A/N: ASDFGHJKL.

I'm so sorry for not getting this out sooner. ;_;

I hope y'all enjoy this, prepare your bodies for all the drama llamas.

If you haven't noticed, I revamped the front page. And, because I fell in love with so much, I just copy-pasta it for all my other applyfics. it's because im lazy, tbh. Anyways, lemme know what you think! :)

Also, I opened up YET ANOTHER applyfic Zumi what are you doing Zumi stahp

It will remain open until this is completed/completely pre-written, and if you guys have dude characters, I suggest you apply (You can apply for female characters as well, but the dudes will be the main charas.)

It's called 'X.Press - A Redemption Story'. Check it out here!

Enjoy the chapter!

Ahkum's POV

"KIM MIYOUNG, GET YOUR OUT HERE RIGHT NOW!!!"

", what's going on..." I groaned, rolling over in my bed. Jolie stirred in the bed next to mine, groaning as the light hit her face.

"God, what is it now..." Jolie mumbled, attempting to sit up in her bed. "It's the crack of dawn..."

"Olivia's going to kill her..." I grumbled, rolling myself out of my bed. "I'll go see what's up. You coming?"

"Mrrrrrrrhhhhh..." Jolie mumbled, pressing her face into her pillow. "I'll be... just a minute..."

"Ok, unnie," I said, getting to my feet and stretching luxuriously. Sometimes being the leader of this group was amazingly simple, but at times like these I wish I could just smack these girls over the head and tell them to shut up and go back to bed.

"Yah, what's going on?" I said as I stepped into the living room and immediately bumped into Soyu, who was absolutely livid. "It's 7am, we were out until 3am last night... Why are you up so early?"

"I was sleeping in my room when Kim ing Jongdae decided to call me at the asscrack of dawn!" Soyu screeched, waving her phone around maniacally. "He told me to check the news and get Miyoung and what the hell do I find?! This buttload of crap!"

"Calm down, let me see," I said, attempting to stop Soyu's flailing arms. After prying her phone from her steel grip, I scrolled through Soyu's news feed before seeing a headline that made me stop cold.

BREAKING: EXO's Luhan reported to have filed to nullify his contract with SM Entertainment

"What..." I gasped, quickly skimming through the rest of the article. Health problems, contract nullification, dropping stocks... .

"What does Miyoung have to do with this?" I said, handing the phone back to Soyu. "What does she know?"

"Apparently Luhan told her," Soyu said, resuming her pacing. "She went to go get him yesterday morning, remember? I kinda assumed they slept together since she never came back out, but apparently he told her then and she broke down and passed out or fell asleep or something."

"Who slept with who?" Olivia grumbled, emerging from the room she shared with Danni. "What the is going on?"

"Yet another member of our brother group has decided to leave," Soyu announced, flopping down onto the couch.

"Who? Is it Zitao? Because that would make me so ing happy, you don't even know," Olivia said, joining Soyu on our tiny couch.

"You two need to kiss and make up already, seriously," Soyu snapped as Olivia made a face and shoved Soyu away from her. "It's Luhan."

"Deer Boy? Why?" Olivia said, immediately sitting up.

"Something about health problems and ," Soyu said, waving her arms around. "I don't know whether I should be pissed at him or pissed at Baekhwa-ssi or the company."

"Ooh, never a good idea to be mad at Baekhwa," Olivia said. "He's scary when he's mad. Like, I was around him when Jessica got kicked out of SNSD, he looked like he was gonna kick Jessica's . Literally."

"Pffft, he always looks like that," Soyu scoffed. "He need to just let loose and take the massive stick he has out of his -"

"Yah, kids, are you up? We need to go down to the SM Building for a brief- oh, you already know..." Mimi said as she strolled into our dorm, stopping when she saw the three of us talking.

"The internet is way ahead of you," Soyu said, waving her phone around.

"Yeah, well, you're still going to the briefing anyway," Mimi said, turning to exit the dorm. "Go get everyone up, I'll meet you at the car."

"Oh! I still have to go grill Miyoung!" Soyu said, leaping to her feet. "I'll meet you guys outside."

With that statement, Soyu sprinted down the hall, throwing the door to Miyoung's room wide open. Letting out an animalistic screech, she charged into Miyoung's room, slamming the door behind her.

"She's right, you know," I remarked over the muffled shrieks and cries of 'oh my god, what the are you doing?!' "About you and Zitao."

"What about me and Zitao?" Olivia scoffed, making her way to the bathroom.

"You need to stop acting like a kid and make up already," I said, following her. "You're killing him."

"I'm killing him?" Olivia shrieked, whirling around to face me. "His face is all over the freaking internet, and I still have no idea who that chick is. He basically led me on, for christ's sake!"

"Ollie," I said, trying to calm her down. "You don't even know the who-"

"No," Olivia said, her voice cracking ever so slightly. "I'm done."

And with that, she walked into her bedroom, shutting the door behind her.

Key's POV

Without a comeback planned anytime soon, aimlessly wandering around the SM Building seemed to become a new hobby of mine. With Taemin and Minho out shopping, Jinki out eating chicken, and Jonghyun somewhere making out with Ahkum, I was left to my own devices.

As I strolled past the practice rooms, nodding to the handful of trainees that bowed shyly and moved out of my way, an unfamiliar song suddenly drifted through the air out of one of the practice rooms. Poking my head into a couple of rooms, I soon located the source of the singing.

"Nan cham babocheoreom geudaeman bulleoyo
Eonjengan geudaedo nal bogetjyo
Hancham gidarida nunmuri goyeoyo
Ireoke tto haruga jinajyo..."

Jolie was seated on a stool in the middle of the practice room, back towards me and eyes closed. Although the emotion and feeling behind the song was clearly evident, her accent made her stumble over a few words, and her frustration showed whenever she scrunched up her face in disappointment. Nevertheless, she continued to sing, and I continued to watch, completely mesmerized, not stopping till she reached the end of the song.

"Your accent's not that bad, Highness," I said, which made her jump in surprise and whip around to face me. "The emotion's spot on."

"How long have you been watching me?" Jolie inquired, standing up.

"Oh, a while," I said, waving my hand indifferently. "Is that off your upcoming album?"

"Yes," Jolie said, going over to her things to pick up a sheet of lyrics. "Danni wrote a duet for Ahkum and I, we plan on recording it within the next month."

"Danni wrote that?" I said, walking over to peer over Jolie's shoulder. "But the kid's so... happy."

"Yes, well, this was back when Sehun and Minah were an undefined item and the poor child was horribly saddened," Jolie said, shifting slightly. It was then when I realized how close our faces were. "She returned to her old, bubbly self after Sehun so eloquently courted her."

"I see," I said, reluctantly pulling back. "By the way, where is the rest of the troop?"

"Saera is with Danni in the recording studio, once again," Jolie said, sighing. "The other girls are god knows where. I came back down here to practice our duet by myself, since Ahkum is off... Enjoying herself."

"Aha," I laughed. "Well, if you're not busy, do you wanna go grab a bite to eat? I haven't had anything to eat yet, and I bet you haven't either."

"Untrue!" Jolie gasped, leaning over the smack me playfully. "I had... erm... an apple for breakfast?"

"Yeah, and that's totally a nutritious breakfast," I scoffed. "Debut diet's over, Highness, let's go eat."

"But..." Jolie said, biting her lip. "I need to practice... and shouldn't you be down at MBC for Red Velvet's comeback?"

"Manager-hyung couldn't get us a ride," I said, lying through my teeth. In reality, I had begged him to let me come to the SM Building once I got wind that Zenith was going to be recording all day. Once he finally gave in, the rest of the members started complaining about going, which finally lead to him dropping the five of us down here.

"I dunno..." She said, moving to restart the instrumental track for her duet.

"Jolie," I said, grabbing her hand, stopping her in her tracks. I felt my heartbeat start to quicken and my palms start to sweat, but I buried my feelings and simply focused on her face. "C'mon, you can take a 15 minute break, can't you? You need to eat. Cofioca's right across the street, and I think there's a new pancake place somewhere arou-"

"Pancakes?" Jolie said, immediately brightening up. "Well... Alright. I'd love to."

"Great," I said, grinning. "Lemme just go grab my stuff."

Joohyun's POV

"We really did well today," I said, as the other three girl clambered into the car. "Great job, girls, we nailed it."

"Yeah," Seulgi said, waiving to a couple of screaming fans through the van's window. "I mean, I love this image and everything, but..."

"But what?" Seungwan laughed, leaning over to poke Seulgi playfully.

"The song's not charting very well," Seulgi said. "Happiness peaked at #5, and Be Natural has barely passed the top 50 so far. Are we doing something wrong?"

"We're not doing anything wrong," I said, leaning over to brush some hair out of Seulgi's face. "It's not our fault. There's got to be some other factor to why Be Natural isn't doing as well as Happiness."

"Yeah, our attention-hogging labelmates," Sooyoung suddenly spat, eyes glued to her phone.

"Sooyoung, what the hell are you talking about?" Seungwan said, leaning over to read what Sooyoung was looking at.

"Just look at this! Look!" Sooyoung shrieked, ing her phone into Seungwan's face. "They have the ing nerve to do that to us!"

"Park Sooyoung, you watch your language," I snapped, sending her a glare. She immediately withered under my harsh gaze, but I saw her continue to silently fume over whatever it was she saw. "Seungwan, let me see."

Seungwan silently handed me Sooyoung's phone, a dark look setting in on her face. Scrolling through all of the netizen comments, I felt my heart start to sink.

Article: Red Velvet reveal MV for 'Be Natural'!

[+4,294, -491] It's a classy concept, I'll give 'em that, but... It's like the company is trying too hard to make a second Zenith.

[+3,927, -357] Complete 180 from their other concept; looks like SM realized that y sells. Zenith would do this concept way better.

[+3,242, -213] Ehh, the new look is ok, MV was pretty good, but the song definitely didn't meet my expectations. Looking forward to Zenith's album way more.

[+2,826, -1,328] SM should have never debuted this group. Zenith is making way more money for the company. SM will come to their senses soon and disband them.

"Oh... My goodness..." I breathed as I scrolled through pages and pages of these comments.

"That's it, then," Seungwan growled, leaning back into her seat. "Happiness did so well because we were the new thing from SM, but now that Zenith is around, we're suddenly second best. We had one ing month in the spotlight and now we're done for."

"And Olivia and Danni almost ing debuted with us!" Sooyoung snapped. "They must be so ing smug, they're in the group that's doing so damn well while we're stuck over here trying to promote our asses off an-"

"Alright, that's enough," I said, looking up from Sooyoung's phone. "Ok, yes, it that Be Natural isn't doing as well as Happiness, but Zenith are our labelmates, and Kang Dayeon just so happens to be my best friend. We are going to be happy for them, and I refuse to hear anymore talking about them behind their backs, is that clear? We are labelmates. We have each other's backs. And I promise you, we are not going to debut until we get to be 40 and we all get too old to do the Happiness choreography, you hear me?"

"Unnie, you shouldn't be saying that," Seungwan said, a playful smirk appearing on her face. "You're already halfway there."

"YAH!" I shrieked, leaning over to pinch Seungwan's cheeks. "We don't joke about that, remember?"

Seulgi and Sooyoung burst out laughing as Seungwan pouted playfully, effectively dissolving the sour mood. The four of us settled down for the ride home, but despite the huge pep talk I just gave to the younger members, I couldn't help but feel just the tiniest bit threatened by our labelmates and my best friend who happened to be in the group that was shooting to the top.