"Get. Up." 

 

Eunji can't tell who is talking for sure, her consciousness is wedged way into sleep to even think coherently. However, even at that state, the person’s adamance in getting her out of bed is way too strong for her to ignore. The hotdog pillow between her arms is being tugged at full strength - obviously an attempt to take comfort away from her and lure her off the mattress.

 

Joke’s on them. Her whole bed is her comfort space and it will take more than a mere hotdog pillow. Two rules - only her mom and her alarm clock get to start her day. Eunji easily lets the pillow free from her grasp, simply turning her body from the annoyed protests coming from the side of her bed.

 

It's too early for this .

 

"It's past six, Eunji!" The volume of the intruder's voice expounds. By the highness of the pitch, she could easily tell it is a woman. Not that the chances of a guy getting into the dorms are high enough for her to even consider that an option - unless they’re a robber but then she’s sure robbers would actually want the lodgers of the house, therefore herself, asleep and won’t be pulling her off the bed like this. 

 

The voice is a little unfamiliar too, making her less inclined to obey. She knows that unfamiliar voices are of concern- oh, this spot of the bed is comfortable. Nuzzling her head into yet another pillow, she rolls her shoulder out of the woman’s grasp.

 

"Come on! Morning practice! Up!" 

 

The loudness shakes her will and with much effort, Eunji cracks her heavy eyelids open. It’s a little blurry. She blinks once, letting her eyes adjust to the waking world. Now able to see the woman’s creased brow and lips turned down, she lets out an indecipherable sound at the recognition. 

 

"Oh… Morning,” What’s her name again? It would be a little embarrassing to get it wrong on Day 1. She can just imagine the new actress using it against her for the duration of working with her. “Kim Nam…joo?" 

 

She can just hope it was correct since she just wants to cram more sleep in as possible. Her eyelids too heavy to keep open, Eunji can't help but succumb once more to sleep, letting her morning fatigue take her consciousness slowly.

 

"DON'T FALL ASLEEP!" Violent and desperate jolts of her frame, a pair of hands on either shoulder, keeps her soul in the waking world, making Eunji whine through her nose. Who cares about dignity right now? Her alarm is the only one with the right to separate her from her mattress.

 

"See? I told you she gets like this." Eunji grimaces a little when Bomi's voice joins the mix, a little further from her ears than Namjoo's. She didn’t sound even a little bit baffled by the turn of events. "If you keep this up, I'm gonna ship your equipment away from the dorm while you're away for work. What will it be?" 

 

The threat makes its way to Eunji's ears despite her drowsiness and she grits her teeth. The thought of not being able to use her workout equipment as she checks student outputs and creates lesson plans is pure horrifying - besides the fact that it will sabotage her routine, it will disrupt her whole functionality as a whole. Workout equipment to her is akin to a stress ball to a CEO with greying hair. "You wouldn’t dare! Then I'm not sharing Mom's rice cakes when she sends some." Eunji manages to blurt out huskily, her voice still raw from sleep. Also, a little muffled by the pillows.

 

"Well I can just go straight to Busan for my share," Bomi fires back without missing a beat.

 

Eunji almost snorts. Busan is more than a couple of hours away from Cheongju City after all. No one in their right mind will choose to go there on a whim. Especially with such a minuscule agenda as rice cakes. 

 

But then again it is Bomi. With her spirit free from the shackles of what makes sense, she'd most definitely book a ticket to get to her mom the moment she sees an empty tupperware of rice cakes from Eunji’s family.

 

To be fair, her mom's cakes are that good to warrant going all the way back to Busan.

 

Eunji can just let out a groan in defeat and frustration into her pillow. "But it's so early!" Her voice is thankfully suppressed into the soft padding, all the air from her lungs as if throwing a mini tantrum.

 

"Don't tell me this will be a daily thing," Namjoo's deadpan voice cuts into the silence after her outburst.

 

"She'll eventually stop being a baby over it." Bomi's nonchalant voice follows. "I hope."

 

—

 

A ruler is pointed at her. Or at least she thinks. Eunji can barely keep her awareness of her surroundings at bay at the moment, lapsing in and out of sleep with her head bobbing involuntarily at every step.

 

"Keep your eyes open." Bomi huffs, keeping the ruler pointed as a form of command as the director. Eunji can only let out a mhm, head so heavy that even the studio's smooth wooden floor looks good for sleeping on right now.

 

Light hitting her face, she glares in the direction to see the bright orange skies smudged with purple through the huge glass window. Normally, she'd find the sight pretty and picturesque - she would go nuts at this kind of simple yet stunning sight. However, at the moment, it seems as if the view is mocking her for how early it is. On a Saturday too.

 

A sudden loud thrum pierces her ears, forcefully pulling her out of the world of sleep for good. The sound is so loud that it is almost akin to a pot and pan being clanged fifty inches from her ears. Gritting her teeth, Eunji clamps her hands over her ears. "Jesus–! TURN IT OFF!”

 

Searching the room, she locks eyes with Namjoo. Judging by Namjoo's almost similar surprised reaction, though more calm with her ears simply plugged with her fingers, she isn't in on this plan - presumably - to get her soul alive and kicking.

 

Searching the room, Eunji narrows her eyes at the only possible culprit in the small room visible behind a glass across the room. Bomi is operating the huge, complicated-looking computer in the glass room, which is probably the source of the club-like volume music booming throughout the gym-like practice room.

 

Letting out a sheepish smile, Bomi slides her hand over the mixer, normalizing the volume of the music, mouthing an apology ost within the loudness of the sound and the glass booth blocking her from the rest of the practice room.

 

With the volume now more humane and easy to listen to, Eunji is now able to wrap her brain around the familiarity of the melody. “The National Morning Exercise?” she creases her eyebrows at the music choice.

 

Nonchalantly strolling out of the sound booth, Bomi starts the routine steps that every Korean citizen probably knows by heart. Walk in place. Arms forward. Up. Sides. Down. Squats - personally, Eunji hasn’t done it ever since she graduated high school. Morning assemblies aren’t a thing anymore since then and it takes her a few minutes of staring at Bomi before her best friend quirks an eyebrow back.

 

“Come on! What are you two waiting for!” Bomi urges on, swinging her arms on routine urging both Eunji and Namjoo with a face so straight that whatever annoyance Eunji had for the sudden ear-breaking attack earlier evaporates.

 

“...This is our acting warmup exercise?” Namjoo almost stifles a laugh bubbling out through her lips as she looks at them back and forth in confirmation.

 

“Where’s both of your patriotism?” Bomi pouts at both of them, continuing despite the small resistance. “And it’s a completely valid warm-up exercise for acting practice!”

 

Loosening up from the hilarity of the situation, Eunji finally cracks down and obeys, doing the steps to the beat of the morning theme playing out of the speakers - Bomi's unusual propositions are barely anything new to her. With the routine movement of the limbs, her blood evens out throughout her body, leaving a rush of euphoria in its wake. 

 

“Huh. I guess this is actually good for blood circulation before the actual warm-ups." Eunji muses, her more carefree side jumping out, taking the place of her morning grumpiness.

 

"It has been a while since I last remember doing this." Namjoo soon follows, fascination evident in her voice. "Feels like I'm in high school again."

 

Eunji wonders how they’d look out of context. Grown adults doing morning exercises fitting for high school students and middle-aged to old people at seven in the morning. On a weekend. It might seem a bit bizarre considering their age group normally isn’t the one for the National exercise. Koreans only grow to appreciate the routine again in their 40s above because of their bones weakening as they age.

 

The euphoria of morning exercise is hard to deny, so it's not that bad. With Bomi as their director, they’ll just have to get used to her methods.

 

“Okay! Now for lung capacity!” Bomi stops the exercise music with a click of a remote. Pulling a timer out from the pocket of her track jacket, she beams. “Run around the studio while singing… Pick Me!”

 

Namjoo quirks an eyebrow. "Is this the survival show song?" she asks incredulously.

 

Bouncing on her heels along with full squats parallel to the floor, Eunji chuckles. “Don’t read too much into it. Bomi’s just into Produce lately.” 

 

Bomi gets into a lot of different things within a small time frame. Usually, her current interests influence what she says and how she acts within that said time frame. It has been going on since they were kids. Eunji’s favorite will be Bomi’s cowgirl phase back when they were fifteen. It’s funny especially when paired with their rowdiness as a gang back in high school. Everyone wears leathers and chains. Bomi has cowboy hats and lassos.

 

The upbeat melody of ‘Pick Me’ then plays through the speakers, breaking Eunji out from her thoughts. Soon, Eunji and Namjoo break into a jog at Bomi's signal at the start of her timer. Eunji belts the lyrics out with ease - the lyrics that she knows anyway. She isn’t as into the survival shows to know the lyrics by heart as Bomi. Well, they were instructed earlier that what’s important is a steady flow of melody and beat in contrast to their running.

 

“Oh wow, you’re good!” Namjoo manages to exclaim before following suit and Eunji can’t help but smile ear-to-ear at the compliment. Soon, Namjoo’s voice mixes in with hers, her voice higher creating a pleasant harmony with Eunji’s lower register. 

 

Bomi stands in the middle of the practice hall, a timer in one hand and a remote control in the other. For the second lap, another song plays. They easily recognize it as No. 1 by BoA. “Next song! Go!”

 

While Namjoo easily switches into the next song, Eunji begins flubbing the lyrics and melody thanks to her uneven breaths from running. Granted, her stamina is pretty good from her daily workout sessions. However, the additional demand for air is affecting the quality of her singing, 

 

“When the full moon goes away~” Namjoo remains consistent and smooth as she jogs around the huge studio alongside her, not losing composure as if it’s just another day of her singing while running in circles.

 

After Bomi stops the music, only the sound of Namjoo and Eunji’s sneakers skidding to a stop and weaving in with the