January 16th 2015

When Polaris had found out the they had been nominated for the Best Newcomer Award along with four other groups at the Golden Disk Awards, they hadn’t quite believed Daeseun. His words hadn’t made sense to Eunjung, even though she knew that they had all worked extremely hard to get the popularity that they had found. She remembered that she had asked him to repeat himself at least two times, and their manager had obliged, chuckling at how shocked they all were. With everything that had happened since the news had found them - arguments with Jimin, Suji being introduced to them, their extremely stressful comeback with their second mini album and now news of Hyo’s death, Polaris hadn’t thought about the ceremony. At least until the day before.

But now the time was upon them, and they had to get ready to attend with the majority of SM Town; they knew that their table would be smack bang between EXO and Acid Teochii’s, so at least they would know the people that they would be sitting by. That was something. Before they knew it, they had been shoved into dresses (with colours from their comeback, of course), their hair had been put through torture to look pretty and what seemed like tons of make-up had been applied carefully to their faces. The car ride to the venue had been quiet; Jimin hadn’t taken any photographs to upload to Instagram, which was highly unusual. Even Chaerin hadn’t spoken much.

The ceremony itself was enjoyable enough - the performances had been amazing, and Polaris were due to get up after the Best Newcomers Award had been announced - they were to sing their latest comeback song, ‘Dream’, and perform a special stage, where they would be performing with Sigma, who were seated further away from them. Eunjung wasn’t sure why they hadn’t been placed together, but it wasn’t something that bothered her too much; she didn’t actually remember the last time she had had a full conversation with Bokyung. In fact, the only member of their sister group that had even spoken to her since they had arrived back in Korea after being in Japan for months on end had been Kin. 

Finally, the category that Polaris had been nominated in was due to be announced, and the host of the Golden Disk Awards took to the stage again, envelope in stage.

“This year, we have two winners of the Best Newcomer Award, out of five different nominees...” He paused for a second or two, and Eunjung saw her members leaning forward onto the table nervously out of the corner of her eye. “Firstly, Polaris from SM!” 

Eunjung’s elbow slid off the edge of the table, nearly causing her to fall head first into the glasses and drinks in front of her. The cameras turned in their direction quickly as the other girls realised that had just been said. 

“WHAT IS THIS?!” Chaerin screamed in Subin’s ear, causing the oldest member to wince as she started pulling Seohyeon out of her seat. 

“Eunjungie!” Gayoon shouted at the leader. “Jungie, we won! We won! Why aren’t you getting up?!” She shook the Brit by her shoulder roughly.

She couldn’t believe it; it was like some sort of dream that was coming true and even though Eunjung had been wishing that they would win the award for the longest time, now that they had, she didn’t quite know what to do. 

All she really registered as the six of them made their way to the stage was EXO going crazy about them winning; by the time Polaris was stood behind the microphone, Chaerin clutching the trophy in trembling hands, Eunjung had recovered enough to feel her rising excitement and pride. She swung her eyes over the EXO table until she spotted D.O grinning wildly while Chen jumped up and down beside him like a maniac, which brought a smile to her face. 

The host stepped forward again as the cheers died down a little, ready to announce the next winner. “And the second winner of the Best Newcomer Award is… Acid Teochii from Ace!”

Polaris burst into applause, grins on each of their faces as the venue was once again filled with screams; Eunjung couldn’t help but feel sorry for the group as they made their way to the stage, each of the artists they passed offering sympathetic smiles. She didn’t have to be that close to the members to know that they didn’t want pity from their sunbaes. 

“Wow!” she began when the eleven members of Acid Teochii finally stood beside them, shoved in front of the microphone by Subin. “I don’t know what to say! Thank you so much everyone who voted for us! We will do our best to continue to make good music and make you all proud! You won’t regret giving us this award, I promise you! Please look after us for our remaining comebacks!” 

The cheers and screams from the audience was deafening as Eunjung ended her speech. Chaerin passed her the trophy and she placed it in front of them on the podium. All she was aware of was Chaerin and Seohyeon jumping around happily behind her and Gayoon’s constant whispers of “Oh my god, we actually won something. Eunjung, we actually won something.” She could hear someone sniffing behind her and assumed that Jimin was crying; indeed, Eunjung’s eyes were filling with tears as she took in the sight before her - thousands of fans who wouldn’t stop cheering for Polaris and Acid Teochii, their sunbaes and SM Town friends and colleages grinning up at them, clapping like mad. 

“I’m just happy I didn’t fall flat on my face while walking up here!” Chaerin shouted into the microphone as she leaned around the leader.

“Would you like to say a few words, Myung?” the host asked the leader of Acid Teochii, smiling a little.

“Do you mind, Eunjung-ah? I don’t want to steal away your limelight…” Myung asked, turning to the vocalist, the light shining off of his bright blue hair. She smiled and shook her head, shuffling back so that he could get near enough to the microphone. She watched him take a deep breath, and then he began. 

“Okay, as you all know… we’ve been through some…tough times recently. Back in August, I was shot on stage and spent a long time recovering from it. At the end of October, a member of the Acid Teochii family decided to leave us, and less than two weeks ago, the said member was found dead in his apartment.”

The audience descended into a silence that seemed to press onto their ears; “What’s going on?” Seohyeon breathed in Eunjung’s direction as they watched Myung who stood, shaking and emotional, at the podium.

“Let him get it off his chest,” she muttered back, feeling Jimin move from her right to stand beside Hanni. 

“Shouldn’t we stop him?” Gayoon asked quietly, nervous.

“Let him speak,” Subin repeated.

“I’d just like to tell you all that I’m sorry. I’m sorry to my fellow members, we all lost a friend. I’m sorry to Hyo’s family who lost a son. I’m sorry to everyone in the Ace Dynasty, they all lost a colleague. I’m sorry to all of our friends, who have had to deal with all of us breaking down, slowly, one by one and falling into depression. I’m sorry to our manager, Namjoon, for having to put up with all of our problems. For the first group you managed, we haven’t been an easy one, I know. I’m also sorry to our fans, all of our fans out there who have dealt with our scandals, all of our fans who have supported and defended us no matter what.
“I’m sorry I’ve let you all down,” he carried on, tears welling up in his eyes, throat seeming to close around the words before releasing them painfully. “I plan to step down from the leader position, I haven’t been a very good one and I can’t look after my team very well. I’m so sorry to all of you. Thank you for this award, it means the world to us all. Thank you to Eunjung and the rest of Polaris, I know you were trying to be happy and joyful to keep the attention off us so we didn’t feel awkward.

Thank you for all everyone has done for us all. I’m so sorry.” 

The blue-haired leader bowed to the audience, tears running down his face and Eunjung pressed a hand to to stop herself from crying, too, because Jimin already was and she, Eunjung, was meant to be the strong, charismatic leader of Polaris. So she pushed back her tears as she watched Myung pass the microphone back to the host and make his way off stage. It didn’t take long before the rest of Acid Teochii followed him. The audience stayed silent for a few seconds before they began talking and shouting, so Eunjung approached the host again. She took the microphone from his still outstretched hand and cleared ; all eyes were once again on her, and this time, she was standing apart from her group.

“On behalf of Polaris, I would like to congratulate Acid Teochii for winning this award alongside us,” she began, unsure of what it was that she was actually doing; out of the corner of her eye, she saw Chaerin step over to where Jimin still stood and begin to comfort the visual. “It is a great honour for us to be able to stand here with people that have grown into good friends of ours,” 

“They truly deserve every single award and piece of praise that they get,” Seohyeon said, stepping forward and linking her arm firmly through Eunjung’s. To be honest, the maknae was the last person that the leader thought would come and save her, but the dancer had her moments, after all. She was nothing if not unpredictable. “After the awful last few months that Acid Teochii have had, they still came today, despite probably not feeling up to it, and accepted this award with grace and thankfulness. So why don’t we all give them all a huge round of ap-”

The maknae’s words could no longer be heard, as the group launched into a deafening round of applause, cheering and screaming battering at Eunjung’s eardrums. The host seemed to have come to his senses and finally stepped forward to take the microphone from the two girls. What he said next didn’t register to the leader as the six girls were swept off the stage. By the time she realised where they were going, Jimin was already launching herself at Hanni to give him a comforting hug. By the looks of it, some sort of argument had been going on in the backstage hallway between the members of the Ace group and there was a red hand print on Myung’s cheek.

“What was that all about?” Eunjung demanded as she stormed over to him, choosing not to ask who had put the print on his face; her voice was shaking almost almost as much as her hands were. “You can’t just quit being a leader! That’s what we bonded over!”

“Of course,” he replied after laughing shakily. “So the other members of my group keep telling me… but it’s already been done, I’ve already spoken to our CEO about stepping down.”

‘Oh, for Gods sake,’ was all Eunjung could think as she planted her head on his shoulder. “You’re a complete and total idiot, you know that? You’re doing great, okay? It wasn’t your fault. You’re an idiot.”

“I know,” Myung breathed, sounding utterly broken. “I know I’m an idiot.”

She was about to answer when a girl who clearly worked backstage came running down the hallway towards them. 

“Polaris?” she asked, breathing heavily. 

“Yes, we’re Polaris,” Subin answered when she realised that Eunjung wouldn’t talk. 

“You’re needed on stage for your performance,” the black-clad woman told them. “If you follow me, we can fix up your make-up before you go on.”

As the members hugged Acid Teochii, Eunjung pointed gravely at Myung.

“This conversation isn’t over, mister,” she warned him darkly in English before giving him a slight smile as she began to walk towards where her group was waiting for her. “Everything will be okay, guys. Just watch.”

I updated today instead of Thursday because I start work tomorrow and IDK if I'd have time on update day :) Ah, I'm catching up to Anna! Enjoy, guys, and wish me luck!