As the six groups filed in, the small man from the press conference cleared his throat loudly in an attempt to gather the attention of the six groups in question. He smiled brightly and waved as the room became hushed, “Alright. Rather than being a practice, this is going to be more of a deciding meeting. We have a set list for individual  groups already, but I believe the fans would respond better if we added in random groups together.”

He snapped his fingers, “The fans have been in an uproar because of a certain overnight couple-” He paused and all eyes immediately turned to an instantly nervous Aly who shook her head in denial.

The man continued, “So. Because it’s been mostly positive, I’d like to give you two a duet. If you agree.”
Aly laughed nervously, “Oh, it’s alright. I’m okay without-”
“Yeah! We’ll do it!” Mir gave a thumbs up before patting her shoulder, “No need to be nervous. I’d only be rapping. So it’d be more like a solo.”
“And that makes me less nervous?” She huffed, stomping her feet lightly, before raising her hand, “Does it have to be a duet?”

“Yes.” The man cleared his throat once more, “Now, I know I personally would love to see the girls all sing a song together as well as the boys. It’d be a good way to get you more involved with one another.”

He looked at the sheet of paper in his hand, “I have a suggestion for a leader song as well as a maknae song. So, we could do that. And then we have crowd favorites.” He smiled, “Now, your fans have been voting and suggesting pairs and groups they’d like to see together. One of the ones people responded best to were the following : Sungyeol of Infinite, Onew and Minho of SHINee, Lee Joon of MBLAQ, Jia of MISS A, Yura of Girl’s Day and Asa of H3@RT.”

Asa blinked, “Me? But I don’t do anything.”
Jia laughed a bit, “That’s probably why. Fans are really receptive of members who don’t get a lot.”
“Oh. That makes sense.”

Sue nodded, “If you look at our fan forum, you’re actually our most popular member.” She sighed, “Girls who like us aren’t big on Aly. She’s too airheaded.”

Aly huffed, “I am not!”
Asa laughed at the blonde, “Go figure.” She looked at Sue, “But, you’re serious?”
“Oh yeah.” She winked, “I’ve been trying to get on and be social with them to grow in popularity ranks, but you’re the most relatable to girls, and boys think you’re a mystery, so it’s super appealing.”

Asa clapped, “I feel accomplished.”
The group laughed loudly at her before she blinked, “Ah. I forgot there were other people in here.”

The man at the front clapped to get the group’s attention again, “Moving on. Another group that was asked to be formed was the ‘cutie’ group, which would be Aly, Suzy and MinAh. As well as a ‘y’ group consisting of Asa,  Min and Yura.” He looked to the boys side, “Joining the cutie group on the boy’s side are Mir, Taemin and Sungjong. Joining the y group are Lee Joon, Jonghyun and Woohyun.”

Sue pouted, “Why aren’t I in anything?”
The man smiled, “I was getting to that. The ‘underdog’ team. That would be yourself, G.O, and Sungyeol.”

G.O frowned, “Uh, why am I in the underdog group?”
“For comic relief.”
“...Good to know.”
The man nodded, “Alright. Any questions?” After  a moment of silence, the man smiled, “Good. Let’s get started.”
----

A little less than a week had passed, and it was time for the ‘people’s choice’ group to practice together. Practice had run pretty smoothly sans the incident where Lee Joon had made a smart comment at Yura, ending with Jia taking a jab at him, blocked by Minho, who held the tiny girl back. Asa blinked. Not only was this a people’s choice, but it was an aggressive team as well.

Sungyeol slipped beside the girl as they took a break, allowing the Underdog team to take the floor. She smiled, offering half of her sandwich to the boy, “It looks like you didn’t pack lunch.”

He gratefully took it, “Nah. I live with a bunch of dudes. There’s never food in the house. And when there is, it’s gone as soon as it hits the door.” The sandwich was consumed in less than a bite.

She laughed, offering the other half to him, “Luckily, I live in a fully stocked dorm with girls. But, if we didn’t keep the food on high shelves, Aly would probably eat everything.”
The boy laughed, denying her offer, “Keep it. Half was plenty for me.”

Asa shrugged, taking a small bite, “Oh well.” Once finished, she covered as she yawned.
He looked at her and laughed, reaching forward. The boy used the pad of his thumb to wipe the mustard from her cheek that she hadn’t noticed before.
She stared at him with wide eyes as he it from his thumb. He sighed, “Now that I’ve saved you the embarrassment of walking around in public with mustard on your face, I think you owe me.”

She huffed, “Owe you what?”
He leaned in close, a smiled on his face, “Anything I want.”

Asa backed away a bit, “I don’t know about anything.”
He laughed, poking her nose, “Nothing like that. I just mean, to save me from the embarrassment of being alone in public, I’d appreciate it if you’d accompany me to a party.”

“A party?”
“Yeah. It’s a tiny birthday party for one of L’s friends. I told him I’d go, but I know I’d end up alone if I went by myself.” He smiled cutely, “I’d appreciate it if you’d go with me is all.”
“I don’t know-”
“Remember I just saved you from being embarrassed.” He put his hands together in a pleading motion, “Please? I know the mustard thing isn’t a good excuse, but I’ll make it up to you.”
Asa laughed, “Fine, fine. When is it?”

He clapped, “Ah, it’s next week.”
“Okay.”

---

Aly frowned from behind her medical mask, moving the sunglasses back up the bridge of her nose. The news with Mir had made it nearly impossible to avoid the press as of late, but she insisted that she had to greet Soohyun when he returned home from their trip. Getting away from the blonde maknae had been a chore in itself, but she was sitting in the bus meant to pick up U-KISS to take them to their next filming location, which was located in Seoul.

Sue had practice again that day, and Asa had other plans that she was keeping secret from Aly at that point in time.
So the blonde sat in clever disguise, face covered and blonde hair in a messy bun tucked under a trucker hat with a large trench coat hanging over her arms and legs. Surely she’d never be recognized.

And the boys finally started entering the bus. Aly took off her sunglasses and waved happily at Kiseop who rushed forward to give her a hug followed by Alexander who didn’t wait for them to finish hugging before he attacked with his own.

The girl sobbed a bit, “I’ve been so miserable! Why’d you leave for so long?”
Once they got situated and the rest of the group got on, Kibum looked to Aly with a frown, “Where’s Asa? She isn’t answering my texts.”

The blonde shrugged, “She wouldn’t go into detail for me. Just out with some people.”
Soohyun pouted in his corner, “Maybe she’s with Mir.”
Aly frowned this time, “You know, I’ve tried explaining myself to you before. I hardly know Mir.”

He huffed, “Whatever.”
Kiseop gave her a pat on the shoulder, “Ignore him. He’s jealous.”
“Am not.” Soohyun turned to face the boy, red rushing up his face quickly, “There’s no way I’d be jealous.”

Aly sighed, kicking her legs a bit, looking to Kiseop, “Anyway. I’ve been wanting to tell you the whole story, but you’ve been busy, so-”
“Start from the beginning.” He gave a thumbs up.

---

Asa frowned as Sungyeol took her phone from her hands, “You’re paying too much attention to this.” He pouted, “So, I’ll take yours and you take mine, okay?”
She looked at his simple cellphone, “But, Kibu- I mean my friend just came back to Korea today...”

The brunette boy shook his head, “Too bad! You promised me, remember?”
“Yeah...”
Seeing her distress, he took her hand in his and lead her into the building, “Let’s get our party on! Since your friend is back in town, you’ll be able to see them whenever, right?”

She frowned, “I guess.”
“Stop guessing.” He ushered her into a crowded room, keeping a tight hold on her arm to be sure they didn’t get separated, “I love this song! Dance with me?”
Asa looked at him and sighed. He was trying really hard, “O-Okay.”

He cheered a bit before helping her twirl around their cramped space. He jumped up and down, trying to get her to follow suit. Eventually, she laughed and gave into his antics, bouncing around to the beat with the boy.

After about an hour had passed, Asa was laughing loudly at one of his jokes before pointing to the bathroom, “I’ll be right back!”
He nodded and watched her go before he took out her constantly vibrating phone. Who had been texting her so much? Kim Kibum? He knew quite a few Kim Kibum’s.
The messages pretty much all started the same. ‘I’m back!’ or ‘Why aren’t you texting back?’
but the ones that caught his attention were the more recent ones.
‘Kevin says you’re not answering his either.’ He needed to try and remember later a group with a Kevin and a Kim Kibum.
The last one, however, curled his insides in jealousy.
‘Remember when we were up on the roof? I actually made a picnic basket for us to share. But, since you were ill, I let the guys eat it. I’d like to do that for you while we’re both in town. I miss you, and I want to see you. I’ll stop bugging you now, but please text me when you get this one.’

Sungyeol frowned, looking to see if Asa was coming back before he deleted the entire collection of texts. He instantly regretted it, but there wasn’t really a way to take back what he had just done.
The boy felt a guilty pang in his heart as he saw the girl leaving the bathroom.

She’d never notice, right?
He waved happily at her as she jogged to him, laughing. He grinned, “Let’s go get something to eat.”
“Okay!” She smiled back, “Sounds fun!”
---

Soohyun was clinging to the blonde as the bus came to a halt. He was bawling from a mixture of happiness, relief and anger. He was happy and relieved that she wasn’t dating Mir, despite the fact that she had tried to tell him before, he had refused to believe her. But now that he heard the entirety of her story, he was in guilt overload.
He was angry at himself for not being trusting of the girl, but most of all he was angry at Mir. If they thought it was scary when he punched Eli, this guy was in for a world of terror.

Aly patted his head in comfort, “It’s alright. I understand you being angry. I would be too.” She ran her fingers through his hair, “We’ll just forget this happened, okay?”
He looked up at her, teary eyes squinted as he struggled to speak, “I-I was s-s-so mean!”

She smiled and laughed, “Your stylist noona is going to kill me if you keep crying. I forgive you. And I’m sorry I haven’t quite cleared it up with the press yet.”
He sniffled loudly before  standing up to follow the other members off of the van, “We’ll b-be back. Don’t leave the bus.”

She nodded, “I won’t. Have fun!”

---

Sue looked down at the blonde sitting silently in front of their dorm door, “Excuse me, is there a reason you’re sleeping in front of my door?”
The boy looked up, “Oh. Sue. Yeah, I was waiting for Aly to get back.”

“Mir... You know she doesn’t like you, right?”
He stood quickly, “Did she say that?”
“Well, no, but-”
“See? Then I still have a chance.” He beamed brightly at the smaller girl.

Sue huffed. She weighed the option of telling him about Aly’s like for Soohyun, but she figured that if he were in the area, he’d catch on pretty quick. She opened the door, “Come on, I’ll make tea.”
The boy happily bounced behind her, a bouquet of cute flowers in hand.
She pointed to them, “Want me to put them in water, or are you going to hold onto them until she gets back?”
“I’ll hold them!” He chirped happily and sat on the couch to wait for the promised tea.

---

Aly opened the door, happily chatting with Soohyun and Kiseop before a loud “Aly! I got these for you!” echoed in the tiny living space.
The blonde’s eyes widened at the sight or Mir holding a brightly colored bouquet, “M-Mir! What are you doing here so late?” She stepped forward, “And.... how did you find out where I lived?”

The boy hopped forward, handing her the flowers, ignoring the group of boys behind her, “I was thinking that we could practice our duet a little more. I’m having trouble with this one part-”
Soohyun twitched visibly in irritation, “Aly was just about to welcome us home, actually.”

Mir finally noticed the others at this point, “Oh. Wow! Aly, you know U-KISS? I met Dongho once. We were on a show together.”
“Yeah. We’re in the same company. H3@RT was supposed to open for the tour they’re doing now, but I got hurt and we had to pull out.” She shifted awkwardly between them.
Mir’s eyes widened and he got on his knees to look at her ankles, “Are you alright?”

“I’m fine-”
“She’s fine, Mir.” Soohyun huffed a bit, but was being restrained via a nonchalant waist-hug from Kibum. Kibum led the fuming brunette to the sitting area followed by Kiseop as Aly shut the door.

Mir blinked, standing up and whispering, “That Soohyun seems like he’s about to go off. Is it safe being friends with him?”
Aly giggled a bit, “Yeah. He’s just tired. Jet lag makes you a little crazy, right?” She held up the flowers, “Thank you for these, and I’m sorry we can’t rehearse tonight.”
She moved to place the flowers on the counter and Mir moved to the couch. She blinked, wondering why he wasn’t leaving. Did he really not realize that Soohyun’s anger was pointed at him?

She sighed and sat beside Sue, only to have Soohyun take the unoccupied seat beside her despite Kibum’s silent pleads for him to behave in front of Mir.
The brunette shot Mir a possessive look before focusing on the wall in front of him.

Aly watched Mir’s expression turn to that of realization before she swallowed, “Well. This is awkward.”
The boy pointed at Soohyun accusingly, “You think of him as a friend, but he obviously thinks of you in a mature way. As your boyfriend-”
“You’re not my boyfriend.”
“As your future potential boyfriend, I can not allow his impure thoughts to taint you.”
Aly sighed, maybe he wasn’t as bright as she thought. As Soohyun stood to let him know what was what, the door opened with laughter from Asa and an unfamiliar male voice.
Asa blinked at the scene before moving to let Sungyeol in as she shut the door.

Kibum stood and spoke without thinking, “How come you didn’t answer my texts earlier?”
“What texts?”
“So it was him?” Sungyeol looked the boy up and down and laughed a bit, “I was kind of hoping the competition was more stiff.”

Asa shoved the boy, “Are you nuts? Did you go through my phone?”
His expression flew back to guilt, “Ah. I didn’t mean to delete the texts-”
Kibum stepped forward and in front of Asa, “Competition? Are you assuming that she’s still single for the taking?”

Asa jabbed the boy in the back, “What are you saying? Are you nuts?”
Sungyeol looked up at the male defiantly, “Obviously she’s still single. Why else would she have agreed to go out with me? On the day of you coming home. Who she only referred to as a friend, by the way.”

Asa moved to punch Sungyeol herself, but Kiseop had moved in, pointing Kibum towards the couches and placing a hand on Sungyeol’s shoulder, “I think you’ve overstepped your boundaries a bit.” He looked to Asa and motioned for her to join the bunch awkwardly sitting around sans Soohyun.
Sungyeol sighed, but smiled, “Well. We’ll see how this ends up, then. Won’t we?”
And with that, he took his leave.

Kiseop sat down, but not before pushing Soohyun back into a sitting position. And the group remained silent.
Mir cleared his throat, “A-Aly. I need to talk to you for a minute.”
“Ah. That’s probably not the best way to break a silence.” Aly sighed and stood as she motioned to the kitchen, “At least talk where everyone is in sight. We don’t want someone getting the wrong idea.” She shoved Soohyun at the last comment and led Mir that way.
Mir followed, but not before sticking his tongue out at Soohyun, who acted like he was going to hit him just to watch Mir jump. And Soohyun watched the slightly frightened boy with a satisfied smile.

Kibum rubbed the back of his head before he looked to Asa, “So... Am I really only a friend to you?”
Asa sighed harshly, “That was just... I mean, I didn’t want him running to the media. Do you know how bad that would have been for both of our groups? Especially with Aly already elbow-deep in public drama, H3@RT’s reputation would be ruined.”

The boy huffed, “Well. Tell me, right now. What am I to you?”
“You know what? You tell me.” She crossed her arms, “You’re always asking me that question, and I get nothing but mixed signals from you.”
Kibum snorted, “Mixed signals. Like you can really talk about that. Letting Kevin hug you like you do, going out with some other guy and letting him have your cellphone long enough to delete the messages without you knowing.”

Asa pointed at him, tears running down her face, “Kevin is like my brother, and you of all people should know that. And Sungyeol TOOK my cellphone, thank you very much.” She shoved his shoulder, “Stand up.”
He huffed, but stood anyway.
She pointed to the door, “Get out. Now.”

“You’re over reacting.”
“Oh, am I? Good to know. I’ll keep that in mind for next time. Now get out.”
Kibum crossed his arms stubbornly, “And if I say no?”

Kiseop ushered the bigger boy out of the room, “Let it boil over.” He waved to the room as Asa walked back to her bedroom, “We’re leaving. Don’t stay too long, Soohyun.” He looked to Sue, “Ah... Good luck.”

Sue waved, “You too.”

As the door shut, Aly let out a small squeak in struggle, “No. Don’t do that!”
Soohyun stood up, detaching Mir from the girl.
He pouted, “I just wanted a hug...”

Aly sighed, “I don’t know you that well.”
Mir looked to her, puppy dog eyes blazing, “But... everyone thinks we’re dating-”
“Whose fault is that?”
“Not the point. I just thought we could act like it!”

Soohyun’s grip on the younger boy’s shirt tightened.
Aly placed her hands over Soohyun’s, “Stop it. How old are you? Act your age.” She pointed at Mir, “Go get some rest. We have rehearsal tomorrow.” She pointed at Soohyun, “You guys just got home. You need sleep too.”
The boys groaned, but followed closely behind Aly to the door where she made sure they walked in separate directions. As she closed the door, Sue let out an exhausted sigh that Aly laughed at before they walked back in the direction of Asa’s room. She needed a decent hug at the moment, of that they were positive.

Oh wow thats a lot of drama! So yes the rivals finally meet and Asa & Kibum get in their first fight, Whats going to happen??

If you guys think we should include Sue more in the storyline, then post a comment, we would love to hear your thoughts.

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