"You're good to go." the brunette said, wiping some parts of Jiyoo's makeup quickly, and afterwards just turned away.

"Thank you." Jiyoo said, the brunette didn't respond, but she gave an acknowleding nod. And in that moment, Jiyoo wasn't quick enough to avoid the stylist's eyes.

This is difficult. It sounded rather neutral, but Jiyoo kind of flinched, quickly walking over to the couch at the corner. Choseung just sat there and was playing around some free game on her iPad (and Jiyoo just scrunched at that sight). 

"You're not nervous?" Jiyoo said.

"No," Choseung said. "we've done this before."

"Twice." Jiyoo said, slightly lowering her voice. 

"Yeah, doesn't really make a difference, but... it's kind of annoying." Choseung said, almost whispering at Jiyoo. 

"Why?" 

"I dunno, just a vibe." Choseung said, her eyes still focused on the game. Jiyoo quietly exhaled, because as much as 90% of the things Choseung said don't really make sense, Jiyoo found herself feeling not very good (but then again, when has Jiyoo started feeling things?).

She looked around, and she noticed most of the members had tense faces. Sammi and Ion were still getting their make-up done, while Shinae mouthed the lyrics with Aowen, who was staring intensely at the phone (if stares could kill, Junghyuk wouldn't only worry about Sammi breaking her phone again).

Yoriko... was less tense. Not Choseung or Jiyoo's level of nihilism, but she was just staring blankly as people move back and forth, preparing in that tight room. She tapped on her fingers repeatedly, shifting and occasionally apologizing as people tried to step past her. 

Jiyoo heard more noise and chattering at the background too, and remembered that there's a debuting girlgroup at the back. It sounded a lot more excited and cheerful, compared to the sounds (or a lack thereof) from their own side of the partition.

Was that how they were like on their first show? Nervous yet excited? Jiyoo probably wasn't (because she didn't get excited that easily), but the enthusiasm from the more bubbly girls like Yoonbyul and Shinae permeate the atmosphere. They were, after all, the 'monster' rookie girlgroup that were going to be 'shaking' the industry.

Whether it's the iljin rumour or Hana's departure, whatever it was they're now the same as the new debuting girlgroup from a no-name company. Back to square one. 

Would things be better if the bad stuff didn't happen? She sighed, because as much as she could come up with scenarios based on the situation, it'd never happe, simply because the damage is done. 

Jiyoo shook her head and approached Yoriko, who could really use someone to talk to. It'll also be good to distract Jiyoo from the increasingly annoying snippets of other people's thoughts that stared at her.

Just at that moment though, she heard a loud yelp. In a normal situation she wouldn't have pay any attention, but turning around made her froze.

"Ow!" 

⇔

Yoonbyul  was not feeling it. 

Granted, it wasn't her first time performing in front of so many people, but if the bobby pins pining at her braids weren't painful. 

Yoonbyul repeatedly bit her lips, squirming as the stylist pushed another one just a little too hard. If her scalp haven't suffered the first time already when they re-dyed her platinum white hair to dark brown, the pulling and pinching of the top braid was much worse. 

Not to mention the weird smell of hair spray. Sure, the braid looks really cool and compared to the other members' relatively normal looking brunette hair Yoonbyul really stood out, and she liked the style. 

It's just that this was kind of getting on her nerves... just a little bit. And the annoying, junk feeling started building up in her, and she could only squirm a little further.

"Hang on, just a little bit more." The hairstylist said, but between that and trying to focus on her parts for the performance Yoonbyul was just... not liking it. 

"Ow!" The stylist yelped loudly, and so was Yoonbyul. For a moment, she could feel like the uncomfortable feeling was gone, but after a split second her face changed, and she turned around in horror.

"Sorry!" Yoonbyul said, equally loud, and everyone in that room seemed to have had their eyes on them, stuck frozen.

"...no, it's okay. Probably just the weather." The stylist said, rubbing her arm. Yoonbyul opened to somehow, maybe, try to explain things but decided against it. She awkwardly turned back, and they went back to work.

The others seemed to snap from their trances, and went back to work too. 

After what seemed like an eternity, the stylist was done with her hair and moved to her makeup. At the corner of her eye, she saw Jung staring at her with wariness, but he turned away quickly once she caught him. She quietly sighed, and said, "I'm really sorry, unnie."

"It's all good," the brunette said. "you get used to weird things these days. This dressing room is always a weird one, after all."

"Yeah... like haunted weird."

"Huh?" 

⇔

"EMANON, your stage will be up after ATEEZ and DEAR, so be prepared," Jung said. All seven of them were in the waiting room, fully set, watching the stage performance of the new boygroup. Next to them, the girlgroup that was next to their partition were also waiting, whispering amongst themselves. He noticed Jiyoo turned away when one of the girls saw her, and the former's expression was not very kind. 

But Jiyoo's not the one with the nicest expression, so it's hard to gauge what she truly thought. But as long as she's not too negative that it affected her performance, things should be okay.

"also, try your best to not pressure yourself." Yoonbyul looked down at that. Yoriko gently squeezed her arm. The seven knew that he didn't just mean the nerves, but their abilities... that was supernatural. 

Maybe that's why the aura was a lot more somber for them compared to the new girlgroup. Yoriko knew she'd never really experience being in a truly new debuted group (being that she replaced someone), and she's grateful that she's even debuting after training for so long... but she felt conflicted.

EMANON didn't just need to succeed with ther numbers, but to also hide their powers from being exposed. And they really... almost did. At least, Yoonbyul almost did, but it's almost the same anyway.

"I'll leave Shinae and Sammi to talk now, if you both have anything to say." 

"Thank you, Mr. Choi," Sammi said.  

"alright girls, come closer." 

"Look, for most of us, it's easy to feel like a nervous wreck because we haven't been doing this for so long and things are different now. But we've done this so many times, and we've come out stronger and better than where we were before. We're really good, and we're going to show people we are better than their expectations." Shinae said.

"Yeah, we really have nothing to be afraid of," Sammi said. "because we have each other, like it or not."

"Thirty seconds for EMANON!" The producer yelled.

"Ready?" Shinae grinned, extending her hand to the middle of their group circle. Sammi smiled and put her hands above hers, and the others followed suit.

"Yes, EMANON!"

⇔

dance position: (jiu - sammi / siyeon - shin-e / sua - renne / dami - jiyoo / handong - ion / yoohyeon - aowen / gahyeon - choseung)

Aowen stood in the middle, surrounded by the six girls. The moment the music starts, Aowen's fingers had already swept through the human ring. In that moment too, she was finally facing the stage, something that she'd not seen for so long.

When Aowen stepped in, she's not expecting any fans. At that point, she already accepted the fact that she needed to do this for her parents (they're probably watching, right? She hoped). Their song was fast, and they danced fast, so the moment the song's momentum increases, she was too tied up with trying to dance correctly and sing at the right pitch.

But there were still people shouting and chanting for them. It wasn't as big as it was when they first debuted, but it was actually bigger. Not by much, yes, but Aowen could feel it. 

What happened? She didn't really want to read on the Naver comments and articles ever since they released their teasers, but from the reactions of those like Yoonbyul and Choseung it seemed like they were gaining attention (or the two were in denial and too optimistic, so Aowen didn't really think of it as anything but one of their weird ramblings).

But the louder the chants, it gave her even more power as she belted out the final chorus. As the instrumental shifts from the breakdown to a rapid end, the group dances their final sequence. Something so familiar, but with the bright stage lights, the yelling fans, and loud music from their in-ears, something so easily remembered became difficult.

And Aowen almost lost her breath, even if she could feel the adrenaline rush. No matter how many times they'd practiced their sequence, the exhaustion was still something else. Jiyoo and Renne, who pushed forward at the bottom, were barely catching their breaths too, and they were the better ones.

But as the crowd erupted to cheers, she saw even those who weren't their fans looking with awe and surprise. Looking at that, Aowen smiled, just a bit more.

The girls respectfully bowed and exit the stage, but every step back to the waiting room felt so unreal. She felt like her steps were lighter, the adrenaline rush still going strong. Aowen shook her head, and she looked around to the other girls too. They were smiling widely, a lot more relaxed compared to when they'd just entered the stage. Even the usually stoic Jiyoo had a slight smirk in her face.

Overall, it was better than what she thought.

⇔

"Did you watch the video already?" 

Sammi turned to the direction of the voice, and saw that Aowen, Choseung, and Yoriko were at the sofa, eyes completely focused on the silver laptop in front of them.

"What are you guys watching?" Sammi said, moving closer.

"We're watching our performance at MuBank last week. Do you want to watch too?" Yoriko said.

"Sure, why not." Sammi said, placing herself next to Yoriko. When video started, Sammi cringed slightly. She didn't quite remember the performance was like... that.

"I think I'm moving a bit too fast on this part, honestly," Sammi said. "if you compare it with how the other members were moving, it's not super noticeable, but now I kinda don't like it."

"It's honestly not that concerning, Sammi-unnie, since you're still moving at the same rhythm. Because it's fast it's easier to ignore some of the mistakes that we made. Also the camera edits can skew the perception we had for dancing."

"Ah, that's really cool." Sammi said, nodding. 

"Choseung, your hands almost went the other way and you're being much slower when you're at the back," Aowen said. "you're just copying the moves from those in front of you."

"I'm not! It's just that the dance is hard, and I need to think."

"You're just thinking of copying Yoriko and Jiyoo unnie."

"Because we're all moving at the same pace! If I'm at the center or the front then of course I won't copy anyone either." 

"Yeah but now it's obvious you're just following instead of working on your own," Aowen said. "that you shouldn't be at the center."

"Ya! Choseung, Aowen, why are you guys like this?" Sammi said.

"She started it first!" Choseung huffed, and she stood up, walking away. Aowen crossed her arms, refusing to look at the older girls in the eye.

"Aowen, there are better ways to give constructive criticism to Choseung's performance." Yoriko said, sternly. Sammi crossed her arms, but remained mum.

"She needs to know where she is and how she can get better for our group too. Can't just be lazy around like that."

"Choseung works hard to improve on her dancing, and I think she's really supportive for our group." Yoriko said. 

"Yoriko, I think it's good if you can talk to Choseung right now." Sammi said, placing a hand on Yoriko's shoulder. The latter looked at her with confusion at first, but she nodded.

"I'm sorry, Aowen-ah. I hope you understand where I'm coming from." Yoriko said, walking up to leave.

⇔

The moment Yoriko closed the door behind them, Aowen slowly looked up.

"Why did you feel like you needed to say those things to Choseung?" Sammi said, in a quieter, hushed tone.  How long has it been since she last spoke Mandarin to anyone? Much as she liked to appear more fierce in front of Aowen, she found it difficult. 

"Choseung was relying too much on other people, and I don't want our group to be dragged down just because she slacked off."

"I understand where you're coming from, but that's not really where you're truly coming from."

"What do you mean?"

"You're not just unhappy with her performance, you're unhappy with her whole self. I don't know why you feel that way about her, but it'll be good to think through that and work it out."

"She's immature and bratty, it feels like she's only getting through because she got lucky, not because she's particularly good at dancing or singing."

"In your standards, maybe," Shinae said, sighing. "but not for the company and the coaches to say that she's unqualified for debut."

Aowen didn't say anything. "Choseung trained only for a short while and she's the youngest of our team. I hope you'll be... more understanding of her too."

Shinae said those words very slowly, noticing that Aowen's face seemed to have soured even more. This was the first time the younger girl did that, even when Sammi had just met her as a trainee.

"I know it's hard, but just try."

"I understand." Sammi nodded, but Aowen sounded softer, but not in a good way. The older wondered if she was being too harsh at this point.

"It's been a tiring week. Go back to sleep, we still have schedule tomorrow too." 

⇔

Shinae didn't quite expect herself to find Junghyuk's little apartment to be very nice, but she found herself feeling a lot less tense. Sammi, who is usually a lot more wary of coming to new places, also looked more relaxed (and somber. Did something happen before they went together?)

"How did you feel after the MuBank performance?"

"It's really good, better than what I expect." Shinae said, nodding excitedly. Sammi raised her eyebrows at Shinae's movements, and the girl immediately stopped, smiling sheepishly.

"That's good, I hope you won't be as nervous after this one. Do you girls want anything to drink?" Junghyuk said. 

"Oh, are you making barley tea?" 

"Yes," Junghyuk said, chuckling. "your senses are a lot sharper nowadays, Shinae."

"Thank you, Junghyuk-oppa." Sammi eyed Shinae intensely at the tone of her voice, and Shinae awkwardly tried to avoid eye contact. 

"Anyways, what about you, Sammi? What do you think of the performance?" 

"I think it's good, even Yoriko is doing very well on her first stage. I think most of us are quite excited with our comeback."

"That's good, although I do want to talk about another issue right now," Junghyuk said, his face turning serious.

"your powers."

Shinae seemed to suddenly lost her smile at that statement. Sammi only nodded slowly at that notion, but didn't respond more than that.

"You're asking us at this time to meet because of Yoonbyul, right?" Shinae said. 

"Uhm, yes, but also just about EMANON's well-being in general. It's a good thing that this happens early and in a small-scale, so you might be able to observe what triggers the members or what you can do in case something like this happens again."

"Those things like that... it can happen again, right?" Sammi said.

"More like it will happen, inevitably," Junghyuk said. "even those who trained for years to gain control of their powers could occasionally slip, let alone all of you who only trained for a few months."

"That feels like it'll make our powers more of a liability than something that's good." Sammi said, sighing.

"True, but I do feel like all of you have achieved a certain point where I think it's safe to work with your elements," Jung said. "you just need to learn more about it later... especially some of your members."

"What's the trigger?" 

"I'm not too sure, but be aware when you feel like you're stressing out," Jung said. "I think Yoonbyul was stressed out by a certain event, and I know she's affected easily, so keep an eye on that."

"Or really, keep an eye for yourselves too. A little flicker can still cause a huge fire."

author's note : i'm trying to balance between the slice-of-idol!au stuff and the actual core of the story but it's hard lolol.also dEAR IS AN OC GIRLGROUP FROM ME LOL SO THEY'RE A ONE-OFF DEAL (BC IM NOT THAT WILLING TO ACTUALLY label any other girlgroups lol). also half of this chapter is written at 1 am so sorry the weirdness of it all. (aowenxchoseung scenes are so fun to write lol)

(also realizing that some of these characters really could use some character development ;) like i'd literally yeet some of these people if i had telepathy like jiyoo)