From Thug to Idol: Transmigrating to a Survival Show

The ticking of the clock was the only sound that could be heard inside EVE's living room. The eight members sat together in a small circle on the floor, each with a gadget or a notebook and pen in front of them.

It had been two hours since they started brainstorming, yet it seemed like they were going nowhere. "So…," Zeth started off. Sehun pursed his lips. "So…" "Um, yeah," Akira awkwardly chuckled. "How are you guys doing?" "Any progress yet?" Jisung worriedly asked. Jaeyong sighed as he raked his fingers through his hair. "Alright, individual brainstorming is done. Let's start brainstorming as a group. Maybe then, we'd find something we all want to create," Jaeyong said. Akira brought up his notebook and looked at the tiny writing embedded in it. "So, uh, I wrote here—girl…romance…kissing scene in the music video," Akira started off. The members all turned to him, the silence becoming more evident before they all collectively sighed and moved on to the next person. Fortunately, the person next to Akira was Ren, so Jaeyong thought he would give a more decent answer. Ren hummed for a while, not finding the right words to say. In reality, his audio editing software was devoid of any elements. He had been trying to formulate a tune for a while, but he really wasn't in the right headspace. "Hmm…" "Umm…" "Oh…hmm…" Akira finally snapped and slapped the back of Ren's head. "Dude! Stop moaning. I don't want to ruin my day because of your incomprehensible sounds."

Ren sighed as he glared at Akira. "Fine, I have nothing!" Jaeyong also sighed before moving on to the next person. "I think a song where we could show off our bodies would actually be good. Maybe a shirtless–" "Nope," Jaeyong quickly cut Zeth off. It was too early for them to do those kinds of things.

Besides, Jisung wasn't even ready to show off his biceps. How could Zeth suggest for them to take their shirts off? "How about you?" Jaeyong asked the person sitting beside Zeth.

Sehun, one of the more normal members, sighed before responding.

"I want to say we should do a summery-type of song again since flowers are going to start to bloom during that time," Sehun started off. "But we already did that with Oasis, so I think many fans would be disappointed if we decided to employ the same concept." "However, at the same time, it was a great hit that many people loved. It's tempting to use the same concept again since I feel like it's a safe choice," he continued. "I don't know," Sehun concluded. "It's honestly very difficult to decide right now." Jaeyong nodded in agreement. "Let's hold your suggestion for now. I think we can still think of something better." June also wrote down 'flowers' and 'summer' in his notebook, hoping he'd get some inspiration from Sehun's suggestion. Jaeyong then turned to the next person. "Next," Jaeyong said before Casper could even open his mouth. Casper dejectedly slumped his shoulders but didn't argue in the end. He crossed out the 'zoo-themed song' written on his notebook and waited for the others' suggestions. "Jisung, do you have anything in mind?" Jaeyong asked their youngest member. "I don't have any particular genre in mind, but I do have genres I want to stay away from," Jisung said. "First, I feel like repeating a summery concept like Oasis wouldn't really show off our versatility as K-pop idols. Sure, it builds our sound, but as a group whose known for embodying a lot of concepts, I believe it wouldn't be a good decision," he started off. The other members nodded in agreement. Sehun, too, who made the suggestion, couldn't help but agree with what Jisung had said. That seemed to take them back to zero, though, since Sehun's suggestion was now scrapped. "Next, I think we should also stray away from the 'noise' type of music too. Those types of songs don't chart well during those months. Moreover, the song Ted had made is also similar to 'noise' music done wrong, so if it comes down to the company choosing a song between the two, I feel like they'd still go with Teddy's work since he's a more well-known name." Jisung, yet again, made another great point. June was pleasantly surprised that Jisung didn't stutter all throughout his statement. It just showed that he was also growing as an artist. Ren nearly sniffed as he watched Jisung make another suggestion. "Time flies by so fast," he whispered, looking up at the ceiling to stop his tears from falling. "I know, our son grew up to be such a smart lad," Akira also fake-sobbed. Jisung shook his head in amusement. "I still have another genre I don't want to perform." "Jisung's in his angsty teenager phase. He doesn't want to do a lot of things," Jaeyong joked, causing the members to chuckle. "Jaeyong actually made a pretty good joke for once," Akira deadpanned. "Anyway," Jisung intercepted before Jaeyong could throw his shoe in Akira's direction. "I've been thinking about this since last night since I really want our song to be chosen as the album's title track. Not only because Ted's song isn't that good, but also because I want to have a song we could proudly call ours—just ours."

The other members nodded in agreement, inspired by their youngest members' words. "With that in mind, I feel like we shouldn't do an emotional concept too. It's already within our comfort zone, and I want to try breaking out of that," he concluded. "Yeah," June said. "We shouldn't do an emotional song for this comeback. We could maybe do that for a winter album, but not for our very first comeback." They all seemed to agree with everything that Jisung had said. "Well, we have established what we don't want to do. So, now, what genre should we do?" Jaeyong asked. The room turned silent once again, making them all sigh. It seemed like they still didn't have an idea of what to really do for their next comeback. Casper raised his hand and began speaking even though he wasn't called. "I think—" "No, Casper, we can't do a zoo-themed song," Akira interrupted. "No!" Casper exclaimed. "It's not a zoo-themed song anymore. I changed it." The other members turned to him, suddenly expectant. Casper smiled widely. "Cats. I really, really think we should make a song about cats."