First Chapter: Golden Lady

Hwang Jimin returned to the alcove in front of the gym and called for more people. Jaelyn, the first one to be called, rose on her feet and walked elegantly to the door, her arm candy bracelets colliding in beads’ jingles. She may have looked calm from the outside, but on the inside, all sorts of thoughts were brutally clashing. She just couldn’t believe she was there one more time. One would have thought that after having almost been part of as many groups as she did, she would get used to the feeling but no. Just no. In fact, it was all the opposite. All these rejections, Girl’s Generation and f(x), they just made her warier of these moments. Maybe she wasn’t good enough?

But, she was there, living the moment. She couldn’t afford to mess up one more time. At that point, Jaelyn decided that whatever would happen next, she would stay away from hospitals. Definitely. And as her mind just came back to earth she thought she really felt like going around for a stroll. Too bad for her, it wasn’t night yet and she had to go in that room. She calmed her mind before opening the door and getting in. It was no use panicking already. She just had to wait and see.

“ChaeSeo,” then called Jimin with a stare.

ChaeSeo, surprised of having being called out, stood up and went toward the door, unsure on what to do. Did the fact she was called meant she was taken in the group? But, looking back, ChaeSeo always thought she could have done better. She just didn’t like to give her 100 percent on anything. Anything but music, that was true. Ever since she had been in that band back in school… It now seemed like such a long time ago. She wondered how everyone was doing. Especially about how he was doing… She kind of missed him now. She could see he was doing well from what she saw on TV, yet she knew he was not exactly like his stage persona. If she really debuted, she could see him more often. The thought alone made her smile. She wanted to debut, for as many reasons as there were stars in the sky. That was what she was meant to do, right?

Standing in front of the gym’s door, she wondered: should she just go in like Jaelyn? She looked at Jimin who just made a head sign confirming it was okay to go in. Okay, then. ChaeSeo opened the door and was faced with Frost Entertainment’s own leaders and heads. Gulping, she bowed in front of them, but they did not look her way. Noticing how Jaelyn had sat, she went and did the same. Quietly, she just waited for something to happen.

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Naeun believed her life was just like a movie where she had the lead role. Sometimes she would get dissatisfied with the script she was handled, some other times she would feel bad for playing the part, but it was her role as an actress and her job was always well done. In fact, playing a part had always been much easier than revealing her true self. She wasn’t happy with ‘Naeun’. She wanted to be more. She wanted to be ‘Ai’, a persona she had created for herself when she realized how easier life was when she just acted. And so, she always had the habit of pushing Naeun into the background while putting Ai into the spotlight.

Ai was the one who dressed elegantly and who always put on a smile. Ai was happy and confident; she could be trusted. So, it was naturally that Naeun had tuned in her inner Ai when she was asked to audition. And it was naturally that Ai was still there waiting in the alcove with the other trainees.

“Yoo Naeun,” called Jimin, not even bothering to look up this time. The head stylist just pointed the door distractedly, scribbling something on her pad.

Naeun, who was already standing, walked to the door. Well, in fact it was Ai, but names didn’t matter. Unlike Baekhyeon who wanted to be called Baekhui, she didn’t mind how people addressed her. Naeun gracefully opened the door, slipping into the room without making any noise.

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The number of trainees in the alcove that looked at the door with a mix of longing and apprehension couldn’t be counted on Yeonjoo’s hand. In fact, she might have been one of these people. When her friend ChaeSeo was called in, Yeonjoo had felt a rush of an emotion she would have rather not wished to feel. Jealousy. Again. How come ChaeSeo was called and she wasn’t? She had been a trainee for the past eight years! That had to matter at some point. She was feeling hurt, but tried to hide it. Fortunately, no one was looking her way. All eyes were set on another lucky trainee who got called in.

Yeonjoo started fumbling with her fingers, like every time she wanted to do something manual, be it holding a mike or tying a bucket of water to a string on the ceiling. Her pride got the best of her as she made a bet with herself.

“If I am not chosen, I will leave Frost,” she thought reluctantly. “Surely I can debut somewhere else…”

But what would happen of ChaeSeo and their wish to debut together? What would happen of all the hours of training she spent here? How would she tell her father…

“Song Yeonjoo,” said Hwang Jimin. But because nobody stood up, she was forced to repeat. “Song Yeonjoo?”

Yeonjoo, finally hearing her name stood up. “What?” she asked, surprised.

“You go in,” replied Jimin with a side smile.

“Thank god,” whispered Yeonjoo. “I really didn’t want to leave…”

As she walked past the stylist, she heard Jimin say: “Congratulations kid, I knew you could do it…”

“Thanks Jimin-unnie,” Yeonjoo beamed while going inside the gym.

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Baekhui, slurping on her banana milk, was comfortably slouched on the floor, head supported by the end of the alcove bench. She wasn’t really expecting anything. She was still young, barely 18, and hadn’t been a trainee at Frost for as long as some other girls. She had auditioned, of course! It was a great way to test the stage, see what these kinds of auditions looked like as well as practice in front of a judging public. However, she didn’t really think of getting in. And since she thought that way, she hadn’t put any pressure on herself and did exceptionally well. Well, she was used to not get in on the first try. It was the same thing with her first audition for Frost: rejection. Her brother had to convince her to try again. He always had so much confidence in her…

“Jang Baekhyeon,” announced Jimin next, cutting Baekhui’s thoughts short.

The called trainee stood up with a look of incomprehension.

“What? I got in?” she asked Jimin.

Some of the girls around just stared at her in disbelief. It was the chance of a lifetime and she acted like that? Noticing, Baekhui’s hand went to her ear, beginning to tug it, as she felt a little guilty.

“Yes,” answered Jimin with a raised brow. “Now please go in.”

Baekhui walked to the door, then took a step back, looking left and right. Her face lighted up when she spotted a trashcan and she just threw her empty banana milk container before stepping in the gym. She could almost hear her brother saying, “I told you so!”

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Jihye was using the waiting time to actually do something productive, unlike everyone else who just stood silent, waiting. Silent was perfectly fine with her. In fact, she loved it. It meant she was able to concentrate.

Nobody really knew how many members the new group would consist of. But it was clear that Frost, being the ‘Solo Machine’ wouldn’t suddenly debut a group as big as Super Junior, for instance. They would most likely go with very few members. Four sounded reasonable.

While thinking, Jihye was quietly sketching the outline of a song. Technically, at that point where there was no music or even a beat, it looked more like a poem. She was mumbling her lyrics when Jimin stood in front of her. Lifting her eyes, Jihye met Jimin’s smiling face. The woman always found the younger trainee to be quite cute.

“What is it unnie?” Jihye wondered.

“Kang Jihye, you’ve been selected too. You can go in.”

Jihye eyes widened and she stood up, packing up her bag. She always had so many things with her that her bag looked quite big compared to her. She had her notebook, some pencils and both her iPad and iPod. Today, she was also carrying the clothes she needed for training. The small girl turned to Jimin and bowed.

“Thank you unnie!” she happily said before going inside the gym.

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ChaeSeo saw everyone enter one by one. Some of the trainees were like strangers to her, but she recognized her friend Yeonjoo. Their eyes met and they silently expressed their joy to see the other.

As soon as everyone was there, Lee SeoYoung scanned the girls’ faces with an unwavering gaze. She then smiled before lightly clapping.

“Congratulations everyone,” she told the girls. “If you are here, it is because I thought it would be a good idea to debut a new group and I want you to be part of it. Now, you can refuse if you want to and it won’t be held against you in the future.”

The room stayed silent and ChaeSeo wondered who would be crazy enough to pass on such an opportunity after going through the auditions. It would be such a waste of time…

“Good! I see that you all seem to be strong-minded, already decided on debuting. I will now put you through pre-debut training. Your group won’t be announced as of now; we will keep that for later, although some rumors are already circulating.”

Lee SeoYoung smiled as if she was laughing at a joke only she knew of.

“You will be a six member unit called Gold. I want you to train together before announcing the positions you’ll be in. Is that fine with you?”

The girls looked at each other and there seemed to be no objections. ChaeSeo thought it was great, already seeing all kinds of play on words she could do with ‘gold’. Jaelyn, more fashion oriented, smiled as it perfectly matched the image the wanted to debut with. Gold was a strong metal that was expensive and useful. She could see how golden accessories or clothes could be made. She definitely had to talk to Jimin about it.

“Since you don’t have any objection, I will leave you with MinSeok, who will be your choreographer. It’s actually quite difficult to find a good manager nowadays…”

Baekhui laughed at what she thought was a joke earning herself a smile from their CEO. 

“You are free for the rest of the day, but you might want to move your things into your new apartment. Training will begin tomorrow.”

With that said, she smiled and stood up, bowed and left with all the staff that was present, leaving them with only MinSeok.

Jihye blinked a few times when she realized that he was the same age as Jaelyn, 23. That could get awkward…

“How about I leave you some time to pack? We could meet in the lobby in an hour and a half and I’ll show you the way.”

The girls agreed to MinSeok’s proposition and they all went to their rooms.

Frost, unlike many companies, had decided to make the dorm really close to the office. In fact, there was a ‘tunnel’ under both building that linked them together. Since there were always people inside the offices, the doors weren’t locked. But you still needed a key to go from the offices to the dorms. And you had to pass by the guard who stood in the lobby.

The girls were all going the same way, all living in the dorms. They passed through the tunnel, unlocking the door with their magnetic keys and Yeonjoo even greeted the guard. She knew him and his substitutes for eight years, after all. They had practically watched her grown.

Eight years can mean building up quite a lot of stuff. It was probably the reason why Yeonjoo took the longest out of them to pack. Jaelyn had just thrown everything into her suitcases, her organized mess taking no more than 5 minutes to clear. She was used to packing, just like Baekhui, who had lived all around Asia and America to study abroad. She took barely 10 minutes and had time to help Jihye, one of her roommates, to get her suitcases down.

At the end of the hour and a half, everyone except Yeonjoo, was down in the lobby, waiting excitedly to discover their new home. When the latecomer finally arrived, everyone helped her get her things into the company’s van like they previously did with theirs.

The trip wasn’t really long as their new apartment was just a few blocks away. MinSeok told them that they could go to Frost headquarters by foot if they felt like it, but that he just brought the car for the luggage. During the trip, only Naeun and Jaelyn had stayed silent. The two younger girls, who had roomed together for the past two years, were already used to each other. The other two had been friends for a long time and had bonded over their love for SHINee. It was in moments like this that Jaelyn, as the oldest, felt a little bit left out.

They arrived in the apartment, where a doorman had helped them get everything they owned upstairs, and just went in raptures over how cozy, pretty and big the apart looked. There were many rooms: three bedrooms that each contained two beds, two small bathrooms (which was super useful since it was after all a girl’s apartment), a dressing room that could serve as a walk-in and a big room that was living-room, dining room and kitchen all in one.

At that point, MinSeok just left them, telling them to be ready next morning at 7AM in the lobby, prepared for an intense training day. That meant no going out late tonight.

Left on their own, the girls looked at each other not knowing what to do now.

Baekhyeon, who was the most sociable one between them all, took matters into her own hands.

“I believe we haven’t been formally introduced yet. I am Jang Baekhyeon, but I would like you to call me Baekhui,” she told them before bowing.

Following her lead, Yeonjoo introduced herself, followed by Jihye, Jaelyn, ChaeSeo and Naeun. Soon, it was the time to divide the rooms. They made a game of rock-paper-scissor and fate decided that Jihye would room with Baekhyeon, Naeun with ChaeSeo and Jaelyn with Yeonjoo, in the room that was slightly bigger.

A little bit disappointed not to be with her best friend, Yeonjoo decided not to let it show and went to unpack. Everyone pretty much did the same except for Jihye who sat on the living room couch to read and Jaelyn who just left everything in her suitcases for her to organize later and went to take a shower. In a short time, the walk-in closet was filled with clothes. Yeonjoo and ChaeSeo’s clothes were all mixed up together, as they would often get outfits from the other’s closet, while Baehyeon’s more boyish style stood out like a sore thumb. But, ChaeSeo promised she would take her shopping if she wanted and offered Naeun to let her borrow things from now on too if she felt like it.

6PM and they ate, meals courtesy of ChaeSeo, the only one who really knew how to cook between them all, as Jaelyn specialized in pastries. The dinner was quite silent at first, but Baekhui, the group’s social butterfly kept a conversation alive with the help of Naeun, who had tuned Ai in. ChaeSeo discovered with amazement that both Jaelyn and Naeun possessed the same birth date she did, Naeun being exactly the same age.

9PM and the girls went to their rooms, knowing the next day was going to be hard. ChaeSeo actually went to bed early, wishing to wake up early enough to cook breakfast for everyone else again. She didn’t seem bothered by the fact that Naeun had kept her bedside lamp on.

Jihye was probably the last one to actually fall asleep as she had a peculiar routine before going to bed. She read, went to take a shower, combed her hair, prepared her outfit for the next day and finished her song. She believed that while she wasn’t perfect, it was pretty good. She would sleep on it. Maybe inspiration would strike next morning and she would feel like changing some parts.

Author's note

Sorry to everyone who did not get chosen! You can unsubscribe if you want, I would understand, but you would miss having cameos or being part of another group, why not.

I tried to keep the characters as close to their real personalities as possible by inserting habits, personal taste and opinions in everything. If you feel it isn’t portrayed well, you can tell me. I do not guarantee I’ll change it since you’ve sold your character’s soul to me. Remember? :)

Now, I want to make the story slightly different from the others by creating tensions, friendships and rivalry from the start. I mean, their personalities don’t all match with each other’s. That was all part of my plan!

Why December 12? Is that a special date? According to Wiki, a lot of thing happened on this date. There was even a coup d’état in South Korea… It is also the birthday of Qri, Eunjung and Seungri… Fans who are Queens, VIP and now Carats will have lot to do on that day…

And, how can I say this… I think two people who applied are actually the same person. Would that be possible? If it’s the case, it’s perfectly fine. You can tell me, I would like to know if my hunch was right… kekeke

Please comment and check the website, I plan to make the Gold page more complete... Just wait like 20 minutes... ^^