cards against adora

"Good morning, everyone."

"Good morning, mr. Lim!" At this rate, people would think that this was a class, and not a training company. It was that time again. Necalli had debuted, and it was time for their little sisters. CEO Lim was too late, and hurriedly sit down on his assigned chair. Again, all the staff was there, all the trainees were too. Since this was a girl group, the male trainees were standing on the side, and the female trainees were crowded, sitting in the middle. Necalli had a recording early in the morning, and they were on their way.

The trainees were confused. There were three chairs in between them and the staff. Byungho was in the process of laying down colorful cards on each one. The boy hurriedly went to sit down again after he finished his job. In his hands were many more cards, confusing the trainees even more.

"Okay, trainees! You probably wonder why there's cards in front of you. Actually, I'm debuting a girl group, and this is how the line-up will be announced." Cheers went through the room from excited girls and also some excited boys who want to see the cute new girl group.

"Actually, I've kept this a secret, but there are already three members that know they made it. Can you please stand up?" Cheonsu surprised the trainees, and when Hyebin, Karleen and Violet stood up triumphantly, the others were even more surprised.

The three members went to stand next to the CEO who had stood up as well. "These three girls were in the running for Necalli, and didn't made it. The emotions they showed on that day inspired me to create the new girl group." Some of the other girls were happy for the three, but of course, there was jealousy too. The girls and the CEO didn't mind.

"There are fifteen girls left, right? The group will have 13 members, so that means 10 of you will make it. 2/3rd of the total amount," with hearing the size of the group, a glint of hope went through the girls' eyes. Their chances were now way larger than before. Of course they were still nervous and jealous of the three fixed girls.

"So allow me to explain, so we can finally get started. We here have personalised cards for every trainee. You'll have to open the cards, and you'll see if you made it or not. Isn't that creative? I came up with it myself!" The CEO explained, nodding proudly. "Sir-" Violet interrupted him, "Now's not the time for that." The CEO sighed and muttered an apology. Hyebin and some others chuckled. Everyone listened to the wrestling queen, even the CEO.

"Anyway, uhm... Who are the first cards, Byungho?" Byungho jumped out of his chair like he was a soldier being called by his sergeant. "I-it's Okamoto Katsumi, Chen Luli and Choi Hyoyeon, sir!"

"Okay, the three that just got called, please go open your card and see if you made it into the group or not..." the CEO smiled. The three called girls stood up hestitantly before going to the chairs to take their cards. Hyoyeon didn't even seem bothered. She picked her yellow card and stared down at it. "This is pretty, who made them?" she wondered as the two other girls picked up their cards with trembling hands.

"Nara and Jeonghan made them together! Isn't it cute?" the CEO nodded proudly. The two staff members blushed simultaneously, looking down. The two shyest staff members looked quite cute, sitting next to each other and being embarassed together like that.

"Hurry up and open them!" Hyebin disrupted the calm moment with her cheerful voice, jumping in anticipation. The first one who opened her card was Hyoyeon. Bright yellow confetti fell out of it. "HELL YEAH!!" she yelled out loud, jumping like a kangaroo towards her friend Hyebin. They hugged each other tightly, still bouncing on their feet. One member down, nine to go.

The next one to open up was Luli. Her card had nothing but the words 'better luck next time, you can do it!'. She bursted into tears, running out of the training room to never be seen of again...

Katsumi had been observing the others nervously, and was still standing there, holding her purple card with trembling hands. "Come on, Kat! Open it!" Heeji stood up to cheer her on, and everyone joined in to encourage her. The CEO smiled calmly, and that's what made Katsumi open it slowly. The confetti already started to fall out slowly when it wasn't even open yet. The four already decided members all shrieked before running over to hug Katsumi and drown her in love, who was quite dazed. It didn't really get to her yet that she had made it.

"Byungho, put down the next cards so we can move on and resume training..." Taesung asked as the girls were still celebrating. "Yes sir!" Byungho almost dropped the cards but put the next three on the chairs anyway. These cards were two different shades of blue and a cute, periwinkle one. The trainees were anticipating who was next.

"Liu Meiying, Mia Chu Minhyun and Irie Masumi, please go and open your cards," Cheonsu asked before trying to calm down the five current members who were still cheering. When their ruckus died down, everyone waited in anticipation for the others to open their cards. It was noticeable that all three were very nervous. Minhyun was trying to keep up her strong image, while Meiying was just completely silent. Masumi was one big puddle of mess, melting on the spot because she was so nervous. These three would be interesting together, and everyone wondered who would be the one to not make it, expecting that only two would make it like last time.

Minhyun and Meiying opened their cards at the same time, and blue confetti was fluttering around, coming from both their cards. They looked at each other in silence before jumping into each other's arms to celebrate. It was like they had just scored a world cup goal together, as the other members ran to cling to them too.

Masumi didn't open her card yet. She was staring at the group of celebrating girls as her hope sank through her shoes, thinking the same as everyone else. Her legs gave in, and she fell on the floor, being too nervous to open her card and be met with the disappointment of not making it. Well, it was understandable, she thought, since she had only joined after watching her twin sister and Kazuki debut with Necalli. It had just been a few months...

"Hey, Masu..." Meiying was suddenly crouching down next to her, patting Masu's pitch black hair gently. "Have faith in yourself! I personally believe that you will be able to make it!" Katsumi crouched down in front of her too, and started to whisper encouraging words in Japanese, words only these two could understand. After getting encouragement from the rest, Masumi sighed deeply before opening her card with low expectations.

Periwinkle confetti spilled all on her lap. Masumi couldn't believe it. The cheers of the other members around her didn't really get to her. She made it, she was going to follow in her sister's footsteps. The emotions got to the small Japanese girl, before she burst into tears. She cried out loud as she was comforted by the other girls. Katsumi helped the sobbing girl stand up, and led her out of the room to comfort her and let her calm down in silence, away from everyone else.

"Okay... Moving on... Byungho?" Cheonsu cleared his throat, feeling awkward having to look at all those scenes between the girls. He didn't even have to ask Byungho anything, the staff's youngest member was already putting down the next cards. "These cards are for Blanche Cho, Seo Hyejin and Yoo Eunyoung," the young boy said before sitting down on his chair again. Valentina had strut her way towards the confetti and sniffed it. Jeonghan saw it and ran towards the cat, picking her up before she could possibly eat the confetti. Jeonghan wasn't really a people person, even though he was a scouter, but he definitely was a cat person, and Valentina was enjoying his attention.

In the meantime, the three girls, two older ones and a young, small girl. They were all pretty confident about themselves, and immediately opened it. Blanche and Eunyoung had the confetti. Hyejin didn't. "I don't get it!" she yelled out, "How is someone like Minhyun in the group? And not me??" Everyone was surprised and stared at the girl in shock. She threw the card on the ground and stomped on it a few times, ruining the pretty card. She took Blanche and Eunyoung's card too, and ripped them apart. Jeonghan and Nara both got sad because the cards they put so much effort into got ruined. Valentina seemed to notice it, and started to hiss towards Hyejin. Eunyoung grabbed both her wrists, giving her a sharp glare.

"Seo Hyejin... You better behave right now! Apologise to the others!" Eunyoung yelled into the small girl's face, showing her protective side. Hyejin had never really gotten along with the others, her personality was not... the greatest... She didn't say anything, refusing to apologise. "Someone get her out of here, please... She ruins the atmosphere here..." Cheonsu sighed, Hyuk stood up to drag the struggling Hyejin out of the room, Yena following after him, as she wanted to discipline the misbehaving girl. At that moment, Katsumi and Masumi returned again.

"What just happened...?" Katsumi looked back at the three that just left, while Masumi looked at the CEO. "Just Hyejin throwing a fit... Anyway, Eunyoung and Blanche are now members of the group too! Come and say congrats to them!" the CEO answered, and both the Japanese girls smiled widely. Eunyoung and Blanche were quite loved in the company, being nice and caring older sisters. But a celebration didn't come, since everyone was quite shocked at what happened. Byungho stood up to lay down the next cards.

"T-the next girls are..." Byungho was obviously shaken by the incident, one of the male trainees moved to comfort him, "T-they are..." the boy continued, "Kang Biseul, Ko Shinji, Gong Heeji..."

The girls all stood up. A dreadful silence spread through the room. Biseul opened her card first. Nothing happened. She saw it coming, sighed and sat down again. Better luck next time, Biseul.

Heeji opened her card next, and confetti fell out of it. Heeji smiled happily before glancing over at a certain staff member. Hwan gave her the brightest smile she had ever seen, and Heeji couldn't help but die inside. Their cute moment was disrupted by the loud screeching of Ko Shinji, who had opened her card. She had collected her pink confetti and was throwing it around happily, running over to the CEO to throw some on him as well. She yelled endless words of gratefulness before jumping on her pink buddy Hyebin, who almost lost her balance, but laughed along with the older.

It was the last batch, and only one spot was left. The last girls were feeling pretty depressed already, not having any expectations and just feeling sad that they were last. They were the last three girls left sitting down, and the majority of others were already celebrating. Yoojung ran over to her dark green card, being impatient all this time. Shinji was silent for once. She had known Yoojung for a while, and they were both younger sisters of Pentagon. They really wanted to debut together. Yoojung picked up her card, and confetti started to already fall out. She was surprised, staring at it.

"Oops..." Nara grinned gently, "Seems like this one didn't really work well..." Yoojung smiled wide, ripping her card open. Confetti spread on the floor, and Shinji screamed her lungs out again, jumping on Yoojung this time as they cheered together. The other two girls, Sunmi and Jihae, didn't even have to open their cards anymore. They smiled in defeat, hugged each other and walked out together, wanting to separate themselves from the celebration.

After letting the 13 girls celebrate for a while, the CEO asked them to be silent again. "Girls, how can you celebrate if you don't even know the concept and the name yet!"

Eunyoung and Heeji managed to calm the large group down, and they all sat down, staring at the CEO like a bunch of toddlers. "Thank god we decided to make them the group's parents..." Jia whispered to Boyeon, who agreed.

"The group will have three fixed units with all different concepts. A unit that is bright, catchy and ideal for a party, a badass and y hiphop unit..." at this, Eunyoung's eyes brightened up, "And a dark and more... mystical unit..." The girls all cheered happily, statisfied with the concept. They were an interesting mix of girls, and the different concepts all really fit each one of them.

"Eunyoung, you'll be in charge of the hiphop unit, is that okay?" Cheonsu asked and Eunyoung immediately nodded. "Thank you, sir!" she spoke almost in a soldier-like way, making Cheonsu smile. "Heeji, you're in charge of the dark unit and main group, and Shinji, since you really wanted to be a leader... You're in charge of the party unit..." At these words, Cheonsu sighed, wondering why he ever agreed to this weird idea. Shinji cheered happily, while Heeji was already trying to prepare to lead a group of 13 young girls.

"The unit line-ups and positions will be revealed soon, since they are still in the works. You girls want to know the groupname?" All the 13 girls cheered loudly, wanting to hear the name they would be known as.

"You guys are going to be called... Adora..." the CEO smiled proudly as the girls all freaked out at the cute name, obviously loving it. It was cute, catchy, simple, lovable. Their days couldn't be ruined anymore.

After a long speech of motivation by the CEO, which was pretty much unnecessary, the staff and male trainees started to go back to what they were doing. Sungjae, the composer who would be in charge of Adora's debut song, stayed behind to give them some questions about the song they had in mind. At that moment, Necalli rushed into the room, of course Megumi was first to crash the meeting. Her twin sister could be debuting after all. All the girls and Sungjae stared at the senior group, startled.

"Masu! Did you make it?!" Not only Megumi was interested in this question, next to her was Kazuki, who was staring at the small girl with wide eyes. Masu had a bright smile plastered on her face and nodded. "YOOOOOOO!!" Megumi yelled as she bounced off the walls of excitement. Masumi giggled before looking at Kazuki, smiling gently, making him turn red like a tomato.

And while Megumi was still celebrating for her twin sister, Adora's journey started...