January 2nd 2015

The four individual members of Bara No Hanabira were all nervous and on edge.

Not because of anything that had happened, no, although Hyo’s recent contract cancellation hadn’t helped their confidence, but because that in 8, short days, they were going to finally be moving in to a dorm together.

Of course, this meant big changes. It meant that Aiko and Airi no longer lived with their loving parents, and Aiko didn’t have an adult with him at all times in case his condition took a turn for the worst. It meant that Hatake would no longer live with his over protective older brother, the tall man who scrutinized his every move.

It meant that Meoki would no longer be going home to an apartment that was practically empty most of the time, her parents often too busy with work to care about their oldest daughter.

“Now, guys, I have some exciting news!” Hitomo announced. They’d just begun practice, once again working on their stage presence with the trainer who had yet to give them his name, when Hitomo had clapped, grabbing their attention.

Aiko and Airi had immediately walked towards the manager, while Hatake hurried over, as fast as his little legs were able to take him, while Rose hung out at the back of the small group. She liked being behind them to watch over them, keep her eye on the little balls of mischief that were under her care.

“What’s wrong, Hitomo-san?” Airi questioned as she sat by Hitomo’s feet, wide eyes innocently gazing up at her.

“Nothing is wrong, Airi-chan,” Hitomo smiled. “I’d just like to let you know that tomorrow you will all be meeting the groups Symphon-EE and Acid Teochii. We, CEO Lee and I, decided that it was right of you all to meet them and discuss dorm life with them, maybe get some tips? Symphon-EE haven’t debuted yet, but they have been dorming together for a while now, and Acid Teochii have just passed having met each other 10 months ago.”

Aiko had gone pale. “We’re meeting Acid Teochii?”

Airi grinned over at her twin, eyes sparkling slightly with mischief. “What’s up, bro?” She taunted, shoving her elbow into her twin’s ribs. “Scared or something?”

“N-no!” Aiko insisted, shoving her slightly back. “I’m not scared! Just… worried about meeting Sherlock-san again, that’s all…”

Hitomo frowned slightly. “Again? You’ve met BonHwa in the past?”

The small boy looked confused for a second, he wasn’t used to Sherlock’s real name after all, forever using his stage name. “Yeah, I-I met him a few days before I auditioned for Ace, in the airport in Tokyo… It was a chance sighting really…”

“You really admire Sherlock, don’t you, Aiko,” Hitomo smiled gently as she looked over the small, sick boy who had been working so hard the past few months. Aiko nodded slightly in response.

“He makes it so disabled people don’t feel so useless, he’s a disabled idol after all…”

Hitomo nodded. “I agree, it is a lovely thing for young people to look up to. That’s what we do here at Ace, we try to think outside the box and make it so people don’t feel so alone, we have Sherlock who’s disabled, Hyo with his scars, Ae-Cha with her controversial look, Myung and Vann who don’t come from Korea… We want to make it so all the fans feel welcome no matter what’s going on in their lives, that’s all we strive to do here.”

Meoki smiled over at their manager, loving how the woman had appeared to be so passionate about the company she was working for. “It’s really admirable,” She sighed, rubbing Aiko’s head gently. “After all, if you hadn’t met Sherlock, you might not have even auditioned…”

“He wouldn’t have,” Airi sighed, crossing her arms. “He only did because he’d met Sherlock just before and felt like he might have a chance with his piano work.”

“H-hey!” Aiko cried, pushing Airi slightly with a blush on his face. “Don’t be like that! I wouldn’t have auditioned if you hadn’t agreed to help me either!”

“Well mom and dad wouldn’t have let you audition if I hadn’t too.”

“Exactly!”

“Guys,” Hatake cut in, stopping the siblings’ petty squabbling. “Speaking of Hyo-san with his scars… have you seen the hate he’s been getting online recently?”

Meoki frowned. “You shouldn’t be looking up stuff like that, Hatake…” But she had seen it. It was quite hard to miss the racist comments that online fans were throwing around, calling Hyo every name under the sun, following him where he was living in China, ripping his daily habits apart, calling him racist names and making it so he was scared to even leave the apartment he lived in.

“I don’t look it up,” Hatake frowned, putting his fists on his hips as he attempted to prove his point. “It’s hard to miss, that’s all!”

Airi frowned over at them. “What do you mean? I’ve not really been online recently what with school and training… I know Hyo left, but that’s about it.”

Meoki sighed, running a hand through her brown hair. “Yeah, Hyo cancelled his contract due to a lot of hate with his scars, people kept picking up on them and then when he didn’t want to talk about it, they called him rude and it just gave the antis more ammunition against him… According to CEO Lee, he was falling into pretty bad depression, wasn’t wanting to leave the dorm, wasn’t wanting to be an idol anymore… so he left, and CEO Lee accepted that since it was better for his mental health that he didn’t want to sue Hyo for the break of contract… but since he left, the hate and the antis have just gotten worse. They’re calling him a traitor, saying he used Acid Teochii to get fame only to leave an betray them all, they’re following him around China and attacking him, he’s been having hate mail posted through his personal letterbox, people throwing stuff at his windows… it’s insane. Acid Teochii aren’t a largely known group, they haven’t been around even a year yet, so I don’t understand why this is happening.”

“Because people just want something to complain about, Rose,” Meoki sighed, rubbing at her own face. “It isn’t fair, but we’ll sort it, he’ll be okay. These netizens or whatever you want to call them don’t realise that what they say gets seen, it’s almost as if they don’t know that idols are real people, so they do what they want to upset and hurt us, it isn’t fair, I know it isn’t… but we just have to deal with it, that’s all.”

Meoki sighed, a little teary over what had been said, stressed over the situation at hand. “I wish we didn’t have to deal with it, it hurts to know our friend is suffering… I’ve never met Hyo, but he’s been in the company quite long time, and I still feel like we’re friends…”

“Enough of the sad stuff,” Hitomo clapped her hands. “Let’s discuss what’s happening tomorrow. You’ll be meeting Acid Teochii and Symphon-EE in the main practice room, the one that Acid first met in, and you’ll have chance to talk with them. Acid can’t stay long since they have training to prepare for their sub unit debut, but talk with them as much as you can. After that, you can talk to Symphon-EE alone and try to get that connection. I believe you will all get along better with Symphon-EE since you have a similar amount of members. They have 5 while you have 4… Acid is a bit more crowded in terms there’s currently 11 of them.”

“11?” Airi asked, frowning. “But Hyo left?”

“Ah…” Hitomo sighed, “You didn’t know about Yue?”

Hatake’s eyes widened. “Qiuyue finally got put in a group?!”

Hitomo grinned. “Ah, you know her?”

“I trained with her, she’s Chinese, right?” Hitomo nodded.

“Yeah, she’s replaced Hyo in Acid Teochii, she joined them yesterday.”

“I hope she’s happy there, Qiuyue has a really nice voice…” Hatake trailed, brow furrowing in worry. “I don’t want her to be sad.”

“She’ll be fine. You should worry about yourselves joining the group dorm next week, that’s all.”

“I just want to move in now,” Airi sighed, leaning on her hands. “I’m getting impatient.”

“Sometimes you just wish you could time travel, eh?” Hitomo smiled.

The group couldn’t agree more.