February 2014

Being called into the boardroom was always a nervewracking experience - you were either in trouble, or there was an announcement going to be made. Eunjung was nervous as she approached the double doors that were in the corridor ahead of her.

She had been told several months ago that she was being prepped for debut in a group, so she had been sure to work even harder than before, making sure to show the trainers and managers that she was worthy of the chance to be put into a debuting group.

Finally, the door was in front of her, as intimidating as it always was, and she steeled herself by taking a deep breath as she pushed it open. There was only one other person in the room, sat at one end of the large table, and she was someone that Eunjung not only recognised, but was glad to see.

"Bokyung unnie," she greeted with a grin. "It's good to see you outside of the practice rooms for once!"

"I know, huh?" the older girl answered, tucking her long orange hair behind her ear, brown eyes twinkling over the rims of her glasses. "And we're leaders of our groups. We've been waiting for this day for a long time, right?" 

"Too right we have," Eunjung answered, taking her seat at the other end of the table. "Now all we have to do is wait for our members."

Almost before the words were out of , the door opened and an extremely short girl entered. She had long straight black hair that was cut into a fringe that fell into her eyes. She had one of those cute sort of faces, and Eunjung could tell straight away that this girl was going to be the visual.

She bowed to Bokyung and Eunjung politely. "Hello. My name is Lee Jimin and I am a main vocalist of Polaris, as well as being the visual. Please take care of me!"
"Nice to meet you, Jimin-ssi. I'm Choi Eunjung, leader and lead singer of Polaris, and this is Bokyung, leader and lead singer of Sigma, our sister group. Feel free to take a seat - we're just waiting for the rest of our members to get here before we head off to the dorm to get settled in." Eunjung greeted and gestured to her side of the table. Jimin took a seat and they watched as two more girls entered the room. 

One was almost as tall as Eunjung, who had been told that she was the tallest of all the members, and had shoulder-length light brown hair that was parted in the middle and swept behind her ears. She had a kind face and immediately laughed when she saw the two leaders. 

"Well, if it isn't my roommate Eunjung and my best buddy Bokyung!" she joked, taking a seat to Eunjung's left. "I guess you two know me already, but for you-" she paused and bowed to Jimin. "My name is Kwon Chaerin, lead vocalist of Polaris. Nice to meet you!"

The other girl was still standing awkwardly by the doors, but moved quickly into the room when Chaerin had finished her introduction. She had waist-length blonde hair that ended in an electric blue dip dye and looked very serious as well as extremely nervous. 

"Hello," she began in broken Korean. "My name is Zhang Meihui, oldest member of Sigma as well as lead dancer. It is a pleasure to meet you all."
After that, the five artists had to wait a little while for the next group to arrive, and four arrived at once. Two were linking arms and seemed very close; they even had similar faces, although the shorter of the pair had hair that was short, brown and swept across the left side of her face, while the other side was shaved. The taller girl had spiky dark blue hair and red lipstick and although she was dressed in dance attire, she made a strong first impression. 

"Hello! I am Itou Akemi, lead vocalist and maknae of Sigma, and this is my best friend Takahashi Kiyomi, lead vocalist!" They bowed and quickly took their seats to make way for the other two girls, who didn't seem to know each other at all.

"I'm Kim Yuri, main vocalist of Polaris," the girl with the short blonde hair and tomboy-ish attire said first, her voice a little curt as she stared at the other members of her group. 

"And I'm Yoon Seohyeon, maknae and lead dancer of Polaris. It's really wonderful to meet you all, and I look forward to debuting with you all soon." the other said, bowing respectfully and sweeping her long brown hair over her right shoulder. Eunjung noticed that there was dark purple at the ends and smiled inwardly; that was her favourite colour. Her own hair was longer than it had ever been before, falling to just below her shoulder blades, and was bright firetruck red.

"Only three more members left, one from Polaris and two from Sigma," Bokyung spoke up as she shuffled her papers in front of her professionally. "This is so exciting!"

Eunjung and Chaerin shared a look and shook their heads at their friend; the three had been close as soon as they had met, as both Eunjung and Bokyung could only speak English when they began training (Eunjung was English while Bokyung was from Canada). Chaerin had pretended to not know any English for a while to tease them before laughing so hard she rolled on the floor and told them that she had only been living in Seoul for three years, as she was originally from New York.
Finally, after a few more minutes of waiting, the final three members walked in and shut the door behind them. The girl on the left was dressed for dance practice and had long orange hair only a few shades lighter than Bokyung's tucked into a messy ponytail. She introduced herself as Park Subin, the oldest member of Polaris and the lead rapper, and took the seat next to Seohyeon, while the two Sigma members smiled and bowed.

"My name is Kim Hyojin and I am the lead rapper and visual of Sigma. I think I recognise a few of you already." She flicked her black hair from her shoulder and strutted to her seat, smiling at Jimin down the table, as the two apparently knew each other already.

Finally, only one member remained, and she had the longest red hair that Eunjung had ever seen, almost reaching the girl's thighs. It was pulled into a ponytail, which she adjusted as she grinned at the eleven other girls. 

"Hey. I'm Choi Minjung, your last member. I'm a main vocalist for Sigma and I apologise, but you'll have to help me out in training because I literally started yesterday. Please don't get mad when I mess up!" Her dark eyes twinkled mischeviously as she took the last seat. Eunjung and Bokyung eyed each other from opposite ends of the table and finally, Eunjung rose. Bokyung smirked, having won the silent argument, and slumped back in her seat.

"Well, now we all know each other. I am Eunjung, leader and lead singer of Polaris, and this is Bokyung, who has the same roles in Sigma. First, we'd like to acknowledge the effort that it has taken us all to debut - we've all worked hard and difficult times will come, but together, we can work through it and emerge into a better day. 

"In six months, we will debut and perform on our separate debut stages, Polaris here in Korea, Sigma in Japan, so like I said, we'll have to work extremely hard to be ready when that time arrives. I have no doubts that we can do it. With that, our schedules for the rest of the day have been suspended so that we can move into our new dorms, so if you guys want to do something...?" Eunjung trailed off questioningly, suddenly very self-concious. Luckily, Bokyung picked up where the other had left off.

"I was thinking that we could go out to dinner together and get to know each other better and then move into our dorms," she suggested. "Because only a few of us actually know each other, and then there's Minjung-ah to consider, seeing as she only began training yesterday."

"Yes!" Eunjung accepted, grateful that the other leader had helped her out. "Great idea, unnie. Let's all go and find a restaurant and then we can begin to unpack."

The next day would reveal to them the demo of their debut song, which would put everything into place ready for their debut in half a year. Eunjung couldn't be happier.