Rookie Promotions Part 1

We were already on our 6th month of promoting our group. I could still remember what it felt like to finally perform our debut song, Wolf on stage.

Flashback…

"Hyung… we finally made it!" Zee said in between his heavy breathing.

The rest of the group were waving to the audience who were screaming out our group name. We just finished performing our debut song for the first time in MNET's Music Bank. I can still hear the heavy breathing from my members after it.

I thought to myself… finally, we're here…

The crowd was chanting out our name. "Alpha! Alpha! Alpha!"

I felt a wave of warmth and joy rush over me.

So this is what it felt like, huh? Suga-hyungnim? Namjoon-hyungnim?

I bet Jungkook-ah and Taehyung-hyung were also happy when they performed for the first time.

I took a stroll down memory lane when I was still practicing with the members of BTS.

Now that I'm here with Alpha, I'll help bring this group to the top.

End of flashback…

6 months passed by so fast that it felt surreal. We were in so many TV shows, news, talk shows, and even in radio stations.

Speaking of radio stations. We're about to go LIVE right now.

"I can't believe we're in MBC's Idol Radio. Ouch!" Zee was looking around as he entered the room and bumped on one of the small stools.

Matt-hyung sighed and patted Zee's back, "Please be more careful next time. We can't break any of the equipment here, ya know?"

Zee just nodded as he gave a wry smile to Matt-hyung.

I just chuckled at the sight. We pretty much used to Zee's clumsiness this time around. Living in a dorm for almost a year now greatly affected our understanding towards one another.

"I'm getting nervous. What if we get to say something we don't really mean?" Seiji-hyung asked.

"I'm sure it'll be fine, hyung. Just think before you say something." I assured him.

There were just four of us today. The rest of the team either had business to attend to or had a different schedule to go to.

For rookie's who weren't paid that much yet and who were still establishing our names, we were pretty much in demand already.

But our popularity is still not that high since most of the popularity is carried through hype.

We entered and sat down on our assigened chairs and waited for the host to come in. We warmed up our vocals since we were asked to sing one of our songs from our first album.

Our album was just a compilation of all the songs that we've released so far.

Alpha Project:

1. Growl

2. If You

3. Boy in Love

4. Sing For You

5. Trauma

6. Highlight

7. Make it Shine

8. Wolf

We were singing Make it Shine since there are only 4 of us here. Even though it was purely vocals, we had no problems over it since we were all good at singing too, and there was no dancing involved so being low on stamina isn't a problem.

"Hyung… after Ask in a Box tonight, what's our schedule?" Zee whispered to me.

"We'll have a short meeting with PD-nim. We go home after that. We have to rest since we need to wake up at 3AM again tomorrow." I answered.

Seiji-hyung must have heard us because he also told me that he couldn't wait to just sleep tonight.

Nevermind eating, sleeping was important right now.

Ever since we debuted, getting more than 4 hours of sleep was a blessing!

Suddenly, the door opened and in came the host.

Oh! It's him!

Seo Eunkwang-sunbaenim from BtoB!

His voice is so amazing! Especially when he's singing ballad songs.

I got to work with him in the previous world because Yook Sungjae-ah and I were close. He then asked me to work with them with a song, and of course I did.

"Hello Sunbaenim!" We all stood up and greeted him.

Although he only debut a year before us. Their rookie year is over, so we have to address them as such.

"Aye… just call me hyung. We just have a year of gap between our debuts so there's no need to be too polite. Let's just enjoy today's segment. Okay?" He replied.

He's such a polite and kind person. I even heard that he's really funny too.

"Yes, hyung. Thank you." I replied for the group.

"Oh and hey, I'll be reading some questions later for the show. Please don't take it personally since it's prepared beforehand. So I have no control over it. I apologize ahead of time." He warned us.

"No worries, hyung. We understand. It's been like that in almost every show we've been to." Zee replied.

"Right?" He sighed before he continued. "I sometimes feel like us idols don't have much room to move in terms of our private lives. Anyway… let's just have fun today."

We all nodded and began the broadcast after the producer signaled us to do so.

The first hour of the show were all greetings and getting to know a little bit about the group and how the promotions are going.

We also sang already which got good comments from the listeners. Some even tweeted that they didn't expect the non-vocal members of the group to sing that well.

They could tell that it was sung live because our voices were really distinguishable from each other. Anyone could tell who was singing which part.

The show went on without any hiccups. We were on a break and were talking about the final segment which is reading out the questions by the fans which were prepared by the producers.

"Don't worry too much. If you're not comfortable with the question then answer back by asking another question." Eunkwang-hyung said.

We all just smile at his playfulness. He was giving a very funny advice to rookies like us.

Finally, the producer gave us a signal that we'll go live in a few seconds and was counting down with his fingers.

The moment it hit zero, Eunkwang-hyung immediately took over and started chattering away. "Welcome back everyone to Idol Radio where you hear from the latest and hottest idols of today. Again, we are here with four of the members of Alpha who just sang before the break. It was really beautiful by the way."

"Thank you, hyung. That means a lot coming from you. And thank you to the fans as well who continued to support us until now." I replied.

"I know they are proud of you guys." Eunkwang-hyung continued.

We just thanked him in response.

He then went on with the program. "So now, we'll be reading from some of the tweets by your fans and see what they wanted to ask you. You see they have been curious and you were not direct with your answers in the shows you were previously in. So are you guys ready?"

We all nodded and responded with a yes which probably sounded awkward in the broadcast.

Eunkwang-hyung then started the segment with a question from the fans, "One of your fans asked, who is more likely to fall asleep anywhere without anyone noticing?"

Seiji-hyung was touching his chin while contemplating on an answer. "Hmm… I don't know. There are actually two of them."

Zee then suddenly laughs at his remark, "HAHA! Are you also thinking of Yo Chul-hyung and Dominic-hyung?"

"That's right. I can't decide between the two of them." Seiji-hyung answered.

Eunkwang-hyung then laughed, "We also have one member who does that. Well, I guess there's just at least one member in a group that's like that."

We all laughed at his comment.

Matt-hyung then interjected, "But you know what? I can tell that Yo Chul-ah is more prone to do that compared to Domi-ya."

"Oh? Why's that?" Eunkwang-yung asked.

Matt-hyung fixed his headphones first before answering, "Because Yo Chul-ah just sleeps anywhere without letting anyone know. Sometimes the manager gets a panic attack just by looking for him. He'd end up behind a couch or on a pile of clothes or even inside a closet."

We all laughed in agreement which made Eunkwang-hyung laugh hysterically. "So what about Dom-ssi?"

"Well, I can say that he loves to sleep. But when he works or even before our performances he doesn't sleep but works really hard by practicing the choreography and warming up his vocals." Matt-hyung explained.

"Ahh. So that's why he can hit those high notes. It's pretty impressive actually. For a singer like me, it's very difficult to hit those notes, yet he makes it seem effortless." Eunkwang-hyung was surprised with how Dom-hyung was behind the scenes.

"Oh you have no idea. He sings a lot even before he sleeps which is really annoying." Seiji-hyung added.

"Really? How?" Eunkwang-hyung asked.

"He would sing soft lullabies or ballads to cool down his voice. But sometimes, he would sing high pitched songs. Yo Chul-ah would sometimes yell at him like, 'Ya! I'm going to kill you if you won't stop!'" We all laughed as Seiji-hyung tried to mimic Yo Chul-hyung's voice.

Our dorm can be pretty much be like that. There were even times when the maknaes would play a prank on the members which usually ends up in a fist fight. This was most especially true with Jiwoo who loves to mess with his hyungs.

But we pretty much patch things up afterwards.

We continued with the questions and we answered them truthfully of course. There wasn't much to be scared of since most of the questions were really wholesome.

"Okay, okay, okay. Now that we know that Zee-ssi can break 5 sinks, bend 7 spoons and 4 chopsticks, and even gets himself electrocuted almost every day, all in a month, let's go to the next question." Eunkwang-hyung ended our bickering there but we were still laughing madly at that comment.

"Alright. Wow! This isn't a question but more of a request by a fan." Eunkwang-hyung said.

We all expectedly looked at him waiting for it. "The fan asked if the members of Alpha could give an aegyo here in our broadcast."

We all groaned with that request.

Aegyo? Really? It would be great if a girl does that.

But if it's a guy doing it…

Ugh!

"Eunkwang-hyung! Please don't make us do this! We don't really like doing aegyo." Zee tried to plead with him and with the producers.

Eunkwang-hyung laughed at us. "Just give what the fans want. You'll understand that the longer you are in the industry the more you have to give what the fans want."

"It wasn't even that long since you debuted hyung! Why are you acting that way?" Seiji-hyung was trying to avoid this at all cost.

"But only Jiwoo-ah loves doing aegyo. The rest of us don't." I complained.

We really did try our best to avoid this situation.

But guess what?

We ended up doing it anyway.

We were so embarrassed that we were so red and even Zee went to hide below the desk.

"While the members of Alpha are still recovering from their shame and embarrassment, let's move to the last question." Eunkwang-hyung saw how uncomfortable we were and decided to move on from that request.

I WILL NEVER DO AEGYO AGAIN!

NEVER!

"Oh, looks like we are running out of time so the members get to choose who will answer this question or do this request." As soon as Eunkwang-hyung said that, they started pointing at me.

"Leader-nim, please shield us from this bullet." Zee joked around.

"What bullet, huh?!" I complained.

Why are they doing this to me?

Well whatever!

"Go ahead, Eunkwang-hyung. Since I'm the leader, I'll take one for team." I bluffed before leaning over to Zee and whispered, "We need to talk when we get home."

He gulped as he heard that from me.

Eunkwang-hyung exclaimed. "Oh this is a good one!"

Then it must mean it's something bad for me…

"So JayB-ssi, this fan desperately wants to know what type of girl you actually like. Is there an ideal girl for Alpha's leader?" Eunkwang-hyung teased.

Before I could answer, my members were already teasing me.

"So there is one! Come on! Spill!" Eunkwang-hyung also tried to force me in to talking.

Should I just share it? She didn't even debut yet.

Well… no harm here then.

I began to speak in a melancholic tone as if I was recalling something from the past. "Someone who's younger than me. Someone who is charming and unique in her own way. Most of the people won't probably like her as much as I do but she's beautiful in her own way…"

I was still going to continue speaking but Zee gave me a nudge snapping me back to reality.

"Ohoh! My, my, my! Is the leader for Alpha in love? Weren't you thinking of someone when you were saying that?" Eunkwang-hyung tried to press.

"Me? Haha! No of course. Even if I did, then you probably wouldn't know her. Not yet I mean…" I whispered the last part as I tried to deny his claims.

"Oh come on, JayB-ssi! Don't you find anyone from this industry that you admire and you find beautiful? Even if she's not your ideal type." He tried again.

"Hmm… if it's someone who I look up to then it's probably IU-sunbaenim. She has a great voice and she's part of the same company as me. We haven't met yet but I listen to her songs all the time because she sings really well." I answered.

"Ayyyyy! Nice choice there! Are you sure you don't 'like like' her?" Eunkwang-hyung tried to press harder again.

I just chuckled at his effort. "Hyung, she's just someone I admire for her talent. Nothing more, nothing less."

"Okay then! I won't press any further than that. For all the fans of Alpha that are currently listening, you heard his ideal type. Also, IU-sunbaenim, if you ARE listening too, this kid really appreciates you. So I hope you will take care of him. That ends our segment for today. Remember that this is where you get to hear from the hottest and latest idols… this is, Idol Radio! This has been your host, Seo Eunkwang signing out!" with that, the broadcast finished.

We pulled off our headphones and laughed uncontrollably.

"So… IU-sunbaenim, huh?" Eunkwang-hyung teased.

"Hyung! You know that that's now what I meant!" I tried to deny it but he kept on teasing me still. The rest of the members followed suit.

"I've met her a couple of times and she's really kind, you know? Are you sure that it's just her voice that you admire and nothing else?" Eunkwang-hyung teased some more.

"I haven't even met her nor worked with her yet. Even though we are in the same company, I've never once seen her in the JYP building." I answered truthfully.

He just smirked at me. "So you HAVE been looking for her?"

"Ugh! I'm not having this!" I gave up before grabbing my coat and walking out of the room.

I could hear everyone laughing even Eunkwang-hyung. "Ya! JayB-ssi! It was just a joke! Meh… He'll get over it."

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After Radio Idol, we immediately went to meet the other members in Ask in A Box's Studio.

The rest of the members were asleep in the car, while I was scrolling through the comment section in today's broadcast from Radio Idol.

There were a lot of good comments and only a few negative comments. Most of it were about us not wanting to do aegyo and were not willing to give any fan service. There were also comments about my ideal girl. Some were negative comments saying that I was picky and were just after idols.

Well… you can't please everybody.

But there were also a lot that are shipping IU-sunbaenim and me. Some people also hated the idea that I admired her.

Well… you can't go around pleasing everyobody.

"Wake up everyone. We're here. You still have an hour to change your clothes and do your make up. You have to be done by 5PM so we can start shooting and end early." Our manager gave us our schedule for this event and started handing us some snacks.

"Yes, manager-nim." We stretched and went out of the car.

As soon as we got to the dressing room the other members greeted us. It became noisy because all of us were in the same room again.

Yo Chul-hyung continued sleeping on the couch with Dom. They were both resting while waiting for their turn. Dom was probably exhausted from the photoshoot.

The rest of the members were having their make-up done. Some were playing video games.

Just then, my phone started ringing. I went outside the dressing room before I answered my phone.

"Hey, Joy-ah. What's up? Everything okay?" I asked.

"Oppa! I have good news for you!" She yelled over the phone which made me pull away from it.

"Can you calm down? And don't call me oppa." I replied sternly.

"Aish! Listen will you! We're finally debuting in a few months!" she excitedly announced.

My eyes went wide to what she said. "Really?! That's great! Wait… so that would mean…"

"Don't worry. We won't be debuting the same year. We'll debut on January. People are still very busy preparing for MAMA." She replied.

So they'll be a year later than what's supposed to happen.

Nah… it's okay.

"That's true. Well, I'll be rooting for your team. So do your best." I told her sincerely.

"Thank you! So it's almost December and I just wanted to ask if you were doing something on Christmas." She asked.

"It's still August though and I'm not so sure. We didn't see our schedules for December yet." I replied.

She just sighed over the phone. "You know we haven't really hang out that much since you debuted. I sometimes wonder if being an idol was the best decision."

"Don't worry about it too much, Joy-ah. We'll have time later on since you'll be debuting soon." I chuckled.

There was silence on the other line. I knew she was really sad about it. "Don't worry about dating rumors and all those things. We'll just tell the world that we've been friends even before we debuted." She suddenly said.

"Sure…" I said.

What was that all about?

"Besides, you like IU-sunbaenim, right?" I heard laughter from the other line as soon as she said that.

"Wait… you were listening to the broadcast?!" I was stunned with that. I thought she was still practicing at this time.

"Yes! Of course! Not just me. Say hi guys!" I could hear all the members of Red Velvet yelling and greeting over the phone.

We continued like that until my manager came out and called me over to have my make-up done.

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The shoot went great. It was a great opportunity to get to know the members better. Overall we under stood that Zee is the clumsy one…

Woo is the aegyo-king and loves to prank on his hyungs…

Zhang is the quiet and mysterious one…

Dominic is the funny one…

Jeong Do is the boy-next-door type of guy…

Yo Chul-hyung is the cold, mean and blunt one…

Seiji-hyung loves to complain a lot and the clueless one…

Matt-hyung is the mother-like figure of the group and he loves to tease the younger members…

And I the calm and collected leader…

We're finally done and I'm about to end the shooting, "So that's it, this has been…"

"Alpha! Thank you everyone!" We all said together.

"Cut! Good job everyone!" The director yelled and everybody started giving their applause.

We all shook hands with everyone and went out to grab the food that we had ordered for everyone. The producers, showrunners and the staff began to thank us profusely.

We didn't mind the expense not because we were rich, but because they actually agreed to have rookies in their show.

It's really hard to find shows that actually welcome rookies. Because if they do invite the rookies, their viewer ratings would drop drastically.

That is why it's a risk to invite rookie idol groups over.

After we head to our dressing rooms to change out of our clothes, we headed back to our company car for us to head back to the company for a meeting with JYP PD-nim.

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"I'm so exhausted… I can't wait to go home and head to bed." Dominic said.

"I'm with you on that." Yo Chul-hyung said.

These guys got nothing on their mind but sleeping.

"Let's have barbecue first after the meeting. It's still 7PM so we still have time." Woo tried to cheer everyone up.

We all agreed to have barbecue first before we head home.

We were in the hallway heading towards the meeting room. Everyone was clearly tired from today's schedule and were dragging their feet heavily towards the room.

"Eh? Sunbaenim… why are you here?" The moment I entered the room I saw IU-sunbaenim in the room together with JYP PD-nim.

"Did we come in a bad time? Are you guys in a meeting?" I asked as I slowly closed the door.

JYP PD-nim motioned for us to come in. "No actually. We were waiting for you."

For us?

Why?

We sat down and started the meeting. It was really fruitful. We discussed a lot of things.

First of all, we officially have a name for our fan base. Our company decided to call it, "the Pack". What this means is that just like how a pack of wolves has its alpha to watch out for them, the pack also supports their alpha wholeheartedly.

I actually like it. It's as if we were a family.

It was obviously really discussed much and was really well thought of by the board. I'm pretty sure the fans will love their new name.

Next we discussed something that involves three groups. GOT7 couldn't come to the meeting because they had a different schedule. But we have finalized that IU-sunbaenim, GOT7 and Alpha will be performing at this year's MAMA.

It was a surprise because we were still rookies. But the committee for MAMA already asked for our confirmation because our fan base was growing by the day.

In fact, we just reached 200M views on our first MV, Growl, in YouTube. Which was an insane news to us!

I, for one, have never thought about it like that.

Next, we discussed about a collaboration between Alpha, SISTAR and IU-sunbaenim for KBS specials. But we were still going to finalize everything since it was still being discussed by the board.

"I think that's it for now. The rest of you can go. IU-ssi and JayB-ssi, I need to talk to the both of you." PD-nim said.

This announcement made my members turn to me. They wereshowing off a mocking face.

These idiots…

As soon as the door closed PD-nim began discussing. "Do you know why you are here, JayB-ssi?"

I shrugged. "Is it because I mentioned something about IU-sunbaenim on Radio Idol? Am I in trouble for that?"

"Yes and No." He answered.

I raised my eyebrow in confusion and turn to look at IU-sunbaenim. But she just smiled embarrassingly at me.

"I apologize for whatever harm I caused to you, sunbaenim." I stood up and bowed at her.

"No, no, no, no! You've done no harm at all!" IU-sunbaenim frantically said.

I slowly sat back down and turned towards JYP PD-nim. "So what is it, PD-nim?"

He sighed, "The director and the writer for an upcoming Korean Drama heard your comments about IU-ssi on Radio Idol while they were very busy contacting the cast for the show."

"O…kay… And what does it have to do with me?" I asked.

"Before that… have you two met? JayB, this is IU." He introduced us.

I stood up and bowed at her. She was still pretty much flustered.

"Now that we've met, what is all of this about, PD-nim?" I was exhausted and practically want to go home. I didn't want to delay that any longer.

"I'm glad that the two of you finally met." He said.

I immediately replied, "The pleasure's mine PD-nim. So is this because we're going to work together for MAMA? Well, I'm really looking forward to working with her."

"Good. Because you'll be working with a different project before MAMA comes." He interjected.

I grew more confused and leaned forward. "I'm sorry. What?"

He chuckled at my confusion. "JayB-ssi. Meet your partner IU-ssi. You two will be paired up for an upcoming drama called Dream High. I hope you two will work well together."

My eyes almost burst out in surprise. "What?!"

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