Jibeom, Grisha, and Taeyang are all awoken to an alarm from Ryunwoo. "Hyung what time is it." Taeyang says sleepily in which Ryunwoo answers "Time to wake up." This made Jibeom come to the worst realization about Hyunwoo… HES A MORNING PERSON. They all slowly get up Grisha being first and putting on his uniform with Ryunwoo helping him with the tie as today would be the first day of the song battle. Once their all ready and have checked the time, they make there way over to the auditorium where the trainees gather where they see a bunch of trainees already seated. They finally sit down and wait for Seoyoon who quickly scurries on stage and begins to speak as the cameras roll. " Hello Contestants! Get ready as we are about to enter Round 1 of Aether: Idol Paradise!." Jibeom just watches and smiles as she keeps speaking. Seoyoon then explains "This round will entail the song battle in which trainees will all pick from a hat to get a song and concept and we will make 8 groups of 10 to have a song battle! Two teams with the same concept will duke it out to see who wins with the winning team earning additional points and the losing team needing to rely solely on your votes so please don't forget to vote for your favorite idol!" The mentors each walk out on stage with each mentor saying a concept and that they would be mentoring them along with a guest. The concepts are revealed to be Sexy, Cool, Cute, Fresh, and . Seoyoon begins to speak again "The trainees may now begin to line up and pick out of the hat." The first one up was Xulan who picked the cool concept. Many others followed until Ryunwoo picks and gets the cool concept with Grisha right behind him and getting the fresh concept. Jibeom finally got to pick and ended up with the sexy concept alongside Taeyang who cheers excitedly. They walk over to their area with their other group mates where he sees a guy named Sunwoo who was mediocre in everything, Kiryu who was a good rapper but lacked In everything else, and Hyungjun who was also extremely mediocre apart from his face card. Jibeom asked Taeyang about his celebration earlier in which Taeyang says "I can finally show everyone that I'm not cute and that I have a manly charm." Which he says with a very smug and confident face. Jibeom just laughs as some other people join the group like Athukorn who is a Thai singer, Dennis who is an Japanese-American dancer, Jiwoon an all rounder guy kinda and Gijoong who is a sub par vocalist. Finally their last member comes up and it's revealed to be Koki who is currently Rank 4 in the whole competition with the top 3 being Xulan, Grisha, and a extremely good rapper named named Lykan and some other really good trainees after them. Jibeom is suprised to see Koki who immediately introduces himself "Hi I'm Koki, I will be your senior for this mission so I will try to lead all of you to success." Jibeom shakes his hand and introduces himself as everyone goes one by one doing the same till Seoyoon begins to talk again "Beware trainees as only Half of the 80 of you will stay, please be ready and good luck." The guys all look as the mentors each introduce the songs for the concepts. TJ speaks " The sexy songs you guys will be singing are… Yearn for You by the boy group TIDAL and the song Heart Me(Tie Me Up) by the boy group W1sh3d." The guys watch as Heart Me appears on the small screen over their designated group area. The boys all get excited as W1sh3d is a top boy group and this is one of their most popular songs known for its needy and sexy feeling that not many can pull off as W1sh3d is known as a stage presence group before anything else. Jibeom looked a tad bit worried due to his lacking stage presence and his still lacking in other stats. He looks at his stats and Nari shows up. It begins speaking "You're gonna have to get beater if you want to debut." In which Jibeom whispers "Give me more stat points then." It just looks at him with a straight face and disappears while screaming "LOCK IN" in which Jibeom just cringes. He looks back at his stats:
[Stats]
So Jibeom
175 cm
20 y/o
Vocals: B
Dance: C+
Visual: B-
Stage Presence: C
Training with Taeyang had helped a bit but he is still an extremely average dancer and an above average vocalist with terrible stage presence and mid visuals. He looks at his team and they all decide to walk to their practice room as this moment of filming is over. They walk in and immediately decide thing with Koki leading damn near effortlessly. "Who would like the main vocalist part?" Athukorn and Gijoong both raise their hands almost immediately and Koki asks them both to sing the part with Athukorn doing it better but still with there being pronounciation issues. Taeyang waits till there done singing then he raises his hand and says "We should let Jibeom try out." Jibeom looks at him appalled until he notices everyone looking at him and Koki saying "I do remember you having a nice vocal tone, you should try it." Jibeom looks at him and decides to try it singing the line almost perfectly with everyone else being suprised and with Gijoong having a slightly sour look on his face. They all clap and the people who didn't audition did a hand vote with Koki counting. "Everyone in favor of Athukorn raise your hand" Kiryu and Sunwoo raise their hands. "Alright, everyone in favor of Gijoong raise your hand." No one raised their hand which gave Gijoong a sour look on his face again which he later hides with a smile. "Okay finally raise your hand for Jibeom." Jiwoo, Dennis, Hyungjun, and Taeyang all raise their hand for him which surprises Jibeom which puts a smile on in his face and looks at Athukorn smiling while also raising his hand. Koki looks around and says "Ok Jibeom will be our main vocalist for this mission with Athukorn being sub vocal 1, Gijoong sub vocal 2, Sunwoo sub vocal 4, Hyungjun sub vocal 5, and I'll take sub vocal 3." Everyone agreed with Gijoong still giving a side eye. "Kiryu will be main rapper, Dennis sub rapper 1, Jiwoo sub rapper 2, and Taeyang sub rapper 3." Everyone agreed with that too as Kiryu was the only true rapper there. The guys all then draw to a blank as it gets to the killing part. They all look at each other and Koki says raise your hand if you're interested with him, Dennis, and Gijoong raising their hands, with Jibeom noticing Taeyang looking down kinda like he wants to but doesn't want to raise his hand. He remembers back to what Taeyang said earlier about showing a different side and he raises his hand hand saying "I think Taeyang can do it." The others are suprised as Taeyang isn't really astonished by anything but Taeyang looks at Jibeom for a second and gives a big goofy grin to Koki asking is he can try out. Everyone went up and tried with Dennis giving to happy to be sexy, Gijoong being straight up awkward, and Koki hitting everything amazingly from his expressions to his energy then it goes to Taeyang who walks up awkwardly and does the part of the choreo he knows and changing into a completely different person. Taeyang changes his demeanor exuding sexiness especially with the help of how handsome he is. Everyone was shocked because of how cute Taeyang normally is with everyone clapping and Dennis withdrawing. Koki ask for the vote and Taeyang wins getting Athukorn, Sunwoo, Hyunjung, Jibeom, and Dennis's vote with who's left voting for Koki. Taeyang cheers and high fives everyone giving them energy. The guys all get started looking at the practice video for the choreo and begin getting their performance ready for their performance.
End of Chaper 7