Hey guys, formatting this to look nice is a huge pain and the editor isn't well developed for the standard novel format, so I'm sorry if this hurts your eyes TT TT

Enjoy~

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Prologue

The five girls walked into the studio one by one, greeted by the four hosts of Radio Star on the other side of the table. Before taking their assigned seats, they said their greeting. 

“Goddesses of victory, we are C.H.A.M.P.ions!” the girls bowed as the studio applauded. The girls smiled brightly at the welcome they received, something many female rookie groups got when the panel was only hosted by middle-aged men. The five members finally sat down and were then asked by Kim Gura to individually introduce themselves starting from the far right.

“Hello dear viewers! My name is Chaerin, and I’m the maknae of the group in charge of rapping. Please take good care of us!” the girl at the end of the table bowed. She had rosy cheeks that highlighted her round face, slanted brown eyes and wavy auburn hair that she put up in a ponytail. She was wearing pastel coloured clothing, with a wishbone necklace around her neck that seemed rather dear to her. She smiled widely at the hosts, who already seemed intrigued by the group.

“How old are you, may I ask?” Kyuhyun said, making Chaerin giggle uncomfortably and the girl on the other extremity narrow her eyes.

“Yah, she’s definitely out of your age range, so stop prospecting.” Kim Gura snapped, telling the girls to continue with their intro. Kyuhyun sank a little into his seat, his dry lips in embarrassment.

“I’m turning 18 this year!” She said with an awkward laugh, and Kyuhyun blushed a little with a wide smile. The next girl had a sharp look in her eyes and dark clothing, ripped jeans and a dark purple beanie on her head.

“Hello, I’m Pandora the main rapper and composer of the group.” She said. Her black hair was cut in a pixie bob with muted purple highlights barely seen under her hat, bright blue contact lenses and a mole over her upper lip. She seemed a rather serious person, up until she smiled. Her eyes turned into crescent moons and the corners crinkled up. The hosts couldn’t help but be totally captured by her natural charm that she didn’t seem to know about, or at least tended to ignore.

“Is Pandora your stage name?” Jongshin asked in a careful manner, and the girl nodded with a smile.

“My real name is Cho Sehyeon.” She laughed. “I changed my name for the underground-”

“Oh, so you were an underground rapper?” Jongshin interrupted, and she nodded again.

“I thought Pandora would suit me, plus it goes with our group name, though I’ve had it before I joined our company.” she said, glancing to the rest of the girls.

“And which company is that?”

“Blossom Entertainment.” The girl on the other extremity said coldly. “We are its first girl group as it only has actors such as Cha Taehyun-nim who founded it, Song Joongki-ssi and Park Bogum-ssi.” She stayed stoic and simply turned to the third girl who was going to introduce herself before they got side-tracked.

“Hello everyone!” the girl with the long platinum blonde hair said. She had double eyelids and multiple piercings on her left ear, but only one on her right. She wore the heaviest makeup out of the group, complete with dark eyeshadow and red lipstick. “My name is Hanbyeol, in charge of shocking everyone with my amazing star-like vocals!” Silence fell in the studio, and she gave out a sheepish laugh and lowered her head. Pandora gave her a reassuring tap on her shoulder, telling her that her introduction was fine.

“Well, you’re going to have to work on that a little.” Kim Gura laughed, but he could feel a cold stare lingering on him. “Do you have a role in the group?”

“I’m the eldest and the main vocal of the group.” She replied cheerfully. The hosts widened their eyes as they didn’t expect her to be the eldest. She looked about Chaerin’s age with her smooth and pale skin and bright expression. The girls couldn’t help but laugh at their surprise, and Hanbyeol continued, “I’m only 23, I’m not that old!” she giggled like a duck, making everyone burst into laughter. “I’m also in charge of brightening everyone’s day with my jokes!”

“Okay, let’s hear one,” Gookjin said.

“Oh-oh-oh ok I got one!” she said, fidgeting in her seat. She leaned over the table towards the hosts, “What do you call a bagel that can fly?” The other girls had to suppress their laughter as they knew what was coming. The stoic one even put her hand over , clearly not wanting to break her poker face. “A plain bagel!”

The girls erupted in laughter, the silent girl turning towards the wall to hide her face. Her shoulders shook, but it only took her a short moment to compose herself. The joke was so bad that the hosts couldn’t help but laugh at its stupidity. There was a low chuckle coming from the staff as well, and Hanbyeol felt proud of her accomplishment and clapped for herself.

The fourth girl went next. “Hello everyone, my name is Mihyeon and I’m 21 years old. I’m in charge of the choreography in the group.” She bowed and waved. Mihyeon had curly black hair, thin eyebrows that framed her monolid brown eyes and a round face. Her skin was rather dark compared to the others, but she took pride in it as most idols didn’t. She wasn’t afraid of the comments nor was she afraid of people criticizing her for it. She didn’t think that she should be ashamed of something she was born with and was happy with the way that she looked. Her muscles were the most developed out of all of them, as dancing was her passion and something she worked on more regularly than eating or sleeping.

Lastly, the eerie presence in the studio spoke up. “Good evening everyone, I’m the Leader of C.H.A.M.P.ions, lyricist and composer, Aera. It’s nice to meet you all.” She was the shortest out of the five, with dyed chestnut brown hair tied in a high bun, almond shaped eyes, and extremely pale skin. Many people have told her that she resembled the Chinese actress Fan Bingbing, but she didn’t think she could ever be as beautiful as her and always denied the resemblance.

Silence fell in the room again, and Kyuhyun couldn’t help but bite his lower lip. “Are you always serious looking?” he asked her directly. She bowed her head.

“Our leader is very conscious of cameras,” Pandora said. “She doesn’t have great variety skills, but she speaks well of our group.”

Chaerin continued. “Many people misunderstand her because of how she acts. She’s just uncomfortable. She’s very fun back at the dorm!”

“I didn’t know you had spokesmen,” Gura added, making everyone laugh. Aera stared blankly at him, and he quickly bowed towards her apologetically with a hint of sarcasm. This took her aback a little, and she also bowed her head.

“Seeing all of your personalities like this,” Kyuhyun said, “It seems you guys are extremely mismatched.” This made Aera raise a judging eyebrow at him.

“We may be different, but our teamwork is unmatched,” Aera said. Kyuhyun had trouble swallowing for a second, giving off a sheepish laugh. “We all trained for different amounts of time, but we’ve spent two years together before debuting. We developed a special bond during that short time, and we have become like family. Blossom Entertainment gave us this opportunity that we are very-” She glanced at the girls, hiding a small smile, “-grateful for.”

 “Speaking of Blossom Entertainment,” Jongshin started, “they describe you as self-producing idols going against the ideal girl-group image?”

They nodded at his statement, and Hanbyeol spoke next. “Aera and Pandora write the lyrics to our songs, and Aera and I compose the songs while Mihyeon puts together the choreography. We’re trying really really really hard to be a unique group in order to stand out in this industry.”

“And what does Chaerin-ssi do?” Kyuhyun asked.

“She gives us the most constructive feedback!” Hanbyeol giggled, glancing at the youngest. “She’s very present on social media, so she knows what’s trending these days. If our ideas are too mainstream or-or-or she knows it won’t catch on then she will be firm with her input and guide us with her creative ideas. She’s also the visual of the group, along with me of course.” She pursed her lips and placed her hands under her chin to form flower petals. The hosts blushed a little, letting off goofy laughs.

“Chaerin-ah has the best variety skills in the group,” Aera said, expressionless. “Thanks to her in the last few weeks, we got to be promoted on many shows.” It earned her two thumbs up and a bright smile from the youngest.

“Why do I feel a sudden chill in the air whenever Aera-ssi speaks?” Kyuhyun laughed. “Leader-ssi, you should smile while speaking. We don’t bite, I promise!”

Aera fidgeted in her seat a little while blinking multiple times, and the questions were suddenly directed to Pandora about the debut song, Titaness.

“Aera and I wrote the lyrics to it along with our producer CHAINZ. We wanted to convey the struggles women face in today’s society, and of some sorts let the titan-like power awaken within us.”

“Interesting you would say that,” Gura said. “In the rap part sang by you, you say, ‘I want to break the shackles on my wrists and kiss the thin lips of an angel, running my fingers through his long hair.’ What could that possibly have to do with struggles of women?”

“Unable to attain what we desire because it is seen as taboo or uncommon,” Aera said, gaining the surprise of the hosts. “I wrote that. Society restricts us in many ways, and we crave a forbidden fruit of some sort.”

“And who were you thinking about when you wrote that? Why specify thin lips and long hair?” Kyuhyun asked with a sly smile. “Surely not a male idol with long hair?”

“Legolas,” Aera said flatly, and the entire studio roared from laughter. She cracked her first real smile of the session, slightly proud of the response she had received. Well, Legolas was a lie, but it was a funny one. Pandora shot her a look, and they both grinned at each other. Being best friends, Pandora knew exactly who it was about.

“So your official debut was March 7th, 2016, and it’s been two weeks since then. Your debut song Titaness has gained a little over one million views since its release and the number is growing rapidly.” Jungshin announced.

“We’re very thankful to the fans,” Aera said. “And we’re very thankful for the recognition we are getting.”

“All of the media outlets are raving about your group,” Gura said. “Globally what they say about you is that you are the only self-producing female idols sure to succeed.”

“Again,” Chaerin continued, “We are just so thankful for everyone taking an interest in us. We want to show women that they are capable of anything once they set their minds to it. We want to show empowerment in different forms. We think since there is such a big movement in North America, we want to make it more known in Asia too. There were only a few female idols that attempted it, and we want to show that popularity can also come from pure talent.”

The hosts smiled at her, but it did seem that they were slightly uncomfortable with their image. “So what you’re saying is,” Gura looked down at his paper, “Is that you do not wish to be objectified in order to be well known?”

“We do not have to be objectified to be known. That’s our goal.” Aera said. “Our success rides only on talent and creativity. We want to be known for that.”

“You mentioned your CEO, Cha Taehyun-nim earlier,” Kyuhyun said, leaning over the table. “It has come to my attention that he prefers solo promotions for your group?”

The girls nodded, and Hanbyeol spoke again. “We perform on music shows and conduct interviews as a group, but our president thought it would be more effective to have all the girls promoting in different areas. I have been cast in the last few episodes of a fashion show, Aera is filming a TV drama, Pandora was a guest judge on Unpretty Rapstar, Mihyeon just got back from a dance show in China, and Chaerin will be a guest on Hello Counselor in a few days. Chaerin has had the most daunting schedule out of all of us.”

The hosts regarded them with gaping mouths. They couldn’t believe they had barely debuted and they were already all over the place.

“It looks like you girls can’t rest at all!” Gookjin exclaimed in wonder. “How many hours of sleep do you get per day?”

“Enough not to pass out.” Chaerin laughed. “We usually sleep in the car to get to our schedules, and we don’t usually film during the night apart from Aera-unnie who might have to shoot at that time. On average we get about 4 hours of sleep in the night and maybe 1-2 hours during the day.”

“That’s actually not that bad,” Kyuhyun said. “For a whole week I was running on about 12 hours of sleep, you girls are lucky.”

“I’m sure once tours and concerts will start those hours will decrease.” Jongshin laughed. “I must say you’re quite lucky, my artists don’t get big breaks like those as rookies.”

“Well, when Cha Taehyun-nim is your president, you get opportunities you never dreamed of,” Aera said. “We are very thankful to him and all of his work, as well as our entire team that made this possible.”

Kyuhyun bit his lips. “I’m just trying to picture Aera as an actress though.”

Aera seemed to be losing her patience with the former heartthrob, as he couldn’t stop attacking her from the beginning. “I initially entered Blossom Entertainment as an actress. Our President clearly saw greater potential by putting me in a girl group, but also saw it as an opportunity to make me audition for the second lead role in a drama. I actually play a very funny character. ”

“That, or he thought you weren’t good enough as an actress.” Kyuhyun laughed, and the others did as well, except for the girls.

“I think our company does well in seeing the true potential in its artists. It doesn’t make them disappear for a few years because the artists don’t have anything else to offer.” Aera said, her gaze burning with annoyance.

Kyuhyun’s eyes locked with hers, and he made a shivering movement that was just a step too late in reaction, and the hosts laughed with him. The girls regarded him with disappointment but didn’t let it show too much. They each made a quick and subtle glance at their leader, who seemed to stare at him like a statue.

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Chapter 1

The door to an apartment opened just an inch, then quickly closed. Screaming and rustling sounds were heard on the other side of it before being opened again.

“Good morning.” The man said in a groggy voice. It was the leader of Seventeen, S.coups. He was greeted by a filming crew that quickly made their way inside of the apartment, the cameramen rushing through the house to find the people they were meant to film. The guys all exclaimed in surprise, as they were still sporting disheveled hair and their pajamas. Their leader, whose real name was Seungcheol, gathered his team in the living room and they all stood in a line.

“SAY THE NAME! SEVENTEEN! Hello, we are Seventeen!” They all bowed in front of the cameras. The male writer from the team approached the leader and gave him a letter. The members went to sit down somewhere, each yawning and scratching themselves.

Seungcheol read the letter while half asleep, but his suddenly sleepy eyes shot wide open. He began to read the letter more attentively, before turning to s.

“YAH!”

Everyone jumped up from their seats, more or less fully awake. Jeonghan got up from the couch and went over to the leader, hanging an arm around his shoulder and pressing his cheek onto it to read the letter. He also began to panic, thus gaining the attention of everyone else.

“Please read the letter out loud.” The writer said.

Seungkwan grabbed the piece of paper from the leader’s hands and cleared out his throat. “Dear Sebongie,” He began to laugh, but Seungcheol and Jeonghan looked like they had seen a ghost. “Congratulations! You will be starring on the new variety show called One Family where you will be living with another group-”

He stopped speaking, and the words slowly sunk in for everyone. Seungkwan looked at the camera, “This isn’t right.” He gave a weak laugh. “We’re already 13 living in one small apartment and you want us to live with another group on top of all of this?”

The writers didn’t really expect that reaction from them, “Please continue.” One of them said.

“… and you will have to complete a songwriting mission every month where the winners will receive amazing prizes as well as the chance to perform the winning song on a special stage of a music program. Your home is a three storey house-”

“A three storey house?!” Dino exclaimed. “I don’t care what happens I’m packing my bags now-”

“LET ME FINISH-” Seungkwan almost swore but kept it together, clearing his throat again. “… Located in Yonhi-dong. You will have to share a room in pairs on the second floor as the third floor will be exclusively for the other group. We expect you to live together in harmony as well as produce amazing and original music for the nation to hear. You will move into your new home tomorrow and meet your new roommates there. Sebongie, fighting!~”

Their expressions seemed to light up as they weren’t expecting to live in a house. All of the members began talking amongst themselves, looking happier by the second. Dino had already sprinted to his room and began to pack, followed by a few others as well.

“But what if the other group is a female group?” Seungcheol asked the writer.

“We can’t reveal who they are. If it were a male group who would you want?” she asked. Dokyeom appeared next to him, and Mingyu and Wonwoo did as well. Jeonghan was still hanging around the leader like a sleeping koala.

“We get along really well with Monsta X.” Seungcheol laughed. “We might be intimidated if they were a senior group though. I mean like VIXX or BTS…”

“KNK look like fun guys too!” Dokyeom said.

“What about girl groups?” the writer asked, and the guys suddenly became quiet with goofy smiles.

…” Dokyeom started. “ to choosehad“Well if we Lovelyz?”

The guys hit him and kicked him out of the room. “I would say… Gfriend?” Mingyu said, also getting whacked by everyone around him.

“We prefer a surprise,” Seungcheol said, trying to maintain their dignity. Jeonghan let out a scoff and laughed, going back to his room to catch up on his sleep. Everyone else was abuzz with the news, and suddenly their entire apartment turned upside down in the space of only a few minutes. Luggage was being thrown and rolled throughout their home, people shouting. The crew quickly installed cameras throughout the place, and everyone did their own thing. Seungcheol was still talking with the writer, trying to get her to spill any information about who they would be doing the show with.

Dokyeom and Hoshi were busy dancing around at the thought of living in a spacious house and were even more excited to be interacting with other idols on a show like that.

“What if we end up like on One Fine Day?” Wonwoo said. Everyone suddenly stopped what they were doing and began to throw objects at him, cursing him so that he doesn’t jinx it. He was left in a pile of pain and bad luck, regretting he had ever brought it up. Though a fun memory, they were sure they didn’t want the incident to repeat itself.

In another room, Woozi was having fun looking at the camera and showing what he was packing. Mingyu joined in on the fun as well, even bothering Jeonghan who was sleeping in their room. After some time, the mom of the group also got up to pack but soon maxed out. Seungcheol began to drag him all over the place before beginning to laugh uncontrollably. Mingyu and Woozi both shook their heads, finishing up whatever they had started.

Everyone couldn’t contain their excitement, but Wonwoo’s words were still engraved in the back of their minds. What if they did end up in a shabby home with terrible roommates? What if they had to build the house themselves? Fetch water from a river, hunt for their food, and bathe in cold water… They didn’t want to go through that again. For once, they wished Pledis wouldn’t screw them over like that.

A few blocks away from where Seventeen lived, C.H.A.M.P.ions were getting into their van to go to their following schedule. Hanbyeol sat in the front seat as the other girls sat at the back.

“Yesterday’s interview just about drained all form of chill I had left.” Aera sighed, making everyone laugh.

“Honestly Aera, how can you possibly have such different personalities on and off camera?” Pandora said, putting on her seat belt. Aera pursed her lips and opened her eyes real big, blinking a few times. Pandora began to laugh, and so did the other girls when they noticed how goofy their leader was being.

“Kyuhyun-ssi really went to town with you,” Chaerin said a little sadly. “If he knew just how amazing of an actress you are-”

“Thanks, Chaerin-ah. But I know I have a lot to learn.” Aera said, glancing down at her phone.

“He went out of line.” Pandora tried to reassure her best friend. “You shouldn’t let it get to you, certainly not from someone like him. He wouldn’t have said those things if he knew how you are when the cameras are off-”

“Like you said, I’m conscious of cameras, and my personality changes. I can’t help it, and as my mom always says, if he can’t handle me at my almost worst then he certainly doesn’t deserve me at my best.” Aera began to groove as their manager the radio, hearing some kind of French song that Park Bogum danced to for a drama preview. She stretched in her seat, happy from a good night’s sleep. She went through all of their schedules in her head, also thinking about what they should eat for lunch and dinner. She was slightly sick of takeout and begged Hanbyeol to cook something for them, putting all kinds of aegyo on for the eldest of the team. Hanbyeol quickly agreed to her request as she couldn’t stand to hear her terrible act. Aera sat back with a satisfied look on her face and quickly found herself falling asleep as the ride dragged on.

But their manager never turned right on the road like he was supposed to, and continued his way as if driving back to their dorm. The girls exchanged looks, and Pandora woke Aera up. Aera took a look around before finally speaking up to their manager, but he didn’t reply and continued his way. It was clear that the girls began to panic a little, but they suddenly pulled up at the dorm safely. Their manager got out and opened all the doors for them, telling them to get out.

“We’ve been tanked, haven’t we?” Aera said somberly. Their manager cracked a smile, laughing a little. He made a motion to follow him, and so they did. They were all quiet, and Aera looked rather pale. She thought maybe she was too forward with Kyuhyun the other day and he must have complained. She cursed at herself, thinking her team was going to suffer all because she got into some trouble with a male idol again.

The elevator ride was quick as they got to the second floor, and in front of their dorm was a camera crew. Aera suddenly stood petrified at having seven cameras on them, and she quickly grabbed Pandora’s hand for reassurance. The female writer of a different crew from the one that was still at Seventeen’s dorm approached them and handed Aera a letter, which she opened questioningly.

“Dear Goddesses of Victory,” She read, “Congratulation! You will be starring on the new variety show called One Family where you will be living with another group and you will have to complete a songwriting mission every month where the winners will receive amazing prizes as well as the chance to perform the winning song on a special stage of a music program. Your home is a three storey house located in Yonhi-dong. You will have to share a room in pairs on the third floor as the second floor will be exclusively for the other group. We expect you to live together in harmony as well as produce amazing and original music for the nation to hear. You will move into your new home tomorrow and meet your new roommates there. C.H.A.M.P.ions, fighting!~”

“Is this the President playing a secret camera on us?” Chaerin said, and Hanbyeol merely shrugged. “Don’t you think this is a bit much when we’ve only started? I mean we already have so much in our schedule-”

Aera re-read the letter word for word, then handed it to Pandora. “What is this?” she demanded, looking rather frightened. The poor writer didn’t know if she should have answered her or just kept quiet.

“Unnie, I think this is for real,” Chaerin said. “I think we’re going to have a new family!”

“This is Mihyeon turned to Aera, grabbing onto the sleeve of her jacket. amazing though! We get to meet new people! And-”

“Pray it’s not a boy group. Please just pray.” Aera whispered. The rest of the girls turned to Aera, wondering just what she meant by that. Pandora caught on rather quickly and sighed, flashbacks of their pre-debut days appearing in front of her eyes.

“You don’t have to worry Aera. The past won’t repeat itself even if it’s a boy group.” Pandora said, putting a reassuring hand on the leader’s back. “You did nothing wrong back then, nothing bad will happen now.”

“We just started, if the fans chew us out-” Aera started, but then the cameras caught her attention again. She forced a smile and told the girls to begin packing. But before she let the crew into the dorm, she stopped the writer and pulled her into the corner of the hallway to have a small chat.

“Whose idea was this?” Aera asked. The chubby woman arranged her glasses on top of her nose, stumbling over her words.

“B-Blossom Entertainment.” She said.

“Why?” Aera was an extremely cynical person, and at that point, she didn’t trust anyone or anything. This show seemed a little too convenient for them and could either help them rise in fame or make them move to Siberia and change their names. Either way, she dreaded being on a show like One Family. She had her family, she had the C.H.A.M.P.ions for a while now and she didn’t want it to change.

“Your p-president wants you to get inspiration from others and their c-creativity. He thought this show w-would help you guys develop as p-p-producers” She looked like she was about to pass out, and Aera noticed it. She tried to soften her expression and sighed.

“I’m sorry, but you must know what kind of position I’m in right now,” Aera said, looking down at the floor.

The plump woman also seemed to have calmed down, and she gave her a light tap on the shoulder. “Believe me, my career is riding on the success of this show, I wouldn’t have created it to put anyone in jeopardy.” Aera lifted her face, feeling rather apologetic for her rude behaviour towards the other. “If anything gets out of hand, or is damaging to either group’s image, it won’t be aired.”

Aera nodded, taking in a deep breath. “What’s your name?”

“Iseul. Kang Iseul.” She said and smiled, her cheeks flushing a little. Aera’s face seemed to light up.

“Oh? I see we’re both from the Jinju Kang Clan.” She laughed gently. “I promise to deliver a fun show if you can also promise to protect us.” She extended her pinky, and Iseul locked fingers with her, connecting their thumbs. With a small giggle, Iseul returned behind the camera, motioning for Aera to enter the dorm.

 

 

“THIS- THIS- THIS IS IT?!”

Seungkwan looked like he was about to faint from the sight of their new house. All of the members regarded it with gaping mouths, thinking there really was a catch. They simply couldn’t trust anyone after the last show they were on. The house had a plain façade made up of grey and white, part of modern architecture no doubt. A frosted glass double door granted entry to the enormous house that even the boys could have never dreamed up. As each of them entered, they let out sounds of amazement and stared at their new home with widened eyes.

The decorations were minimalistic but added a certain beauty to everything. The color palette of the home ranged between white and black, with the occasional splash of colour in the paintings scattered on the walls of the rooms. The first floor had an open space, the living room, dining room and kitchen visible in one large space. There were two baths, a game room, a hobby room, an outdoor kitchen and a lanai. The guys screamed out of joy when they noticed that their large backyard also had a pool.

It was all too good to be true. Some members enjoyed the moment, but others were wary of the show’s true motives. They practically raced up the stairs to the second floor which was supposed to be theirs and immediately claimed their rooms by writing their names on the whiteboards plastered on their doors.

Happiness was an understatement. The Seventeen members never had so much space for themselves, even if they were to share it with another idol group. They honestly didn’t care if they were going to share it with a chicken coop because they finally thought that they could live normally as a group. No one sleeping on the floor or in the living room, no more closet sharing. Everyone could have a seat at the table and maybe they could finally stop going out so often to eat.

Seungcheol looked around as if there was going to be an ax murderer waiting for them in the house. Or maybe all of this was part of a new virtual reality simulation. He even began bumping into things to make sure they were real, gaining a weird look from Woozi who also thought it was too good to be true. Their leader eyed the male writer.

“How are we sure this is not just another ploy like the dinner we received before being shipped out to hard labour and bad living conditions,” Seungcheol said, narrowing his eyes at the man. The writer exchanged looks with the other staff, and suddenly took out a paper and handed it to the leader.

Seungcheol knew something was up and thought the honeymoon was over. But then, he noticed a number scribbles on the piece of paper.

“Are you telling me we have to call our kidnappers now?” he sighed, making the crew laugh. The writer shook his head, saying that that was the number of the leader of the other group if they wished to get into contact with them.

Seungcheol’s face lit up and he suddenly dashed throughout the house, calling everyone into the home theater located on their floor. The members gathered, looking like they were about to implode from excitement when suddenly their leader broke the news. Their bright expressions melted into worry and curiosity, wondering what they could possibly do.

“We should just send them a text,” Vernon said, jumping onto the seat. Seungkwan pushed him to the side jokingly to settle next to him. Seungcheol stared at his phone as if it were a jack in a box, ideas running through his mind.

“Maybe a picture?” Mingyu suggested, but was whacked behind the head by Jeonghan.

“Don’t make us seem like weird erts.” The long haired male laughed. Seungcheol shook his head, leaning towards the text message. He punched the number in and began to write something but deleted it quite quickly. Everyone began to throw ideas of what kind of messages should be written, and Woozi seemed to lose patients with all of the indecisions. Most of the guys began goofing off anyways, when suddenly it was Joshua that took the phone and quickly typed the message, pressing send instantly.

Everyone stared at him as if he just stepped on a land mine. Joshua smiled brightly, “Well we wouldn’t have gotten anywhere if we kept being indecisive! Now everything is done, let’s go unpack.”

Everyone left the room in a chatter, while Jeonghan and Seungcheol stayed in the lounge and stared at the phone in wonder. Thoughts seemed to travel from one mind to the other, and Seungkwan suddenly broke their thought process as he needed his new roommate Seungcheol to help with the bags.

Dokyeom didn’t have much to unpack so he thought he would simply do it later. To make it simpler for everyone, he grabbed a piece of paper and pen and wrote down which room was occupied by whom by walking down the corridor and peeking inside. He drew a simplistic layout of their floor, of course disregarding every closet and bathroom, as well as the home theater that had been raided a few moments ago.

Room #1 – S.Coups, Seungkwan, Vernon

Room #2 – Jun, Minghao

Room #3 – Jeonghan, DK

Room #4 – Woozi, Mingyu

Room #5 – Wonwoo, Dino

Room #6 – Hoshi, Joshua

Satisfied with his artistic skills, he placed the piece of paper on the wall at the top of the stairs, and couldn’t help but glance up at the third floor and wonder just who they were going to be spending six months with.

 

 

“Yah yah yah yAH YAH YAH-” Aera whacked Pandora in the chest as she was staring at her phone with widened eyes. The girls looked at their leader, confused at her sudden outburst. She showed everyone her phone, and they all gasped, letting out high pitched screams.

[SMS: Unknown Number]: We are waiting for you guys!~

“How the hell did they get my number?” Aera wondered, looking over the text message.

“Doesn’t it sound like a killer waiting for us?” Chaerin said gravely, making Hanbyeol burst into laughter.

“Let’s call the number!” Mihyeon said, “Maybe we can guess who it is by their voice.”

“I can’t even recognize my own mom over the phone do you think I can guess who is on the other side of the line if I don’t even know them?” Aera said, but she still pressed on the call button. The girls leaned in, and Aera put it on speaker phone.

At the share house, the Seventeen members were busy settling in quite nicely, scattered around. The guys were either unpacking, decorating their rooms, or lounging in the living room. They were amazed by the grandeur of the house, thinking how lucky they were that their company and their roommates’ company paid to rent it.

“KIDS BIG TROUBLE!”

Everyone whipped around at the sound of Seungcheol’s voice, and all of the members ran towards him. He was in the kitchen, looking as if he saw a ghost.

“The roommates are calling me!” he whined. “What do I do?”

“Pick it up like a man,” Woozi said, but he too looked a little scared. Seungcheol held his hand out, unable to take up a decision. With a swift hand, Hoshi pressed the answer button and they all gasped, 12 pairs of eyes glaring at him.

The girls in the car went dead quiet as the call connected. “H-Hello? Aera spoke.

The boys began to whisper amongst each other, throwing the phone to one another. They were playing hot potato and ran away once the phone was out of their hands. The phone ended up in Wonwoo

’s grasp, and he had no one to throw it to.

“Hello?” Aera repeated.

“H-H-Hello.” Wonwoo closed his eyes in embarrassment, and the guys gathered back around him. They looked puzzled, as they weren’t expecting a female voice on the other end.

The girls stayed silent but glanced at each other questioningly. They were also not expecting a deep male voice to answer the phone.

“Yes, will you be on the new show called One Family?” Aera asked.

“Y-Yes?” Wonwoo answered, not even sure himself of what he was saying. The guys began to whisper to him questions, but he was so confused he blurted out, “Are you a woman?”

Seungcheol slapped himself in the face, and everyone groaned at the bag of luck. The girls giggled in the car, “Yes. We are a girl group.” Aera said.

 

Wonwoo’s face lit up suddenly. “A-Actually, I’m the group’s manager. You’ll be on the show with another girl group as well.” Everyone regarded him as a genius. That way, they could surprise them and start everything off on a happy tone. “D-Don’t worry, they’re great people. I’m sure you’ll all get along v-very well.” Wonwoo cleared his throat, wondering why he was stuttering so much.

“Can you tell us who it is?” Aera asked.

“It’s a secret.” Was all that Wonwoo could say, and out of sheer nervousness he suddenly hung up on them. Aera pursed her lips, thinking the other was quite rude for suddenly hanging up like that.

“Who do you think it is?” Chaerin asked excitedly. The girls exchanged ideas, but Aera stayed pensive all on her own. It was slightly fishy that the person who answered the phone was a man, or maybe the girls gave him the phone as to not reveal their identity just yet. Then again, it’s not all that easy to recognize voices, at least not for her.

The car came to a stop in a slightly secluded area, in front of an enormous modern looking house. The girls climbed out of the van and regarded it in awe, just as the Seventeen members did before. They grabbed their suitcases first, thinking of unpacking the rest a little later.

Aera walked behind the rest of the girls, a knot forming in her stomach. Hanbyeol opened the front door and hauled her suitcase in, followed by the rest of the members. The girls couldn’t stop chattering away nervously, kicking off their shoes and entering the corridor of the house. They seemed amazed whereas they hadn’t even seen all that the house had to offer. They regarded everything on the first floor with wonder, and suddenly they saw an arrow leading the way for them. The girls exchanged looks, and with bright smiles, they left their suitcases at the door and followed the way indicated. Even Aera who was dreading it all seemed to be cracking a genuine smile.

They turned the corner, and as each girl made her way into the entry of the living room they froze.

“SAY THE NAME! SEVENTEEN! Hello, we are Seventeen!”

Aera took a step back, eyes as big as an owl. The girls began to stutter until Pandora took the initiative. “G-Goddesses of victory, we are C.H.A.M.P.ions!” She bowed, followed by a lag from the other members. Aera remained completely petrified and stared blankly at the wall behind the boy group.

“We surprised you, didn’t we?” Wonwoo said, and Chaerin immediately recognized his voice.

“Oh? You were the one we spoke with!” she exclaimed. “Wah, you really did get us good, we thought we were rooming with a girl group!”

The guys all laughed. “You must be Aera-ssi?” Seungcheol asked. Chaerin shook her head, glancing back to grab Aera by the arm and pull her out to the front. The leader was snapped out of her trance and she looked at all of their faces, who seemed to be interested in her. She looked down at the ground and bowed her head slightly, taking a step back again.

“We’ll quickly introduce ourselves then, I’m Seungcheol, the leader. Do you perhaps know us?” he asked. Chaerin suddenly lit up and pointed to each member that she named.

“Of course! You’re scoups-”

“It’s S-Coups, you say the S separately-”

“You’re Yoshi-”

“Hoshi-”

“Ok, maybe you don’t know them.” Hanbyeol laughed sheepishly. Chaerin apologized saying she was sure she was right, but as she only saw them occasionally on TV she wasn’t all that familiar. The members continued to say their names one by one, finally getting to the end of the line with Mingkyu, Minghao and Jun left.

“These two members are Jun and Minghao,” Mingyu said. “They just joined our group, and they don’t speak much Korean unfortunately, so communicating with them has been a little tough for us.”

Before the girls had arrived, the Seventeen members launched a ploy in order to test them as people. They planned to say that both Minghao and Jun weren’t able to communicate in Korean as they had just arrived, trying to see what kind of way they would react towards them.

“Then how can you understand each other?” Aera asked dully with her eyebrows knitting together.

“Oh with signs and lots of patience. I think we’re getting through them more now.” Mingyu gave a nervous laugh. Mihyeon raised an eyebrow and walked towards both Chinese members. The rest of the girls glanced at each other, wondering just what she was thinking. She extended her hand to Jun, then to Minghao and they all bowed to each other.

“Dà jiā hǎo, wǒ jiào Mi.” She said. “Wǒ hěn gāo xìng rèn shi nǐ.” Everyone fell silent, both Jun and Minghao widening their eyes in surprise.

“Woah.” Vernon breathed. “You can speak Chinese?”

Aera nodded. “Mihyeon is a judge on a Chinese show, so she’s learned a few things while being in China.” She looked to the two guys, wondering just how hard it must have been to be in Korea without knowing the language all too well. Jun and Minghao exchanged greetings with the dancer, and she told them good luck in their language as well.

The girls followed suit, quickly saying their names. “I’m Aera, the leader of C.H.A.M.P.ions,” she spoke last. The guys seemed to take a step back from her, as she looked terrifying at that moment. But mostly, she was sending signals to the plump writer who joined the rest of the crew in the corner of the room as to how her group could have been screwed over like that.

“You wouldn’t happen to have heard about us?” Pandora asked.

The guys looked to each other, and Seungkwan spoke, “Lately we’ve been so busy with our comeback in a few days that we haven’t had any time to see anything. Your group debuted a few weeks ago no?”

Pandora nodded. “It’s perfectly fine, there’s no fun in getting to know each other if we already know one another well.”

Aera’s eyes suddenly fell onto Jeonghan, and he seemed to be staring intently at her, his head tilting to the side with a soft smile. Her heart tightened, but she was a little relieved that they didn’t know about her group or their debut song. The last thing she needed was Jeonghan making a comment about her lyrics that would seem very familiar to him.

“We should introduce ourselves formally first, then we’ll help you girls unpack,” Seungcheol said, gesturing towards the living room. All except the female leader moved to the couches, and Aera felt nauseous again. She was still unable to grasp what was happening, and she noticed the plump writer looking at her again. They both exchanged looks, and the writer gave her a weak thumbs up.

“Leader-ssi?”

Aera glanced to the side, noticing Dokyeom was speaking to her. She inclined her head a little towards him, then followed him to the living room. She sat down on the armrest next to Pandora, while Seungkwan took center stage as the “host”.

“Hello hello hello it is I, MC Boo.” He started and gave a big bow. The guys laughed, followed by a few giggles coming from Hanbyeol and Chaerin. “Before we begin with the individual presentations, I was told by our PD-nim that there are house rules.” He jogged towards the director and grabbed a piece of paper, then returned to his position. He cleared his throat.

“Welcome to One Family! Both Seventeen and C.H.A.M.P.ions were chosen to live together for a period of six months, sharing one house and family values. While living here, each month you will be divided into mixed groups and will have to compose songs that will compete in a popularity vote. As to not show any bias, we will not be revealing the members of the group to the netizens during the voting period. Each song that will win will be presented on a special stage at a music show of your choice.”

The gears in Aera’s brain started turning faster and faster. Why did their CEO put them on a show like this? What was the purpose of it all? Nevertheless, Aera was an extremely competitive person when it came to music, and she thought this project was going to be quite interesting.

Then again, she remembered she would forcibly be paired up with the guys and she suddenly wasn’t so happy about it.

“It says here that we should establish some-” But Seungkwan’s eyes suddenly widened. “Wait, dating in the house is encouraged and has received the approval from your company’s CEOs regardless of the terms of your contract. If a couple will form, we will pay for a trip for the two.”

“I’M DATING SEUNGKWAN,” Vernon exclaimed, making everyone laugh. “LET’S GO TO JEJU!”

Seungkwan shot him a heart. “Anyways, it says we need to write our own set of rules. Any ideas?”

Chatter filled the room, and Hoshi suddenly stood up. “Divide the chores!”

“Yah, not like you’ll do anything anyways.” Woozi snapped. “Divide the chores and change it up like, every two weeks.”

Seungkwan wrote down everything, and Seungcheol suggested that in order to choose who does what, they all play games. The girls soundlessly agreed to it, and Seungkwan continued. “There are ground rules I guess, like respect one another, no hurting anyone… I don’t think there’s much to add.” Seungkwan tucked the paper into his back pocket and clasped his hands together. “AYO LADIIIIIES THIS IS YOUR STORY.”

The Seventeen members remained silent, stifling embarrassed laughs. Seungkwan gestured to Hanbyeol and called her over for her to start the introductions.