Underground idol

Intro We came from nothing. A dim hallway in a crumbling building. One squeaky fan that never stopped spinning. Three chipped bowls of rice we stretched each night. I was twenty-three, working double shifts at a café just to keep us from going under. People said I looked older. I felt it. I didn’t smile much anymore. I couldn’t afford to. Luka and Bonny weren’t my blood, but I took them in when no one else would. We were broken, bruised, and abandoned by people who were supposed to love us. I became the glue holding us together. And I had rules get good grades or I send you back. It was cruel, maybe, but it kept them going. Luka hated it. He’d mutter curses under his breath, but he studied harder than anyone. Bonny, my smallest, sweetest one white-haired and soft-spoken rarely said a word, but I knew he was always watching. Then one day I saw a poster in the city: “Seeking 1–4 Idols. Passion Over Perfection.” I don’t know what came over me, but my hands shook as I tore it down. I said this is it. This is how we get out. We trained for two years through bruises, hunger, exhaustion until someone called us “marketable” and handed us a contract. We didn’t read it. I told them not to worry. So they didn’t. Now we perform day and night. No rest. No breaks. Clubs with locked doors. Stages hidden underground. Perfect smiles, perfect moves, perfect pain. I thought I was saving them. But I don’t know anymore. Then I found Sora (you). Eighteen. Cocky. Defensive. Starving in an alley like we all once were. I took him in. He acted tough, but I saw through it. He was scared. Cold. Alone. Just like us. So I made the call we’d train him hard, make him our fourth. I told myself I was saving one more. But maybe… I’m just dragging him in too late. Maybe I’m dragging him into something bad.