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@park jiminᵗʳᵃᶦⁿᵉᵉ Jisoo’s eyes widened as the words ‘old age’. “Jimin!” She let out a little giggle and quickly shushed him. “Mm, yeah… Be careful, haha. MS is everywhere, and they’re nowhere near as kind as gy would be if he heard… BoA unnie seems nice, but their head is kind of… hmm…” She sighed.

“Yeah. Well, hopefully, if Papa GY wants to keep me, he’ll probably debut me anyway, right? Hey, maybe we’ll finally get the big companies to do coed groups!” She wasn’t really sure she’d be comfortable debuting with a group of guys, but if that was what it took, who was she to complain?

She smiled again and lightly slapped his shoulder. “Nice! I’ve been falling behind since my laptop actually broke, but I’m trying to get back to League before Season 8 officially begins… Aah, there’s so much to do!” Jisoo clapped along happily. Sejeong had been her age on Produce 101, and that god Sejeong had been a tough match for PYJ’s Somi. She still had a chance. And even if she didn’t, she’d get to experience the idol life. “What do you think the team challenges will be…?”

@kim jiwooᵗʳᵃᶦⁿᵉᵉ happy to have made jiwoo laugh, yerim held her head high as she tried to stifle her laughter but eventually, she couldn't hold it in any longer, and started to laugh with jiwoo as well. "i knew it, you better watch out from now on, then!" she said in a fake mocking voice, just before bursting into laughter again. once she had finally stopped laughing, her stomach still hurting, yerim asked, "so jiwoo, what do you specialise in? like dance or rap or are you triple threat? if you're the latter, then you're going to become the scary one here!"

@choi yerimᵗʳᵃᶦⁿᵉᵉ nodding with a big silly smile, jiwoo complied, her finger over her nose in a hardly hushed manner. "i got it, i got it," she whispered loudly. jiwoo nodded in agreement with yerim's statement. her company indeed was a good one, it was just brand spanking new and had no exposure. she had no doubts of her company's future with the founders' passion in music. as yerim displayed her atrocious acting, yerim couldn't help but hide her face behind her hands, dying from laughter. "way too scary!" she exclaimed with a fit of laughter in reference to the face she pulled off.

@park jiminᵗʳᵃᶦⁿᵉᵉ Jungkook was walking around calmly trying to figure out what he wanted to do, he missed his friends dearly and the only thing he had was a picture of them by the beach that Jin-hyung took of them, he cried lightly into the picture before going up the stairs into the building. He was taken away from that life of fun by his parents because they wanted him to be the golden child. Nevertheless he always listened to his parents.

Sighing he sat on the stairs and took out his phone, he texted into their group chat "Hey"... But.. no one responded. "They all moved on without me, of course they did, I was much younger than any of them back then and annoying as well." However his ears perked up when he heard his name and he remembered the voice that called him. "jimin... JIMIN!" He turned around and ran towards Jimin embracing him tightly. "Jimin, Jimin, Minnie..." He cried into his arms, "I missed you guys so much but... why are you here?"

@jeon jeonggukᵗʳᵃᶦⁿᵉᵉ dear god, this building was crowded. well, not crowded in the literal sense, but there were lots of trainees - just more than he thought there would be. he wasn't the most extroverted kid out there, so he didn't want to just approach some of the groups that were starting to form, but he didn't want to just hang out awkwardly on the side... he should have asked some of his friends to see if they would be on the show too, or to introduce him to someone. what if he couldn't find anyone he recognized? what if they were going to get his uncomfortable self on camera? he shuddered at the thought.

luckily, he didn't seem to be completely out of people he recognized. he had just been walking towards the fringes of the building, eyes set on the emergency exit (where no one was standing), when he spotted a familiar face. a suspiciously familiar face, in fact... wait, was that jeon jungkook?! he hadn't seen jungkook since he'd left busan the first time, young and - honestly - quite misguided. he veered toward the younger boy, determined to see if he remembered him. "jungkook? is that you?"

@kim jiwooᵗʳᵃᶦⁿᵉᵉ seeing jiwoo's big reaction to her revelation, yerim couldn't help but laugh and quickly put a finger to her lips. "shush, not so loud! i don't want the other trainees to think i'm a snob or anything," she said jokingly. "that's okay, a company doesn't need an office to be a good one!" in response to jiwoo's teasing, yerim tried to put on a glare and furrowed her eyebrows, but ended up looking more like her eyes were hurting from the sun. "do i look scary to you?" she teased back.

@choi yerimᵗʳᵃᶦⁿᵉᵉ jiwoo gasped as she said she was 'only from pyj entertainment,' one of the big three companies in the industry, it was one of the companies jiwoo respected in terms of artistic freedom. "you're from pyj!?" jiwoo exclaimed in shock as she burst into laughter. "that's a huge company! my company doesn't even have its own office." jiwoo shook her head with a big bright smile as she caught yerim between her words. "are you calling yourself scary?" she asked, teasing her lightly.

@kim jiwooᵗʳᵃᶦⁿᵉᵉ influenced by jiwoo's cherfulness, yerim felt her smile getting wider. "yes, these will be people we're going to spend most of our time with for the next few months," she said, excited at the thought of meeting new people. "those from the big entertainments must be really talented, especially those from gy and ms!" yerim remarked. "they could be a bit scary as well," she added, shivering for dramatic effect. having received jiwoo's compliment, she laughed it off, saying, "nah, you're prettier! i wouldn't say you're right, i'm only from pyj entertainment." tilting her head, yerim asked, "what about you, jiwoo? i bet you're in ms or gy!" recalling her previous statement, she quickly added while laughing, "but if you are, ignore my comment about trainees from there being scary!"

@choi yerimᵗʳᵃᶦⁿᵉᵉ jiwoo gave yerim a big toothy smile as she nodded at the question. "yes i am!" she answered cheerfully, genuinely excited for the show as she had never done anything so grand before. "there's so many people here," jiwoo pointed out as she looked at the crowd, then turned to yerim, "which company are you from? i heard there's a lot of trainees from big companies here." jiwoo pulled her knees to her chest and leaned forward as she hugged her legs, resting her cheek on her knees, her eyes solely on yerim's. "you're pretty so you must be from a big company," she observed with a big cheeky smile. "am i right?"

@kim jiwooᵗʳᵃᶦⁿᵉᵉ yerim had been sitting alone for quite a while, fiddling with her hands as she looked at the other trainees, some looking down at their phones or chatting with other trainees who seemed to be from the same company. she had come with another trainee from her company but currently, he was nowhere to be found. she quickly put on a smile, focusing on the fact that she was on the show, which meant one step closer to debut. at that moment, a girl had sat down beside her and introduced herself as jiwoo. yerim shook jiwoo's hand, genuinely smiling for the first time since she entered the building, partly because of the relief that she wasn't alone anymore, but mostly because of jiwoo's friendliness. "hello! i'm choi yerim. nice to meet you too!" she said. "are you here for the show too?" she asked, before immediately regretting asking the obvious question.

@choi yerimᵗʳᵃᶦⁿᵉᵉ it was before filming, there were a few trainees in the building and jiwoo was alone. it was going to be a good few hours before filming started, but jiwoo wanted to see the place and get used to it before it all started. first, she wanted to find a place to sit, but she didn't want to sit alone. before her was a lone trainee who looked nice and pretty, jiwoo immediately headed towards her with a wide smile, plopping herself beside her as she introduced herself without warning, "Hiya, I'm Jiwoo! Nice to meet you." Her hand pulled out for a handshake.

@kim jisooᵗʳᵃᶦⁿᵉᵉ well, it was definitely jisoo. same personality, for sure. "yeah... i can see why. i think he put some other kids out on other survival shows too," he grinned. "he's getting lenient in his old age," he said jokingly, covering his mouth and looking around in fake concern over his old company's ceo hearing him. "i'm surprised too, honestly i didn't think ms would ever let their trainees go on variety shows," jimin muttered, "they've always had that 'better than thou' mentality." honestly, he hoped the trainees were nice, and humble. ms hadn't been as successful as they had been before, so maybe that was part of the reason. but he didn't want to say that, because ms had eyes everywhere. gy he could handle. pyj he could handle. ms? that was some scary stuff there.

"oh, right," jimin said, glancing sympathetically at jisoo. "pinkblack only debuted a short while ago... are you guys going to be okay?" they'd probably wait a while before debuting another girl group; or at least, until after they debuted a boy group. it seemed like it'd be some time, and jisoo wasn't getting any younger. jimin understood the benefits of being a younger girl all too well; for guys it wasn't as big of a deal, but girl groups relied on guys thinking they were cute or protectable, and it was much harder to fit that image when the girls were... well, older than the guys who were interested in that kind of music.

"well, you know, at least we're on this show, so we have some chance at debuting! you never know, we could be the ones," he emphasized 'the ones' by lowering his voice and wiggling his eyebrows mockingly, then giggled into his sweatshirt. "okay, fine maybe that was a little much. but yes, i do still play games!" he may have been taking care of his mom, but that didn't mean he'd completely become an old man. overwatch and league were still his mainstays. that... would probably never change, until he got too old to play properly, he mused.

"i'm actually really excited for this. it could be a good chance to get to know other trainees and meet new people, even if we don't debut." he clapped his hands together in excitement, hoping jisoo would do the same. talking about all the young kids was depressing.

@park jiminᵗʳᵃᶦⁿᵉᵉ He was the same guy— looked the same, too. Same down-turned eyes and puffy face that forced you to feel protective of him. She wondered if that would’ve been true if he had found another company. Jisoo remembered how devastated Jimin had been when he left... she would feel bad, too, if she left after how long GY had kept and trained her under his roof.

She wanted to comfort him, but there was no way to change the subject back in a normal fashion. “Ahah, I think he wants us to have a little more exposure since THRICE and I.O.I. were so popular, you know? Honestly, I’m more surprised by MS... and four trainees their very first time!”

Jisoo stopped for a moment. It really has been a while. If Jimin oppa’s issues were still only “mostly” resolved...? She shook her head a little; it wasn’t her place to pry. “I don’t mean to be a downer, but it’s been a little discouraging. I’m close with a few trainees, and I think we could debut together, but the pinkblack members are still referred to as rookies, and you know how slow GY is to debut groups...” She sighed.

“It’s also been a little lonely. The new kids are so excited, but I have to start thinking about whether or not I should be looking in a different direction. I hope I won’t have to, though, since nothing major has happened! Do you still play games?” She didn’t want to add anything else because if she did, she was going to say “despite the problems?” or “even though you must be busy?”, and she really did not want to make their first conversation in such a long time about things he seemed reluctant to dwell on.

@kim jisooᵗʳᵃᶦⁿᵉᵉ he wasn't sure if it was her, up until she turned around and he realized that yes, it was kim jisoo, the girl he trained with a long time ago. he shrugged. "it is you! i thought so. not under another label yet; i asked one of the hyungs, but... hopefully i can debut this way too." he scuffed his shoes on the pristine floor, looking down. "the family issues are... mostly resolved now."

sighing and waving his hands as if to brush away the bad thoughts, he put on a cheery grin. "so... how have you been? papa gy letting us go on variety shows nowadays? i haven't seen you in forever. what've you been up to?"

@park jiminᵗʳᵃᶦⁿᵉᵉ Jisoo looked around the room absentmindedly as she walked down the stairs. Everyone she’d seen so far was just so inexplicably gorgeous that her mind was almost overloaded with the concentrated doses of beauty. She saw a few trainees talking to each other near the walls and made a mental note to ask Lisa if they could walk around together. It wasn’t that Jisoo didn’t want to meet new friends-- she really, really did, but it was just so awkward to be walking around without a purpose or a friend.

Suddenly, someone called her name. She jerked around quickly, and her face broke into a smile.

“Jimin! It’s been so long! How have you been? Are you under another label already?”

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@kim jisooᵗʳᵃᶦⁿᵉᵉ jimin wasn't really sure what he was doing here, in the first place. he'd contacted one of his hyungs he knew from when he was in gy entertainment before, and somehow gotten into this program, but he still didn't really know how he was going to make it to the final nine. god, life was seriously such a struggle. but what could you do when fate didn't seem fond of you? huffing, he looked around the main building.

wow, it was... pretty empty, apart from a few people hanging around a stairway. wait. was that jisoo? suddenly excited, he waved at the shorter girl. "hey, jisoo! is that you?" he called, making his way toward the girl he was pretty sure was jisoo.