aeri

"Can you please tell me why we're hiding here?"

Aeri pulled a face. "You know why, Eunbi."

"Unnie, considering I've debuted before you, I think you should call me sunbae."

"In your wet dreams, child."

"So dirty." Eunbi tsked with a smirk on her face. It contradicted awfully with the cute pink dress she was wearing. "Why are we hiding from your groupmates though?"

To Aeri, the answer was quite obvious. "Because they're so hard to talk to. And you," she took Eunbi's palm and bit down playfully. "Are easy to talk to."

Eunbi yelped. "Unnie!" she shook her hand as if the bite really hurt. "I hope I don't get rabies."

Aeri grinned and ruffled Eunbi's hair. This. This was how she liked it – easy and fun banter with Eunbi. Awkward and horrible silence and awful attempts at conversations with Arora… god, the thought alone made her shudder.

It wasn't entirely their fault, she supposed. She could've tried a bit harder to open up. But it was just so hard for Aeri, and Arora was just so… divided. And while Yoonji and Chaerin had each other and so did Yueliang and Seoyeon (she wasn't stupid, she had eyes), she herself had no one. Not even a year ago she thought she would have Eunbi when the time came for debut. But Eunbi left. And Aeri was alone.

She didn't like it one bit.

"Come on, unnie, my stage is soon and I need to get my hair fixed, and I'm not going to leave you here alone." Eunbi pulled her out of her thoughts as she stood up and extended a hand for her to help get up. Without any other choice Aeri grabbed the younger girl's hand and stood up as well.

Rookied didn't get their own dressing rooms. That was a harsh truth Aeri had learnt.

The room was large and the separated sections far enough from each other, giving some sort of (illusion of) privacy. Arora's section was on the far left, and she made her way through a girl that was practicing her high note – was her name NC.A? Aeri wasn't sure – and bypassed the girls of Sonamoo practicing a certain part of their choreography.

The girls of her own girl group, on the other hand…

"So I think that if we can by-pass the assistants and hide for seven and a half minutes, then we can maybe catch them when they go down from stage and –"

"What are you talking about?" She couldn't help asking.

"Where the hell have you been? We're having a meeting!" Ardene grabbed her hand and forced her down, to sit in the circle the seven girls had created.

"I was with Eunbi. What are you talking about? What stage?"

Shigure was the one to supply. "Well, we figured we already stalked Beast and Shinee enough. Today is Big Bang's day."

"We call it: Operation Bang Bang Bang." Xiuying finished with a grin.

That indeed was a brilliant name. Aeri could only blink.

To her relief, the four other girls didn't look too comfortable as well. Yueliang looked like she might just murder everybody in their sleep (though she always looked like that), and Yoonji's unease was radiating from her like a nuclear bomb. A polite smile had spread on Soyeon's face. Chaerin was the only one other than the three masterminds who looked relatively positive about the plan.

It was actually a part of another plan, Aeri knew.

Operation MF.

Operation MF – short for Operation Magnetic Field – was created on the day of Arora's debut by their not-so-leader. Cheolmin's words had left their mark, and that night was spent trying to figure out what to do about their lack of team work on stage. Yoonji had theorized out that in order to bring them together, a force must be applied. Thus Operation Magnetic Field was created – during every activity one of the girls had to be that force, and literally force them to be together and bond. Aeri was actually the one to suggest the name – since she was the only one who had previously read the Wikipedia page for aurora lights (sue her, she was curious about the group name) and knew the involvement of magnetic fields with the beautiful nature phenomenon.

But suggesting the name and being up for the mission were two different things. While Aeri thought that it was a nice idea… it was too awkward. Aeri didn't do awkward.

"What is up with us and stupid operation names?" Yoonji murmured under her breath. "Last time it was Operation Shiny Beasts, and now Operation Bang Bang Bang… What would be when we get to see EXO? Operation UFO Abduction?"

Something lit up inside of Chaerin's brown eyes of destruction. "Oh my god. Yes."

Yoonji sighed. "Chaerin… No."

Though she wasn't that supportive of the plan, Aeri had to remind herself that she had to put her part in order for the group to bond as well. She wasn't going anywhere and neither were they, and while being friendly with each other was alright, they had to bond if they wanted to perform better.

Plus, they were going to stalk Big Bang. Aeri couldn't say no to that.

That was how she had found herself between Seoyeon and Shigure, peeking out of the black curtain that separated the main stage from the back. The funky melody of Zutter was very distracting, and she was having a hard time not screaming the lyrics along like a total fangirl. One of the producers turned his head around, and with the speed of light the three of them retreated.

"He's still on the lookout." Shigure announced grimly to the other girls.

Chaerin nodded. "We need a distraction."

"You do realize we're not in a spy movie, right?" Ardene asked with her brows raised.

"I don't think they do." Yueliang commented.

"Shut up China."

"I was raised in Japan. Know your facts."

"But you were born in China."

Yueliang then proceeded to say something in Japanese that Aeri didn't understand. By the way Shigure's expression shifted, it wasn't too polite. Of course, the blonde girl replied back with something that had to be just as nasty.

They had way too many different nationalities. Aeri had a feeling that a few more months and she will forget what a Seoul accent sounded like.

"Focus!" Ardene snapped her fingers, bringing the attention back to her. "As the official Operation Bang Bang Bang leader, I am taking command." Yoonji looked like she had something to comment before she gave up and sighed. "Now, the target is currently on the TOP chorus, which means we have less than a minute before the time is up. One producer is standing between us and the target. One producer. Are we going to back down because of one producer?"

Seoyeon and Xiuying answered "No!" feverishly. Aeri had never felt so close to Yueliang and Yoonji (who rolled their eyes in complete unison with her) before.

"Didn't think so. Now, our main bullter, Chaerin-unnie –"

"Why am I the main bullter!?"

"Yesterday, you talked about how a lion roar differs from a tiger roar. For an hour and a half."

"There's a huge difference, how can you not see it?" Chaerin just shrugged. Then she pointed (a rather accusing) finger at Yueliang. "Besides, Yueliang is a good bullter too."

"I'm a good liar." The Chinese girl corrected. "There's a difference."

"Isn't lying basically bullting?" Aeri asked (after reminding herself that she had to finally take a part in the conversation. God, why was it so hard to get comfortable with them?). Yueliang sent her a scowl while Chaerin grinned in triumph.

"We're wasting time on stupid things!" Ardene exclaimed in the quietest way possible. "The song is going to end in fourty seven seconds. Chaerin-unnie, go."

With a sigh, Chaerin stood up from the floor. Fixing the ponytail on her head (that remained from their performance of No Oh Oh. They had to wear their outfits until the final stage, where the first place was announced), she took a deep breath and went through the black curtain.

The rest of the seven girls looked at the spot in which she disappeared.

"You think she's gonna make it?" Ardene asked, eyes still lingering on the black curtain.

It took Yoonji less than a second to reply. "Nope."

"She has to. If she doesn't, there's only going to be next week inkigayo for us to complete Operation Bang Bang Bang." Xiuying said solemnly. "And next week is Girl's Generation's and Hyuna's comebacks. We're going to have a pretty busy schedule."

"Let's not forget that we still hadn't stalked Apink and Super Junior." Seoyeon pointed out. "And also Wonder Girls."

"We just had to debut when all these groups made their comebacks." Shigure sighed dramatically. "No wonder our songs are doing so poorly on the charts."

"Shigure… No Oh Oh ranks thirty on Gaon…" Yoonji said.

Thirty!?

Aeri perked up at the announcement. So did the other girls. "Thirty!? Last time I checked we were thirty seven!" Shigure's jaw dropped. "Fu –"

Ardene covered the Japanese girl's mouth in what could've been the speed of light. "Not in front of the children!"

"What children?" Xiuying cocked her head to the side.

"These children."

Cheolmin sure had a flare for the dramatic. Aeri had the feeling that he was waiting for a while for the opportunity to make an entrance. It wasn't unlike him.

"Oppa!" Seoyeon apparently already felt close enough to the manager. Weird, Aeri thought, considering Cheolmin wasn't too fond of her for some reason. The American girl must have noticed that… unless she was that oblivious?

Then again, Cheolmin didn't like any of them in particular, so his extra dislike of Seoyeon might've gone unnoticed.

"Why are you lurking behind the stage?" Their manager questioned, arms folded on his chest. "There's only one performance left before you have to go on stage for the countdown."

"That's why we're all here, Manager Cheolmin." Yueliang said smoothly. "We thought we should wait here, closer to the stage. We can't be tardy considering we're rookies."

Cheolmin gave them a quick once over. "Nice try. Were you trying to force your cd on other idols again?"

Ardene let out a nervous laugh, running a hand through her hair. "What!? Noooo."

"Not after the Beast accident." Yoonji added.

Aeri cringed. That was a thing no one wanted to be reminded of ever again. Hyunseung would probably never be the same again. And if they would be the reason he won't be able to be mentally stable enough to perform with Hyuna… if they will be the reason for Troublemaker not to have their (so very ing anticipated) comeback… Aeri will never forgive herself.

God, she was such a fangirl.

"You do realize that you go on stage from the other entrance, right?" Cheolmin went on. "This is a staff-only area."

Well, they knew that, but Cheolmin didn't have to know that. "Nani?" Shigure put on a fake surprised expression on her face. "I'm still not good enough in Korean to read signs properly."

Yueliang, Xiuying, Ardene and Seoyeon were quick to join. "Yes, yes, we're bad at reading." What came next was random gibberish in Japanese, Chinese and English.

The manager turned his cold gaze to Aeri and the leader of Arora. He raised one brow in a perfect example of arrogant coolness. Aeri wondered if he practiced these expressions in front of a mirror. He simply had to. It was too much like the expression drama actors had with a voice-over saying in the background, "What do you have to say in your defense?"

"Uh… we, um, we were following them." Aeri said, running a hand through her long golden locks. "The foreigners were leading the way, and I trust them too much, so that's why I didn't read the signs."

Someone (who sounded awful lot like Yueliang, Shigure and Ardene combined) scoffed quietly. Yoonji looked like she might just kill her for the lame excuse, but the older girl had no choice but to nod. "Yeah, me too. That's exactly what happened. Yeah…"

Cheolmin clearly wasn't buying it, but a glance on his watch had made him drop the matter. "I'll deal with you later. We have two minutes, come on now." He gestured towards the hallway, before something in his eyes clicked. "Where is Chaerin?"

"Oh, she's asking the producer for directions." Ardene said, grinning angelically. "You know, because we were lost…"

It was at that moment exactly, Aeri guessed, that Cheolmin had regretted ever thinking of becoming a manager for an idol girl group.

Two and a half minutes later they (Chaerin included) were standing on the stage with all of the artists that had performed that day. G-Dragon and TOP were standing a mere meter from Aeri, and it was hard not to go into fangirl mod. Unfortunately, GFriend were positioned on the other side of the stage, and she couldn't send SOS signals to Eunbi. Even though she was already used to standing on the final stage with all these a-class idols – as they were already at the second-half of their promotion time, Big Bang was her favorite group, and she couldn't just keep calm when they were standing so close to her.

Trying to focus on anything but the national-acclaimed rappers in front of her, Aeri's mind wondered around. It had been already more than two weeks since their debut. Time flew by tremendously fast. She could still remember their debut showcase where her mic stopped working, but it seemed months and months away.

Arora was, for a lack of a better word, famous. Being connected to BTS sure had its perks – their V app fanbase was unlike any other girl group, and they got a lot of recognition because of their labelmates. But that was pretty much where it ended. Though being thirty on the Gaon chart was admirable for a rookie group, they were nothing compared to rookies like Red Velvet and Mamamoo, who had debuted with great success.

No Oh Oh was criticized for being a pretty average debut song and the ual innuendoes hidden in the lyrics. Though Liar Liar was actually praised by music critics, it failed to climb up the music charts into a decent position.

All in all, Aeri could summarize their debut like this: Arora was praised more for being the sister-group of BTS rather than being a rookie girl group.

Honestly, it kind of . But hey, at least they were known. Things could've been worse than that; they could've been off the radar completely.

So, everything considered, everything was (averagely) fine. Well… except for her groupmates.

They were still ing awkward.

A/N:

Shigure be like

It's been a while, but here's another chapter! 

For the future, the songs/album promotions are going to be pretty much like this - 1-3 chapters for each comeback, and it will include important/memorable scenes from the promotions. I don't think there's a point in dragging this for too much. I think it would be more interesting to focus on the actual drama XD Though, don't take it as if the promotions will be skipped - things are still going to happen there, and we'll get to see them, don't worry ;) It just that I won't be going over the whole month of promoting, since that would be boring. 

Also, Jey-chan had politely asked me for the Arora girls to cameo in her applyfic, Black Dragon, since it's about a Big Hit boy group. If anyone has a problem with their character making a cameo there, please let me or Jey-chan know!

And one more thing, I've become a co-author for a survival-show applyfic, Chromatic Foxes - you should really check it out and apply! The author, Daisyrune, had put a lot of effort into this, and it's going to be lit af, trust me. It's going to include appearances from EXO and NCT, and there are A LOT of plotlines, so there's plenty to choose from. I think it's one of the most original applyfics I've seen, so you really should check it out ;) 

Comment your thoughts, I would love to hear what you think of this chapter ^^