ANGEL. - seventeen

STARS - dino

— in which a collab stage between two idols sparked more than just attention.

STARS
l. chan

the electric-like feeling and shakiness in your bones remained as you stop dancing. even out of breath, you cracked a large smile toward the audience. the blinding lights refrained you from being able to see the faces of your fans, but you could hear them. you could feel it, too.

you were scouted at around 13 years old. a woman stopped you after a your festival dance performance that was done for your school in public. being offered to train under xie entertainment, one of the biggest entertainment industries in the k-pop world was huge. they've debuted multiple worldwide known groups and soloists, known for their amazing dance abilities and the most well-trained soloists. although your parents were against it, you wanted to dance more than anything, and you were pretty darn good at singing too.

with much relunctance, your parents let you in. you trained for 3 years, before debuting under RUBY, a 5 member girl group. you were part of the maknae line, being the second youngest in the group. amidst that, you were the most popular member. taking the position of main dancer and center, your group skyrocketed to the top quickly. k-pop was reaching it's peak near a year after your debut, making more and more fans spread your names far and wide.

you've come a long way with your group members, going from a stage of 5,000 to a stage of almost 60,000. finishing your group's world tour, you definitely finished 2023 off with a huge bang with the very last stop in the philippines.

"Never ending— shine! we are, RUBY! thank you for the show!"

feeling exhausted after your very last set, you ran backstage and instantly took a bottle of water and toppled into a black sofa chair. claps and applause came from all your staff, the shouts of your fans could still be heard from inside.

"good job, thank you!" your members were greeting the venue staff while your staff began packing up.

the flight back was peaceful, being able to go back to korea without the burden of holding another big scale concert was refreshing. though, in a month or so, your group would have to start re-attending award shows, having already missed some because of your tour.

you sat next to your group's maknae, dayeon, who was fast asleep. With around an hour left until you landed in korea, you whipped out your Ipad and put your headphones on, seemingly turning something on.

a curious cat-like member of your group, vera, peeked from behind you and whispered, "is that what you'll be performing at GDA?"

you hummed, focusing on scanning the dance. you had been chosen to do a collab stage with someone under your company. well, not xie ent, but hybe, since xie has been under hybe since it got created, second to bighit because of what a big deal you and your senior and rookie groups were, your dongsaengs zerobaseone had just debuted last year.

"who was it again?" vera popped up once again from behind. you smiled, "seventeen. i'm dancing with dino-sunbae."

vera gaped, "no fucking way."

you covered your eyes with your hands as a cheeky smile crept up your face. "yes way."

the thing about this was.. you used to have a crush on the very lee chan you'd be performing with. you were the same age as him, and your group even debuted the same year, but yours in december. you would meet seventeen at music shows, and even though your group climbed the charts easily, it was rough for seventeen, but you didn't understand it.