Momo walked out of the room after practising her vocals for an hour. She used to do this occasionally when TWICE had just debuted, for she felt that she really had to work harder than the rest, being the member that was added into the group after elimination. However, ever since that day she chanced upon articles that labeled her as 'only in the group because of popularity and visuals', 'can't sing', and worse still, 'no talent', she made it a routine. Sometimes she wondered why she had scrolled around that day, why she had chosen to click those articles, despite knowing that it would hurt her so greatly. But she was also glad, for it became a source of motivation. While it made her a lot more stressed than she was before, she was determined to prove them wrong. Slowly, but surely.

What made her really surprised was when a fellow member came into her line of vision as she came out of the room that day. The girl had her head down, her hair covering her face, making it hard for Momo to see her face or any expression on it.

"Mina? What are you doing here? Are you okay?" Momo was worried, she could not stop thinking of possible scenarios. Maybe Mina was really upset and not wanting to head back to the dorm yet. Maybe something was troubling Mina so much she was crying but she did not want other members to see.

She quickly approached the girl. Squatting down and shifting aside the hair that was covering her face, Momo heaved a sigh of relief. The girl was just sleeping. She found herself smiling at how peaceful the girl looked as she sleep, but the smile changed into a frown when she noticed how uncomfortable it was to sleep in that way.

"Mina," she called out softly while shaking the girl. She watched as the sleeping girl slowly opened her eyes. "What are you doing here? Why aren't you back at the dorm?"

"Ah, I was waiting for you," Mina replied, grasping the situation. Then she gave a sheepish smile. "I must have fallen asleep while waiting."

"You shouldn't have, especially if you're so tired already," Momo said, concern evident in her voice. "I'm not done yet though, maybe you should go home first and get some rest."

"No, it's okay. I'll just go wash my face and wait for you, refreshed."

***

Mina took quite a while to freshen herself up, and when she was back Momo was already dancing. It was a song that Mina had not seen Momo dance to before. She watched her from the door, the dancing girl so focused she did not even notice that her fellow member was back. Mina saw Momo's expression from the reflection through the mirror. She loved it, Momo's expressions when dancing were always so different from those she had on a regular basis. It was an intense one - one that Mina had seen lots of prior to their debut, but not quite the same one. It was similar to the one that had intimidated Mina the first time she joined the company.

Mina stood at the entrance of the tall building. It was her dream, and also where she was going to be at for the many future years of her life. She took in a deep breath before entering, a nervous smile on her face.

With the limited English signs around, she managed to find her way to the office she was looking for. She was afraid, for she had close to zero knowledge of the Korean language and it seemed like everyone around spoke Korean only. The language barrier frightened her. She only relaxed a little when a company representative who knew how to speak Japanese approached her after she was told to wait. 

A quick tour of the building was done, which made Mina even more scared because trainees she met along the way all spoke Korean to her, to which she was only able to give a shy smile back and a slight bow. She hoped she did not come off as unfriendly, the last thing she wanted was to leave a bad impression on the first day of her trainee life.

After the tour and introduction, the company representative brought her to a room, telling her that everyone in the room was part of the 'Japan Team', and she was going to be part of it. Judging from the name, Mina supposed they were all Japanese, and was glad that there would probably be no language barrier. However, she was still nervous and worried - socialising was never her thing, she was a shy quiet girl.

The door opened, and Mina saw four girls practising their respective stuff. Of the four, one of them really caught Mina's attention. She was dancing, her dance steps powerful and her gaze intense. After the introduction facilitated by the company representative, she came to know the girl was Momo.

Because of that strong gaze, Mina was afraid of approaching the girl back then.

Mina had been with them for a couple of weeks, and was gradually settling down. However, she had difficulties approaching them. Since there were five of them, Mina usually walked alone at the side. She never really initiated conversations, and only gave short replies when the more outgoing ones talked to her. It really was not her personality to talk much.

In these few weeks, the one that she had the least interaction with was Momo. Though Momo was relatively more bubbly and appeared more approachable when they were out of the practice room, Mina was always apprehensive towards talking to her. Whenever Mina had questions to ask, Momo would be last on her ask list. She was really scared of the girl, and it all started by the girl's seriousness. Momo, on the other hand, never really talked to Mina as well. Contrary to what people would expect after seeing her interact with her friends, Momo was a shy girl too.

However, Mina also remembers very clearly the day that she realised Momo was in no way a girl that she should be scared of.

That day, Mina broke down. She had been practising the same steps for a few days now and she still could not get it. She was frustrated, for her 11 years of ballet did not seem to help her in any way. She really could not understand why. After their instructor lectured her that day, she could no longer hold her emotions in anymore. She ran into one of the vocal practice rooms and let her tears freely roll down. She missed her family, she missed her friends, she missed her carefree fangirl lifestyle. If she was doing so badly here, maybe it would be better for her to just give up now. 

The girls who saw what happened were worried for her, but they did not know how to handle the situation. Definitely, they were significantly closer by now, but they had never seen such a situation before, and they were unsure of whether Mina was the type who preferred to be alone. In the end, it was Momo who decided to head into the room. The girls also had faith that Momo knew how to handle it, because Momo had always been their pillar of support as well and she was a good listener who gave wonderful advice.

"Hey," Momo called out as she opened the door, not forgetting to knock before that. She walked over to the crying girl and embraced her. "It takes some time to adapt. We all think you're progressing very well already, many of us were worse when we first came in. The instructor scolded you only because she wanted you to do better, because she knows you have the potential to do better."

"Momo," Mina's voice was soft, as it had always been. "Should I just go back? Maybe this just isn't my kind of thing, you know, maybe I'm not made for this. Isn't it ironic, me as a reserved girl who hates attention, wanting to be an idol?"

Momo was not happy at how easily Mina gave up, and she was not one to keep her opinions in. Her soft tone turned into a stern one. "Look, Mina. Just think back at the month