The flowerbed - Aespa's Giselle x M!Reader

The midnight phantoms

Previously on The flowerbed..

During aespa's comeback preparations for "Whiplash," what should have been an exciting time turned chaotic when Giselle's vocal stems became corrupted during the music video shoot. The group came together in an emergency re-recording session, finding a creative solution to protect her voice. After hearing the album's darker sound, Executive Jung confronted the group in the screening room, where Y/N stood their ground, put his job on the line and protected the girls defending aespa's artistic vision. Despite Jung's threats, "Whiplash" was released to overwhelming success, which only fueled Jung's vendetta against Y/N. When aespa received a daesang nomination, Jung attempted to sabotage their chances by invalidating their submission through technical violations. However, Winter had been quietly gathering evidence of Jung's behavior, presenting it to CEO Lee, who ultimately transferred Jung to the Japanese division. Free from his interference, aespa delivered a powerful performance at the awards show and claimed their first daesang. The victory celebration ended in a dinner with NewJeans, marked by Hanni's infamous attempt at baking cookies that, as Winter put it, "probably violated international treaties." 

We now continue the story just after their dinner...

___

The parking lot was nearly empty when we left the restaurant, most other groups having finished their celebrations earlier. Ningning was still excitedly recounting Hanni's cookie disaster to anyone who would listen.

"I'm telling you, they were like little charcoal briquettes-"

"Manager-nim?"

That voice made me freeze. I turned to find Chaewon and Sakura standing by a company van, still in their stage outfits. LE SSERAFIM must have just finished their own schedule.

"I TOLD YOU IT WAS HIM!" Chaewon was already rushing over. "Yena's been spamming our group chat about aespa's daesang!"

"You mean spamming us about how she 'personally threatened him into greatness'?" Sakura corrected, following at a more dignified pace but failing to hide her smile.

The aespa members watched curiously as Chaewon practically tackled me with a hug. I caught Giselle's expression shift slightly in the corner of my eye - a barely noticeable tightening of her smile as she took a subtle step closer.

"See?" Chaewon said proudly to Sakura, still hanging off my arm. "Told you the threatening would work!"

"The threatening?" Karina asked, raising an eyebrow, while Giselle moved another half-step closer.

"Ah..." I started, but Sakura was already pulling out her phone.

"I have the video somewhere... Yena made us record her whole 'fight me in the parking lot' speech when we convinced him to take the aespa job."

"Oh, this I need to see," Winter said, immediately gravitating toward Sakura's phone with Ningning bouncing excitedly behind her.

"NO-" I tried to intervene, but Chaewon was already launching into the story, punctuating each point by poking me in the chest.

"So there we were at dinner, right? And this one was being all mopey about taking any permanent positions-"

"You seem very... close," Giselle observed, her tone carefully neutral as she smoothly positioned herself between me and Chaewon.

Chaewon caught the shift in atmosphere and her eyes lit up with understanding. A grin spread across her face that reminded me way too much of Winter's scheming expressions.

"Oh, we go way back," she said innocently, throwing an arm around my shoulders. "So many memories..."

"FOUND IT!" Sakura announced triumphantly, holding up her phone. Her eyes flicked between Giselle and Chaewon, and I saw the exact moment she caught on to what her groupmate was doing.