Manager Kim opened the door, the voices fell silent once they noticed the newcomers. The girls walked to their chairs, and the other people also went to look for their chairs, the only one missing was Lee So man, and his secretary.  All conversations had fallen silent and the only sound was a light whisper, though it was unknown where the sound came from. But also this small whisper disappeared when the door opened again, and Lee So Man entered. He calmly walked to the only two seats left, but he did not sit down.

Once he was standing behind the chair he looked at our faces. His eyes wandered all over the room, meeting the eyes of the staff. At last he looked at us. His eyes didn’t reveal anything about his mood, they were like dark mirrors, reflecting any effort of trying to enter his thoughts. At last he opened his mouth and started to talk.

“All of you know why we are here, but I still want to make a bit of an introduction.” He nodded to his secretary, and she quickly started to type on her laptop, which was adapted to the big screen on the wall behind Lee So Man. Soon a video started, actually it was more of a fan cam. I saw six way to familiar girls dance around on the streets, the cam hopped up and down on the beat and was being pushed around in the crowd. Though all this it was still obvious we were the ones on tape, and that we were dancing to BAP Power. The dance was strong and confident, just like I remembered. At one point the cam was able to grasp our faces clearly and I could see the determined and happy expression.

Lee So Man let the cam roll until we just finished our own dance routine and just before the dance battle. “As you can see, has our new group experienced a bit of an leak when it comes to being unnoticed on their day off. Many reports are already speculating if this could be the new group of SMENT.” He made another round with his eyes past his employees, while he remained silent to let the information sink in. “The reason we have gathered here is to decide whether we are going to deny this fact and postpone their debut., maybe fire them and deny again, or if we are going to handle this situation differently.”

A shock went through me, FIRE us?? NO, I looked at the faces of my friends, if we get fired now it will be my fault. I shifted my eyes back to Lee So Man, to find him looking at me too. “Euhm, can I add something?” “Go ahead, but remember that what you say won’t always help you to reach your goal.” I was a bit taken aback by his remark, but still I continued. “If you will, I want to explain the whole situation.” I spoke, while I raised myself from my chair. “I do now recognize I have disrespected the whole company with my rash behavior. It is my fault, and only mine. See, Jinea was very tired and depressed and I wanted to cheer up HANA. We all needed some distraction. And because I am originally from the Netherlands, and later I grew up in Amerika, I didn’t know this is not allowed in Korea. I mean the street dancing. If you like, I will make an public apology, but please don’t punish the other members for my mistake.” I saw Sujin shift in her chair, and she almost interrupted me, but she kept quiet because Kim kicked her under the table.

I sat down again, relieved to have been able to, maybe, save my friends. I could never forgive myself if their dreams were crushed because of me. Jinae who was sitting next to me grabbed my hand under the table. It was such a simple gesture but it meant so much to me, I almost burst out in tears right at that moment, but I controlled myself. The discussion continued.

“We should go with Romy her proposal. We postpone the debut, fire Romy, train HANA some more, add a member, and debut again when all there rumors are forgotten.” “We should just fire whole HANA, they can’t make a successful debut with such a beginning.” The discussion heated more and more, until I couldn’t hear anything but raised voices. “Fire Romy” “Fire whole HANA” “Postpone” “Disgrace to SMENT” “They have caused enough problems.” It didn’t seem to end, and I was close to losing hope when a young man close to Lee So Man spoke up.

“SILENCE!” Everyone was so shocked that they all froze, and looked at the young man in astonishment. “Thank you.” He nodded sarcastically at the man in suites who were standing and had been yelling at one another just seconds ago. Ashamed by their own behavior they sat down one by one again, acting like nothing had happened, and looking at the man attentively. I swear I saw a small smirk around the edges of his lips. “I want to ask something to the dance choreographer of HANA.” He seemed startled, “Yes.” “What did you think about their performance?” The choreographer seemed surprised, he looked around anxiously. “Well,” he began, while the his lips nervously, “honestly, they did pretty well.” He relaxed a bit, while he only looked at the young unknown man, “they performed precise and powerful. Better than most of their practices until know.” He admitted. The young man nodded, deep in thoughts. One off the man in suits rose from his chair, “What does their level of performance has to do with the controversy of them being fired or not? And who are you to interrupt our discussion?” He looked down on the young man.

The young man didn’t seem impressed, “My name is Im Donghyun. I am in part of the marketing team of SMENT.” The suited man seemed surprised. “And the reason I interrupted your discussion is because I have thought of an extra option.” I heard Nana and Yumi gasp. Could there be a chance of us not being fired? Donghyun continued, “Let me please explain my trail of thoughts.” He smiled at Lee So Man while he directed his words to him. Lee So Man didn’t smile back, nor did he react in any way. He just continued sipping his coffee. “By this time, most of the music interested community already has heard of a new girl group from SMENT, so postponing their debut is impossible if we want to stay true to our customers. Also if we fire Romy we would have to redo and rerecord the whole album, which would consume a lot of time, effort and money.” The business men nodded, when we were talking about saving money they would listen. Hypocrites. “Also because they have been to a variety show already, netizens would be able to piece the puzzle together anyway, even if we deny the street dancers are HANA.” One of the employees asked, “So what do you propose as the solution?” This time the smirk on Donghyun’s face was obvious. “We have to make our benefit with the situation.”

“BWOH?!”

~~~***~~~

He he he, bit of a cliff hanger?

Ke ke ke, I have so much of the story in my head ready for you guys xD

Pleas bear with the less interesting parts prior t their debut. I promise Lian(Romy)/Bang parts are coming up soon!!

Have you heard of the new girl group EvoL? They are really fierce, I like that. So I was thinking about adding them in the story, but when I thought again I decided not to. Otherwise both groups would be really alike. Feel free to imagine anything you like though xD (I really see a lot of resemblance in the image concept I was thinking of for HANA xD)

Love my readers, commenter’s and my subscribers <3