November 17th 2014

Almost 3 weeks after Lee Hyo quit the idol life and filed for termination of his contract, the scandal had begun to die down. The posts of hate on forums and the trends of support and hate for Hyo were beginning to die down, the death threats from people on both sides of the disagreement had begun to dwindle in numbers. Between the shooting at their first comeback and losing a member so early on in their idol career, Acid Teochii were down in the dumps. Their future wasn’t looking so bright, they were losing fans left right and centre over the scandals that kept happening, and none of them had any energy to continue anymore.

They tried to stay positive, tried to be themselves and keep their spirits up as a team, but it was difficult every time one of them saw the empty bed in the Chinese members’ room. Marco had begun sleeping in the main room on the couch, being reduced to tears even by looking at Hyo’s empty side of the room. This had meant that Jin was now staying in the room alone, despite the fact it used to house three of the closest members.

The arguments had started out small, just little disagreements over who was going to cook that night, who was doing the dishes, began to escalate out of proportion. It had started with Marco breaking down in tears again when Namjoon decided to update them on the current situation with Hyo breaking his contract when Ae-Cha snapped, shouting at Marco about how childish he was being, about how all of them were hurting and it was only a one month relationship that had fallen apart. That had made Marco angry as he yelled back, the Maknae and the bubblegum pink haired boy screaming at each other in the middle of the living room, angry tears streaming down Ae-Cha’s face.

Namjoon was quick to break that fight up.

It had been odd to see the two in that light. Ae-Cha had always been hotheaded, but none of them had ever seen her snap in such a way before, not even when Hyo had been bullying Sherlock. Yuuki guessed it was because she was so stressed out over the current scandals and everything was building up on top of her.

However, three weeks after Hyo had stormed out, Namjoon decided that it was time to get back onto schedule, stating that if they were going to get over Hyo leaving and still make it in the industry, they were going to have to do it soon and come back with a bang…which meant they’d decided to move Viral Teochii’s debut date so they could try and grab the Japanese audiences. December 24th 2014, Viral Teochii were going to be released into the world with their Japanese title track - Ice Princess.

Photoshoots followed, the pressure to look perfect doubled, anxiety and doubt heightened… everyone was turning into a nervous wreck. Myung and the members of Antidote were doing okay, Antidote still didn’t have a definite debut date since Hyo was meant to be a member, so they weren’t as rushed, and Myung was still in physical therapy and recovering so didn’t have much schedule to stick to, they tried their best to support the members of Viral who were beginning to lose their minds.

Hanni continued to mother the members, cooking for them often and making sure they were sleeping enough and taking care of their health, Cho and Jin were always ready with a collection of movies if the members of Viral had had a long day, and Marco was doing his best to keep his and everyone else’s spirits up.

Yuuki’s excuses had begun on the morning of November 10th, but it wasn’t until November 17th that Ae-Cha had had enough.

The members of Viral had been woken by Namjoon at 6am ready for their photoshoot, trudging into the kitchen while still rubbing sleep from their eyes in order to get a quick breakfast, which Hanni was already up and making, before having to hurry into the van to the studio.

As Hanni rushed around the kitchen, preparing the food, Yuuki walked straight past the table and into the bathroom, still rubbing tiredly at his eyes. Hanni had frowned slightly, but had continued dishing up the small bowls of Kimchi and rice for his fellow members as Ae-Cha, Vann, Sherlock and Hope had sat down, resting their tired foreheads on the table, lifting them only to shovel Hanni’s food down their throats. Less than 15 minutes later, they were done eating and Namjoon was hurrying them into the back of the van while Yuuki trailed out behind them, jumping into his chair at the last minute.

Ae-Cha frowned at him. Although Yuuki was one of the most annoying people she knew, he’d become one of her closest friends through the past 6 months. “Did you eat?” She asked him over the rumble of the van.

Yuuki gave her a sly grin. “Nah, didn’t have time, had to do my makeup. I’ll eat at the studio.”

“Hanni-oppa will be pissed at you for skipping his breakfast.”

“He’ll get over it.”

Once they were done at the studio, a photoshoot that had taken a whopping 10 hours to get through all 5 of them with the various themes and teasers, each with different hair, makeup and outfits, all 5 members were ready to curl up in a ball on the floor and fall asleep, but practice still had to be done to learn the choreography for Ice Princess. Namjoon drove the group to the practice rooms and dropped them off with their choreographer, before hurrying off to check on the remaining members back at the dorm and collect food for Viral so they could keep their energy up.

Walking into the practice room at the Ace studio, Song Meilin waited for them. The Chinese woman had been their choreographer since debut, and knew all of their strengths and weaknesses well.

“Hello,” She greeted politely with a smile as they entered. “Long day so far?”

Hope gave her a small, polite smile as he sat down, changing his shoes into sneakers for comfier dancing. “You could say that, ma’am, it’s been a long few weeks for all of us. Not long now until our sub-unit debuts though.”

She nodded knowingly. “Ah, yes, a little over a month until your music video airs, correct?”

“Yes ma’am.” Hope confirmed, getting to his feet once again.

“I see, you don’t have too long to learn the choreography then. It’s a good job almost all of you are very quick learners when it comes to this. Have you eaten yet?”

“Not since breakfast, Manager-hyung is coming back with some food for us soon I believe. Don’t worry about us, ma’am, I believe we’re ready to begin whenever you are.” Hope looked around at his fellow members for confirmation, receiving nods all around.

They were half an hour into their training session when Yuuki suddenly began to sway, quietly excusing himself with unfocused eyes as he hurried out of the room, stumbling slightly as he went.

Ae-cha glanced over at Meilin. “Song-ssi, may I go see if he’s alright?” At her teacher’s nod, Ae-cha followed after Yuuki, it not taking long before she found him sat on the floor, back against the wall and head between his knees as he took deep, steady breaths.

“Yuuki?” She asked gently, crouching next to him. “Are you alright?”

Yuuki quickly lifted his head, grinning over at the bright haired girl with perfect ease. “I’m fine, Ae-ah, I just got a little bit dizzy for a second there, thought some fresh air might do me some good.”

“Fresh air? You’re sitting in the middle of a sweaty hallway, there’s nothing fresh about the air here. Come on.” She grabbed Yuuki’s thin wrist, dragging him to his feet as though he weighed no more than a feather and pulled him through the corridors until they found the entrance. “Sit here.” She commanded, not-so-gently pushing him down onto the wooden bench. “Stay.”

“Ae-ah,” He scoffed. “I’m fine.”

“Don’t treat me like I’m stupid, Yuuki. I know you’ve stopped eating again.”

Yuuki froze at that, all humour gone from his gaze as he stared at the floor.

“Yeah, that shut you up didn’t it?” Ae-cha sighed, sitting herself down next to Yuuki. The November air was cold, causing the sweat that had collected on her skin to cool, sending shivers down her spine. “Don’t think I haven’t noticed you avoiding times when you have to eat and making up excuses. You’ve been doing it almost a full week now. What’s wrong?”

“It’s nothing.”

“Jaehwa-oppa,” She glared at him, grabbing hold of his thigh in a vice like grip. “Don’t lie to me.”

“Now isn’t the time, Ae-cha.”

“Now is the perfect time.”

“I…” Yuuki sighed, running a hand through his violet hair. “I don’t have a choice. My metabolism has been stupid recently, if I eat, I’ll just put weight on instantly. For this comeback, they want us guys to be topless for some of the shoots. It won’t be good for an idol to be fat, would it? I don’t have a choice. If I want to keep up my image and not get ripped apart, I have to make sacrifices.” Yuuki hid his face from Ae-cha, covering his now teary eyes with the palms of his hands. “I have to look good 24/7, it’s my image. My makeup has to be perfect, as does my hair. I always have to appear happy and jumpy; I have to be the snarky sarcastic one.”

Yuuki’s tears were flowing thick and fast now, his voice hiccupping through his words. “How am I meant to be the happy one when everyone around me is so sad? Hyo is a , I hate him so much for just up and leaving like that. Marco is heartbroken, not because his boyfriend, however much he denies that’s what they were, left, but because his best friend left. Jin is still grieving, Hanni has been stressed over making sure we’re all okay… It’s hard to be happy and positive when everyone is a pin drop away from screaming at each other. I can’t do it anymore! I don’t want the pretty, happy boy image, I just want to be me! I may be happy, sarcastic, materialistic and snarky, that’s true…but people expect me to be like that all the time. I’m not! I’m allowed to be sad sometimes, I’m allowed to be self conscious..!”

Ae-cha said nothing as Yuuki broke into full sobs, just pulling him over  and resting her head on top of his, allowing him to sob into her shoulder. They stayed like that for almost 10 minutes before a familiar voice broke them from their moment.

“Is everything okay?”

Yuuki jumped into a sitting position, looking over to where Namjoon was approaching them, a frown on his face and take away bags in his hands. “Yuuki, you’re looking a little bit pale.”

Yuuki choked back a laugh, wiping at his eyes with the back of his hands. He felt so childish, being caught out sobbing into their maknae’s shoulder by their manager. Their group was full of breakdowns at this point of time as it was, without him joining. First Jin, then Hyo and Marco, now him… “Yeah, Manager-hyung, I’m fine.”

“He just got a little dizzy,” Ae-cha’s voice was strained, and Yuuki quickly turned to her to find her eyes shimmering with unshed tears of her own. “So we sat outside for a while. I’ll go clean us up then we’ll get back to learning this routine, I promise, Manager-oppa.”

“There’s no rush, I’m about to make the others take a break for food either way. Yuuki, you didn’t eat this morning, right? I got 2 boxes of fried chicken, so there’s enough for everyone to have more than their fair share. You better eat a lot, you’re going to need it if you got dizzy. See you in there, Ae-cha?” Namjoon’s voice was soft as he walked passed them and into the main hall.

“Come on, Yuuki.” Ae-cha sighed while, more gently this time, taking Yuuki’s wrist and pulling him up, before leading him into the girl’s bathrooms.

“Ae-cha, I’m not allowed in here you know…”

“Shut up and sit down.”

Yuuki wasn’t in any place to argue as he sat on the counter by the sinks, watching Ae-cha as she dampened down a paper towel and began to wipe at his face.

“What are you doing?” He asked with a frown.

“Your makeup is a mess, it ran everywhere, so I’m cleaning it for you, now hush.” Yuuki shut his mouth and did as he was told, closing his eyes as Ae-cha ran the cold, damp paper over his face, soothing his sore, aching eyes and removing his makeup. After a few minutes, she threw the towel in the bin, dampening another and wiping her own makeup off. She was wearing very minimum makeup, some foundation to cover her blemishes and some mascara, and none of it had ran, but by the end of another minute or so, she too was completely bare faced.

“Let’s go eat, okay?”

Yuuki frowned at her again while jumping off the counter, towering over Ae-cha. “Aren’t you going to re-do your makeup? Why’d you wipe it off?”

“Nope, I’m done with makeup for now. We both need a break from it, and you need to eat. We’re only practicing anyway, who needs makeup for that?”

Yuuki grinned at her, trying to break the calm that had settled between the two. “I need to eat? But there isn’t a kitchen here.”

“What do you mean? You saw Namjoon-oppa bring the chicken in.”

“Yes, but what good would that do if I don’t have you in the kitchen making me sandwiches?”

“Go to hell, Kim Jaehwa.”

---

I'm sorry this took so long! The Maze Runner Trilogy and Game of Thrones took over my life, I got distracted from AT for a little while...

Please check out the new original band story I'll be starting soon though! That will begin not long after we get to January in this story (Chapter 18!) and will focus on another group under Shynamite's company Ace Entertainment!

The story is called Bara no Hanabira and the introduction to the characters is already up! Not as many people to learn this time, however!

Thank you! I'm going to go and read The Death Cure now...

EDIT: Between the last chapter and this one, I decided to change what company AT are with. They are no longer with Pledis, and the NU'EST members that were in Chapter 4 have been changed to Min-Sun and Min-Jun, who are Shynamite's characters. Acid Teochii are now with a fictional company, Ace Entertainment, which has Bara no Hanabira and Symphon-EE. I've gone through and edited everywhere where Pledis is mentioned. I've changed this simply because it makes things easier. I was tiptoing around scandals and how Pledis would react to things because I didn't want to accidentally incriminate myself somehow. Using a fictional company feels...safer.

I hope you understand.