XIUYING

She thought that she would have a hard time being on stage, but surprisingly Xiuying felt at ease as she followed her bandmates onto the lifted black stage. She was still nervous, of course – she had no idea how the teal skirt she was wearing didn't tear from all the tugging her anxious hands had done – but the smile that appeared on her lips was a genuine one.

She couldn't say that about all of Arora's member though.

Their leader looked like she might pass out.

Chaerin was trying to smile, but the older girl was never someone to hide her feelings well and her lips formed some sort of a messy combination of a smile and a scowl.

Yuealing… Yuealing was Yuealing. Her resting face was ever-present.

The crowd – mostly consisting of reporters and music critics – clapped politely. Xiuying immediately felt her stomach summersault. 

The stage wasn't large, but it was spacious enough to contain all eight of them. Behind them a large screen, covering the entirety of the wall, was showcasing their symbol – a sun with its rays spelling out their name. The lighting sources blinded her, and for a moment Xiuying almost stumbled, only to be caught by Ardene just in time. She hoped no one from the crowd noticed.

The girls stood in the middle of the stage. Yoonji was, as expected of the leader, in the middle, while the two youngest – Seoyeon and she – took the wing positions.

"Please introduce yourself!" The mc said, his voice ringing loudly from the side.

"One, two three." Yoonji counted, and just like they have been practicing for the last two weeks, Arora echoed.

"Shine bright! Hello, we are Arora!" the eight of them bowed in synchronization.

Yoonji began their introduction. "Hello, I'm Noah. I'm the leader, and also in charge of vocals.

"My name is Sky and I'm a vocalist."

"I'm Lua, I'm in charge of dancing and vocals."

"My name is Ardene! I'm in charge of rapping and dancing."

"I'm Aeri, and I'm a rapper."

"Hello, I'm C-Rin! I'm in charge of dancing, singing and sometimes rapping!"

"I'm Himawari, and I'm in charge of both dancing and singing."

Xiuying was the last. She smiled as brightly as she could and said in her accented voice, "Hello! I'm Ying! I'm in charge of singing!"

The camera zoomed in on her, and Xiuying did her best to stay relaxed. A second passed, and the eye-battle with the device was over – the camera had moved onto another girl.

It was time to perform their songs. First, they started with "Liar Liar" (which Xiuying preferred to their title track. It was much more creative and original in her opinion), and it was over a second after it began. Just as quickly, they performed "No Oh Oh", and in the next second Xiuying was already going down the stage, panting heavily.

All around her chaos erupted – assistants were wiping sweat off her forehead and neck, Manager Cheolmin was saying something to them, and Aeri kept saying that her mic turned off in the middle.

The adrenaline was pumping through her veins. But she had no time to think.

"Come on, you have to go back. You have an interview now." Cheolmin commanded, putting his hand on her back and forcing her up the stage – where the other members where already positioning themselves on chairs. Still not completely sober from the performance, Xiuying followed quickly.

She hoped the camera couldn't capture the sweat that was dripping in ugly drops down her forehead. A glance to the side calmed her slightly – Ardene was sweaty too, though she still looked amazingly flawless. Xiuying wondered if the stylists had managed to get her to look flawless as well.

As the mc announced that it was time for the interview, the adrenaline was slowly leaving Xiuying's body. Now being able to actually think, she forced a large smile onto her face. Even if she looked all sweaty and ugly, at least she would be smiling.

The first question was addressed to Yoonji, as she was the leader. "So, Noah-ssi, please tell us what kind of group Arora is."

Xiuying couldn't see Yoonji's face, but she could bet that the older girl gulped before answering.

"Arora is a group that, we hope, will showcase a variety of music. Our name represents the group's vision – just like there are northern and southern lights that are auroras, our concepts will be different from each other, but will maintain a distinctive sound that you will be able to recognize as Arora. For our debut, we went for a concept that is more energetic and vivid. Next time, you might see something more mature, but you will still be able to say: oh, that's Arora."

A good answer. Identical to the one they had memorized before.

The mc nodded, as if agreeing with the leader's words, before asking the next question, "What kind of song is 'Liar Liar'?" this was directed at Ardene. Xiuying felt her tense next to her.

"'Liar Liar' is a dance pop song with a hip hop drum beat. The narrator is a girl who has a secret crush on a guy, but feels like she is 'somewhere in between a dream and reality' because she is uncertain that her affection is returned."

"Oh, very interesting. And what about 'No Oh Oh'?"

Chaerin answered, "'No Oh Oh' is a dance number made of sounds full of twists with a strongly addictive rich-sound chorus. It has a unique pop melody enhanced by our main vocalists, Noah and Sky. The lyrics portray the feeling of a shy girl falling in love."

Frankly, Xiuying really didn’t think that song portrayed a "shy girl falling in love", but that was what Big Hit wanted them to say, and that was what they were going to say. Sometimes being an idol .

"That is truly a song with an addictive chorus!" the mc agreed, and Xiuying had the urge to roll her eyes. "Please tell us now; what is the goal of Arora in the future?"

"Our short-term goal is winning the 'best new artist' award." Aeri said. Surprisingly, she sounded very calm and natural. A good liar. "There are a lot of groups that have debuted this year, and more will debut by the end of the year. All of them are extremely talented, and winning this award will mean that Arora was able to shine amongst these amazing groups."

It was Xiuying's turn to speak now, and she surprised herself yet again by how naturally the memorized words came out of . "Our long-term dream is for Arora to be recognized by our music. We want people to think of us and say: Arora is really amazing and their music is the best!"

"Also, because we have two members who are Chinese, and me who is Japanese," Shigure picked up, her bright voice echoing through the room. "We would really like to appeal to not only the Korean public, but to world-wide public."

Yuealing concluded with a short but very effective, "Please anticipate all of our activities. We hope we will be able to present to you the best light Arora can give!"

The mc looked like he might just melt. Xiuying had to give it to him – he was acting quite well. "What eight wonderful girls! Please anticipate these girls! I'm sure we will be seeing great things from Arora."

With that the showcase was officially over. Xiuying felt that a rock was lifted off of her, and it became easier to breathe. But she soon found out that work was far from over.

Manager Cheolmin had gathered all eight of them around a TV screen.

"All in all you did fine." He said after a rather dramatic (and unnecessary pause). "But there are some things we have to discuss that you have to improve."

"The mic wasn't working!" Aeri piped in nervously.

"That wasn't what I was thinking about." Cheolmin replied in a cool tone. "Things like that happen, and it shows the crowd that you weren't lip-syncing. You could've acted more professional though, I could feel your panic all the way to the back stage."

Xiuying had nothing against the manager – she really didn't – but she didn't like the way he was saying certain things. There was a way of talking and explaining things, a more lenient way than Cheolmin's. Honestly, he should criticize himself before saying anything about them. Xiuying knew they learnt from his comments, but Park Cheolmin had to do something about himself as well.

"First thing first." Cheolmin began. "You didn't do any mistakes in your performance. But you don't look like a group. Just watch this," he clicked on the remote and the screen lit up. The nine of them watched the performance silently.

Xiuying had to admit – their manager had a point. They were dancing and singing well, but the chemistry between them was a bit lacking.

"I know you've been assembled only three months ago, and I know you can't become best of friends in three months. But you are a team. Act like one. I can't say it was a bad performance, because it wasn't. But you have a lot to improve, and your debut stage on a show is tomorrow."

Xiuying nodded, feeling how the others nodded as well.

Cheolmin gave a single nod, as if to affirm their consent. "Other than that, I wanted to present to you the statistics. We broadcasted your debut on the V-app, because our company has a lot of viewers there thanks to BTS. So far, it was watched over 400,000 times."

Wow. That was a large number.

"We were expecting something along those lines, so there were no disappointments there. Also, 80,000 people had subscribed to the channel already. In terms of recognition, this was a success. But we were expecting this much – your debut was very talked-about. We will see tomorrow how the public will react to the music video and debut stage, and the position of the song on the charts, and then we will be able to really tell."

All of this was already known to them, but Xiuying appreciated it being explained once again.

Cheolmin left them to get ready to go, and the eight girls were left alone (with the exception of the assistants and stylist who were packing their things). Awkward silence spread over them, silence that Xiuying really hated.

"I can't remember anything from the performance." She decided to engage in conversation, to fill the silence that was like a bottomless pit. "What Manager Cheolmin showed it to… it was like I was experiencing it for the first time."

A second passed. Then, Seoyeon spoke. "Yeah, me too…"

"It's the adrenaline of a first performance." Shigure said, running a hand through her platinum hair. A smudge of mascara was visible under her left eye. "When I first performed with Frontrunners I always used to feel like this."

"Did it go away?" Ardene raised a curious eyebrow.

"No. You get used to it, but it never goes away."

"Listen… I'm sorry I ed up with the microphone." They all turned to Aeri. The girl was hugging her knees, her head prepped on them and her hair spilled all over. "J…Just… Sorry."

"Don't be a pansy." Yueliang commented. "Cheolmin might've been a about it, but he's right. Things like that happen. Not your fault."

Aeri rolled her eyes at the Chinese's antics, but still gave a grateful nod to her.

That was good, Xiuying noted. They were bonding, or at least beginning to bond.

Ardene suddenly gave a laugh. "I just realized that. We debuted."

"Congratulations, Kiwi. You've finally realized." Yoonji commented, though her tone was playful and everyone chuckled.

"I like Kiwi." Xiuying felt like commenting.

"…and I think I know who is going to be the alien of the group."

". Now I owe Namjoon money. I betted my money on Chaerin."

"Yoonji-ah!"

A/N:

Finally! Arora has debuted! The dorkfest has officialy began!

Thank you all for the kind comments regarding my surgery. It went well, and I returned home on Sunday. Currently I'm sick of ice cream. Yeah, never thouht I'd say that... but I'm done with ice cream. Give me something solid to chew please =="

I have also published today the members page, where I've included the positions of the members. As you've noticed in the chapter, I have made the girls just say what they are in charge of in the group. That's because I don't want to put a boundry on any of them, since positions are very flexible in groups. Also, some haven't said that they a sub rapper (for example) while their original position had said that they are. Once again, that's because of the flexibilty of the positions.

Also, if the training period of your character doesn't match with what you put, that's because I've included only the time trained in Big Hit (since it's supposed to be kind of like an official page by Big Hit) and rounded up some years. I feel like that's something an actual company would do.

Leave a comment to tell me what you think, I'd like to know your opinions <3

Have an awesome week ;) Enjoy your solid food