The winding corridors were easy to get lost in, as Daeun discovered upon her first week in the JYP building. Every doorway looked the same, only differentiable by the steadily increasing number inscribed onto the plaque mounted beside each closed door.
She had been searching for the lunchroom, having asked directions from a friendly-looking senior who had introduced herself as Tyuzu, but had taken a wrong turn several wrong turns ago and now was completely and irreversibly lost.
Peeking in through the small windows built into each door felt like invading someone's privacy, but Daeun was desperate to find someone who could point her back to the right direction.
It was purely by chance that she stumbled into someone coming out of the studio at the same time that she went to peer in through the window.
The door swung open, barely missing her nose as she jumped back with a startled yelp, flinging her hands out to protect her face.
“Sorry!” A voice called out, panicked, and then hands were pushing her own away from her face. “I didn’t hit you, did I?”
Blinking rapidly to clear her eyes, Daeun looked up to meet the concerned face of another boy - definitely older, but not a face she recognised.
“No, no you didn’t,” Daeun cleared her throat when her voice got caught. “I’m fine, sorry.”
With a sheepish chuckle, the boy slid a hand over the back of his neck. “I’m so sorry, I should have checked to see if anyone was out here before i swung the door open like that.”
Daeun shook her head rapidly. “No it was totally my fault, I was looking for the cafeteria, but I think I got lost-” She cut herself off, embarrassed.
The boy bit his lip, a knowing look in his eye. “It’s a bit of a maze for your first couple weeks here, isn’t it?” He commented, turning to lock the studio door with a key he then slid back into his pocket.
“I only got here a couple days ago, this building feels endless,” Daeun agreed, wincing.
Her comment brought out a short laugh from the boy. “Oh, tell me about it. It took me nearly a month to be able to tell the floors apart.”
“Well, at least it’s not just me and a bad sense of direction.”
“Not at all.” He stopped, turning to face Daeun. “You said you were looking for the cafeteria?”
“It’s the floor below this one, actually,” The boy laughed at Daeun’s crestfallen look. “I’ve done the exact same thing, don’t worry. I was actually going to head down that way, if you’d like me to walk you there? Just to make sure we don’t lose you in the stairwell or something.” He teased lightly.
She exhaled gratefully. “Oh that would be so helpful, thank you.”
“No bother at all.” The boy extended an arm. “After you.”
The pair walked in silence for a minute or two, before the boy turned to face Daeun without breaking his pace. “I’m Chan, by the way. Bang Chan.”
Daeun smiled. “I’m Daeun. It’s lovely to meet you, Chan-ssi.”
The catering hall was more crowded than Daeun had expected it to be, considering it was late in the evening, but Chan ushered her into a seat towards the corner of the room before dropping his bag into one of the unoccupied seats beside her.
They had taken to sitting together, when their classes aligned - having more in common than they previously could have imagined. Normally, come midday or later, they had both been working since eight in the morning, some days even earlier, so the half hour of lunch was a welcome reprieve.
“I’ll be right back,” He said, “I just have to go grab something from the studio.”
“Mhm,” Daeun acknowledged, resting her head on her arms with a deep sigh.
“Oh, hold on,” Chan’s voice rose in pitch. “Changbin-ah!”
Raising her head again in confusion at the unfamiliar name, Daeun watched as a shorter, dark-haired boy came up to greet Chan with a hi-five and a strange amalgamation of a bro-hug-fist-bump. With a baseball cap pulled low over his eyes and a tightly set jaw, he was a stark contrast to Chan’s smiling features and bleached-blonde hair.
“Changbin,” Chan was saying, “This is Daeun.” He pointed towards the girl sitting back into the plastic chairs of the catering hall.
Startled at being included in the conversation, Daeun raised a weak hand in a small wave, an awkward grin gracing her face.
Changbin, to his credit, lifted a hand in return, but then immediately turned back to face Chan.
“I’ve been working on that second chorus - you know the one that was giving Jisungie trouble? And I think-”
Daeun let her concentration slip from the conversation at the mention of names that she didn’t recognise, not wanting it to look like she made it a habit to eavesdrop on people’s private conversations.
She picked at the bowl of fruit she had brought with her in the bag, realizing belatedly that in her rush to leave her dorm house that morning she had forgotten to pack any utensils.
Contemplating just eating the fruit with her bare hands and then reconsidering it, given the public space, Daeun pushed herself to her feet with a sigh and moved to make her way over to the boxes of utensils the cafeteria offered - on the other side of the room.
By the time she had returned to the table, Chan was nowhere to be seen, but his bag was still sitting in the same place he had dropped it upon their arrival. In his place was Changbin, sitting with his arms folded across his chest and his baseball cap still pulled lower over his eyes.
“How do you see with that thing on?” Daeun clapped a hand over her mouth in shock. She hadn’t meant to say that out loud.
Changbin blinked up at her with wide eyes, obviously having not expected such a question as well.
“I’m so sorry, I totally didn’t mean to say that it just came out-” Daeun rushed to apologise, but was cut off by a small laugh.
Whipping her head up, Daeun realized that it was Changbin who was laughing, lips curled up in a grin as he moved to pull off the cap with one of his hands, smoothing down the hair beneath it with the other.
Smiling, she realized, Changbin didn’t look half as intimidating as he had when she had first set eyes on him. His entire face changed into something more open, and the edges of his eyes curled up in the way that only happened when the smile wasn’t forced.
“I don’t, really.” Changbin admitted, holding out the hat to look at it himself. “I just look at the floor and hope I don’t walk into a wall.”
Daeun snorted despite herself, and Changbin turned his smile on her.
“Oh, I didn’t take your seat or something, did I?” His face changed instantly, taking notice of the fact that Daeun was still standing beside the table. He moved to push himself out of the seat he was in, but she waved him off.
“No, no you’re alright.” Setting into a different chair across from him, she reached for the cup of chopped fruit and pulled it closer to herself.
A silence settled over the table, the two too unfamiliar with each other to know how to proceed with a conversation.
Daeun kept her eyes fixed on the table for the most part, cursing herself internally for letting the conversation drop just as it was getting going.
Eventually, it was Changbin that broke the silence. “So how do you know Chan hyung?”
“Are you sure it’s alright if I stay? I don’t want to be in the way,” Daeun was saying, shuffling in through the open studio door behind Chan and Changbin.
Both boys rolled their eyes at her in response, exchanging an exasperated glance. “Yes, Daeun, we checked with him earlier. He said it was fine - that he was looking forward to meeting you.”
Daeun still looked unconvinced, but sat down in an unoccupied chair in the corner nonetheless.
There were stacks of papers lining the corners of the room, some neatly organized into folders, and others left loose, haphazardly shoved together and out of the immediate floor space.
Chan had his own stack of papers in his hands, a few pens scattered on top that he set down none too gently on the desk top.
The monitors in this room had recently been refurbished, Daeun remembered being told by another trainee, so getting time in this studio room was practically impossible.
Taking note of the otherwise empty room, Changbin clicked his teeth. “Is he gonna be late again?” He turned to Chan, who slipped his phone out of his pocket to check for new messages.
Furrowing his eyebrows, Chan shook his head. “He hasn’t texted me so-”
“Sorry!” The studio door slammed open with a bang, and a boy entered like a whirlwind, his coat half on and half off, his backpack hanging off one arm with the zip not fully closed.
He closed the door behind himself, dropping his backpack and coat into a corner before moving to stand in the center of the room, facing Chan and Changbin. “Sorry. Practice ran overtime again, I had to run.”
Daeun, still reeling from the events that had occurred in quick succession over the last three seconds, only blinked.
It was only after Chan had assured the boy that they too had only just arrived, that he seemed to take stock of the room, freezing when he caught sight of Daeun in the corner of the room.
She could see him coil slightly into himself, the bright energy he had exuded upon entering dimming slightly in the presence of a stranger.
Desperate to make sure he wasn’t uncomfortable with her there, Daeun stood from her seat, bowing slightly in greeting. “Hi, I’m Daeun.”
Jisung bent his head in acknowledgement. “Jisung.”
The producing session was set up quickly after that, Chan and Changbin going through what they had been working on up until that point briefly with Daeun, while Jisung sat off towards the edge of the room, scouring over some of the old music sheets that they were going to be tweaking.
Daeun tried her level best to ensure she was out of the way for the most part - she was only there to be an observer, as per Chan’s recommendation - but she could just feel the anxiety radiating off of Jisung.
Changbin was catching onto the younger boy’s quietness as well, if the questioning glances he was sending his direction periodically was anything to go by.
Jisung was twirling a pen between his fingers, not making eye contact with Daeun and only chipping in to the session with short sentences and weak smiles.
With guilt welling up in her stomach at having obviously done something to upset Jisung, Daeun made up her mind. She slipped her phone out of her pocket, making a show of checking the screen with a small gasp for emphasis.
“Oh god, is that the time? I completely forgot, I’m meant to meet Jiho for extra practice this afternoon, I’m so sorry.” Daeun scrambled for her bags in faux-panic, picking it up and tossing it over her shoulder.
“Thank you so much for inviting me, it was so lovely to meet you, Jisung,” She directed the last bit towards the quiet boy, who nodded in agreement. “This just totally slipped my mind, I’m so sorry.”
With that, Daeun left the studio, eyebrows knitted together, and a pit of guilt sitting in the bottom of her stomach at the pinched look on Jisung’s that had begun to fade once he realized that she was leaving the room.
It was only the following morning that she saw Jisung again, the boy passing her on one of the side stairwells. Daeun gave him a half-smile, receiving one in return, and went to continue down the stairs before she was stopped.
“Uh, Daeun-ssi?” Jisung’s voice was terse, and he cleared his throat once.
Daeun stopped, surprised, and turned to face him. He was two steps higher, and so she had to crane her neck up to look at him.
“I was wondering if, maybe- we have another 3RACHA session, uh, this afternoon, and Chan hyung was thinking- well not just hyung, because I’ve heard some of your own stuff and you’re really talented, Daeun-ssi, like incredibly and-”
“Are you inviting me to the studio, Jisung-ssi?”
Jisung inhaled sharply, cutting himself off. He nodded, sharply, once.
“Then I’d love to come. Thank you for inviting me, just let me put my bags away somewhere.”
“I can walk with you!” He jumped at the chance.
Daeun smiled brightly at Jisung, watching some of the tension bleed out of his shoulders. “I’d like that.”
The practice room was empty, asides from Daeun, who was positioned in the centre of the room, peering at herself through the fogged up mirror.
Her chest rose and fell in time with the heaving breaths she took in, hands placed firmly on her hips as she gasped for air. Her sweat-soaked t-shirt stuck to her skin, clinging uncomfortably to her back as she moved.
Swiping the hairs that had fallen down from her haphazardly thrown together ponytail away, Daeun took another moment to collect herself before spinning on her heel to face the music, queueing the track up again.
With the monthly assessments looming like a dark cloud over the end of the week, a low buzzing anxiety slowly settling beneath her skin, Daeun had booked time in one of the smaller, private practice rooms for eleven to midnight the previous night.
Officially, the studios close then, once the clock hits twelve, but it’s a generally unspoken rule that members of the company are free to remain there for as long as they needed - so long as they didn’t cause any problems.
Daeun, personally, had a squeaky clean record from her time in the company, and so when the final staff were leaving and her practice room lights were still on, she was left alone to her practice without a word.
The song cycled back to the opening bars, a slow opening that would break out into a more up-beat melody once the bass line enters.
Settling back into her opening stance, Daeun fixed her eyes on her own reflection, taking stock of how exhaustion lined her limbs and made them heavier, made moving them feel like she was dragging them through molasses.
A knock on the door startled her from her thoughts just as the song set into the first verse.
“Hello?” A young male voice called out, a head poking into the doorway immediately afterwards.
Daeun, still struggling to catch her breath from the last run-through, fumbled to stop the music before turning to face the stranger in the doorway.
“I’ve got this practice room booked from,” The boy glanced down at his phone. “Seven to ten? And it’s just gone seven, so,” He trailed off.
Daeun’s eyes widened, and she took a step back. “Is it seven?” Her voice was rough with tiredness, and she cleared her throat to rid it of the grating sound of disuse.
The boy looked at her curiously, raising an eyebrow. “Yeah.”
“Oh! Oh, okay, sorry I really hadn’t realized it was this late - early. I mean early.” Daeun scrambled to disconnect her phone from the speaker system, hands fumbling in their haste and the lactic acid in her muscles making her movements lethargic.
The boy stepped into the room cautiously, placing his own bag down beside Daeun’s open one. “How long have you been here?” He asked, conversationally, but kept one eye on Daeun’s form in the corner of his eye.
“Oh,” Daeun laughed awkwardly. “I hadn’t planned to stay this long, honestly. I must have lost track of time. I still have the overnight keys.” She held up a jingling keychain, which the boy recognised as the overnight keys that the staff would leave with trainees that were staying late.
“Does-” The boy started. “Did you stay here all night?” He asked incredulously, turning to face Daeun fully.
Daeun let out another nervous chuckle, avoiding eye contact with him. “Like I said, completely unintentional.” She darted past his staring eyes, collecting her things in a pile in her arms.
“I should be getting out of your way, I’m so sorry for cutting into your time!” Her left knee buckled slightly beneath her weight and she caught herself on the doorframe nonchalantly.
The boy’s eyes narrowed at the movement. “Are you going to be alright to get back to your dorms?”
Daeun waved him off. “No bother, I’m in the first block of the C dorms, so it’s only a ten or so minute walk.”
He picked up his phone from his bag, leaving his belongings in the corner as he pushed open the door, stepping out beside Daeun. “Let’s go.”
“You’re clearly about to pass out on your feet,” The boy gestured towards Daeun’s drooping eyelids and sagging posture, and she pushed her body back into an upright position like it had been a correction. “And I’ll feel terrible if I hear that you passed out on the streets in the middle of Seoul.”
She spluttered. “I won’t pass out!”
The boy raised an eyebrow. “I’m Minho. We should get going if you want to have a chance to sleep before vocal lessons.”
Mouth falling open, Daeun stepped slowly out of the practice room, following. She was too tired to protest any longer, and in all honesty, the company would probably do her good in terms of keeping her awake on the walk back.
“I- uh. Okay. Thank you.”
Minho smiled. “Nice to meet you.”
Daeun had auditioned for JYP as a rapper. She hadn’t even considered entering through another focus; not out of an excess of confidence in her rapping skills so to speak, but out of a lack of confidence in the others. She had a comfortable flow, a nice tone, wrote her own raps - it was a logical decision.
Being accepted as a trainee felt like heaven itself had blessed her.
And the first few weeks were her personal hell on earth.
Constantly confused, playing catch up, comparing herself to her fellow trainees, falling behind only to have to re-teach herself the lesson with notes she'd scribbled onto her hand in a panic.
It was a mess; but over the years she'd slowly figured out how to survive in the cutthroat world that all trainees existed in. She became more fluid in her tone, more settled in her register.
Daeun found her feet and was in the process of finding her confidence.
And then she got shoved in with the vocalists.
If there's one sure-fire way to shake a person, it's to, without warning, change the entirety of their situation. Daeun felt like the ground had been stolen from beneath her feet, leaving her unbalanced and unwilling to take a step out of place, less she uproot her tentatively placed branches.
She started from the bottom again.
Daeun had to write notes on her hands and go home to look things up just to understand what was going on in the tutorials, let alone be able to replicate it with her own vocal chords.
She wasn't a singer - her mother had always told her that. Her voice too jarring, too rough. No control.
Hence why Daeun had steered far away from the vocal auditions; only to be cast as a vocal trainee after 2 years of training her rap skills?
It felt like a cruel trick.
Her first monthly evaluation was coming up quickly - a duo piece that she'd been paired up with an unfamiliar male trainee for.
He had been in the vocal department longer than her, that much was obvious by his silken tone as he sang, and Daeun was a year his senior.
Beyond that, there was naught much else they had to talk about.
“So, I was thinking we could do an older ballad? Maybe something in English?” Daeun’s partner was pacing as he spoke, hands clasped in front of him.
He had introduced himself to her as Seungmin - they’d only briefly met in passing before, what with Daeun being in rap tutorials up until a week ago, but he seemed amicable and friendly from what little she knew of him.
“Uh,” Daeun winced. “My English isn’t the best, so that might not be a super good idea.”
Seungmin spun on his heel to face her, his face bright with a smile. He always seemed to be smiling, something else that Daeun had noticed to be different in the vocal department. The rappers she trained with were always trying to one-up each other with how cool or intimidating they looked. It got exhausting after a while.
"It can't be that bad - I'm sure you're exaggerating."
Her wince deepened. "No. I'm really not."
She really wasn't. For as long as she could remember, her English evaluations in school had been a dreadful experience - anything above a fail was to be celebrated. It made for a stilted conversation, when the only thing you could say was "I'm fine thank you, and you?"
Seungmin frowned. "Oh, well. That's okay. We can find a different song?" He offered.
Daeun relaxed slightly. "Preferably in Korean, if you will. Or Japanese - my Japanese isn't half bad."
Her partner fixed her with curious eyes. "Your Japanese is good but your English isn't?"
"Mhm." Daeun nodded. "I spent a year in school in Japan with my Dad."
Seungmin waited for a further elaboration, but when none came he simply took the information on board with another of his - clearly signature - bright grins.
"Okay!" He had lightened back up. "English or Japanese."
Streetlights illuminated patches of the footpath as Daeun strolled along, hood pulled up over her hair and a mask pulled up over her nose. The nights had grown colder quickly, the temperature dropping two or three degrees lower each night.
Her breath had been fogging up the air before she had had the thought to protect her cheeks and nose from the cold with a mask. She kept her hands firmly tucked into her pockets, shoulders hunched over to preserve as much heat as possible.
The small corner store was only a two minute walk or so from her dorms, and this Saturday was her turn to go on the ‘supply’ run for her roommates.
They rotated it weekly; someone would sneak past the managers and by some instant ramen, any snack bars they could find and some juice or milk cartons to sneak back into the dorms.
They weren’t allowed to eat that kind of stuff normally on their diet plans, but having sugary things on hand becomes handy when all of your roommates, yourself included, make it a habit of passing out every few weeks.
It was late when Daeun finally managed to slip out onto the street, so she was hurrying through the walk that she’d normally savour in order to get out of the cold as quickly as possible.
When the neon lights of the corner store came into view, she let out a shaky breath of relief and slipped into the warm building with a shiver.
The shelves were lined with things that were most definitely banned from her diet according to the company, and Daeun couldn’t help the satisfied grin that spread across her face.
Rubbing her hands together to help put some warm back into the skin, she snagged a couple pots of instant ramen, and two bottles of some kind of caffeinated energy drink - Daeun was the only one that drank them, but they were tasty and had twice the caffeine that a normal coffee would, so she kept buying them.
She pottered around the store for a few more moments, peering at all the snacks displayed and occasionally adding to the steadily growing pile in her arms.
Daeun went to turn around to go back down the aisle she had walked up - she’d seen a small nut bar at the start and wanted to check it’s ingredients - when she walked straight into someone’s chest, almost sending them both to the ground.
“Oh!” The man exclaimed, and Daeun let out a matching yelp.
The stranger took two staggering steps back before he righted his balance, immediately looking for who he had bumped into.
“I’m so sorry!” Daeun was already apologising, bending down to pick up the bottle of iced coffee he had dropped.
“Oh god- I’m sorry!” His voice came, first in English and then switching to Korean for the apology, and Daeun nearly fell forward onto her face with surprise at the register of his voice.
She whipped her head up, staring at the very obviously boy’s face, with wide eyes. He couldn’t have been older than sixteen, maybe seventeen at a push.
“Pardon?” Daeun squeaked, standing up on autopilot to hand back the bottle of coffee.
The boy blinked, cleared his throat and then tried again. “I am sorry. I was in your way.”
The words were enounced carefully, like he was still unsure of how they felt in his mouth. Daeun felt a trickle of pity slip into the back of her mind; he was obviously new to Korean if the way he spoke was any indication.
“It is okay.” Daeun tried in English, her own words now becoming stilted and broken, but she took notice of how the boy’s face brightened at the change in language.
“I just wasn’t looking where I was going, I was standing way too close, I’m so sorry.” He said in rapid fire English, clearly more comfortable in his first language.
Daeun blinked. And then nodded slowly.
The boy bit his lip, trying not to smile.
Daeun felt a tired giggle bubble up in her chest - the ones that seem completely random, but just appear in the most absurd places when laughter is the only emotion a tired body can produce.
Soon the both of them were in fits in the back aisle of the corner store, Daeun still clutching the instant ramen to her chest and the boy holding his bottle of iced coffee in a fist.
Their laughter petered off into the air, and Daeun had to wipe a tear from her waterline with a sigh. She looked back up at the boy, who was still staring at her.
“Do I know you?” His voice was a low timber, but slightly higher when he spoke Korean.
Daeun squinted at his face, trying to see if he looked familiar to her. She rarely met new people, since most of the ones she interacted with were in the company building itself, but..
She remembered being told that there was a new male trainee moving into the second block of the C dorms, and her mouth parted in recognition.
“Felix!” It sounded more like peu-lixeu in her accent but Felix’s face broke out into a grin at the name.
“You’re the new trainee in the C dorms!” Daeun was ecastic to be the first of her roommates to meet him - they had all been clamouring for a chance to meet the newbie.
“You live in the C dorms?” He was asking, posture opening up at a commonality.
Daeun nodded. “Mhm! Do you, want to walk back with me?”
“Ah- yeah! Thank you.” Felix rushed to grab another bottle of the iced coffee from the fridge, scurrying up to pay before stuffing the two bottles into his coat pockets.
Daeun paid after him, collecting her goods in her arms and pulling her hood back up over her head to protect against the cold air that was sure to greet them outside.
Just before stepping outside though, a hand appeared in her vision and then Felix was scooping three things from the top of her snack pile into his own arms.
He didn’t make a comment, just gestured with his head towards the door.
They ended up taking a detour on the way to the dorms, their conversation a strange mix of Korean, English and Siri.
Daeun was carefully controlling her breathing, focused on the steady inhale and exhale, the rise and fall of her chest.
Her hands twitched down by her sides, but she fought the urge to grab the bottom of her t-shirt and fiddle with the fabric. Her anxiety was visible in the tense line of her shoulders.
Chan had pulled her aside last week, for a chat he had called it. Daeun had wandered into the studio where he was working sometime on Tuesday afternoon, expecting a light hearted hour or two, maybe a couple tweaks to the track they were working on together.
Then he mentioned the team.
The team, that threw Daeun’s head into disarray, the team that she can’t stop thinking about.
It sits in the back of her mind, slipping in in inopportune times on the backfoot of a secondary thought, instantly derailing any train of thought that she was currently following.
The team that Chan was putting together, for the newest JYP survival show.
The survival show that Daeun had been rejected from because she’d failed the vocal test to make it onto the B Team.
The survival show that Daeun had accepted marked the end of her music career before it had even begun because if she couldn’t make it as a rapper, and she couldn’t make it as a singer, then what use was she as an idol?
Ryujin had tried to comfort her, after the application results had come out, but she was riding the high of having made it onto the team, and Daeun didn’t want to rain on her parade.
Tuesday evening comes around, and suddenly Daeun had another chance.
Of course she’d leap at the mention of it; but she’d begun to regret her impulsive Yes! as she stood outside the practice room, waiting to be introduced to the six members that Chan had already selected.
She knew five of them from around the company; some were close friends already, like Jisung and Changbin.
Seungmin - her vocal partner, and Minho, the boy who she keeps bumping into in practice rooms at odd hours of the morning, and then walking home with because he insists that she shouldn’t walk home alone.
Felix, the boy she’d crashed into in the corner store in the early hours of the day.
There was one other boy that Chan had mentioned that Daeun wasn’t familiar with. He’d mentioned that he was young; the youngest of the lot of them, and that his name was Yang Jeongin.
Asides from that, Daeun had nothing else.
The door cracked open in front of her, and Chan’s head peeked out, his eyes widening when he saw her standing there.
“Hey!” He said, surprised. “Why didn’t you come on in?”
Daeun coughed lightly, blinking. “I wasn’t sure if,” She trailed off.
Chan rolled his eyes, snagging her wrist. “Come on.”
He pulled her into the room, and Daeun’s eyes flickered over all the familiar faces, smiling slightly when Felix’s face lit up with recognition at her face, lifting a hand to wave at her.
“Daeun? What are you doing here?” Minho stood up from his seated position on the ground to step over closer to her.
Chan cleared his throat, moving closer to the centre of the room so he could address Minho’s question while facing the other five boys seated in various positions across the floor.
“Guys, I’m pretty sure most of you already know this is Daeun,” He gestured towards Daeun, who lifted a hand in a half-wave in greeting.
The boys all nodded in varying degrees of confusion.
“Well, Daeun’s going to be joining us on the survival show as the eighth member.”
A stunned silence rang around the room, broken by Changbin’s flabbergasted exclamation.
“What?” He shot to his feet, eyebrows pulled together tightly. “She’s joining the, team? Like, our team?”
Daeun winced, taking a step back. She’d been partly prepared for some of the other boys to react badly, but she hadn’t expected it to be Changbin out of them all. Over the months of training together before she was moved to the vocal department, they’d become close - good friends, in her mind.
Maybe she’d crossed a line by accepting Chan’s invitation, though.
“Changbin-ah,” Chan’s tone had taken on a warning edge, eyes fixed on the boy who had now taken off his cap to flip it the other way around. “We need nine members, and Daeun is a great fit to the team. She’s already friendly with nearly everyone here - and that includes you.”
Changbin shook his head, bewildered at Chan’s tone before his eyes widened in recognition of his own words. “Oh! Oh no I want Daeun on this team, we could wipe the floor with the other girls if we have her.” He shuffled over to toss an arm over Daeun’s shoulders, pulling her into his chest in a half hug. “She’s ours now, they can’t have her.”
In what felt like the blink of an eye, but was really about twenty or so minutes of discussing future plans, Daeun ended up seated beside the one boy she was unfamiliar with.
She leant over, hand supporting her body, to introduce herself. “Hi.”
Jeongin jolted in surprise, whipping his head over to look at Daeun. “H-hi?”
"I know Chan already introduced me, but everyone else here already knows me so I thought I should introduce myself in person. I’m Daeun.”
“Oh, uh, yeah I’m Jeongin. I go by I.N though,” He mumbled the second part sheepishly, like he was embarassed to mention it.
Daeun sat back onto her hands again, stretching her legs out in front of her. “Okay then, I.N. It’s nice to meet you.”
Daeun pulled back, to look at Jeongin. “How old are you?”
She squinted off into the distance briefly as she thought, spinning back to face Jeongin once she’d made up her mind. “If you’d like, considering we’re going to be working together for the foreseeable future, we can speak comfortably?”
Daeun pointed to herself. “Daeun noona. Only if you’d like.”
Jeongin’s face went through a myriad of emotions, each one flitting across his expression for a brief second before finally settling on a gummy smile that showed off his braces. “Okay. Daeun noona.”
Daeun patted his shoulder. “I think we’re going to get on just fine.”
"Who am I meeting again?" Daeun scrambled to keep up with Jisung's quick pace, panting out the words as the pair made their way at speed through the corridors.
"Chan hyung picked the last member for the team," Jisung's tone was surprisingly bitter, and he levelled her with a look. "He's. Certainly something."
Daeun opened her mouth to defend their unknown teammate. "I'm sure he'll be great, Sungie."
"That's not what I'm worried about," Jisung muttered, but before Daeun had a chance to ask him about it, he was pushing open a studio door and sliding into the room.
Daeun followed him, shutting the door behind herself with a soft snick, and turned her attention to the rest of the room.
It was just Seungmin and Jeongin, for what she could see - no new mystery member - and just as she was beginning to wonder if Jisung had been playing a prank on her, the studio door swung open again, clipping Daeun on the shoulder.
She stumbled to the side, making room for another boy to stride into the studio.
"Hyunjin!" Seungmin called, waving happily.
Daeun turned around after finding her balance again, hand pressed against the wall to support her, only to find a tall, dark-haired boy making his way over to stand beside Seungmin.
His face had a soft smile lifting the corner of his lips, but it slid away once he spun around to face the doorway again and his eyes fell on Daeun and Jisung.
Chan, who had walked in behind Hyunjin spared Daeun a glance to see if she was alright, before clapping his hands together to gather the attention of the people in the room.
“Okay! Some brief introductions, Hyunjin I know you know Seungmin and Jeongin, so this is Jisun-”
“We’ve met.” Hyunjin cut Chan off, glaring at Jisung coldly.
When Daeun looked at Jisung, a matching glare was on his face, the two boys staring each other down furiously.
“Oookay.” Chan peered at the two boys in confusion, before resigning himself to figure that issue out later. “And this,” He said with a gesture towards her, “Is Daeun. She’ll be on the vocal team with Seungmin and Jeongin, so odds are you’ll be working together if they split us up by member speciality.”
Daeun met Hyunjin’s eyes for the first time since he had entered the room, and was shocked to see the same emotionless glare burning into her gaze. Hyunjin’s jaw was set heavily, his shoulders tensed.
Once Chan had cleared them all to leave - not before saying that there would be a full team meeting in the next few days just so everyone could get a feel for the group - Daeun took it upon herself to wander over to Hyunjin; cautious in her approach, but approaching nonetheless.
“Hyunjin-ssi?” Daeun rested a hand onto his arm to grab his attention, but retracted it quickly when it was shrugged off.
He turned to her, the same cold look on his face. “Yes?”
Daeun stuttered, unprepared for the cool demeanour. “Oh, uh. I just wanted to introduce myself, officially, I suppose. We’ll be on a team together and it’s good if we can all get on and get to know each other?”
As soon as she had spoken the words she knew they were the wrong ones, watching as Hyunjin totally retreated into himself.
“Teammates, Daeun-ssi. We can be teammates, and we can get along. We don’t have to know each other well for that.”
Daeun blinked rapidly, as if blinking was enough to clear the confusion from her mind like dust in her eye. “Uh- no I suppose, I suppose not but-”
“Then we will be teammates, and nothing more.” Hyunjin was staring at her now, like he was trying to tell her something without explicitly saying it.
Does he not want to be friends?
Daeun supposed not, if his actions and his words were anything to go by.
“We can be, teammates, then.” Daeun said, slowly, staring at him as he looked un unwaveringly.
Hyunjin nodded once, sharply, before turning away, leaving Daeun befuddled and a tad offended, although it was greatly overshadowed by the fear of being the broken cog that broke Chan's well-oiled team.
