Fall 2004; Seoul, South Korea

    It was a crisp autumn night in Seoul, when one mundane event changed the life of a young woman forever. That evening seemed no different to any other that he's had before. He's usually a very busy man--running his own entertainment company and all--, so on the rare nights he's not working, he enjoys spending it with his secret girlfriend of three years doing absolutely nothing. That night, they were sitting on his couch in his apartment with the T.V blaring. He was meticulously unboxing a rare action figure that got delivered that day, while his girlfriend, Eun-ji, was boringly flipping through the channels. As Yang Hyun-Suk continued with his task, he began to get annoyed by the abrupt changes in channels. He  felt that removing a treasure like this required the utmost concentration, and the sudden bouts of obnoxious laughter to high pitch screams were seriously affecting this important moment for him. Eun-ji had already flipped through the station a hundred times when he had finally snapped.

    YG carefully set down his mint action figure and quickly turned to his girlfriend's side and snatched the remote from her hand. He looked at her seriously as he held the remote out of her reach and said in his nasally voice,"You've been through every channel already. It's getting annoying. The next channel that comes on is the one you're going to leave it on, you got it?"

    When she began to pout, he wrapped his arm around her and said in a voice too sweet for someone who looks intimidating: "Okay, Jagiya?~"
Eun-ji smiled her affirmative and changed the channel one last time.

    A fresh faced girl appeared on the screen singing happily to a massive crowd of fans as they chanted: "Sandy!". YG occasionally looked up at the screen while he continued removing the figures from their boxes. 

    When he was finally done, he carefully set all of them up on his display shelf. As he was repositioning a mecha into a fighting position, Eun-ji remarked while engrossed in the show, "Apparently she's a Korean-born who won runner-up in a Phillipines talent competition, while she doesn't speak Tagalog or English very well..." She trailed off to glance at her lover. "Why don't you come sit down and watch it with me," she asked as she patted the seat next to her, "it's really interesting."

    Hyun-suk indulged her with a large smile on his face. He plopped down beside and wrapped his arm around his love as she curled up against him.

    At first, he didn't understand what was so amazing about her; her vocal range was weak and her songs weren't that strong. Yet, she still managed to captivate a country. 

     The two-hour documentary about this girl continued on. Eun-ji fell asleep with her head in his lap a long time ago, while YG was so engrossed in the film. He realized somethings about this girl that left him intrigued by her. She was such a timid girl that answered with quiet and direct statements while not looking directly at anyone--residual evidence of what living in a foreign country has done to her personality. Yet when she was on stage or with her siblings she had the brightest smile and the happiest laugh. She had seriously stated she was the happiest when she was on the stage, and she would keep on doing it until she becomes an old woman. It was amazing to him that she worked nonstop six days a week even though it took a toll on her health. She fiercely claimed multiple times that "she was born without talent, so she has to work hard." She was critical of herself and her first released album and expressed regret that she didn't get to practice more for it; she said: "the songs were nice enough, but my voice wasn't." 
  

 While YG continued to listen to her sing in tagalog, he noted her voice had a slight ethereal quality that could be beautiful with more practice. He began to wonder how much better she would be if she sung songs in her own native Korean. 
  

 An idea began to pop in his head when she said she would like to gain more practice in singing and dancing. Hyun-suk picked up his flip phone, and began calling one of the producers of KBS that he was really close with.

    As the phone kept ringing, YG began to imagine that if this girl became a successful recruit as a trainee, they would already have an established fan base in another country..

    After the fifth ring, a man sleepily picked up and grunted into the phone: "You know what time it is, Hyun-suk?"

    "Sorry, Hyung, but I'm here to collect on that favor you owe me, since I DID introduced you to your wife~" YG smiled into the phone.

    "Fine," the producer sighed into the phone, "it better not be too much work!"

    "All I need is contact information for that documentary you guys aired tonight." YG glanced back at the T.V to see the girl sing happily into the mic: "The one called, "My name is Sandara Park."

    While the two old friends kept chatting, the documentary came to an end with the young woman sweetly asking:

                                                     "So, am I in or out?"

Fall 2004; Manila, Phillipines

    It was like any other day this past year for Sandara; getting up way before the sun rises to head to a shoot and spend the rest of the day working with wee hours of the night. She had shot countless CF's already, and that day was no different. 

    The fair-skinned girl was currently sitting in front of a bunch of bright lights getting retouched for the tenth time. As one make-up artist carefully applied more peach colored lipstick to her lips, another one blotted her face to remove the shine that has accumulated over time. Sandara couldn't wait for the shoot to be over with. She was beginning to feel the fatigue and nausea that was associated with not getting more than four hours asleep this past week. Plus, the fact that it was required of her to stuff with each take they did added to the feeling of needing to hurl.

    She was shooting yet another instant ramen CF. Since it was required of her to take a bite of ramen at the end of the commercial, there were two interns meticulously wrapping the curly noodles around a fork a setting them on a tray just out of frame at an assembly line pace. She has done over forty "NG's"--standing for "no good" takes. Early on in the filming, Sandara asked the director if  she could use a spit bucket after each take. The director had refused saying he wanted her to swallow the bite in the commercial so that it would appear "more authentic". After the twentieth take, Sandara tried hard to hide her trepidation each time she had to pick up that dreaded fork. At her forty-plus take, she assumed she must have eaten two bowls of ramen already.

    As the make-up artists were putting on the finishing, the director sighed disappointedly: "Sandara, Sandara. . . I'm not believing it. As a consumer, I would think this ramen must taste awful from what I've seen from your work in this commercial."  

    Although some of the director's Tagalog/English words got lost in translation, Sandara could tell what he thought: her acting today was terrible. 

    Th Filipino man smashed his palms against his cheeks in frustration and continued on: "I mean this ramen is supposed to be the best you eve had, but your expressions just look pained and nauseated!" He shook his head at her: "Really, when you were hired I thought you were a professional, but I'm not so sure anymore. . ."

    The Korean young woman could feel her eyes burn as she attempted to hold back the glare she so badly wanted to give the director. She couldn't help but feel resentment towards the director for refusing to let her use a spit bucket after having to do so many retakes. Sandara could feel her emotions begin bubble out threatening to s