Strengths and Weaknesses

They had watched the girls’ audition videos over and over again, noting what they had to work on for each one and what they needed to further develop. Today would be their first training day and he and the guys decided to talk to them first one by one to set up goals for them.

Now, they were talking to Chaerin. Teddy, along with the rest of their group, had voted on her leading the girls. She might be a maknae to Dara and Bom but she had the ability to hold them all together.

“You’re rapping is great” Ji told her “We have to improve it further, though.”

“And you have very cool moves” Young Bae added “I saw you dance and that’s bad-@ss.”

“But your NOT bad-@ss enough yet” Seung-ri pitched in, receiving a raised brow from Chaerin.

Ji couldn’t help but smile. Seung-ri had a tendency to be off his rocker with his comments sometimes. Chaerin, obviously, knew she was a “better” dancer than Seung-ri. “We can work on all those while training so expect to get tired and cranky and just plain sick of all the exercises we’ve prepared for you.”

Chaerin nodded. “I will do my best sunbaes”.

“That’s a good start” T.O.P. told her.

“Please call Noona Dara” Daesung asked.Chaerin stood up from her seat and nodded to each one of them before leaving.

Ji felt his heartbeat go up a notch as Dara opened the door. She was as pale as paper.

“Anyeong sunbaes” she greeted them before taking her seat.

“Anyeong” they greeted back.

“Are you ok noona?” Daesung asked, concern lacing his voice.

Dara bowed her head lower and shook it. “I was so nervous about meeting with Big Bang oppas that I wasn’t able to eat breakfast.”

“Nervous?” Seung-ri raised.

Dara nodded. “Forgive me - I - I’m a fan of yours and you’re all really - wonderful - performers. To be trained by you - it - it is - is such a big honor for all of us.”

She said it haltingly but with such sincerity that Ji felt his group mates touched by her words. Even he was touched by it.

“Thank you Dara noona” Young Bae announced “It is also an honor for us to be asked to train your group.”

“We see much potential in all of you but a lot is yet to be done” Ji added. “We have been watching your videos and so far, we see you as the one who must improve on a lot.”

“But we’ll help you through all those noona” Seung-ri told her, now, earning a raised eyebrow from Ji. Who told him to be so cutesy all of a sudden?

“Thank you senior” Dara replied, smiling at the maknae gratefully.

He and Young Bae exchanged “go-figure” glances.

“We’ll help you with your vocals and with your dancing” T.O.P. told her “But we haven’t heard you rap so we’re not sure if you can.”

Dara shook her head. “I cannot rap like you sunbae. You’re very good at that but I sound really bad.”

T.O.P. managed to blush a little and the next he spoke, he was looking at the wall instead of her. “Oh… uhmmm… we’ll see if we can train you for that as well.”

“We’ll train you in all the arts of performing to the best that we can but you have to always cooperate with us” Ji told her and for the first time in what was like years, she looked directly at him and nodded with determination.

“I will do as sunbaes say” she said “I will do my very best.”

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Weary bones make Dara a very hungry noona

“Let’s start over again” Young Bae told them as he played a few short keys on the piano. “Bom-unnie, you have to sound like this…” and YB demonstrated how to hit the high note “Minji and Chaerin will go a note lower and Dara noona will remain neutral… Can we do this?”

They all nodded.“Ok. One… two… three…”

“La… la la la la la lala… La… di da di lala… La dida… La lala…”

“That’s great” YB told them “Now I know you’re getting a little tired but let’s go at it one more time, ok?”

After 30 minutes…

“You guys are starting to sound better” Daesung, who was seated right across YB, commented.

“Thank you sunbae” Minji replied.

“An important note you musn’t forget: from now on… no one is to drink cold water. You all drink lukewarm water.”

Dara puffed her cheeks at that and Bom pouted her lips.

“I’ll make sure that everybody follows that sunbae” Chaerin told Daesung.

All three - Bom, Dara, and Minji - felt their faces getting longer.

“I was thinking of drinking a tall glass of iced lemonade after this” Dara whispered to the other two.

“Me too” Bom agreed “But I’m sure Chaerin-ah will clobber the three of us when she sees us holding those glasses.”

“Does this mean we can’t eat ice cream too???” Minji asked worriedly.

“KYA!” Dara reacted “No! No! I love Ice cream!!!”

“Hey you three! What are you whispering about over there?” Chaerin called them “Let’s go back to practice. YB-sunbae thinks we should sing a full song.”

“Oh!” Bom exclaimed “What song?”

“I’m thinking we should do Rihanna’s Take a Bow” Chaerin replied.

After two hours…

In the middle of singing the song’s bridge, Bom was distracted by Dara’s rumbling stomach so instead of finishing off with a strong note, she laughed shakily.

“Bom-unnie!” Chaerin scolded “Dara-unnie!”

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry” Bom replied, laughing while wiping the tears out of her eyes.

“Sorry Chaerin-ah. I tried controlling my stomach…”

Chaerin raised her brow at the both of them

“Really I did!”

“Haissssttt. This is hopeless” Chaerin told them “Have you not eaten again Dara-unnie?”

“I did” Dara replied “but I think my body is just not used to practicing this hard. Sorry everyone. ”

YB and Daesung laughed.

“Well, we can take a break -“ YB began but broke off when they heard the training room’s door slide open.Ji and T.O.P. came inside with bags of take-out food.

“Good timing!” Daesung shouted.

“Why? What happened?” T.O.P. asked

“I’m just about to call for a break” YB replied “Go girls. I’m sure your Ji-oppa brought something for you.”

Ji felt the girls look at him happily, well… except for Chaerin who seemed to not totally like the idea of having a break and Dara, who was obviously happy at the thought of food, but wasn’t really looking at him AGAIN.

Actually, just the two girls - Bom and Minji were smiling widely and LOOKING at him.

“Thank you Oppa. I will eat this heartily” Dara told him, though.

“We’re bringing in a voice coach, a dance trainer, and a stylist for you girls. Teddy is worried that training you might also eat up our training time but we’ll still be on top of everything you do” Ji announced.

“Here are your training schedules” T.O.P. added, handing each one of them a card of their schedules.Dara’s stomach rumbled again and Bom let out squealing laughter.

“Dara!!!” Chaerin shouted “You’re already eating and you’re stomach is still rumbling???”

Dara raised her hands to her face in embarrassment. “I’m sorry everyone.”

“Maybe noona’s stomach was shocked at her full training schedule” YB told them and everybody smiled at that.