𝙌𝙪𝙚𝙡𝙡𝙚𝙙 𝙌𝙪𝙚𝙚𝙣

6. ᴛᴏᴏ ꜱʜᴏʀᴛ

The music video for 'Le Vie en Rose,' after much sweat and tears (not so much blood, thankfully) from the girls, is released according to schedule. As soon as it reaches the internet, girls are implored by some of the kinder staff members to not pay any heed to the views.

"Views are fickle," Seojin, one of the few makeup artists at RSK Entertainment, tells them. "Besides you can never really tell how well a song will do right away. Some music videos blow up years after they're first released..."

The pessimism at their success shines through despite Seojin's best efforts at sugar-coating it. Nonetheless, Sena doesn't let it affect her. She tells Seojin, and herself, that she'll be realistic; that she doesn't expect much from their debut. However, in the back of her mind, fantasies fester and grow. Without her knowledge, they come to the forefront of her mind and instead of remaining as fantasies, they become her expectations.

Thankfully, those expectations are met and disappointment is avoided. Sena experiences the closest thing she's known to bliss when she sits in the damp practice room with the other members, constantly refreshing the Youtube page of their MV, watching with glistening eyes as the view count rose steadily with every click of her cramped finger. She is elated.

But then she is disappointed when their first-ever live performance was canceled due to a spreading virus and the safety concerns it posed. She gets over it quickly, still high of their debut soaring success on Youtube.

'There'll be other stages.'

.

.

.

There were, in fact, no other stages in ROSE's near future.

The nameless virus that had wrecked their first live performance, ruined every other plan they made after it. It wasn't affecting them only, though. It was affecting everyone.

The virus acquired a name near the beginning of 2020, a little over two months since ROSE's debut, COVID-19.

Ironically, the virus rose to fame along with them, but it soared ahead while they straggled behind, hindered by every obstacle it left for them. The virus took their first stage performance, but it was not satiated. It spread, killed, and ruined everything it could reach. Soon enough COVID-19 had sent the world into chaos. ROSE had no place in that chaos.

RSK Entertainment suffered greatly due to the virus, having to cancel what few stage performances and variety shows it could book. Staff could no longer occupy the building. Trainees could no longer come to practice. It was as if COVID-19 had put the world on pause.

The individual members of ROSE were affected as well, and not only in their short-lived professional careers. Aera tested positive and lost her voice for a while, frightening everyone and herself. Hana's parents (both residing in their hometown, a small area in Japan) got sick and she demanded, in what was the first act of resistance and determination Sena had seen from the girl, to visit them. Kyungmi's parents forced her to withdraw, for the time being, worried about her safety. Byeol faced much the same situation at home. Sena remained, thankfully, unaffected for the most part, but she could not do much alone — especially not in a world set ablaze.

And so, weeks before RSK Entertainment declared bankruptcy and shut down, it made an announcement that tore Sena, and the rest of the girls, to shreds.

ROSE had disbanded.