Fired Up!

Chapter 1: The Great Escape

Rosé Park had a system.
It was simple, time-tested, and - until the night of the rooftop barbecue incident involving a very angry third-year from the dance team, three half-eaten skewers, and a security guard who already knew her by name - mostly successful.

The system went like this: smile like you meant it, laugh at her jokes even when they weren't funny, make her feel like the only person in the room... then ghost her the second the sun came up. Never stay for breakfast. Never reply to the 2 a.m. "u up?" texts. Never let anyone think they were special.

Lisa Manoban had the same system, only louder, messier, and with more dramatic exits that somehow always ended up on someone's Instagram story.

They were Han River High's golden girls. Volleyball queens. Walking highlight reels in matching knee pads and school jackets. The kind of girls who could stroll into any party in Hongdae, any hallway, any extremely regrettable PC bang hangout and leave with new numbers, bruised hearts (not theirs), and zero emotional attachments. Life was good. Life was simple. Life was about to get extremely complicated because of two words neither of them had ever said out loud with a straight face:

cheer camp.

It started the way most of their worst ideas started - on the rooftop of Lisa's family's apartment in Mapo-gu at 1:47 a.m., sharing a bag of slightly stale honey-butter chips and staring at the city lights like they held the answers to the universe instead of just more neon signs advertising chicken and beer.

"I can't do another two weeks of Coach Kang," Lisa groaned, throwing a chip into the dark. "The man yells in complete sentences. Full paragraphs. Last year he made us run suicides while quoting Sun Tzu. Sun Tzu, Rose. I'm not built for ancient Chinese military strategy and sand burns on places sand should never be."

Rosé stretched out on the warm concrete, hands behind her head. "You're dramatic. It's character-building."

"It's character-destroying. I still have court burn that looks like a crime scene." Lisa sat up, eyes gleaming with that dangerous spark that usually meant they were about to do something stupid. "What if... we just didn't go?"

Rosé raised an eyebrow. "Desert volleyball camp? Coach will hunt us down. He has a map of every gym in Gyeonggi-do and a personal vendetta against fun."

"Not desert," Lisa said, voice dropping into conspiracy mode. "Redirect. There's another camp. Same two weeks. Same school credit. Completely different demographic."

Rosé waited.

Lisa grinned like she'd just discovered free money.

"Cheer camp."

There was a long silence. Somewhere below them a delivery scooter beeped. A convenience-store jingle floated up from the street and then cut off, as if even the store realized this conversation was more important.

"Cheer camp," Rosé repeated slowly.

"Three hundred cheerleaders," Lisa said, leaning in. "Three. Hundred. Matching bows. Short skirts. Crop tops. Late-night cabin parties. Lake swims. And the best part? They're trapped at some private resort in Gangwon-do for two weeks with nothing to do but practice, bond, and... socialize. Perfect hunting ground."

Rosé sat up. "You're serious."

"Dead serious. I overheard Mina and Sana talking about it in the cafeteria. The Han River High squad is going because they're historically terrible and need the intensive practice. We join the squad, we go to camp, we become legends. Two weeks of pure, uncut opportunity. Parties every night. Girls who don't know our reputation yet. Zero seriousness. Then we come back, tell everyone we were 'exploring alternative athletic paths for team spirit,' and move on with our lives as the queens we already are."