FALLEN |Lee Know|

26. Conflicts

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| October 24th, Saturday, 2020 |

  It was an understatement to say "Wannabe" was doing well.

  No one expected the song to be a hit, but it was. Even the girls' fanbases were aiming for top 10 on music charts. Of course they wished for #1, but no one imagined they'd actually get it.

  The sales? It had been five days and they had reached a total of 500k already.

  Certainly, they were about to become the next big thing in kpop.

"Everyone, come with me for the interview!"

  Manager Yujin shouted from the door.

  The girls followed excitedly, Annie still lightheaded as she was in the middle of writing a song.

"Hello!"

  The MCs greeted them back.

  Upon hearing a familiar voice, Annie looked up.

"Jun! Since when do you work here??"

  She stared at her friend, a smile slowly creeping in.

"Damn, you really have no interest in me, huh? It's been 3 weeks now!"

  Yeonjun raised his voice, playfully offended.

"Annie."

  The leader scolded quietly.

"We're just talking."

"There's a lot of people here."

  Annie sighed, annoyed.

  Without saying a word, she walked to her position for the interview: the opposite side from Jaein and Yeonjun.

Seconds later, the questions and greetings started.

"...lastly! Once again Annie and Boram participated in writing the lyrics for the song. What is something that inspired you?"

  The female MC asked.

  Boram and Annie exchanged looks, deciding on who would answer.

"I think we all have heard at least once in our lives how we should act or what we should be, but we, personally, think we should decide that by ourselves. 'I wanna be me', 'I want to make my own decisions' is what we thought."

  The elder answered, sparing a look at her leader.

"Woah, that's really cool! Don't miss FLASHLIGHT's performance in a few minutes! But before that, let's check the mala taste pioneers, Stray Kids!"

  They all clapped and thanked each other after the cameras turned off.

"We gotta talk."

  Jaein pulled Annie by the wrist before the girl could even say goodbye to her friend.

"You're hurting me!"

  Annie whined.

  Jaein was holding onto the wrist she had sprained.

"Sorry."

  The two got silent as they reached an empty hallway.

"You can't keep doing this."

  The leader started.

"What were you thinking approaching Yeonjun when so many people were around!? We're just now making success, do you want to lose everything because of some stupid rumor?"

  Annie blinked one, two, three...four times.

  Why is she so pressed about a greeting?

"I didn't even hug him, Jay, we literally just said hi."

"Because I stopped you!"

  Is she really coming for me when she has actual dates with Changbin?

"Okay, first of all, breathe. Second, please stop yelling. Now, you're telling me our career almost got ruined because I greeted a friend, is that it?"

  She explained, trying to make her leader understand how irrational that sounded.

  It seemed like it worked, as she kept in silence.

"I promise I won't do anything that damages the group, hm? You just have to trust me."

  Jaein breathed out.

"I'm sorry. It's just...we're finally getting known and I'm so happy, but it also makes me so anxious that something might happen...still, I shouldn't have taken it out on you, sorry."

  Annie pulled her for a hug.

  She knew being a leader wasn't easy.

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