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--- NOTE: apologizing in advance for the very long chapter
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3rd POV
Finally, a moment to breathe.
The moment Yujin heard from the staff at Starship that their group was going to be staying at a rest house for a mini-vacation, her heart skipped several beats and sank. She knew very well that the girls and her deserved a break. They've been working their butts off since day one to prepare for their debut (which was already less than a month away too). But she knew the company enough to know that their little 'break' wouldn't exactly be a break—Yujin knew they were probably going to be filmed.
And she wasn't wrong.
It wasn't that she didn't enjoy filming their reality stuff. She'd always enjoy messing around and goofing off on-cam back when she was with the others in IZ*ONE. Yujin of all people was no stranger to that. She just didn't know how to feel about doing so with a completely new group and as their leader at that.
Lately, their filming has felt different. It wasn't unnatural per se. None of them were acting outside of how they usually would, but deep down, Yujin always felt like something was missing. That something wasn't quite right.
Then again, maybe she was just comparing how IVE is to how IZ*ONE used to be. She's been catching herself doing that a lot, and she did her best to cut it out when it was going too far.
As the rest of IVE—minus their adorable maknae, who had to stay behind for a while longer to take her midterms—got to the door of their villa, she kept up her smile.
She was running on three cups of coffee, but Yujin was dying on the inside. She felt bitter at the thought of having to record every little moment of their stay here. It didn't feel like they had a chance to rest properly, to relax normally. They were still putting up facades because, for all they knew, every moment counted for a newly debuting group.
They needed to show their A—game when it came to content like this for the fans. Every second was a chance to capture them, draw them in.
That meant she still had to pull the 'charismatic leader' persona on her for just a bit longer.
Just a bit longer.
After cracking the code to enter the house—the first of many challenges the group had to face just to enjoy their vacation—the girls bursted through the now opened door and marveled at the sight of their fully-furnished retreat for the next few days.
The polished marble floor, the handcrafted and engraved wooden furniture, the decadent chandelier, the soft and plush pillows, the ambient atmosphere—the entirety of the house welcomed them with open arms, almost begging them to come indulge themselves. As much as Yujin and the others wanted to, they had to put up with a few more minutes of recording to capture their 'raw' and 'unfiltered' first reactions to it all.
