Barriers || Astro

Hoping

When she woke up, all she saw was white and the sound of machines beeping. "She's awake!" A familiar voice called happily. Six people crowded around her bed, overwhelming her.

"W-where am I?" She croaked out painfully. "You're at the hospital Lettie. You fainted during practice and hit your head pretty good. You've been asleep for two days..." Rocky held her hand, frowning. "W-why are you guys here? Don't you have better things to do?" She tried to sit up, Sanha and JinJin had to help her.

"You're our friend Lettie, you're more important than missing a few days of album planning." Eunwoo told her softly. She started to cry, surprising the boys. "What-what's wrong Lettie? Is it something we said?" Moonbin asked, concerned and confused. "A-ani! it's just...I've been here over half a year now and you six are my first friends." She smiled weakly and wiped at her tears, looking between all of them.

MJ hugged her first, soon the other boys joined. "Now quit crying pabo, you're going to make your face all puffy and ugly," JinJin joked, nudging her after the hug ended. "Don't call Lettie ugly hyung!" Rocky frowned, "she's pretty all the time." They then began to chatter in rapid-fire Korean, too fast for her to translate. Suddenly, MJ received a smack on his head from Rocky, leading to the other five hitting the younger everywhere. Moonbin smacked him in the butt, causing him to yelp and cuss, leading to more smacking from the boys and laughing from her.

When the moment was over, they turned back to her. "We talked with the dance instructor for you. The test will be taking place tomorrow and you're not going to be out of here by then. He agreed to give you a little extra time and then you can privately perform for him." Eunwoo smiled encouragingly at her. She thanked them, smiling happily.

Saturday afternoon she was released from the hospital. Scarlett was picked up in Astro's van and taken to their dorm, much to her surprise. She walked right into their dorm, since they had left the door unlocked. "LETTIE!!" Six voiced shouted, surprising her. She walked further inside, getting a hug from each boy. "Welcome back noona!" Sanha grinned, "you're probably wondering why you're here and not at your dorm..." she nodded. "We decided that you should stay with us for a few days. You can get dance from both Rocky and Moonbin and Eunwoo is a better Korean teacher than Rocky will ever be. You can teach all of us English too~" JinJin announced. "I-well, o-okay..."

The boys cheered and she smiled sheepishly. "We're kicking Rocky out of his room. You can sleep on his bunk and he'll be on the couch," Moonbin grinned at her. "A-ani! Don't do that. Rocky can keep his room, I don't mind the couch." The boy opened his mouth to reply but she cut him off. "Don't even think about arguing with me Park Minhyuk."

He closed his mouth and nodded. "Monday is your exam, so we can go over your dance tomorrow and you should be all set." Moonbin brought her bags over to the corner of the room as he spoke. "For today, let's work on English! We're going to KCon in LA again and I want to know more English this time," Sanha pulled her over to the table, sitting down. "Oh yeah, KCon! I never got to go but I want to." She remembered always looking for affordable tickets but could never find any.

"It's really fun! Maybe you'll get to go one day as a performer rather than a fan..." MJ shrugged. "Yeah...maybe," she murmured. The other five boys gathered around the table, JinJin setting down a stack of blank paper and pens.

"Alright, first... you should know the basics. Do you all know our alphabet? Write it down and leave a space if you forget a letter. There should be 26." The boys all grabbed a piece of paper and a pen before starting to write. She watched them all write, chuckling quietly when they would look confused. After ten minutes, they all finished. She looked at their papers as she went around the table.

Eunwoo had all 26, Sanha had 24, Rocky had 20, Moonbin had 25, JinJin had 21 and MJ had 16.

She couldn't help but laugh when he weakly held up his paper. "How do you know barely half of the alphabet MJ?" She asked, showing how everyone else knew most if not all of it. The other boys burst out laughing, causing MJ to flush red in embarrassment. "Don't worry hyung, we still love you~" Moonbin joked, ruffling his hyung's hair. "Shut it Bin," he grumbled.

"I'll help MJ if you want to keep teaching these other four idiots..." Eunwoo told her. "That'd be a big help, thanks!" Eunwoo stood and dragged a complaining MJ away. She resumed her English lesson.

Sunday, she was in the practice room all day with Moonbin and Rocky. They had her go over the dance too many times to count before they deemed it worthy enough.

Monday morning, she went into the practice room and performed for the instructor. The next day after practice, the trainees were all called together. "Team one with Dumb Dumb, you get a 6. Team two, I know it was more difficult without one of your members but you still should have adjusted. Team two's score is 4. Now, Scarlett, I know you had to perform on your own so your grading system was a little different but you earned an 8." The nine other girls gaped at her and her ex team mates glared at her like she'd just murdered their families.

She left the practice room as quick as she could, heading up to Astro's dorm. As soon as she opened the door she was greeted with warm smiles and hugs. When she told them her score, their joy only increased. "I knew my Lettie could do it!" Rocky grinned happily. "Come on Lettie Noona, this calls for a celebration!" Sanha dragged her inside more so they could celebrate.

She knew the joy wouldn't last though. It'd be over by the time she got into the practice room tomorrow.