There was a horrible screeching sound with every turn of the train’s wheels, loud thumps from what must be the engine ahead, and Ahyoung stood next to a middle-aged business man who sat on the comfortable seat. She couldn’t be more irritated. Firstly, she had to vocally train for an extra four hours. Secondly, the vocal instructor was blunt with her mistakes and of course, she took it to heart! The brunette didn’t succeed to hit all of the impossible high notes, but hey, at least she didn’t come off completely terrible. Her performance was pretty decent compared to the others.

Humming a little under her breath, Ahyoung leaned closer against the windowsill of the train; her hair touching the glass as she nuzzled on the pale curtains. The stars were nice, though. Without all the bright city lights of Seoul, they shine bright in the dark sky, and she liked to admire the night as they went past. She slowly melted into her earphones as Showtek played at a medium volume — the atmosphere and scenery was strangely fitting.

Fifteen minutes later, the co-driver came to explain came in to explain that the train were having minor technical issues. A few of the passengers were standing with their belongings gathered, hoping the person in a uniform would inform their arrival rather than bringing up false hope. Ahyoung couldn’t care at all. It was nine thirty PM, and she didn’t give the slightest concern whether she’d arrive at one in the morning. She only wanted to drift off and erase all of her troubles.

A deep sigh made its way out of Danji’s half-opened mouth. The analog clock on the wall in front of her read eleven forty seven PM. Ahyoung, or also known as the person sharing a room with her wasn’t home yet, which abundantly caused a worrisome face to spread across her face. The particular person wasn’t exactly labeled as a close friend to her, but Ahyoung was slightly considered as a lovable roommate; someone whom she could talk to, someone she could count as ‘trainee friends’.

Danji decided to get a bit of fresh midnight air as she spiraled down the staircase, tying her hair into a loose ponytail with a flower-printed scrunchie. She somehow felt the outrageous need to talk to someone when her roommate was currently out. Soojung immediately clicked in her mind. Gripping on her phone, she tapped the screen of alphabets with her fingers.

from: danji

just finished your schedule, right?
come over, please.
feelin’ pretty lonely.

from: soojung

i’ll be there in a few!

Danji fought the urge to curl her lips at the text message, but after all, she couldn’t help it, a small smile tugged at the edge of her lips. The soothing sound of crickets and the nearby stream calmed her thoughts. She was always fond of the night and its atmosphere. It definitely brought her to the conclusion of not overly worrying about Ahyoung, so that she could enjoy a rather peaceful night. As if the other was kidnapped or something similar.

After what it felt like an eternity of waiting, a massive van stopped in front of the building, and a girl wearing a black parka and white jeans while carrying a vinyl pocketbook slowly approached Danji. Dark circles and frizzy hair messily stuck out once the other stood in front her, both hands sinking into her pockets.

“Hey.” Soojung greeted, allowing herself to sit next to the elder. She buried her left cheek onto her knees while looking curiously into Danji’s eyes.

It felt somewhat surreal — Soojung looked absolutely glimmering as the night sky shone on her pale complexion, so Danji fixated her vision onto her friend, in which she snapped back into reality once the other greeted her. “Mmm… Hi. Thanks for coming, by the way. You look like .”

Soojung chuckled, “I know. I’ve been lacking sleep these couple of days. The members also have it tough, though. Commercials, photoshoots, comeback preparations, et cetera, et cetera.” she stated in a raspy voice.

“I almost forgot that you guys are preparing for a comeback. That’s why you look like, well — uh… this.” Danji said, adding a giggle at the end while the younger followed with a muffled giggle. It had been quite awhile since they’d been able to meet up together without some sort of connection with cameras and overall, the delusional showbiz world. Danji and Soojung were compatible; they shared the same interests and a friendship couldn’t have been built without a certain base.

They stayed silent and tried to sweep away from the commotion of society for at least three minutes before the blond started to speak up.

“Why did you tell me to come over anyways?” said Soojung, a touch of curiosity lingering in her thoughts.

The elder pursed her lips into a thin line, pushing her bangs from her face with a drag of a finger. “I don’t know. I just wanted to see you.”

“Oh — uhm — I-I wanted to see you, too.” Soojung stuttered a bit, before inhaling the cold air. A faint pale crimson painted her cheekbones, well, she only sensed the blush, but didn’t know whether she was noticeably blushing.

“Mhm.”

“…Mhm.”

It was a quite sunny Sunday morning; the ray of sunshine leaked through the blurry curtains of the practice room. Red dragonflies flitted around the quadrangle, chased by neighborhood kids swinging nets. Some of the trainees were gathered around in a circle, while the others were occupying a different room.

This room was specifically held for vocal training, where they would strain out their voices and kill themselves with excessive high notes. At the moment, there were at least six female trainees and nine male trainees. Worst of all, the vocal trainer was Kim Jinsoo, prepare to be petrified — dum… dum… duuuum!

“Good morning to all of you,” Jinsoo said, earning weak replies from the bundle of people in front of him. “Repeat. Do it ing seriously!” he yelled, crossing his arms across his chest. It was their first time training with Jinsoo, since he was practically an assigned vocal trainer for the upcoming artist project. Well, the trainees were rather concerned to debut if the vocal trainer was Jinsoo. He was realistic and tough, but weren’t half of the instructors like that?

“You,” he pointed at a woman, who was shutting her ears with baby blue earphones, not to mention also responding his ‘good morning’ greeting in a very frivolous way. Bona didn’t hear the man at first, but once she received the dozen of glares, oh, she knew what the exact problem was. “Sing something, anything. I’ll be accompanying you with the piano. I expect no flaws whatsoever if you tend to do the habit of yours under my training.”

“Flying in the Deep Night, please.” Bona said, sounding quite confident with a tint of boldness as she shoved the earphones in her jean pocket.

Without hesitation, a soft harmony echoed from Bona’s mouth once the instructor signaled a cue alongside the piano. Thump. Every single human being in the room was flabbergasted by her voice, because they didn’t expect her outcome to be — extremely good. She sounded professional and skilled, even if her overall personality didn’t quite relate. The song ended in such a beautiful technique.

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

helloooo! missed me? i've been gone for a week and and-- /slapped. i was actually working on this chapter in the past week whilst juggling all of my school work ;; the first chapter is quite uninteresting, yeah? well, i promise to make the other chapters interesting and fun just for you guys. soojung and danji's 'mhm-s' reminds me of 'okay-s' s CREAMS ignore me being a weird wormbaby.
alright, alright-- i hope you guys enjoyed the first chap. chap two will be up in the timespan of a week or so. and sorry if there are any grammatical mistakes bc author-san is very very lazy ouo