“Soojin-ah, there you are!” Sunwoo called as he walked up to Soojin who was sitting in a coffee shop by herself, with no coffee in her hands.

“Sunwoo… how did you know I’d be here?” Soojin asked, surprised by his sudden appearance.

“You always go to this very same coffee shop when you’re upset so I kind of figured…” he said, scratching the back of his head nervously.

“Who told you I was upset?” Soojin questioned, lifting up an eyebrow. “Youngmi may have called me and told me what was going on…” he confessed. “Ugh, that damn girl…” she cursed under her breath. “Why would she tell you something like this, it’s really not her place.” She said, frustrated.

“Well… she said that you wouldn’t talk to any of the members and asked if I could comfort you instead.” He explained. “So… what’s going on Soojin?”

“Do I really have to tell you? Youngmi already said everything to you so I’d rather not say it again.” Soojin replied.

“Then… can I say something?” Sunwoo asked. “Sure, go ahead.”

“You don’t have to force yourself to do something you don’t want to do, but at the same time, you shouldn’t feel a certain way because of what others may see you as… does that make sense?” Sunwoo said.

“Yeah but… that’s easy for a guy to say. Girls are judged way more than you guys are. If I don’t think about how others will view me, it could ruin my whole future, that’s just the fact of it all. I don’t know Sunwoo… I don’t know what to do.” Soojin said putting her hands over her face.

“It seems to me that the type of concept you’re doing isn’t the main problem you have with it, it’s more the reactions and concequences you'll recievee ftom it, am i right?” Sunwoo asked.

Soojin thought about Sunwoos word for a moment and sighed “I think you are right... it’s not like I have a problem with wearing “revealing” clothing, it’s just I have a problem with the ideas attached to those things. I don’t want people to view me as some object and I’m already just looked at as the “visuals” of the group. The members have something else to showcase, but I don’t.” Soojin confessed.

“Don't say that Soojin-ah! You have so much to showcase, you know that. It's just ignored by people. I guess no matter what your image is in the idol world, you’ll still be treated like an object. Weren't you girl’s treated like puppets when your concept was “cute”? At least now you’re doing something that suits the members a little bit more, right?” Sunwoo consoled.

“I guess you’re right. In the idol world, you’re pretty much conditioned to be puppets of your company, I don’t know if I like that though… what if this career just isn’t for me?” Soojin asked, making Sunwoo heart sink. “Soojin… this is your dream. You’ve wanted to do this since we were in middle school. Are you sure you don’t want this anymore?” Sunwoo asked worriedly. 

“I don’t know if I want this… that’s what I'm scared of.” Soojin revealed.

“If you don’t know, then maybe you should give it a try at least one more time. I don’t want you to regret it later Soojin-ah.” Sunwoo suggested.

“Ugh… I hate that you’re right.” Soojin groaned. “Now I have to go say sorry to them.” She sighed.

“You were going to apologize anyways, you can never go a day being upset at those girls.” Sunwoo laughed.

“You shush and go buy me a coffee.” Soojin joked.

“What’s wrong Nayoung?” Youngmi asked as Nayoung angrily threw her bag on the floor of her room. “This day couldn’t get worse. So much for having a supportive boyfriend.” Nayoung raged.

“Daeseok’s quick temper strikes again, huh?” Youngmi guessed.

“Yup, but this time I’ve had enough. I don’t know how I let it go in the past… it’s seriously pissing me off now.” Nayoung said, ticked off.

“That boy really needs to be sat down and taught a lesson or two.” Youngmi fumed.

“Yeah, but it’ll harm his precious ego so how dare I teach him a lesson?” Nayoung said sarcastically. “Whatever, I told him he either reflects on himself and listens to what I have to say, or else he leaves this relationship. I have no time or patience for this anymore.” Nayoung said.

“You’re finally breaking up with Daeseok?” Sunhee joked as she walked into Nayoung’s room. “Since when did you get here? I didn’t even hear the door creak open.” Youngmi questioned. “I arrived here a while ago… with Soojin.” She said, a hidden Soojin appearing from behind her.

“There you are, I was worried sick about you! You’re only 21, don’t think you can stay out until 2AM without calling me to let us know you’re alive!” Youngmi scolded. "Unnie, as if you didn't know where i was and who i was with." Soojin said, making Youngmi laugh dryly. "Fine, I'll let it go this ONE time."

“She would have been home by 1:30AM but we had a little chat.” Sunhee defended.

“Wow, 30 minutes earlier.” Youngmi laughed. “But… does that mean you two made up?” Youngmi asked hopefully.

“Yeah… I apologized to Sunhee and now I want to apologized to you two as well… I don’t think I overreacted back there but… some of the things I said were kind of harsh, sorry.” Soojin apologized nervously.

“You don’t have to apologize, you were already forgiven.” Nayoung said running up to her Unnie and hugging her tightly. “I love you~” she said cutely.

“I love you too but I can’t breath! You’re going to wrinkle this Kate Millen jacket!” Soojin cried.

“Oops, sorry” Nayoung smiled and jokingly dusted off Soojin jacket.

“Can you please cook something up, I’m starving!” Nayoung whined to Sunhee.

“I’m not, that take out boy bought me dinner.” Sunhee casually brought up.

“What!?” the 3 girl’s yelled. “Whoa… it’s not a big deal. I lied to his boss about me being pregnant with his child so he bought me lunch.” Sunhee explained.

“WHAT?!” they yelled again.

Youngmi suddenly burst out into laughter. “Sunhee, are you drunk or something? I thought you didn’t drink?” Youngmi said, feeling her forehead.

“Long story short, he was going to get fired and I saved his , jeez.” Sunhee cleared up. “What’s funny is that he gave me his number but I threw it in the trash.” Sunhee chuckled.

“Unnie, how could you throw it out!” Soojin yelled. “You should have at least called him and dated him for a while so we could get free take out! Duh!?” Soojin said, lightly slapping her Unnie on the shoulder.

“He’s probably a high school student, a freshman in university at best. Why would I bother with him? Poor boy is struggling to make money for his mother too, the last thing he should do is get a girlfriend.” Sunhee said.

“Wow, you basically know his life story, are you sure you two didn’t do anything else together?” Nayoung joked.

“Get your head out of the gutter and go to bed. Tomorrow we have to get up to see how our tragic cover photos turned out.” Sunhee ordered.

“Speak for yourself, mine probably turned out flawless.” Youngmi said as she got up and walked to her room.

“She’s just gotta rub it in” Nayoung laughed.

“So I heard about the ruckus you girl’s caused yesterday, and I must say, I wasn’t surprised one bit” their CEO said, looking down at the 4 girl’s that sat down in front of her. “Luckily we were able to get all the shots we needed so we don’t have to reschedule another date.” She alerted them.

The girls remained silent because they weren’t even a little apologetic towards their CEO.

“I know you all hate me right now, but I’ll make it up to all of you. I’ll make sure that at least people will see what your true talents are, so just hang in there a little bit, alright?” The girl’s nodded slightly, but still remained silent.

“For the next few weeks you all will be recording songs, dozens and dozens of songs that producers have sent in. Once you record all of them, we will be choosing the top 7 songs to put on your first Mini Album. I will allow you girl’s to choose every song besides the title track, does that sound good?” Ms. Lee asked.

The girls’ expressions brightened up a bit “you’ll really let us choose, all 6 of the b-sides?” Nayoung asked.

“Yeah, I mean what’s to lose, they’re b-sides.” She said honestly.

“Can we perhaps… produce songs for the album too?” Sunhee asked. Taking both the members and the CEO by surprise.

“Hmm… well, I will let you use the studio to produce music but I can’t guarantee that what you make will be put on a release. It first has to be good enough, and secondly, marketable enough.” Ms. Lee explained.

“You should submit one of your songs!” the members encouraged.

 “We’ll see.” Sunhee replied.

The girl’s were later lead to a recording studio by their manager. “This is studio A, you’ll be recording all your songs in here. Basically, you’ll be living in here for the next few weeks. The vocal director should be here soon so just wait a bit.” She explained before leaving.

“How can she even afford all of this fancy stuff? We’re her only group, and we haven’t even debuted!” Soojin asked, confused.

“I looked up the companies site online and apparently there are a few top actors and models that are under this company.” Nayoung revealed.

“Seriously? Actors and models? Why haven’t we seen any yet? If they’re popular then I need to get with one of them, imagine all the money they have!” Youngmi exclaimed, the members laughing at her commentary.

“Youngmi always has her priorities straight and only focuses on the important things.” Soojin envied.

“Sorry to interrupt.” A middle aged man said as he walked in. "I'll be your vocal director for the next few weeks. My name is Kim Jungtae." he said, introducing himself.

“Hello, we're... Amazons?" Sunhee said awkwardly. "Wow that sounds weird. It's my first time introducing ourselves like that."Sunhee laughed.

"Sorry, we use to be called Sugar girl's." Youngmi explained.

“I heard. You girl's have went through a big change in the past few months” the man said..

“Yeah, but a good change.” Nayoung said..

“I know you girl's are use to recording bubbly tracks but now you'll be doing something completely different. Your vocalization style is going to change drastically Recording these songs will be harder because you need to give off a strong feeling.” Jungtae explained.

"So how will the process work then?" Soojin asked.

“Well it’s quite simple, I’ll be sending all of you guides to each song we’ll be recording. Your job is to listen to those guides, and then copy them exactly. Here’s a package of everyone’s parts highlighted.” He explained, handing Sunhee an envelope.

“You girl’s actually won’t be recording anything today, just go home and practice your parts so we can record these song’s as fast as possible”

“What’s with the rush?” Youngmi asked.

“You girl’s will know why soon.” He replied vaguely.

The girl’s did as they were told and practiced their parts diligently. The girl’s would constantly ask Sunhee for help when they weren’t at the company and she’d assist them the best she could. For the next few weeks they would be recording, on average, 5 songs a day. After each day ended, the girl’s would discuss the song’s they recorded and pick out the ones they liked, if there were any. Sometimes they’d record songs that they found absolutely ear bleeding or simply boring, but they recorded them anyways.

“Nayoung, turn off you phone! I’m going to go crazy from it ringing ever 5 seconds!” Youngmi ordered. The girl’s were in their dorms practicing their parts and were beginning to feel awfully annoyed by the distraction.

“I’m sorry, I’ll turn it off right now.” She said obeying her Unnie’s orders.

“It’s Daeseok, isn’t it?” Sunhee said, shaking her head. “Do you need me to teach him a lesson?” Sunhee offered.

“No, that’s alright Unnie. I kind of like my boyfriend with all of his teeth in his mouth.” Nayoung joked. “Suit yourself” Sunhee replied.

“But seriously, what’s stopping you from breaking up with him?” Youngmi asked. “Because we’ve known each other for a really long time, and our good times outweigh the bad.” Nayoung explained.

“You and Sunhee with your rash decisions.” Soojin laughed. “It’s amazing when you two stay with your boyfriends for more than a month.”

“Trust me, our method saves you time. Imagine If I stayed with my last boyfriend? He had 0 going for him, all he had was a six pack and greasy hair. The chase was fun, but after you get bored, you should just leave.” Youngmi said.

 “Enough boy talk. We only have a few songs left to record until we’re done” Sunhee said. Suddenly Sunhee’s phone started to ring. She quickly answered it without looking at the caller ID.

“Hello?”

“Sunhee, pass the phone to Nayoung.” Sunhee’s expression quickly turned cold.

“Ew, why are you calling my phone? I thought I blocked your number.” She replied.

“Aish, can you please save your insults for later and hand her the phone?” Daeseok begged.

“Nope, sorry but we all made promises the other day to protect each other from harmful people.” Sunhee laughed.

“Fine, I’m coming up there then” he said, hanging up the phone.

“Hello? What the hell.” Sunhee said rolling her eyes.

“What does he want?” Nayoung asked. “You. He’s apparently coming up here now.” Sunhee informed. 

“What!? Don’t open the door for him!” Nayoung said.

“No, I’m going to open it and then yell at him for you.” Sunhee stood up and stormed to the door. “Unnie, wait” Nayoung grabbed her hand before she could open the door. “I’ll talk to him, okay? You know I can handle it and if he says or does anything bad, I’ll be sure to punch where it hurts.” Nayoung promised, begging her Unnie to not interfere.

“Fine, whatever. But if I hear his voice raise I am throwing him out the window, got it?”

“I got it.” Nayoung smiled and pulled Sunhee away from the door. “now you sit here grandma while I go and yell at my boyfriend, okay?” she said patting Sunhee’s hair.

“You call me grandma one more time and I’ll throw both of you out the window.” Sunhee threatened.

“What the hell do you want Daeseok? I’m busy right now working towards my debut that you don’t want to happen. I’d be very grateful if you were to leave!” Nayoung said.

“Nayoung-ah, I’m really sorry, okay? I get it now, it’s not my place to tell you what to do with your life. I was being a total . Can you please forgive me?” he begged.

Nayoung lifted up an eyebrow. She wasn’t use to Daeseok giving up so easily. He usually always persisted through his opinions and always hated losing in arguments.

“What are you up to, huh? Something’s fishy about your apology.” Nayoung said, crossing her arms.

“I’m being sincere, Nayoung. I really don’t want to lose you because of my stupid mouth.” Daeseok pleaded.

Nayoung stared at her boyfriend for the moment. “Fine, I’ll let you off this time, but if you say something like that ever again, I don’t think I can continue this relationship anymore.” Nayoung said, giving in.

“It won’t happen again, I promise.” Daeseok said, hugging Nayoung tightly.

“Ugh! They made up!” Soojin groaned, her ear against Nayoung’s room door. “damn I thought we almost got rid of that rat!” Youngmi said, stomping her feet. “I knew I should have just thrown him out the window.” Sunhee sighed.

“Girl’s, I have an announcement to make.” Their CEO said as she walked in on them recording. The girl’s quickly sat down on a big black leather couch that was placed against the wall of the studio.

“We’ve picked a date for your debut…” the CEO announced, the girl’s noticeably begun to get excited.

“Is that why we’re recording so many songs? I’m going to lose my voice real soon.” Sunhee said, “me too.” Nayoung agreed, rubbing .

“Well then you all better not talk for the next 2 weeks because that’s when you’ll be debuting.” Their CEO revealed.

“Huh? We’re debuting in 2 weeks!?” Soojin exclaimed. “Daebak, that’s like… in two weeks!” she chimed.

“No Sherlock.” Youngmi laughed.

“You girl’s are officially done recording, so congratulations.” Ms. Lee assured, gaining a sigh of relief from the members. “BUT, that means for the next 2 weeks you’ll be practicing the dance routine for your title track as well as getting intensive training for singing live while you dance. Unlike my brother, I’m not letting you girl’s lip synce your way through promotions. I don’t care if you’re vocally weak; you’re all singing your parts live.” Their CEO stressed.

“There will be a backup track though, right?” Soojin asked nervously. “Yeah, I mean even if you’re vocally strong, singing while dancing a tough routine is not easy. Exerting that much energy at the same time is tiring…” Sunhee commented.

“Don’t worry, there will be one, but don’t depend on It.” the CEO reassured.

“So, what’s going to be the title track them? Didn’t you say that you would decide?” Soojin asked.

“Ah yes, the title track. You’ll find out tomorrow when you learn your routine. Go rest now, because the next 2 weeks will be hell for all of you. Good luck~” she smiled, the members groaning in agony.