|JuHee's POV|
"JuJu, over here!" SunMi chirps as she holds her arms out for me.
I rush toward her and jump into her arms. She stumbles back a bit before spinning me around singing at the top of her lungs. She sets me down as the best part of the songs comes. All four of us stand in the center of the shot and prepare.
"Bichi naneun solo!" We all sing together before breaking off into pairs to dance.
"I got this! I got the rap!" SunMi pushes through the rest of us to stand in front of the camera.
We watch in amazement as SunMi perfectly recites the rap as if it were her own. She gives a confident bow as she finishes the last line.
"Bravo!" I chirp joyously as I wrap my arms around her waist.
"And this is why you're our rap queen." NaHee smiles as she places a plastic crown on SunMi's head.
"When We Disco!" Aera squeals as she hurries toward the speakers.
"I told you we can't play it until Jia gets here!" SunMi breaks free of me and quickly snatched up her phone.
"Ugh—where is she anyway? She should've been here already." Aera complains as she stomps toward NaHee's phone. She reaches out to scroll through the comments, letting the fans see her face up close.
"I'm sure she's almost here. She hates not being here for lives." I mumble as I attempt to peek over Aera's shoulder at the phone.
"Guys, guess where Jia is." Aera smiles as she delicately scrolls through the comments. NaHee watches her hesitantly.
"Someone said she's getting vocal lessons." I read one of the comments before stepping away from Aera.
"Nope. Our girl Jia is in talks of a possible duet with a special someone. She had to go meet him today." Aera explains as she sits down on the ground in front of the camera.
We all hurry to join her as ChanHyuck slides some snacks toward us. I reach for a bag of animal crackers before turning to see SunMi anxiously glancing back at her phone.
"Let's chat while we wait for Jia." NaHee mumbles as she struggles to open her granola bar.
"Are any of you guys coming for our showcase tomorrow? We've got so much planned for you guys. Jia and MinHee have this cute dance put together. YeSeul is gonna sing a special song for you guys, too." Aera explains as she leans out of view of the camera to grab a bottle of water.
"Cherry's dance performance is going to blow your minds. She looks so beautiful and powerful. Her outfit is gorgeous." NaHee tries to pay compliments to Aera just like she did us.
"Sun's performance is a secret." I chime in as SunMi gets to her feet and hurries to her buzzing phone.
"Sun is already perfect in every way, but when you see her solo performance—you're going to be blown away. She looks so fragile, doesn't she? Trust me, she's not." NaHee hyped up SunMi despite her slipping out of the room to answer her phone.
"How dare you!" JiSu flings the practice room door open as TaeHyung lingers awkwardly behind her.
"Jia!" I hop to my feet and hurry toward her. I grab her arm and drag her into the camera's view.
"Do you want to join us?" NaHee asks TaeHyung as he hesitantly stands beside ChanHyuck.
"I don't see why not." TaeHyung mumbles as JiSu takes his hand in hers.
"Guys, we have someone to introduce you to—Jia do the honors." NaHee scoots over so JiSu and TaeHyung can sit in the center of the shot.
"What's there to do? Everyone already knows him." JiSu mumbles shyly as she and TaeHyung step into the camera's sites.
"Hello, I'm V from BTS." TaeHyung waves cutely to the camera before sitting on the ground beside JiSu.
"The comments are going crazy." Aera chuckles as she leans in to read a few.
"We'll have more guests soon." SunMi mumbles as she slips back into the group.
"Now who's coming?" NaHee turns toward her confused.
SunMi leans over to whisper to her. I watch, already well aware of who it is. My heart starts beating fast as I imagine seeing HongJoong again.
"Someone said they saw the articles about you two. What articles? Huh? Are they starting rumors again?" Aera sighs as she sits back and whips out her phone.
"I promise guys, we aren't dating. We were just hanging out to talk about a possible collab. That's it." JiSu waves her hands in attempt to dismiss any misinformed fans.
ChanHyuck signals for us to wrap it up as he glances up from his laptop. NaHee takes the hint and moves toward the camera.
"It was so much fun hanging out with you guys, but the boss has spoken and we have to get back to practice. We'll see you guys tomorrow!" NaHee chirps as she motions for all of us to move closer to see the fans off.
NaHee ends the live and we all turn to ChanHyuck in confusion.
"We've got problems." ChanHyuck motions us toward his laptop.
"They think we're using TaeHyung to get fans." Aera states calmly as she holds her phone out fo JiSu to see.
"We aren't. That's the last thing we're doing." JiSu sighs as she skims through the article.
"I'll take care of it. I promise. I've got this." TaeHyung smiles as he pulls his phone out. He sends a tweet out and within seconds it has millions of retweets and hundreds of thousands of comments.
"I don't know if that'll work." ChanHyuck sighs as he closes his laptop and turns toward us.
"Why not? If he clears it up, shouldn't that be enough?" I ask as I wrap my arms around SunMi.
"You'd think, but that's not exactly how it works. It's already out there. People are going to think that it's our attempt of covering it up." ChanHyuck gets to his feet and begins pacing back and forth.
"What are you doing tonight?" TaeHyung questions as he turns toward JiSu.