Fifth Chapter: Day by Day

“Don’t you girls worry; I have plenty of things planned out for you today,” announced Seo Eun as she stepped into Gold’s dorm first thing in the morning.

Jaelyn was sitting on a stool by the counter and raised a brow at the statement, choosing not to comment. She instead took a sip of her glass of water, pointing alternatively to three doors.

“Jihye and Baekhyeon are both asleep. They went to bed quite late,” Jaelyn admitted in a matter-of-fact tone. “Chaeseo is sleeping as well and Yeonjoo should be about to wake up… right now.”

As Jaelyn finished her sentence, a happy Yeonjoo, already dressed for the day, greeted both girls before plopping down in front of the TV next to Naeun.

“What are you watching?” she asked the younger girl.

Naeun blushed before answering. “Reruns of The Dreamer…” she shyly stated.

While Yeonjoo was teasing Naeun about her apparent crush on Sang Jaesung, Seo Eun darted an impressed gaze at Jaelyn. They hadn’t been living together for that long, but the oldest already knew the other’s schedule. Frost’s solo artist smiled. These girls were starting to look like a real group more and more each day.

Yeonjoo lifted her head and noticed Seo Eun, deep in her thoughts.

“Are you thinking of a way to wake up those lazy heads?” Yeonjoo asked. “Cause if you leave it to me, I can get them up in 2 minutes.”

The actress held two fingers in front of her face, smiling in a welcoming way.

“Sure, do what you can.”

With a grin, Yeonjoo sprinted to the kitchen, to get a bowl, then to the restrooms. True to her words, after just a few seconds, there was a scream and both Baekhyeon and Jihye rushed out of their room, drenched.

“What were you thinking?” Baekhyeon said before noticing Seo Eun. “Oh…”

Jihye tried to keep her long hair from sticking to her face, silently scowling.

“Maknaes, ” called Yeonjoo, coming back with the bowl under her arm, “it’s your job to be taken advantage of by the older members.”

She winked and went toward Chaeseo’s room, only to be stopped in her track as the latter came out with tired eyes.

“What is happening? Who screamed?” Chaeseo lazily asked.

“Nothing happened,” Yeonjoo countered, seeming slightly disappointed she couldn’t prank on her best friend.

“What is there to eat,” Chaeseo said, ignoring her best friend and going straight for the fridge.

As she took out a few ingredients and started cooking, she felt a light tug on her arm. Jihye, still dripping wet from Yeonjoo’s earlier wake up call was looking up at Chaeseo with her big eyes. “Are you cooking, unnie?” the younger asked. “Can you make something for me?”

And it was so unusual to see Jihye actually ask for something that most of the girls opened their mouths in surprise. Jaelyn let out a soft chuckle because out of all the members, Jihye had to have the most natural aegyo and she did experienced it before when she asked for her help in hair matters.

“Aw!” cooed Chaeseo, melting in front of their maknae. She pulled Jihye into a hug, giggling at the fact that with her wet hair and big eyes, she looked like a cat that had spent the night under the rain. It was very cute and Chaeseo loved cute things.

“Me too,” added Yeonjoo. “Please, Ms Lunchlady!”

“Sure, sure…” Chaeseo said, not minding her friend’s way of calling her.

“You were saying something about a busy day?” Naeun pointed out to a still shocked Seo Eun.

“Yes. As soon as you are done with your breakfast, come to the dance practice room.”

Baekhyeon watched Seo Eun retreat and sat down next to Jaelyn at the counter, waiting for Chaeseo to finish their breakfast.

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“They look like friends!” Seo Eun reported to Minseok few minutes later.

“And how is this a bad thing? They’ve been training together for quite some time now and have spent time as a group for the last two weeks. They are together 24/7, most people would begin to get along too…”

Seo Eun sighed, knowing he was right. “This is so easy,” she muttered. “At least I won’t feel bad when I leave.”

“And when exactly do you leave?” Minseok wondered, having heard her despite the fact she wasn’t speaking loudly. That was how much attention he paid her.

“I’m not sure,” she lied.

He was about to ask more when Gold walked in. Yeonjoo shouted before latching herself on the floor.

“Is this what this was about? You are giving us shoes?” Baekhyeon asked, while in the corner of her eyes, she observed the actress hugging the footwear with twinkly eyes.

For Yeonjoo’s excuse, there were a lot of shoes, maybe forty pairs or so. They came in all size and shape and while they all could be generically called “high heels”, some of them were kitten and mid-heels. Chaeseo picked a pair of sandals and a pair of pumps and checked for their size before happily sitting down and proceeding to try some.

“You have to pick one,” answered Seo Eun after laughing at the girl’s behavior. “However, we are only lending them to you for the day.”

“Choose wisely,” added Minseok with a side smirk.

Baekhyeon chose a pair of mid-heeled espadrille-typed wedge, thinking it should be more comfortable than stilettos, but she really wondered why she had to do this. Jaelyn who was used to these kinds of shoes chose a comfortable boot she thought she could easily wear during winter. Jihye and Naeun struggled since both of them never wore high heels, not unlike Baekhyeon.

“What now?” Baekhyeon asked trying to align steps in her new shoes.

“Exactly what you are doing: You are walking around this room until you get used to it.”

“You see,” Seo Eun felt the need to explain, “Most girl groups will have to wear high heels for performance one day or another. Miss A danced in sneakers until Goodbye Baby but you will debut with heels. It’ll be easier to even out your heights.”

“You are not that far, but if Jaelyn stands next to Jihye, it’ll look a little bit weird,” Minseok pointed at their 9 centimeters difference.

And the girls listened to their stand-in managers and began pacing around the room. While it was easy for most of them, even if Chaeseo almost fell once, Jihye had the hardest time.

“Can you dance?” Minseok said after the girls have been walking for nearly 30 minutes. Without waiting for an answer, he went to the CD player and pressed play. A catchy tune filled the speakers, which Naeun immediately recognized as ‘Divergence’, one of Seo Eun hit back in 2010.

“Really?” the blonde commented while raising a brow.

Jaelyn and Baekhyeon exchanged a glance before starting to recreate the dance moves. Baekhyeon had a little bit of a hard time getting used to the shoes but still managed a good performance. On the sidelines, Jihye, Chaeseo and Yeonjoo tried to dance along while Naeun could only sway form left to right. She didn’t know the dance and always had the hardest time learning choreographies.

Amused, Seo Eun watched them, nodding her head to the beat and muttering the lyrics. She wished she could go and dance with them, but she couldn’t. As the song went into the second chorus, Jaelyn stepped out of the line and walked toward her managers. With a smile, she nudged Minseok who quickly got up to join the group. Standing in the middle, between Jaelyn and Baekhyeon, he proceeded to dance all the moves and exaggerate them. Seo Eun giggled because Divergence was a really girly dance with a lot of twirls, hip shaking and y hair tosses. The sight of her guy friend dancing it was horrendous, but somehow too funny to look away. Minseok was clearly giving his all, enjoying the way Seo Eun’s eyes twinkled when she laughed. If only she could see that Jaesung was never going to dance that way for her and that he was the one who could make her laugh.

When the dance came to an end, Baekhyeon dropped to the floor to remove her shoes and let her feet breathe. She sighed when she felt the particular tenderness of blisters in making. Great, just great…

Jaelyn friendlily patted Minseok’s shoulder, congratulating him for his dance, as he still was her favorite member of the House of Frost. She then sat down to take a sip out of her water bottle. She had been right to bring it, they had summoned them to the dance practice room to dance. Wiping with the back of her hand, she threw her bottle to the thirsty Chaeseo, who accepted it with a raised brow and shy smile.

“Okay, thanks for this wonderful performance,” Seo Eun stated with a smile. “I think we’ve seen what we wanted to see for the moment. Right?”

Minseok nodded and she continued. “Put your heels back on, we will proceed to the next stop, the vocal practice room.”

With few grunts of the girls who already felt like their feet were on fire, Seo Eun urged everyone out of the room. Jihye wondered if this was some sort of test to see their real abilities.

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As the girls finish singing their favorite songs, sometimes interrupted by Seo Eun’s pointers at their mistakes, Jihye felt like her suspicions were right. She anxiously swallowed her fear, as she knew what was next: rapping practice. And Jihye had to be one of the worst rapper in all KPop history. When Seo Eun said it, no one was really surprised, but Yeonjoo still threw her hands in the air. She felt so good to go toward something she was actually really good at. During singing, she felt like she was making a fool out of herself. Especially compared to Naeun or Jaelyn’s voice. But her prideful side was contended when she realized that Naeun was a bad dancer and that both weren’t exactly rappers either. With her newfound confidence she smiled at the other members who didn’t have a clue why she’d be so gleeful.

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Once everyone had managed to show their talents, Seo Eun sent the girls on a late lunch break. Giving them until 3:00, Baekhyeon offered they go eat outside. Everyone agreed because a lunch were they didn’t have to cook anything sounded really good.

“I want ramyun,” stated Baekhyeon.

“And I want beef,” sighed Chaeseo.

“Remember, girls, we’re dieting…” And coming from the food-lover Jaelyn, it was slightly ironic. Baekhyun and Jihye exchanged a knowing glance, remembering the other night when they found her eating in the closet. She had claimed that it had been a very long time since she last ate sugar and that she was weak-willed, but both maknaes knew better.

“I think there is a salad bar two corners from here,” said Jihye softly.

They resigned for their salad and Chaeseo figured she could at least add chicken to her salad Cesar. That was diet-worthy, right?

The girls didn’t expect lunch to go by so fast; neither did they expect Jaelyn to fall asleep on Jihye’s shoulder and Yeonjoo to flirt with the waiter. As they walked to the company, they passed by SM’s building.

“Should we stop and say ‘hi’,” Chaeseo wondered out loud.

As the group was contemplating whether they should or not go pay their respect to the few friends some of them had, and while Yeonjoo stubbornly refused to enter the building, they saw familiar figures walking out the doors. The girls of Gold quickly heard fangirls scream out the name of the favorite Idols as they tried to protect their ears. It was EXO. As the six members of Gold began retreating, Baekhyun spotted them and waved at Jihye. He then nudged their leader who gave a small acknowledging nod her way. While fangirls screamed harder, thinking their idols had waved and nod at them and EXO’S managers tried their best to maintain a safe distance between the group and the rest, the girls panicked and quickly retreated away from the crowd.

“Why do they know us?” simply asked Baekhyeon.

“I know them,” admitted Jihye.

“I do hope no one noticed us or took a picture! I do not want a scandal with EXO before we even debut!” Yeonjoo said, harsher than she had planned.

“Beside, isn’t it weird that we have the same name?” Baekhyeon plaintively asked.

All the members of Gold stopped on their tracks and started laughing. It was indeed slightly weird.

“Let’s go back,” Jaelyn assertively said while pushing the girls in the right direction.

“So,” Chaeseo whispered to Jihye. “Anything happening between you and an EXo member?”

Jihye blushed and hid her face as the rapper cheekily smiled and pulled her into a tight embrace.

“You can tell unnie everything!” offered the romance-hungry Chaeseo but Jihye just shook her head to say nothing was going on.

“There isn’t any good gossip lately,” Yeonjoo who was listening to them sadly said.

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As all the girls went back into Frost Headquarters, they were oriented toward Lee SeoYoung’s office. Surprised, Jaelyn took the lead and opened the door, bowing as soon as she entered. The other girls mimicked her and as they got up again, they were met with their CEO and Seo Eun.

“I’m sure you are wondering why you are here,” Seoyoung started. “We have a lot to talk about. Maybe it’d be best if you sat down?”

She indicated few chairs and Gold sat in front on the other side of the next, next to Seo Eun.

“Firstly, we decided on your debut song and Minseok is already working on the choreography. Since it’s your debut, but I was reported that you already act as a group, we’ll give you 3 months to prepare for your debut.”

The girls cheered and looked at each other with sparkly eyes. They couldn’t believe they were finally going to debut!

“We want to make a strong impression as your debut will determine if we should debut other groups in the future. As you know, Frost is called the “Solo Machine” and we want to see how you’ll be received. I know this is a lot of pressure for you, but I’d rather make this clear right away. We, The Crew, will make sure you are prepared and will not let you go alone. The House of Frost, remember? We’re a family, now.”

Seo Eun giggled and looked at Gold teasingly mouthing ‘we are sisters’.

“Gold will also be given a personal website where you’ll post about yourself. We want the public to know you while you prepare for your debut. The first month will be centered around the song as the recording will take place in three weeks. The next month will be about the dance and after that you’ll prepare for the stage. You’ll be having variety lessons on top of your individual and usual lessons.”

The girls’ eyes were wide open at all the information that was thrown their way. With that much things to do, they figured personal stuff was going to wait… Maybe that was Frost’s way of making sure they wouldn’t be involved in a dating scandal? If they were that busy, thought Naeun, they wouldn’t even have time to meet with boys.

“With today’s evaluation, your trainee record and your audition for Gold, we finally managed to give you your positions. They shall be announced on your website as soon as our teaser pictures are taken, which should be in the end of the second month.”

Seoyoung reached for a paper and stated:

“Jaelyn will be Leader, Lead Dancer and Lead vocalist because we feel that as the oldest you’ll have the maturity to handle the role. And we gave you both lead positions because of your excellent skills in dance and sing but we feel that as a leader you’ll have a lot on your plate. Don’t forget the leader has to represent the group and if Gold runs into any scandal or problems, it’s your responsibility to protect the group. We think you also might want to continue modeling. If this is your wish we will encourage you in that way.”

“Chaeseo, you’ll be Main rapper, sub vocalist and sub dancer. You have shown a great talent in rapping and you are also quite good at both singing and dancing. You’ll have the most rap parts and you’ll support the vocal line. You may even have to take some parts if one of the lead or main vocalists is unable to perform. As the second oldest we trust you’ll manage.”

“Naeun will be Main vocalist. With your vocal abilities, we figured you’d do great at that position. As main vocal, you’ll also be in charge of some OSTs and you’ll be the one to duet with Sang Jaesung.”

As soon as she said the last words, Seo Eun sprang from her seat and Naeun’s eyes threatened to pop out of their sockets. “What?” both girls yelled at the same time.

“Yes, you’ll be feature in that song. In fact, you’ll also be in the MV. Because of this, we will also give you the position of Visual.”

Naeun was taken aback. Inside her head, she could hear bells and bird chirping. She was going to sing a duet with her idol, the guy that she liked and they would get to act in the same MV! Still on cloud nine, she didn’t hear Seoyoung continue.

“Yeonjoo, you’ll be Lead Rapper and Sub dancer, just like Chaeseo. You’ll have a little less lines, but we will also have you continue your acting career. Because of that, we figured you’d be busier. Since you are going to be so mediatized, you’ll also take on the position of Face of the Group. It also means that just like Naeun, your actions will be closely associated with the group. So you’ll have to work hard to maintain your image.”

“Baekhyeon will be Main Dancer, as she clearly shown she mastered many different styles of dances. You’ll also be a vocalist, but will not have a lot of lines. I’d say a little less than Chaeseo but a little more than Yeonjoo. Since your brother is also an Idol, it’ll be very easy for you to get invited to variety shows. Because of that, you’ll have to be really attentive during variety lessons.”

“Jihye, last but not least, you’ll be Lead Vocalist along with Jaelyn. You will obviously also be the maknae which always gives you a special status to the fans and general public. You’ll also be given OSTs and will most likely be invited to variety shows as well. However, since you are underage, and this goes for Baekhyeon too, we will closely watch and choose the shows.”

Lee Seoyoung put the paper she held back on her desk and gave a reassuring smile.

“I know this sounds like a lot to take in, but you’ll be guided through your experience by the best of us. Something else I want to discuss with you is the choice of stage names. You are free to come up with your own ideas, but we will chose whether or not we accept them. If you ever find on, you should talk about it with your manager.”

All the heads turned to Seo Eun, as she already knew about Naeun and Baekhyeon’s wish to get a stage name. The blonde gave a soft smile and shook her head from left to right.

“Seo Eun will be having her comeback stage a month and a half before you do, she won’t be acting as your manager anymore. This is the last thing I wanted to talk about with you today.”

She rose up and went to the door, opening it to let a man inside. Of average height and built, he seemed to be around his mid-twenties. He had a pretty face, noted Yeonjoo. Totally in sync with the rumors that all the staff of Frost was young and good looking.

“Hello,” the man formally introduced himself with a bow. “My name is Oh Kyoungjae and I’ll be your manager from now on. You can depend on me for most of your problems and I hope we’ll get friends.”

His politeness and gentle look was so far away from Seo Eun’s apparent rudeness and Minseok’s harshness when he taught that the girls only stared at him in awe. Blinking, Kyoungjae only stood still, completely clueless to the shock these girls just had. A debut sooner than expected, their schedule being full for the next three months, their positions being announced and the change in their manager, yes, that was a lot to handle for six young girls. Oh the trouble one goes through to become an idol…