Reminder

"Jeong Do-ya! I know you can hit it. This time try to make it sound more like a head tone and not falsetto. And don't rush in singing the words. Take it slow!" I yelled at Jeong Do who was inside the recording booth.

We were almost at the end of our recording. It has been 2 weeks since the start of the year. I've been busy with the recording, photoshoot, MV shoot, being an MC in Inkigayo and also practicing the choreography for the upcoming album. It was an intense week for me. I've achieved my ideal weight as Dominic continued to monitor my health. He also gave me some vitamins and some serum to maintain my health in top condition. I've also tried my best to eat properly now to maintain my weight.

Over the past few weeks, I've also finished Twice's comeback album and helped them with some of the choreography. It actually looked weird when I danced to their choreography which made them laugh most of the time. Still, it helped us become closer this time. I also had my moments with HER.

Now, I was just finishing the last few lines with Jeong Do as the rest of the members were in the dance studio beside us to practice the choreography for Don't Wanna Cry. According to them, I must have gone crazy because most of the choreography of the songs that we had were ten times more difficult now. Well, that's how it is. These are originally SEVENTEEN's songs so the choreography for the songs are really difficult. Otherwise, they wouldn't be known as the kings of synchronization for nothing.

"How was that?" Jeong Do said plainly. We've been at this for a while now. And he was getting frustrated with singing his parts. It was because although he was a great singer, the demo was based on my voice. The problem there is that I had a much higher range than Jeong Do does, that's why he's having a hard time.

I sighed. "One more time please."

He gave me a thumbs up before singing his lines again. After he sung it, I pressed the button for the communications. "That was fantastic. Exactly what I was looking for. Thank you. We're done. Great job!"

"Ugh! Finally!" He groaned as he took off his earphones.

I stretched my arms over my head as I felt a couple of arms wrap around my neck from behind and a chin resting on my head. I recognize the person's arms and the smell of her perfume as well. "Hey, sis. What are you doing here? Don't you have a comeback to work on?"

Kei kissed my cheek before sitting down on the stool beside me. "How did you… Never mind. I do, but we're on a 2-hour break right now. So I came by to bring you guys some food."

I turned to check the clock and saw that it was 1PM. "Oh I didn't know that it was this late already."

She raised a brow. "Uhuh. Or did you just finish recording?"

"Yeah I did. It's the last song though so I think a break sound great right about now." I replied to her.

She smiled at me. "Let's call the rest of the members over. You guys should have lunch together."

I scanned through the stuff that she brought and noticed that there were a lot. "You actually packed a lot of food. Shouldn't this be too much for a 2-hour break?"

"Oh I won't stay long. I have an appointment with my doctor today. So I'll leave in a few minutes." She answered.

Her words made me worry a little about her. "What's wrong? Are you okay?"

Kei waved it off as she chuckled. "Relax. I'm fine. It's our monthly check-up for our throat. You know how it is in SM. They treat their artists like irreplaceable objects that need high maintenance."

"That's true though. Keep me updated about the results. Make sure you eat on your way to the hospital." I reminded her.

She slowly stood up as she placed the food on the table. "Don't worry. I already ate. Unlike you, I try my best to eat my meals on time."

I rolled my eyes as I watch her set the food up. "Whatever. Any plans for dinner?"

"We have practice 'til late tonight. Our comeback's right around the corner after all." She replied as she took a glance at her watch. Kei grabbed her things after doing so and started heading for the door. "I better go now. Make sure you eat dinner on time. Got it?"

I nodded. "Okay, MOM. Don't strain yourself. Say hi to our siblings for me."

She opened the door before turning around and walking towards me. She gave me a peck on the cheek and headed out. "Thanks, oppa. See you around."

I stood there chuckling as I shook my head. She's taking advantage of the fact that we're basically family now. What am I going to do with her?

"Enjoying yourself?" A woman's voice came from the door leading to the practice room.

I turned to see Momo smirking while leaning on the door post. "Momo-ya… It's not... What you saw was... Uhh... It's not what you think... Ahem. How long have you have you been standing there?"

"Long enough to hear 'Thanks, oppa. See you around.'" She replied.

I rolled my eyes. "What are you doing here by the way? Shouldn't you be practicing for the award show?"

She went inside the studio as she approached me. She decided to ignore my question as she asked, "What's with you and Kei-unnie? I thought that you guys were over?"

I turned to her almost as if I was about to burst out laughing. "What are you talking about? We ARE over. We're not together by the way. If that's what you mean."

"I don't know, JayB-oppa. You looked pretty happy when she kissed you earlier." She teased.

"Who kissed JayB-oppa?" We turned to see Jihyo standing in the doorway while glaring at me.

I sighed as I opened the packed food. "It was NOT a kiss. It was a peck on the cheek. She's technically my sister now since Kibum-hyung decided to adopt her into our family."

"Wait… Kibum-oppa? As in Key from Shinee? He's your brother?" Jihyo asked.

I turned to look at them with a surprised look on my face. "Yeah. Wait. Didn't I tell you guys that?"

"No… you didn't." Momo was also looking at me in disbelief.

I sighed. "Right. So he's the eldest among us. I have 2… 3 younger sisters. Now that I have Jiyeon-ah."

"Do we know them?" Mina was standing in front of the door.

"Why are you guys coming in one by one? Call everyone already and let's have lunch together." I replied.

Dominic went inside the studio. "What's going on?"

"Oh. JayB-oppa was talking about his sisters." Mina answered as she wiped off the sweat on Dominic's face before giving him a peck on the cheek. The rest of the members of Twice and Alpha entered the room. They were all really sweaty from the practices.

"Oh you mean Chungha-ya and Yoohyeon-ie? What about them?" Dominic nonchalantly asked as he himself wiped the sweat on mina's face and neck.

"Ya! Put your shirt on Seiji-oppa!" Dahyun yelled out as she covered her eyes from Seiji-hyung.

Seiji-hyung immediately put his shirt on. "Whoops! Sorry about that! Don't act like you haven't seen me naked before. Anyway, did I just hear JayB-ya's sisters being mentioned?"

"Wait a minute! Chungha-ya… Yoohyeon-ie… You mean the ones from IOI and Dreamcatcher? They're your sisters?!" Momo exclaimed with her mouth wide open.

"No way…" Chaeyoung muttered.

"Yes way." Yo Chul-hyung said as he took a bite of the food before feeding some to Jeongyeon.

I sighed. "Make sure you don't stain the carpets."

"Wait, wait, wait. How in the world did that happen? I mean... all of you are in the entertainment industry." Nayeon asked.

"Kibum-hyung started it since he was the first one who came to Korea to audition as soon as he heard that I invested on the Korean market. And in this industry at that. Now, don't ask too many questions and just eat. We still have to resume practicing at 2:30PM." I answered them before I started eating.

"I didn't know that your family is composed of a bunch of talented freaks too." Jihyo said.

"Tell me about it. And now, Kim Jiyeon is joining in on the mix." Seiji-hyung said.

For the rest of the members of Twice who didn't hear about the conversation, they all snapped their heads towards me as they yelled. "WHAT?!"

____________

"What was that, Yo Chul-hyung?" I said as I stopped counting for them to dance in synch to the choreography.

After a hearty meal and some jokes during our break, we were back at it again with our dance practice. We were already hours in our practice and the sun was long gone. Since I was done with the recording, I decided to polish the mix for the songs later and focus on polishing the steps for "Don't Wanna Cry".

Some of the members still keep messing up. I can't blame them though, this is the 5th song that we were working our choreography on. That's on top of mastering the choreography for the first 4 songs. Plus, we still had to memorize two more dance routines after this one. The rest of the members were really complaining a lot. But because we had no choice, we decided to do the dirty work anyway. No matter how tiring it was.

"What do you mean 'what was that'?" he fired back.

I scoffed before demonstrating what went wrong. "You messed up the choreography again. You have to extend your arms a bit more during this part."

He sighed. "It's hard to catch up on that part while I'm doing the steps before that one."

I gave a sarcastic laugh. "No. You're giving too much pop on the parts that shouldn't be like that. Try to gain more control during this part of the choreography. I've told you before that our comeback this time involves a lot of control in the choreography. Why haven't you done any strength training?"

"Oh are you saying that I'm too weak to handle this choreography?" He went directly to me as he drew his face near mine.

Matt-hyung quickly went between us to prevent us from duking it out on each other. I sighed. "I'm not saying that you're weak. But you lack control this time. That's why you need to put effort in your strength training, hyung."

The atmosphere around us was heavy. Even the other members were avoiding their gazes from us since the tension was high. I decided to take a 10 minute break on this one to cool off our heads. Before I could announce for to take a break, someone suddenly barge in on the door.

"Hey guys!" She excitedly greeted. Unfortunately, she was only met with a couple of angry and serious faces from some of our members.

She halted her steps as she smiled wryly. "Did I… come at a bad time?"

I snapped out of it and approached her. "Not at all. We were just about to have a short break." After talking to her I turned to face the members. "Take 10 guys!"

"Hi, baby." Matt-hyung came over and gave a peck onto her lips.

Lisa giggled. "Ya… oppa. They're watching."

Matt-hyung smirked. "It's fine. Don't worry about it."

She sighed as she wiped the sweat off from Matt-hyung. "Do you have a change of clothes? You're soaking wet."

Matt-hyung smiled wryly. "That's because we haven't had any break from 2PM today."

Lisa's jaw fell. "It's already 7:30PM. Are you guys crazy?"

The rest of the members went over to join the conversation after drinking water and changing into their next set of shirts to practice on. Yo Chul-hyung went over and patted Lisa's shoulder. "We might be crazy, but it's our leader who's crazier."

I chuckled at his comment. It's as if our little fiasco earlier didn't happen. This was something that I like about my team. We might fight a lot or get into a conflict with each other during our practices but after that, it's as if it never happened at all. "What are you saying, hyung? We're almost finished now because you guys did well."

Lisa shook her head in disbelief. "You guys are monsters. Monsters I tell you."

"What's new?" Zee joked in an exhausted tone which made everyone else laugh.

"So what brings you here, Lisa-ssi?" Dominic asked.

"Can't you speak informally to me still?" Lisa gave Dominic a wry smile.

Dominic sighed. "Just please answer the question. You know I don't know how to speak informally."

Lisa giggled once more. "Fine. Wait for a second. Manager-oppa! Please bring them in!"

Her manager walked inside the room bringing in some packed dinner for us. It was sushi! Seiji-hyung almost cried the moment he saw the food. He really missed eating sushi since we've only been eating in the JYP's cafeteria lately because of how busy we were. We got free meals today. Lunch provided by Kei, and now dinner courtesy of Lisa. I may be rich but food tastes better when it's free.

"Waa! Thank you! Thank you! Lisa-ya! You're my savior!" Seiji-hyung hugged Lisa while spinning her around. Lisa was giggling and squealing as Seiji-hyung was doing it.

"Ya! Hyung! Let go of my girlfriend!" Matt-hyung was trying to separate Seiji-hyung from Lisa as the rest of us laughed at how this jealous boyfriend of hers is reacting.

We decided to take a longer break this time. Again, because I was so focused in finishing the choreography, I forgot to check the time. The rest of the members were giving it their all as well so they also lost track of time. We've been practicing for 5 nonstop hours. It was just insane! That's why the members were happy to take a break.

"Oh right! JayB-oppa, thanks for the songs! My members really loved it!" She happily exclaimed after feeding Matt-hyung sushi.

I chuckled at her. "It's nothing. I enjoyed mixing it too. When are you guys planning to have your comeback?"

She placed her index finger on her chin and pondered. "We're still recording it based on the demo. So if we're going to keep up with this pace. We're probably going to have our comeback at around April or May."

"If you guys are going to have your comeback on April, then we would be promoting at the same time." Jeong Do said.

She snapped her head towards Jeong Do. "Oh no. Are you serious? This is going to be tough then."

"Nonsense! You fanbase is growing by the day! By the time you have your comeback, you can probably compete with us." Jiwoo said.

She shook her head. "EVERYONE in this industry knows that every time you have you're comeback you automatically take the number one spot in every music show and in every hit chart."

Dominic rolled his eyes. "You're exagerating. That's a lie."

Lisa smirked. "Oh yeah. Name one TV award show that you didn't win in your entire career."

After pondering a while, we couldn't give her one. We realized that we HAVE been winning constantly ever since our debut. But we didn't treat every win as if it was constant. We always treated our win as if it was our first time. It's how we've always been. That's why we didn't notice it until now.

Matt-hyung cleared his throat and immediately changed the topic. "So Lisa-ya, how was your first time being on weekly idol?"

She then punched me. "The choreography almost killed us! 2x speed challenge for 'BOOMBAYAH' was not a joke! I almost collapsed!"

(AN: By the way check that out. You'll really laugh a lot.)

"Then why are you punching me?!" I asked her as I rubbed my arm.

"Because YOU'RE the one who MADE the choreography!" She yelled back which made everybody laugh.

Then Zee butted in. "I heard that we'll be going in on Weekly Idol one of this days. And our new choreography is already hard enough… what if…"

The rest of the members shuddered in fear just by the thought of 2x speed challenges to our new songs which had more difficult routines in it. Lisa had a confused look on her face. "What's wrong? What's with you new routine?"

Jiwoo sighed. "You'll see once we have our comeback."

"There's already a lot of changes since PD-nim wants to have our comeback this coming February for 'Thanks' and 'Clap'. It's only referred to as a B-track though." Dominic explained.

"Really?! I'm so excited for it! I hope you guys will do well next month! Fighting!" Lisa exclaimed excitedly.

Zhang chuckled which made us turn to him. Zee then asked, "Did Zhang just laugh?"

"It was a chuckle. I was just amused. She looked like a die-hard fan of Alpha for like a few seconds." Zhang said in a monotone.

Lisa giggled. "I AM a die-hard fan of Alpha! I consider myself a member of the pack. Didn't you know? I've been to a lot of your fan sign events ever since I was trainee."

"Oh I remember. Who wouldn't remember THAT?" I tried recalling the first fan sign event that we had where I almost died.

"Aye… don't remind of that. Please. I'm trying to get rid of that memory." Seiji-hyung complained.

"Right, right, right. Now eat." Dominic said as he forcefully fed two sushi rolls in his mouth to shut him up. The rest of the time, was full of laughter and more chatting which made us end our practice a little bit later than scheduled.

__________

"JayB-ssi, I just want to say 'Thanks'." Jisoo said as she turned to me.

Weeks came by fast and lot has happened. We shot the rest of the MV, we practiced from morning 'til evening, and now we are here to perform our B-side track for the first time. We decided to promote 'Thanks' first in the next two weeks before promoting 'Clap' next. It was to lessen the burden when the actual album comes out on April. It'll take time, yes. But by then, we will be very prepared. Idols aren't only consumed with performing after all. There are actually other schedules to consider like dramas, TV shows, and other guesting.

Now, I was in the studio for Inkigayo, waiting to perform "Thanks". But of course, I had to perform my duties as the show's MC. That's why I was here with two of my colleagues who were actually doing a fantastic job.

"Really? What for?" I replied going along with the script.

Doyoung then interrupted and clarified. "Jisoo-ssi? Did you mean to say, you want to 'see' 'Thanks'?"

"Oh! Right! My bad!" Jisoo giggled.

Doyoung then smiled to the camera. "Well, I want to see it too. I've heard that you've really practiced a lot for this comeback, JayB-ssi."

"Of course he did! After all, it's been a year since we saw our JayB-ssi perform on stage." Jisoo added which made the fans cheer harder.

I chuckled. "That's right. Alpha has been really preparing for this comeback. This is actually just a B-side track of ours. But we really wanted to release this song first to express our 'Thanks' to our fans."

"Wow! I believe that the pack will be very happy with this one." Doyoung said.

Jisoo laughed. "We already are."

"Oh? Jisoo-ssi? You consider yourself a pack?" I asked.

"Yes, of course. When I was a trainee, we really listened to Alpha's songs a lot. I believe that most of the recent idols that debuted this year and last year are fans of Alpha." Jisoo answered.

Doyoung then went on to add. "That's right. I would also like to admit that I'm also a member of the pack."

I chuckled. "Thanks for all the support. I hope that you will enjoy our performance later on."

"I'm sure we will. After the break, we will have Alpha perform their new hit song, 'Thanks'. So don't leave just yet." Doyoung said.

Jisoo then ended the script. "We are…"

"Kimsam!" I replied excitedly.

"And we'll see you after the break right here on…" Doyoung continued as we answered in unison. "Inkigayo!"

Yes, we call ourselves Kimsam meaning 3 Kims since our last names are all Kim. The director soon yelled cut before we went to commercial. I sighed as I took off my coat in order to remove my IEM. "I'm really nervous."

"Relax, hyung. I know you'll do well." Doyoung said as he patted my back.

Jisoo then got my microphone and my pack for the IEM. "What are you waiting for? Head to the dressing room. The commercial will only last 10 minutes. You still need to change into your outfit and do a little bit of your hair right?"

I immediately took my coat before running off to the dressing room. "See you guys after the performance!"

"Fighting!" They both yelled in return.

Upon arriving at the dressing room, I immediately took my clothes which were already prepared and dashed to the changing room. After changing into the outfit for today, I just stood in front of the mirror as our make-up artists did my hair and did some retouch on my make-up. Our stylists also tried to straighten my clothes and attached my pack for the IEM.

"Mic or Lapel?" Ming Do-hyung, our manger, asked.

"Microphone for today, please and thank you." I replied with a smile on my face.

He then called the sound booth and informed them that I'll be using a microphone today. A lapel needed time to set-up. Plus, it was annoying to dance with two monitor packs on my waist. One for the lapel and the other was for the IEM. Since there were a lot of dancing and floor works, I prefer not to have too much weight on me right now.

"Alpha? Please be ready at the backstage in 2 minutes." A stage manager from the show came to remind us.

We thanked her before I drank some water to try and relax myself. It's been a while since I performed in front of the national audience. It feels like I'm debuting again. I hope that I won't screw up.

"Hyung! We're heading out for the pre-performance group photo." Zee reminded.

I then remembered something after I was done with my hair and make-up. I dashed towards my bag and got something from it. I then headed to where my members were to pose for the group photo. After taking the shot, I approached Ming Do-hyung to give him the packed meal that I bought. When I heard that we were heading to Inkigayo after our photoshoot for the album cover, I decided to buy some packed meal and brought it to the studio. The company provided us with the dinner, but our managers weren't included. Good thing I bought this ahead.

He didn't want to accept it in the first place but I insisted. We were like this with our managers. The reason why they stood by us all these years is because we don't treat them like employees working under us but as colleagues and as family. We would treat them to dinner from time to time and even give them some bonuses if they did well. Most of the other idol group mangers would only last months with them. Besides, who could keep up with the tight schedule? If we were sleepless, how much more our managers who would wake up much earlier than us?

Soon, we performed our first comeback for the year. The fans excitedly and warmly welcomed us as they fan chanted along to the song. Some of them were even touched by the lyrics of the song. It was really a beautiful song for the fans after all. SEVENTEEN really did a great job with this song in the previous world. The performance really went well and before we knew it, the performance was soon over and we were on our way back to the dorm to rest for tomorrow's schedule again. We were going to be in The Good Manager one of these days. I hope it'll go well.

____________

"Waa… you guys really take care of your managers." Yoo Byungjae-sunbaenim who was one of the hosts for the show The Good Manager, said.

We were now in our second to the last schedule for today which was the filming for a new TV show called, The Good Manager. It was a show that showcased the life of one of the managers of a certain idol group. It would reveal to them the difficulties, struggles, and little joys that a manger has with his idol group. Thankfully, we've always been kind to our managers, although there were times where we play a lot, but when it comes to work, we were serious.

The highlight so far was the fact that we never allowed our managers to go hungry. That was pointed out by one of the hosts earlier. They saw how we were in front of our managers. They also pointed out that we tried our best not to give our managers a hard time by actually doing what we can to help them lighten the load.

"We always made sure that they are also taken care of since they take good care of 9 crazy idols." Zee joked which made the other hosts laugh.

"Tell me then. How long have your manager worked for you?" Yang Sehyung-sunbaenim asked.

I pondered for a while before I answered. "Our main manager has worked with us ever since we were on Project Alpha. Ming Do-hyung came a year later when the schedules were already very hectic together with the other secondary managers."

"What? So two years now. Wow! You said that you had more secondary managers?" Lee Youngja-sunbaenim asked.

Zee then smiled. "Yes. We have 4 managers all in all. One main manager, Kang Wosik-hyung, which was in charge in communicating with JYP PD-nim and looking for opportunities for us. While the secondary managers go with some of us if we have different schedules. They also are in charge in reminding us of our schedule and making sure that everything that is needed to be booked are booked."

The conversation went on for a while as we talked more about our managers. The hosts were really impressed at how we treat our managers. They also told us that most of the managers quit after just months of working inside the company because of the stress. We also told them that it's the reason why we try our best to help lighten the burden of our managers. Soon, the filming ended and we started heading back to our cars to go the Music Bank studio for our last day of promotions for 'Thanks'.

Zee sighed as he sat on his seat. "At least we get to have two days off before we start promoting 'Clap'."

"Correction, we only have 'one' day off since we'll be rehearsing 'Clap' the day after tomorrow." I told Zee.

He snapped his head towards me. "Why? PD-nim told us that it's up to us on how we'll spend that time. Why do we have to rehearse?"

"Because we probably forgot about the dance because of our promotions for 'Thanks'." I replied to him as I reclined my chair to rest better.

He sighed again. "Fine. I need to work on my rapping for that song anyway."

I chuckled. "You'd better. I have high expectations for you during our promotions. And please… don't break anything this time."

We bickered a little bit more before my phone started ringing. I took it out of my pocket to see who was calling.

"Taecyeon-hyung! To what do I owe the pleasure?" I answered the call.

He chuckled. "JayB-ya! I just wanted to know if you were free tomorrow. I really want to meet some people before I go and serve in the military."

"Oh? When are you going? I thought it was still in May?" I asked.

"The rest of the guys are going by May. I need to go there earlier since there are things that I need to take care off." He explained.

I guess he had no choice then. I then asked, "I have my day off tomorrow. What time do you want to meet up?"

He hummed for a while as he pondered. "How about around lunchtime? Does that sound good?"

I nodded. "Sounds great. So… who else is coming?"

I could hear him gulp as before he took a deep breath in. He was nervous for some reasons. I understood why the moment he answered. "I'm meeting the main cast for our drama… you know… Dream High? So Ji Eun-ie would be there. Will that be… alright with you?"

__________

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