Please Don't Get Too Friendly

"I cannot sleep here."

After now 10 minutes into the argument, it was still a stalemate between Jung Ah and Seung Hye.

"Seung Hye, I don't care if you were raised in a a rich family that treated you like a princess. Here, you will follow my rules. If you don't, I swear to God that you are going to be kicked out of here and never debut," replied icily the usually warm manager.

Seo Hyun, Ji Yoon and I all got the chills and shivered simultaneously.

"You can't kick me out, or else the concept of the group will crash," said Seung Hye proudly, as if she thought she had gotten out the best argument in the world.

Apparently, the greatest argument didn't even faze the older woman, because she only chuckled sarcastically.

"You think we need you? That these girls won't be able to debut without you? Sorry to pop your bubble, but TetrA hasn't even been announced to the public yet. So don't worry about us, we can change the concept anytime. In fact, since you're still acting like a spoon-fed princess, I'm actually thinking up another concept, which might actually be better than the present one. Still have any objections?"

The arrogant girl stared at Jung Ah, then turned around and stopped talking while she unpacked her suitcase. I could only guess that the threat of never debuting did affect her somehow. As expected of Jung Ah unnie. She immediately found the worst one's weak spot. We then all went downstairs to prepare the food in the cute kitchen, as it was already 10 PM and we hadn't eaten and we were waiting for the last member to arrive. To celebrate our first night as a group, we decided to make a very fancy meal.

"How about we make ramen?" suggested simply Seo Hyun.

We all agreed and took out instant ramen Ji Yoon had brought from her place. We sat down at the table awkwardly, not knowing what to talk about. We ate the ramen silently until our troublemaking member spoke up again to complain.

"Can I know why Amy's the leader? She was the one with the least training time."

Our manager considered her for an instant, cleared her throat and put down her chopsticks.

"All right, girls. Let's tell each other the real things okay? Maybe you are all wondering that too, and it's understandable. I'll tell you why. The company has been observing all of you for a while, actually. Even before Amy came to Korea, they were planning to maybe make you a group of 3. But they were hesitating, as odd numbers aren't that great when it comes to pairings in rooms, for example. Fortunately, she auditioned and your debut became even surer. But they were still wondering on who would be the leader, and that's where they asked your teachers who was the most promising student between you four. To the CEO's surprise, they all named Amy to be the one that was making the most progress ever since she had come. Immediately, the CEO had taken his decision to make her the leader. But the committee still wanted to confirm she was a good choice, so they observed for a while more. After some time, they agreed with the CEO and confirmed you as TetrA's leader, which was 2 weeks ago."

She stopped talking for a moment, looking at all of us. I felt the piercing stare of Seung Hye on my left but I didn't look back at her, unsure of how to feel myself. Jung Ah spoke up again.

"They made up the concept quickly during those 2 weeks and asked me to announce it to you."

"Are you telling us that the concept of our group is based about Amy?" Seung Hye interrupted, obviously shocked and angry.

"Yes," the manager answered calmly. "That's how it is. I did say earlier that I would tell you the real deal, and I did."

The girl slammed her palm on the table, making us jump.

"How dare you do that to us? If we're a group, why is the concept based on one single person? She's the leader because she the 'most promising one'? Don't make me laugh," she gritted through her teeth. "The teachers could be saying whatever they want just because she paid them-"

"They could be, and that's why the committee themselves took a look at her," Jung Ah interrupted. "She has every single right to be your leader. Have you ever actually taken a look at her hard work and talent?" she questioned.

Everyone stayed silent for a moment, wondering how Seung Hye would answer.

"No, I haven't," she began, dead calm. "Why would I have taken my time to look at someone I consider my rival? I don't think any of you, fellow members, have ever taken the time to observe other trainees. You were concentrated on performing and impressing. Maybe you formed some friendships here and there, but your main goal was to impress the higher-ups. So was mine. So why would I have wasted practice time to observe another meaningless trainee?"

"So you would have been able to beat me," I answered suddenly. "You didn't figure me out, you just threatened me. Had you actually taken your time to observe me, you could have analyzed my skills and beat me. But you didn't. You were just concentrated on being the best by yourself."

"How could I have known you would become the leader!?" she yelled desperately, shocking us. "How could I have known that you, a new, unexperienced trainee, could beat me and become our leader!?"

"You could have known!" I replied with the same force. "You noticed me because I hung out with EXO. You became afraid and you threatened me. But you wouldn't have done that only because I hung out with your idols, I know you too well by now to think that. You would have just tried to appeal to them. I think you noticed me from the very beginning and became afraid!" I stated, out of breath.

Seung Hye shut her mouth, angrier than ever. She glared at me, went upstairs and slammed her door violently. I gulped and looked worrily at Ji Yoon.

"Sorry I made her angry," I said awkwardly after some time. "I hope she won't be mean to you. But you know, if you don't feel comfortable, feel free to come in our room anytime. Right, Seo Hyun?"

My friend nodded and our maknae smiled weakly at us.

"Yeah, well... I'll try to talk to unnie first. I'm sure she was just under a lot of stress... Right?"

"Yeah, maybe," we hesitated, trying to cheer her up.

We all got up and washed the dishes together, feeling a little more comfortable with each other. We after went upstairs and prepared ourselves to go to bed, as we were exhausted. Luckily for Ji Yoon, Seung Hye had already gone to bed. We wished a good night to our maknae and then Seo Hyun and I went in our room.

"Don't you feel like Seung Hye is going to be a lot of trouble?" my friend asked after closing the door.

I stayed silent for a moment. I sudddenly thought of something that I couldn't figure out, as much as I tried.

"If they were observing us for that long, how come they didn't realise we didn't get along?"

"Maybe they did realise it," answered Seo Hyun mysteriously.

"Maybe they did..." I repeated, still unsure. "But why would they put us together then? Aren't members supposed to get along?" I still asked.

"For them to know, for us to discover," were the final words of my friend before she shut off her light next to her bed and drifted off to sleep.

I stared at the ceiling, wondering if I should ask Jung Ah unnie later.

"Yeah, I'll do that in the morning," I whispered tiredly before going myself into dreamland.

I could have never guessed what everything was really about.

Notes

Hello everyone! Wow, I actually had time to update before the weekend. I'm pretty amazed ^^ I hope that you liked this new chapter, sorry if it made little to no sense, but you know, I really tried my best there. Anyways. The next chapter will probably be out in the next few days, as I'm going to have no school in two days (Yaaaas). See you there!
Thank you for reading, and as always...
Saranghae :)

PS: Thank you so much for voting for me, it made me really happy!
PPS: OMG MAMA AWARDS!!! I wanted to watch it so bad that I straight up watched it during class... I know, such a rebel ;) Anyways, congrats so much for the 4 awards EXO!!!