"Today's the day... Your time is up Kim Chaewon!"

"Ugh, what kind of dream was that?" Chaewon mutters as she rubs her eyes. It was pretty murky, and she could only remember an oddly familiar voice. It felt like she'd heard that voice a few times in her dreams recently, but this time, it sounded hostile.

"Well, I'm not going to let that ruin a wonderful looking day..." Chaewon sighs to herself as she gets up and looks out her dorm window. It's been a few months since the events in Jeju, and she's learned to value peace and quiet as much as she could. In their lives, trouble would always find a way to rear its ugly head when they least expected it.

The short-haired girl stretches her arms before splitting into three, one clone tidying the bed and one checking her deskside laptop for news while she went to the mirror to wash her face. The convenience of being able to clone yourself could never be understated.

"Minjoo's out early... oh wait, she has acting lessons today." She thinks to herself when she sees her girlfriend's bed empty from the mirror's reflection. Ever since Ahn Joon-young had been captured, the members of IZ*ONE have had more time to themselves, and began pursuing personal interests and missions. Minjoo had followed through with her acting passion and signed up for classes in Seoul. Chaewon still remembered the day she accompanied her fondly; The lady at the front desk thought she was the one applying not realizing that Minjoo had gone invisible due to nervousness. Once Minjoo stepped on stage to show what she'd prepared though, she looked like a completely different person and took the evaluators' breaths away.

Meanwhile, Chaewon's been dabbling in a few different hobbies like singing and dancing. Her Youtube page actually hit a million subscribers the other day, and she's been getting a lot of calls from agencies that wanted her to try out for them. Being able to do dance covers with her clones in particular were her most popular videos. She was still in no rush though as she enjoyed hanging around PD campus and helping out the newer trainees with Eunbi. Chaewon knew from her mother that you really had to be sure if you wanted to get into the entertainment industry.

"I'll figure it out eventually." Chaewon says to herself as she finishes freshening up.

"Ugh, Chae-one, did we sign up for this tryout for today?" Her clone speaks up suddenly from their desk. Chaewon had begun getting used to conversing with her copies, but she still did get caught off guard every once in a while.

"Wait, what's this?" She wonders while looking at her calendar. It said there was an audition for HYVE that she was scheduled to attend, but she didn't recall ever signing up for one.

"Are you sure you didn't accidentally accept one of the invites?" Chaewon asks while looking at her clone.

"I'm you, remember? You'd think we remembered that if we did it." Chae-two counters. They both looked at the other copy who'd just finished tidying up the room, but she shook her head too.

"Maybe it was just a mistake, and I didn't notice because I was sleepy."

Deciding it wouldn't matter if she didn't show up, Chaewon elected to ignore the notification and headed to the cafeteria for breakfast.

~~~~

"What's got you in your head, Chae?" Eunbi asks the cheetah when she notices she was lost in her thoughts.

"Oh, it's nothing, unnie. Just figuring out what to do outside of missions." Chaewon replies without mentioning the strange situation earlier.

"Hmm, we do have a lot of free time now. Is the Youtuber life doing fine?"

"Yeah, I have a couple videos to upload this week. It just feels like there's something missing."

"Are you sure you don't want to get into the KPOP scene? Yuri's been loving it so far. Her debut single was a hit." Eunbi says.

"Maybe...I'm just not sure yet. It's a lot of commitment. What if I don't have time to be around here because of training?" Chaewon responds quietly.

"Yah, everyone knows how good you are at multitasking. It has to be something else." Eunbi counters until a realization hits her.

"You're afraid of going down the same path as your mom, aren't you?" The leader guesses. Chaewon shrinks at this, knowing she was caught red-handed. Knowing how her mother was when she was an actress still scared her. The pressure and expectations of the public were what drove a wedge in between them and forced Chaewon to run away from home. Despite this, she didn't want Eunbi to know she was right.

"I'm serious, unnie. Having to split my time between missions, training, and Minjoo will take a lot of effort." She tried to say it convincingly, but Eunbi could see right through it.

"Alright, Chae, just take it easy, okay? I just want you to pick something that makes you happy in the end." Eunbi eventually replies, knowing this was an internal battle for Chaewon to fight on her own. After that, the two continued to eat together in silence until the bell rang.

~~~~

At around noon, Chaewon was laying on her bed and scrolling through her phone. All the other IZ*ONE members were either out of campus or busy in meetings. The alone time was good sometimes, but she did miss having company. Her usual partners in crime, Yena and Yujin were on personal trips, and Minjoo wouldn't be back by sundown.

"Hmm... that's odd, Min would've texted me by now." With the team being more spread out these days, Principal Seunggi had advised them all to get personal phones to communicate. Ever since then, Chaewon and Minjoo would text each other whenever they were apart, so it was strange to suddenly not get one of her girlfriend's silly food pictures of what she had for lunch.

"Maybe I should surprise her later." Chaewon thinks, realizing it's been a while since she's visited the city. The commute from the hillside campus all the way down was definitely a hassle, and it wasn't like she could zip anywhere she wanted like Chaeyeon could.

~~~~

She left around 4 in the afternoon after filling out the exit form. Even if the public was more kind to mutants these days, it didn't hurt to be able to track trainees this way in case they ever went missing. She waited about fifteen minutes at the bus stop, still mentally kicking herself for never being able to pass her driving test, before hopping on a bus going to Seoul. The short-haired girl was about to take a quick nap when a notification flashed on her phone screen.

"I passed the HYVE auditions?" Chaewon reads to herself. The email was the same one attached to her e-calendar this morning which left her even more confused.

"This has to be some sort of scam then..." She thinks before putting her phone down and closing her eyes.

~~~~

After about half an hour, Chaewon arrives at her mother's house which she wanted to visit before heading to Minjoo's acting school where classes ended at 6. She knocked on the door, and when it opened, she was greeted by one of her clones which caused her to jump in surprise.

"Yah, you scared me, Chae!" She says.

"You're the one who stationed me over here as part of the deal with mom, remember?" The clone replies in a snarky tone.

"Oh, right! Sorry, I was just in a bit of a rush and forgot." Chaewon says with a laugh. She recalled the agreement with her mother months ago where she would be allowed to stay a part of IZ*ONE if she left a copy of herself back home. She usually visited on weekends, but the events of the day must've made her forget about her clone over here since she was far away.

"Wait, what's with the getup?" Chaewon then asks when she finally looked over the clone. Her hair was longer than the length she kept it at, and her clothes were definitely flashier than her usual style, as if she just came from a party.

"What's wrong? Girl can't try on new clothes every once in a while?" The clone says.

"Ugh, why don't we just merge again and see mom? It'd be weird if there were two of us." Chaewon suggests, not wanting to get into an argument with herself.

"No can do, Chae. I'm going out to run some errands." The copy replies after glancing at her watch, pushing past Chaewon and leaving. Before she could turn around and call her back, Chaewon hears a familiar voice.

"What's with the commotion at the front door? Chaewon, is that you?" Her mother asks.

"Yes, mom! It's me, well, the actual me." She replies before strolling into the mansion.

~~~~

"Yah, Chaewon-ah, you do realize that every copy of you, is still you, right?" Her mother asks as they sit at the dining table waiting for some snacks.

"Mhm, I know. It's just hard for me to always maintain a connection with the one here, so I can't always experience what she's going through as much as the ones right next to me."

"Okay, that makes sense. You don't have to worry though. The Chaewon here acts the way you do for the most part anyway." Her mother says.

"What do you mean 'for the most part'?" Chaewon asks when she hears that last bit. Her clones were identical copies of her and always thought the way she did.

"I meant that she's a bit more outgoing, that's all. Those videos you post on your Youtube channel? She watches those all the time, and plays along. You have a great talent in singing and dancing, you know? I have connections asking me about you, and if you'd wanna-"

"No, mom. I'm not ready for that kind of life yet." Chaewon cuts her off before continuing.

"We both know the kind of attention and pressure that brought to your life. I don't know if I can deal with that, especially as a mutant that already has a target on her back." She says, avoiding her mother's eye contact.

After a few silent seconds, Chaewon feels a pair of arms wrap around her.

"Chaewon-ah, you will always be special, and you can't let anyone ever tell you what you can or can't do. You're right, I let the pressure get to me, but I know you have the strength to do it. I know you can because this is something you're really passionate about." Her mom says through a stifled sob.

"Thanks mom...I needed that" Chaewon replies while unsuccessfully trying to hold in her own tears. Those words really reassured her. Her mother was right. If she could stare soldiers down and fight rogue mutants, why should she be afraid of anything?

After a few tissues to wipe the tears away, the mother and daughter spent the next twenty minutes eating snacks and catching up more. Chaewon had decided; she'll audition and try to be an idol. She couldn't wait to tell Minjoo the news.

~~~~

"What is taking her so long..." Chaewon asks herself as she stands outside Management SOOP's building. Practice should've ended thirty minutes ago, and Minjoo was nowhere to be seen.

"Excuse me, miss. Are you here for anyone?" The guard asks after noticing Chaewon had been out there for a while.

"Yes, I was waiting for Kim Minjoo. Is she staying late today?" Chaewon replies, showing a picture of her girlfriend.

"Ms. Kim? She left a while ago at 5:30. She was picked up by someone, but they were wearing a mask. It looked like they were close though by the way they greeted each other." The guard says.

"Oh... alright then. Thank you for that, sir." Chaewon replies with an expressionless face that even scares the guard a little before walking away.

~~~~

"What the hell is going on...?" Chaewon asks herself as she gets a seat on the bus going back to PD campus. She knows she encouraged Minjoo to make new friends outside of campus, and it was true that Chaewon didn't inform her that she would come to pick her up, but she hasn't been replying to her all day. The cheetah couldn't help but feel upset given what she'd heard from the guard. As she continues to ponder the day's, a bump suddenly rocks the bus.

"Sorry about that, folks. Just a pothole probably!" The bus driver announces to the back. Given the route was heading through the hills and it was evening already, there weren't many people onboard.

"Ugh, could this day get any worse?" Chaewon mutters to herself before another big bump shakes the bus.

"Yah, what was that?" A passenger asks.

"I think we ran over a nail or something! One of the wheels must've been punctured. I'm sorry, but we're going to need to pull over and check." At this, the driver steps on the brakes, but before the bus can fully come to a stop, an explosion blows up the back half of the vehicle which sends the bus spinning before it crashes into the trees. Chaewon quickly unbuckles her seatbelt and splits herself to help everyone. Luckily no one was sitting at the back, but Chaewon was furious.

"A landmine?!? Really??" She yells at the sky. By the time the ambulances arrived, Chaewon had managed to move everyone to the other side of the road away from the burning bus. There weren't any casualties, but the bus driver had been badly hurt.

"This had to be an attack on me. It had to be." She thinks. IZ*ONE still had a lot of enemies scurrying around Seoul, and it was common knowledge that their campus was located somewhere in the mountains. It wouldn't surprise her if someone had tailed her and planned to sabotage the bus she was using to get home. The words from her dream last night echo in her head, "Today's the day. Your time is up...". After getting her wounds treated, Chaewon decided to walk the rest of the way knowing that she was only a few minutes away from the closest campus entrance.

"Whoever you are, can you wait until tomorrow to kill me again? I'm busy!" She yells before entering.

~~~~

Later around 10pm...

"Alright, Chae...just calm breathes. Let Min explain herself because there's no way she's cheating on you." She says to herself when she hears the door handle of their room twist.

"Hmm, that's odd. Why are the lights on already?" A voice says before walking in and seeing who was already inside.

"Chae??? How'd you get back so fast?" A confused Minjoo asks.

"I don't know what you mean, but I'm going to need some explaining from you, Min." Chaewon replies sternly.

"I don't know what you mean...Also, are those bandages? Are you oka-" Minjoo's rebuttal was cut off by Chaewon continuing to speak.

"Yah, you haven't replied to me all day, so I went to surprise you at your agency, and the guard told me you left with someone else. Don't try to lie to me, Min, he told me you were acting really chummy with whoever picked you up!" Chaewon's voice was starting rise as she kept talking, and Minjoo was still confused all the while.

"Chae, what are you saying? The one who picked me up...was you." She says quietly.

A/N: Hi, and welcome back to the PIZ AU! So, this first story is going to be centered around Chaewon, and I hope y'all enjoyed it! I missed writing a lot, and it felt good making this story. I'm not going to promise regular updates since I'm working on some life stuff now that I've graduated college (yay!), but I can say now I have a couple short story ideas beyond this first one. As always, comments and likes are always appreciated, and I'll see y'all in the next one!