"Wake up~" The lights in the rooms flickered on and off as a girl, fully-dressed, went about waking the others in her dorm. "We have our costume-fitting today!" She squealed as she darted between rooms. "MinJae-ah?" JaeEun sat up and rubbed her eyes sleepily as most of the others groaned and buried themselves deeper under the covers. "Neh, unnie!" The girl popped her head hrough the doorway again. "MinAh, HaRu, and YoonKi are already awake!" "Ah-arasso~ I should've woken up earlier..." JaeEun scratched her head, looking at her alarm before heading to the bathroom. She had forgotten to set the alarm again. She hadn't needed to before, since she always held the night shift at the coffee shop around the corner and made her way to training directly after her shift. She rinsed her toothbrush and looked up at herself in the mirror. This is your only source of income now. You gave up your odd jobs to be here today... You have to make it till the end... Think of umma and the kids... JaeEun scrubbed her face with a vengeance and hung up her towel as she left in search of the other trainees. HaRu, as usual, greeted them (those awake, at least) with breakfast. Today, it was spicy seafood salad, beansprout rice, and cold cucumber soup. MinJae, MinAh, and YoonKi were already seated around the table. JaeEun nodded gratefully at the maknae. "You all dig in first, I'll wake the rest." JaeEun smiled and turned to the nearest room - KyMin and JinRa's. She pushed gently on the door, and was surprised to see the silhouette of a girl sitting at the end of the bed. "JinRa-ah?" The girl turned around. "Neh, unnie." "Oh, you've gotten ready. Come out and have breakfast, we'll be leaving soon!" The girl nodded and stood up, making her way towards the dining table. JaeEun ventured further into the room and opened the curtains. Sunlight streamed in and brightened the room considerably. "KyMinnie, wake up~ you're going to be late~" JaeEun shook the younger as she retreated further under the blankets. "Yah~ you're taller than me I won't be able to drag you out~" Sighing at the obstinate trainee, JaeEun veered towards the master bedroom instead. "SooJinnie~ KyunJi-ah~ wake up!" SooJin immediately sat up in bed. "Neh, unnie!" KyunJi yawned, but fumbled around with her covers before shuffling towards the bathroom. "YAH~" the eldest trainees stopped what they were doing as they heard a commotion outside. JaeEun ran out first, followed by KyunJi and SooJin. They were met with a comical sight. MinAh had gotten KyMin to leave her bed alright - by carrying her bridal-style out of her bedroom and into the living room. The older trainee was thrashing about sluggishly, demanding to be let down immediately. They all shared a good laugh as MinAh finally deposited the shorter girl onto her chair at the dining table. Breakfast was a rowdy affair.

In the dorm downstairs, HyeMi had woken up long before the sun had risen, quietly putting on her headphones and listening to the recording that they had done the day before. It was the rough draft of low quality, but it was better than nothing. It was 7a.m. when she finally got out of bed and went to freshen up. MinHee was awake when HyeMi returned to the room, and both exchanged a 'good morning' before HyeMi headed towards the kitchen for a quick fix. HyeSun had beat her to the kitchen, as per normal, and bowed as the elder entered. "Morning, unnie!" HyeMi tilted her head as she regarded the spread of food. There was seasoned kelp, radish strip kimchi, and spicy stewed fish. HyeSun was one hell of a cook. "Where's RuiXian?" The leader glanced around the kitchen, expecting the maknae to appear any time. "Ah - she's still resting." HyeSun answered brightly. "She had a draining day yesterday." HyeMi frowned but nodded. "I'll get her to help you with breakfast." She looked at her watch. "And get the rest to get ready too." "Neh, unnie." MinHee had made her way to the living room and was staring dazedly into space. HyeMi let her be, and entered the maknae's room. "RuiXian, wake up. HyeSun's already preparing breakfast." HyeMi pulled the covers off the girl. "Mmmm..." She rolled around to the other side of the bed. "I don't want breakfast... Just eat without me..." "Yah." HyeMi dragged the girl off the bed. "I didn't ask you if you wanted breakfast. You're supposed to prepare breakfast! Now go and help HyeSun in the kitchen. Go!" HyeMi sent the lazy maknae out of the door with a light smack to the nape of her neck. The girl continued plodding lethargically to the kitchen. HyeMi went to YonNi and MiYoo's dorm next, and as expected, YonNi had taken charge and had both of them ready for breakfast. "I'll go help out with breakfast; you come on out when you're done, arasso?" YonNi left energetically as MiYoo dumped neccessities into a bag. HyeMi moved on to the next room. "SuJin! EunMi!" Both girls woke up with a start as they squinted in the darkness. "Neh, unnie! We'll be out soon!" Both of the chorused as they began fumbling about in the dark. "Yah you two... open the curtains." HyeMi shook her head, a tiny flicker of affection crossing her face as she looked at the two disoriented trainees. She set out to the master bedroom, knowing that the hardest to wake was YooMi. "YooMi! Wake up!" She pulled open the curtains and shook the girl. "Wake up, wake up, wake up!" YooMi let herself be dragged out of bed, making her way towards the kitchen on all fours before lying face-down in the corridor. "Yah~" HyeMi gave up and decided to get the table ready before the rest finished washing up for breakfast. She gave an exasperated sigh as she spotted RuiXian curled up on the washing machine as HyeSun busied herself with seting the table. "Yah. You all are hopeless." She uttered under her breath. "Hopeless."

Fitting was done in one of the spare dressing rooms used for preparation during SME trainee stages. Both JaeEun and HyeMi's teams gathered there on time in adjacent rooms, greeting the workers who were already there ahead of time. The costumes were already prepared for them based on their rough build, and each group was introduced to their stage attire in no time. JaeEun's group was met with an array of pink high school uniforms. YooMi groaned. "Pink?!" The girls stared. "We'll be so bright on stage..." JaeEun let out a shaky laugh. "HaRu will like this..." EunMi mused as the girls collected themselves. They had expected cute costumes for their first stage... but the amount of hot pink was just too much to take in. A familiar face burst into the room. "Annyeong!" The trainees turned to face the new addition in surprise. "Sunny-unnie!" "Neh! I'll be here to oversee your fitting." Sunny walked around the girls and reached for the rack. "You'll all put this attire on and then we'll decide on the hair and style. Go and change now, palli!" The traines nodded and unhooked their respective attires from the shelf, scurrying towards the changing rooms. "Now, we'll go over and take a look at the other team!" sunny herself nodded to the cameras and motioned for them to follow her as she entered the next room.

Squeals filled the room as the trainees spotted the sunbae. "Arasso~ arasso~" The idol moved through the crowd of excited trainees as she reached the racks. There were two different kinds of blue dresses - three with buttons and three without, and three rompers. The dresses had frilled hems and came with a belt, while the rompers came with two different types of shirts to be worn underneath. "Okay~ there are names written on here, so I'll just give them out accordingly. We'll settle hairstyles and accessories later!" She began calling names as the trainees ran forward to get their attires. "RuiXian, KyunJi, HyeSun..." They took the buttoned dresses off the hooks and proceeded to the changing rooms. "MiYoo, JinRa, YonNi..." They were given the dresses with thin straps, and the remaining MinJae, HyeMi, and HaRu were assigned the rompers. Sunny winked at the cameras and dusted her hands. "Now, let's get back to JaeEun's group! Gaja!"

JaeEun and the rest were standing uncomfortably in their costumes, stretching out the material. "Aigoo, kyeopta [cute]!" Sunny gushed as she turned SooJin this way and that. "She really looks like a high school kid, does she not?" SooJin had on an awkward smile and looked to JaeEun for help. The elder gave her a thumbs-up. "Eh? We're missing one?" A head peered out from behind the door as the trainees belatedly realized that YooMi hadn't returned from the changing rooms. "Come in  quick~" JaeEun gestured to the trainee. YooMi knitted her brows together and shook her head as she stepped into the room, covering as much of the costume as she possibly could. "Aniya~ it's pretty~" Sunny ushered her back into her place in line. A few others fidgeted with their attires. "Okay, so now we decide hair and style..." Sunny pulled SooJin, JaeEun, MinAh, and YoonKi forward. "These few can your blazers... the rest, can you all button up?" The trainees obeyed as they busied themselves with making their attire presentable. "Joh-ah!" She returned the trainees to their places and dragged out another couple of them. SooJin, JaeEun, YooMi, MinAh, MinHee, and EunMi were to fold their sleeves up. SuJin looked down at herself and whispered, "I'm all covered up, I feel like a dumpling." KyMin looked down at her. "Nado..." They were the only two who buttoned up and had their sleeves down. "It'll be so hot and hard to move in these..." She agreed. "Now, for hair!" Sunny interrupted brightly. "To your chairs, everybody!" The girls acquiesced, taking their places dutifully. "Most of you now have brown hair... we need a few to stand out, but we'll settle that later." She moved to stand beside SooJin. "Our young schoolgirl-looking one will get... two ponytails!" The hairstylist got to work immediately. She dished out instructions as the girls looked at their transformation in the mirrors. SuJin and YoonKi were to get the cutesy apple-hair, EunMi was to get a side-ponytail, JaeEun was to have a mature side-braid, YooMi was to have a cross between EunMi and JaeEun's, a side-ponytail-braid, MinHee was to have a casual loose braid-ponytail, and both KyMin and MinAh were to let their hair down. KyMin sat alone in her chair, and her eyes darted towards the camera in front of her seat. "I don't think they're planning to do anything to me at all. I'm going to be so warm onstage!" She resumed waiting for the rest to finish their preparations. SUnny, on the other hand, had gone to the other room to check on HyeMi's team.

"Yeppo-yo [pretty]!" Sunny regarded the girls with excitement in her eyes. "Okay, now hats!" She revealed four boaters as she passed them to the trainees. MinJae, HyeMi, RuiXian, and KyunJi each got one. "Okay, let's see, there were two girls who dressed really sweetly just now... MiYoo and YonNi? Let's keep up your girlish image..." She passed a pink bow to YonNi and gave MiYoo an apple-hairstyle. "And who's the youngest here?" HaRu raised her hand shyly as Sunny made her way towards the girl and fastened a litle red bow in her hair. HaRu grinned. It was not her favourite pink, but at least she had something pretty. MinJae had two short ponytails, and HaRu and JinRa had their hair trimmed short as well. On second thoughts, Sunny passed a hairband studded with pearls to HyeSun as she decided on their footwear. "We'll make it cute and colour-coded." They were assigned high-heeled sandals, and Sunny emerged with coloured socks from the back of the cupboard. There were five colours - MiYoo and HyeSun got red, MinJae, HyeMi, and KunJi took yellow, YonNi and RuiXian were assigned purple, HaRu got the only green, and JinRa received the last blue.

"Right, we'll have one last look at it before we change back and send you all for choreography class!"

author's note:     hell-week has just ended & we have exam preparations going on, but it's when I like writing the most! hyemi's group will feature extensively in the next chapter (: