June 6th 2014

Fame was a strange thing.

In one way, it was brilliant. People looked up to you, admired you, you could change people’s lives, even if just in a miniscule way… the supportive comments Cho often got would light up her world, just the thought that there were people out there who biased her, there were people in the world who ignored their language barrier and loved their music either way, people who would spend money just to go and see her and the other band members perform despite the fact they only had one mini album out.

However, with fame often came negativity.

It was because of this negativity beginning to flood into her life that Park Cho stood in the girl’s bathroom in their dorm (quite happy that they had a girls and a boy’s bathroom for one thing, sharing with 9 boys wouldn’t be good) staring at herself at the mirror.

She gripped either side of the sink with trembling hands, knuckles turning white from the tight hold she had as she bit on her bottom lip, trying in vain to stop the sobs building in her chest. The boys had gone out to relax after the schedule they’d had today had ended earlier than expected… and Cho couldn’t be happier with that fact after the disastrous interview they’d had last.

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The 11 members of Acid Teochii crowded around a couch, 5 of them sitting on the actual chair, the 5 tallest standing behind the couch, leaning on it casually, while Cho, being the smallest of the group, sat on the floor in front of the couch, between the knees of Myung and Yuuki. The atmosphere was calm in the studio, happy and peaceful as they continued their interview.

That was, at least, until the interviewer turned to Cho.

“So, Cho, I’m sure you’re loving the idol life, so many children love you! Small and cute but with a powerful voice, you really are the whole package! However, have you seen what some of the older fans have been saying?”

Cho frowned a little before shaking her head, thrown off guard by the question. She could feel Myung’s hand tighten a little on her shoulder in warning, Watson letting out a small whine from by Sherlock’s feet, as if sensing the oncoming storm.

“No, I haven’t.” Cho replied politely, giving a small smile towards the interviewer. “Anything interesting? I haven’t had time to be on the internet much, what with debuting and preparing for our first comeback.”

“Ah,” The interviewer smiled, “Then allow me to enlighten you.” He cleared his throat, looking down at the notes in his lap before flicking through them, trying to find the right page. “Ah, here we go. ‘You know, I think Cho is the most unattractive of the group. That sweet, adorable image she has is so fake and put on.’ ‘I don’t understand how anyone could bias Cho out of the two girls, Ae-Cha looks much healthier. I think due to Cho being so short, her weight is unevenly distributed. It’s grotesque.’”

Cho just smiled, letting out a soft chuckle. “People are entitled to their own opinions,” she told the interviewer, her voice remaining steady despite the heavy pounding of her heart and the pricks behind her eyes. “There are a lot of us, although not as many as some groups, I hope the people who dislike me at least don’t take it out on my other members, although painful, I won’t allow other people’s opinions to bring me down.”

The interviewer smiled at her. “That’s a very mature way to look at things, Miss Cho.” Before going to talk to the others about various topics, telling Sherlock how inspirational he was to other disabled kids, how amazing Hyo’s Korean was getting, etc.

But Cho stayed quiet for the majority of the interview, keeping grounded by the tight grip Myung had on her shoulder.

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She’d kept her face straight throughout the interview, getting ushered out along with the rest of the group once the interview was over before being told by their manager, Namjoon, just to go home and do what they want for the rest of the day, their schedules being cancelled. He’d given her a small, sad smile before hurrying away to talk to some of the producers of the show.

She’d kept the happy, peaceful façade up the entire journey home, only allowing herself to crack once Ae-Cha had gone to lie in their bedroom and the boys had gone out for a bit.

Cho had decided to go and look up the hate for herself, to see if what the interviewer had told her was true. It was probably the biggest mistake she’d made since joining the music industry.

There were pages upon pages of hate, ripping apart her image, calling her ugly, fat and fake. Her personal favourite was her face photoshopped onto a baby hippo. Despite her efforts, she couldn’t stop the tears from falling, couldn’t stop the words from affecting her despite her previous statement.

Now she stood, staring at her reflection in the mirror. She looked a mess, eyeliner and mascara running down her face, mixed with the tears leaving grubby streaks of black, her cheeks red and irritated from the insistent rubbing in an attempt to clear the tears. Her teeth still worrying her bottom lip to the point of the skin breaking.

Cho flinched as the bathroom door opened, quickly turning to face the person entering…she wasn’t really surprised as Ae-Cha stood, eyes wide at the state of her friend, before letting out a sigh. “Cho, are you alright?” She asked while walking over, putting a hand on the other girls shoulder. At Cho’s nod, she scoffed. “Right, yeah, that’s why you’re crying by yourself in the bathroom.” Ae-Cha had already changed out of her normal clothes into a loose tank top and pyjama pants, her makeup removed, yet she still looked beautiful as she always did.

Cho flinched at Ae-Cha’s words, cursing herself for being so weak, before turning back to the mirror to glare at her reflection some more.

“Is it because of that stupid interviewer? You know, after you left, Manager-hyung told him off. I doubt that part of the recording is going to be aired. He had no right to say that stuff to you while being so lovely to the rest of us. The boys are so pissed off because of it.”

Cho shook her head. “They shouldn’t be, he was only telling the truth after all.”

Ae-Cha visibly flinched. “What? You don’t actually believe what he said, right?” At Cho’s silence, Ae-Cha let out another small sigh, putting her mug of hot chocolate on the edge of the sink while walking to be beside Cho, pulling her away from the mirror and sitting her down on the edge of the bathtub before turning and pulling a towel off the rack beside them, running it under the hot water tap for about a minute before kneeling in front of the smaller girl.

“You know, Unnie,” she started while gently wiping at the older girl’s face, removing traces of the tears and destroyed makeup. “You’re too hard on yourself. That interviewer was a nasty piece of work, I don’t think we’ll be going back to that show, Manager-hyung won’t allow it. You hid it well, but all of us saw that his comments hurt you…we may not get on all the time, Cho, but you’re like my big sister, okay? We have clashing personalities and all but… we’re in this together.” She gave a small smile before rewetting the towel, continuing to clean Cho’s face as the older stared at the floor, willing the tears to stop while Ae-Cha silently continued wiping each salty drop away.

Once she’d done, Ae-Cha threw the now dirty, makeup coated towel into the wash basket before taking Cho’s hand, pulling her so she stood then leading her out of the bathroom and into their shared bedroom. Forcing Cho to sit on the bed, she went over to the still open laptop, frowning at the amount of hate pages Cho had left open before going and closing them, deleting her history to erase any traces of the pages.

“Unnie, come over here.” Ae-Cha ordered while sitting down in Cho’s desk chair, simply typing “Park Cho Acid Teochii” into google’s search bar. Cho came and stood beside her, still silent, but her brow was furrowed in confusion as Ae-Cha clicked on the first link. “Here, see? First result from searching your name… all of it is positive. Everyone is being lovely, there are people here saying that you’re their bias, that you’re adorable and suit your image so well. Don’t let a few black sheep get you down when so many people are happy for you, when so many people love you. You know, I really think Sherlock has a thing for you too. He was the angriest out of the boys.”

Cho allowed herself to smile a little through the blush that had sprung to her cheeks. “Choi Ae-Cha, I’d never take you as a sap.”

“Shut up.”

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I thought I'd actually put some sort of author note at the bottom of this... thank you for the support so far! I have up to Chapter 10 planned out now, but if anyone has any requests of stuff they want to see happen to my characters, feel free to let me know! I could do with the ideas!