“Well that’s interesting,” Eunhwa mutters to herself, scrolling through the comments on her phone. “These are some unique reactions,” narrowing her eyes to read through the rows and rows of text on the screen, Eunhwa continues looking through the multiple SNS posts.

                “Hey unnie,” Solbi jumps onto the couch Eunhwa was laying on, causing the older girl to begrudgingly bring her legs closer to her in order to make more room for the energetic dancer. “What are you doing?” Solbi crawls over Eunhwa’s folded legs in order to try and look at the leader’s phone. “Texting your boyfriend?” Solbi teases, drawing out the last word in an attempt to bait Eunhwa into paying more attention to her. Pouting when it doesn’t work, Solbi arranges herself more comfortably on the couch and pokes Eunhwa with her foot. “Unnie, please tell me?”

                “Fine, since you asked so nicely,” Eunhwa rolls her eyes at Solbi’s attempt to make her feel guilty and puts her phone down. She wrinkles her nose after realizing that Solbi had poked her with a shoe on her foot (gross) before speaking. “Remember the interview we had a couple days ago?”

                “You mean last week? With that rude interviewer?” Solbi raises her eyebrows. “How could I forget? We got in so much trouble with the company when we came back. And by we I mean mostly Ina but we still had to sit through that lecture.”

                “Yeah well, have you been online lately? There are a lot of posts and stuff about it. Looks like we’re getting attention – just not the kind we want,” Eunhwa picks her phone up, scrolling through the comments and reading some out loud. “’Ina ssi needs to hold her tongue – she’ll never survive as an idol at this rate’, ‘I can’t believe a rookie group would do that, how immature and rude of them!’, ‘Min doesn’t deserve this kind of treatment. She rose from the bottom using hard work and dedication and then this fake idol group comes and stomps on all of her work!’.”

                “Whoa, that is some negative feedback,” Solbi’s eyes narrow. “It wasn’t even our fault. She was the one who fired the first shot.”

                “There’s a saying in the Bible about turning the other cheek when you get slapped Solbi,” Eunhwa replies.

                “I’m not Christian,” Solbi snorts.

                “The concept still applies,” Eunhwa rolls her eyes. “Anyways, those are only a couple. There are few more positive ones. ‘Good for Cosmos! It’s nice to see them standing up for themselves. I’m tired of idols having to take from their sunbaes because their new or whatever’, ‘Ina knows what she wants and she isn’t afraid to do what it takes to get there – just my kind of woman. Definitely looking into Cosmos now! Fighting!’, ‘Min definitely overstepped her boundaries. What was she thinking? She probably thought that because it was a new group from a not so known company that she could get away with bullying them’.”

                “Okay, so there are some people on our side too,” Solbi concludes. “But it looks like the public is split half and half.”

                “Exactly,” Eunhwa nods. “I don’t know if this is a good thing or not. We haven’t even debuted for a month and we already somewhat have a scandal. It could either make us more famous or cause us to get a lot of unnecessary hate.”

                “There’s a third option,” another voice speaks up. “We could ing forget about this and do what we’re supposed to – perform, sing, you know, music stuff?” Eunhwa turns to see an annoyed Ina standing near the door with her arms crossed across her chest. “I’m tired of this already, why are so many people trying to prove whose right? It doesn’t even matter. It happened, she got hate, I got yelled at and I’m getting hate, so move on. There are more important things to deal with than like this.”

                “What did Sanghee ssi about swearing Ina?” Eunhwa gently reminds as Ina stalks over to the two girls.

                “She said not to do it on camera and in front of other groups. Neither of those conditions are filled out right now so I can ing swear all I want,” Ina rolls her eyes.

                “It’s good to get in the habit though,” Eunhwa states. “Anyways, this is just how the media works. Small things and misunderstandings get blown up by the media and we just have to live with the results. At least some people are supporting you – that’s always a good thing isn’t it?”

                “I guess, I just wish they’d stop pretending like they know what I’m thinking,” Ina groans, rubbing her temples.

                “Well, maybe next time you should think before you speak,” Solbi grins cheekily when Ina throws her a deathly glare.

                “You shouldn’t be speaking Solbi,” Eunhwa sighs as Solbi and Ina start going at each other. All in good humour of course – at least, that’s what Eunhwa likes to think – but it was still quite loud and rowdy. Shaking her head as the bickering gets physical, Eunhwa quickly stands up before she’s roped into the fight and leaves the waiting room. Passing by a dozing Liqin, Eunhwa laughs softly before placing the girl’s phone beside her so it wouldn’t fall off of her lap. Looking back towards her own phone on the table, Eunhwa decides that it’s safe enough there seeing as the other members didn’t know her pass code so she leaves the room without it – she wasn’t going to be gone for that long anyways.

                Walking through the halls of the music station, Eunhwa finds herself wandering around. They had finished their rehearsal already but it seems like the sound system was having problems so the show and other rehearsals were put on standby while the staff attempted to fix it. This didn’t really bother Eunhwa – they didn’t have any other schedules today (perks of being a rookie group) – but other groups seemed antsy. Taking comfort – for once – in their lack of popularity, Eunhwa walks around with a light heart. Of course, she wanted to be popular and earn enough money to pay back her trainee debts as soon as possible, but with fame came lack of sleep, stress, and other dark things. So for now, Eunhwa was content with just performing on shows.

                Peering into multiple rooms, Eunhwa ends up greeting a bunch of different groups (although not all of them noticed her). Some of them smiled when they saw her and congratulated her for debuting – Eunhwa was amazed that they remembered a rookie group like Cosmos, and it made her extremely proud – while others simply nodded at her, probably thinking she was a staff member or something. She hadn’t changed into her stage costume yet, so for now, she was dressed in a simple white hoodie and jeans. Although her makeup and hair was done, Eunhwa had to admit that she probably looked like an extremely pretty stylist. Enjoying the lack of attention for once (she wasn’t camera shy at all, but she was still adjusting to being constantly watched by the media), Eunhwa circles around the building before deciding to go up onto the roof.

                Arriving at the open area, Eunhwa squints at the sudden increase in sunlight and wraps her sweater closer to her body due to the wind. Quickly tying her long hair into a low ponytail to control it (the stylist would probably get mad at her anyways but at least she was somewhat controlling the damage), Eunhwa walks closer to the edge of the building and peers down. Below, fans and staff alike, as well as normal citizens, were walking around the building – going in and out. Resting her chin on her hands, Eunhwa sighs contently as she watches the little dots on the streets move.

                “Noona!” an excited voice calls, causing Eunhwa to tear her gaze away from the streets. She looks behind her and immediately smiles brightly as she spots the owner of the voice. “Noona, hey noona hey, we knew you debuted but you never contacted us so we had to go find the music video ourselves how could you be that mean huh? HUH? Do we not matter to you anymore?”

                “Hush,” Eunhwa laughs as Minhyuk swings his arm around her and continues to whine. “Things got busy and I changed my phone number, what do you expect?”

                “But Dongrim sunbaenim got your number!” Kihyun points out, pouting.

                “How do you know what?” Eunhwa narrows her eyes.

                “I didn’t, but now I do – from your reaction,” Kihyun’s pout turns into a wicked grin.

                “You little brat,” Eunhwa rolls her eyes good naturedly. “Anyways, he was the last one I contacted with my old phone so I remembered his number.”

                “But–” Minhyuk and Kihyun start.

                “But nothing, quiet you two. I haven’t seen you in so long and you’re going to argue about such a trivial thing?” Eunhwa raises her eyebrows, causing the two noisy members to grumble lowly about her being unfair. “Anyways, how are the rest of you all doing?” Eunhwa looks away from the salty members and nods at the rest of Monsta X.

                “Good,” Hyunwoo replies matter-of-factly, causing Eunhwa to chuckle. He gives her an odd look, obviously confused, and she merely winks in return.

                “You haven’t changed at all huh?” she laughs, stretching her arms over her head. Hyunwoo shrugs at that, and Hoseok soon takes over the conversation – talking about this and that, just little trivial matters that Eunhwa seemed to have missed after she left Starship. She missed talking to these kids, being a Starship trainee herself, Eunhwa had pretty good relations with most of the other idols in training, but something about these particular seven were different. They bonded a bit more maybe, spent a little more time together, and now, Eunhwa was just noticing how nice it was to reminisce about their memories.

                “Oh shoot,” Eunhwa blinks after Jooheon mentions something about their comeback. “What time is it? Have they fixed the sound problem yet? I think Cosmos is one of the first performers and I still haven’t put on my costume yet.”

                “I don’t know if the fixed the problem but it’s almost time for the live show,” Changkyun slips his phone out of his pocket and checks the time. “You should hurry up then noona.”

                “Come on, we’ll walk you too your waiting room – we’re going later on anyways. We don’t have to be on standby until later,” Hyungwon suggests, getting nods from the other boys. Eunhwa smiles at them in thanks before the group makes their way back indoors. Speed walking through the halls, Eunhwa and the others try to avoid the bustling staff members to the best of their ability and manage to make it back to Cosmos’ waiting room within a couple minutes. Bursting into the room, Eunhwa looks around and sees that Liqin was still getting her hair fixed and that only Solbi was fully dressed.

                “Oh good, I’m not late,” Eunhwa sighs in relief, muttering under her breath. Solbi glances over at her, and raises her eyebrows when she sees the crowd of boys behind her, before smirking. Skipping over, Solbi twirls a bit, before stepping lightly beside Eunhwa.

                “Who are these cuties?” Solbi tilts her head, staring at Kihyun.

                “Monsta X, I knew them back when I was a trainee at Starship,” Eunhwa explains, offering her face to a stylist – who immediately kisses her teeth at the state of Eunhwa’s hair but continues to touch it up nonetheless. “Guys, this is Solbi – or Soleil if you want to go by her stage name.”

                “Nice to meet you,” Monsta X choruses, while Solbi examines them carefully.

                “Ah, I remember seeing you guys – I think,” Solbi thinks back. “You were on the survival program right?” A series of nods confirms Solbi’s suspicions. “Right, so you’ve comeback at the same time as us?”

                “Mhmm, have you seen our music video yet...?” Kihyun trails off, looking at Eunhwa in slight confusion.

                “You guys are the same age,” Eunhwa supplies, mentally calculating everyone’s age order.

                “Not yet I don’t think, how about you Eunhwa?” Solbi shakes her head, looking over at her leader. When Eunhwa sheepishly shakes her head as well, Kihyun and the others let out gasps of betrayal.

                “Noona! This is an outrage!” Hoseok states, causing Eunhwa to roll her eyes and smack him lightly on the chest.

                “Well have you seen my debut?” Eunhwa challenges, smirking when Hoseok laughs awkwardly and Hyungwon rubs his neck. “That’s what I thought. Guess we’ll see each other perform for the first time then hm?”

                “Looking forward to it, but we should really get going and your stylists look annoyed,” Jooheon points out. “It was nice meeting you Solbi noona and nice seeing you again noona. Maybe next time you’ll introduce us to the rest of your group?”

                “Sure, Liqin is over there but she’s a quiet one. See you later, good luck!” Eunhwa and Solbi cheer before Monsta X waves goodbye and continues on their way back to their own waiting room. The minute the other group leaves, Eunhwa is whisked away by her stylists. Within moments of flurried hand movements and uncomfortable tugging on her hair and clothes, Eunhwa is outfitted and ready to go. As the three members group together to put their microphones on, Eunhwa looks up to see an annoyed Ina bustle through the door. The Vietnamese female gives the rest of them one look before stalking into the corner to change. After she’s finished dressing, she puts her microphone pack on and glares at the floor. “Ina–”

                “No,” Ina growls, staring back at Eunhwa. “I don’t want to talk about it. Not now.”

                “But,” Eunhwa tries again, before her voice falters when Ina gives her another furiously heated glare.

                “Ina, can you perform?” Liqin asks, her soft voice cutting through the tension in the air. Ina looks at the Chinese girl for a second, before nodding slightly. “Then it’s fine. As long as you can perform, we’ll leave you be.” Ina breathes a sigh of relief at this, and Eunhwa can’t help but feel like she didn’t handle the situation properly. Before she could delve any further into this thought however, the staff members are pushing them out of the waiting room. After going through one final microphone check, the girls go up onto the stage and perform.

                “Did you see? Some people actually cheered for us this time!” Solbi announces as the girls fall onto the couches scattered around the waiting room. “That was great, I hope they increase for the next stage.”

                “The crowd was a bit more vocal this time around,” Liqin agrees. “Maybe because of that video we filmed with BTOB sunbaenims?”

                “Oh, did that come out? I haven’t monitored it. It still feels weird seeing myself on TV,” Solbi laughs. Liqin nods, reaching over onto the table for her phone and quickly finds the video. Flipping it around, she shows it to Solbi and Eunhwa. As the video starts with BTOB greeting the camera, Eunhwa looks up to see Ina quietly leave the room. Narrowing her eyes, Eunhwa excuses herself from the other two members before getting up and following the foreign girl. Not really sure if she should be sneaking around or not, Eunhwa trails Ina quietly – although she stayed in plain sight just in case Ina accused her of stalking her or something.

                “I can see you unnie,” Ina says, stopping and turning around. She crosses her arms over her chest, obviously unimpressed, and raises her eyebrow at Eunhwa. Smiling sheepishly, Eunhwa quickens her pace until she’s right in front of Ina before holding her hands out in front of her to show that she was innocent.

                “I just, I noticed you weren’t feeling so hot,” Eunhwa starts.

                “That’s an understatement,” Ina rolls her eyes.

                “And I wanted to know why or if I could help,” Eunhwa finishes. Ina stares down at the floor for a minute, seemingly contemplating the offer. Her eyes dart from side to side, and Eunhwa gets the feeling that Ina isn’t used to trusting people in general. Wanting to ease her worries, Eunhwa starts to speak again before she’s cut off by another voice.

                “Hey look, it’s Ina again,” Eunhwa looks over and sees a familiar looking face. Well, faces. There are around three girls standing a couple metres away from them, and Ina does not look happy about it. “And someone else? Who is this?” the three girls approach Eunhwa and Ina and smugly nudge each other when they notice Ina’s mood. “What’s up Ina, how you feeling?” they sneer almost evilly. Eunhwa turns to look at the normal feisty Ina, and sees her oddly subdued. Stepping forwards, Eunhwa cross her arms and glares at the three girls.

                “Who are you?” she asks rudely and bluntly. Maybe she should’ve gone around the situation with more tact, but they were harassing one of her team members and Eunhwa wasn’t going to let that slide.

                “You don’t know?” they seem slightly taken aback, before the tallest steps forward. “I’m Twice’s Nayeon. This is Chaeyoung and Jungyeon,” Nayeon introduces herself.

                “Okay and why are you here?” Eunhwa continues, tapping her foot.

                “No reason, can’t we just say hi to an old friend?” Jungyeon asks, peering around Eunhwa to look at Ina. “Ina and us go way back you see.”

                “Alright, so you’ve said hi. Now you can go right?” Eunhwa steps forwards, blocking Jungyeon’s view. She narrows her eyes in response but eventually shrinks back from the older woman.

                “We were just leaving,” Chaeyoung announces, tugging on Nayeon’s arm. “Come on unnie, let’s go, she doesn’t deserve out time after all.”

                “True, she couldn’t make it at JYP so now she’s run off with her tail between her legs to some other runty company. See you later Ina, or maybe not,” Nayeon laughs, and the three TWICE members leave. Eunhwa glares at them and mutters something about self-entitled brats to herself, before walking over to Ina.

                “You would think that they’d be a bit more humble since going through Sixteen,” Eunhwa starts, trying to gauge Ina’s reaction. “So I’m assuming that you’re relationship with them isn’t that great, seeing as you haven’t said anything to them but had no problem back talking Hong Minyoung.”

                “I left JYP on some bad terms,” Ina starts slowly, rubbing her arms. “Not with the staff members, but with some of the trainees and – as you can see – idols. I didn’t think our debut would collide with their comeback but I guess I would’ve seen them sooner or later,” Ina sighs, rubbing her temples tiredly. Throwing an arm around the Vietnamese girl, Eunhwa guides her back to their waiting room – offering her silent comfort the whole way. As they come back into the room, Sanghee is already waiting and was informed of the situation.

                “Liqin and Solbi are already in the car,” she states, before ushering them out and gathering any forgotten belongings. Approaching the car, Eunhwa opens the front door and motions for Ina to take the front seat. Raising her eyebrows, Ina looks at Eunhwa for a second before climbing in beside Sanghee.

                “It’s only for today okay?” Eunhwa pats Ina’s thigh. “I know you want some peace and quiet but don’t hesitate to talk to any of us okay?” Eunhwa whispers before closing the door and climbing over a slumbering Solbi to get to the back seat. Liqin sends Eunhwa a quizzical look, to which Eunhwa nods slightly, before the car starts and leaves the parking lot.

I'm sorry for making Twice so y I swear to God I love them #JapaneseTrinity and #GoldenMaknaeTzuyu as well as #DubuDahyun but someone had to be the antagonist so...

Poor Ina~ TT^TT

Also people, if I started posting stuff about the new project I have planned - would you prefer it now or later? 'Cause technically they don't come into the story until later but I'm too excited to hide it any longer haha...

Hope you're smiling!

~ Yun