Chapter 2

She is on her way back home. The grey street passing by the car window shines in the soft, orange light of the sunset. Jeon Soyeon couldn’t help but be disappointed. She wanted to be anywhere but in this car. Being here meant she had failed.

She lays her head against the cold glass. It was uncomfortable, and she must open slightly, so her teeth don’t rattle against each other. But that at least distracts her from her brooding. With feeling uncomfortable she could deal. But now that she got eliminated from her second survival show, just thinking about it brings her to the brink of tears. I should call mum. That’s what I always do when I have a hard time. I doubt it’ll help. This is just so frustrating. I worked so hard and it’s not paying off. But no, there’s no point in sulking. She sighs. With a scowl Soyeon straightens in her chair and suppresses the tears. She pulls out her cellphone and navigates to her mother’s number. She’d be asleep right now since she worked the early morning shift. But she would want her to call anyways. After the fourth ring the phone gets picked up: “Soyeon!”, her mother answers in a cheerful tone. “How are you? Is everything alright?”

“Hello mum. Were you already sleeping?”, she replied quietly.

“Yes, I was, but you know you can call me anytime. Now tell me what’s up. You never call this late unless you want to talk.”

“I got eliminated. I was so close to getting first place and I still failed.”

“Why would you say that?”, her mum responded in her typical scolding but loving tone. “You only failed if you had given up or didn’t work hard to reach your goal. We can’t always get what we want. You know that. If you feel like you tried your best, then you should be satisfied.”

“I know. It’s still not easy. Thank you for listening mum.”

“You are very welcome Soyeon. Keep on working hard you hear me? Eat well and make sure you wear warm clothes. It’s autumn and right after that is winter. And you know that dad and I are proud of you, don’t you?”

“Yes, yes I do. Bye! Until tomorrow”, Soyeon replies and hangs up the phone. She feels better after talking with her mother. Her voice always calms her and brings her back to what’s important.

They drive into Seongdong-gu and Soyeon perked up upon seeing the familiar neighborhood. Although she was not happy to be back so soon, she was looking forward to seeing Soojin, Yeeun and all the others again. As soon as the car stops in front of the company building, she jumps off the backseat and rushes to the trunk. Pulling out a couple of her bags, just so she doesn’t feel as bad letting her manager carry the rest, she runs up to the main entrance.

Chulmoo greets her with a wide grin. “Back so soon from the rap-battle? I saw you on TV. You put up quite the show. If I ever cross you remind me how you demolished that poor girl live on TV”, he jokes with a proud grin on his face.

“It wasn’t live. But thanks, Chulmoo”, she grins back at him.

“At least I can now stop watching this trash channel”, he says with a snarky grim look on his face.

Soyeon just rolls her eyes. Chulmoo took things personal when it came to the trainees under his supervision. While she was walking to the lockers, he already got his phone out to cancel his  M-Net subscription, all while mumbling something about snakes and rigging.

She carried her luggage to the locker rooms and put it all in a secluded corner, so no one would fall over it. Most of the articles in her load belonged to the company. She only took her backpack with her few personal items back home. It was late and time for her to leave if she wanted to sleep more than a couple hours. Waving bye to Chulmoo she opens the door and walks out into the cold air.

As the crimson sun set slowly in the horizon, the pavement is only lit by the streetlamps between the heavy pillars supporting the train tracks. Soyeon walks a few steps down Achasan-ro before taking a left turn. The smaller streets are darker but also less frequented. She dislikes walking next to all the noisy cars passing by. Here, between small cafés, shops and brick buildings she has a bit of peace and quiet while walking to the train station.

With a faint smile she walks through the darkness. Finally, no one around. Mum always cautions me about taking the back streets. But I like the quietness and solitude. No one waving a schedule under my nose or telling me what to rap, sing or dance. She reaches the stairway up to the station. After getting a ticket at one of the self-service vending machines at the entrance, she walks up to the platform and sits down on a bench. She pulls out her small notebook and starts reading through the lyrics she jotted down in it. There were half-finished raps for imaginary songs, angrily scribbled rhymes from when she was upset and various doodles and random words that she might try to insert later on. After staring at it for a while and rereading old notes over and over she puts it away again. A few minutes later the train arrives, and she boards it. Once again putting her forehead against the glass she stares down onto the city passing by her.

The next morning, she steps off the train with a coffee in hand. On the lower level of the station she buys pastries. She plans on giving some to Soojin and Chulmoo, maybe some other people too. But that would depend on how many of them remained after the walk to the company. With a happy grin she bites into the first pastry she pulls out of the paper bag. Ten minutes later she pulls open the front door. “Good morning Chulmoo. I got some pastries to celebrate my return.”

“Good morning Soyeon!”, Chulmoo answered enthusiastically. He reaches into the offered bag and gets powdered sugar and crumbs all over the place while pulling his hand out. “Thanks. Damn it! This is a mess.” He frowns while wiping over the counter.

Soyeon suppresses a laugh and walks through the lobby into the yard. She finds a secluded spot and sends Soojin a text message.

SY: I’m back. Am in the yard.

Soojin answers a few seconds later.

SJ: :OOO omw

She sits down on the grass next to the tree and keeps an eye on the main building entrance. Suddenly she hears a giggle from behind her. She turns around and sees Soojin leaning on the wall. “Where are you coming from?”, she asks her surprised. Where did she come from so suddenly? I even kept an eye on the yard entrance. She jumps up and pulls her into a hug. “From the dorms”, Soojin laughs and lets go of her. “I visited Minnie and Yuqi. They should come out shortly they just have to get ready.”

“Yuqi? Is she new?” Soyeon asks. Hmm. Wonder since when she hangs around with Minnie. We never had much to do with her. And Yuqi? Hmm… Soojin definitely was busy extending our circle while I was gone. I already sound so negative. Why am I like this? I might even like them but am already distancing myself.

She offers Soojin the pastries. “Come on take one.”

“You know I’m on a diet. I must shed some weight. Get those away from me, before I get tempted.”

Soyeon smiles to herself. Soojin always was on diet. And after a couple days she’d just go eat a week’s worth of sweets and fast food. She was hopeless. Then again that meant more pastries for her and she wouldn’t complain. That much was for certain.

After they talked for a while under the shade of the tree Yuqi and Minnie came out of the dorms.

Soyeon spots them at once, immediately her eye fell upon Yuqi. Woah, she’s pretty. I like her eyes. She stands up and swipes over her bottom to get the grass and dirt off her trousers. “Hello Yuqi. I am Jeon Soyeon”, she formally introduces herself.

“Hi. I am Song Yuqi”, Yuqi answers timidly. “Nice to meet you. I watched Produce 101. You were great on there.”

“Thanks”, Soyeon smiles at her warmly. Her voice is nice. How does such a small girl have such a husky voice? Huh. What a weird thing to notice. I must be more tired than I thought. I wonder how her singing voice sounds?

“Soyeon!”, Soojin raised her voice. She looks at her with a slightly worried and amused look. “Everything alright? You kinda blanked out just now.”

“Huh? Oh yeah. Sorry. Hey, Minnie.” She grins at the other girl. “How’s the dancing going?”

“Good, thank you. We had a small training session with Soojin yesterday. I think that helped me a lot.”

Soyeon meets Soojin’s eyes questionably, who just shrugs her shoulders slightly. “I took up the late-night dancing practice again. And since you weren’t there, I offered Yuqi and Minnie to join in. We need more people for choreos anyways”, Soojin argued.

“Hey. I didn’t complain”, Soyeon stops Soojin from explaining herself further.

“We’re not very advanced and we don’t want to hold you back”, Minnie remarked apologetically. “I mean you and Soojin are really good and we’d totally understand if you don’t want to have us.”

Soyeon scowls. “That’s not a very good reason to exclude someone. We all start somewhere. I’d love to have you two join us again tonight.” I wonder if Yuqi is any good at dancing. I can show her the basics. Since she’s new she can’t be that advanced.

“That reminds me, we’re having another rooftop party tonight. If we want to go to that we won’t really have time for practice,” Soojin announces, breaking the slight tension that built had built up.

“Again? I thought you just had one last week?”

“Yeah. But… well…we’re having one again. You like those parties no?”, Soojin replied with a flustered expression.

“Yes, sure I do. I am just surprised. You know we can’t have a party every other day. The company is tolerating them, but they won’t look the other way for long if we overdo it.” She turns towards Minnie and Yuqi. “I assume you guys are also coming?”

“Sure!”, Minnie exclaims eagerly.

“Uhm. I don’t have any nice clothes to wear though”, Yuqi throws in with concern.

“We can go shopping before we have to get ready. We won’t have much time but I’m sure we can free up an hour or so”, Minnie says excitedly.  

“Okay I’ll go”, Yuqi says and smiles into the round.

After a day of hard work and training, Soyeon takes the elevator up to the roof. When she enters it, there are already a couple Pentagon members standing in it and talking loudly.

“Oh! Hey Soyeon. Are you coming to the party tonight?”, Hui asks her animatedly.

“Yeah, I guess I am”, Soyeon replies.

“Is Soojin coming with you?”

“Yes, as always Soojin and I are going to the party together”, Soyeon answers a bit dryly. I just want to go up to the roof and relax for a bit. Can he please just stop talking. I just want to be left alone.

The other members smirk at Hui. “What!?”, he snaps at them.

Soyeon presses the button to the seventh floor and the elevator stops a few seconds later. “I thought you wanted to the roof.”, Hui exclaims.

“Yes. I am taking the stairs.”

Without giving them a second glance, she steps off the elevator and takes the stairway. Soon after, she opens the door to the roof. There are a few wooden benches and a small but neat lawn. On it, there was a sign prohibiting to step on the grass.

She took a seat and looked over the city. This might be her favourite spot at the company. The air is as fresh as it gets in Seoul and she can see the tree covered hills beyond the city. The breeze made her feel pleasantly cold after all the dancing. Just as she took a sips from her water bottle her phone vibrates in her belt bag. She had received another text from Soojin.

SJ: We are going shopping now. We’re waiting for you at the elevator.

SY: I haven’t even showered! And who is we?

SJ: Minnie, Yuqi and I. And no excuses. We’ll let you join us being smelly and everything.

Urgh. I just want to shower and get ready for the party on my own. Well you’d just relax, think and write lyrics anyways. Might as well do something social. Soyeon sighs and sends Soojin a reply:

SY: Alright :/  

A minute later she stepped off the elevator. The three girls were waiting for her at the main entrance.

“Hurry up Soyeon. We don’t have much time”, Soojin cautioned.

“That reminds me Hui asked me if you’d come to the party”, Soyeon answered with a mischievous smile.

Soojin just turns around and walks out the front door. Yuqi and Minnie glanced after her. Hehe. That shut her up.

“Where are we going?”, Yuqi asked worriedly.

“There is a nice clothing store most of us go to. It’s close by”, Minnie reassures her.

Ten minutes later they are standing before the store. It has a wooden logo over the glass doors and in the store windows are various simple but nice pieces exhibited.

This is really not my kind of shop. Too girly, too fancy and all around not my style. But Yuqi seems to like it.

Yuqi’s eyes become bigger and bigger while watching the items on display. “I love this!”, she shouts excitedly, pointing at a light blue blouse. Eagerly she enters the shop and walks straight to the display.

Meanwhile Soyeon searches for the store clerk. Might as well finish it fast. We still have to get ready after all. “Excuse me? Is this blue blouse in the window for sale? My friend likes it a lot.”

The saleswoman smiles politely. “Oh, yes. Follow me.”

She walks through the store and brings Soyeon to an aisle with various blouses in multiple colours. Soyeon walks towards Yuqi who’s still admiring the display. “I found the blouse you were going on about”, she says and grabs Yuqi by the underarm. She drags her back to the aisle. “What size do you have?”

“Uh I am not sure maybe 45 in Korean sizes?” After a quick search Soyeon grabs sizes 44, 45 and 46. She holds the 45 to Yuqi’s shoulders.

“Looks great. Now we need trousers”, Soyeon replies.

Minnie is already waving from the other side of the shop. “Minnie already found the right section. Come on.” Soyeon says and drags Yuqi by her hand. Oops. I didn’t plan on holding hands with her. Her hand is so soft though. And yours is probably super sweaty. Just let go already. She readjusts her grip to drag Yuqi at her sleeve.

Soojin already has multiple trousers in hand and pressures Yuqi to pick one. “I am not sure. Aren’t those a bit tight? They might not even fit”, Yuqi comments with a skeptical expression.

“Of course, it’ll fit. And if it doesn’t, we’ll get a size bigger. Now take those two and get into the changing room. Try it on.” Yuqi takes the offered clothes with a worried expression.

After a minute of complaining and discarding various clothing items she comes out of the changing cubicle.

Minnie and Soojin smile widely and compliment her on her new outfit. Woah! How does she look so cute and y at the same time! Those trousers are way too form fitting and this blouse is so cute! At this moment she realizes that she has stared at Yuqi open-mouthed for quite a while, and all three girls have caught on.

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Special thanks to Angie for beta reading and feedback!

Going forward I will tell the story from Yuqi's and Soyeon's perspective. But the focus is on Yuqi, so her chapters will be more extensive and go into more detail. The perspective will switch with each chapter. Next chapter we'll come back to Yuqi's perspective and start where we left off with the end of the first chapter.

As you might've realized I am not a native speaker. So if you have any corrections regarding grammar or such things just shoot me a comment. I am more than happy to make corrections. Also if you have suggestions, feedback or requests I'll gladly hear all of it.

Thanks for reading!

Explanation of possibly unclear terms/names:

Seongdong-gu (성동구): one of the 25 districts of Seoul. The Cube Headquarters are located here.

Achasan-ro (아차산로): the main road the company is located at. There are actually tracks leading over it! Check it out in Google Streetview. I think it looks great.