"MIRI, WAKE UUUUUUUUP!!!!"

 

"OOF!"

 

WHO THE HELL!?!?

 

Groaning in pain, I opened my eyes and glared at Chaeri as she grinned at me widely, sitting on top of my stomach.

 

"WHAT THE FLYING PANDAS!!!" I exclaimed angrily. "I'M TRYING TO SLEEP HERE!!"

 

"DON'T CARE!!" She then started to bounce in excitement. "GUESS WHAT, GUESS WHAT, GUESS WHAT, GUESS WHAT!!!!!"

 

"I DON'T KNOW AND I DON'T CARE! NOW, GET OFF! I. CAN'T. BREATHE!!" I shoved her off of me, causing her to fall back on the bed. Chaeri quickly sat back up with a pout.

 

"Did you seriously forget what today is?"

 

I raised an eyebrow and gave her a look. "What is so important about today that you had to ing tackle me while I was sleeping?"

 

"TODAY IS THE FILMING FOR OUR MV!!!"

 

My eyes widened.

 

Wait........

 

HUH!?!?!?

 

".........That's today?" Chaeri smacked my head.

 

"YES, YOU ! NOW LET'S GO GET READY! EVERYONE'S ALREADY UP!!" She commanded before heading to our bathroom.

 

I ignored the pain and instead stared at her with wide eyes.

 

Today is the day...

 

I instantly got out of bed and ran after her, shouting. "OH MY GOSHNESS!!!! WAIT FOR MEEE!!!"

 

---

 

“Where are we going, Kyung?” I asked curiously from my seat  behind Kyung, in the van.

 

“We’re going to get something to eat before the filming starts.” Kyung replied as he drove.

 

“FOOD! YAY!!” J-Kat exclaimed happily.

 

“But, I’m ordering.”

 

“NO!!!” Chaeri cried dramatically and pointed a finger at him. “YOU ALWAYS BUY US CRAPPY !!”

 

“It’s not crappy. It’s healthy.” Kyung stated. “And how many times must I tell you to watch your language?”

 

“SCREW YOU AND YOUR CRAPPY !” Chaeri shouted in fluent English. Chaeri grew up in America as a half american, half korean girl (though she looked more american than she did korean), so she was taught how to speak both languages, but she moved to Korea not long after her parents divorced.

 

The reason why I can actually understand her is because I grew up in a similar way. I spent my childhood in America when my mom was still married to my father (who was american). But after their divorce, she took Myon and I to Korea since she didn’t really want to be near father anymore.

 

I didn’t mind though. I didn’t exactly ‘like’ my father. He had done some….bad things in the past that I would really prefer not to talk about.

 

“You do know that I could speak English too, right?” Chaeri froze in her seat as Kyung spoke in English, glancing at her.

 

“UHHH….SQUIRREL!!!” Chaeri shouted suddenly, quickly turning her head in a different direction, making me laugh.

 

“…..What the heck are they saying?” Suye muttered to Sooyun and Jihan, who both shrugged in response.

 

“Man, I can’t understand them!” J-Kat pouted.

 

“I don’t understand you guys.” Our japanese/korean member, Hana, spoke in fluent Japanese.

 

HyunAe sighed. “I give up! Chinese for the win, yo!~” She said in fluent Chinese.

 

“WHAT ARE YOU ALL SAYING!?” J-Kat cried.

 

I put my head in my hands, feeling a headache coming on. The only languages I knew were Korean and English. I had absolutely NO idea what the hell the others were saying. Gah…my poor head…

 

“QUIET!” Sooyun shushed them as we made it to the drive through at one of the restaurants. “WE’RE HERE.”

 

They all stopped immediately at the scary tone the umma of our group was using. “Sorry umma…”

 

“Idiots…” Jihan sighed as Kyung rolled down his window to order.

 

“Hello, what would you like to order?”

 

“Could I have eight salads with a side of yogurt for each, and eight bottles of wa-“

 

“WE WANT HAMBURGERS!!!” I shouted, sticking my head out my window.

 

“E-Excuse me?”

 

“YOU HEARD HER!! GIVE US THE HAMBURGERS!!” Chaeri shouted loudly.

 

“I-I’m sorry. We don’t sell that here.”

 

“WE WANT AMERICAN FOOD!!!” I exclaimed in English. Chaeri nodded in agreement.

 

“USA! USA! USA! US-“ Jihan threw her shoes at us, cutting off our chanting.

 

“SHUT UP AND BEHAVE OR I’LL CUT OUT THE VOCAL CORDS OF THE BOTH OF YOU.” She threatened, sending us a deathly glare.

 

…….Let’s just say neither Chaeri or I spoke a word for the rest of the ride after that. 

 

---

 

“I’m so nervous….” J-Kat murmured as we all stepped out of the dressing room, already dressed up and ready for filming.

 

Sooyun patted her back. “Don’t be! We’ve practiced really hard for this! You’ll be okay!”

 

“Girls!” We all looked to see one of the staff members calling us over. “It’s time!

 

I quickly brushed the nervousness away.

 

I’ll be fine.

 

Like Sooyun said, we’ve practiced a whole lot for this.

 

I can do it.

 

“GEMS! Hands in!” We all turned to a confident Chaeri before placing our hands on top of each other.

 

“Hana…dul….set!”

 

“GEMS FIGHTING!!!” We threw our hands in the air, laughing.

 

I can do this.

 

---

 

“Alright! We are going to be shooting the dancing first. Go up on-set and wait for the signal to start, understand?” We all nodded at the director.

 

As we slowly started making our way on-set, I bit my bottom lip.

 

“Calm down.” I mentally told myself before getting into my position for the dance. I looked up with my brown orbs and watched the director as the music started playing.

 

Then, he pointed at us, finally signaling to start.

 

Without hesitation, we all started to dance in synch.

 

When the song finished the first chorus, I started to forget about all the nervousness I had before and felt my body movements become more confident.

Before I knew it, the song had ended successfully with no mistakes.

 

“GREAT JOB, LADIES! REMARKABLE!!” The director clapped along with the staff members, praising us.

 

I was truly amazed on how well we did for our first try. I had thought we would have had a bit more trouble recording, but amazingly, we didn’t.

 

Hours passed and we were almost done filming the mv. All that was left was a few scenes with the group together and that was about it!

 

“For this scene, you four” the director pointed to Jihan, Sooyun, J-Kat, and I as he continued, “go in first. Miri, don’t forget. Camera one is going to zoom in on you first. You need to pick up that notebook over there on that prop and act out as planned, alright?”

 

I nodded with a smile. “Got it!”

 

And so, we waited for the music to start before we headed on-set. As soon as it did, I linked arms with J-Kat and happily skipped towards the couch, laughing without a care in the world. Jihan and Sooyun followed after us with smiles of their own.

 

I plopped down on the couch and grabbed the notebook that laid next to me, opening it as I did so. I pretended to be thoughtful, tapping my cheek as the girls started crowding around me, curiously. I was about to start lip-synching, but something very unexpected happened.

 

Black.

 

Everything was black.

 

I sat there for a while in shock.

 

Then, realization hit me.

 

The power went out.

 

My heart dropped and my eyes widened in fear. I quickly started looking around, hoping to find at least one ray of light, but there was none.

 

It was just pure darkness.

 

And that terrified me.

 

I know I shouldn’t be afraid of the dark at my age, but I couldn’t help it. I had nyctophobia.

 

I completely ignored all the panicked voices that seemed to float through the air and stood up. I searched for a flashlight as I walked around aimlessly through the darkness, but soon froze in my steps when I heard a disturbing noise behind me.

 

“It’s just in my head. It’s just in my head.” I repeated in my mind and continued my search, more hastily this time. With every step I took, the noise seemed to be getting louder and louder, echoing off the walls.

 

I froze over once again and began to shake in complete fear.

 

I let out a small whimper, falling to the floor and covered my eyes with my hands, silently praying for the lights to come back on soon.

 

And a few minutes later, it did.

 

“What happened!?” I heard the director shout.

 

“Miri?” I unshielded my eyes and looked up. Jihan was staring down at me, confusion and worry in her dark brown eyes. “Are you okay?”

 

I paused. “I-I’m fine.” My voice came out a bit shaky, but I forced a smile. I slowly stood up. Jihan eyed me a bit and opened to say something, but was cut-off.

 

“Director! I found the source of the power outage problem!” A man with a clipboard hurriedly ran towards the director, panting. “Someone cut the wires that connects to the lights!”

 

“WHAT!?” He yelled, outraged. I flinched at the loudness of his voice and stared in shock.

 

“What’s going on?” J-Kat ran up to us with the other members, concern laced in her voice.

 

“Someone cut the power off.” Jihan crossed her arms.

 

“What the hell?” Chaeri scrunched up her eyebrows.

 

“Girls.” Kyung walked up to us, his hands shoved in his pockets with a calm look on his face, but I could actually see the irritation behind his calm demeanor. “It seems that we have to stop here today. The rest of the filming is being postponed.”

 

“WHAT!? WHY??” HyunAe exclaimed in anger and confusion. “WE’RE ALMOST DONE FILMING, SO WHY STOP NOW!?”

 

“Yeah, what gives?” Sooyun clenched her fists, trying to hold her anger in.

 

“There is a very good chance that the person who cut the power off was targeting you all. The director is afraid to move on with the filming because he does not want anyone to get hurt.” Kyung let out a small sigh. “I know all of you are angry and disappointed, I am too, but if you are being targeted, then I have to do everything in my power to keep you safe.”

 

We all kept silent. Kyung was only trying to protect us.

 

It couldn’t be helped.

 

“Alright.” They all looked at me. “Let’s go.”

 

As I walked away, Hana caught up to my side.

 

“Unnie….” I glanced at her, seeing a look of trouble on her face.

 

“What is it?” I asked.

 

“If…..” She played with the tips of her dark hair. “If we really are being targeted, do you think there’s a chance that it might be the same people from before?”

 

I paused for a moment, recalling what happened on the day of our first photoshoot.

 

My eyes widened.

 

Oh my god…

 

Could it be…?

 

Inwardly sighing, I gave Hana a small, reassuring smile.

 

“Don’t worry about it. Let’s go.”

 

I will protect them.

 

No matter what.