“Caramel,” I heard my best friend say, I looked at him with sleepy eyes. “I found a good agency that is looking for a girl group. Do you think you can… you know… audition?” He then asked, making me full awake now.

“When’s the audition?” I asked, standing up and waiting for his answer.

“This Saturday,” He started, standing up also. “I signed you up last week; they sent me an email that you are going to perform at the agency at 2:30.”

“Cool.”

I turned around and walked towards the kitchen to meet Jeong Min and Dong Jun sitting on the dining table eating Mac and Cheese. I hurriedly and playfully took Jeong Min’s bowl and spoon and finished it myself, making him scowl at me which I returned with a laugh. Kai went down afterwards and took the bowl from me and get some more Mac and Cheese.  Now it’s my time to scowl.

“Now you know how it feels when someone takes something from you.” Jeong Min said, patting my head and walking away.

I rolled my eyes and took a banana from the basket, which is placed on the centre of the table. I then walked towards the gaming room and saw my other brother, Junsu oppa playing table tennis by himself. (Weird, right?) I walked towards him and asked if I could play along and when I got a yes for an answer, I stood across him happily and played.

~~

“What song are you gonna sing?” Kai asked.

I looked at him with my thinking face on and searched my brain for anything cool to sing at the auditions. After searching my brain for 3 times, there was nothing. Kai just laughed at me and told me that I should just go to the internet and search for one. I lazily obliged and turned my laptop on. I looked for songs in YouTube, typing different singers.

“You found one yet?” Kai asked, I turned to look at him and shook my head. How can it be so hard? “Why not type your favourite artist or your favourite song, you know?”

“Why didn’t I think of that?!” I shouted, immediately looking for the song lyrics and printing it out on a short bond paper. “Thanks for that, chocolate.”

“No problem, caramel.”

After the printing I ran towards the studio and tried the song. It came out perfectly and I was actually confident on something. But after some time, I heard clapping from the door. I saw my brothers standing there and smiling.

“For your audition?” Siwon asked, walking towards me and taking my lyrics for him to read.

“Yeah,” I started, looking at him then at the others. “What’d you think?”

“Amazing.” All of them answered in unison, smiling at me.

“Thanks.”  I answered, walking towards the door and to walk out of the pack house.

I walked towards the middle of the woods, looking at the sky and thinking of what things can I do to make my pack stronger and peaceful. I laughed after thinking about it, what happened to the childish Jessica? How did all this happen? First I was a girl who was supposed to be thinking of school and boys then now I turned to a matured woman who thinks about her pack more than her life.

I then decided to change to my wolf and ran. I reached the border and saw another land which is our neighbouring pack’s land. I didn’t know why but my wolf suddenly wanted to ran towards the other land because of something. It took all of my strength to stop her and turn around and thanks to the goddess I succeeded. I ran back to the pack house and went straight to my office to check some things.

I suddenly heard a knock on my door and when I told him or her to come in, they nervously opened the door and looked down. I looked up to see six girls standing before me. They were beautiful, that’s what I can say about them. But when I was about to ask them why they were here, another girl entered my office, she’s a black haired girl, much taller than the others but she looked down as well.

“What can I do for the seven of you?” I asked nicely, glancing at my computer then at them. “You can look at me, you know.”

“It would be disrespectful if we look at you straight in the eye, Alpha.” The black haired girl answered, still looking at the ground.

“I know, but I already gave you the permission to look at me.” I then typed some stuffs in my computer. “What are your names?”

 “I’m Kim Taeyeon.” A brunette answered, looking now at me and elbowing the girl beside her to look at me. “And this is Lee Sun-kyu, Kwon Yuri, Kim Hyoyeon, Choi SooYoung, Seo Johyun and Im Yoona.”

“Well, it’s nice to meet you, girls. What can I do to help you?”

“We kind of overheard you talking about an audition,” She started, looking really nervous right now. I nodded. “And we were just… you know, wondering if you… you want someone to audition with you?”

“Well, you heard right Taeyeon; I am going to audition for an agency this Saturday.” I smiled and looked at the other girls. “If you want to then I wouldn’t stop you from coming with me. You should just remember that we are leaving early on Saturday so that we won’t have to wait that long.”

“Yes Alpha.”

I laughed and said, “You girls can just call me Jessica.”

They then bowed and walked out of my office. I on the other hand continued to type stuffs in my computer. While typing I also read more about the history of my land. I never really thought that I would really be interested in these kinds of things. But I stayed to one chapter of a book. It was about the ones you called “mates”. I typed it also in Google to find more to it. There was so many results shown in my computer but I settled for one. It was a website all about mates. I scrolled down and saw some description relating to the topic.

Mates. It’s something foreign to my ears. Jinyoung told me that I would learn about it when I get older but he never really did explain it to me fully so I did some research on my own. I was fascinated about some things that could happen when you are fully mated with your mate. You couldn’t think of being separated, you would do anything to make them happy, you would also kill anyone who would try to steal him or her from you and on the first night after you finished mating, you have this one thing called ‘mate dream’. You will be able to see the happiest and saddest moment of your mate, making the bond more open to each other.

“Why don’t you rest for now, baby girl?” I heard Jinyoung ask, I looked up to see him standing in front of my door.

“I could always do that, Jinyoung oppa. I just need to finish my research.”

“Oh, what kind of research are you doing?”

“Research about our history.”

“Didn’t I make you read about the history of our land a few months ago?”

“You did, but since already a few months later, I need to refresh it inside my head.”

“You are such a terrible liar, baby girl.” He commented, laughing and walking towards me. “You are too interested on the mates’ chapter so you did a research about it.”

“You know me too much, Jinyoung oppa.”

“Al-ayo (I know.)”

We both laughed after that then he suddenly left and I continued on doing the things I was doing before Jinyoung had interrupted me.

**Saturday **

“Are you ready for your audition?” Kai asked, entering my door.

“There’s always a thing called ‘knocking’ chocolate.”

“I know, but what good does it do?”

“Umm… let me think about that, Mr Kim.” I sarcastically answered, pretending to think about something. “Oh yeah, that’s right! It can prevent people like you who love to invade on other people’s privacy.”

He mocked hurt and playfully glared at me. “You’re the only one that I invade.”

I rolled my eyes and playfully forced a smile on him. “Awe, I should be honoured then!”

“Ha – ha.” He rolled his eyes and tossed me an outfit. “Here, I bought this for you yesterday so that you could have something good to wear today.”

“Thanks.” I smiled and went to kiss him on the cheeks before going to the bathroom and change to the outfit he gave me.

The outfit he gave me is great. It is a black fitted dress, black legging. I walked out wearing that and saw my best friend saying something under his breathe, making me wonder what it is. But when I saw him shaking his head and smiling at me, I decided to let it go and walk with towards the garage. There, I saw the girls standing and waiting patiently for us.

“Good Morning Girls,” I greeted, smiling at them.

“Good Morning too, Alpha.” They utter in unison making me roll my eyes.

“Let’s go?” We then turn our heads to look at Kai who was already standing beside his car.

I smiled and went to the passenger seat and the two girls sat on the back. It was a 3 hour drive from the pack house, making me and the other girls have more time to know each other better. Kai just talk to us whenever he feels like it and would concentrate to his driving most of the time.

“We are here,” We heard Kai announce, smiling and stopping in front of a big building. I looked up and saw that it was really big compared to the other stores. “You girls go in and I’ll meet you in the lobby.”

“Okay.” I answered for the three of us and went out. The girls followed in tow, looking everywhere.

~~

“Jessica Jung, Kim Taeyeon, Lee Sun-kyu, Kwon Yuri, Kim Hyoyeon, Choi SooYoung, Seo Johyun and Im Yoona?” a middle aged woman ask, making the three of us look at her with confusion. “Please enter now.”

We all nodded our head in response and headed towards the room. I was stopped by Kai hugging me and giving me a reassuring smile. I smiled back at him and breathed heavily.  I really wish I could pass this audition.

“Hello girls,” A middle aged man greet, smiling at us but looked shocked when his eyes met mine. He suddenly looked down, making me realize that it is Jinki, one of my pack mates. “What are you going to sing for us today?” he then asked, looking really nervous right now.

“We will sing individually,” I started, walking in front of the other seven girls and smiling at four people in front of me. “I’m Jessica Jung and I will be singing “Almost”.”

“Begin.” Another middle aged woman said smiling at me.

“I miss the times that we almost shared

I miss the love that was almost there

I miss the times that we used to kiss

At least in my dreams just let me take my time to reminisce

I miss the times that we never had

What happen to us, we were almost there

Who ever said it’s impossible to miss

What you never had, never almost had you”

I finished the song by bowing my head and walking backwards. I then saw both SooYoung and Yuri walking in front. What song did they prepare to sing for them now? I was snapped out of my thoughts when Jinki and the two girls talked before they began singing.

“We’re going to sing “Kkok”.” And when they heard another begin, they stood straight and started singing their song.  (English Lyrics)

“I love you. I will only love you. Please, please, please promise me this

The word “Love” is not enough. Don’t just leave it by itself.

I love you. I love you. I don’t know how to express it larger. Please tell me.

Even if a hundred years pass, a thousand years pass, you will be my love.”

I smiled at the two, they were good singers, I could say you that. They returned my smile and walked beside me. Taeyeon was next.  She looked really nervous and she looked back at us before turning her head to the people in front. Jinki talked to her first, calming her down then asked what song she picked.

“I’m gonna sing “Can you hear me”.”

When she got a ‘Begin’ as an answer, she started singing.

“Even though it hurts but a little, tears form

My heart screams out

If I pass in front of you, beside you

You were my whole world

I want only you

But I can’t breathe when I’m in front of you.

As if you weren’t my destiny

As if this was just a fleeting moment

Next to you, who just let me go so easily

I go closer to you step by step

Although I cannot move at all.”

The next one was Sunny and Hyoyeon with the special participation of Yuri.

“As time goes by, will our memories fade?

Tell me how you can get on after all that we’ve been through

I don’t wanna go on without you in my life

Because in my heart I still believe that you will come back to me.”

Then it was Im Yoona.

“Should I wrap the cookie that I cooked all night? Would paper wrapping be okay?
Maybe the handkerchief that you gave me as a gift might work as well.

Love U inni Girl Sky-like me

Love U inni Boy Ocean-like you

Love U inni Day you and I in this blue world”

The last but not the least is Seo Johyun who really looked like an angel if you ask me.

“Even if my heart is broken when loving you,

Even if my heart is separated when waiting for you

It’s okay because I love you

It’s okay even if I get hurt.”

The four people stood up and clapped their hands at us, Seo Johyun walked back and stood beside me and smiled at us. We returned the smile and looked at the people in front of us. Jinki walked and shook each of our hands and told us that they would just call us if there would be any final decisions made. We all went out smiling. I ran immediately to Kai and hugged him, after hugging; I told him everything, not letting anything to not be said. He smiled and shook my shoulders and told me that he was so proud of me. I smiled and told him the same, I was also proud of my best friend, even though he’s an invader in my private life.

And that, ladies and gentlemen was the start of my singing career.

I went for my Korean name.

Before we even became a group, Jinki told us that we are going to have another girl with us. Her name is Kim Tiffany. I never heard of her name before so maybe she’s a human?