FIRE: The True Story

Chapter 1: Scandal

"So tell us Jace. I know this topic is very sensitive for you but...what is the story behind the incident with Sasha, from start to end? Can you please tell us everything in detail?" The interviewer asked FIRE's Jace, the main rapper of the group.

"Yeah...well w-we were all trainees back in the day when we first met." Jace said, a tear rolling down.

"Are you okay, Jace?" The interviewer worried.

"Y-Yeah, I just...I haven't talked about this to many people. But anyway...we were all brand new trainees. We were paired up with each other due to our individual techniques. We were all amazing dancers, singers, and rappers. Our main singer, Sasha, was the maknae of our group. He was also the lead dancer. He was amazing at what he did. He and the lead singer were actually the ones who did the choreography. The lead singer, Tae was the main dancer...."

~flashback to the trainee days~

"Okay let's introduce ourselves properly. Hi everyone, I'm the oldest of the group, Korean native, lead singer and main dancer, Lee Taehyun." Tae said to the group members.

"Hi everyone, I'm the youngest of the group, French native, main singer and lead dancer, Kim Sasha." Sasha said.

"Hey everyone I'm the second oldest of the group, Canadian native, main rapper, sub vocalist, and co-songwriter, Park Jace." Jace shyly spoke.

"Hey everyone I'm the second youngest of the group, Japanese native, lead dancer, lead rapper, and co-songwriter, Makoto Takahashi." MAKO said to the group. Jace, Sasha, and Tae were all Korean by parents but Makoto was fully Japanese. They were all an odd pairing since they were completely different from mannerisms to the way that they all couldn't quite speak Korean as well as Tae could, not to mention the difference in cultures.

As the trainee days continued, their bonds grew stronger. They all came up with nrw concepts to do for each song they were given to perform at the evaluation that the company set up at the end of every month.

"Okay, is everyone ready to hear the song we got for our evaluation?" Tae said, excited about their pick. They all nodded, anxious to see what they had to come up with. "Okay, so our song to cover will be Song Ché's 'Once Again'. Now I must warn you guys that we need to do amazing at it because he is actually going to be there in person and he's been my favorite singer since he debuted so I don't wanna disappoint him." Tae said, a bit nervous since he'd be performing in front of his favorite singer.

They all liked the song so they cheered. "Hey bud, I think we will do great. No worries." MAKO said to Tae. Each month they had to come up with a rearranged version of the song and a dance that was unlike the original arrangement original. They all were really scared but performed well under pressure. About three years of monthly evaluations passed and they were all adults except for a 17 year old Sasha. The maknae was still too young to be a legal adult while both Jace and MAKO were 18 and Tae was 19.

They were told soon enough that they would be debuting so they were put to work on their debut EP. They had recorded a full 5 songs in the studio. CHAENG Entertainment, the label they performed under, had announced their group name: FIRE, their debut EP: FIRED UP, and their debut date: February 15th, 2016. As their debut grew closer and closer, they each promoted their music on their social media and within their respective friend groups, practiced, and told their families to come to Korea.

Finally, the debut date was there. They couldn't believe what they saw. Their song had gotten millions of streams within 25 minutes. They were officially the biggest rookie group thaf year. Their song had almost a billion streams by the end of the year.

As the group released more music that first year, they became more and more successful. But something wasn't sitting well with the members. Sasha seemed to be very sad when performing their songs live.

"Hey Roro...you okay?" Jace asked Sasha, concerned after he saw Sasha's face during the live broadcast — sorrow and emptiness behind his beautiful, naturally blue eyes.

"Y-Yeah I'm perfectly fine! Just had a little headache when we performed, that's all." Sasha said. He looked down at his phone screen, his fake smile dissipating.

Jace looked at what Sasha was reading and saw that there were mean comments about Sasha. "You shouldn't be reading things on the internet...people can be really cruel..."

"Sasha is ugly'...'Sasha can't sing, why is he the main singer'...'to be honest, Sasha is too overrated'...'Sasha stands no chance against other main singers'...'his visual isn't even appealing'...'Why does he get treated better than the other members? I wish he'd go kill himself." Sasha read the comments to Jace.

"Don't pay attention to what they say. You are gorgeous. Hell, I don't know how your skin is so beautiful. And the fact that your real eyes are actually blue is crazy. And your pink hair makes you look even cuter." Jace said to a down Sasha.

Sasha smiled and blushed a little. "You mean it? I didn't know about the pink at first..."

"I mean it a 100%. You look great with pink hair." Jace said.

Sasha hugged Jace tightly. They became closer through that first year. However, a bunch of more performances later, the biggest scandal broke out. "Kim Sasha on goes under fire for inappropriate behavior with a woman." One article wrote.

"Apparently, FIRE's Sasha was touching a woman inappropriately at a bar. There are a bunch of pictures showing this terrible sexual misconduct." Another article said, showing pictures that were plenty of proof.

"Sasha...Mrs. Chaeng wants to see you in her office." Tae said, looking at Sasha with disappointment in his eyes.

"O-Okay..." Sasha headed to his boss's office. There, an older woman sat. She had raven black hair, cut to shoulder length. She saw Sasha and signaled him to come in and close the door. "You wanted to see me Mrs. Chaeng..?"

"Yes yes, come sit down." Sasha sat down in front of her. "About the latest scandal of yours...I wanted to thank you for following my direct order to do that. I'm raising your pay for that. You caused a major stir and landed the spotlight directly on FIRE. You guys are getting even more views than ever before. The publicity is great...Keep it up and you might even get your own solo first than the other members!"

"Yes Ma'am..." Sasha looks down and sighs. He headed down to the dorm with the other members and goes to his bed. He thought maybe he wouldn't have to go through those things again. That he wouldn't have to shame his members. But he was wrong.

A few months passed and yet another big scandal was about to unfold. It started very unpretty.

"Guys, Alice and her group just asked us to hang out with them at Mr. Park's Diner. However they said all of us have to come or she can't do it." MAKO said to the group.

"Alright alright, I'll go." Tae said, sighing.

"You're paying for what I buy, MAKO." Jace said.

"What about you, Roro, you coming or not?" MAKO asked Sasha.

"I-I guess..." Sasha said to Mako. "What could go wrong...?"

~TO BE CONTINUED~