YOONJI

She knew from the moment the line-up was announced that she was going to be the leader.

It was a pretty obvious conclusion – she was the oldest, and she was the one who trained the longest. Chaerin might've been (a very, very, very) close second, but Yoonji was the most probable candidate for the leader position.

And frankly also the worst.

Yoonji had actually made a list of why she would at being the leader. It included the following:

1. She wasn't a good and caring listener. Far from it, actually.
2. She was too damn impatient to deal with those little kids (Xiuying was practically a five-year-old, for 's sake).
3. She won't be able to cheer them up.
4. She won't be able to encourage them.
5. She at motivating others.
6. She was just a bad leader, overall. Nothing more to add up to it.

Of course, when Chaerin saw that list, she cut it to small, small shreds, threw it away, and then threw a fit at Yoonji. It was hard to focus at the time – Yoonji was tired from practice, and she was really craving some chips, and Chaerin was wearing that top that made her s look larger than they were and it was pretty hard not to stare. In the end, she probably could summarize the talk in the sentence: "Pull your together. You have a group to lead."

Which, all considered, was a pretty motivational speech. Not in the way it was executed (since Chaerin's talk didn't really inspire Yoonji all that much), but more in the way that it made her realize she didn't really have a choice. She had a job to do, and she was going to do it well. Or at least the best she could.

Yoonji soon found out that being a leader involved: being expected to make sure nobody was slacking during practice, being expected to organize and regulate the other members when Manager Cheolmin wasn't around, encourage the other members when they were tired, hungry, sick or just felt discouraged, and practically being Cheolmin's right hand when it came to manage Arora.

So far, she .

On one hand, she told herself that it had only been three months. On the other hand, she realized with dread that it already had been three months. They were finally debuting, and if she was entirely honest with herself, she didn't feel like an idol. She didn't feel like she – or any of the other Arora members, for that matter – was ready to debut.

She had to admit they were good, but it was expected. Skylar, with the least training time, was a trainee for two years already, and the others averaged on three to four years of training (with the exception of Chaerin and she, who were from the OG trainees that were around for roughly six years already). They were without a doubt skilled. The only problem was that they were skilled on their own. As a group... not so much.

She was being a bit too harsh, she realized. They didn't . But they weren't on a great level either. The way Yoonji saw it, rookie group competition was exceptionally high this year, and if they wanted to stand out, they had to step up their game.

Having a good leader could've helped. Too bad they were stuck with her.

The girl turned around in her bed, sighing heavily as she did so. The thoughts kept her awake for most of the night, filling her already troubled mind with doubts and worries and concerns.

She was the first one up. The clock on her phone read 4:21.

Yoonji tried her best to be quiet – the last thing she wanted was for Chaerin, Shigure or Ardene to wake up. She didn't get any sleep, but it didn't mean that they didn't have to get any sleep as well. She was also extra quiet when she passed the room Aeri, Seoyeon, Yueliang and Xiuying occupied. God forbid one of the babies woke up and started wailing.

After making herself a steaming cup of coffee, she sat down on the floor in the living room, stretched her legs and arms, and yawned.

"Brooding again, huh?"

Yoonji yelped.

Chaerin laughed quietly, sitting down next to her. Her hair was all messed up from sleeping, and there was a mark on her face left from the pillow. Dark shadows adorned the skin under her eyes. She looked surprisingly small in her oversized shirt and pants.

"Did I wake you up?"

"No, I couldn't sleep either."

"And are these Bongyoung's?"

The girl glanced down at her clothes. "Yup. He's too cranky all the time, and he loves it when I wear his things, so I decided to make him a bit happy."

It didn't make sense to Yoonji – Bongyoung couldn't see her wearing his things, so what was even the point – but she nodded anyway. Couples were stupid and weird like that.

"I really don't know what his problem is," Chaerin continued. "Like, he's been Mr. Grumpy Cat for months, and I have no idea what I did wrong, but he insists that everything's fine. Ugh, whoever said guys aren't complicated was a ing liar." She ran a hair through her hair, and ended up messing it even more.

"Did it ever occur to you that he might be jealous of you?" Yoonji asked. 

"Jealous of what exactly?"

"Oh, I don't know." She put a finger on her chin as if to think, before rolling her eyes. "Maybe because you're actually debuting as an idol, while he's stuck as a ing dance instructor for the rest of his life."

"Bongyoung-oppa never wanted to become an idol." Chaerin protested.

"He didn't want you to become one, either."

The other girl seemed scandalized by the idea. "What? How could you say that Yoonji!? Bongyoung always supports me, and he knows how long I wanted for it to happen!"

God… That was exactly why Yoonji didn't like getting into conversations about relationships. Every time she said the truth, these romantic fools in love were outraged. So instead of starting an argument, she just shrugged. When Chaerin will be ready, she'll listen.

Sensing that no confrontation was coming, Cherin changed the topic. "You look like hell, by the way."

"Wow, thanks Chaerin. Exactly what a girl wants to hear in the morning." Yoonji remarked dryly.

It made Chaerin chuckle. "You're welcome. Are you so nervous you couldn't sleep?"

"Something like that…" Yoonji eyed the other girl again. "You're the one to talk, though. Your eye-bags are the size of the Han River."

"Oh I'm nervous as hell." Chaerin giggled, running her hand through her hair. "But I know it's going to be alright."

"I think it's not going to go so great." Yoonji admitted. She took a sip of her coffee, disdainfully discovering that it was already turning cold. "They should've postponed the debut. We're not ready yet."

"What are you talking about?" Both of the girls raised their heads. Shigure was rubbing one of her eyes. The other was fixed on them. "Have some faith in us, unnie."

"It's not that I don't have faith in us. We could be amazing. We're just not amazing yet."

"Well, that's a very appropriate thing to say on the day of our debut." Yueliang's voice was heard from over the corridor. A second later, her grumpy face appeared, accompanied by Seoyeon and Xiuying. "But I can't argue with the truth." She shrugged.

"I really do think we're going to do great, Yueliang-unnie. Have some faith!" happy-virus #1 (otherwise known as An Xiuying) commented.

Happy-virus #2 (aka Moon Seoyeon) practically beamed. Sometimes Yoonji wondered if the girl could rainbows. "If we all show our best at the showcase today, I'm sure the public will love us!"

Great. Just great. The last thing Yoonji needed now was a prep talk from the residential optimist.

"Stop being so damn loud. It's five in the morning. God…" the ghost of Kim Ardene emerged from the room, a blanket draped over her shoulders like a cape. "Now where is the goddamn coffee?" the girl than disappeared in the kitchen, murmuring unknown things in English.

Yoonji mentally counted them – Chaerin, Ardene, Shigure, Yuealing, Seoyeon, Xiuying and she… "Where is Aeri?" She asked.

"Still sleeping." Xiuying supplied. "We couldn't wake her up."

Son of a . And so began her leader responsibilities for the day…

Aeri was snoring lightly when Yoonji entered the room. It was even more of a mess than their own room (and with a girl like Chaerin it said something), clothes scattered around and a bag of Pringles (Yoonji pretended not to notice. Chips were definitely off-limits) lay half-open on one of the beds. The rapper girl was covered with a blanket up to her head, and only one pale leg was visible from under it.

"Aeri. Aeri wake up."

No response.

Well, Yoonji didn't have time to waste. A simple tug on the blanket made the girl exposed to the cold air. Half a second later, she was up.

"That was cruel…" Aeri remarked, yawning hard. "So cruel, unnie."

Yoonji had the very strong urge to roll her eyes. "You almost slept through our debut."

An hour later everyone was more or less presentable. Yoonji thought that all in all, it was a job well done.

Cheolmin regarded them all with his usual resting face (Yoonji seriously doubted the man's ability to have any other facial expression).

"Are you all ready?" he asked, so obviously just to ask anything.

Park Cheolmin. Yoonji had mixed feelings about him.

He was remarkably good at his job, there was no denying that. He was the epitome of professionalism, and did everything the best he could. Yoonji respected him for those qualities immensely. He was also a lot like her, in a way, with his snarky attitude and cold face. But that was also the problem. Just like Yoonji thought she wasn't fit to be the leader because of her personality, she wasn't sure if Cheolmin was fit to be a manager because of his.

They got in the car – a van that could fit all ten of them (the members, Cheolmin and the driver), where after taking off Cheolmin began to prep talk them. Without any success.

"I know we all waited for this day for quite some time now…" he began, uncharacteristically shifting in his seat. "If you give your all, and do exactly like you've been training for the past three months… everything is going to go just fine."

Yoonji eyed the manager. Was he… was he nervous? The thought seemed impossible – it was Cheolmin after all, the one dubbed "Iron Man" for a reason – but as she watched him more and more she realized that he indeed was nervous. Just like her, unease was eating him up, and it took a while for Yoonji to realize that it wasn't Arora's debut alone. Cheolmin was also debuting (in a way), and there were expectations for him just as much as there were for them.

Even though she could sympathize with the manager, Yoonji couldn't help feeling smug.

Good, let him squirm. They shouldn't had made them debut so early. Let them face the consequences.

 CHAERIN

Chaerin was the kind of girl who always wore her heart on her sleeve. It was one of the main reasons she was shocked none of the Big Hit staff had figured out she and Bongyoung were dating – a simple glance at the way she looked at him would've been enough to understand what was going on. It was her best and worst trait, in a way, but it was what characterized her, so she didn't try to change it.

For once in her life, though, she tried to hid how she was feeling.

The other members were already nervous as hell. They didn't need to see her shake like a leaf. Chaerin wasn't the leader, but she was one of the oldest members. The others looked up to her, and she knew she had to encourage them with her behavior.

In an attempt to make herself busy, she opened her phone, only to see four different messages – one from her parents, one from Namjoon, one from Jungkook, and one from Jimin. All of them wished her and Arora good luck on their debut, and they made her smile in appreciation. Until it hit her.

No message from Bongyoung.

What. The actual. .

Chaerin stared at the phone, as if looking at it more will reveal that the message from her boyfriend was hidden somewhere in the depths of the device. But no such luck. Her boyfriend hadn't sent her any messages on what could be the most important day of her life.

She glanced at the clock, hoping for some kind of explanation. It read 08:36, and for a second she reasoned that it was still early in the morning. But Bongyoung always woke up early, and Chaerin knew for sure that he had a class to teach at eight a.m.

The little part in her mind (that sounded awful lot like a certain Lim Yoonji) was singing "He doesn't want you to debut". Chaerin quickly shut it down.

Trying to focus on anything but her boyfriend – because getting angry right now will be meaningless. They had a performance, and Bongyoung was nowhere in sight for her to hit him – she stood up from the chair and started stretching.

She was already in her performance clothing – a stretchy pair of white jeans with holes around the knee area, a red checkered flannel shirt and pink shoes – and was already wearing makeup. As she stretched, she noticed Yoonji (also already fully dressed for the showcase) talking to Manager Cheolmin in hushed tones, Ardene who was fiddling nervously with the pink hat she was going to wear. Aeri, Shigure and Yueliang were currently sitting, the makeup artists working their magic on them. Seoyeon and Xiuying were both on either sides of the room, both battling with not showing their anxiety as to not ruin their happy-go-lucky reputation.

Other than Shigure, who was talking loudly to a reluctant Aeri and one of the assistants, the room was oddly devoid of conversations, the only sounds reaching her ears are of blow-dryers, clattering jewelry and the sound effects of "Candy Crush" (though she had no idea where they came from). Chaerin was, once again, reminded of just how short the time of their preparation for debut was.

Three months passed like nothing. She still felt like she barely knew the other members (with the exception of Yoonji, but they were from the OG trainees and knew each other for six whole years).

It went like this: Chaerin was with Yoonji, Yueliang with Skylar. Ying, Ardene and Shigure tried to be friends with everybody, and Aeri, although very friendly, failed to be close to anyone from their group. Three months were not enough to get close to seven different girls. Chaerin wished they were as close as their label mates – the way Namjoon, Jimin and Jungkook were close to the rest of the Bangtan Boys. Sometime she wished their debut really was postponed, like Yoonji always ed about, so they could've debut under better circumstances.

And with a better song, if she was at it. Not that she didn't like "No Oh Oh", but it was… too not good enough.

With the thought in mind that she ought to make the place happier, Chaerin said, "Namjoon-oppa, Jimin and Jungkook wished us good luck!"

"Really? That's very nice of them." Xiuying commented from her corner. "Taehyung-oppa wished us good luck too."

Yoonji averted her eyes from the manager and locked them with Chaerin. She had a feeling the leader sensed there was a continuation of "and Bongyoung hadn't" to her sentence.

"Nano wished us good luck too, but you probably don't care about that." Shigure put in. "And all of Frontrunners are very excited for our debut." When Aeri sent her a confused look, the Japanese girl supplied, "Frontrunners… You know, the dance crew I'm in."

"Oh, you mean the liability that had you leave for two whole weeks last month." Yueliang said.

While the Chinese girl was right, Chaerin didn't approve of her attitude. There was a way to say certain things – a way that Yueliang didn't seem to be familiar with whatsoever.

"Are you sure you even pronounced 'liabilities' right?" Shigure crossed her arms on her chest. "You're not better than me. You drag us all down during Korean lessons."

Chaerin didn't like where this was going – a fight before the performance was the last thing she needed. She casted a waiting look towards their leader, but Yoonji seemed clueless as to what to do. Cheolmin was the one who interfered.

"Stop acting like you're in kindergarten. You're debuting today, might as well act a little professional."

Well, clearly Cheolmin didn't know what 'nice' meant either.

The rest of the waiting time went by more or less smoothly. An hour passed (during which Bongyoung hadn't sent any messages to her, but she tried to ignore it), and then they were standing behind the stage, waiting for their call.

The previous fight was forgotten. All eight of them shared the unease and nervousness together. They needed someone to say something. Someone like their leader.

Chaerin nudged Yoonji. The older girl looked at her with confusion in her eyes, before realizing soundlessly what she wanted. A serious of expressions crossed Yoonji's face, before she cleared awkwardly.

"Um… We practiced really hard… and I have faith in all of you… We will show them an awesome stage and be really cool and… Well, if something goes wrong don’t blame yourself because shi- things happen, and I'm sure everything's going to be just fine. Um… and fighting!"

"Fighting..." The rest echoed weakly. 

Charin almost face-palmed herself.

A/N:

 I said to one of you that Arora was going to debut next chapter. I might've lied. I really planned to make them debut already, but this chapter turned out to be more than 3000 words, and I decided to stop here, and make the next chapter about their debut showcase.

I also was a stupid girl and spoilered to some of you about this chapter's POV. Thank you for Jey-chan who noticed and alerted me!

Nothing very interesting happens in this chapter, but it gives you some idea about the dynamics of Arora and the consequences of making them debut only three months after asembling them in a group. Quite obviously, they're not going to be best of friends from the start.

If you want to know the outfits the members are wearing for the showcase, CHECK IT OUT

An important notice: I'm going into surgery to remove my tonsils, so I won't be able to update until next week, I think. Depends on when I'll be released from the hospital and how bad the pain is going to be. I hope it will be fine and I'll have plently of time to write chapters while I recover ^_^ 

P.S: I'm slayed by Hyuna's "How's This?" I might actually be dead right now