Chapter 9: Debut

~11th November 2010~

~Seven springs of Apink recording~

The girls were nervous yet excited, they never would've thought a day like this would come where they finally record their first album. There were four songs to record, their title song "I Don't Know, "It Girl", "Wishlist" and "Boo". They went though the lyrics one by one, consulted their vocal trainer on how to sing certain melodies and did throat exercises in the studio.

One by one, the sisters took their turns recording their parts. However, Eunji was worried because she had to sing a high, long note towards the end of "I Don't Know". She wondered whether she could finish it perfectly while entering the recording room, placing headphones over.

"Alright, I'm playing the song now. Get ready, Eunji-ya." said the producer as he pressed a button.

"Ajikdo geudeun mollayo~o~o~" After that part, was the high note part. With a deep breath, Eunji sang a long, 8 second high note. A note she has never sang before.

"Ok. You're done. Bomi you're next." said the producer as he stopped the music, saving the data of Eunji's high note to for the mixing later.

"Nice job, Eunji-ya." said Chorong as she quietly clapped.

"That note was daebak unnie." said Hayoung in amazement.

"Good job Eunji-ya" said Bomi as she tapped Eunji's shoulder before heading into the room.

A whole day was spent only on the recording of the album, for the first time the girls had a schedule. In one whole week, it was jam-packed for their debut album preparations, jacket photoshoot, dance practice and many others.

-12th January 2011-

In the middle of practising, their CEO Choi Jin Ho suddenly came in. The girls surprised, immediately stopped dancing and greeted with a bow. However, they noticed a group of people with cameras, lighting equipment etc coming in.

"I've signed a contract with this team from Trend Network. They want to film a reality show for you with the idea of news broadcasting." said Jin Ho as he introduced them to the crew.

"Hello. We don't have a team name yet, but we will work hard!" said the girls as they bowed.

"Jin-Ho-ssi, shouldn't you start thinking of their team name? Otherwise, how are we going to name the show?" asked the director.

"True, the staff have been discussing a lot since the past months. We still haven't gotten a good name." answered Jin Ho.

"Well, firstly we will film each of your introductions for the show." said the director as his crew began setting up equipment in the practise room.

"Wait, we're filming now?" asked Chorong in surprise.

"Yep, it's reality filming so it is ongoing. Good luck, I have work to do." smiled Jin Ho as he left the girls with the crew.

Surprisingly, the girls weren't awkward with the cameras at all. They pretended that it wasn't there and became their true selves. The first day of filming the show went on fine.

-15 January 2011-

"Jin-Ho-ssi, I think you might want to look at this." asked a staff as she showed him the laptop.

It read "[RUMOR] Acube Entertainment, subsidary of Cube will debut a 6-member girl group soon in early March?!"

"Wow, news really spreads quickly. Looks like we're gonna have a lot of explaining to do. Let's make a temporary name for the girls." sighed Jin Ho.

"They're a girl group. So, we can include Pink inside. It's a feminine colour." said a staff.

"Pink? A girl group called Pink seems weird." said another.

"Then, how about A Pink?" asked another.

"The letter A is the first letter in all the alphabets, so meaning they will be number one. Pink represents a female colour, so A Pink means they will be the top girl group in Korea."

"That's not a bad name, actually." said a staff.

"Alright, let's meet the reporters. We'll use A-Pink as their temporary name before deciding." said Jin Ho.

~Two days later~

Eventually, news was everywhere about the debuting girl group under the name of A-Pink. The filming crew discussed with the company about making "A-Pink" the permanant name of the group because they needed to finalise their program details.

The staff looked through the web, reading comments and opinions of the public. Some were hate comments but a majority were full of support for the group.

"Since the name is everywhere in the internet, I think we will use "A-Pink". People are already familiar with name anyways." said Jin Ho as he thought for a while.

"Alright, Jin Ho-ssi. Then, our reality show will be called A-Pink News then." replied the director.

"Oh, that actually doesn't sound bad at all. When will your first episode air?" asked Jin Ho.

"We already filmed a lot of content and plan to release before their debut date. When is it?" 

"We've planned for a debut in April."

"Alright, then I'll make plans for it to air in end-March then."

News began to spread fast, as Acube's PR Team began their jobs. They uploaded a clip of Eunji singing on social media covering Jennifer Hudson's song, introducing her as the main vocalist for the debuting girl group.

~X~

The girls were already told on their group name and even looked through social media to see Eunji's video using Kung Fu Panda's permission. They were excited but they knew they had to focus on their debut first, they have yet to fix their dancing and singing mistakes.

"Acube releases member teaser of upcoming girl group A-Pink covering Jennifer Hudson's song"

"Trend-E to produce reality show for A-Pink prior to debut called A-Pink News"

"A-Pink rumored to follow a fairy-innocence concept"

"First episode preview of Apink News draws viewers with their member introductions!"

"Soon-to debut A-Pink spotted filming at Jeju Island"

News was unavoidable, the moment it was uploaded, it spreaded like a virus. For the girls, this was good publicity. It felt as if it was just the beginning of becoming a celebrity, the attention they received from their show, the comments they read online, A Pink was becoming more well known in the public's eye. But they were warned by their CEO, to never reveal their secret. The fact that all six of them were actually sisters.

~17th April 2011~

The girls didn't had enough sleep, only 2-3 hours before they spent the final days to practice, practice, practise. Repeating their steps all over again and getting scolded by their trainers for not following properly, it wasn't easy. They were hardworking even when the trainers weren't around. As they played the song over and over again, there were times that was hard.

Halfway through the song, Chorong paused the music.

"Are you being serious?" said Chorong as her face turned into stone, staring at the youngest.

"I've told you many times that you should smile. The cameras are going to be all around you so you have to smile when it's your part."

Hayoung nodded in silence as practice continued. However, the music paused again. The leader's hawk eyes spotted something.

"Don't think that ah, my part's over so I don't need to smile anymore. You were like this the whole time after your part was finished." said Chorong as she re-enacted what Hayoung did. 

"No matter what, throughout the whole performance we need to smile. We need to make a good presentation to the public, alright Hayoung-ah?"

Hayoung quietly nodded again as she turned around. She knew that it was her own fault, especially because of the glasses she wore. It blocked her vision which caused her to frown. But this young 16-year old child, felt sorry for her members as tears suddenly rolled down her cheeks. Eunji who saw this immediately went to her, hugged her and comforted her.

"Don't cry. It's hard for me too." said Chorong as she went up to the youngest, caressing her head and wiping her tears away. She too, felt her heart ache watching her sister cry as everyone felt the same too.

"Smile alright? Like this." said Bomi as she used her two fingers and pulled wide open until her gums could be seen. This made Hayoung laugh which brought a smile to everyone.

After a while, the hellish practice continued over the night.

~X~

~21th April 2011~

~At MCountdown Building~

Everyone was nervous, dressed in white costumes and practised their dance all over again. Eunji, Bomi and Namjoo started vocal exercises backstage, making sure their voices were fine. It was the first time they were performing live on the television that would be broadcasted nationwide. It felt as if their hearts could explode due to nervousness as the girls held their their hands together.

"Girls, this is what we have been training for. Don't be nervous and smile alright? A Pink, fighting!"

"A Pink fighting!"

Soon, the girls were called up onto the stage where they were surprised to hear fans shouting their names. Just by hearing that made them felt at ease, as they worried that there would be no one to cheer for them. The girls got into position and at the count of 3,2,1, cameras were all on them. The whole nation watched, as A Pink debuted on that stage.

Their debut song, "I Don't Know" was shown to the world.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YA9AIth9x4g

~End of Chapter 9~

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Honestly, I was conflicted in the beginning whether to include Yookyung or not cause OT7 feels T_T but it just happened like that. Thank you for reading this chapter, unfortunately this story is reaching the end soon :(