Chapter Text
As usual, the practice room is pure chaos.
Taeyong sighs in defeat as he looks over at Johnny trying to carrarel the younger members in front of their choreographer. Their instructor looks just as fed up with the noise as he is.
“For the last time!” Taeyong snaps, but it would seem he is only adding to the yelling. “We’ll be debuting soon, let’s not waste time.”
“But Hyung,” Haechan whines as he shoves Mark. “Mark’s looking through my phone and won’t give it back!”
“If you didn’t have anything to hide you wouldn’t care,” the other shot back.
“Mark, it’s his privacy,” Johnny snatches the phone away from him and gives it back to Haechan.
“And what are you doing?” the leader asks Jungwoo who’s holding up his phone.
“Recording,” he shrugs.
Taeyong rolls his eyes just as the door swings open.
“Sorry we’re late,” Doyoung bows politely, followed by Jeahyun.
“We ran into one of the sub-managers,” Jaehyun explains. “He said someone’s picking up a new trainee from the airport.”
The others nod, having new SM trainees isn’t uncommon.
“For our group,” Doyoung adds.
“Huh?!"
“That’s what he said,” Jaehyun shrugs as he goes to put his bag down.
“What else did he say?” Mark asks.
“Nothing really, he said it like we should already have known.”
“Typical,” Winwin sighs from where he sits in the corner of the room, looking at his phone.
Haechan scoffs. “Why would they add another member right as we’re about to debut? We almost finished recording our first single.”
They look at Taeyong as if him being the leader meant he had all the answers in the world.
He just shakes his head. “They didn’t tell me shit.”
“Great.”
As the youngest grumbles to himself, Taeyong catches Johnny’s eyes. They’ve gotten to know each other well enough - as the eldest and leader respectfully - to know which look means what. From what Taeyong can see in those few seconds of contact, Johnny is less than impressed with SM’s management. To no one's surprise of course.
Taeyong has gotten used to the poor functions of their company, but he honestly expected better so close to their debut. Why would they suddenly add a trainee who hasn’t even begun training? He honestly has lost any respect for the higher-ups of the company.
Whatever.
There’s nothing they can do. All that’s really in control is making sure they’re a cohesive and functioning group despite the circumstances.
“Let’s get to it then!”
He’s snapped out of his thought process as their choreographer claps her hands forcefully to get everyone’s attention.
When the boys just look at each other blankly to see who will move first, she groans out of frustration.
“Now!”
Her harsh tone is enough to shock them into movement, springing to their feet and rushing into formation.
The practice was tiring as always, the group of boys dragging their feet out the doors in their sweaty clothes. Taeyong can't imagine having to coordinate all over again when the new addition to their team arrives.
“I want lunch,” Mark whines as they make their ways down the halls of SM Entertainment.
“We still have vocal training,” Johnny reminds in English to which Mark just groans.
Taeyong can't blame him. They always have to make sure they eat a big lunch in the morning before dance practice since they’d be burning all that energy soon and won’t be able to replenish it for another hour or two. But sometimes they wake up late, or just don’t feel the need to eat much some days, of course regretting it as soon as noon rolls around.
Taeyong knocks on the door to their vocal studio. Enough time passes that Taeyong decides to try again with a little more intention.
The door swings open.
“There you guys are,” remarks an unamused tone from their main manager.
“Hyung?” Taeyong questions. “We weren’t told you’d be here.”
“I apologize for the lack of communication.” He opens the door all the way to let the group into the large room. “We had some last minute changes.”
The young men enter the room, surprised to see their vocal coach sitting next to a boy hunched over with his knees to his chest, wearing a black hoodie as he plays a game on his phone.
The manager gestures to the newcomer. “Boys, this is Yuta.”
Taeyong leads the group into a bow, all of them saying hello in unison.
Their vocal coach had to nudge Yuta to get his attention, the young man still glued to his game.
“Hm?” Yuta looks up at the group as if he’s just noticing they’re there. “Oh, hello.”
He makes an awkward bow, having to unravel himself from his cocoon before standing up.
Despite the tension, the manager just continues the introductions. “Yuta, these will be your fellow teammates. The group leader…”
It takes him a second to register it’s his turn. “Lee Taeyong.”
They go down the line of members, introducing themselves to Yuta.
Yuta just nodded along, randomly rocking back and forth on his feet and fidgeting with his nails- which are painted either a gradient, or alternating between, black and red.
“Wonderful,” the manager nods his approval. “Now, since Yuta still has to unpack, I will take him to the dorms to do so. After the rest of you are done here, the remaining day’s schedule will be getting to know each other.”
None of the group seemed overjoyed by this. Yuta in fact didn’t even hide the way his nose scrunched up in discomfort at the idea. Taeyoung honestly couldn’t help but feel a little insulted by that.
“Jungwoo, Yuta will be your roommate,” the manager says as he waves Yuta over to the door.
Jungwoo opens his mouth to most likely either complain or argue, but their leader shot him a pointed look so he shut it quickly.
Johnny ushers the group out of the way so that the other three can get by.
“We will see you all later this afternoon,” the manager concludes as he leads Yuta out of the studio. “Enjoy your practice.”
And with that he shuts the door behind him.
A moment passes to make sure their out of ear shot before Jungwoo speaks up.
“I would’ve liked to know I’d be getting a roommate a day in advance at least.”
“I don’t know what to tell you,” Taeyong sighs. “He said this was all last minute.”
And that’s how it seemed: careless and unorganized, as per usual for SM.
This entire situation with Yuta puts a bad taste in Taeyong’s mouth.