❝13 Dream Thirteen  
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                                   March 2013

Seungho let out a loud sigh as he walked into the FNC's main business building, greeting some of the people at the front desk before making a beeline for one of the meeting rooms.

It was 4 AM, extremely too early for him to be up, but he knew today was an important day.

Today was Dream Girls' official start of their debut promotions. 

As much as he was proud of the girls for getting this far, Seungho could only cringe at the work that was about to swamp him. Fortunately though, the meeting held for today was to introduce a new manager on the team along with an already set schedule for what was going on for the month. That meant less planning for Seungho and more times worrying over other things as he pushed some duties to the other manager.

"Ah, Seungho. There you are." Mr. Hong greeted him when Seungho pushed the door open. Seungho greeted the older man back before freezing in the spot at the other person in the room. 

"Oi, if it isn't Seung to the ho...Man, that never gets old." Seungho suppressed the need to smash his head into the nearest wall as an embarrassed blush made it's way onto his cheeks. 

"Oh? You both know each other, Sumi?" Mr. Hong asked with a raised brow as he eyed the Seungho and Sumi, who was sat near him. 

Sumi's pink painted lips molded themselves into a devious smirk as she kept her eyes on Seungho, who shuffled to his seat across from her with eyes solely on the table. 

"We dated before." Sumi answered casually as she leaned forward with her hand propped up and rested her open palm on her chin. 

"Biggest mistake of my life." Seungho murmured and Mr. Hong let out a loud laugh at this. 

"How fun! A conflict between two people at work only drives them to do better! Good working motivation." 

Seungho gave Mr. Hong a blank look at this, "Quick question, Mr. Hong. What kind of dramas do you watch?" 

"Anyway," Sumi started before things got out of track. "I don't think an introduction is in order, but I might as well do it. Nice to meet you, Seungho. I'm Ryu Sumi, your co-manager for Dream Girls and full time manager for R.E.M. It's going to be a pleasure to work with you." 

When Sumi got up and did a quick bow, Seungho mouthed a 'Help me' to Mr. Hong, who gave good natured smile, but his eyes showed mischievous amusement. 

~~~~

Seulki blinked rapidly, trying to drive away the sleep that kept trying to drag her eyes back into the dream world. She would have brought her hands up to try and forcefully open them, but currently they were sprawled out in front of her as the Manicurist-unnie painted a pale pink on her fingers. 

She really didn't understand why she and the rest of the members needed to get their nails painted, but Kairi explained to her that it was part of the look they needed to maintain. Seulki still didn't really understand after the explanation, but just nodded anyway. 

 It was terribly early in the morning and Kairi made sure to wake everyone up really early so they could be on time to get to salon to get their makeup done. Breakfast was skipped over in favor of being early, but currently, eventhe growls of her stomach couldn't stop the sandman that was currently working overtime to coax her back to sleep. 

Just as her eyes were going to give up, something cold made contact with her cheek. Seulki squeaked, jumping a little before there was soft giggling from both the Manicurist and Song Yi. The older girl twisted open the bottle cap of water as the Manicurist went back to work. 

"Sorry about that, but we can't have you falling asleep again. You don't wake up as easily at Yukari-unnie or Kairi-unnie." At the mention of her name, Yukari, who was a few feet away getting a pedicure let out a loud snort in her sleep. Kairi in the seat next to her, let out a grunt and shifted in her seat, still asleep as well. 

Meanwhile in one of the hairdressing stations, Minah was cheerfully chatting with Sumi, their new co-manager, as the girl was getting her hair trimmed. Hyun Jae was at the nails station with Seulki, seated a few seats away. She looked a little tired, but she didn't look like she was going to fall asleep anytime soon especially since her eyes were glued to the television near by watching an anime. Seungho was the only person not present as he went out to get breakfast for the girls. 

"It's okay, Unnie....I just wasn't expecting it." Seulki muttered, heat at her cheeks as a small flush of embarrassment took over from her ious squeak. Song Yi smiled softly at the other girl before she nudged the open water bottle at her. 

"Want some?" she asked and Seulki nodded her head. Tilting her head back, she opened as the other girl poured a sufficient amount of water for her. She let out a rushed apology when some water droplets landed on the younger's cheeks. 

After cleaning the water off the girl, Song Yi took a seat next to Seulki. She like the other girl, was currently makeup free because it was decided that they would be better off to eat first. Seulki couldn't help, but feel a bit jealous though because she thought Song Yi was pretty with either makeup or not on. Seulki, on the other hand, thought she looked better with the makeup. 

"Something wrong?" Song Yi asked when she noticed Seulki's stare. 

"N-no," Seulki stuttered out. "I didn't mean to stare, Unnie." 

Song Yi stared at Seulki for a moment, her expression changing rather quickly before she settled for a soft frown, "Seulki, please don't look down on yourself." 

Seulki had a look of surprise on her face for a moment and opened to protest, but Seungho took the time to come into the salon. Bags in his hands as he let out a loud yell that food was currently in the building. 

As soon as food was mentioned, Yukari's eyes snapped open and flailed her arms in excitement, completely ignoring that there was person close to her. 

"FOOD!" 

"Miyamoto Yukari!" A yell that could only belong to an angry Kairi echoed through the salon. 

"I'm sorry, Kairi-unnie! I didn't mean to hit you! I don't want to die yet! I love life and I love you. PLEASE DON'T KILL ME!" 

Song Yi let out a small sigh, getting up from her seat to stop the murder that was about to take place. Before she left though, she placed a hand on Seulki's head. 

"Today's a happy day, so negative thoughts go away." Song Yi chanted before she walked over to the two older members. 

Seulki blinked a couple of times before she let a small smile grace her features. 

~~~~

Kairi took a deep breath as she looked over her appearance in the fully body mirror of the dressing room in front of her. She was the first of the girls to put on her stage outfit as the rest of the girls were busy getting their last minute touches in. 

Some nervousness was brewing in her stomach, but the reason wasn't because of getting filmed and performing for the first time on the stage. It was rather that today was the official the day that she would have to start making good impressions and start her leader responsibility. 

Not that she wasn't doing them before, but now with the girls going to be more in the public light, she needed to make decisions for the group and keep up appearances. The first step of that was handing out Dream Girls CDs to sunbaes. 

Kairi despite having interacted with some sunbae singers, had not interacted with sunbae singers from outside of the company. FNC always had a bit of a family vibe going on and it was comfortable, but now meeting new people outside of the bubble, she couldn't help but be nervous. 

"Uhh, are you going to just stand there? Cause this was a communal mirror the last time I checked." Hyun Jae's voice popped Kairi's thoughts causing her to jump a bit. 

"Oh, sorry." she said, a bit distracted, not noticing Hyun Jae's eyebrow raise, but didn't question it. Yukari came bounding over, arms locked with Minah as they skipped in, both dressed in their stage outfits. A few moments after Seulki and Song Yi walked over, dressed up as well. 

"This is so exciting! This is the day that we're finally stepping into this life." Minah commented as Yukari nodded her head. 

"Hey, guys." Sumi appeared with five copies of their CD in her hands, "We kind of ran overtime with preparations so you'll only have time to greet Ladies' Code next door. Go greet them and have a small chat before coming back, okay?" 

"Okay!" Minah and Yukari chimed in unison, excited at the prospect of meeting new people. Seulki gave a shy nod while Song Yi placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. Hyun Jae merely grunted while Kairi gulped down the knot in . 

After getting shoved the CDs, Kairi and the rest of the girls were basically thrown out of their dressing room. Kairi stared at the the door   in front of hrt that had a paper taped on it with LADIES' CODE printed in the middle. 

"Umm, Unnie? Is something wrong?" Song Yi asked as she eyed Kairi, who jolted back and gave her a small smile. 

"Oh, sorry. Just still a little sleepy." 

"Me too. I should have slept more." Yukari pouted, disregarding the fact she had taken naps at the salon, in the car and even in the waiting room. 

"Well, are we going in or what." Hyun Jae stated more than asked with arms crossed to her chest. Kairi frowned at her, but still brought a hand and knocked on the door. 

Almost immediately the door swung open and a face greeted them. 

"Oh, Hi! Come on in, you guys are Dream Girls, right?" Kairi recognized the girl to be Ladies' Code main vocal, Soojung as she ushered in the girls. 

After doing a simple greeting and introducing each other, Kairi coughed before she stepped forward. 

"We just wanted to say Hi and give you our CD." Kairi stated stiffly, but everyone smiled encouragingly especially Ashley, the leader of Ladies' Code who stepped forward and accepted the CD with a bow that the other girl immediately gestured back.

"Thank you. Wow, we heard your song before and we were really excited to meet you." Ashley stated and Kairi blinked at her. 

"Really? Thank you, I didn't know."

"'Bad Girl' is great song too" Minah chimed in as she and Yukari started singing and dancing 'Bad Girl' which made the members of Ladies' Code giggle and started singing along too. 

The girls chatted for a bit even Hyun Jae and Seulki with the accompany of a cheerful Minah, who took care of awkward silences with her friendliness. Yukari was busy talking rapid Japanese with Rise as Song Yi watched on, with a tilt of her head. Ashley and Kairi were talking with laughs and smiles until they had to leave. 

After bidding them goodbye and Hwaitings for rookie groups, Kairi smiled as she re-entered their dressing room. Hyun Jae eyed her before she huffed. 

"And you were nervous for what." Kairi snapped her eyes to her. 

"How did you know I was nervous." 

"You're not exactly good at hiding your emotions sometimes...especially when you were staring at the door like you were going to a funeral." 

Kairi blinked twice before she let out a small chuckle as she reached forward and patted Hyun Jae on the shoulder. Hyun Jae glared at her gesture and gently started to shrug it away. After she pulled her hand away, Kairi walked to Minah, who had been watching the interaction with a wide smile. 

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✉(A/N).

Out of all the idols groups...I added Ladies' Code because I felt they would most likely get along because they debut about the same time. Also, I'm a fan of Ladies' Code... 

We also meet the other manager of Dream Girls. Will her and Seungho end up together? Possibly cause I think it would be cute and I would love to have the girls make fun/help them get together. 

With that the girls have finally debuted on M Countdown! Exciting stuff. I hope you guys don't mind that I don't really go into detail about their stage performances, I rather focus on their behind the scenes events. 

On another note, i recently realized that this story has reached Chapter Thirteen which is rather shocking cause I feel like I started the story not that long ago. 

( h a r l e q u i n. )