The tension in the room slowly evaporated as Tae Oh excitedly shared his family’s Chuseok weekend activities. Andy barely listened, nodding along as he unpacked. Si On’s reactionto Hyun Woo’s situation was another warning. Andy doubted that his was the only room quietly speculating about the rumors. He needed to get his head back in the game fast. Distractions were the last thing he needed during the elimination ceremony. As the current, and, hopefully, continuing number one rank, he’d have half the cameras in the room pointed at him.
If only he could somehow connect with Min Jae beforehand.
Andy pulled rank on his roomies, grabbing his toiletry bag and claiming the bathroom to get ready first. Maybe he’d find Min Jae already out in the corridors. Or, he could just knock on his door across the hall. After fixing his hair, he spent a few minutes applying a simple boy beat–just enough so he wouldn’t look washed out on camera in the extra bright studio lights.
Leo used his age privilege to take Andy’s spot when he was done. Tae Oh and Si On didn’t bother waiting, using portable mirrors to get ready while Andy got dressed in his black Dream Boy Project tracksuit. He ducked out of the room before Leo finished in the bathroom, using the flimsy excuse of grabbing a coffee from the cafeteria, to give him a chance to track down Min Jae. The door across the hall was open, so Andy poked his head inside. Empty. He went to the cafeteria next, taking the long way past the fitness center, just in case. A few of the guys were there, eating, but no Min Jae. Asking someone from production was always a possibility, but that would only make it obvious.
Sighing, Andy gave up and served himself a coffee. Then, he grabbed a second coffee for Leo, just to be nice, and froze when he spotted Min Jae passing by the cafeteria exit. Andy nearly called out, but the moment was gone. It was too late. Forcing things would only make them worse.
Andy finally found Min Jae sitting beside Woo Jin when he boarded the bus. He caught Min Jae’s gaze and smiled as he walked by. Min Jae’s brief answering smile was packed with asmuch warmth as a moment would allow, before he turned back to his quiet conversation with Woo Jin.
The bus ride back to the SBN Vision Center was filled with enough nervous energy that Andy could’ve charged his phone with it. Half the Dream Boys were on their way to be eliminated, but the deafening chatter punctuated by emotional outbursts and the occasional roughhouse play made it hard to tell who was concerned about going home. The few whispered conversations Andy witnessed could’ve just as easily been about that very thing. But he knew at least some of them had to be about Hyun Woo, too.
“You’ve got nothing to worry about,” Leo said as they speculated about ranking predictions. “You’ve got a huge chance of hanging onto the number one rank.” He frowned. “I only hope I can stay in the top ten.”
“You absolutely will,” Andy assured him, glancing at the back of Min Jae’s head. “And I’m not so sure I won’t drop to number two tonight.”
Leo leaned in close. “Did something happen between you two this weekend?”
“What?” Andy swallowed hard as the coffee in his stomach threatened to make a second appearance. “What do you mean?”
Leo shrugged. “I don’t know. You keep looking at him. Did you guys get into a fight or something?”
Andy shook his head, hoping it looked casual. He was still way too stuck in his head. “No, we got along fine. And his grandma was everything. I had a really nice time.”
Leo examined Andy with a shrewd, narrow-eyed glare for long enough to make him uncomfortable. “Okay,” he finally replied, relaxing his expression and leaning back into his seat, “if you’re sure. I guess I’ll get back to worrying about the elimination.”
The manic bus energy had finally begun to settle as they pulled up to the studio entrance at the Vision Center. No crowdsthis time since it wasn’t a mission challenge. No audience for the eliminations except anyone watching at home. Andy and Leo walked through the backstage area, where the show’s stylists offered touchups to everyone’s face and hair.
All the stylists’ chairs were occupied for the moment, so Andy continued to the performance hall, his nerves crackling as he recalled the first elimination. Production had reset the giant studio the same way, with the white gallery risers set with simple, numbered chairs to one side–only 49 of them. There’d be no empty chair for Hyun Woo fans to wonder over. Across from the entrance stage sat the sleek, gleaming, multi-tiered platform for the final rankings, this time set with only 25 chairs behind the velvet rope. A pair of techs had pulled open one of the multi-colored lighting panels for a hopefully quick last-minute repair. Andy looked past them at the chair marked as number one. He’d sat there last time. Would he still be sitting there at the end of the day? He turned around to take in the giant screen behind the stage. Under the pulsing Dream Boy Project logo, the words Top 50. So, the producers had pulled the extra chair, but hadn’t updated the graphics. Would they be walking that fine line through the whole broadcast?
A PA found Andy staring at the screen, fetching him for his turn in the makeup chair. Another reminder of his current number one rank and the fact that he’d undoubtedly be on camera a lot that day. His touch up turned into an actual hair trim and a replacement for his track suit jacket, with added gold piping, and a new purple arm band, also trimmed in gold, marking his top ten status. How embarrassing would it be to rank low enough that he’d have to give those back? No pressure.
Once a sound tech had attached his wireless mic, another PA led him to an empty spot close enough to his old pacing corner he almost laughed. Then he saw who waited there. Min Jae, also in his new gold-trimmed jacket and blue arm band. Another shared smile, as Min Jae briefly let his mask slip. They’d beentering together, the PA explained before disappearing, so they should prepare a quick routine.
They stood together in silence, crackling with chemistry, their first time alone since arriving at Sky Village. Andy inhaled Min Jae’s scent, drinking in the curve of his jaw, the slight tilt of his neck, the stiffness of his shoulders. He wanted to touch Min Jae so badly his hands started twitching. He shoved them into his pockets.
“The new jackets look good,” Andy said, desperate for any sound to break the sudden tension.
Min Jae chuckled, relaxing his posture a tiny bit. “I guess so, yeah. Any ideas on how we should make our entrance?”
Andy shook his head. He had a hundred other things he wanted to talk about, but he had to assume his mic was hot for as long as he had it on. “No. Only that it’s gotta be good since it’ll make the edit for sure.” He paused, holding Min Jae’s gaze to draw out the silence. “We can do this, right?”
A perfectly innocent question with a hundred possible meanings. But Min Jae’s knowing stare meant he understood exactly what Andy was really asking him. He slowly nodded. “With our chemistry?” He smiled, warm, bright, and charming, just as he had that morning in bed beside Andy. “As long as we make the right moves, nobody will be able to touch us.”
Andy mirrored Min Jae’s smile as his cheeks and ears warmed until they were probably hot to the touch. “Okay, then I say we use our last mission stage intro combined with the final sequence from the killing part duet.”
“Yeah.” Min Jae nodded again. “Yeah, that’ll easily cement our dominance. I like it. Let’s practice.”
The two pieces–the intro and the duet sequence–fit together almost as perfectly as Andy and Min Jae did. After a few quick run throughs, a PA collected them and brought them to the holding area near the main stage entrance. Andy found a spot near one of the monitors as the producers started sendinggroups of two-three guys into the studio. Some of them had also worked out little entrance routines. The rest just wowed and stared in wonder as they found their seats.
The producers held Andy and Min Jae to go in last. They stepped out into the bright lights together, striking a sharp, sudden pose, back-to-back. Andy looked out at the assembled contestants, a slow, challenging smirk spreading across his face.
“You really want to know who we are?” Andy asked the suddenly hushed crowd. He spun, and in a single, fluid motion that mirrored the opening of their duet, Min Jae’s hand found the small of his back, guiding him into a slight, controlled lean. They held the pose for a beat, a silent, defiant statement, before breaking apart.
“We’re the Thieves of Heart,” Min Jae announced with a low, confident purr.
Shocked, impressed laughter and a few catcalls rippled through the chatter as Andy and Min Jae walked to the risers to find their seats. The restless Dream Boys could hardly be contained by that point, talking and fidgeting with the frantic, buzzing energy of fifty guys trying not to think about the fact that half of them were about to have their dreams obliterated. When Si Woo finally walked onstage, his smile bright and his energy high, he practically got a standing ovation.
