When Jessica was chosen for debut with the other future Girls Generation members, more than a few people were surprised. It had somehow been expected that the younger Jung sister would debut first.

Krystal had been scouted first, she’d taken vocal lessons first, she’d taken advanced classes first, the list went on. Once she had arrived, everyone had felt that Krystal surpassed Jessica quite quickly. Krystal herself had thought that she would be debuting soon; she sent a note of ‘congrats’ to Jessica when she found out, but put it out of her mind.

Concentrate on yourself, she would tell herself.

On the other end, Jessica was quite surprised. Indeed, she had been practicing all day very seriously for the past years. She’d spent most of her time dancing and singing to whatever was the song of the week in spare practice rooms, watched Krystal as she followed Leeteuk sunbae-nim around, watched her stop following sunbae-nim around, updated their parents on all of this.

Now, Jessica was spending almost all of her time practicing and getting to know her dozen future group mates. Every morning, she’d send a 500 word email update about Krystal’s going-ons and her own status to their parents, making sure to quell their worries.

Just be the best older sister, she would tell herself.

And then Girls Generation debuted with nine members, and everyone made a big deal, and Jessica received another note of ‘congrats’ from Krystal, and she threw it out with some trash, and everyone smiled for days and Jessica felt brilliant.

Then, she wondered why her parents hadn’t come to see their debut. And somehow, she didn’t feel like the brightest star anymore.

The next morning, Jessica typed up another email update to her parents.

And wash and repeat.