𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐈𝐑𝐒 ￫ 𝐬𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐞𝐧

（𝐈.）𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐑𝐎𝐃𝐔𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍

AREUM WAS NOT ONE TO BE CONFIDENT. In fact, she was the timidest among her friends, only having a few people she considered to be her friend. But she was here for a reason, standing in front of the building with hands gripping tightly onto the straps of her backpack. She gulped, gathering all her courage and stepped inside the building.

The woman behind the counter glanced up at her, smiling when she saw her.

"Good morning," she stood up as Areum bowed down to greet her. "Lee Areum, right?"

"Ne..." she murmured, following behind the woman as she led her through the hallway.

"I know they're all boys but I'm sure you'll fit it," the woman said when they reached the door, a hand holding the metal handle. "If you're uncomfortable just call me or any other staff, okay?"

Areum nodded in acknowledgement, heart beating quickly as the older woman pushed the door open. She stayed close to the wall, not wanting to reveal herself just yet.

"Good morning, boys," the woman greeted and they chorused back a greeting. "I'll have you meet your new additional member. Please be nice to her."

At the word 'her' the soon-to-be debuting boys looked at each other with wide eyes, everyone confused and uninformed. The woman gestured for her to stand closer to her as she lightly pushed her back for her to walk forward only for her to hide slightly behind her back when they entered the room.

Everyone stared at her and her timid form. She scanned through everyone's faces, lingering on one and she scrunched her nose. She recognised him. He was popular in her school. She... did not like him too much. Nor because of him being himself but because of the effect he had on her friend that made her talk nonstop about him. It annoyed her.

"This is your new member," the woman said after a moment of silence as she waited for them to recognise each of their faces; each of the boys only needed to remember one while the girl needed to remember thirteen. "Why don't you get to know each other? I'll leave now. Take care of her, will you?"

The boys nodded, mostly the older ones. Areum, on the other hand, started panicking when the door shut close behind her, jumping slightly at the noise.

It was silent between them. The boys stared at her and she stared back. None of them knew what to do as half of them were taken aback and were trying to process the recently given information while the other half were just too shy to introduce themselves.

Areum gripped her skirt, wrinkling it in her hand. Joshua glanced at his members, seeing no one willing to introduce themselves first so he took it upon himself to step forward.

With her eyes on the ground, she could see a shadow slowly towering over hers and a pair of shoes stopping in front of her, keeping a safe distance from her. She slowly looked up to see a boy smiling gently at her, eyes squinting from the action.

"Hi, I'm Hong Joshua. What's your name?" he asked, a voice sweet like honey but she did not like honey.

In fact, she hated it. And so she stood frozen in front of her. After a second of processing what had happened, the girl did something rather unexpected.

She bolted right out of the room, leaving the door to slam agonisingly, especially for Joshua who was having a mental breakdown from the embarrassment.

Because it had not been too long since the woman walked away and because she had to stop to discuss a few things with another staff member, Areum had spotted her starting to walk from stopping in front of another door, a folder in hand.

"Areum?" she said in a shocked manner, almost as a gasp. "What are you doing here?"

The girl shook her head, looking down at her shoes. The woman blinked twice before a smile grew on her lips, a hand stroking the younger's head in a comforting manner.

"Why don't I accompany you?" she suggested and the girl nodded in agreement.

The pair walked back to the room, opening the door that had silenced the discussion between the boys about how to retrieve her back, only for their plan to be completely useless.

"Sorry about that," the woman apologised on behalf of Areum. "She was just nervous."

They all nodded understandingly, glancing every once in a while at the girl hiding behind her.

"Now, I'll stay here," the woman pulled a chair closer and sat down. "While you talk with each other. Introduce yourselves."

Areum's body was positioned so that it was mostly facing the woman. The boys took a while, glancing at each other and having a silent conversation before one walked up to her.

"Hello," he said, voice different from the one previously but still as sweet and she did not know if she liked it or not. "I'm Boo Suengkwan. What's your name?"

Areum glanced at him for a moment before speaking up for the first time in front of them. "I'm... My name is Lee Areum."

The boy smiled at her with a smile that looked like it displayed success. He glanced quietly at the previous boy who had tried to talk to her. Another boy was pushed forward by one of his friends, causing him to stumble towards her.

"Nice to meet you, Areum," he said shyly. "I'm Kim Mingyu."

"Hi, Areum," a boy with a wide smile approached them. "I'm Lee Seokmin. Don't mind the others, they're also very shy. But they won't be once you get to know them, especially Soonyoung."

A few laughed at that as the said boy looked down shyly. Areum took her eyes off him and took a chance to glance at the other members.

"Why don't we introduce you to them instead?" Seungkwan suggested and pointed at the one at the end of the line they stood in. "That is Choi Seungcheol. He's the one that trained the longest among us and the oldest too. The one next to him is Yoon Jeonghan. They're always together. That is Joshua but I'm sure you know him already."

"That's Wen Jun Hui," Seokmin took over and pointed at the tall boy. "He's from China. And that's Kwon Soonyoung, the one that we talked about before. Next to him is Wonwoo. He might look intimidating but he's not."

"None of us is mean here," the boy added, the smile never leaving his face. "We're all nice, I promise."

As they continued to introduce their members, Areum took a glance at the woman who had been quiet the whole time. She smiled at her, seeing her finally being able to be open a little with the boys.

She sighed, watching the younger kids interact with jokes shared now and then. Such a long way Areum had to go and she wondered how it would go.