71 Harmonious Collision

Iris returned directly to the dorms after dinner out with Rinah. While the other girl was still hesitant on the idea of continuing music on YouTube, Iris had successfully convinced her to at least try, see how it goes, and move on from there.

"Hey! How was Haemong?" Jiyeon asked, turning around and calling out from the kitchen as she washed the dishes. The rest of the girls had eaten in the dorms with Ahreum doing most of the cooking today.

"Good! We'll have to go eat there soon since they started a special offer on their barbecue combo sets! We can all totally pig out without hurting our wallets too much!"

"Haha! That sounds good! It won't be long until we can't do these sorts of things, so let's enjoy eating what we want now." Jiyeon was referring to their future limited accessibility to eating out and maintaining a consistent weight and figure.

While the k-pop industry was slowly getting better inch by inch about physical appearances and weight, it was still very judgmental, especially for girls. Until they no longer could exactly be considered rookies, it would be best for them to be strict about their diet.

Of course, that didn't mean they'd starve themselves. Healthiness was important in an industry and job that required extreme physical and mental exertion year round.

"Oh! Iris, I got a new idea for that problem you had earlier about our concept story." Cindy strolled near Iris as she put away her coat and unzipped her boots.

"Listen to this, how about, we have two people, you and maybe Ahreum? be friends in a past life, like she was alone, and you brought her out of darkness, and then when you met again in the fairytale world, you're enemies. BUT—!" Cindy's eyes twinkled in held back excitement and eager, hopeful anticipation of Iris's praise.

"It's a misunderstanding! The two kingdoms weren't really enemies because Ahreum didn't believe in the basis of their war, but she had to pacify and quell the powerful opposing voices in her country. This can be like, the voices of our modern society that influences people to think and act a certain way, or of propaganda and agendas!"

Cindy halted, holding the brainstorming notebook to her chest as she looked at Iris with expectant eyes. Her expression made her cousin chuckle and reach forward to pinch Cindy's cheeks.

"That sounds awesome, dearie~" Iris teased lovingly. "I really like the idea! However…" She wrinkled her face and put her finger to her chin in serious consideration. "I can't really see Ahreum being a villain. But! I don't want you or Jiyeon to be evil. I like the female power duo as the leaders of the kingdom, still keeping the king and queen 'of cards' idea; although, not actually with cards or anything."

"Then," Ahreum jumped into the conversation, "are we really going to plan for a fifth member? How did Rinah respond?"

Even though Iris was meeting Rinah one on one, she didn't want to hide anything from her future members, so she had explained to them previously about her desired plans with their debut and how Rinah fit in.

While the three girls couldn't lie and say that they felt a tinge of jealousy for Iris's particular interest in Rinah, they couldn't deny that it would make them stronger as a group. Also, they felt Rinah deserved a second chance after their misunderstanding about her. If they could gel together as five member group, then they saw no reason to reject her.

Many k-pop groups were formed without the choice and approval of the members. While most groups performed and worked fine together because they had a general, common cause, some groups were more cohesive in others. And usually, the more harmonious a group, the longer it lasted because they supported and loved one another like family.

BTS was one of the best examples of this where they all respected and found one another. The best case was Jungkook's love and admiration of their leader, Namjoon. In a way Ahreum coincidentally mirrored a similar relationship with Iris. The younger girl had not only been inspired passively by Iris, but personally as well the more that their group trained and learned together.

So, they all figured that they could get closer to Rinah and figure out whether she was a suitable fit for their group if the opportunity arose. But in order to not overwhelm or pressure the girl, it was better for Iris to meet her alone since the two seemed to have clicked and understood each other right away.

It was this ability to empathize and click with others so naturally that Cindy, Jiyeon, and Ahreum wished that they had. But it was because of this strength of Iris's that their group could become stronger. Each one added something new and different into the mix to elevate the entire group together.

Jiyeon was the clear leader. Calm, organized, straightforward, and most passionate in a quiet yet powerful way. She also was more articulate and assertive than Iris, so this leader role unsurprisingly fell to her. And Jiyeon was comfortable in the position. She hoped to become as good of a leader as Namjoon was and is. He was her most admired idol in BTS.

Ahreum was the mood maker of the group who was also able to deescalate situations, an ability that she herself didn't quite realize she had until a few weeks ago. When Cindy and Jiyeon had a light argument over dance choreography, something that they had done once before in the company survival competition, Ahreum effortlessly solved the situation with her two cents on their dance move suggestions.

It was at this moment that Cindy laughed and expressed her appreciation for Ahreum for always stopping situations from turning into unnecessary drama. As much as they all loved and respected one another, as girls, they did tend to be more combative with their words and hold hidden hurts longer.

Ahreum was their refreshing, innocent sunshine that they could never quite get mad at even if they got resignedly annoyed at times with her silliness. In these cases, Jiyeon could turn from the doting daddy to the strict taskmaster if Ahreum wasn't putting in her best effort and slacking off.

And in these instances, Iris could provide the moral support and instruct Ahreum step by step with whatever she was having difficulty with. As the more sensitive ones of the group, Iris and Ahreum balanced out the 110% confident and sometimes one-minded Cindy and Jiyeon.

But all together, they were all different levels of daydreamers with big, bold ideas, so Rinah could've grounded their lacking rationality. Their girl group was still a risky gamble for Big Hit, so they couldn't be too wild or expensive in their ideas and proposals.

After Iris quickly explained the situation, her group members nodded in understanding. Seeing this, Iris was glad that they were on the same wavelength.

"Yeah, if Rinah could be the misunderstood villain, that would be pretty perfect, don't you think?" remarked Cindy acutely.

Iris clapped her hands like a thunderbolt hit her. "Yes!" She exclaimed with more enthusiasm gushing out of her mouth than she planned. "Wai-wai-wait!" She recited as she hopped to her table and shuffled through her papers scattered on top.

"This is perfect! Cindy, you're a genius!"

Her cousin scratched her head. "Haha, I guess?It just came out of my mouth as an afterthought…"

"Oh! Then—!" Jiyeon suddenly had a burst of inspiration too and scurried over to Iris's table. "In Rinah's videos, people could belatedly see your friendship, like mirroring real life and giving our story deeper meaning, just like what BTS did!!"

"AH!" Iris gasped with large, open eyes in a lightbulb expression. "Keep going! You got anything to add, Ahreum?" She noticed the maknae had her head pensively in the clouds for a while now.

At the mention of her name, Ahreum jolted and then nodded shortly. "Yes, so going with this alternate universe idea…"

The hours of the night ticked by as the girls animatedly brainstormed and refined their concept story. Slowly, their timeline expanded and deepened with interweaved meanings and significances.