t h i r t y s i x

As soon as Lina finished waking all the members of Baby Lips, she asked Sun and Bom to follow her into the lounge room where a meeting was set up with other Pledis executives. From the looks of it, Sun assumed it was nothing good, especially considering that they had called her and Bom. Both girls hadn't even been given time to change out of their pajamas and Sun took a seat awkwardly at the table. There were only two empty seats, and they happened to be on opposite sides of the table because the executives and managers were afraid of a physical fight breaking out between both girls.

But Sun wasn't thinking about fighting with Bom in that moment. She was more interested in finding out what the managers wanted to tell them.

Lina was the one who spoke first, she since had been the only one of them to see all the problems in the group first hand. She lived on the same floor with the girls--even though her room was a single, and much bigger than the ones the idols used, she went to the Pledis building with them every morning, and returned with them in the afternoons. She even sometimes had dinner together with them, whenever she didn't feel like going out for food. She was almost like another member of the group, only she wasn't. She was their manager. 

The other managers and executives only knew what happened in the dorms thanks to weekly reports Lina was supposed to submit as part of her job on every Monday afternoon. It was how they had been made aware of the chaos and fights between the members--most Minnie and Sun against Bom, as they saw it. Bom had convinced them to believe that she was the victim.

"We called you here this morning because we have an offer for both of you." She began, her voice tired from all the fights and internal problems in the group. Sun almost felt bad for her. After all, as she had pointed out several times already, she was only taking orders. Perhaps she wasn't really that bad of a person after all, but just a puppet of Pledis Entertainment just like Sun and her group mates. 

She waited for a moment, studying the reactions of the two girls. Both only watched her with confusion. 

Then she continued, "The way we see it at Pledis Entertainment is that the problems in the group are only stemming from the two of you." She said, looking to Sun and then to Bom.

Bom crossed her arms over her chest, defiantly protesting. "Why isn't Mina here too? She's the most problematic of us. Do you not remember the way she attacked me the other day?" She asked about Minnie and her absence from that meeting. Sun was also surprised that she hadn't been called to attend. Then again--maybe the managers knew Minnie had been provoked by Bom. Anyone would have easily reacted the same, or worse. Sun was genuinely surprised Minnie had gone a bit easy on Bom by only leaving her with a black eye. It could have been much worse.

"Mina was not called because she's never been problematic before, so she's getting a second chance." Lina explained. Like the others, she had also heard the stories about Minnie and her upbringing in Mexico. But she had never seen the Baby Lips vocalist so violent before. She was normally sweet tempered. Now he knew it was as long as no one messed with her.

"Then I don't know why I'm here." Bom continued arguing with Lina. "I've been pretty well behaved since my debut. Its Mae who's been the most problematic."

Sun rolled her eyes at Bom. 

That wasn't entirely true. It seemed that in Pledis Entertainment, it was a tradition for their maknaes to be the most problematic. Sun was often thought as problematic by the media with her constant antics and various rumors surrounding her. As the maknae of the subgroup BLK, Bom was often very problematic as well. Then there was their unnie from Roser-lo, Chaewon, who was the maknae of her group and was also involved in various dating rumors.

"I think what we have to offer will most interest you." Lina said to Bom. Lina pulled out two stapled packets of paper and handed one to each of the girls.

Sun immediately read the title on it.

Optional termination of Baby Lips contract with Pledis Entertainment -- New solo contract included for vocalist Park Mae.

Sun looked up from her packet with a questioning look towards Lina. 

"What is this?" She asked, as though it wasn't already obvious.

She glanced across the table to see that Bom was still reading the title on hers. When she finished, there was a wide smile on her face and she placed the packet down on the table. From where she sat, Sun could read the title on it. It was different than the one which had been given to Sun.

Optional termination of Baby Lips contract with Pledis Entertainment -- New contract for vocalist & main dancer Shin Bom to join upcoming rookies group Glow.

"I'm not leaving Baby Lips." Sun refused immediately. "We're a group, and I won't abandon them."

"Wait." Bom said. "Did you offer us the same contract?"

Lina replied with a shake of her head. "We offered Mae a solo contract with us--where she no longer has to be a part of Baby Lips. Your contract is to have you leave Baby Lips and join our upcoming six-member rookies group Glow who will be debuting in January. You would be the seventh member and we'd also make you the leader."

"Why does she get a solo contract?" Bom asked, her eyes narrowing at Mae.

"Because Mae is a main vocalist." Lina replied in an unapologetic tone. "You're just a dancer. Your vocals aren't exactly the best."

Lina got a pen for each of them out of her blazer pocket and handed one to each of them. Sun refused to take it, already having made her decision. "I'm not going to be the one to tear the group apart. I love Baby Lips as a group and I want to keep it that way."

Across the table, Bom took the pen in her hands and skimmed the contract before quickly singing it. "I don't mind leaving Baby Lips and joining another group as long as I don't have to see Mae and Mina ever again."

"Well, that's one thing we can agree on." Sun informed her. "I can't stand you either."

The other executives in the room were quiet the entire time, as though they weren't even their. They merely observed the interactions and served as witnesses to Bom's signing of the new contract. 

Sun thought their meeting would end after Bom signed, but one of the executives, an older man cleared his throat to get her attention. They had been so quiet that his sudden interacting with them startled Sun a bit. They all looked to him and he gestured for Bom to hand him the contract. "Miss Shin Bom is now no longer a member of Baby Lips." As he said those words, Bom's lips formed into a big smile. The man continued, "The contract does stipulate though, that she is to remain in the official line up until December of this year. Then she will join Glow who is set t debut in January." Looking to her, he finished, "You will need to work even harder these next six months. Not only will you travel across Asia with Baby Lips, but you will also need to prepare to join Glow. You are expected to learn the dances and songs."

Bom nodded her head eagerly. "I will work hard. I promise."

"Mae," Lina called. The Baby Lips maknae turned her attention towards her manager. "Think about this. You can be a solo artist under Pledis and you won't have to deal with all the drama anymore."

Sun shook her head, refusing once again. "There's nothing to think about. I'm not leaving Baby Lips. Besides, Bom was my only problem and she's choosing to leave the group."

"You're dumb for choosing to stay." Bom commented.

"We have different opinions." Sun replied. "I think you're wrong for wanting to leave."

-

Sun returned to her dorm after making her decision to stay in Baby Lips and got a fresh set of clothes to change into for a final stage practice for the show that afternoon. The group had breakfast in the lounge room together with Bom bragging to the other girls how she had been offered a contract to join the upcoming rookies group Glow as their leader. Her friends were sad to hear the news, since they didn't want her to go and they didn't want to lose one of their members. But they were also happy for her because of the better opportunity she had gotten.

In a twelve member group like Baby Lips, it was easy for a lot of them to get overlooked by the managers and the fans. It was hard to hard a sort of protagonism. In a seven member group, Bom would be getting more attention.

The other girls knew that Sun had been called for the same meeting and they wondered if she had been offered the same contract as Bom. Bom cleared up their confusion by explaining enviously that Sun had been offered a solo contract in exchange for leaving Baby Lips. She then continued to tell the girls that Sun had declined the offer.

Many of them gasped in surprise.

Ara commented coldly, a hint of envy in her words as well, since she was one of the four main vocalists in Baby Lips. "If that had been me--no offense to you all, I love you--but I would have left in a heart beat."

"You should have taken it, Mae." Rin told her, another one of the vocalists. Rin was one of the girls who had taken Sun's side when Bom started the division between the girls.

Sun gave a shake of her head, her voice coming out barely audible. "We're a team. It would be selfish to leave you girls behind."

Rin countered her words with a head shake of her own. "Its not selfish if you do it to advance your career." She said.

"Being a solo artist doesn't really interest me." Sun admitted with a sigh.

From the moment she joined Pledis Entertainment, it had never been her intention to become a solo artist. She wanted to be placed in a group because she always felt that solo artists were lonely, and didn't have that support system that idols in groups had. In Baby Lips, she had gained eleven sisters, even though they were now eleven because Bom didn't like her. The others just needed time to forgive her. With Bom it was a lost cause.

They finished their meal and headed down to the venue together. 

They practiced for about two hours, running through most of the dance routines and most of the songs on the set list. They were given a fifteen minute break and Sarang got her phone out. She sat on one of the couches backstage and started watching something on her phone.

By the way she was smiling, Sun knew it was something involving Junmyeon.

Sun sat close by, a bottle of water in one hand and her cellphone in the other. She was texting with Aron and Minnie, trying to keep them company--even if it was through text messages--because he was all alone in his dorm, and Minnie was still suspended for one more concert date. In addition to texts, they were sending each other voice notes, pictures and videos to pass the time--something she used to do with Yixing whenever they couldn't meet up for long periods of time.

She wasn't trying to listen in on what Sarang was doing, but she was listening to something at a volume that Sun could hear from where she sat.

"What are you doing?" Junmyeon's voice called to someone in a semi-teasing voice.

Sun thought he was video chatting with Sarang, until she realized it was a live stream through v live when Sarang wasn't saying anything back. Sun felt as though her heart had been compressed when she heard a familiar voice. There was also the sound of guitar strumming that stopped almost as immediately as Junmyeon asked the question.

"I'm composing a song." He replied, his voice lacking emotion.

Even so, Sun recognized it as Yixing's voice.

"Can we hear it?" Junmeyon asked, and Sun could almost picture him wiggling his eyebrows at his group mate, his gesture likely accompanied by a goofy smile.

"No." Yixing replied firmly.

"The fans on V Live want to hear it." The EXO leader insisted. From her place on the couch, Sarang released a giddy little giggle as she watched her boyfriend on her cellphone screen.

"They'll hear it next week at our concert in China." Yixing again refused, adding, "Its not finished yet."

There was about another two minutes of Junmyeon insisting and Yixing refusing until he finally wore him down. 

With a sigh, Yixing began strumming his guitar and soon enough his voice joined in.

"It was a night like this one
when we first met each other.
I felt in my heart
what I'd never felt before.

It was a night like this one
when we most loved each other.
Our souls were one,
overflowing with joy.

Today things are different,
in one moment swept away.

But I've never--
never ever been able to
erase those memories from my mind.

It was a night like this one
when we no longer smiled.
Our love was forever lost,
and discarded.

It was a night like this one
when we said our goodbyes.
When we became nothing more than
pride and vanity."

"That's all I've got." Yixing said.

Again, Sun felt like the song was about them, telling their story. It killed her to see what she did to him. 

"It was really good." Junmyeon complimented him. "The fans loved it too."

Sun pretended she hadn't heard anything and the girls were called back to rehearsal a while later. After their three concert dates in Seoul, EXO would be continuing their tour in China, while Baby Lips would stay in Korea for another week. They would have three more concert dates in Korea--Busan, Inhceon, and Daegu--before continuing in China.

It was likely that she wouldn't cross paths with Yixing again for the next six months.

-

i was going to update twice tonight. but its 7pm currently, and i dont want to post two updates back to back. so i'll wait until tomorrow morning to post the next one. i couldn't post this one earlier because i went on a field trip to the korean culture center, the kpop center, and the korean mall with my korean class today.

it was THE BEST. the kpop center was a piece of heaven. and i tried jajangmyeon for the first time--korean black bean noodles. so good.

so the double update for tonight is suspended. lol

counting down til the end of this. five more updates. thank you loads for reading and supporting this fic. it means a lot. 

oh and note: the song is another translated song. i do not own it. all credits to los bukis and their music that inspires feelings of love, loss, happiness, and sadness within me (depending on which song it is). although--i do take credit for the translation. that IS mine.

-clary xx