Lost and Found

Three

Preparations for the new album had caused the girls to film on location for many days. Staying in hotels to be closer to the area while they did so. Everyone was falling in love with the outfits and makeup, never wanting the concept to end. Siyeon enjoyed the little clips in her hair, giggling to herself while staring at them in the mirror. Minji couldn't help but smile as she watched the younger one continue to admire how her hair looked.

Siyeon had moments where she reminded Minji of a little kid. Of course it didn't help that she would do said things in order to get her way in their shared room, but the leader didn't mind.

She always called herself a pushover, allowing the younger girls to speak informally toward her while Bora would tear them a new one if they had even begun to try. The leader didn't entirely care too much for formalities, knowing that these girls were her family. They didn't need to be formal, but they chose to be. Unless they were being funny or cute then they would choose to be informal, making the leader laugh at their own choice of words.

"Unnie! Why do you keep staring like that?!" Minji was pulled from her thoughts, looking over at Gahyeon who had shouted at her from across the room. "You keep staring at Siyeon Unnie!" She laughed.

"I was thinking." Minji chuckled quietly. "I'm sorry if it looked like I was staring." She added.

Yubin watched the interaction, knowing that the leader had been spacing out more, falling silent ever since the filming of their reality show. She watched as Minji's smiles would fade, her eyes would glaze over in deep thought. She would sometimes find the older in the living room late at night or early morning quietly crying on the couch some days. She knew she was struggling and didn't want her to keep going like this.

"Unnie, are you okay?" Yubin had made her way over, taking a seat next to the leader.

"Yes, why?" Minji frowned.

"Just checking." She muttered before leaning back in the chair. "You like to keep things in. So I wanted to make sure." She shrugged.

Oh how Minji wanted to open up to her members about everything. How she wanted to just blurt out her worries. But she couldn't. She was their leader. She needed to be their rock in this instability they were living in. She couldn't give them more worries. She just couldn't.

When their filming schedules had ended, the group found themselves in the company, taking their light classes before the actual comeback was released. They were on their way to their scheduled practice room when they heard laughing and music playing.

Minji was curious, peeking inside to see a small, fresh group of girls dancing with their choreographer. Gahyeon had appeared next to her, peeking in the window to see what the leader saw, allowing her to get excited.

"We have more trainees?!" Gahyeon gasped. "I get to be an Unnie..." she muttered.

"Looks like it." Minji smiled.

She looked at each one, smiling until she landed on the last one. The smallest of the little group of four. Her smile faded slowly as she watched her, feeling a pit form in her stomach. She didn't know why she got that way, but something in her was drawn to the kid.

She decided to ignore it, shoving it deep down with the rest of her worries and entered the practice room. The rest of the girls followed quietly, startling the young trainees when they walked in.

"Did we go over time?" The choreographer asked while checking her watch.

"We're just early for once." Minji called out without looking at her.

Their practice had run long, polishing up everything that needed to be done. Perfecting their movements to be much more doll-like in certain areas of the dance, causing all of them to be entirely focused on their bodies and how they presented themselves rather than who entered the room and who left.