[FI] Training Session

The story below takes place briefly after the events of Feathertouch Impact and features AFTER.ALL, an all-female idol group and the book's guest stars. (Also posted on AO3.)

Four of the six members of AFTER.ALL were sitting on the floor as their training CD played in the background. They held their water bottles loosely between their hands and talked about their dreams or the events of the previous day. The remaining two members, Arke and Astra, were still running through the routine, trying to nail their timing and transitions. Arke raised her hand in the air to signal her singing part as she and Astra traded places with clever footwork.

When she brought her hand down again, the two women fell into a rhythm. Their synchronicity during the chorus was seamless, and they lip-synced to the words as they focused on their reflections in the mirror. But as they transitioned into the second hook, Astra lost her place, and she frowned. Noticing this, Arke broke away and ran over to the boombox. She clapped tiredly as she walked back over.

　　“Let’s take a break, okay?”

　　Pandora reached behind her to grab a seafoam green bottle, which she outstretched to Arke. “Good choice. Great work, both of you.”

Arke took the item gratefully, but Astra stayed where she was. She stared at a point on the floor with her hands on her hips and mentally retraced her steps. Her problem areas were the last line of the first verse, the second hook, and the freestyle into the final repetition. She pursed her lips and frowned. Why were these areas so hard? Usually, freestyles were her specialty, but for some reason, she was in her head. She wasn’t satisfied yet.

But a wagging in her peripheral vision soon caught her attention. When she looked up, she saw Pandora was holding out her black water bottle and staring at her meaningfully.

　　“Rest,” Pandora said.

　　And those were the leader’s irrefutable orders, right?

　　Astra sighed, finally dropping her hands from her hips as she crossed the training room. “Thanks,” she muttered and then dropped down to join her friends on the floor.

The smartest course of action would be to take it easy until the choreographer came. Running through the training CD was only meant to be a warm-up, namely so that they could identify their weak spots and work on them. But Astra was a so-called “perfectionist”. Once she found a weak point, it lived in the back of her mind and slowly gnawed at her until she spent all of her time and energy fixing it.

Someone brought up the tour they did with FaBLE, and that set off a fun series of memories and teasing. She registered that there were songs the others wished they had sung or funny things they read online or fancams they watched. But she was still thinking about the song. First verse, second hook, freestyle… It was going to eat her up inside until she fixed it… but if she distracted herself, it wouldn’t be as bad.

How long had she been sitting? Surely, it was long enough, right? Astra set her water bottle onto the floor and stood up. The others trailed off as she walked over to the boombox.

　　Dione made a whining noise. “Unnie, you really shouldn’t stress yourself out. We’re supposed to wait for the trainer.”

　　"I know, I know. I just… need a distraction.” She snatched up the remote and switched the CDs to their mixed disc. She already knew which track she wanted, so as soon as the disc loaded, she immediately typed in the number. She walked over to the group and extended out the remote. “Press play for me?”

　　Everyone looked at Pandora for guidance while she stared at the remote for a few seconds before sighing and taking it from Astra. “Tell me when.”

　　Astra smiled, reached down to take one last swig from her bottle, and then jogged into place. She quickly shook out her limbs and focused her mind on what was to come. First verse, second hook, freestyle— Astra sighed long through parted lips and then nodded her head. “Ready.”

Pandora hit play.

While this wasn’t one of their songs, it was from another group that she knew all the dance moves for. She looked up to them, and their songs never failed to bring some light to her life. Maybe that kind of magic would work again. She really didn’t want to fall in the perfectionist spiral, especially if it was just going to risk her overexerting herself before they properly got started.

So, she forced herself to focus on the new song. Since it was a low stakes dance, she slowly felt herself relax, and soon she was repeating the lyrics with a light-heartedness that was being eaten up by her rumination.

In the back of her mind, she registered a knocking sound and some greetings, but she had tunnel vision. Whoever it was hadn’t stepped fully into the room, and so they were just outside of her peripheral vision, even as she stared at herself in the mirror.

But then, someone quickly rushed to her side and seamlessly fell in step with her. Shocked though not stopping, Astra looked to her right and saw Hwa Young there dancing with her. A smile lit up on her face, and she focused on the mirror once more as they danced. Hwa Young didn’t sing the lyrics, but there was a satisfied smirk on his face as he effortlessly did the dance.

While preparing for her debut, Astra had heard that older male idols were usually reluctant to repeat famous dances, especially from girl groups or solo female singers. Some could be a bit… sensual, so she understood that much, but other than that, it had cemented a negative viewpoint in her mind about her seniors. Thankfully, as she got more familiar with the idol world, she realised that there were more men comfortable with the idea than she was initially led to believe. And though she wasn’t surprised that Hwa Young was one of them, she was very glad to see it proven now.

By the end of the song, the other members of AFTER.ALL expressed their enjoyment, and Astra spun to Hwa Young, grabbing his biceps in glee and smiling up at him.

　　“What’re you doing here, sunbae?” she asked, shaking him slightly.

　　Hwa Young grinned, his smile bringing his deep dimples to the surface. “Our manager came by to speak with the manager here, so Yuseong and I tagged along to see you girls.” He then looked over to the other members. “Everyone doing alright?”

There were various positive replies, and Astra brought her hands to herself. When he smiled down at her, new confidence filled her chest and then—

　　“Ah! The choreographer’s supposed to be coming. Sunbae, are you going to stick around for that?”

　　Hwa Young tilted his head and laughed gently. “Actually…” The door opened right on cue. Yuseong, dressed in an all-white ensemble with deep black accents, stepped into the room. His smile softened, just for a second, when he looked in Yuseong’s direction. “There’s another reason we came.”

　　Yuseong put on a charming smile. “Ladies. Great to see you again.”

The still sitting women jumped to their feet and properly came to say hello to both men. Yuseong came to stand at Hwa Young’s side, and if they were standing too close together, no one seemed to notice anything out of the ordinary. After all, these two had a reputation for being close. The women had seen as much themselves while on tour.

　　“Today, we’ll be filling in for your usual choreographer,” Hwa Young said. “We just happened to say ‘pretty please’ a lot until she gave in and let us.”

　　Yuseong chuckled and shook his head. “It also didn’t hurt that she had other things she needed to tend to and was accidentally double booked.”

A new energy filled the air, and Arke broke away to go change the boombox back to their training CD. Pandora walked up to them and broke down how their training usually worked and what they wanted to focus on. At first, Astra was going to keep quiet, but the words First verse, second hook, freestyle were quickly gnawing at her again. Thankfully, Pandora nudged at her elbow, and Astra calmly explained where she was struggling.

　　Yuseong nodded thoughtfully. Hwa Young crossed his arms and looked at his companion. “I know that look. Don’t break them, alright?”

　　“Oh, hush,” Yuseong muttered. He reached up to unzip his jacket, revealing a black tank top underneath. He held out the garment to Hwa Young, who took it with a little laugh.

　　“Alright, everyone! Places!” Hwa Young said as he stepped off the side. The women shuffled around, and Arke walked up to him to explain how to work the remote before hurrying into her spot. He looked at Astra before winking at her. When he spoke again, it was to the room at large. “Have fun.”

Have fun. It was something so simple yet so important to remember. When things got hard, that’s what Astra always told herself. Have fun, cherish the moment. Let go and stop aiming for perfect. There were a lot of things about being an idol that would threaten to break her, but it wouldn’t help things if she also tortured herself.

She took in a deep breath, feeling another wave of confidence again.

　　“Ready?” Yuseong asked as Hwa Young sat in the chair beside the music player.

She was, and she felt far more relaxed this time when the music began to play.

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