Chapter Text
“Oh look. They just went live.”
Manon attentively watches as the singular computer monitor flicks on, revealing the familiar faces of a blonde Yoonchae, an eyebrowless Daniela, and a high-ponytailed Lara in theー
“Why the fuck are they in the woods?”
“Beats me.” Sophia uncharacteristically mopes in the corner.
“Where’s Megan?” Manon ignores Sophia’s dismissal.
Sophia purses her lips in lieu of a verbal response. Manon is too engrossed in the entertainment on the screen to care about the lack of an answer.
The HYBE x Geffen Hiatus Basement is a bizarre, time-bending place. It is similar to a prison cell in the sense that the current KATSEYE Hiatus Line is confined to this one general area, but for the most part it is relatively comfortable. Physically, speaking, that is. The beds are nice, meals are provided, there’s Internet access, they are allowed to ask for whatever they want. Besides asking to leave the basement.
The only initial “decor” that really spruced up the room when Manon had first arrived in February was the one computer monitor on the desk. She had inspected it upon her unceremonious arrival, but there was no keyboard, no mouse, no remote. There seemingly wasn’t even a power button. Then, as she was settling into the California king bed for the night, it suddenly turned on, displaying what the 5 other KATSEYE members were doing in real-time, like Big Brother, like live Dream Academy.
“This is to show you how hard the members are working while you take your ‘much-needed’ mental health break in the basement.” The condescending voice of Missy reverberated in the room, coming from a hidden speaker.
Manon had just snorted, rolled her eyes, and drifted off to sleep. From the other side of the speaker, unbeknownst to Manon, Missy pounded her fists against the table in frustration.
6 months later, Manon still had not budged, and Missy was still pounding her fists against the table.
The only thing that had really changed in those 6 months was the arrival of Sophia a couple of weeks ago.
“How was Disneyland?” Manon nonchalantly asked when Sophia was shoved into the Hiatus Basement.
“What the fuck is this?!” Sophia began slamming her palms against the door she had been thrown through.
“The Hiatus Basement,” Manon explained unhelpfully. “What’d you do?”
“How the fuck should I know?!”
Right on cue, a video began to play on the computer monitor. “Let’s give it up for Manon!” The familiar voice of the newest Hiatus Basement member crackled through the speakers. Suddenly, the screen shifted from color to black and white, and a red sniper crosshair danced over Sophia’s figure.
“Oh.” Sophia slowly turned around to face Manon, bloody murder written all over her face. “It’s because I was defending you!”
“I didn’t ask you to do that!”
“So it’s your fault!”
“Why did you get to go to Disneyland with Leon the first day of your hiatus and I immediately got thrown into the basement!” Manon’s anger rose to match Sophia’s level.
“They told me that it was like giving a dog one last good day before they put it down!”
Yikes, Manon had thought to herself.
And so that was how Manon obtained a companion in the Hiatus Basement.
At first Manon had also refused to watch the computer monitor out of spite, similar to how Sophia was acting right now, but she eventually came around. Much to Missy’s chagrin, Manon did not feel particularly guilty or bad (as she shouldn’t) while watching her members. She mostly felt endeared once she got over the FOMO. All she wanted was a break. Damn.
“We didn’t tell them we were starting a live,” Daniela whispers conspiratorally to the camera.
Manon chuckles at this. “Maybe we’re going to get 3 new friends down here!”
“Congrats to Megan for winning Dream Academy then,” Sophia offers. Manon appreciates that despite the grumpiness, Sophia still has her little quips.
Their WILD tour begins in less than a month, and Manon and Sophia are locked in the HxG Hiatus Basement. Megan is nowhere to be seen, and the remaining 3 members just started an unauthorized livestream. Everybody is skeptical as to how this is going to work. Except for maybe Daniela's father, who is probably somewhere posting on Instagram Threads that KATSEYE is 3 and the show must go on. Sophia and Manon aren’t privy to the extra content, though, so they wouldn’t know.
“Is there a secret hospital in the basement? It’s only a sprained ankle!” A distant, muffled voice comes from outside of the room.
Manon furrows her eyebrows, and Sophia perks up at this.
“Is Megan talking in the background of the livestream?” Sophia asks.
“Uhh, don't think so. Why would she be talking about a basement?” Manon reasons.
“Damn,” Sophia laughs dryly. “I guess Megan didn’t win.”
Suddenly, Yoonchae, Lara, and Daniela start belting Break Free by Ariana Grande. The ground quivers for a beat and then full-on rumbles. Sirens blare. A blinding red light flashes in measured intervals.
“This is the part when I break freeeee–”
“ALL HANDS ON DECK!!!” Missy’s grating voice floods the entire building, not just the basement. “THIS IS A CODE RED EMERGENCY. SHUT OFF THAT LIVESTREAM NOW!!!”
“Oh God, we’re gonna die, Manon!” Sophia screams.
The room goes black. Or maybe their vision goes black. The difference doesn’t really matter.
When Manon’s eyes flutter open, she’s in disbelief at how well-rested she feels. The Hiatus Basement beds were comfortable, but the psychological torture of it all always seemed to prevent her from getting a true good night’s rest. She cranes her neck to see if the computer monitor is still playing the unauthorized livestream. Except there is no monitor. What there is, however, is a pounding at the door.
“Hello?!”
Manon is having trouble processing what is going on. The bedsheets are her own. The decor is her own. Why is Daniela about to break her door down? How is Daniela about to break her door down? Her door, as in her Los Angeles apartment door, not the basement door.
“Manon!” Daniela bursts into the room.
“Umm.”
“Girl, what the fuck are you doing? I just pushed 80 on fucking Santa Monica boulevard to get here.”
“How am I here?”
“How are you here? More like how am I here!”
“You just told me how you got here,” Manon mutters.
Daniela rolls her eyes dramatically. “Okay, more, more like why am I here! Missy’s tweaking the fuck out! We have to shoot the GAP ad in like, 30 minutes!”
“Where’s Sophia?”
Daniela’s face scrunches up in confusion before she blinks about a dozen times with pure impatience. “Pretty sure she’s where we’re supposed to be. Get the fuck up!”
“Didn’t we already shoot a GAP ad?” Manon has never been more dazed in her life.
“Umm… no? What the actual hell are you talking about, Manon? Are you hungover?”
Manon furiously rubs her palms into her eye sockets. Maybe she’s hallucinating and doing so will recalibrate reality. Did management remove her from the Hiatus Basement without telling her? Did she get out on good behavior? Probably not.
“You have 10 minutes. I’ll drive us. And you owe me, big time.” With that, Daniela stomps out of the room, leaving the door ajar. A beat later, Manon can hear her watching Instagram reels at full volume from her living room.
When Manon checks her phone, the screen reads 6:02 AM | August 17. There’s nothing too strange about that. Sure, time was a tad hard to keep track of in the basement, but August 17th seems right.
The screen automatically fades to black, and Manon taps the screen again to check the millions of notifications she must have missed out on while in the basement. Sorry Dani. Bigger fish to fry.
To her surprise and disappointment there is somehow not much. A few texts from Sophie, an Instagram DM from David, a couple thousand likes on Spoon’s picture. A missed call from Sophia. A calendar notification for the apparent GAP shoot.
Manon clicks on the calendar notification. Booked and busy like she remembers. Booked and busy and exactly why she burned out. She looks a few weeks back and sees that the first weekend of August was completely blocked out for… Lollapalooza? Did KATSEYE play Lollapalooza two years in a row? That can’t be right.
A few seconds later, her eyes focus on the top left hand corner of the screen.
Inconspicuous, size 8, probably Arial font. 2025.
Okay, that certainly can’t be right. Why is her phone defaulting to the previous year?
She scrolls ahead to 2026, but the calendar thins out. Coachella is punctuated by question marks, there are no WILD tour dates.
For a split second, Manon considers the impossible.
“I DON’T HEAR YOU GETTING READY!” Daniela screams from the living room.
Manon goes through the motions of getting ready. She’s discombobulated, disconcerted, disoriented. She might faint. Had Sophia called her in an attempt to wake her up because she was late, or was it something else?
She finally gets into Daniela’s Mustang and Daniela practically slams the gas pedal to the floor. When she hits a red light and starts road raging, Manon decides now is the moment and musters the courage to ask the million dollar question.
“Hey Dani.”
Daniela bombastically side eyes her. She turns the Playboi Carti down approximately 2 decibels. Manon takes it as her invitation to ask:
“What year is it?”
The light turns green and Daniela doesn’t even give the driver in front of her a second to react. She presses down on the horn for what feels like a solid eternity. When the blaring finally ceases, she turns her entire body towards Manon, which Manon is sure cannot be safe considering Daniela is about to hit 75 in a 40.
“What the actual fuck is happening, dude. Are you messing with me? Did you take something actually insane last night?”
“Lowkey yeah,” Manon lies, hoping it’ll get Daniela to answer her fucking question.
“2025, dumbass. What did you take?”
Manon’s heart drops into her ass. This cannot be real. 2025. “I don’t remember,” she mutters. Her lightheadedness comes across as sheepish and Daniela’s always been quite gullible. She snorts in response.
“Well, lock in for this.” Daniela’s eyes are back on the road. “I think we’re about to cook Sydney Sweeney’s ass.”
Trust me, we are, Manon thinks to herself, absolutely sick to her stomach.
“Nice of you to show up,” Missy snaps when Daniela and Manon arrive at the studio.
“Sorry!” Daniela apologizes.
Manon can’t bring herself to speak.
Was she late in the original timeline? She doesn’t think so. Is she already messing with things? Oh God, she thinks she’s going to puke.
Sophia catches her eye with her sympathetic leader look, and Manon can’t read her. In this moment, she realizes that she has no idea how to suss out if Sophia also is experiencing what she is. She’ll come across as absolutely insane if Sophia’s not. She might actually induce an early onset Hiatus if she worries the leader too much.
Regardless, she won’t get the chance to find out anytime soon, because the performance director wastes no time in getting started.
The issue, for lack of a better word, is that Manon already knows this choreography. Sure, they hadn’t done it in a while, and she wasn’t exactly itching to rehearse the GAP ad choreo in the Hiatus Basement, but once she shakes the rust off, it’s like muscle memory.
“Woah, someone’s a quick learner today,” Missy says backhandedly to Manon only, despite the fact that Sophia can also seemingly predict what step is next before the choreographer reveals it.
Megan also appears to have picked it up quickly, but Manon chalks it up to the fact that she’s a great dancer and more importantly, an overachiever. Sophia shoots Manon a knowing, slightly panicked look. She quickly composes herself and it becomes a warning one. Do not let them know!
Well, that answers that, Manon thinks first. Thenー
Could Sophia and I always communicate with just a look like that?
Daniela’s getting a little whiny because she usually picks things up the fastest, and Yoonchae and Lara are pretty unfazed.
The rest of the time, Manon can’t stop thinking about how many things she’s doing differently this time around, and how it might royally be fucking everything in the future up. Butterfly effect, and all that. In spite of the warning look, Manon can’t stop sneaking glances at Sophia. She had always been amazed at how composed Sophia could be under pressure and in the face of adversity. It’s not much of a surprise that she burnt out, especially in the wake of Manon’s (now future?) hiatus, having to shoulder all of the questions and scrutiny that should have been directed to the company.
It is strange to be seeing Sophia in a way that absolutely nobody else can right now. And if she’s correct, and Sophia is also aware that they have somehow gone backwards in time, then only Sophia can see her this way too.
When they finally wrap, Sophia beelines towards Manon. She feels a touch on her shoulder, too panicked to be described as gentle, too fond to be described as forceful. Manon feels something ache in her chest, and she is certain that nothing aching the first time around. She can’t even keep her feelings in line with how things were supposed to be.
Everyone assumes that the leader is about to give Manon a brief talking to about being late, and maybe in another timeline she does. But in this do-over, she drags her to the parking lot, out into the dry February air, and faces her directly. She speaks in a hushed voice, barely above a whisper.
“You remember too, don’t you?”
Manon is overwhelmed by relief that she is not utterly alone. She vigorously nods.
Sophia sucks in a deep breath. Manon thinks a cigarette would be appropriate right now, despite the fact that it is currently 10 in the morning. Maybe that makes it even more appropriate.
“What are we gonna do, Manon?”
“I guess we just have to live it all over again? Try our best not to disturb things until we catch up to where we left off?”
Something flashes across the leader’s face. Something sad, something regretful. “Did things end up the way you wanted them to?”
Manon sighs. Sophia knows the answer to that.
“Why can’t we try to change things?” is Sophia’s follow-up question, the one Manon knew was coming. Sophia, ever the optimist. Forced to be pragmatic as a leader, but an optimist to her core.
“What, like try to convince HYBE and Geffen to not put me on hiatus because they’re highkey problematic? And then try to fix our insane work schedule so that you don’t burn out and go on hiatus?” Manon scoffs.
“Well, yeah. Exactly that.”
Manon just fixes her a tired, disbelieving look.
“Come on. We have an insane upper hand. We know everything that happens in the next year, or, err, I guess what is supposed to happen in the next year.” There’s the trained, pragmatic leader mentality.
“Sometimes I think my hiatus was for the better. We all know how unfair the treatment was.”
“We can try to change that too.”
“Sophia.” Manon cannot believe this is a real conversation that she’s having right now.
“I don’t want to lose you again,” Sophia says quietly, barely audible.
“Maybe we should talk about this not at the GAP ad shoot that you and I are doing for the second time and everyone else is doing for the first,” Manon mumbles as she watches Yoonchae and Megan emerge from the building, ready to take their cute little lunch break before a grueling 10 hour rehearsal.
“You’re right,” Sophia agrees. “I’ll see you soon.”
With that, Sophia disappears through the side door to gather her belongings before heading to their studio. Manon is left thinking about how Sophia definitely did not make her feel this way the first time around.