The next morning was pandemonium. While everyone was fighting as to who took a shower first, makeup artists and clothing specialists ran back and forth, closely followed by their already-horse manager. Within the last two hours, their manager had pulled almost all of his remaining hair out as he contradicted and redid everything that everyone did.

"No, not that color!" he was saying to a makeup artist who rolled her eyes as she picked out a third base color to put on Zelo. Yongguk watched one of their many fashion experts pass him with clothing for Daehyun, and their manager was immediately on the man's heels. "What are you doing? I said black leather, this is dark brown!" He turned on his heels and faced another makeup artist who was busy on Youngjae, and he grabbed the eyeliner pencil from her hands. "No, brown eyeliner! Not beige!"

"We're never going to get to the concert at this rate," Himchan said, sitting down next to Yongguk.

Yongguk sighed. "He's always like this. At least the team takes it well." He watched Jongup taking a pair of leather gloves from one of their dressers, and Jongup was just starting to put them on to finish his outfit when their manager came over.

"What are you doing?" their manager asked, flustered. "I wanted these gloves to have spikes on them. Spikes!" Then he started tuging at the rest of Jongup's outfit. "And what's up with his shirt? Is he a hippie or part of a gang? Why are his pants not frayed at the top or ripped at the bottom? Where are his boots? Are you or aren't you a clothing expert — "

Their dresser had had enough. He suddenly grabbed their manager by the arm and forced him out of the hotel room, locking the door behind him. Then he sighed, straightened up, and returned to work. The rest of the dressers and makeup artists in the room let out a small cheer. B.A.P just started laughing. After that, everything went smoother, and soon they were all dressed and ready to go.

They filed out of the hotel room and found their manager sitting on the floor right outside their door. He stood up and straightened his clothing before looking each B.A.P member up and down.

"You all look excellent," he said. He turned to the makeup and clothing artists who stood behind B.A.P and bowed to them as well. "Good work."

Yongguk could see that they were trying not to roll their eyes as they bowed back.

"Okay, there's a fan meeting in thirty minutes. Concert's in two hours. Let's go," their manager said.

Yongguk nodded, and everyone followed their manager to his vehicle. As they drove to their destination, Yongguk's stomach growled. He looked at the rest of the group and noticed that they all, especially Zelo, looked rather pale. That's when he remembered that none of them had had any time to eat breakfast or lunch before leaving. Yongguk was about to open his mouth to say something, but Himchan beat him to it.

"We haven't eaten anything today," Himchan said. "We're kind of hungry; do you think we could stop off and get something to eat really quick?"

Yongguk saw their manager visibly wilt, but he complied without a word since he knew that an unfed dancer was just as bad as a fainting one. They stopped off at a grocery store to pick up several healthy snacks, then sprinted out of the store immediately after paying since several American girls recognized them.

"Those fans will . . . be the death of us," Daehyun panted as he tore open a bag with his teeth and passed the snack around.

"What is this stuff?" Himchan as he ate a few bites of it.

"I think it's called granola," Youngjae said, looking at the front of the bag.

"Really crunchy and sweet," Zelo said mildly. "Got anything a little less . . . American?"

"I got some pretzels and some nuts and seeds," Daehyun said. "And I accidently picked up a chocolate bar."

"If only you could've accidently picked up some macha ice cream," Jongup said.

"Or kimchi," Zelo said.

"Or Korean barbecue," Yongguk laughed.

"I did get several packages of beef jerky," Daehyun said, passing one to each member.

As they ate, Yongguk drilled each team member with the order of the songs they were going to perform that night. "So, Zelo, what's the fifth song that we're going to perform?"

Zelo blinked. " 'Power'?"

Yongguk shook his head. "It's 'Warrior.' "

" 'Power' is our second song, right?" Daehyun asked.

"No, it's our third," Yongguk said.

"Man, this is hard," Youngjae said.

"Kind of like surviving in Los Angeles," Himchan said. "I didn't know I'd have to worry about stuffed animals outfitted with cameras."

"Or vans looking just like our manager's," Daehyun said.

"Or deadly orange juice," Zelo said.

Everyone laughed.

The six finished eating just as they were arriving at their fan meet. After checking their smiles and appearances in the car's rearview mirror, they walked into the building the fan meet was at and presented themselves to their American fans, answering all their questions, whether dumb, stupid, or interesting.

"That's why I like being the youngest in the group," Zelo finished with a small smile and sent a wave of squeals through the crown.

"What's the best and worst thing do you like about the person sitting to your right, Zelo?" one fan asked.

Yongguk glanced over and saw that Zelo was looking over at Jongup, pausing to think of an answer.

"I like him because we're close in age, he's quiet, and I can always talk to him and he'll always listen. We always dance together, so that's fun," Zelo said. "Sometimes he leaves the bathroom door open after he's used it, and I wish he'd close it."

Yongguk closed his eyes and sighed a moment before opening them again. Fan chats always had some sort of embarrassing comment in it, but this wasn't very bad.

"Is there anything that one of you does with the other that you don't do with anyone else?" another fan asked.

Daehyun and Youngjae exchanged a glance.

"What about the ice cream song?" Daehyun said.

The duo began singing their made-up song, and Yongguk couldn't refrain from briefly pinching the bridge of his nose with his hand. Couldn't they give B.A.P some dignity and help them push their hard-core image?

Once Daehyun and Youngjae finished their song, Yongguk sat up straighter and hoped that questioning would turn to him so that he could help boost their group's image.

"But Zelo, isn't there something worse that you don't like about Jongup?" a fan asked.

Zelo thought for a moment. "Well, is he's nice, don't get me wrong, but sometimes when I'm being really . . . ah, cute — "

Yongguk could feel his stomach sinking as Zelo continued talking, discreetly trying to get Zelo's attention and shut him up before he said something that would not only plummet their group's reputation, but also be incredibly hard to explain since it was something specific to Korean culture and could be misinterpreted —

" — keeps kissing me," Zelo finished. "On the head."

The rest of the group snorted and couldn't stop laughing, but Yongguk buried his head in his hands, unable to take it. The fans were squealing and shouting, but Yongguk wanted nothing more than to crawl into a hole and stay there for at least a month.

"Aw, that's so sweet!" one fan said.

"He's like your older brother!" another said.

Yongguk blinked from inside his hands. Maybe these Americans understood Korean culture more than he realized. Breathing in, Yongguk looked up after a few moments, pretending that he had covered his face because he was laughing as well. He composed himself, flashed a smile at the crowd, and shrugged the comment off. Zelo would always be Zelo, and everyone in the group would be his respective identity as well. There was nothing he could do to change it; he'd just have to go with the flow. But that didn't mean that he couldn't use his own assets to rectify the dangerous situation they'd backed themselves into.

Pretending to not be paying attention, Yongguk tousled his own hair before he stretched momentarily, making sure to flex his muscles and evoke a wave of screams from the crowd. Then he looked at the crowd and smirked. There. Reputation, fixed.

Once the crowd calmed down, a question was finally directed to Yongguk himself.

"And why do you, Yongguk, like being B.A.P's leader and the oldest?"

Yongguk paused for a moment before answering the question. How could he pin down one reason? Being B.A.P's leader meant both crying and celebrating. It meant making sure that everyone looked up to and followed his lead out of respect and loyalty. As their leader, he had to make sure that everyone followed him, but at the same time he had to make sure that he was a leader worth following. If anyone made a mistake, blame landed on him, but successes were his fault, as well. Yongguk glanced over and looked at his teammates, smiling slightly.

Himchan was his right hand man. Himchan not only supported him in everything he did, but kept watch over the rest of the group and made sure that everyone treated him with respect. Because of Himchan, the rest of the group followed him better. Youngjae was the brains of the group. Whenever there was a problem to be solved, Youngjae was always the one to come up with a solution. Daehyun, the comic relief, was continually making jokes and causing everyone to laugh. Jongup was the calm in the storm. Nearly always, Jongup was the one who could keep his head during dangerous or tense situations. Zelo was the youngest and the light of the group. There was never a frown on his face, and even though he tried to defy authority every now and then, he helped keep the group's spirits up. Yongguk turned back to the girl who had asked the question. He knew the reason, several reasons, why he enjoyed being the leader of B.A.P, but he also knew what the fans wanted him to say. He'd been to enough fan chats in Korea to know how to act. American or Korean, everyone was the same in this respect. So, inwardly cringing and outwardly smirking, he answered her. "Because I got the most experience, baby."

The screams were deafening. Several girls fainted and one or two tried to rush them but were held back by the line of police officers standing near B.A.P. Once the crowd had calmed down, Yongguk felt their manager tap him on the shoulder, signaling that the fan chat was over with and that they should get over to the concert stage to warm up. With a bow and a final, "We are B.A.P, yes, sir!" they left amid screams and shouts.

Staving off partially-rabid fans, the team climbed back into the van and drove off, hardly saying anything as they drove to the concert.

"This is it," Daehyun said as they pulled up to the building and got out.

Yongguk could practically see everyone's tenseness. His own nerves were shot, and they hadn't even gone onto the stage yet. With a nod to everyone, Yongguk led the way into the building where they were about to perform. They went backstage and practically collapsed, not only from nervousness, but also because they heard fans somewhere beyond the stage curtain. They were screaming, but the fans weren't just screaming for B.A.P, they were screaming everyone's individual name. Yongguk bit his lip in nervousness, then let out a silent sigh. He looked at the group and saw everyone sitting on the edge of their seats as well, not doing anything. They were waiting to see how he would react and what he would do. Wondering how he would handle the situation and the stress. Watching him.

Yongguk stood up. "All right, gang, in a half hour we're going to be performing in front of America, so we need to be in peak condition. Jongup? Zelo? You two are our front dancers, so you're both going to need to stretch and limber up so you don't injure yourself. Daehyun and Youngjae, as our lead singers, you two need to drink some lemon and honey tea to warm up your voices — I know one of our makeup artists brought some of that stuff. Get some water, there's a microwave here somewhere, boil it . . . you know what to do. Practice some scales, too." As the four left, Yongguk turned to Himchan to see that he was smiling. "What?"

Himchan turned away. "Nothing. But it's a good idea to keep them busy so they don't start worrying. Got anything for me to do, boss?"