“Okay that’s a wrap everyone. Good work!”

Upon hearing that after nearly 90 hours of straight filming you were finally done it took all your will power not to collapse onto the floor.

“Oh my god please tell me this isn’t a dream.” You begged Hara.

“If it is I don’t want to wake up.” She replied.

Giving a halfhearted chuckle you glanced around at the rest of your group members. If you looked remotely like them it wasn’t a pretty picture. No doubt whenever you found the energy to remove the pounds of make-up there would be dark circles under everyone’s eyes.

Your manager quickly ushered you into individually thanking each member of the staff before hustling the five of you back to the dorm.

“Gahhh I could sleep for a week straight” Hara complained upon flopping down on her bed.

“As much as I hate to admit to any weakness, I have to agree with Hara on that.” Mi-Na added.

“Well that’s not going to happen anytime soon so you might as well catch some shut eye while you can. We have dance practice in less than…” You looked at the clock, “4 hours. I will wake you up a half hour before we need to leave. I have a meeting with the stage director for our debut performance. He wants to know the layout for props and the timing for special effects.”

“Uh don’t you kind of need to get some sleep too Mel?” IU asked.

Giving her a lopsided grin you turned to exit the bedroom. “Not today. Right now I am doing my job of being the leader of Solar Eclipse. Don’t worry I won’t collapse until after we win first place!”

With those final words you exited the dorm and entered the awaiting van. It was three hours later before you made it back to wake up the rest of the girls. The task was harder than it sounds. You would most likely have a bruise from where Hara’s wild arm smacked you in the shoulder. Regardless thirty minutes later you were back at SM headquarters preparing for a full run down of your debut stages for Music Bank, Inkigayo, etc.

The general set up was a musical like setting where each of the members would be standing by a mini set-up reflecting each individual’s concept from the music video. There would be an extended instrumental introduction where each member would be lit up by a spot light one right after the other. Then the five of you would walk down from your ‘mini’ stages and meet in the middle for the actual performance. There would be a few well-placed pyrotechnics throughout the song with a fountain of sparks in the end.

The debut stage was less than a week away and the company had just started to release the individual teasers. There was literally no time for any sort of relaxation. Not that you minded when it meant perfecting the group’s debut. Before you knew it the day had finally come for the filming of the debut stage.

“I’m so nervous…” IU admitted while walking into the M.net studio for the filming of M! Countdown.

“Me too, but it helps to remember that it’s only the pre-recording. Plus because it’s our debut we have the opportunity to film the song through multiple times.” Ailee explained.

“Still... what if nobody comes to cheer for us. I mean our MV was just released at midnight along with our mini-album. What if it doesn’t sell and nobody likes our music?” IU rambled.

“If you weren’t so worked up I’d be offended that you didn’t have faith in the song I wrote.” You teased.

IU’s embarrassed face caused the rest of you to laugh. You were still smiling when you were led into the waiting room.

“Wow this is it guys. Look our name is on the door!” Hara pointed.

Indeed there in bold letters below the door number read ‘Solar Eclipse’ on a piece of paper. Sure it wasn’t anything fancy, but the symbolism of finally seeing the group name up on a wall was huge.

“Well let’s make sure we aren’t just some temporary group passing through, but a giant cosmic event about to take the entertainment world by storm!” You cheered before tossing open the door to your very own waiting room.

It was just under two hours later that you were called to the stage. Climbing up the narrow metal staircase leading to the main platform had your heart pounding nearly out of your chest. It was at this point that you wished Taemin-oppa or your brother was there to calm you down. However you had to be reliable for your other members so for the time being you it up.

The five of you lined up on the stage to greet the staff. “1…2…3… Good morning everyone, we are the rookie group Solar Eclipse. Please take care of us.”

A large cheer made you pick your head up from your bow and look at the audience. “Oh my….wow.” The stands and floor space were packed with fans of both es waving placards with the group name across it. In each person’s hand was the signature glow stick with a half moon and sun at the top lit with a bright violet light. You had to swallow back tears as you stared out into the audience blindly. It was more than you expected as a rookie group.

Out of the corner of your eye you spotted a light up sign with your name on it that had you grinning from ear to ear. You waved at the person holding it and gave the young girl a heart sign before turning and giving the crowd a big one over your head. The cheering intensified and only quieted once the warning announcement blared overhead that filming was about to begin. Adjusting your earpiece you made your way over to the cityscape background, which was your starting point.

You heard the countdown in your ear and the backtrack begin to play. Counting silently in your head you turned towards camera number three when the spotlight lit you up. Then you carefully began your descent to the main stage once again, being careful not to trip in your knee high leather boots.

“OK cut. Let’s do it again.”

About 25 times later you thought your legs were going to fall off after how many stairs you’d climbed/walked down. Finally it was time for the actual song. The five of you set up center stage in your starting poses waiting for the music to cue. Hearing the starting notes it startled you when they were quickly drowned out by the loud fanchant from the crowd. It sent shivers down your spine and made it difficult to control your facial expression when all you wanted to do was grin like an idiot.

The five of you danced and sang your heart out more times than you could count and yet the fans only got louder in their support. It was inspiring to say the least. When the final run through was called to an end you gratefully bowed and thanked the staff for all their hard work before addressing the fans.

“I cannot possibly begin to express in words what all of your support means to us. We can only hope to repay your endless love and support by giving it our all. Even then I don’t think it will ever equal the amount of energy you have given us today in our time of greatest challenge. Please look forward to our performances in the future.”

The five of you bowed once again and you finally let the tears that you’d been holding back all morning fall. As you exited the stage you noticed that you weren’t the only one crying, in fact all of you were, even including the ever stoic Mi-Na.

“Guys I have never been more thankful in this moment that I have been in my entire life for choosing this career path. I am sincerely looking forward to all we can accomplish.” You told your members while dabbing away your tears, being careful not to ruin the make-up.

“Me either. I couldn’t have asked to be a part of a better group than this.” Hara added.

“I guess you guys are ok.” Ailee teased.

You made eye contact with Hara, sending a silent message. A few seconds later you smothered Ailee in a giant group hug. Before heading back to the waiting room you were sent over to a set of televisions to monitor yourselves. While you watched carefully a set of stylists/managers dabbed sweat from your necks and faces. You didn’t bother to look away not wanting to miss a single second. The stage director every now and then would pause to explain some camera angle or a little mistake to be wary of. Everyone took it very seriously and was still discussing it when you all made it back to the waiting room.

“Wow I never thought so much went into filming a 3 minute song before.” Hara said.

“Seriously, now I understand how artists can get sick of their own song if they hear it that many times in one day.” Ailee added.

“Well at least the hard part is over. Now we just have to wait for the rankings to see who the winner is. I think we should take advantage of being rookies and go greet our sunbaes.” You suggested. “Do we have enough CDs?” You asked the manager.

She nodded and handed you a medium sized box stuffed with CDs. “Ok let’s go everyone.”

It was kind of strange to walk around and greet other artists after having such a close relationship with all the SM sunbaes, plus GD. Regardless everyone was very polite and gratefully accepted your CD. A few artists like Mblaq and Lee Hi even admitted to having already purchased a copy after seeing the music video. It was very flattering.

Before you knew it the time had come for the show to officially air. As the countdown came closer and closer to the top two you became more nervous that your stage still hadn’t been shown. While you were monitoring Mblaq’s performance a crew member told you to gather at the main stage where all the other artists were gathering.

“What? Did something happen? I never saw our stage air yet?” You asked.

The crew member gave you a quizzical look. “That’s because you are one of the front runners for today’s show.”

Your jaw dropped, but before you could ask any more questions you were dragged back to the main area. The five of you politely greeted the other sunbaes as you passed them and were led to the front of the stage just behind the hosts for today’s show. You could only stare dumbly ahead as the hosts went through their typical lines of ‘what a great group of performances’ and ‘exciting debut’, etc. Until you picked out the words ‘Solar Eclipse’ did you begin to listen.

“In a surprising turn of events the brand new girl group from SM Entertainment has risen in less than 24 hours to the top of the charts. Today they are competing against Mblaq for the number one slot. Let’s watch as the votes are tallied. Nervously you glanced at the small screen just at the edge of the stage as numbers swirled back and forth before the totals flashed.

Mblaq: 10,256

Solar Eclipse: 12,381

“There you have it folks. In an unprecedented show of fandom Solar Eclipse takes their first place with their new single ‘limitless’. Please come to the front.”

Stunned it took Hara shoving you in the rib cage to get you to move forward. With shaking hands you carefully grabbed the mic from the MC.

“Uh… ummm… I don’t know what to say.” You looked back at all the other artists applauding your victory and then into the crowd who were all standing on their feet. “I guess I speak for all of us when I say thank you so much. This is so much more than any of us expected. Thank you to all our fans, Dong-sun sunsangnim, President, our parents, all our sunbaes for being so supportive, all the camera crews and staff for taking such good care of us. I’m sure there are many more I should be thanking but I’m so overwhelmed at the moment this is the best I can do.” You joked. “So I will take this opportunity to pass the mic to my team members.”

The next 5 minutes was a blur as you went through the encore performance. It took all your effort not to forget your lines before you stumbled from the stage in a state of numbness.

Hmmm I feel like I’m forgetting something…

Kiss the Radio-Taemin’s POV

“We’ve just confirmed that our label mate Solar Eclipse has placed first on M! Countdown and is currently at the top of the online charts.” Ryeowook announced.

I couldn’t restrain my grin as I joined everyone in cheering/congratulating Solar Eclipse.

“Why are you so happy?” Minho asked. “It’s almost as if you won first place instead.”

I gave him a small smirk. “Because I did.”

Looks like I will be getting that date a lot sooner than I anticipated.

TBC…