Doubling over, exhaustion took over you, taking heavy breaths as sweat dripped down from your forehead, clothes sticking to your body as your eyes turned to the clock on the wall, knees buckling over as you fell over. A groan leaving your lips as the bruises on your knees slammed against the wooden floor.

“Get up…” Your jaw clenched, breathing out through your nose as your hands formed fists, standing up on shaky legs, “You have an hour left. I’ll come back in when you’re done…” Hyejoo left you, dropping the water bottle on the couch and making her exit.

Your eyes moving to the camera set up in the corner of the room, a hand wiping the sweat away before tying your hair up. Tilting your hand back for a few seconds, trying to focus your thoughts on the music playing as adrenaline pumped through you, pushing your body for one more hour.

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“Alright but what do we do for her birthday?” Irene was sitting with Sooyoung, Jennie and Jisoo, wanting to make your special day extra special with the year you had.

“Where is she though? What if she comes back?” “She’s living at the company these past few days… Company punishment.” “For what though?” “Well for one she flipped off the press and she punched Jaehyun, Jennie.” The short girl pouted, huffing while crossing her arms, “Ok but everyone’s supporting her!” “What do you mean?”

Everyone quirked a brow at her making her roll her eyes, “Here look.”

She pulled out her phone, showing them the tweets upon tweets, “I’m guessing someone took a video of the whole thing cause it showed everything that went down, from her getting almost mobbed to one of the guys shouting at her…”

They nodded, Sooyoung shrugging her shoulders, “Now we just wait for them to fangirl over her I guess…” Jisoo giggled, still scrolling through Jennie’s phone, “Already happening.” She smiled at everyone showing support of you, “Hell even other fandoms are joining in on defending her…” “Atleast something positive came out of this…”

“How’s she been doing though?” Both girls shared a look, an unsure look on their faces, “We haven’t seen her that much, she leaves at like seven in the morning and comes back at ten at night, says hi and then heads straight to bed.”

They grew worried, mood diminishing, “Has she been eating?” “I think so…” Irene grew guilty, biting her lip when she realized she’d been busy with the other members that she didn’t even take notice of you. Sooyoung rubbed her back, calming her down, “It’s fine, maybe this’ll bring her ego back down…” Jennie grew confused, thinking back to a few nights before where you were completely fine, “What do you mean?” “She’s just been weird… like she’s the same person but… it’s like… she’s suddenly… overconfident? And I don’t think she’s been sleeping cause everytime I wake up in the middle of the night her car keys aren’t there… It’s just a weird situation.”

This came as a surprise to everyone else, growing quiet, “That is weird…”

Jennie clapped her hands, catching their attention, “OK we have a week till her birthday right? How about before that we just make sure everything gets settled down, and when we reach the day for the party, everyone’s happy?”

“Fine but how are we gonna do that?” “Let’s get dinner tonight, we’ll go pick her up from the company and I’ll text Lisa and Rosie to join.” “I’ll see if Seulgi and Yeri are free and text Wendy to come…”

“That settles it, we’ll have a dinner, figure out what Y/N wants for her birthday and BAAM!”

They shook their heads at Jennie’s optimism, Irene calling Hyejoo up, “Unnie do you know when Y/N’ll be done?” “She has an hour left of dance and then a personal meeting so probably two hours? Maybe two and a half…” “Alright thanks…” “Do you girls need anything else?” “Can you pick us up in an hour and a half maybe?” “Alright I’ll see you girls then…”

Irene hung up, retelling the info to the girls as they leaned back, “So we got some time to blow…” “Let’s just get the guest list done atleast, that’ll take some time.” “Y/N has a lot of friends?” Jisoo quirked a brow, knowing your introverted nature and well… severe trust issues.

Irene hummed, scratching her chin, “Not friends.. more so acquaintances?” Jennie and Jisoo grew even more confused, wondering why you would want acquaintances at your party, “They’re friendly with her and she helps them out with stuff, stress or vocal technique, depressive thoughts… she gives good advice you know?” Jennie nodded, knowing that was how the both of you got close in the first place.

“But she has to have like… actual friends!”

Sooyoung thought for a second, “She has us... SNSD… Shinee…BTS… Twice? She’s friends with Hyo-seob and Dean too… Miso?” Irene shook her head quickly, gaining a giggle from Jennie, “Miso as in that rapper girl?” “No no… she’s in the same label as Dean.” “Ahhh! She’s friends with Y/N?” “Kind off? Dean introduced them to eachother and they hit it off, Y/N might have gotten a little crush… They were pretty close but they haven’t talked that much, Y/N stopped first, Miso tried talking to her but she eventually gave up too…”

Jennie smirked, Chaeyoung immediately popping into her head, “Ok but let’s say we invite her right? And Rosie just happens to find out Y/N had a crush… JUST SAYING!” They all shook their heads sighing at her, “Let’s just get this list done and we’ll head to the company to pick her up.”

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Hyejoo walked into the dance studio, your body completely abolished as you tried to move to the music, running through random choreos again and again, bruises were building up on your legs, some even on your hips as your heavy breaths filled the studio. Hair pulled back into a ponytail as stray strands randomly stood.

She watched you for a few minutes, completely absorbed into the music as you pushed harder and harder, song coming to an end as your body dropped to the floor, holding yourself up on all fours as fatigue finally deterred your body.

Gasping for air as you tried to pull yourself together.

Seven days in a row, you were on the same routine. Come to the company, dance for eight hours, go to the studio for another three or four, take care of personal business, head home, meet the girls, try to sleep, fail, and go out.

“Time’s up…”

You turned your head to look at Hyejoo, nodding before facing the floor again, “That meeting you set up is in half n hour.” You sent her a thumbs up, nodding your head again before feeling a water bottle roll against your hand, “Drink it and get a move on, remember this next time you decide to act out.”

You swallowed your spit to help your dry throat before moving to sit down crossed legged. Opening up the bottle as she left you once again, a sigh escaping you as you stared up at the ceiling, trying to memorize each lighting fixture and speaker, falling into thought for a second before shaking your head out of it.

You moved to get up, a groan escaping you as your face distorted into pain, taking heavy steps towards the showers, quickly cleaning yourself up as you felt the cold water run down your body. Letting out a breath as you rolled your shoulders back, sighing before shutting the water off and wrapping your hair in one of the towels you brought. Drying yourself off as you got dressed, you stood there in your pants, taking out your towel as you began to dry your hair off.

You heard the door to the changing rooms open, turning your head to meet Lisa and Chaeyoung, forming into confusion, “Eh?” “Y/N!”

Lisa ran to hug you, giggling at you while you shut your hair dryer off, “Why are you two here?” Lisa leaned back, keeping her arms wrapped around you, “Seulgi Unnie said to meet her here… but we kinda got lost…” You rolled your eyes, nudging her away from you, “She’s probably at the café… let me just finish getting ready and I’ll lead you guys that way.”

Lisa smiled at you, giving you a kiss on your cheek before sitting down on one of the benches set in the changing room, Chaeyoung silently following her as her eyes stayed stuck on your figure.

Dark underbag eyes, waist much thinner to the point where she could see your ribs push against your skin every time you raised your arms. Not to mention the slight bruising, a yellow tone over tanned skin.

You finished drying your hair, letting it fall into curls before moving to grab your shirt, buttoning it up, “Cute?” Lisa nodded at you, staring at the vintage-styled grey suit you wore, a simple white shirt to go with.

You turned to do your makeup, a simple dragged out eyeliner with a red lip, fixing it up before packing your things away into a duffel bag and grabbing your blazer and slipping on some wide-rimmed glasses before taking your briefcase out of the locker, “Alright, follow me but be quick… I got a meeting in like ten minutes.” You looked up from your watch, quirking a brow at them.

They nodded at you, the three of you heading into the hallways, “So how’s life love?” You smiled at Lisa, turning to look at her for a second before turning back to your front, “Still under punishment, I got one more day and then I’m done.” “How’s it going then?” You shrugged your shoulders, pout on your face, “It’s whatever, atleast I get to dance and it’s not mopping up the floors or something.” “What about producing?” “I’m almost done with most songs, have a few more that’ll I’ll finish up tomorrow.” “You got any plans after your meeting?” “Uhh… Don’t think so?”

Lisa jumped on your back, Chaeyoung not missing the pain that crossed over your face for a second before it went back to your usual smile, “Then you’re chilling with us!” “Sure sure…”

You opened the door to the café up, meeting Seulgi and Wendy as their faces formed big smiles when they saw you, “Y/N!” You hugged them tightly, moving away to let them all take their seats while checking your watch, “I gotta go but I’ll see you guys later.”  You quickly kissed their heads, deciding to give Chaeyoung a tight squeeze instead before running off.

“Do you know what her meeting’s about?” The older girls shrugged their shoulders, Seulgi humming, “She does what she wants with her money, she’s invested in a bunch of businesses and on top of that she has her own personal ventures, as long as it’s not illegal we don’t really say anything.” They giggled slightly, Wendy cutting in, “It’s probably just something about a business she has money in…”

Seulgi shot up, looking like she just realized something, “What?” She had a thoughtful pout on her lips before turning to Wendy and whispering in her ear, Chae and Lisa confused, “…Can we know what’s going on?” Wendy huffed, taking a sip from her iced coffee, “Seulgi’s saying she saw some plans for a business on Y/N’s desk the other day…” “So what? She’s doing her own thing?” “No not like that… she already owns a few restaurants in Daegu. It was for a charity…”

They bit their lips, wondering while Chaeyoung finally spoke up since reaching there, “Why is that so weird? I mean she does donate a lot…” “Exactly. She normally just donates to a bunch of different places or gets things built like schools or hostels… She either goes for safe money or to help people out, but she never does risks like this…”

They all fell quiet, wondering why you would want to create a charity out of nowhere, “Whatever it is, we’ll ask her later, what drinks do you guys want?” Seulgi stood up, a smile on her face.

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You walked into the meeting room, bowing as you apologized for being a few minutes late, taking a seat at the head of table as you pulled out your laptop and briefcase, taking out the proper papers before turning to your two partners, “Now let’s begin…”

You smiled at them, watching them both copy your movements as you began discussing new updates, “Now we are already prepared, we’ve gotten the permits, staff has been sorted and we’ve been certified as a non-profit organization per your wish…” “Alright what about branches?” “Are you sure about this… normally we should on