SHigure

Shigure was a pretty reasonable person. She could admit her mistakes.

And boy had she made a mistake. Just staring at Cheolmin's expressionless face made it so obvious for her that she had ed up. Bad.

"No."

She was ready for such an answer, even prepared a counter-attack. But now, seeing at the way her manager looked at her, all words failed her. She shouldn't have come here. She should've just switched with a body double and fled the country under a false identity. Yeah, that was a better idea, why hadn't she thought about it before?

"It's been thirty eight days since your debut," meanwhile, Cheolmin continued, (deliberately) oblivious to her inner struggles. "You can barely be considered a fetus in the entertainment industry. This is the time to focus all of your energy and devotion into the group. But instead you ask me to go back to your mommy and daddy."

"I don't ask to go back to mommy and daddy!" Shigure exclaimed. Why was he acting as if she was being an inconsiderate five-year-old? "I'm asking to go to a competition. Before signing my contract I talked to Bang-PDnim about Frontrunners and my responsibility to them. He agreed to allow me to travel back and forth to Japan for my dance crew schedule. It was part of my trainee contract."

Cheolmin closed the journal he was looking through, and raised his eyes to her. Shigure tried to stare him down, but apparently her manager was rather good at imitating the Bang Death Stare. "And is it a part of your idol contract as well?"

"Yes, it is." But suddenly she wasn't so sure. While Shigure had read the contract through and throughout, it was written in Korean, and maybe she missed something because Korean wasn't her first language. Oh she totally missed something she literally signed a contract with the devil because Cheolmin was the devil the devil manager oh she was so ed – "It is?" she tried to reassure herself, but it came out as a question instead.

"Try again."

And just like that the door was slammed in her face. Literally.

The Japanese girl stood in front of Cheolmin's office, mouth agape. Everything went so smoothly in her head. Why on earth had it failed so miserably in real life?

Running her hand through her blonde hair, Shigure automatically did what she always did when she needed comfort or advice – because right now, frankly, she needed both.

Nano picked on the second ring.

"SHINOZAKI!"

It was so loud Shigure had to pull the phone a few inches away from her ear. It didn’t stop her from shouting in return, "NYANYO!"

"Sup girl? Missed me so much you couldn't help but call just to hear my voice?" Shigure could hear the flirty tone coming from her best friend's voice even through the phone.

"You wish. The operation failed."

"Darth Vader didn't waver?"

Shigure groaned. "He's not Darth Vader, he's worse. He's Voldemort. No. He's Ambridge."

"Wow wow wow! Hold on!" Nano sounded shocked. "That's going a bit too far, don't you think?"

"I was super nice, I totally asked him in my nicest voice possible if I could go for just a week, and he straight up said no. Then when I started saying that Hitman Bang and I have an agreement regarding Frontrunners, he literally said to me that it's not in my idol contract and that he owes every inch of my miserable soul."

The Japanese guy was silent for a moment. "What…. Seriously?"

"Seriously. 'You can barely be considered a fetus in the entertainment industry' blah blah blah." She imitated in an irritated voice. "I did not ask to visit mommy and daddy. Frontrunners are basically what got me the spot on Arora. I'm not going to just abandon the crew like that."

"Can I just point out that the outfit you're wearing in No Oh Oh isn't the most coordinated one? Yellow shorts and a green jacket don't exactly fit together in my world, but maybe your stylist is blind –"

"Nano focus!" she exclaimed.

"I'm just worried about your appearance!" Nano defended playfully, and then returned to being serious (well, as serious as Nano could be). "What do I need to focus on?"

"What should I do? I have to go to Japan!"

"Okay –"

Shigure didn't hear what Nano said next. The door on the other side of the hall opened, and out peeked a rather irritated young man. "Do you mind keeping down with your Japanese blabbering? Some of us are trying to train here."

Was it the guy who was dropped out of the BTS line-up? Taekyung or something like that? Shigure, who had joined Big Hit only last year, was still relatively unfamiliar with a lot of trainees, this guy included.

She put on a fake apologetic smile and said, "Sorry, but I'm having a really important conversation, it won't take long I promise."

The guy, Taekyung, wiped his forehead with his sleeve. "Instead of having important conversations, you should be doing what I do."

Shigure could feel her brows going higher and higher to her hair-line. "I debuted already." She clarified.

A ghost of a smirk adorned the guy's face and he took a step closer. Suddenly, she realized just how taller than her he was, especially now, when she wasn't wearing any heels or insoles. It might've been intimidating, if she wasn't getting more irritated by the second. "Oh yeah, I know. Arora. 30 on Gaon is quite far from the bar the CEO had set for you, isn't it? I mean, weren't you supposed to ride on BTS' fame? Maybe if you would've practiced more like I'm suggesting you would've done better."

She was honestly trying to restrain herself, but she was losing her patience towards the trainee boy. "Maybe you should take your own advice. Maybe if you would've practice more you would've been a part of BTS. But oh wait! You're still a trainee, aren't you?"

The guy stared her down like he knew something she didn't. "It turned well enough in the end. I was never meant to share a stage anyway."

This guy was delusional if he thought he was going to debut as a soloist. If someone like Ardene was put in a group at the end, then this guy's fate was going to be the same. Some stupid- trainees liked to dream, though, and Shigure had no patience to argue with them.

The guy, who figured out she wasn't going to respond back, turned and went inside the room, muttering after him, "First those stupid sharks and now an invasion from Japan… It's like no one's training around here at all…"

And even though the door had already closed after him, Shigure could only stare at the spot in which his form disappeared. Sharks? Whatever did he mean by that?

A faint "Yo, Shinozaki!" had pulled her out of her thoughts, and Shigure put the phone back to her ear.

"Sorry Nano," she said, running a hand through her blond locks, "There was a trainee."

Nano picked up the intonation of her voice. "Ah, trainees. They're the worst."

"Said the trainee."

"Shut up you seal. Now, back to the main topic, what you need to do is –"

ARdene

Being the cousin of Kim Namjoon sure had its ups and downs.

An up, for example, would be the fact that he was the one who introduced her to rapping, and eventually to Big Hit. Another up would be that Namjoon was ing good at comforting, and he was the one that went with her through her breakup with Inseong six months ago. Oh, and the fact that he took all the ugly genes from the DNA bank of the family, and made her smoking hot.

A down, for example, would be that Namjoon seemed to have taken all the height from the DNA bank of the family and left her with her 162 centimeters. Another down would be moments like this.

"You , get your dirty hands off Namjoon-oppa!"

Namjoon actually face-palmed.

Ardene herself couldn't keep a straight face and burst out laughing. "W-wow, Joonnie, didn't know you were into the Lannister type of kink."

Her cousin and she were simply enjoying a morning stroll to the coffee shop located by the end of the street in which the Big Hit HQ stood. Everything was so sweet – the morning air smelled of fall, the temperature was just right, and the coffee they ordered perfectly creamy and steamy to the point of perfection. But then this delusional girl showed up. And though Ardene found it quite funny, this was getting kind of old and annoying.

Namjoon turned a bright shade of red. "Shut up, Dean. She's my cousin, we're not dating." He clarified to the doe-eyed teenage girl, who stood in front of them with a gaping mouth.

"You're Kim Ardene?" She asked in a mere whisper, and her eyes scanned over her body. Ardene couldn't help feeling a bit self-conscious . "Hm… No wonder I didn't recognize you. You look so different without your make-up on."

It was Namjoon's time to laugh loudly. Ardene blushed, sending a glare towards the young fan. "Yah! What is it you're implying –"

But the girl wasn't listening. Her attention was focused on Namjoon, and as she batted her lashes at him, she asked, "Oppa, can you sign my journal please?"

Namjoon, a bit baffled, agreed, and Ardene watched with a wide mouth as he signed her booklet, and then proceeded to taking selcas with her. It lasted a whole fifteen minutes before the fan finally agreed, although reluctantly, to leave them alone.

Seeing his cousin's incredulous expression, Namjoon only chuckled sheepishly. "Soon crazy uncles are going to yell at me to take my hands off you, don't worry."

"Can't wait…"

A part of her really wanted for that to happen, only because that would mean that Arora was getting recognition and fame (because, honestly, dealing with crazy uncles wasn't very pleasurable, but she was willing to take one for the team). The group really needed that.

They had the promotion-ending talk with Cheolmin last week, and while the results of their debut were above average for a rookie group, their manager had made sure to tell them that the company was rather… disappointed.

He was probably so rough with them because he took most of the yelling from the higher-ups, but Cheolmin wasn't babying them with his speech, that was for sure. 'Sky Garden', the album, had sold a mere 9,000 copies, which was, apparently, almost ten times lower than what BTS's debut album had sold. It was better regarding 'No Oh Oh', which resulted in a little over 200,000 sales. But once again, it was below the standard the company had put for Arora. So it wasn't a secret around Big Hit that Arora had pretty much failed their debut, and nobody gave a that they ranked 30 on Gaon. Ranks didn't bring in money, sales did.

Honestly, it was Big Hit's fault, rushing their debut and putting them out there after only three months of training as a group.

Sometimes, though, she wondered if she would've done better if she would've debuted as a soloist, like planned. She didn't have an answer to that.

"Hey, who's that?"

Namjoon's voice brought Ardene back from the depths of her thoughts, and her brown eyes traveled quickly to where her cousin was looking.

They were already almost next to the HQ, and in front of the building a distressed-looking guy stood, crossed arms defensively, listening to a guy in a black suit. That guy – one of the prettier-looking trainees from the company, whose name Ardene couldn't quite remember – looked disturbingly like a lost puppy.

"Isn't that Taehyung's friend?" Namjoon narrowed his eyes. "What's Jaekwang doing?"

Ardene couldn't hear what the suited man was saying to Jaekwang, but it didn't sound like the trainee felt very comfortable.

"Come on." She urged her cousin and paced confidently towards the duo.

At first the two males didn't notice them approaching, and Ardene heard snippets of the conversation, words like "profit" and "owe" that made her brows raise and her instinct active. But seconds later the duo spotted them approaching, and the man shut up, put a charming smile on his face and left.

Did jaekwang own money to the mafia? Was he an addict? Ardene watched Breaking Bad; she could recognize a drug dealer when she saw one.

And that was exactly what she told Namjoon.

"Don't be stupid, Dean," he scoffed, opening the door to the Arora practice room for her. "Jaekwang the drug addict? That's stupid."

"Maybe he's like Jessie from Breaking Bad." She countered.

"Who's like Jessi?"

Apparently, three of the other seven members were already in the room. Xiuying, Aeri and Yoonji were all sitting on the floor, the younger two dressed in sport clothing and the leader in her regular jeans and a plead shirt.

"Jaekwang." Ardene answered.

Yoonji sent her a confused look. "The trainee? How is he like Jessi-sunbae? He doesn't even rap."

"Dean means Jessi from Breaking Bad." Namjoon said, running a hand through his hair. "She thinks he got himself involved with some drug lord or something like that."

"Is that a spoiler? Cus I'm only on season 3." Aeri groaned. She was making more effort to become closer to them, Ardene noticed. Operation Magnetic Field was advancing slowly but surely.

"Okay, imagine yourself a situation," she spread her hands in a dramatic motion, "You're walking with your cousin, when you spot a distressed-looking teenage boy, seemingly intimidated by a man in a black suit. A black suit. Now this man, dressed in a black suit, is saying things like 'Profit' and 'Own'. What would be your first assumption?"

"That he's a secret agent." Xiuying said. "But drug dealer is a close second."

"Thank you, qoukka."

Xiuying tilted her head to the side, and the other people in the room seemed confused as well. "What's a kwoka?"

Oh, right. None of them ever saw a qoukka before. Ardene totally forgot the animal was Australian-native. "Oh, it's this animal, it lives in Australia. You kinda look like it, it's… Okay, I'll just show you."

A quick google search later, Xiuying was in love. "This. Is. The. Cutest. Animal. Ever."

The others laughed, and Yoonji ruffled the maknae's hair affectionately. "I'm glad you like it." Ardene grinned.

"Oh my god, Wikipedia says that it's considered the happiest animal in the world. I'm in love, unnie."

Operation MF was almost on its next stage. 

"What happened with Jaekwang and the drug dealer?" Yoonji returned everyone to the main topic.

"Nothing," Namjoon supplied, crossing his arms on his chest. Shrugging, he added, "It was really weird, but I doubt it was something out of Dean's imagination."

The girls raised a brow at her cousin's nickname for her, but Ardene chose to ignore them.

"Well, did he have red eyes?" Aeri asked. When Namjoon shook his head, she went on. "Was he sweating? Trembling?"

"Only from fear."

"Then he's not a drug addict. Maybe he's a gambler, though."

Jaekwang the gambler… For some reason drug addict sounded much cooler.

The door opened, and the head of BTS's golden maknae peeked in, his hair matted with sweat and plastered to his face. He probably woke up before school to practice. "I knew I heard your voice, hyung. Do you wanna go eat out after school –" Jungkook's eyes finally rested on all of the residents of the room, and surprise washed over his face. "Yo, Aeri, what are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be at the dorm? I thought Hobeom-hyung was going take us to school."

Aeri shook her head. "No, we scheduled the hall today for ISAC. We're going to train for the relay race."

"You need to train super hard if you're planning on beating us."

"That kind of cockiness is gonna cost you first place, you know."

"Oh, you wanna take a bet on that?"

"Oh it's on."

Jungkook made the effort to walk all over to Aeri and shake hands with her. They nodded to each other, before Jungkook said his goodbyes and left the room. The silence that followed was filled with shock.

"Uh, Aeri-unnie?" Xiuying dragged.

Aeri didn't seem to notice the dropped jaws of everyone in the room. "What?"

"Am I missing something?" Ardene raised an eyebrow.

It took the blonde rapper a moment to realize what they were talking about. "Jungkook? You mean him? Manager Hobeom drives us to school when Jungkook actually moves his and decides to go."

Ardene's senses weren't tingling, so no crush symptoms were found in Aeri's voice. But to see the girl, who was usually quite distant (though by no means not friendly, as she was nice and friendly with practically everyone), talk so freely with Jeon Jungkook, an epitome of awkward distance himself.

Well, now that she put it like that, it suddenly became quite obvious why these two bonded. Chaerin was so going to start shipping if she heard.

"I think I'll go now." Namjoon said, ruffling his cousin's hair and earning a groan from her.

"You're heading to the recording studio?" Yoonji asked. When the guy nodded, she stood up. "I'll go with you. There's a song I'm working on and I need your input."

"Aren't you going to train for the relay race?" Namjoon asked, before realizing what he had said and bursting out laughing. "Man that was a good one."

"August fifth, 2012, Namjoon. That's all I have to say." Yoonji smirked darkly, and the male rapper stopped immediately. "That's right. I remember."

The duo disappeared behind the door, but the door didn’t stay closed for long. Not even a minute later and Shigure burst in, a grin so wide on her face that Ardene had to wonder how didn't rip apart.

"Bang-PDnim agreed to let me go to Japan!" She announced like it was the happiest news on the planet.

"You're going to Japan?" Xiuying repeated. "Now?"

"There's a competition Frontrunners participating in, and at first Cheolmin was all like 'no, you can't go' and like that, but then I went to Bang and he agreed! I can't wait to shove it in Voldemort's face! Hogwarts –1, Death Eaters –0."

Sometimes Ardene wondered why Shigure was even a part of Arora, if her priorities weren't focused on the group. She was a really nice girl, and her dancing was superb, there was no arguing about that, but devotion was something Ardene found to be very important too. And the Japanese girl wasn't excelling in that department as of now. Even when they were preparing for their debut – with that short, short period of time – she still flew back and forth to her home-country, just so she could participate in whatever schedule her dance crew had. Ardene of course realized that it was important for Shigure, and she didn't blame her for that, but none of the other members acted like her. Neither Skylar nor Xiuying went back to their home countries for over than a year, and even Chaerin didn't go to Busan. So it was a bit disappointing that one of them wasn't putting her entire self into the group while the others sacrificed so much. Perhaps Big Hit was wrong when they decided to add Shigure to the line-up. They could've been just fine as seven members.

Aeri, too, didn't look too thrilled. "How did you manage to convince him?"

"Oh, just my charming personality."

Ardene was a bit more tactful than Yueliang, and even though she was blunt as , she voiced her concern a little better than the Chinese girl. "What about ISAC? You're part of the relay team, Shigure."

"Don't worry unnie." The blonde waved her off. "I'll be back two days before the championship, and I'll practice now and while in Japan. We're gonna kick at ISAC, mark my words"

And while Shinozaki Shigure looked so confidently sure in her words, as she observed the other girl's attitude Ardene wasn't quite as sure.

A/N:

Taekyung (Toby) and Jaekwang, are two characters from Jey-chan's Black Dragon, the brother fic of Arora. It features Arora as a sunbae group to Big Hit's new Boy Group, and the members appear as cameos in the story. So go ahead and check it out ;)

For the girls that didn't appear in this chapter, don't worry as they will appear in the next, which I hope to release next week (like, really really hope. I wanna write for Arora so much but a lot of days I don't have time ><). 

But for now, enjoy the Bangtanrora interactions ^^

Question of the day: what do you think is up with the man in the BLACK suit? Leave a comment with your theories ;)

P.S: You know how I said that the Wings teasers slayed me... well J-hope's dancing teaser slayed me even more.  That song... That performance. If I would've had a bias in BTS then J-hope would've wrecked him. But thank god I can't chose a bias in BTS and I get wrecked by each and everyone of them equally. Yey. RIP me when the album actually comes out in 10 days. FML.