crystal girl.

hongjoong heard that they’ve gotten new trainees recently, but he hasn’t had a chance to meet with any of them yet.  the evaluations this month are a little brutal, both physically and mentally so he’s doing his best to keep up since that’s practically one of the top priorities when it comes to training.  if they don’t meet expectations on evaluations, then there’s always a chance that royal could give up on them  -  and he gets it, so he always does his best, even on evaluations that don’t suit him well.  unfortunately sometimes things fall to the wayside, and that means that this time, hongjoong hasn’t had a chance to greet the new trainees.  he supposes that they haven’t had the time to greet him, either  -  considering that this evaluation is just that brutal.

he wants to, though.  maybe when this month is over, they’ll all have a chance to meet.

that’s what he keeps telling himself as hongjoong goes through the motions and stretches his limbs to start the day.  he’s keeping to himself for the most part, not really focused on his surroundings but maybe if he was, he’d notice im jinah in a place where he’s not used to seeing her.  it’s been awhile since they last spoke, since they last met even but he’d recognize her anywhere, no matter how long it’s been.

so when she approaches him this time, he almost falls in mid -stretch.  with his eyes wide, hongjoong catches himself and stands upright, lips spreading into one of his signature grins that show all of his teeth.  it’s almost like no time for them has passed at all when she greets him and he smiles.  he’s taken back to the days they were in the same class together, when she’d worry over her new kitten and he’d laugh and tell her she’s going to be a great cat mom.  it takes him a minute to recover but when he does, he literally looks like a meme.  blinking too much, a little shake of his head.  hongjoong can’t help but laugh.  " i didn’t expect to see you here.“  he finally says, raising a brow quizzically to encourage her to tell him.  ” what do you mean since you were last here …“ he mumbles, trying to piece the information together.

” wait, were you a trainee before? i’ve been here for almost two years and i’ve never seen you around -“

sweet and adorable.

and it wasn’t as if nana had overlooked these characteristics of her friend before -- because, in all honesty, they were so apparent within the boy that it was pretty hard to do so -- but even on the chance that she happened to forget, hongjoong’s simple actions jogged her memory within the first five seconds of seeing him again. it was nice to see how he was still so animated even in the mornings, the way he seems to straighten himself up in surprise causes amusement to pull at glossed lips, bringing it into a grin of her own. “i can tell, your face journey made that obvious. is it that crazy to see me here?” the girl questions with a chuckle slipping out. the wide eyed look he was giving her only seconds before makes her want to tell him the good news, resting lightly upon the tip of her tongue --

but she’ll probably make him wait a little more. just because.

rose wasn’t used to receiving compliments from people so casually. usually, she hears them from her parents or her boyfriend, yet she’s grateful for the compliment from nana, even if she is a little awkward in accepting it. rose doesn’t think of herself as beautiful. she doesn’t really fit the beauty standards of korea, nor has she ever really tried to ( although she did have the figure most idols sought after, so maybe that was a positive on her end ). rose was used to being surrounded by beautiful people at both royal and seocho, but she had come to learn that beauty wasn’t always conventional and that all people had the capability of being beautiful in their own way, as cheesy as it may sound.

the older female explains her past ties with royal, having been scouted some years ago, sticking around for almost a year before giving it up. rose doesn’t bother to query as to why she left it all behind, perhaps that isn’t for her to know. she could come to understand why someone might think like that; after all, she’s been there once or twice. “well, maybe you were meant to end up here in the end.” rose says with a shrug. it’s always nice to have a new face around the company, to be able to meet someone new and follow their journey was always a positive for rose. in her early days at royal, she found it so difficult to find her place and settle in, and now … she really couldn’t see herself anywhere else. she has hopes to fulfilling her dreams under this label. she can only hope that royal loves her as much as she loves it. rose was hopeful that nana would stick around long enough to see a debut with rose and the rest of the girls. maybe it was too early to start being hopeful for these things, but rose already had a good feeling about her.

“i got myself into quite a mess when our schedules were between royal and seocho. it’ll take a bit of time, but you’ll adjust!” rose recalls her early trainee days, the confusion of not knowing where she had to be at what time, and what she was supposed to be doing. it felt as though she was a student all over again. “most of us hang around seocho, but i think with the new building, we’ll be at royal a little more often now.” rose adds with a firm nod of her head. she’s looking forward to having a cup of coffee with nana; coffee dates were always a good sign. today seemed to be a big day for reminiscing for rose, because nana’s question regarding rose’s beginnings at royal has her back there, at square one. rose sighs, brushing her hair back out of her face. “it’s going to be three years this december.” rose says carefully, looking at the older female. “i signed with them in 2016 after i won a contest; red-haired, guitar attached to my hip.”

‘well, maybe you were meant to end up here in the end.’ nana finds it somewhat amusing that the other thinks this way as well -- because it’s not the first time she’s heard something similar to that. she’s heard similar from yoojung, from soohyun, from some of the other trainees as well whenever she explains herself during casual conversation. it could come off as an obvious statement to relay, but as someone who was a definite believer in fate, she comes to think that  maybe it was something that the universe was trying to tell her. “i’m hoping so. i was kind of young and dumb when i first joined, and didn’t really give the company a chance back then. and i know i haven’t been here too long to get a good grasp on everyone ... but at least upon the girls side, everyone seems to work well together which is pretty nice. a little shocking, but in a good way.” she would of thought relationships might be a little more cut throat, but so far it doesn’t seem to be that way.

honestly, she is unsure as to how she is supposed to respond. so, she just continues to smile at nana. “well, i’m happy that i got the opportunity to welcome you.” a welcome, even if it was just a small hello, made everything all that better. it took rose over two years to feel like she was a part of royal’s furniture. she had a good circle of people around her and given her status as a senior trainee, she was starting to go out of her way to welcome the newcomers. rose knows firsthand how difficult it can be at first, the beginning of things are never easy but over time, it gets better. and now, she was lucky enough to have two of her best friends in the same company as her, all waiting for a debut together. so, what more could rose ask for? rose, a unique kind of pretty. she hadn’t ever thought of herself in that light, but she’ll take it. rose isn’t one to argue and she knows that maybe, some other people, would be likely to dispute her not agreeing. 

“ah, t-thank you.” rose says shyly, trying to cover her reddening cheeks. she got shy when people complimented her. she couldn’t help it. “i might as well admit that i was flawed by how pretty you are.” rose admits to nana openly. pretty inside and out, nana at first meeting was both beautiful and kind. this was abnormal, wasn’t it? rose is taken back by the confession that nana is not the newcomer she thought she was. turns out, she’s been here before, in her own shoes. rose looks at her, wide-eyed. “oh, it’s not your first time here?” rose reiterates, brows raised. “like here? at royal?” maybe she didn’t mean royal, maybe she had been a trainee under one of the other big companies. rose relates; that feeling of being overwhelmed, surrounded by new things and new faces. couldn’t be easy to leave somewhere and come back to the same thing, only it’s not.

“i feel you,” rose admits with a smile. “it was a jump to go from royal to seocho, and now this…” rose murmurs, gesturing to the space around them. nana’s next request is heart-warming, it’s weird for rose to be looked up at, to be ‘the sunbae’. rose smiles through her teeth, shrugging. how could she say no to this girl? “how about we start over a cup of coffee at the new cafe?”

to be humble in the wake of compliments is to be expected in this day and age, manufactured into being the standard reply for women especially in order to be accepted. but there was always something so intriguing for nana when she came across people who were genuinely ignorant of their beauty, this especially so for the girl in front of her because it doesn’t seem to just end at the physical; no, there’s a calm type of feminine allure to her as well. along with the adorable way the pink tint seems to stain her cheeks, nana feels like it’s something that should be as clear as day. “no problem, but don’t be so shy about it! or actually ... do continue, because that will just give me more excuses to remind you,” she mentions lightly, a simper spreading across her features.

now it’s her turn to return the behavior when the younger mentions nana’s own beauty, and the woman truly is flattered at her words. “aww, thank you. it’s nice to see that my efforts are being recognized.” she’s laughing. the woman takes note at rose’s surprise, nodding her head lightly at the other’s question before elaborating, “mmh. i was scouted by royal some years ago and lasted almost ... two years, i believe? but i left and didn’t think i’d come back again but well ... life seemed to have different plans.” and royal didn’t bother waiting on her, apparently. she lifts her hand, thumb smoothing along the cotton hem of her neckline, eyebrows shooting upwards at the mention of seocho, “yes, that too! that also wasn’t around when i was a trainee so between the old building, new building and this? i’m not even sure where i’m supposed to report to tomorrow, and knowing me i’d probably end up in some other company’s class.” deer in the headlights look and all.

the news received via text of jinah making it into royal was exciting, but it hadn’t hit shiah like seeing her in the hallways of the new royal building did. it was like a ton of bricks had smashed into her, both of pure joy and excitement, but also of dread and worry. this… wouldn’t be like… dahye… would it? 

shiah had experienced a couple scenarios of knowing someone prior to joining royal, namely females she could have potentially debuted with. the first was dahye, whom she had known through her at-the-time fiance and had become good friends with, who then eventually had left the company, leaving behind their shared dream of debuting together for a set of new dreams. there was seolhyun, whom shiah would’ve loved to debut with, but the other had been given the opportunity and had debuted ahead of shiah, while she herself was left to continue her training. now here stood jinah, her friend from her modelling days, as well as a fellow dancer. familiar bells were ringing in her head… would they get to debut together like shiah desperately wanted them to? or would something happen to separate them from that dream? maybe shiah would debut first, or jinah would find a different dream to pursue. either way… shiah couldn’t help but feel worried to an extent. 

it didn’t overshadow her happiness as she moved to embrace her chingu happily. “finally! i’m not the oldest one anymore!” she laughs. it was only but a few days, but shiah was younger than her. she would still be the unnie, but now she was one of the unnies. thank goodness for that. “do you know your way around yet? or do you need a tour?” she asks, eyebrows wiggling to entice her into a mini shiah tour. it wasn’t the first time she had offered or given one.

the woman knows that she’s returning to the same company she swore off years ago with an open mind, so she wouldn’t let past insecurities cripple her mentality as it did once before. but as curious hues gaze upon younger trainees who seem to have more zeal and vigor for what they were doing, more ambition whenever it came to debuting and what it consists of, it causes her to ponder upon how long would she last this time? would she be able to make it to debut, or would she find herself leaving the companies doors for a final time through her own will or the company’s?