Tightrope to the Finish Line

"Hm? You're watching the video again?" Jiyeon peeked over Cindy's shoulder and onto her cell phone screen. As guessed, the brunette was indeed watching BTS's 'Dionysus' Special Video for the umpteenth time.

"I know it's BTS our sunbaes now, but don't you get tired of watching it every passing hour? It's already been weeks since it dropped," said Jiyeon with a half-smile of concern.

"I know, haha," replied Cindy without looking away from the screen.

When the girl said nothing more, Jiyeon sighed and ruffled her platinum blonde hair. According to Cindy's words, that video was a source of inspiration for her. While Cindy had definitely put even more effort towards their practices—which was unimaginable considering how hard she already worked—it worried Jiyeon.

In her eyes, Cindy had seemed to develop some sort of mild obsession to reach a certain level or standard for herself. Sometimes, she would even forget to eat because of it, causing Jiyeon endless concern.

The blonde sighed and back-hugged Cindy while shaking her lightly back and forth. "As long as you remember to come for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and go to sleep at a decent hour, I'll be happy."

Jiyeon's motherly tone made Cindy snap out of it briefly and snort in laughter. She turned her head slightly toward the blonde. The corner of Cindy's mouth quirked up in a smile.

"Yeess~ OPpa," enunciated Cindy with a teasing tone, making the other girl throw her away in mock exasperation.

"Tut, you and your incorrect terms," scoffed Jiyeon. Noona, oppa, this girl insisted on not properly calling her unnie or even simply Jiyeon. She even preferred Cindy's Jiyeonie over becoming the mother or brother of the group.

Cindy grinned and let the video continue playing as she hooked her free arm over the other girl's shoulder. The video was almost done anyway, but to make sure that the view counted, she let it run. After all, she was used to doing that back when she streamed music videos.

"Let's work on the details today," she suggested, referring to the finer points of the choreography they were making.

Jiyeon nodded with a grateful smile. Thankfully, this headstrong girl would listen well when it counted the most. Even though their group was only going to be four people, her hands were packed dealing with the secret hidden baby that was Cindy, and the obvious spoiled baby that was Ahreum. No one could deny that adorable girl when she put on her puppy face.

Thinking back to a few months ago when the Big Hit girl trainees were still in the middle of the internal competition, Jiyeon's heart swelled with various layers of emotions. Proud, relieved, overjoyed, exhausted, hopeful, anxious…

A myriad of emotions flooded out when the final members were selected, and the two people she most wanted were included. She felt overwhelmed on more than one level, and Jiyeon knew that the others felt the same.

"Aww, unnieeee!! You two always are hanging out together without me! Hmph!" Ahreum pouted as soon as she saw Cindy and Jiyeon enter the dance practice room looking like guy besties with their arms slung over one another.

"I swear, I'm really the odd one out between the two of you girl crushes!" Ahreum wrinkled her face in a playful show of discontent. Ever since Cindy simply called Jiyeon 'girl crush,' Ahreum picked it up to the dismay of Jiyeon.

The blonde actually had no qualms about the girl crush genre, but it seemed that it was always the first genre that came to mind when Jiyeon was ever considered. 'Am I seriously that attractive to girls? Huuu~~' Just entertaining the thought concerned Jiyeon since she didn't consider herself manly.

Although girl crush wasn't defined as that, Jiyeon prided herself on her versatility. Not only could she rap, sing, and dance well, she was confident in pulling off any theme. Nevertheless, she did admit that she felt most natural in her supposedly 'girl crush' aura as denoted by Cindy.

"And you're our cute little daughter, hehe~" Cindy pounced on Ahreum and started tickling her.

"Ahh!! No fair! Darn it, why're you so good at this?!" giggled the younger girl in desperation as she strived to break free from Cindy's clutches.

"Ask Iris that when you meet her!" chuckled the brunette as she released the now sandy-haired Ahreum. She had dyed her hair just recently to a very light caramel. The color perfectly completed her babydoll looks.

"My hero!" gushed Ahreum with starry eyes. She held her hands up to her mouth in an awestruck manner. Truly, she would be over the moon once Iris joined. Not only because she was a big fan, but also because she would finally not be stuck being the third wheel with these two lovebirds! Or so she joked.

In honest truth, she did felt left behind when Rinah had tried to squeeze her out of the trio. But she admitted that was partly her own fault too. Although Ahreum was bubbly and vivacious, she was also quite timid. That was obvious due to how she first reacted when meeting Cindy.

But now, all of their hard work had paid off. The Big Hit staff had chosen teamwork and team synergy as the final, key decision point. Although Rinah would've been great for the group in terms of making it a true girl crush concept, these three worked better together. Iris was also not a concern based on her connection with Cindy and her team performances in Produce 48.

Another reason was differentiation. Big Hit didn't want a big girl group because of what happened with their last girl group. Less members made it easier to manage in terms of both keeping track of their activities as well as the amount of internal conflict. Thus, four members was just enough to form a sizable enough group.

However, this number was at risk of being compared to the biggest trending girl group: Black Pink. Their concept was also girl crush—even if mixed in with other sub concepts too—so by creating a girl group that matched Black Pink, it would be making them direct competition.

Big Hit and Bang Shi Hyuk knew the importance of capturing certain markets. BTS was able to make a grass roots movements because of their authenticity and involvement in their musical work. Iris followed a similar route and gained a lot of success.

Thus, Bang PD saw their new girl group as being able to capture new market as BTS had while overlapping with Black Pink. Such overlaps couldn't be avoided, but as long as their new group was unique in their own way, then they would be successful. After all, even within the same genre, there were different forms.

"Man, it sure is quiet around here now. TXT is now doing their own thing after finally debuting. And BTS is back on tour yet again. Those poor fellas, I don't how they do it." Jiyeon shook her head. Being an international super star was difficult. They had to traipse all around the world almost endlessly each year.

"Speaking of which…" Jiyeon's tone turned portentous as she side-glanced at Cindy. A sly smile crept up her face as she asked, "How're you and Taehyung?"

Cindy spurted out her energy drink in shock. "WHA?!" She froze and then gathered herself after her outburst and nonchalantly replied, "What do you mean?"

"Peh, you know what I mean." Jiyeon rolled her eyes and elbowed the girl who dodged it.

"We're just fine AS FRIENDS thanks." Cindy drank the last of her drink and threw away the can in a rush.

"Hurhur, riiight~~" breathed Jiyeon with a wink.

Meanwhile, Ahreum looked between the two of them curiously. "Cindy and Taehyung-nim? What's happening?"

Jiyeon raised an eyebrow. "Nim? They're our sunbaes now. You don't have to call them -nim, haha."

Ahreum's eyes widened with a look of, "Oh right!" Afterwards, her expression looked like she was struggling internally with herself. 'Jungkook-nim calls Justin Bieber-hyungnim and so I… Wahh!! This habit is too engrained!'

"Anyway, are you two close?" Ahreum tipped her head to the side.

Cindy scratched her head. "I guess? Sorta? Compared to the average girl with an idol, maybe…"

"Maybe~" Jiyeon suddenly appeared next to Cindy and whispered dramatically in her ear.

"Ergh! Cut that out!" Cindy shivered. This girl was too light on her feet and freaking floated on the ground, she was so good!

"We just became pretty good friends somehow, okay? Just a little more than the other members, maybe because he was the first person I bumped into when I first came as a trainee."

Ahreum's mouth opened into an expression of understanding as she nodded. To Cindy's relief, the girl didn't pry any more, unlike Jiyeon who liked to jab at Cindy all the time. It was all in good humor though. It was her indirect way of saying 'be careful.'

Even innocent friendships could become scandals, and after Big Hit's infamous history with their past girl group, the last thing anyone needed was another right smack in the middle of BTS's counting ascendance and TXT's budding success.

But Cindy believed that if Iris had walked this tightrope for two years, then she felt she could do the same. Of course her heart fluttered around them as a young lady. They were handsome, young, single men who also happened to be her idols. No biggie. She'd find a way to ignore them politely as she had in the past with her other suitors.

Or so she hoped. However, she was too inexperienced in love. And that boy wouldn't quit texting her randomly!

And speaking of the angelic devil, Cindy's cell phone pinged.