a deep breath in. a sense of anticipation washed over the young brunette. the look on the older girls face said it all. rian pursed her lips to maintain a neutral expression. 

"if you want to debut, you've got to work harder," the older girl in front of her said. "how are you supposed to debut if you sound like that?"

a moment of silence passed between the two girls. the younger girl looked at the ground. the older girl didn't need to look twice at the younger to see that the latter was ashamed of herself. the older girl sighed.

"look, i'm sorry for being so harsh," lexie said. "but you should also realize that mediocre isn't going to cut it."

the younger stayed silent, and lexie felt that the younger girl wasn't ready for this much criticism.

"rian... " lexie sighed. "let's continue this tomorrow, okay?"

the girl in question looked up. "no, let's do this now," rian said, any insecurity in the brunette disappeared when lexie implied giving up. lexie smirked when she heard the words from the girl's mouth.

"that's my girl!" lexie exclaimed. "let's start from the bridge."

the two girls would have continued on practicing until midnight if rian hadn't glanced at her phone.

"omo, it's eight pm!" rian exclaimed, surprised that time has passed by so quickly. lexie's eyes widened.

"What? we've been practicing for 5 hours?!" she shot up from her seat, nearly knocking down the table in fron of her. "we need to get back to the dorm, quick. i promised our rommates' i'll cook dinner."

Rian giggled at the sight of her unnie frantically packing up her stuff. she picked up her small backpack and stood by the door, just marvelling at the panicked state of her unnie. 

"let's go!" lexie all but shouted, walking past the younger girl.

—

"took you long enough!" was the greeting they received when they arrived at their dorm. "hey, didn't you promise us dinner?"

"yeah, where's our dinner?" lexie glared at their two other roommates. rian giggled, making a beeline to the couch, sitting next to one of her roommate unnies

"stop rushing me!" lexie said, heading to the kitchen. "i'll get on it!"

"better hurry, cause all that singing made me real hungry," rian said, taking part in the teasing.

"wow, you would think being eldest here would give some sort of authority, but nooo, i'm being bullied by dongsaengs."

"Ah, but you love us, right?" rian grinned cheekily.

"oh, i wish i did," lexie pouted, but started preparing their meal.

the three younger girls laugh amongst themselves. they chatted amongst themselves happily, glad that they got their unnie to actually cook.

it was times like this that rian was glad she moved to korea.