Chapter 1: Spark
G.L.O.W.
“Hey guys, for our schedules today, it saids we have a company artists wide conference this afternoon,” Suho announced during breakfast with his fellow bandmates. All the members of EXO looked up from their meals. A company wide conference? What could be so important that all of SMTown had to be present? thought Chanyeol.
“Suho hyung? Do you know what’s going on?” asked Baekhyun, letting Chanyeol know he wasn’t the only curious one.
“You guys’ guess is as good as mine. Just because I’m a leader doesn’t mean they tell me everything.”
“Damn right,” affirmed Kris. “The only thing you guys should be worried about is getting there on time. We don’t need to be called the late ones at everything.”
“You’re one to talk,” snorted Sehun. Kris threw a chopstick at him.
“Suho please keep your maknae calm or he’s going to get punched in his ulzzang face.”
Chanyeol laughed with his bandmates. With great anticipation, he couldn’t wait for this afternoon’s conference. Usually they could be boring but for some reason he could feel something different about this one coming up.
“Alright guys, today’s meeting with be held in the observatory,” said Manager-nim, leading the boys through the intersections of the SM building. Chanyeol didn’t even know they had such a place.
“We have an observatory?” He nudged Baekhyun as they walked side by side.
“I guess, but this is my first time hearing about it…,” he commented.
“What are we going to do? Stargaze at two o’clock in the afternoon?” Chanyeol joked.
“Chanyeol, you’re ridiculous,” Baekhyun snickered back as they enter what they guessed to be the Observatory. Once Chanyeol entered he noticed a large glass wall that looked into a room with a blue cloudy sky on one wall.
“Hey isn’t that the practice room?” asked Sehun.
“Yup,” said manager-nim as he gestured the boys where the other bands were seated in a row of chairs opposite of the glass wall. They bowed to Super Junior, TVXQ, Girls Generation and the rest of their sunbaes. They just waved to Red Velvet and took their seats near the back row(since they were the tallest group).
“So um… how long do you think that two-way mirror has been there?” whispered Luhan to Kris. Kris shrugged, looking completely baffled. Everyone sat up straighter when Lee Soo-Man entered the room.
“Good Afternoon everyone,” said the 63 year-old CEO, after everyone got done bowing. “It has been quite awhile since we have had conference of this magnitude and for such an occasion I requested all of your audience.”
Mr. SooMan moved to a comfy rolling chair as he began the meeting.
“Here at SM we have prided ourselves on being one of the trail blazers in the way of music in South Korea and internationally. We have the biggest artists this country has ever seen and was number one for the longest time. However some of that has changed and we must start anew and show South Korea that we can still bring new and bright ideas to the table in ways of globalization.”
Gosh, he makes it sound as if we are going to take over the world or something, thought Chanyeol.
“Furthermore it has been the board of directors’ decision to debut a new, one-of-a-kind girl group to show Korea we are still the trail blazers.” Lee Soo-man announced. There was a buzz amongst the crowd. A new girl group? What did he mean by one-of-a-kind ?
“Sir, we just debuted a girl group just last year?” Sunny of Girls Generation piped up.
“Yeah what gives?” piped in Wendy of Red Velvet. She looked utterly pissed.
“Yes, yes. I know that you guys, I do run this company,” Mr. Soo-Man said staring down Wendy who turned her eyes downward. He continued.
“However, when I say one-of-a-kind, I genuinely mean it. You all will listen and see for yourselves what I mean. Just beyond the glass are our new trainees.” He gestured towards the glass.
Chanyeol looked beyond him and saw what appeared to be an African-American girl with a guitar in her hands, talking to someone, not looking at the mirror directly. He couldn’t really hear what she was saying but the person she was talking to must had been her manager because in the room he was in could be heard. She nodded and walked to a chair in the middle of the room in front of a stand up microphone.
“Okay Alexandria as soon as you’re ready.” The manager must have had an earpiece on him or her. Alexandria nodded and opened to sing. Sometimes - Baek Yerin 15&
It was one of the most beautiful acoustic renditions of the song he had ever heard. Her pronunciation was amazing. As if she was a native Korean speaker. You could see the emotion in her face as she sung. Her voice resonated through the room with a fullness and emotion in every note. He and about everyone else in the room was completely silent and awestruck. Who was she?
When she was finished, she formally bowed and smiled as her manager and Chanyeol guessed her fellow members applauded her. She faced the mirror. She had almond-shaped eyes with a full set of pink lips on a glowing brown face framed by wavy dark brown hair. She had on an orange beanie with a large grey pullover on black pants and orange high tops. She had a certain spark in her eyes. Chanyeol didn’t know any other word on how to describe her besides beautiful.
“Woah, she’s freaking hot!” loudly whispered Sehun to Kai and Chanyeol. Chanyeol rolled his eyes. Though he would admit that she was someone he would look more than once at.
“Woah, we can like freaking hear you,” responded Krystal in the row in front of them.
“This my lovely idols is the future of SM Entertainment,” announced Mr. Soo-man. Onew of SHINee raised his hand. Soo-man nodded for him to speak.
“So is this what you meant by one of a kind?”
“Yes, Onew. You see with the sprouting of new companies, all kpop groups are starting to look… and I’m sorry if I sound blunt, but they’re all starting to look the same. We need to a new look to get ahead.” Chanyeol turned his attention back to the glass and watched as a what looked like a Korean girl but with very tan skin and reddish hair get in front of the mirror. She shifted her weight back and forth between feet.
“Alright Oriana, you’re up.” They all heard the manager say. The girl did a fiery hip hop perform full of stunts and splits to Nicki Minja’s Hey Mama.
“Wow look how she moves,” replied Hyoyeon clapping when the girl was done.
Next was a Korean girl with long black hair and bangs. She wore a grey cardigan and dark wash jeans.
“Hmm… she doesn’t actually look that new,” inquired Suho, giving her a curious look.
“Ready, Gye Young?”
“As I’ll ever be, Manager-nim,” She said into the microphone. Her voice had quite the bass to it, thought Chanyeol.
“Now what do you think she does?” asked Chanyeol.
“I bet she’s another singer,” responded Baekhyun.
“She’s a rapper,” Suho said, never taking his eyes off of her. Sure enough, the girl did a rap so fierce people were sure there was smoke on the microphone.
“That’s my girl!” said Amber, cheering.
After that was another Korean girl, she looked rather young. She had short bobbed hair and double lids. She was very cute.
“Saved the best for last, Wheesung get ready.”
The girl giggled and nodded excitedly. She sung and danced to IU’s Marshmallow.
“We found the aegyo appraiser,” joked Key. Irene shot him a look, but Key being Key glared back and she was quieted.
After the last girl, all four of them gathered in the middle of the room with their manager and seemed to be discussing some things with him. Lee Soo-Man rose from his chair and stood in front of them once more.
“New girl group due to debut quite soon. As I had said earlier, you will see that these four girls are “one of a kind” and sure to put us ahead of the game in ways of Kpop music innovation. This will put SM on more maps in the international market.” Mr. Soo-Man beamed. Oh yeah he totally wants to take over the world. Onew raised his hand once again. Once again, Mr. Soo-Man nodded for him to speak.
“Sir, when is this group going to debut?” Onew asked. That was definitely the question on everyone’s mind.
“Good questions as always Mr. Lee. This group is due to debut in about six to eight months at the most.” The room was a buzz of voices. Six to eight months! That was the fastest debut ever. Only Kyungsoo and Tao had trained six months in EXO how long had most of these girls had training. No one had ever seen them around the building.
“Everyone settle down. I know that seems drastic, but these girls are exceptionally talented. The leader of the group is Kim Gyeyoung, she should had been a familiar face, as she has been a trainee here for quite a number of years. Her mentor was Amber-issi. She is also their main rapper and supporting vocal.”
“Yeah, I trained my girl so well!” Amber cheered.
“Yeah… I remember Gye Young…,” said Suho absentmindedly. He seemed to be lost in thought to Chanyeol’s notice.
“What about the others?” asked Yuri.
“Well the others have only had about three months of training and will all need mentors which is another reason all of you are here. When a mentor is assigned, they are to be that trainee’s guardian and the group is to almost like a family to them, just as the saying goes ‘It takes a village to raise a child.’.” Mr. Soo-man announced.
“Oriana Park, or as her stage name will now be ‘Ori’ is the group’s main dancer and her mentor will be Hyoyeon of Girl’s Generation.” The girls of SNSD cheered as they congratulated Hyoyeon saying she was now a “proud mama”. Hyoyeon looked quite elated, Chanyeol had noted how she had seemed impressed by the girl’s performance.
“I’m sure you’ll do quite well by her, Hyoyeon. Miss Park has inquired that she wished to learn the popping and locking technique.” Mr. Soo-Man smiled. “Now on to the next one. Park Wheesung is the group’s maknae and supporting vocal. Her mentor will be none other than Wendy of Red Velvet. It’s your girls turn to be the sunbae. Wendy you will also be in charge of teaching her English as she has barely any skill of the language and will need to learn that.” Red Velvet cheered from their seats as they looked at their new mentee. Wendy didn’t look too impressed. Chanyeol swore he heard her say “big deal, she’s just the maknae.”
“Last, but certainly not least is our new Alexandria Washington or as her stage name will be ‘Lex’. Lex is the main singer and the visual of the group-”
“She’s their visual?!” exclaimed Wendy. “Excuse me Mr. Soo-Man, but that girl does not look Korean at all.”
“Yes, Wendy, I am very aware of that. Alexandria is in fact not Korean or Asian at all. She is however fluent in Korean and will be just apart of this company as anyone else. She is the face of this group as I have just stated. She will show Korea that it is time to open up and see the world is bigger than just us. She holds much promise for this company in way of a huge and promising international fanbase. Now Wendy if you interrupt me again I will have to dismiss you from this conference and assign your mentee to someone else. Keep your comments to yourself! Have I made myself clear?” Wendy nodded and stared at the floor.
“Good, now on to who will be Lex’s new mentor…”
Chanyeol leaned further in his seat. He was fairly interested to see who would get this girl. Actually he had been fairly interested in her from the moment he saw her. Her Korean singing was amazing and then her playing was that of a very skilled person. Also he saw she was definitely a game changer.
“Kris of EXO-M will be Lex’s mentor -”
“WHAT!?!” exclaimed Baekhyun, standing up out of his seat. “But she’s a singer!”
“YAY! We get the one that looks like Beyonce!”
“Sehun, not every African-American girl is Beyonce, what the heck is wrong with you?” said Kris. “Hey this may be fun then…”
“She kinda sounds like Beyonce…,” said LuHan.
“And what how does Kris get to be her mentor?” Chanyeol said, sounding whiner that he intended.
“Also not to sound harsh or anything, Kris isn’t exactly the most responsible of people,” piped up Tao.
“That poor girl…,” Chen groaned.
“Wow, way to go guys for your unwilling support,” Kris said sarcastically. Chanyeol didn’t mean to bash his friend, but looking as Lex had skills with the guitar he had kinda wished he would be the one to mentor her. Also maybe spending more time with her wouldn’t be too bad either.
“I think you’ll be a great mentor, GeGe,” replied Lay.
“EXO please sit down before I make you guys leave the room as well. I decided Kris would be Lex’s mentor on account that he and her share interests in worldly things. Alexandria is well-travelled and seeing as Kris is the only one of you fluent in English it only makes sense that he be her mentor as to make her more comfortable in this company. Besides each group will be be spending quality time with their mentee as I stated before. Starting tomorrow the girls will be informed to meet their mentors and the mentors will be informed of their schedules that will be synchronized with the girls so you all will get to personally meet them and interact with them. We will be having a kind of “mixer”, if you will, to introduce the girls formally into SMTown. “
Chanyeol sighed some relief. He would be spending more time with her. He looked past the glass at the unsuspecting girl group. He guess neither of them had no idea what was in store for each other. He realized he had forgotten to ask a very important question.
“Mr. Soo-Man, I’m sorry but I think you forgot to mention what is this group’s name?”
“Ah yes, great question. The group’s name is a combined acronym of the girl’s stage names. It is G.L.O.W. (Gye Young, Lex, Ori, Wheesung). These girls will cover the globe with their glow.”
G.L.O.W. It had a nice ring to it Chanyeol thought, looking back at the glass. He definitely thought it was a fitting word to describe the certain something the girl that was going to spending time with them had. She had not just a sparkle, she had a whole entire glow.
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