2005. Cleaning up her room was something that fifteen-year-old Taeyeon did not enjoy much. As a trainee in SM Entertainment, she was glad to have been assigned a room of her own in the dorm.  She had been there for just a few months when she received the notice that a new trainee had arrived and would be sharing the room with her, which kind of in Taeyeon’s opinion. Just how many trainees SM wanted for this girl group the company wanted to have? Taeyeon could just hold on to her hope that she would be debuted as a solo singer instead of a girl group member.

     “Taeyeon-ssi?”

     Taeyeon looked up upon hearing her name and there, at her dorm room’s door, stood one of SM’s managers with another girl. “Yes, Oppa?”

     “Taeyeon, I want you to meet Stephanie Hwang. She’s your new roommate. She has just arrived from California so I trust that you will help her get settled and help her learn her way around, all right?”

     Oh great, Taeyeon mentally rolled her eyes. “Uh, yes, Oppa. I will.” Turning to the girl, “Hello, I’m Kim Taeyeon. It’s nice to meet you.”

     The girl, Stephanie, smiled and that was when Taeyeon really looked at her for the first time—Stephanie Hwang was beautiful and her smile went beyond that lame adjective.