Chapter 1: Preparation

 

"YAH! RIN! STAY STILL OR ELSE YOU WON'T BE IN THE PICTURE AT ALL!" The photographer screamed at the poor maknae who could never stay in the same place for too long.

I flinched as I saw the ladder the old man was standing on tilt, almost tipping over. He steadied himself just in time to prevent himself and his treasured camera from falling. With a sigh, the descended the ladder and handed his camera to his assistant. 

"Sorry, ajusshi. I will do better this time." Rin apologized with a deep bow. Her actions may have seemed accidental, but I could hear the amusement in her voice. She was acting all squirmy on purpose to get a reaction from the photographer, and by the looks of it, her plot worked. I glanced at the other members and I could tell they were not pleased. Soomin, the leader or our group, looked disappointed while Toni, our visual, looked like she was seconds away from passing out from exhaustion.

"I need a breather," The ajusshi said, patting his chest to calm his heart from his camera's near-death experience. "Everyone take five!"

Everyone seemed to exhale and relax their stances once the photographer left the studio. The girls instantly slumped on their stage prompts and huffed while I stayed leaning up against the fake brick wall. Our debut concept was a hard hip-hop image and I could tell the others were struggling to keep the image up. It was easy during practice, but pausing continuously in different poses to take pictures was totally different.

"Is anyone else as tired as I am?" Toni asked, fanning herself with her hand.

"You've been sitting this whole time! Quit being such a diva!" Soomin said, slapping Toni on her arm playfully. I watched quietly as the two older girls conversed. They were best friends, practically sisters, since they had been trainees together for almost three years.

"Hey, Aeyoung," I looked to Rin who called my name. "That ajusshi was really mad, huh?"

I snickered at the maknae, who laughed along with me and gave me a high-five. Unfortunately, Soomin noticed our exchange and bounded over to us with a frown.

"Uh-oh..." Rin mumbled when she noticed our leader coming to us. She quickly went to hide behind me, but failed seeing as I was still leaning on the wall.

"Yah, maknae. Do you know how tired we are? We want to go home." Soomin stated in her leader voice, "If you keep messing with the photographer, this phototshoot will take twice as long than necessary. And we still have practice for our debut after this."

"Sorry unnie, I will focus from now on." Rin apologized, giving the leader her best sad face. I laughed quietly as Soomin crumbled under the pressure from Rin's cuteness. She was not mad at the younger girl anymore. Nobody could resist the evil maknae.

"It's okay, Rin. Let's just work hard to get home, alright?" Soomin ruffled the girl's hair with a smile, knowing it would annoy the other before she turned to me, "And don't encourage such behavior for Rin! I saw you two high-fiving!

"What? I did no such thing..." I replied, trying to fool Soomin, but I ended up smiling.

"Aish, what am I going to do with you two?" Soomin shook her head and walked away while Rin and I laughed.

As soon as we settled down, the photographer came back in with a smile on his face.

"Alright girls! Let's get back to work!" he exclaimed and we all got back into our positions to resume taking pictures.

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"Toni, your arms need to be straight, not bent!" Soomin chastised while imitating the accused girl with exaggerated movements that made us all laugh. With her being the leader, she had the tendency to be a perfectionist.

"I'm sorry you guys! My body is sore, I'm drenched in sweat, and I'm exhausted. Can we please take a break?" Toni whined and plopped herself down onto the practice room floor. We all knew she hated sweating and anything that causes sweating.

"But we haven't finished practice yet!" Rin exclaimed as she layed down on top of Toni, causing her to groan in complaint but she made no move to get the maknae off of her. "We need to make sure we are perfect for our music video that we will film tomorrow!"

"We can take a break, I guess." Soomin said, going over to the others to give them water bottles. When she noticed I was still dancing, she sighed. "Aeyoung, you need to take a break. You've been doing really good! Come sit."

I stopped practicing the choreography and joined my members who were sitting in the middle of the dance floor. Sure, I was as tired as them, but I did not want to disappoint them during our MV filming tomorrow. We are so close to debuting, but I was afraid if I messed up, it would be the end of STAR.

"Are you still worrying, unnie?" Rin asked, when she noticed my expression. Soomin and Toni looked at me curiously, waiting for my respnse.

"No, I guess I am just nervous." I said, which wasn't a total lie.

"We know how you get, Aeyoung. Don't beat yourself up by worrying about the future. You will be fine." Soomin encouraged, just as a leader would.

"Yeah." Toni added, sitting up a little to join the conversation, "Besides, you aren't titled as our main dancer for nothing. You just have to do what you're best at doing tomorrow. No worries!"  

The others nodded in agreement and I felt myself calm down a little. I was glad to have them as group members. We all understood each other and knew exaclty what to say to each other when a member was in need of encouragement.

"Hah, thanks guys. But I don't think we should be worried about me. I am more worried about Toni's arms!" I exclaimed, trying to get the attention away from me.

We were all laughing and joking about Toni's arms when there was a knock on the door. Soomin went to go open it since the rest of us were too busy laughing.

"Oh, Hello, Ms. Jung!" Soomin greeted.

With hearing the name of our manager, we all stood up to greet her.

"Hello ladies!" Ms. Jung greeted us back with a warm smile. She was only in her late-twenties and she was already sucessfull in managing an idol group ready to debut. I had alot of respect for her, all of us did. It was hard not to like her when she is the nicest person we knew and she only wanted  to help us live our dream of being stars.  

"I know you guys are practicing alot, but we have to go back to our dorm now. We will wake up at 4 a.m. to get ready and go film your music video." she explained to us.

"Why so early?" Toni asked, starting to whine about not being able to get her beauty sleep tonight which made us all laugh.

"Come on, let's go." Soomin called to us and we all got up to collect our things to leave.

As we were leaving the Big Hit Entertainment buiilding, we bumped into the last people we were prepared to meet; BTS. I could tell the girls felt the same as they tensed up and unconsciously scooted behind manager Jung.

"Hello, Mr. Song" Ms. Jung bowed politely to BTS's manager then to the guys themselves.

They all returned greetings and looked to us expectantly. We were still expecting Ms. Jung to introduce us, but she was already busy talking with BTS's manager, leaving us all alone to fend for ourselves.

"You guys are the new rookie group, yeah? STAR, isn't it?" Rap Monster asked.

"Y-yeah. That's us." Soomin replied, stuttering a little.

It was kind of strange, seeing our leader choked up on her words. Usually she is confident and can talk to anyone...I wonder what the problem is now...

"Awesome. We are really looking forward to your debut." he continued, trying to spark a conversation with us. The rest of BTS smiled and nodded in agreement.

"Really?!" Rin asked, forgetting about her nervousness and opening up to her seniors completely, "That's so cool coming from you guys! We are really big fans."

"Thanks!" Rap Monster smiled and held out his hand for Rin to shake, which she took immediately and grinned widely.

"So what are you guys doing here at this time?" Toni asked, stepping up beside the maknae. She didn't want the maknae to outshine her since she was the visual, afterall.

I didn't get to hear his answer because V came to me and started introducing himself.

"Hi! I'm V." He said, holding out a hand for me to shake. I took his hand after a little hesitation and shook it slightly. He just kept smiling at me and I was a little creeped out so I let go of his hand quickly.

"Ah, V? Don't be so weird..." J-Hope said, coming to stand beside V. He looked at me and smiled a little less creepy than . "Hi! I'm J-Hope!"

To be honest, J-Hope seemed less weird than V, but ever since I saw him, he has had a smile on his face. Usually, I keep to myself when it comes to meeting new people, but for some reason, I didn't feel uncomfortable with his presence.

"Aeyoung, are you being antisocial?" Soomin came up beside me and butted into the conversation. She gave me a pointed look before turning to V and J-Hope with a smile. "Sorry, she doesn't really open up to people easilly. But I'm Soomin, the leader of STAR."

They greeted each other and I frowned a little. She made it seem as if I am unapproachable. It may be true that I don't trust people immediately, but that doesn't mean I can't talk to others. I wouldn't become an idol if that were the case.

"Well it was nice to meet you all, but we need to go now. See you all later!" Rap Monster said before leaving with s, Mr. Song following shortly after.

"They seem nice." Rin said as we turned to start leaving again. 

"Yeah." Soomin agreed, " I hope we don't disappoint them with our debut."

"Why would you worry about disappointing them?" I asked, "We should concentrate on making our fans happy. You guys know how many fans are already anticipating our debut? It's awesome."

All of the members nodded their heads and smiled. We were really excited to debut and finally live our dreams.

The drive back home was spent in silence as Rin and Toni (the talkative ones of the group) were alseep, and Soomin and I were left awake.

"Hey, I didn't mean to intrude on your conversation with J-Hope and V... I just kinda wanted to give them a good first impression of us, you know?" Soomin said out of nowhere, breaking the silence. "I'm sorry if it came off as rude."

I almost laughed at how considerate Soomin can be. This had been on her mind since our encounter with BTS and she felt the need to apologize when I had already forgotten about the situation.

"Don't worry about it. You were probably just nervous to meet them since they are kinda of up there in the idol world." I said nonchalantly.

"But it wasn't right for me to do that..." she trailed off.

"Minnie~ It's fine! I didn't think much about it." I said, using her nickname to let her know that the problem wasn't serious.

"If you say so..." she said then smiled at me, "Are you ready for tomorrow?"

I thought about her question for a while. After more than two years of training and hard work, she asks me this now? Maybe she thinks I'm doubting myself again.

"I'm as ready as I will ever be." I replied.

She seemed satisfied with my answer as she turned back to the window and was silent for the rest of the car ride home.

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Hey you guys! This is the first chapter! Nothing much is happening with the plot, I just wanted to get everyone familiar with the characters and stuff.

THEY MET BTS FOR THE FIRST TIME! It was kind of awkward, huh? XP

What do you think so far? Hate it? Love it? Destroy it? >.<

I promise it will get more interesting. Just hang in there! ^^