Ye Seul nervously fiddled with the creases of her t-shirt. The silence suffocated her. She wished at least one of them would say something, but of the fifteen people assembled in the dance practice hall, excluding her, not one person opened their mouth.

Ye Seul flattened herself against the wall, trying to appear inconspicuous. It worked, because no one seemed to be paying her any attention. They seemed to have forgotten that she existed. They glanced at each other broodingly, before shifting their gazes back to Jin.

Jin was deep in thought, the frown on his forehead becoming more and more prominent with every passing minute. He hadn’t spared Ye Seul a single glance from the moment he had entered the dance hall.

“Seokjin.” One of the girls finally spoke, smoothing down her dark black hair “How did you even find out about this new group?”

“Eric hyung mentioned an up and coming group in passing, today morning.” Jin scowled, “He warned me that we need get our act straight, if we want to maintain our position.”

“Why?” the girl sounded surprised, “You guys have always been at the top.”

“It was after we unveiled our new surprise member.” Jin said through clenched teeth, his hands forming angry fists. Everyone’s eyes snapped to Ye Seul momentarily, before flitting back to Jin.

“Anyway, I asked Jimin to investigate.” Jin continued, leaning forward to rest his elbows on his thighs, resting his forehead in his hands, “Jimin found out that the group has nine boys and that one of them is from this school. They’re a Seoul group, but we suspect they’ve moved to Busan and are trying to set up their territory.”

“You suspect Yixing is with them? I never expected Yixing to be involved in the underground dancing scene.” Hyoyeon asked, forehead creased in a frown.

“Makes sense though, seeing as he’s one hell of a dancer and that he’s the one leaving as soon as news of this new group comes up.” Hoseok grimaced.

“Yixing…never really got chummy with us.” Jimin said thoughtfully, “He always kept his distance.”

“The guys told me Yixing kept travelling to Seoul on random weekends.” Jin said, shaking his head at Jimin’s romantic reasoning, “Jimin wasn’t sure of all the dates he was there, but the ones that he did remember, they were all dates of competitions in Seoul.”

“That could have been coincidence?” another girl with bright red hair, asked, rubbing the tip of her chiselled nose.

“Nah…too many times to just be coincidence.” Jimin shook his head.

“Any details about the rest of the boys in that group?” Hyoyeon asked Jin.

“Nothing yet.” Jin answered, disgruntled.

“Hoseok, which school is Yixing transferring to?” the girl with the dark long hair asked, standing up to walk around the room. Even in the flats that she was wearing, Ye Seul was sure she was taller than all of them in the room.

“I don’t know.” Hoseok shrugged, and turned to a girl with brownish wavy hair cascading down her back, “Joohyun, have any new kids joined your school recently? Someone who might have a chance of being related to this group?”

“Now that you mention it,” the girl called Joohyun said, after pondering for a minute, “two new boys did join our advanced dance class. A Kim Jongin and an Oh Sehan? Sehun? Oh and another one – what’s his name – Yu something.”

“Interesting.” Jin muttered, tapping his nose thoughtfully, “Are they good?”

“I haven’t seen them dance yet.” She shrugged, “They must be, though, seeing as they’ve been accepted into the advanced dance class.”

“Are there any other high schoolers in that group?” a petite girl with a baby face and shoulder length straight blonde hair asked Jin.

“I don’t know, Taeyeon.” Jin shook his head, “Like I said, we have hardly any information on them.”

“Then it’s time we got more information.” Hyoyeon stood up, “Joohyun, Zhang Yixing might join your school any time this week, provided those new boys belong to this new group and are the only high schoolers in that group.”

“He might, yes.” Joohyun answered, “I just have to play to my strengths, yeah?”

“That’s my girl!” Hyoyeon grinned at her, slapping her back.

“Ah, Joo’s still got that fatal charm, eh?” Hoseok cracked a smile.

“In abundance!” Joohyun flipped her wavy brown hair, winking at him.

Ye Seul wondered what they meant, but she kept quiet, not wanting to draw attention to herself. Her head was messed up enough, as it was. She couldn’t for her life fathom how she had ended up in such a situation. One day in this new school, and she was already part of a gang that consisted of only boys who binged on alcohol every chance they got and participated in illegal underground dance competitions. Well, what next?

“Ye Seul!”

Ye Seul snapped out of her reverie as Hyoyeon’s voice pierced her eardrums, “Y-yes?”

“Are you alright?” Hyoyeon asked, concerned, “You look kinda pale.”

“I-I’m fine.” Ye Seul nodded, pushing her back off the wall and standing up straight.

“So, your name’s Ye Seul?” the baby faced girl smiled at her, looking interested, “I’m Taeyeon, and I just go by Tae at the parties.”

“Hello.” Ye Seul muttered softly, avoiding her gaze, choosing to stare at the floor instead.

“I’m Yuri and I go by Yuri.” The girl with the dark long hair smirked, “I honestly don’t see the point of hiding our names. At the parties.”

She glanced at Jin when she said that and Jin turned away with an angry grimace. Yuri turned back to Ye Seul and asked, “What was that you introduced yourself as yesterday?”

“Jen.” Ye Seul managed to choke out, throat clogged up due to nervousness.

“Ah, Jen.” Yuri nodded, “Nice meeting you, Jen. Honestly, you really owned that dance yesterday.”

Yuri let out a tinkling laugh when Ye Seul looked up at her, eyes wide with surprise at the unexpected compliment.

“Don’t look so surprised. Yuri’s right.” The girl with the bright red hair chuckled and introduced herself, “I’m Sunkyu and I go by Sunny.”

“I’m Joohyun!” the girl from earlier chirped, waving at Ye Seul, “I’m called Seohyun at the parties. And I’m the youngest.”

“I’m Yoona.” The girl next to Joohyun muttered quietly when Joohyun nudged her side. She hadn’t spoken one word since the beginning of the meeting and only grudgingly opened to introduce herself.

“I’m Mi Young.” One of the two remaining girls stood up, her bright smile turning her eyes into crescentic slits, and swung an arm around the neck of the girl next to her, “And this is Sooyoung.”

“Or you could call us Tiffany and Soo.” The girl called Sooyoung shrugged, crossing her long legs, passing a hand through her short bob of dirty blonde hair.

“Hello, it’s nice meeting you.” Ye Seul muttered in almost a whisper, tilting her head in an awkward little bow in the girls’ general direction.

Ye Seul could well imagine the likes of Hyoyeon, Yuri and Joohyun being part of the underground dancing scenario, but she was confounded that the likes of Taeyeon and Sunny and Tiffany too were part of it. They just didn’t look the part.

“Well, that’s that then.” Taeyeon clapped her hands and turned to Jin, trying to break the awkwardness, “Joohyun will chat up the three new boys and Zhang Yixing, if he joins the school and try to find out what’s up. In the meantime, what about the rest of us?”

“There isn’t much the rest of us can actually do right now.” Jin sighed, “Just keep your eyes and ears open and share if you find anything of importance.”

“Aye aye, captain!” Taeyeon executed a mock salute in Jin’s direction, shooting him a crooked smile, “Well, we’ll get going then. Hyo, you coming with us?”

“No, you guys go on ahead.” Hyoyeon waved Taeyeon away, looking worriedly at Ye Seul, “I’ll see you later.”

Taeyeon glanced curiously from Hyoyeon to Ye Seul, “Alright, see you later, then. Let’s go, girls. Bye guys!”

After a lot of called out goodbyes, when the hall was silent once more, with only the Bangtan boys, Hyoyeon and Ye Seul, Hyoyeon approached Ye Seul.

“Ye Seul,” Hyoyeon called, touching her shoulder lightly, “Do you wanna get some coffee?”

Ye Seul nodded, a little confused as to why Hyoyeon should be asking her o