Chapter Text
“I'm starting a band,” Danielle says as she slams a piece of paper down on the table. The flier in her hand is slightly crumpled and her hair is disheveled from running, but when she'd seen what was advertised on the flier she couldn't help but sprint across campus to the dining hall.
“What,” Hanni says, looking up from her lunch with a startled look on her face, “are you talking about. How did you find me?”
Danielle drops her bag to the ground and slides into the seat across from Hanni. Around them the cafeteria is almost empty, only a few stragglers dotting the rows of tables, picking at the leftovers from lunch. A few heads turn at the commotion but Danielle ignores them.
“You have your location on, but that’s not important,” Danielle waves her hand in the air before she jabs a finger down at the piece of paper. “I've always wanted to do this. Just,” she sighs wistfully, “the stage lights and just the feeling of the live music, y’know?”
Hanni rolls her eyes, picks up a cherry tomato with her chopsticks and points it towards Danielle.
“Okay, first of all, stop being a stalker. I have my location on for emergencies only,” she says (“But this is an emergency.”), then she actually looks down at the flier, picking it up to read as she chews. “Battle of the bands?” she asks, her eyebrows pinched together as she reads.
“Battle of the bands.” Danielle nods seriously, “I used to write songs in high school, but I wasn’t in a band.”
Admittedly, she'd never shared her songs before, never having a chance outside of her bedroom or the living room with her sister. But a girl could dream.
Hanni’s still frowning. “Oh yeah, you used to do musical theater right?” she says almost absentmindedly, still reading the flier, and Danielle pouts, flicking a stray grain of rice across the table at her.
“Can you not bring up my dark and tragic past please?”
“You started it bro,” Hanni says as she swats the rice away and puts the flier back down on the table, drumming her fingers on top of it. She looks up at Danielle, an eyebrow raised. “So are you gonna be like a one man band or…?”
Danielle looks pointedly back. She’d tracked Hanni down for a reason. And it was only partially because she was her closest friend.
“Well, you play guitar, right?”
“Girl,” Hanni scoffs, “by myself in my room. Not in front of other people. Besides,” she gestures back at the flier with a thoughtful expression, “a band is more than just a singer and a guitarist. We'd need a rhythm section–so like a drummer and a bassist, and probably someone on keyboard to even compete with the other groups.”
“You know a lot about bands for someone who isn't in one,” Danielle grumbles, pulling the flier back half-heartedly, feeling pulled back down to earth at Hanni’s words. She's unfortunately right, they’d need to find other people to compete.
Hanni just shrugs. “I listen to a lot of music.”
“I think you'd be really good in a band,” Danielle says, resting her head in the palms of her hands, staring back up at Hanni through her eyelashes as she blinks. “Like, so cool and awesome,” she says, and Hanni groans, looking anywhere but her face.
“I'll think about it,” she says after a moment with a sigh.
Danielle squeals in excitement and grasps Hanni's hands from across the table. “Oh my god thank you, I promise you won't regret this!”
Hanni waves her hands in protest, freeing herself from Danielle's grip. “I said I'd think about it. We need to find other people if we want to be serious about this.”
Danielle waves a hand at her dismissively.
“Pshh, how hard can it be?”
–
Hard.
As it turns out, the answer is hard. It's hard to find band members.
Danielle's exhausted her list of friends and acquaintances, everyone she knows in illustration club, and everyone in her major. And yet, she hasn’t found anyone who plays the instruments they actually need, let alone someone willing to join a band this close to the start of the competition.
She wonders if she's desperate enough to post an ad in the school magazine for band members as her professor drones on at the front of the lecture hall. He’s incredibly long winded on a good day, with the sort of tone that–when combined with the low drone of the air conditioning–creates the perfect white noise for sleeping.
Today is not one of his good days.
An early morning philosophy class hadn’t been her first choice as a humanities elective, but it’d been one of the few classes that was open and fit in her schedule. Looking around, it seems that it was also everyone else's last choice–heads are down on the tops of desks and Danielle's pretty sure she can see someone dropping out of the class from their laptop screen.
She sighs and opens a new email to the school newsletter, tuning out her professor. It's too early in the morning for Kantian ethics anyway.
It feels like defeat though, as she types up the ad, like she can feel her desperation leaking through the words. She's halfway through writing when she feels a set of eyes on her, the hairs on the back of her neck prickling. She's dead set on ignoring it, but she hears someone softly clear their throat. When she keeps typing they clear their throat again, a bit more forcefully.
So she turns and locks eyes with one of the most gorgeous girls she's ever seen.
The girl sitting several rows away stares at her, her cat-like eyes narrowed into a glare. She looks like she's just woken up from a nap, her hair slightly mussed, sleep still in her eyes.
And maybe Danielle's jaw falls open, just a little bit, because maybe she's a sucker for girls with pretty eyes and wavy hair, but who isn't? It's hard not to be enamored when the girl's hoodie is a few sizes too big and the sleeves cover her palms.
She snaps out of it when the girl pointedly glances at Danielle's hands, then back up to her eyes.
It's then that Danielle realizes that she may have gotten aggressive in her typing, the clacking of her keys loud in the quiet lecture hall. She winces and mouths an apology, but the girl still stares at her, her fingers tapping on the top of the desk in a rhythmic pattern, her eyes unblinking.
Eventually Danielle accepts that this is not a staring contest that she can't win.
She looks back down at her laptop, her cheeks hot, and out of the corner of her eye she finally sees the girl look away. Even though she wants to smash her head against the keys, she forces herself to type quietly until she’s done drafting the message.
When it's done, she bites at the inside of her lip, rereading what she's written. The ad might sound a little desperate. But what other choice does she have?
She hits send.
–
Danielle sighs and leans back in her chair as she reads the response from the newsletter editors. Apparently there are no responses to her ad, and she stares at the email, trying to resist the call of defeat.
She figures the other people in the library would not appreciate her screaming, so she settles for stomping her feet under the desk and burying her head in her arms. She only looks back up when Hanni plops down in the chair next to her, unwrapping some sort of pastry.
“Any luck?” Hanni asks.
Danielle shakes her head. “There's this girl in my economics class who said she used to play piano. I haven't talked to her yet though.”
“I asked around,” Hanni says around a mouthful of bread, “but most people are already in groups or play instruments we don't need. I might have a lead on a drummer though.”
“That's good news at least,” Danielle says, but Hanni shakes her head in response.
“What we really need is a bassist. Even if I can get that drummer we'll still need one.”
Danielle sighs and puts her head down on the table.
“So if we don't find a bassist, then we can't compete. And all the bassists we know are busy or already in bands,” she says into the wooden surface. It’s gouged with words and drawings left by past students. The one closest to her hand says ‘give up!’ with a smiley face next to it.
Hanni clicks her tongue. “Basically, yeah,” she says, and Danielle whines and buries her head back in her arms. Hanni pats the top of Danielle’s head as she looks back up with a pout. “Sorry,” Hanni says, and she genuinely does sound sorry, “I know you really wanted to do this.”
Danielle lets out a long slow breath, then lifts her head off the table.
“No, it’s okay, it was a reach anyways,” she says, and tries to be okay with it.
–
She's not exactly moping as she walks down the hallway of her dorm, but she might be dragging her feet along the linoleum, just a little bit. She wishes she could have at least tried at battle of the bands, but this was failing before she even started which was so much worse.
At least Hanni had promised to try again next year with her, and from there it was easy to convince her to go out tonight as a sort of pity party. It's the silver lining to this rainstorm of failure.
Danielle's almost to her door, already making plans for going out later when she hears it. It’s muffled and faint, but it’s there–the sound of a bass guitar. And it’s coming from a room only a few doors down from hers.
With quick steps she makes her way to the door and presses her ear against it to confirm the sound isn't just wish fulfillment, not caring how she might appear to people walking down the hallway. Her heart races as she realizes the sound is real.
She knocks on the door. The playing stops.
She knocks again and hears hesitant shuffling inside before the door swings open, revealing the girl from her philosophy class. The one that glared at her. She still has that sort of sleepy look as she stares at Danielle, unimpressed.
Haerin, Danielle suddenly vaguely recalls from their introduction game on the first day of class. Her fun fact had been that she once didn't speak to another living person for five days, but more importantly–she’s holding a guitar. It's slung around her neck, a deep green bass that she braces against her hip with a hand as her other hand twitches against the doorknob like she wants to shut it.
“You play bass?” Danielle blurts out.
Haerin's eyes dart around like she's trying to find the closest exit. It's futile, Danielle’s blocking the only door. Her eyes briefly skim the window as if considering it as an option before she blinks and looks back at Danielle.
“Um. No?”
“You were just playing.”
“No I wasn't,” Haerin says weakly, trying to hide the guitar behind her back, but it’s too late, Danielle’s already seen it. She steps into the room and Haerin shuffles back awkwardly to avoid colliding with her.
“You sounded really good.”
“Thanks?” She sounds uncertain, cautious about where Danielle is leading the conversation. Danielle watches her before she tilts her head and grins.
She clasps her hands together. “I'm starting a band, and you should join.”
Haerin blinks, processing her words before she frowns.
“Eh? No.”
“Why not?”
“I don't want to.”
“It'll be fun!”
“Doesn't sound like it,” Haerin says, creeping towards the window with small steps, and Danielle sighs, considers how desperate she is to play in Battle of the Bands.
Unfortunately, she realizes, she's pretty desperate.
“If you join the band, I'll take notes for you in philosophy,” she says quickly, hoping she doesn’t sound too desperate.
But it seems to work. Haerin stops in her tracks, her face is impassive as she contemplates, and Danielle fights the urge to wring her hands together or bounce in place as she waits. Instead, she offers a small smile, and after a moment of hesitation, Haerin nods slowly at her.
“Deal.”
Danielle can’t help but grin, her heart soaring.
“Thursday night work for you?”
–
Thursday comes around and Danielle’s never been more excited. Hanni's mystery drummer apparently pulled through, and they also have a keyboardist in Danielle's econ class who's in the year below them.
And of course their bassist, who sits a few seats away from her in philosophy.
From where she sits, Danielle can see Haerin as she writes in her notebook. According to the deal they negotiated, she's not responsible for taking notes until after their first practice so she takes the time to study Haerin.
She doesn’t answer questions in class, choosing to keep to herself at the edge of the lecture hall. Her eyes drift every so often, seemingly contemplating something before she goes back to taking notes. Even though she doesn’t say anything, she has a sort of magnetism that draws Danielle’s eye, the kind that makes Danielle want to get to know her.
Danielle curses under her breath at the realization. Hanni had once described her type as brooding, just like, the opposite of you, and Danielle hates to see how she just might have a point.
But before that line of thinking can go far, her train of thought is interrupted as Haerin tears a page out of her notebook. She folds it, and hands it to the girl next to her, pointing towards Danielle, and the note makes its way down the aisle, passed from hand to hand. It's folded neatly into a sort of box shape, and Danielle feels bad unfolding it. The handwriting inside is scrawled messily, but still legible.
Are we meeting tonight?
It's then that Danielle remembers that none of them have each other's phone numbers.
6!!! In the chem building lobby.
She bites at the end of her pen before she writes her phone number underneath the message and folds it back up before she can think too hard about it. She passes the note back and watches as it makes its way to its recipient, who reads it slowly.
Her phone buzzes moments later, and she fumbles for it in her pocket before she’s able to read the text.
[Thursday 7:22]
Unknown
6.
Danielle
see you there!!!!
Haerin
Okay.
–
Danielle waits in the chemistry building lobby, rocking back and forth on her heels. Patience has never been one of her strengths, and she fidgets with a guitar pick to keep herself from checking her phone. Nervousness prickles in her chest, but it's mixed with excitement, her heart beating fast.
It feels like she's on the precipice of something, the moment before the fall.
She startles as a door down the hall is slammed open, the sound quickly followed by Hanni's voice, echoing loudly down the hallway as she argues with another voice, one that’s deeper. It's only seconds later that Hanni rounds the corner, another girl hot on her heels.
The girl is taller than Hanni (not that Hanni’s very tall to begin with), with distinct eyebrows that are pulled together into a serious expression as she argues with Hanni. Danielle recognizes her though. She's seen her in a couple of classes, gone to a couple of her basketball games. The girl's serious facade breaks when she smiles at Danielle, eyes crinkling, smile gummy.
Hanni holds out her arms as if presenting the other girl.
“Kim Minji. Our drummer.”
“I didn't agree to do anything yet,” Minji clarifies, shaking her head as she frowns again at Hanni.
Hanni elbows her hard in the side and Minji winces. “She owes me a favor.”
“Again,” Minji emphasizes, waving her hand to get their attention, “I haven't agreed to anything yet. I just came to check it out.”
“That's okay! I'm just glad you're here,” Danielle says, and Minji sends a smug look to Hanni, who just rolls her eyes in response.
Danielle narrows her eyes at them. Hanni’s never mentioned knowing Minji, but they seem too familiar with each other to be strangers, Minji pouting as Hanni continues to rib her in the side. But before she can study them too closely, Haerin pulls the doors to the building open and briefly looks around before she spots them, scurrying over to where they stand.
She offers a small shy smile to Danielle, and Danielle grins back as she introduces her.
“Haerin, our bassist, Hanni and Minji.”
Minji tilts her head, taking a break from shoving Hanni away to look over at Haerin.
“I've seen you around before. You play badminton right?”
“No,” Haerin says after a moment and Minji frowns, narrowing her eyes like she’s trying to figure out if Haerin’s lying to her or not.
Danielle files that information about Haerin away for later, watching as Minji's glare only narrows and Haerin cracks a sly, almost mischievous smile.
“Who are we waiting for by the way?” Hanni asks and as if on cue, the same distant hallway door slams open, the sound followed by frantic footsteps.
“I'm here! Don't start without me!” Hyein yells as she turns the corner, and Minji lets out a long-suffering sigh.
“Hyein-ah don't run inside.”
“Minji unnie?” Hyein’s eyes grow as wide as saucers as she skids to a stop in front of them. “What are you doing here? I thought you were allergic to fun.”
“I've never been tempted to hit a kid before,” Minji says threateningly, brandishing her fist, and Hyein cheekily ducks away from her swing, putting Hanni between them.
“You guys know each other?” Danielle asks and Minji nods, pulling Hyein’s arm so she stands next to her.
“We were neighbors. This is Hyein by the way.”
“Ah, unnie you always make it sound so impersonal,” Hyein says, slapping lightly at Minji’s shoulder. Minji shoves her away. “We grew up together,” she says to the rest of them.
“You're the keyboardist?” Hanni asks.
“I played classical piano when I was little.” Hyein wiggles her fingers uncomfortably. “And I can also play the flute,” she adds.
Danielle claps her hands in excitement. “That's great!”
“Do you want me to play the flute?” Hyein asks, matching Danielle’s enthusiasm, “I can play the flute.”
“No, that's okay,” Minji says quickly.
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah, I’m sure.”
Danielle tilts her head. She’s not sure how a flute would fit into their band, but they might be able to make it work. She makes a thoughtful noise.
“I kinda want to see–”
“So where are we going?” Haerin asks suddenly, and Minji jumps as if she forgot Haerin was there. Haerin smiles as Minji glares at her again.
“About that,” Danielle looks over at Hanni.
“All the practice rooms are booked. I checked earlier. But,” Hanni looks at Minji and they seem to have a conversation just with their eyes. After a moment Minji sighs in defeat.
“I might know somewhere,” Minji says slowly.
–
They take the stairs to the top floor of the old life sciences building, Minji leading the charge. As they follow her through the twisting hallways Danielle feels like she’s walking through a maze, the plaster walls and tiled floor blending together until she's turned around. But they finally arrive in front of a simple unassuming door. It’s not even marked with a number, the brass placard blank next to the frame. Minji fiddles with the doorknob, pulling out a key from her pocket.
“No one ever comes up here,” she says and they all crowd inside as the door swings open.
The ceiling is sloped at an angle, the room built into the roof. Motes of dust float gently in the beams of fading sunlight coming from the protruding windows. Old mismatched crates and metal storage cabinets line the walls, along with what looks like an old anatomical skeleton model. A brown leather couch sits by the windows, looking like it's seen better days based on its faded, sagging cushions. Papers and dated equipment are scattered throughout the room, some stacked neatly, others piled wherever it seems convenient.
It smells old, in the way libraries or museum buildings do, like it has a history.
Danielle walks over to the windows. She can see across the quad, students dotting the lawn, and over the tops of the surrounding buildings. As she surveys the view, she can feel a smile threaten to poke out.
“I don't think this room's been used since the last century,” Hanni says, trailing her finger over the top of one of the crates. It leaves a mark in the dust and she draws a frowny face in it.
“It's really hot in here,” Hyein says, shedding her jacket and dumping it on the couch. A plume of dust rises from where it falls.
Haerin sneezes. “And dusty.”
“It's perfect,” Danielle says, turning around to face Minji, “How did you know about this?”
Minji shrugs, shoving her hands in her pockets. “TA privileges. They used to hang out here before someone started a rumor that it was haunted. Also because someone found out it's pretty soundproof up here.”
Hyein sits down on the couch, waving away the resulting dust cloud.
“How did they find that out?” she asks, blinking up at Minji innocently.
Minji eyes the couch with a weary look. “I'll tell you when you're older,” she says after a moment and Hyein groans, flopping over dramatically.
“Unnie you always say that and then never actually tell me. Like that time Taehyung oppa was eating those special brownies and you wouldn't let me have any.”
Minji's face cycles through several different emotions before it lands on a grouchy look.
“I regret not pushing you out of that tree harder when you were five,” she grumbles.
“You should've pushed her back,” Hanni says to Hyein, nudging her with her elbow as she sits down next to her, and Minji makes a high pitched noise in offense.
As they start bickering, Danielle tunes them out and starts poking around the room. It is hot and dusty but she can picture rearranging the furniture, setting up a drum kit and amps. She can see it so clearly she feels herself smiling, trying hard to contain her happy squeal. Eventually her gaze settles on Haerin, who has her eyes narrowed at the skeleton, apparently locked into a staring contest.
“What do you think?” Danielle asks as she walks up next to her.
“It's not bad. I like this,” Haerin says, not looking away.
“The skeleton?”
Haerin makes a sound of affirmation and Danielle joins her in staring down the skeleton.
“We should name him. He can be like our mascot,” Danielle finally says, and out of the corner of her eye she sees Hanni look over at them.
“That's cool,” Hanni says, “as long as you don't name him–”
“Jerry. His name is Jerry,” Danielle nods and Hanni groans, draping herself over the arm of the couch.
“Bro you name everything Jerry. You have like six plants named Jerry.”
“Okay,” Danielle says, putting up a finger, “first of all, I only have five plants named Jerry. Second, Jerry is a perfectly good name! A family name. A name you can trust.”
Hanni's expression only grows more sour with each addendum.
Hyein walks up to them and tilts her head, studying the skeleton. “I don't know, he kinda looks like a Bernice to me.”
“Bernice?” Danielle sputters, and she hears Haerin laugh next to her.
“We can workshop it,” Minji cuts in diplomatically, eyeing them both.
“Right,” Danielle says, fully intending to stick with the name Jerry, before she shakes her head to clear it. Right, her dream. She claps her hands together and the rest of the group looks towards her. “Okay! Let's clean and then get our equipment up here.”
–
“That honestly didn't go as bad as I thought it would,” Hanni says in lieu of a greeting the following week. She sits down next to Danielle and drops her backpack onto the table. They're sequestered in their favorite corner of the library, tucked between the shelves in the back by the windows.
Danielle likes it because the sun streams through the windows in the afternoon and it gets warm and cozy. Hanni likes it because she can sit on the ground without getting stepped on when she needs ‘floor time.’
“I really appreciate your confidence in me,” Danielle says drily. Hanni holds up her hands in innocence.
“I'm just saying! I was prepared for us to be bad. Like, really bad. Like, a real shit show.”
Danielle rolls her eyes fondly as Hanni pulls out her laptop. She leans back in her chair and drums her fingertips against the top of her notebook.
“What do you think of them?” she asks honestly.
“Well I met Minji on Tinder,” Hanni starts and Danielle can feel her eyebrows raise. Hanni scrunches her face up when she looks over. “Girl, don't judge me. Put those eyebrows down.”
All Danielle can do is gape. “No way you recruited your Tinder hookup for our band.”
“We're just friends!” Hanni says, and then to Danielle’s unchanging face scoffs, “Whatever man, just let me live my life.”
“At least she's good at drums.” Danielle blinks and shakes her head. “Anyways, Hyein’s so cute.”
Hanni nods. “Agreed, and she's actually pretty good at keyboard.” She pauses. “Kinda funny that she knows Minji though,” she says as an afterthought.
“Kinda funny that you know Minji,” Danielle says, only a little accusingly.
“I told you we're just friends!”
Danielle just nods skeptically. She drums her fingers against the top of the table as Hanni rolls her eyes.
“What do you think of Haerin?” she tries to ask casually, but Hanni smirks in response.
“I see what you're doing.”
“Huh?”
Hanni looks up at her, deadpan. “Bro, Haerin is exactly your type.”
Danielle flounders for a response, stuttering for a moment.
“What exactly is ‘my type?’” she settles on asking.
Hanni holds up two fingers in a way that almost seems suggestive. “Hot and mysterious,” she says, pausing before she tilts her head and frowns, “but also secretly soft,” she muses.
“I don't–pshh, haha. No,” Danielle stutters out. She can feel her cheeks flush as Hanni laughs.
Danielle swats at her hand. It wasn't that Hanni was wrong, it's just, it wasn't her intention.
Sure, Haerin is pretty (and hot and mysterious, her brain provides unhelpfully), and also maybe exactly her type, but that doesn't mean she was taking that into account when she recruited her. It might've been something she'd taken into consideration, but it wasn't her main reason.
Mostly she'd been desperate.
But Hanni's words strike at something in her and her thoughts must show on her face because Hanni swats lightly at her arm.
“I'm just teasing, don't think about it too hard. I've seen her around broadcast club but she's kinda shy. I heard from Kyujin that she's funny though.”
“I can see that,” Danielle says, nodding, and Hanni's eyebrows raise.
“Really? And how many words has she said to you?”
Danielle counts in her head and frowns. “At least four,” she says, then to Hanni's skeptical look, “she just has that vibe!”
Hanni barks out a laugh as she leans back in her chair.
“How'd you convince her to join anyway?” she asks contemplatively.
“My natural charm?” Danielle tries, but Hanni makes a judgmental face.
“Right.”
Danielle's about to argue that she does have charm, why else would Haerin be convinced, when she's interrupted by a familiar voice.
“Hi guys!” Hyein waves and sits down at the table.
She's followed by Haerin who drops into the seat next to Danielle. Hanni's words bounce around in Danielle's head and she sneaks a look over to find that Haerin's already looking at her. A shy smile flits across Haerin’s face before she looks away, and Danielle swears her heart skips a beat.
“What are you guys doing here?” Hanni asks and across the table Hyein heaves a shrug.
“Just hanging out.”
Hanni looks around skeptically. “In the library?”
“Well I can't go to the club, unnie. It's noon,” Hyein says like it's obvious.
“That's not what I–okay.”
“I come here for the vibes,” Hyein says as she makes herself comfortable at their table, stretching her legs out and pulling out her phone.
“I come here to actually study,” Hanni says miserably before she's cuffed over the head by Minji, who sits down next to her and drops her bag to the floor.
“Studying’s for nerds,” Minji declares, leaning back to drape an arm over Hanni’s chair. Hanni makes a face and turns towards her.
“Aren’t you in the honors program?”
“I'm naturally gifted,” Minji sniffs.
“Since we’re all here,” Danielle says quickly, putting her hand down on the table before Hanni can retort and spark an argument, “we need to think of a band name.”
She’d forgotten that they hadn't chosen a name until she'd gone to fill out the form for battle of the bands and ended up staring at the empty ‘band name’ box. At her proposal Hanni hums in thought, the tip of her sprout pen wiggling as she taps it against her notebook. Hyein’s eyebrows knit together as she thinks, and quiet contemplation falls over their table.
“Band Name,” Haerin says after a moment, but her suggestion opens the floodgates.
“Minji and the others.”
“NMIXX Two.”
Hanni picks up her phone and sighs in defeat. “I'm gonna order food. Does anyone want anything?”
Danielle gently clasps her hands together. “Those names are bad,” she says, “We need something that says like, fresh and clean,” she says, posing for emphasis.
Hyein nods back enthusiastically, but the others just stare blankly back at her.
“I think Minji and the others has a nice ring to it,” Minji finally says, breaking the silence.
Hyein looks almost disgusted. “We’re not naming the band Minji and the others,” she says and Haerin nods in agreement.
“Yeah,” Hanni chimes in, “If anything, it should be named Hanni and the others. Also, I'm placing the order, so speak now or hold your peace forever or whatever the saying is.”
“Wait, let me see the menu.” Minji makes grabby hands at the phone as Hanni tries to shove her away. Hyein crowds them, and Hanni makes a noise not unlike a dying animal as she gets squished between them.
“I want something to drink!” Hyein says.
“Spaghetti,” Haerin adds.
Danielle sighs, dropping her chin into her palm. “I’ll get a salad.”
Minji makes a face at her request, but Hanni nods at all their orders after she shoves Hyein and Minji back. The rest of them fall back into half-heartedly studying (or, in Hyein’s case, enjoying the vibes on her phone), and Danielle pulls the battle of the bands form back up on her laptop, biting at the inside of her lip.
On one hand, she could just make up a name and submit the form. But then they might get stuck with some weird placeholder name, and isn’t it supposed to be a collaborative effort anyway?
But the form is also due soon and Danielle would never forgive herself if they couldn’t complete because of a form.
She hovers the cursor over the submit button when Hyein gasps dramatically, holding out her phone.
“Oh my god, Haewon unnie totally changed her look.”
Minji frowns, gesturing for Hyein to show her. “Really? Lemme see.”
“New hair, new tee, new jeans. See?” Hyein says as she flips the phone towards Minji.
“NewJeans,” Haerin repeats, frowning.
Danielle’s head snaps up from her laptop. “Hm?”
“As the band name.”
The others seem to consider it.
“That's not bad,” Hyein says, her dimples peeking out as she gets more excited. “It sounds fresh and clean like Dani unnie said.”
(“What does that even mean?” Hanni asks.)
Minji scowls. “It's not as good as Minji and the others.”
“We're not naming the band Minji and the others,” Hanni snaps, “but NewJeans is pretty good,” she adds, nodding at Haerin.
“NewJeans,” Danielle says slowly, getting a feel for the word in her mouth. She grins. It feels solid, real. “I like it.”
Haerin beams back at her.