribe who used animal skins and furs as clothes.
A tribal background music played as they gathered to the center of the venue and formed a large circle. They then chanted something before they raised their hands and fell down as if they were worshiping something.
Then the song Wolf played.
The people were wondering where we were since we weren't on stage. Then they checked where the back-up dancers again were facing. A platform that was slowly descending from the top of the venue came.
Everyone was shocked as they saw this. Then the screen showed what was happening up there. We were there in our own costume wearing contact lenses as if we were really demonic animals.
We performed wolf while slowly descending to center of the venue. From the moment we were revealed, up to the end of the song, the crowd never stopped cheering for us. They were so amazed that we got to do something so daring. This has never been done before in this world.
When we finished the first song, we immediately rushed towards the stage when another tribal music came on. There were fire dancers on stage. There were also performers who were dressed as tribes people who played large drums. It really fit the scene.
As soon as we got into position on the Main Stage, the drummers stopped. Then we took off our fur coats revealing only our bare top. Some of us were wearing vests and something that only covered a small portion of our top half.
The crowd went wild when they saw this. As soon as Growl played, the stage started rotating which was a surprise for everyone.
"They are giving their all for this." EXO's Kai said.
We were already halfway through the song. And I was already getting exhausted.
"These guys don't even look like rookies. They are more like long-time superstars." Woohyun from Infinite said.
One of the members of Lovelyz jaw dropped. "These guys are amazing!"
"JayB-ssi looks really cute." Another member said.
"Quiet down. The cameras are pointing at us." Their leader said.
We didn't get to hear this of course. We were too focused on stage.
As soon as the song finished, we held our pause until the Emcees came up to congratulate us and asked for the crowd's applause.
After that, we bowed to the crowd before going to our dressing rooms. We were supposed to go to our seats afterwards since the awards would start very soon, but we didn't want to go back half naked.
_________
"And that was SEVENTEEN ladies and gentlemen!" Soohyun-hyung said.
"That was really an amazing performance by them!" Shin Hye-sunbae also agreed.
The audience applauded while both of the hosts slowly walked to the center stage. Before they were able to reach the stage, the stage managers already placed a podium for them.
"Now is one of the most awaited part of the program." Soohyun-hyung said.
"For this segment, we will be awarding the best music video, the best vocal performance, the best solo performance for the male category, and the best solo performance for the female category." Park Shin Hye-sunbae said.
Soohyun-hyung then asked the audience. "So are you guys ready for this?"
The crowd then responded with a loud yes.
We weren't excited because it would usually go to a well-groomed group and not a rookie group. We just waited for the Rookie of the Year category to be announced.
We quickly got dressed and slowly walked to where our seats are.
"For the group or solo artist won the Best Music Video is…" Shin Hye-sunbaenim opened the envelope that was handed to her.
She then had a shocked expression on her face before she said, "Growl by Alpha!"
The crowd exploded while my member's jaws dropped. I sat there all frozen. If Hoshi didn't shake me and told me to get up there, I would never have stood up.
We made our way to the stage and received this award.
I got the trophy and then gave the signal to my members. "1… 2… 3…"
"Take the lead! Hello! We are Alpha!" We all greeted the audience which a loud cheer was returned.
"We didn't expect that we would win this award, but thank you so much for our company who always supported us. PD-nim, you have poured in your effort to raise us into a better group. Thank you for that. And to all our fans, the Pack, we really thank you for your love and support." I sincerely said.
After that, we went off the stage and were greeted by a loud applause as we sat down. The members of SEVENTEEN and BTS were congratulating us. We thanked them and listened to the next announcement.
The best solo artists for male and female were announced. G-Dragon got the award for the male category and IU-noona got the award for the female category.
Now it was time for the Best Vocal Performance.
"Who do you think would win this one?" Soohyun-hyung asked the crowd.
The crowd then shouted their bias groups and other artists' names.
"The winner for the Best Vocal Performance goes to… Zeta! Alpha's Vocal unit with their song 'Make it Shine'!"
As soon as the host announced the winner. The crowd went silent for a while before they exploded in applause and cheers.
The members of the Vocal unit, which are Zhang, Dominic and Jeong Do, went up on stage.
It was Zhang who led the team to greet the fans. He is the leader for the Vocal Unit after all. He then thanked the fans from all over the world in Chinese. Dominic said it in English while Jeong Do translated in Korean.
When they came back to their seats, we immediately hugged them and congratulated them.
Zhang on the other hand, ignored the rest of the members and went over to hug me which was weird.
"Am I seeing this right? Zhang is hugging JayB-hyung." Zee joked.
"Yeah… I never thought he was a hugger." Dominic continued.
Zee then started to joke around more. "All that's left is for Yo Chul-hyung to smile without faking it."
The people around us laughed while Yo Chul trapped Zee in a headlock.
Zhang on the other hand was still hugging me.
"Uh… Zhang, you can let go now." I told him
He did let go, but before he did, he said something that made my heart melt. "Thank you, hyung. It didn't feel like this when I was doing music alone. I'm glad that I get to do this with you guys. So thank you."
He then went back to his seat. Zhang rarely expresses how he feels. So this was really heartwarming.
The excitement and surprises didn't stop there. After we got to see the other group's performance surprises just didn't stop.
The most surprising thing?
Most of the awards went to us.
These were the awards that we got aside from the first two:
Favorite Dance Performance – Growl by Alpha
Daesang Song of the Year – Wolf Alpha
Album of the Year – Alpha: Project Alpha
Best Dance Performance – Alpha – Growl
Rookie of the Year – Alpha
Song of the Year - Growl by Alpha
Breakthrough Achievement Award – Alpha
When we got these awards, we could see the other groups glare at us. We didn't mind them though. We were too focused on being surprised from one award to another.
PD-nim was so happy that we saw him tear up every time we go up the stage.
Nine awards…
That's how many we got. We could each hold a trophy for a picture later on.
Soon the last set of the group awards were given. The individual awards were about to begin. We weren't really needed for this segment. The managers were already asking for us to exit the place discreetly.
We were about to stand when something shocking happened.
"And the Best Producer of the Year goes to… JayB from Alpha!"
We all turned to the screen to see if they made a mistake. My name really came up and listed all the songs and the achievements the songs got.
My jaw just dropped until I saw a camera pan towards me. I immediately stood properly and fixed myself. I went on stage to receive my award and gave my speech. I headed back down when another award was announced with my name on it. I turned around in shock but recovered quickly.
It was the Best Video Director of the Year for the song Growl.
I got nominated for that?
Even winning it?
I practically was over the moon right now. But my confusion was starting to catch up. How could I possibly get these awards?
There were more awards that came after. But I actually got one more award and this was the Choreographer of the Year. I still could not recover after getting these awards for myself.
Of all the most impossible things that happened this year, receiving the awards that we got has got to stand on top of the list.
MAMA soon ended with a joint performance from SM Town's artists. It was really a great performance.
This was really a memorable way to end the event.
But little did we know… that our nights went from good to bad real quick.
_________