18 December 2017

“Ring~~Ring~~~Ring~~~”

The deafening sound made by the small device on the nightstand breaks the silence in the room. A curl up figure on the bed stirred, but shows no sign of putting an end to the noise. Soon the ringing of phone died down, however within seconds it starts again. Left with no choice, a hand shoots out from the blanket and reach over for the phone.

“Yeobuseyo…”

“Un..unnie..” a muffled voice can be heard on the other end. Obviously the caller was crying and talking at the same time.

Upon hearing that, the figure shot up from its curl up form, unveiling a sleepy-looked Jessica Jung. “What’s up soojungie, why are you crying?”

“Un..nie..unnie..oppa..JongHyun oppa..is.. gone..he is gone..” After completing that sentence, Krystal brawl out from the pent up emotions. Leaving Jessica stunned on the other line.

[He is gone, what did Soojungie mean? Where did he go to?]

“Unnie.. Are you still there? Have you watch the news?” Krystal asked after a few minutes of silence from Jessica. She jolted back to her senses upon hearing the word “news”. Jessica picks up the tablet and starts searching for the name JongHyun. What she sees next was totally something that she did not expect.

Across all SNS and news portal, they are covering the same headline new.

[JongHyun from Shinee had pass away]

She couldn’t believe her eyes, her finger froze at the spot, unable to click into the news site. Time seem to have frozen..a lot of questions were running in her mind. How did it ended up like this? Why him? What is going to happen to the group? How would they cope? And most importantly, how would the girls be coping, especially Taeng who is the closest to him? Unknowingly, tears started flowing down and she had cried herself to sleep.

Tick tok tick tok, the sound of the high heels echoed in the corridor. It wasn’t loud but it has the aura to command attention. Within minutes, the lady had reached her destination and entered the room. “Girls gather around, we have some announcement to make.”

All the girls in the dance room quickly gathered around and sat in front of her. Taking out a list from her file, she starts to call out the names “ Kim Tae Yeon, Jung Soo Yeon, Lee Soon Kyu, Hwang Mi Young, Kim Hyo Yeon, Kwon Yu-ri, Choi Soo Young, Im Yoon-A, Seo Ju-Hyun, please come forward and follow me” With that, the lady turn and head out of the dance room.

The girls that have been called up hurriedly follow behind her. Those remaining in the room whispered among themselves, speculating the reason for this call-up. A few minutes later, the dance teacher came back into the room.

“Alright girls, let’s continue with the class”

“But..”

“Don’t worry about them, they have separate dance classes because they will be debuting soon”

Leaving the girls in awed, feeling envious and sad at the same time.

In a separate room, the girls who had been called out gathered in it. Nobody said a word and there is a sense of awkwardness infiltrating the room.

“Hey~ it’s kind of awkward now that we are sitting here..” Right after she spoke, small giggles can be heard, as usual all you need to Kim choding to lift the mood.

“Yah, I wonder why we are here?” Sooyoung wondered out loudly.

“Girls, you are here because you would be debuting soon as a group” The lady that left after settling them in this room spoke as she walks in.

The girls were stunned by the news. “These would be your new schedules to follow, some instructions and also your Manager’s contact details. We are also looking for a dorm, once the paperwork are done, you girls will need to move in together.” After giving out the documents, she left the room once again.

All nine of them stared at one another, trying to process this whole situation. The silence was deafening until someone started squealing in excitement.

“Oh my gosh, we made it! We made it!” an excited Tiffany embraced her roommate TaeYeon that was sitting across her.  

“Jess, Soo! We are together again! And Sunny too!” HyoYeon was busy giving high-fives to her long time friends.

“Unnie Unnie! We all made it!” Yoona and Yuri jumped around exclaiming. The whole room was bursting with excitement, everyone talking at the same time in super high voices. It was so loud that one wondered what does it takes to quiet them down.

A soft sniffle can be heard at one corner. “Did you hear that?” TaeYeon ask Jessica who was standing next to her. Jessica gave a slight nod and was focusing to locate the source of the sobbing. It didn’t take too long for the rest to notice something was amiss.

“Hyunnie! Where is she?” Yoona suddenly exclaimed, slightly beating herself mentally for forgetting her little dongseng. Everyone start to turn around looking for Ju-hyun.

“Maknae ah, why are you sitting here alone?” The first one to found her was Jessica.

She was holding Ju-hyun’s hand, giving it little squeeze to get her attention.

“Aren’t you happy that you make it--ow!” Yu-ri was asking halfway when someone jab her to stop.

“Unnie, Hwanhee didn’t make it” Yoona whispered to Yu-ri when she found the older girl looking bewildered.

“Un..un..nie, Hwan..hwan!” Ju-hyun started bawling her eyes out before she could finish her sentence.

“WAH~~~!!!” “RING~RING~RING!!”