Lio slammed his hands on the table and stood up.

  “Come on. Stand up and fight me.”

  “I’m not going to do what you tell me to do, and, you know what? I don’t really feel like it.”

  Lio let out a laugh. “What? You don’t even want to impress a woman? Or, are you scared that you’ll lose, and I’ll hurt your pretty face?”

  “Thanks. I guess.” Mark lamely replied, leaning back in his seat having finished his meal.

  “A fight is the last thing Chris needs right now.” Sasha informed while keeping his eye on the woman. Her breathing was heavy after the food attack.

  “Sit down, Lio. If everyone’s finished eating, then perhaps we could make a start?”

  He didn’t want to follow Yue’s order, but starting would be preferable to fighting. After waiting five seconds that felt like forever, the man finally sat down. He hoped the gap between Yue’s words and him sitting was long enough that everyone could tell it wasn’t because he was told to.

  “Shall we continue?” Yue directed his question at Chris.

  She cleared her throat. “Yes. Yes, we can. So, uh…” She scanned through her notes before addressing the group again. “Mr Jones has asked me to warn you that this may not be the final group. The director has given us a month to see how well everyone works together, and to see how you sound together. If we have complications, there may need to be replacements or additions.”

“Well, things are going great for us so far.” Lio commented sarcastically.

  Chris chose to ignore his words and focus on what she was saying. “As you learn to work cohesively, he’s limiting the number of public performances until the group is 100-percent decided.” She looked up from the paper.

  “That sounds fair.” Yue provided his opinion.

  “Of course it’s fair to you, Mr I-don’t-need-money-‘cause-I’m-loaded. Not everyone can wait a month to see if they’ll have a steady income.” Lio argued, still annoyed by Yue’s intervention.

  “It’s my family’s money, not mine specifically.” The dark-haired man corrected, but Lio immediately retaliated.

  “I highly doubt you were a long-jumper for free.”

  Not engaging in the conversation, Sasha’s mind wandered, now wondering if he’d be able to be a long-jumper. Seemed simple enough. Easy money. Perhaps his next endeavour…

  Revisiting the room, he was surprised to find the disappearance of Yue, though a different argument was ongoing.

  “All I’m concerned about is the lack of interaction with women.” Mark complained.

  “Will you stop doing that?!”

  “Lio.” A warning voice came from behind Sasha. He turned to find Yue returning from the bin. Looks like Yue didn’t join The Walking Out Club.

  Chris took a deep breath. “I don’t have time for these arguments.” She ran her fingers through her hair, getting stressed out by their nonsense. Yue sat back down, and peace swiftly returned to the men. Though, there was an underlying tension between them.

  The woman took in the silence for a moment before she proceeded. “Based on your auditions, your group roles have been decided. These may change after rehearsal. So, I’ll now assign everyone your roles, and we can rehearse after this with these positions.” The men all watched her eagerly.

  “It was decided that Yue would take the lead. We were pleased with your attitude at the audition and felt that you had a good leadership quality.” The man nodded in response. “We would also like you to be the group’s rapper when the chance arises. Mark. You will be the lead dancer. Your dance was captivating. It’ll certainly keep the women interested.” Chris scanned the paper. “Sasha, uh, due to the… unusualness of your audition, the best we can give you is an all-rounder, but we would like to make use of your acrobatic abilities on occasion.”

  “Got it.” Sasha’s expression intensified with excitement.

  “As for Lio,” their manager slowly turned towards his harsh eyes.