CHAPTER FIVE
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Everyone in the confined space looked at each other bewilderedly. And then, they looked at me. Only…they thought there was something different with me.
“Who is that?” they would mutter in a whisper.
I then lowered my head, covering my face.
I then heard a familiar voice, saying, “Y/N?”
I shot my head up, looking all around for the voice. Suddenly, I saw Jake sitting right in front of me.
“Jake?” I asked.
“Y/N,” said Jake, “What are you doing here?”
I could not explain why I was there in the first place.
“Well…I got lost and I didn’t know where I was going. So, I ended up here and my mum knows about this.”
“I-I’m sure your mum knows, but what are you doing here right now? I-LAND is for boys only.”
“I can’t get out! The gates wouldn’t open, the last time I tried. So it looks like you are stuck with a girl for the rest of this event.”
But then, the unknown voice said, “This is a unit test, but the voting shall be done by individuals. You may choose the performance order!”
“What does he mean by that?” I asked myself.
Jake, who had overheard my question, said, “We get to choose who gets to go first and we must vote by ourselves, basically.”
I looked to the other boys who seemed nervous and potentially terrified by what the ordeal was becoming. And I must say…it was for me as well.
At last, someone worked up the courage and went up on stage. His name? Choi Seon. How old was he? Twenty-two years. His strengths? Mandarin and English and composing songs. His song for the performance? Lullabye by GOT7.
I remembered that his moves were so stiff yet crisp, I could actually tell what song he was dancing along to.
When he ended the whole song and dance number, we all applauded. But I didn’t. For some reason, I might have to be the one to go up there at some point of this episode. But then again, I was still pretty nervous.
“Let the voting begin!” said the Voice of I-LAND (a nickname that I called when I was there).
Two more participants went up after that. And the more I watched them dance, the more nervous I was! Their dance was a lot more contemporary than the first one.
I did not know their names, and didn’t plan to until I was actually in I-LAND. But this was plenty of trouble I had to go through.
More dancers went up. And some were even better than the rest. And me…I was completely frozen. Frozen as a big block of ice!
And then, before anyone could say anything, I stood and walked up on stage, with a microphone in my hand. I could tell you this: I had never been on stage before. The final time I did something like this was for a school concert back in Ireland. But they did not have a stage. They had a bleecher for the children young and old to stand on.
I took a deep breath and turned around facing the other boys who looked at me with no expressions on their faces. They stared at my very soul. It frightened me. But it passed away once I began to speak.
“Hello…” I said, shyly.
Before I could say anything else, there was a deafening and screeching feedback from the microphone. Once it calmed down, I continued to talk.
“My name is…Y/N L/N. I come from Ireland. I’ve been to five cities in Ireland. I was first born in Cork. But then, due to financial problems, we moved to County Clare, in the countryside. It was beautiful, but then riots had then moved in, so we had to move to Cobh (Cove). There was a beautiful beach there and I wanted to live there. But our landlord kicked us out for no reason and we had to travel to the capital Dublin. And since then, we lived there when I was seven years old. But we then moved all the way to Kilkenny, where my daddy works as a financial entrepreneur. And we moved here to Korea when I was ten, dreaming of becoming a pop singer for some of my friends. Thank you and I hope you enjoy my dance.”
The song I requested was As if it’s Your Last by the bad-girl band BLACKPINK. I wasn’t a BLINK, but I liked at least some of their songs.
My moves were simple, adding a few hair flips. But they all looked at me as if I was some sort of goddess or even worse (for me) a dancing queen! And I didn’t like it. And it was going to be worse when I finished the dance. They all applauded when I landed on my right knee.
“ENCORE, ENCORE!!” They shouted.
I gave a huff.
Told them I could dance, I thought, Actually…no. I did not tell them.
I took a quick bow and sat back down with Jake. I was still nervous. But even if I didn’t get in this I-LAND place, I would still get to watch it on telly (sometimes we say telly as short for TV or Television. But I’m not sure if the country of Ireland says it more than the ones in the UK).
“I hope this works.” I mumbled.
“Those that have been qualified can enter,” said the Voice of I-LAND, “And those people are, Geonu, Nicholas, Nikki, Jungwon, Jake, Sungchul, K, Sunoo, Youngbin, EJ, Jay, Sunghoon, Danial, Seon, Heeseung, Taki, and our one and only female, Y/N L/N.”
I bulged my eyes wide open.
Me? Going into a place I don’t know? What is really happening here?! Won’t someone tell me?
I stood up along with the boys. But Jake looked at me in concern. I knew he wasn’t prepared to have a girl going with him to trainee life, but he has to get used to it, since we were both going to I-LAND together.
We were in this passageway, cramped up with so many of the other boys. I once thought that there were many more coming soon. But I was wrong. I realized the other guys had to take the entry test again. And this could take a long while for them to come in.
I held onto Jake’s hand for dear life. Jake looked down upon me and gave me this soft boyfriend smile. I’ve always loved his smile. Whenever he did, it reminded me of Layla, his puppy. But for some reason, I teared up.
The entrance stopped its rotation. I could not see since I was pretty much shorter than everyone else. But I could tell we had arrived at our destination. As we disembarked, I was the one to say how amazing this place was.
Who lives in a place like this, I asked in my head.
I then quickly jumped off the entrance queue as it rotated its original form.
“A place where idol stars shall be born,” said the Voice of I-LAND, “This…is…I-LAND!!”
We all cheered for joy, while I had to dial my mum’s phone number. And she said that she saw me on TV. And that frightened me to the core for no reason at all.
I was most worried for the people that didn’t cross the line with us. I was worried…that they would be trapped in an unknown world and had no way out.
“Oh, Voice of I-LAND,” I called, “Where do the people that didn’t make the cut go? What do we need to do in order for them to back up with us? Please…SPEAK YOUR ANSWER!!!”
A light beamed. And then, a map of I-LAND appeared out of nowhere. At a certain angle, there was a light that pointed to the bottom right of the map.
“Ground?” I read.
Ground? What is Ground? Is it a place where you have to dance your way out of it?
“Ground is a place where I-LAND’s dropouts gather around. Once a dropout is there, there is no opportunity to debut.”
I frowned. I couldn’t imagine going down to Ground. And it didn’t seem like a very nice place to be.
“What do we need to do to get the dropouts out of there? Tell us your answer!”
The light flickered and presented photos of silhouettes of people, who are the supposed I-LANDers. I knew I was not going to one of them. Who would know? Maybe I was.
“With your might and your abilities, the only way to improve the Grounders is to either vote for them as much as you can…or you let them take your place.”
I felt my heart drop after that. I couldn’t just let my place go when I just got there. But…I had to do it anyway, not only because it was a boys-only thing, but it was also because I could just find another agency to bear with.
I went up first, but Jake stopped me. He then pulled me into his arms.
“Y/N, I can’t do this without you,” he said; he knelt down, “Let’s debut together. You’ll be a solo popstar and I’ll join a boy band. That way we’ll both be idols.”
I knew Jake had such confidence in both of us. It meant so much that he had such a dream.
And there we were, ready to conceal our dreams in this place called I-LAND.
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CHAPTER EPILOGUE:
WHAT IS GROUND and the FUNCTIONS of I-LAND?
The decisions are done by the I-LAND participants. But they must be done at an assigned hour of the day.
What is Ground, you might ask?
Ground is a separate area in I-LAND. Those that have a lower mark or didn’t make the final cut go to the building on the bottom right of the superior place. It’s separate for a good reason.
The only way for the Grounders to get out is to either let an I-LANDer take their place, or get a high number of votes as you improve.
It’s the same as voting for the ones in I-LAND. A privilege that can let them vote. You can help too by voting which ones are worthy enough to move up, stay, or go to Ground. But it will also be a period of growth and true performance.
Namkoong Min spoke with Bang Si-Hyuk, RAIN and ZICO about letting Y/N L/N into this male-dominant project. They approved of her flawless dancing and her ethereal singing voice. They thought if they find more females, then I-LAND would be a success.
But Y/N never knew that she would be the most important person in I-LAND.