NOTE - This chapter is subject to change. It contains a few characters that are not mine, so it needs to be checked to make sure the characterisation is right. If I have messed one up, the chapter will be edited to fix it. Enjoy!

 

January 3rd 2015

“Alright guys, get up and get ready.” Namjoon’s tired voice called through the door as he unlocked the dorm door.

Sherlock groaned as he slowly awoke from his sleep, pulling his face from the bundle of fur that was Watson beside him. “What..?” He called out, rubbing the sleep gunk from his eyes and blinking slowly, trying to wake up more solidly. He heard his roommates groan at the flick of a switch and assumed that their manager had just switched the light on.

“You guys are all going to meet some label mates today. Some of them you might know, some of them you might not. Either way, you’re all meeting in the practice room you first met each other in. We have to be there in just under an hour, so get up and ready as soon as you can.”

“Why are we doing this?” Hanni groaned out, rubbing at his eyes as he did. “We meet label mates all the time, why so early in the morning?”

“Because, Hanyeul,” Namjoon sighed. “These two groups are going to be debuting very soon. One is debuting any day now, we’re just waiting for a set date, and the other moves into a dorm together for the first time soon. They’re all quite nervous for various reasons, and as you lot have been Ace Entertainment’s first group, the responsibility falls on you to assure them that everything works out okay.”

“Everything works out okay?” Sherlock heard Hanni scoff slightly. He was never the nicest in the morning just after he’d woken. “One of us has been shot, almost all of us have had total breakdowns, and another of us walked out and went back to China. How is everything alright right now?”

Namjoon growled slightly in response, obviously too tired himself to deal with cranky Hanyeul, before he walked out to check on the other rooms. Sherlock sighed slightly, rubbing at his eyes okay. “Okay, Watson, let’s get up. Grab my cane for me then I’ll put you out some breakfast, okay?”

Sherlock heard a small yip in response before the ball of fluff beside him disappeared with a bounce, a cold pole hitting his leg a few seconds after. The teenager smiled slightly at how well trained Watson had become as he accepted the cane. “Thanks, Watson.” He rewarded as he stood, using the cane to feel out his path through Hope and Hanni’s discarded clothes on the floor. He swore that the two would be the death of him sooner or later.

It only took a few minutes before Hanni came out of the room himself, apologising profusely to their grumpy manager for his crankiness. It never took long for Hanni to snap out of the grouchiness. He swore that he’d make it up to Namjoon with an amazing breakfast, and Sherlock heard him hurry past into the kitchen, pots and pans beginning to clatter while Sherlock carefully poured out Watson’s food into a bowl.

“Need any help with that?” A gentle yet mostly unfamiliar voice called, causing Sherlock to jump a little. His sensitive hearing usually heard people coming from quite a way away, so the close voice had caught him by surprise.

“Yue?” He asked with a frown, trying to put the still unfamiliar voice to a name.

He felt her stifle a gasp and move backwards, stumbling slightly over Watson’s food bowl. “I’m sorry,” She stuttered out, her voice still quiet but slightly more panicked. “I didn’t mean to intrude, I just wanted to help. You were missing the food bowl a little bit that’s all,” She rambled, he could hear her getting more stressed and upset as she continued.

“Yue-ah,” he tried to interrupt, but she appeared to ignore him.

“I’m so sorry Oppa, I didn’t mean to make you feel useless, really I didn’t! I just wanted to help, I’m so sorry!”

“Yue-ah, calm down.” He tried again, slowly straightening to look over at her, clutching the bag of kibble.

“I shouldn’t have said anything, I’m so sorry Oppa, I didn’t mean to offend you!”

“Yue!” He raised his voice slightly, hearing the room go completely silent.  Sherlock could feel all eyes on him and Yue now, and he knew that hardly any of them were accepting of the poor new Maknae. Vann and Cho seemed to get on with her great, and Hanni was at least trying… he couldn’t just allow her to be alone. “Calm down, okay? It’s okay. I’d appreciate the help. I didn’t realise I was missing the bowl, so thank you for pointing it out. You don’t have to do it for me, but will you just direct my hands so the bag is over the bowl, please?”

He assumed that Yue had nodded when he felt small hands on his, slowly guiding the bag over the bowl again. The hands were soft, but not as tiny as Cho’s were, and he couldn’t help but feel a little protective. Whereas Cho was quiet, like Yue, they were quiet for completely different reasons.

He knew that Cho liked to observe rather than talk. She’d watch people, study them, listen to them and get to know them by observation. She was shy, but not enough to stop her from doing what she wanted to do.

He knew she was confident too, confident and graceful when it came to her voice, she moved through their dance steps with ease at every practice and was always one of the first to grasp the dance in its simplest form. She was a very confident person with everything apart from her appearance, and Sherlock loved that even she, the girl he had fallen in love with so deeply in the space of a year, could be so strong even with her flaws.

But Yue was completely different. She was quiet, yes, but she was also extremely shy, almost to the point of it being disabling for her. Even in the 2-3 days he’d known the girl, he could tell that she didn’t like to talk, the thought of people hearing her voice terrified her. It probably didn’t help that so many people in the group she was living with seemed to be against her. She seemed quite clumsy considering she was a dancer that specialised in ballroom, and when she did finally talk, her words seemed to run away with her and she could ramble for days on end.

The two were so different, and somehow, he felt protective over the new girl. He knew that Cho had taken her under her wing, almost acting like an older sister to the girl.

“Come on, grab some breakfast!” Hanni called from the kitchen while he laid out dishes of Kimchi and rice, grinning as the 11 members and Namjoon sat around the table to dig in to the mini feast that Hanni had constructed.

“Do you have any ketchup?” Myung sleepily asked through a mouth full of rice. Hanni promptly hit him with a ladle.

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45 minutes later, Acid Teochii and their manager were walking into the practice room in which they had spent many hours slaving away, no matter their condition or the weather outside.

Well, apart from when Myung had a hole in his stomach, he didn’t have to slave through that.

Inside the room in which they’d all first met each other properly, sat two groups huddled together. On the left, a group of four sat together, looking awkward and uncomfortable, even with each other. To the right, a louder group of 5 sat, talking amoungst themselves.

“Okay,” Namjoon clapped his hands, grabbing everyone’s attention. “Everyone, I’d like to introduce you all.” Their manager pointed towards the group of 5. “This is Symphon-EE. The members, going by stage names, are And-EE, who is the leader, Sweet-EE, Sun-EE and Cloud-EE the twins, and finally Harl-EE the Maknae. They have been living in a dorm together for a while now and will be debuting as soon as possible.” Sherlock frowned slightly, a little annoyed that he didn’t know what the new people looked like.

“And on this side,” Namjoon continued, pointing to the group of 4, “is a brand new group that are going to be moving into their dorm this time next week. They are Ace Entertainment’s first Japanese group, called Bara No Hanabira. Their members are Rose, who is the leader, Aiko and Airi, another pair of twins, and Hatake, the Maknae. Any questions?”

Sherlock stopped dead at the names of the twins in the second group. Why did Aiko and Airi sound familiar? He stood still, only feeling Watson sniffing around at his feet and the muted voices of others as he wracked his memory, trying to sieve through and find where he knew the names before it finally hit him.

“Wait,” he interrupted Namjoon. “Aiko and Airi? As in… as in the Japanese twins that we met at the airport when our first comeback aired?”

He felt Cho grab hold of his arm, wrapping both of hers around his as she clung to him, resting her face on his shoulder. “I believe it is, Bon-ah, they do look like them…” He could feel her smiling into the dark fabric of his shirt. “Why don’t we go and see?”

Sherlock nodded mutely before letting her lead him over to where Bara No Hanabira sat, Watson obediently following him.

“Hey there guys,” Cho spoke, looking over the members.

The twins looked up, the male of the two gasping slightly. “Y-yes?”

Cho knelt down, pulling Sherlock along with her. “We’ve met you before, haven’t we?” Sherlock guessed that someone nodded in response. “At the airport a few months ago?” Another nod. “You said Sherlock was your bias, didn’t you?”

“I-I did,” The male wheezed out, coughing slightly at the end of his sentence.

“So,” Sherlock began to speak, trying to focus his gaze on where the boy’s voice was coming from. “Because you met me in the airport… you decided to audition for Ace Entertainment? Or were you planning on auditioning anyway?”

“N-No, Sherlock-san,” Aiko stuttered, sounding more awestruck by the second. “I wasn’t planning on it, but you inspired me, then Airi-chan discovered that the 2014 auditions for Ace were a week away… our parents said I could audition if she did, and she agreed… we both got in. We’ve been training ever since…” Aiko continued, his voice small and shaking.

Sherlock gave a small smile, going and sitting cross legged on the floor. He felt sky high right now, as if he could do anything. There was a child in front of him, still merely a young teenager, who looked up to him and was where he was now because of what Sherlock had done, and he couldn’t feel any better in that moment.

“So are you four going to be a band then?” He questioned, leaning forward a little. His chin gently came into contact with a hard metal bar, and with further sly inspection, Sherlock came to the conclusion that I was a wheel chair arm rest. His heart sank a little at the thought that Aiko was in a wheel chair, but he kept the smile on his face as he nonchalantly leant on it.

“Yes sir,” a higher, older voice from further away replied. “I play guitar while Airi-chan and Hatake-kun sings, and Aiko-kun plays piano.”

“That’s amazing!” Sherlock responded, grinning at them. “I’d love to be able to play my own music like that, it must be an amazing feeling. Excuse my ignorance, but who are you? I’m sorry but I’m a little short of sight so I didn’t catch names when Manager-hyung was pointing people out to me…”

“Ah, I apologise, Sherlock-san!” The girl quickly stuttered, Sherlock feeling the slight breeze as the girl bowed. “Please forgive my ignorance, I am Nobara Meoki, stage name Rose, the leader of BaraHana!”

“Calm down, Rose-ah, you weren’t being ignorant.” Sherlock smiled a little, remembering how Yue had the same reaction earlier in the day, if more extreme. “It’s nice to meet you. I’m sure you’ll be a great leader.”

Rose smiled at the couple. “Are you sure?” She asked, her voice questioning but strong, as if trying to find the strength to have confidence.

“We’re sure,” Cho cut in. “As long as you look after your members, treat them like family and don’t let them get too tired or sick, you’re doing fine. Don’t worry about what the public think, they’re not you, they don’t see everything that goes on behind the scenes. Look after your members, and they’ll look after you. For example, Myung doesn’t boss us around, he doesn’t look down on us… he treats us like family and looks out for us while still being like a dorky younger brother. We wouldn’t replace Myung as our leader for the world.” She smiled over at the younger girl. “Just be yourself and you’ll do fine.”

“Come on guys,” Namjoon called from where he was stood with Myung, inspecting the boy’s arm. “Go talk to the other group too, I know you’re attached to Aiko and Airi, Sherlock, but you have to be friendly with both.” Sherlock pouted over at his manager. “Don’t look at me like that, Bonhwa, come on.” He replied with a sigh.

Sherlock frowned and pushed himself up onto his feet. “I better go talk to Symphon-EE then it seems,” he told BaraHana, still pouting. “Look after yourselves, okay? Feel free to ask me anything, I won’t bite. And Aiko… I’m honoured that I’m the reason you wanted to audition, it may be one of the best feelings in the world.” Sherlock smiled over at the young disabled boy before turning and walking away from them towards the other side of the room, relying on Cho’s gentle tugs to take him to exactly the right place since Watson seemed to have made best friends with Hatake, the Maknae of BaraHana.

As he approached, Sherlock could hear Yue talking to a pair that sounded quite familiar, both voices quite high but the language they used being masculine.

“Ah, finally you two,” Namjoon sighed, smiling over at the couple. “I’d like you to meet Symphon-EE. All of them are shown to be Agender, neither male nor female, so please, use uni pronouns, okay? When in doubt, just ask, I doubt any of them will be offended. Some of them have pronouns they’d rather be known with I believe, so the best thing you can do is talk to them and find out.” Namjoon told them. “Oh, Yue here already knows the twins, Sun-EE and Cloud-EE, and I believe you guys also know them.”

Cho nodded a little in response to Namjoon’s statement. “We do, I think Hope talks to Cloud-EE quite a bit, and both twins came over early in our debut period when we were still bonding to watch horror movies with us.” Sherlock smiled slightly at the memory, where he had been so bored and uninterested in the movies that had been going on. Horror movies never really did affect him too  badly, he suspected it was because he couldn’t see the gore.

Yue smiled from where she was stood from the twins, turning to the other three members of their group. She put her hand out to And-EE who gave it a firm shake. “Hello there,” she introduced herself. “I’m Moon Qiuyue, or just Yue for short. I know Sun and Jun quite well, we auditioned at the same time so we spent a lot of training together, it’s lovely to finally meet their leader.” She told And-EE, who grinned proudly in response.

“The pleasure is all mine.”

“Sun and Jun?” Sherlock whispered to Cho, his brow furrowed in confusion. Her shrugged reply grabbed Sun-EE’s attention.

“Oh,” he exclaimed, grinning. “My real name is Min-Sun and Cloud-EE’s is Min-Jun, it’s weird for Yue to call us by our stage names, so she chooses not to with our permission. Don’t worry about it!”

Sherlock smiled in response. “I knew your real names, don’t worry, I was just confused with the nicknames. I didn’t realise she knew you two quite so well is all.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t like her.” Another voice sounded from Sherlock’s left, very long hair brushing up against his arm as a body leant smugly against him, a chin placed on his shoulder. “She replaced Hyo, therefore, I don’t like her.” They huffed slightly, dramatically turning theiri gaze away from where Yue and the twins stood.

Yue stood stark still for a few seconds in stunned silence, before smiling slightly towards the figure with long red hair. “I’m sorry you feel that way, Harl-EE,” She told them, trying to keep strong and polite. She refused to be the weak girl who always cried after all. “I assure you, it was never my intention to replace Hyo-oppa.”

Harl-EE looked at her through one eye, their lips pouting. “Oh really? Hmph.”

“Harl-EE,” Cloud-EE sighed, rubbing their forehead with a thumb and forefinger. “Don’t be so rude. Yue is our friend.”

They huffed again, pout growing. “I’ll be rude if I want to be, she was being rude by replacing Hyo-hyung. It wasn’t fair of her so I won’t be fair back.”

“Harl-EE, I mean it. Stop being so rude.” Cloud-EE appeared to be getting angry with their maknae.

“Yeah, it wasn’t her decision, and from what I’ve heard she’s been getting enough from her group without you giving her grief too. Leave her be, Harl-EE.” Sun-EE joined, brow almost twitching with annoyance. Sherlock was impressed with the twins and how they’d responded to the situation, so quick to defend their friend and stand up even against their bandmates.

“So are you guys a band too?” Sherlock asked, trying to break the tension that the colleagues had formed.

Sweet-EE nodded a little from where they stood. “We are,” they spoke, Sherlock could feel Cho jump beside him from how deep the speaker’s voice was. Despite the deepness, the tone was gentle and sweet, certainly living up to the stage name in Sherlock’s opinion. “Most of us play an instrument, so we try to write our own music…”

Sherlock grinned. “As I said to BaraHana, I’m jealous. I’d love to play an instrument.”

“Okay, Acid Teochii, it’s time to get going, we have to go and practice for your sub unit debuts.” Namjoon called, clapping to get their attentions. Sherlock faltered a bit. He didn’t want to leave the people he was just getting to know already. He slowly got to his feet, whistling to get Watson’s attention and smiling a little as his dog came bounding over, ready and willing to work.

“Alright, Namjoon-hyung.” Sherlock sighed, hearing the other members agree and begin to get ready to leave from various sides of the room. “Aiko-kun?” He called out, trying to be able to talk to the boy who already meant so much to him before he went.

“Coming now, Sherlock-san.” Came the small voice that slowly came closer, the slight squeak of the wheels telling Sherlock that the boy was sat in the wheel chair, rolling himself over. The older male smiled, kneeling down in front of the chair while tears began to gather in his eyes. “I wish you all the best of luck, Aiko, you’re going to do amazingly. Don’t worry about dorming with the others, Rose-chan is going to be an amazing leader, and your sister will watch over you. Hatake-kun seems adorable, he’ll be a great maknae for you, I bet he’s really talented to.” He leant over, gently resting his forehead on the 14 year olds and smiling, trying to ignore the trails of salt water trailing down his cheeks. He chuckled a little at himself, unbelieving that he’d gotten so emotional already. “You can always talk to me if you need to, alright? It’s a tough world out there for people like us, and we have to stick together. If you need me, just talk to your manager, they’ll get in touch, alright?”

“Alright,” Aiko responded quietly after a few seconds. “I-I can’t believe it,” he stuttered out.

“Believe what?” Sherlock frowned, pulling away worriedly.

“A few months ago, I could only dream about meeting my bias, the one who was disabled like I was…then I met you, and now you’re here, right in front of me, telling me that we’re going to do well and you’re always here if I want to talk… it’s like something from a movie or a book, it’s insane…” He chuckled a little, choking on a little sob caught in his throat. “I just can’t believe it, I feel like I’m going to wake up and it will have all been a dream.”

“That’s not the case, Aiko-kun.” Sherlock reassured with a slight pat on Aiko’s upper arm. “I promise you, but even if it is a dream… saviour every moment of it. Because from here on out, life is going to start getting tougher, but you’ll always have people to support you.”

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Return of Aiko from chapter 9! Here we get a little introduction to BaraHana, my other group (I just posted their first chapter earlier today!) and Symphon-EE, Shynamite's group! I don't own Symphon-EE!

This chapter wasn't meant to be in Sherlock's perspective, he just sort of...took over. It's difficult writing in a blind person's perspective, you can't explain what people look like!

I hope you enjoyed this happy chapter! (It may be the last happy one for a while...)