"One: Must be longer than a minute.

Two: Must have three verses, a chorus, and a bridge.

Three: Must have at least three notes that goes higher than F2 on the scale (the high F).

Four: No raps.

Five: No duets or triplets; only solos allowed.

Six: No dancing.

Seven: Cannot be a song about love in any way-- break up, crush, etc. also included.

Eight: Must be a ballad."

All three of us became silent, pondering the rules in our own ways.

"I'm kind of worried for number seven," Jiyoon thought aloud.

"True. Ninety-nine percent of all the songs I know is love songs in some way," agreed my other friend.

I nodded as well. "And number three, too, the three notes higher one?"

Even in this kind of situation, Jiyoon found a reason to tease. "Oh, come on, Jiyeon. Obviously that's no problem for you."

"Yup, yup," Suzy joined in. I merely rolled my eyes.

"Is there anything else on the paper?" she asked.

I checked it. "Nope--wait. Yes." I peered closer. It had been so small, I had not noticed it at first. "It says, 'If you decide to make your own song, you are free to. If it is so, however, the song will also be graded according to our own standards.'" I frowned. "What standards?"

"Guess they're not going to tell us," shrugged Jiyoon. "We'll just go with our eight rules."

"Should we make a song?" Suzy asked. "Wait. But you have to be ready at seven, right?"

"Yup."

"Then that's out of question. It's already--" she checked her watch "--5. We can't make a song and then memorize it in just 2 hours."

"True. The only non-love songs I know are from 2NE0 (A/N: once again, changing name because the members of the real 2NE1 will probably be in the story.), like 'Can't Nobody' and 'I'm the Best', but they're not ballad songs," Jiyoon said.

Suzy added in, "They also have 'Ugly' and 'Lonely', actually. But would 'Lonely' count as a love song?"

"'Ugly' wouldn't." I jumped up with a huge smile on my face. "It's a ballad and it's not a love song. No rapping, too! It's perfect!" I twirled in my happiness.

"Okay, then, let's work on your memorizing," Jiyoon chuckled. "Where's your laptop?"

For the next hour, we worked on memorizing the whole song, which was not easy. Then we went to the noraebangs (karaoke rooms, especially set for the COEJ students) to practice it with the actual MR. We begged a senior to download the instrumental for us as well, because obviously we had to prepare our own music, right? At 15 minutes before 7, we dressed me up, in that weird, casual-but-dressy way that Suzy had perfected. I was hopeless, because my only standard was that it was comfortable and cheap, and the colors match.

5 minutes before, I was already at the auditorium, waiting for the judges to arrive. The other girls were there too, and we exchanged polite pleasantries, which only ended in awkward silence.

At exactly seven o'clock, as if they had been waiting just outside the door, the judges entered, looking high and mighty. There were five, and one of them was--

"Yoseob-oppa?" I whispered to myself in incredulity. He looked definitely different, his familiar smile gone and replaced with a formal, more serious expression. His attire fitted the category of formal as well, in a tuxedo like the other judges that I didn't know. I shook my head. Who would've known?

The first person to go up was Hyojung-unni. She was so chillingly good, I was left speechless and more nervous than ever. I think she actually made the song, because I had never heard it in my whole life. Then it was me, the second person on the list.

I went up the stage doing my regular breathing excercise, holding the mic with my head down, as if praying. I closed my eyes for a minute, focusing only into singing. All the other things disappeared, and the only thing I could hear was my own breathing. Then I opened my eyes, and nodded once for the music to start.

I took a deep breath again. "Balge useobojiman, nae mamme deulji ahna..."

I poured all my feelings into it, though my body was numb. Gone was my initial nervousness, replaced with my own feelings. I felt my arms move, in time with my emotion peaks, calming down as the music also calmed down.

The last stanza, my eyes reached out to the audience, however small, of my hurts and my hate for my beauty. "I think I'm ugly, and nobody wants to love me. Just like her, I wanna be pretty, I wanna be pretty, don't lie to my face." I had breathed the first part out, then went a little more emotional, then whispered the last line. "I know I'm ugly." For that 4 minutes, I was someone else entirely.

The music flowed, giving the song a concluding finish, and I blinked, remembering who I am and why I was here. I saw the judges again, the other contestants, and I immediately felt the anxious feelings come rushing back. I bowed, with a "Thank you," and hurried off the stage.

"Good job," Hyojung-unni whispered.

I bit back my sudden urge to cry, and replied, "As if. You were way better anyways." We smiled at each other, then turned back to the stage for the next girl.

Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that Hyojung-unni turned back. I just kind of whited out for the rest of the time, dazed and wandering in my own thoughts.

The judges later thanked us, and told us that the results will be out the next time the principal calls us. We gave them a thank you in return as well, then we all left separately. I was still kind of dazed, so when something black appeared in front of me, I just stared at it, wondering what it was. I heard a chuckle, and my eyes moved up to see a face was attached to the black thing.

"Good job, Jieun," the person said. I took a few moments to recognize the person.

"Yoseob-oppa?" I blinked. Then I wondered what he meant by 'good job.' I remembered, and I accused him. "You were a judge too!"

He put his hands up, as if I was a cop or something. "Caught red-handed. Anyways, I just wanted to say good job! Okay bye." After flashing his signature smile, he quickly disappeared.

I shook my head at his childish goodbye, then returned to my room with a smile. I stopped. Why did I have a smile? I dropped it, but a few steps after, it appeared again. I sighed, thinking it was another sign of post-nervousness. I quickly changed out and cleaned up, then went to sleep (it was only 8, but who cares) after texting my two good friends that the results aren't out yet.

The next thing I knew, the alarm was ringing and it was already morning. I eased myself out of bed, then waited for Suzy and Jiyoon half-asleep, even though I slept really early. They came looking bright-eyed, while I was dozing off already. A cup of coffee was my savior, and I carried around ice coffee for the rest of the day.

The next day, the principal called all six of us again. We stood waiting for him to speak, both anticipating and fearing his announcement of the fallen.

He looked up with a serious face. "I have called all of you to tell you two things-- the ones who passed, and the next mission." He looked at each of us straight in the eye, which startled me because I'm no good at eye contacts. He continued, "I will start with the survivors. The one name I do not call out will be escorted out."

We all inhaled sharply. It really was a survival type, as it seemed so cruel and uninviting to be escorted out just like that.

"The order I will call out will be from first to last place, thought the last place will not be callen out. Understood?" We all nodded, and he cleared his throat. "Kim Hyojung."

I didn't react-- it was obvious it was to be her.

"Lee Jieun."

This time I froze-- didn't breath, didn't see. I was in second? My eyes were probably wide.

"Park Bom. Park Sunyoung."

I snapped back into time. There were now only two girls left to be called out-- Lee Yejin and Heo Gayoon.

"Lee Yejin."

I didn't know what to do. I felt like congratulating Yejin, but Gayoon-unni! She was in Jiyoon's group, and was Jiyoon's good friend. I watched as she quietly left the office, wanting to extend a hand of sympathy in her way.

"Now that the sad part is done, please concentrate. For the second mission, you will have a day to prepare, unlike this last one. Most of you probably expected this, but this one is about dancing."

I felt like groaning. Dancing was definitely not one of my best subjects. I would have to ask Jiyoon and G.Na for help on this.

"You cannot get any of your dance teacher's helps, as they will probably be judging, either for the girls or the boy's side."

Okay, so G.Na was out. I'd ask Jiyoon then.

"In fact, you cannot ask anyone in Special Dance classes for help. It will be an all-alone mission."

Jiyoon was out, too? I felt a headache coming on.

"You can ask seniors for help."

My ears perked up, but drooped back again when I thought of the huge senior project going on these days. Nobody would have time to help.

"The requirements, yet again, are here." He handed out papers. "Good luck, and see you at the gym at 7 tomorrow. You are excused."

As soon as we were outside, I let out a deep sigh. An all-alone project, for dancing? This was one of the worst combinations ever.

I trudged back to my room. I told Suzy and Jiyoon with a three-way phone call of my success, then tiredly hung up later. I worked on my homework and such, then a bit more on my MC Project Essay (I know, right? An essay as well? Ugh.), then crawled into bed.

Hopefully, tomorrow would be a better day.

A/N: Long time, no update again, everyone. Sorry, and hello! I'll try to update more. I really will! It's not a long chapter, I know, but it's all I can squeeze out at the moment. Anyways, to fans of Gayoon, sorry! I'm a huge fan of 4Minute and Gayoon, too, but I needed the others for specific reasons. So Gayoon became the sacrifice for my contests... :( Anyways, yeah, I'm on a sort-of semi-hiatus for all my stories, ehehe. Don't kill me, please! :(

Preview

Another morning it was. I sighed. I skipped dinner to practice with the song given in the requirements sheet. Apparently, we were to choreograph a dance for the 1-minute long dance track provided. Since I was no good at popping, I only put one move in there, and a bit of ballet, and a bit of hip hop as well. In other words, I put my best dance moves into it, though even then it was not impressive at all. I was probably going to fail this. Ugh.

I showed my dance to Suzy, who was left speechless (in a bad sense), and she helped make my genre-skippings transition better. At least it looked cooler once that was done. Ugh.