It was eight o’clock in the morning and people were already crowding the practice room for some damn reason. Of course, there were a quarter of trainees still thoroughly-asleep in the dormitory, and as for Bona, she didn’t particularly know why she had woken up at seven thirty AM. It wasn’t because of herself and the alarm clock stuffed inside her pillow, really, it was because of shrieking male who practically awakened the entire building to its ashes. She had heard from a friend that approximately half an hour ago, the lanky diva-ish male, otherwise known as Yeo around the company, was actually found staring at an image of a lifeless cat after his shriek of death died down a bit. Apparently, the blurry photo was sent by Yoonjo.

Yeo woke up from his limited slumber, aggressively rubbing both of his eyes. He was quite the heavy sleeper, although when it came to schedules and how precise he was, he would be ranked at least a four. Before proceeding to get ready, he always has the tendency to check his SNS and texts messages (not to mention checking up if anyone was interested for a date. Unfortunately, those kinds of messages were nowhere to be found).

And this was the part where he clicked a text entitled ‘CUTE GAY I FOUND LAST NIGHT!!! – from: yoonjo’. Yoonjo was drunk half of the time, so Yeo wasn’t all that surprised with the atrocious title.

He made a mistake, a stupid mistake.

Screech.

D-d-d-dead cat! He was screaming his lungs out, begging for death, basically.

That was what the others said to Bona, and she effortlessly tried to interpret the incident in her thoughts. Not a pretty sight. A sigh escaped her dry lips, God, she needed a glass of sparkling water right now. The weather was excruciatingly hot because of the amount of trainees gathered to suffocate the air around her. She sighed for the hundredth time this morning, but she hadn’t been counting them — she just managed to calculate improperly.

“Quite the ruckus they’re making, huh?” a female wearing crème-colored shorts and a silk white top approached Bona, settling herself on the leather couch next to the other girl. Clearly judging from the other’s silky cloth and posture, she could tell it was Son Danji.

The younger nodded blankly, pursing her lips into a perfectly thin line. “I’d have to agree. When are the instructors gonna start practice? They’re making a big deal out of an insane girl, a gay guy, and a rotting cat. Makes no sense, really.” she significantly stated, rolling her eyes at the end.

“Tell me about it,” she furiously nodded, a ‘crack’ of the nape seemingly heard as she did so. “I just want to practice, seriously.” propping herself up, she began crouching with a stretch of the leg and counted one until eight.

“Stretching already?”

The other didn’t reply, keeping her down as she focused on flexing every muscle there was. Bona glanced down at the tiny backpack on her lap, an obnoxious tone ringing as she pulled the zipper. It was a LINE message from Yoonjo that read, im at the dorm rn bc honestly i dont wanna be yelled at. come up with excuses, ok? muah muah. She hissed from her seat, leaning back, not bothering to write back a reply to her roommate. It didn’t surprise her once she set her eyes on the message, hell, it was probably predicted — Yoonjo slipping away from what she had done, even if it was only intended as a hilarious joke.

Danji arched an eyebrow as she paused from her awfully painful-to-look stretching and warm-ups. “Something wrong?” she inclined, arms wrapped around her knees.

“No,” she paused, thinking again. “Well, yes, I don’t—” her sentence was cut off when the door flew open with three vocal instructors who looked like their heads were about to explode and dirty the spotless floor with blood and all things gross, as if they banged the door open with bazookas. Bona really needed a glass of water.

Their mouths moved with every word they vomit out, almost in sync, but Bona’s hearing didn’t quite function at the moment. There were too many other audible voices and thoughts running in her mind. She did catch the instructor saying ‘ridiculous’ or ‘you’re wasting your time’ or something along the lines, and she could not agree more. The massive crowd surrounding Yeo finally decreased as brutal scolds shrilled their ears, similar to a homicide.

By now, Danji had stood up, applauding in a scathingly sarcastic way as if she was in a gag show, then maintaining her previous posture. She coughed awkwardly, almost choking when Bona’s slender fingers tapped on her shoulders. “Wha — What is it?”

“Practice? I guess we’re the only ones here to actually give a about improving,” said Bona, hands gripping tightly on the other’s shoulder. “Besides, I need to spare some of my time to watch the latest episode of Love Live!” her eyes sparkled at the last part of the sentence. She had a purpose to become an idol in the industry, and what better was there than to watch the struggles of being 2-D female idols as examples. Nothing was better than that, life was just sweet.

The younger’s shoulder deflated in a sigh, shrugging afterwards as she complied along. They offered a few other trainees if they wanted to join, some did and some not. Of course, the trainees in Borium were considered as a circle of friends, but there were also people who liked to come up with organizations — picking him or her or that. Danji, Bona, and the others initiated with a base choreography, as they were told to do that first before moving on with other choreographies. Sweat began to trickle down as time passed by. Bona was observing her surroundings as she messily mimicked Danji’s almost-flawless moves. She was kind of ticked off, seeing that there are people on their phones, laughing, and practically ignoring everyone around them. She despised them without a doubt, clicking her tongue at the sight.

“Good afternoon,” a voice came from the doorway, until it echoed throughout the practice room. A producer, she didn’t know who he was, flipped through the pages of printed paper in his hand, pushing up his glasses. “I’m here to announce something since the CEO is currently in a very important meaning. Let’s just say, the meeting has something to do with the first group project.” he said, in a quite hesitant pace.

“We’ve changed the lineup from time to time, but we’ve made a permanent agreement to place a few trainees into the group. Permanent, so that means, if you back out, you won’t be able to.” he continued, also in a similar pace as before. Gulp. Bona swallowed down a lump in , thinking that everyone else would mirror her actions. It was depressingly quiet, though.

“If I call your name, prepare diligently on debuting,” utter silence filled the air for three minutes before his mouth parted again. “Joo Ahyoung… and Son Danji, you two are the first members to be announced. Congratulations. As for the remaining three other members, they will be decided shortly after. Thank you for your attention.” a stutter almost escaped his lips to scramble his words, but fortunately, that didn’t happen.

Mr. Producer decided to awkwardly scuttle away from the group of trainees after announcing what he had been assigned to say, exiting the room with a loud and raspy cough. Bona glanced to her shoulder, spotting a wide-eyed Danji, and honestly, she expected the younger’s reaction to turn out exactly like this, even though it was plainly obvious that she was an unchangeable member of the lineup. She carefully tapped on Danji’s back, a grin carved on her face.

By now, people had returned to their own worlds yet again, giggling and being ridiculous. “As expected of Angel-ssi. Not surprised.” someone said (yelled) from the corner, clearly directing it towards Danji. The older immediately sent daggering glares to that side of the room. Some people.

“Hey, don’t listen to them, okay? Cheer up, you’re gonna stand on a stage soon.” she reassured, the grin never leaving her face.

“But…”

“But what?”

“Ahyoung’s not here.”

“Let’s go tell her, then.”

Huff. Run. Huff. Ahyoung was basically out of oxygen as she fastened her pace like the wind. She wasn’t late for her date that she didn’t want to acknowledge as a date. She just didn’t like to keep people waiting for her, especially when it came to Jingoo even though he would be the type of person to wait calmly until the clock struck at twelve AM. But she did not want him to do so. She hurriedly ran across the different name of streets, feeling the cold, thin air wrapping around her entire body that was already covered by layers of clothing.

Ahyoung absolutely had no idea why the male insisted to invite her out for dinner as a celebration for being one of the members in Borium’s group lineup. Although she kept denying the idea of being fussed over on her upcoming debut, in her mind, she wanted to be fussed over. It was an odd feeling, really, but she liked it for some damn reason. The phone in her pocket suddenly vibrated, and oh God, she knew Jingoo was waiting a long time for her arrival.

from: jinggie

where are you??? (( ;°Д°))
i hope you didn’t fall asleep…

from: the ultimate noona

i’m near the restaurant
wait for me, you fool
and no, i’m currently wide awake (;¬_¬)

As she closed the screen of her phone, which was only left with thirty percent of battery, she didn’t waste any time to fasten her pace once more. She still paid attention to the road, although when she crossed the road for the third time, a wild roar of honking cars filled her ears. She just prayed to the almighty Lord that Jingoo was still leaning his figure in front of the restaurant, having that damn smug expression plastered on his entire face. However, she didn’t know why she found that expression attractive. No idea why.

Here she was, breath unsteady and hair a little bit messy from all the running, facing Jingoo who almost didn’t notice the other girl. And she was absolutely right, he had that smug expression painted on his godforsaken handsome face. .

“About time.” he said, tone quite low. He lifted his back from the window and approached towards Ahyoung, chuckling as he stood in front of her.

“Let’s just head in,” she offers, and Jingoo’s grin widened. “What’re we gonna order anyway?”

“Gejang,” his expression and tone suddenly brightened up as the word came straight out of his mouth. “A big bowl of it.” his hands were basically instructing how big of a bowl he wanted.

Ahyoung only ruffled his hair (that needed a cut, without a doubt) and let out a muffled laughter as a response.

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

oH MY GOD. i've actually managed to finish this chapter despite my in' tight schedule /so proud of self. i'm super, super sorry for the long hiatus thingy and it's not even a hiatus ;;; i finally received inspiration and i found this chap a little bit boring but cute at the same time? idk man. so the first ones who're going to debut are my babies, danji and the ultimate noona. c ries over that name, i hope you're ok with it.
the next chap will be about jinggie and the ultimate noona's date and other fun stuff so look forward to it!!!! it'll be up in one or two weeks (?)
reminder: don't forget to comment, chosen peeps. it's ok if you're busy or something, but just to letting you know bc if you don't comment at all, i'd have to replace your character. now, we don't want that, do we? then, comment! ( •̀ω•́ )
ok, i'll bid my farewell now ndksngjkds bYE. hope you enjoyed this chap!