January 31 2015

"Good news everyone!" Their manager, Sunhwa entered the room with a piece of paper in her hand.

After that incident with Jungri some time ago, she was trying hard to get along with the members and it was gradually beginning to work as they accepted her trials in befriending them. 

"What is it unnie?" Seungyeon asked as she approached Sunhwa. Jieun stood up from the seat of the keyboard as the remaining girls joined the group. 

"We've gotten you another showcase! It's sort of like a mini surprise concert for you guys and it's next Friday so work hard, okay? Here's the tracklist. 

1. Missing You
2. Female President
3. I Don't Need A Man
4. Loving You
5. Look At Me
6. Darling
7. Thank You Very Much
8. YooHoo
9. I Miss You
10. I Need You
11. I'm In Love
12. A Girl In Love
13. Study Please
14. Love & War
15. Goodbye Baby

"Oh my god.. Then that means I'll be singing for the entire showcase?!" Jieun gawked at the tracklist. She had a part of her own in every single song stated there and it didn't help that she was the main vocalist which meant that she was going to be responsible for all the high notes. Sunhwa gently placed a hand on Jieun's shoulder.

"Sorry dear.. Company's orders. I tried to object but they wouldn't listen." Sunhwa apologized and Jieun sent her a meek smile. 

"It's okay." She sighed before turning to the orders.

"We should get to practice." The moment Sunhwa left, a text was sent to Jieun's phone.

"DING! You have a message, Jieun-ah~" Sehun's voice rang from her phone. The Starlight members narrowed her eyes at her causing her to blush. It was Sehun's idea of having his voice as her notification and her voice as his. She headed over to her phone and gasped at the message.

From : Unknown Number

Kang Jieun. It's time you dropped from Sehun's limelight.
I'll be making sure you lose EVERYTHING.




There were photos and a video attatched to the message and Jieun could only stare. Somehow, someone had gotten a hold of pictures of her with her older brother but as they didn't reveal to anyone that they were actually siblings, they looked as though they were out on a date. She recognized the last picture to be the day she'd invited the members to a restaurant as a treat but the picture was angled so that the other members were out of the picture.

BAM!

The door slammed open before Jieun could even tell the members about it. In stormed Sehun who approached her without greeting the others first. Seungyeon, Nora and Bian looked at each other in surprise as they stood there awkwardly.

"Kang Jieun. Are you cheating on me?" Sehun asked as he showed her the pictures on his phone. They were the exact same photos that were sent to her phone.

"I would never-" She got cut off by him.

"Then what the hell is this?! Why are you with Leo and hugging him too?!" He snapped. Jieun could only stare at him in shock. 

"That's.." She knew her older brother still didn't want to be revealed so she kept shut.

"I told you before.. If you ever found someone new, just tell me and I'll let you go..but doing this.." Sehun's gaze were hard as they pierced at her heart. "Let's just break up so that you can go to him." Jieun's eyes widened in shock.

"W-What?"

"I said let's break up." He repeated his words.

"S-Sehun-ah.." Seungyeon spoke up. "Don't do anything you might regret later on." She tried to stop him. 

"Not now, noona. If I don't do this, I'll regret it." He turned to Jieun. "I never knew you were like this. I'm so disappointed in you." With that, he left. As soon as he left, Jieun crumbled onto the floor as she let out her tears. 

"Jieun-ah! What was that?" Nora asked as she lowered herself next to Jieun. She said nothing as she held up her phone. Nora silently read the message and her eyes widened. 

"Nobody else knows that Leo is my older brother.." Jieun mumbled. "He doesn't want to let anyone know yet so.." She lowered her head. Her hair was covering her face as she let out little sobs. Nora sighed as she wrapped her arms around Jieun, her left hand rubbing soothing circles onto her back.

February 7 2015

It was the morning of their showcase and Jieun was the first one to wake up as she needed to cook breakfast for the group. However, she didn't because just as soon as she was about to step into the kitchen, the doorbell rang. She opened the door only to see a box sitting there.

"What's this?" Jieun was surprised. She picked the box up and let out a shrill scream at the sight of what was inside.

Jieun remained stunned even as she reached the venue of her showcase and even as she got ready. For the first time ever, she was silent even as she got ready to go on stage at the stage wing. She shook her gently from side to side to erase those thoughts as the girls headed up the stage. On normal days, upon seeing what Nora was going to wear for the performance was enough to make Jieun endlessly but today, she didn't even glance at the other members. She merely sat there like a doll. Once they were on stage however, it was as though the old Jieun was back.


( Bom - The one with a zebra dress : Jieun | CL - The one with a yellow fur coat : Bian | Dara - The one with the white thing on her head : Nora | Minzy - The one with the pink furry scarf : Seungyeon ) [Stop once their performance has ended.]

When Jieun sang her last line, her memories with Sehun came flooding in and tears began falling on-stage. To her luck, the stage lights switched off as soon as they were done. She quickly wiped away her tears as she got off stage. They quickly changed as in less than a few minutes, it was their next performance.


( Minah - The one with a short ponytail - Jieun | Sojin - The first one to sing : Seungyeon | Hyeri - The one with short hair - Bian | Yura - The one with a long ponytail : Nora )

During this stage, Jieun could pretend that she was perfectly fine when on the inside, she was dying. Why were all the songs that had to sing today reminding her of nobody but Sehun?


( Min - The one with short brown hair : Jieun | Suzy - The one with wavy brown hair : Seungyeon | Fei - The one with extremely curly hair : Nora | Jia - The one with straight black hair : Bian )


( In the beginning : Left - Right | Seungyeon - Jieun - Bian - Nora )

While Starlight was performing this song, EXO was back-stage getting ready and as soon as Sehun caught sight of her, he couldn't help but feel hurt. Was he wrong for not asking her for the truth first? Wasn't it her fault? He felt conflicted. He broke up with her on impulse and said all of those words out of hurt. He hadn't really meant them but wasn't it too late to apologize? It had been one whole week but one glance at her sad eyes and fake smiles was enough to know she cared for him too. Tao, on the other hand couldn't stop staring as Nora danced and sang. Chanyeol was even rapping along to Bian when she rapped her part.


( Look At Me : Left - Right : Nora - Seungyeon - Jieun - Bian )
( Darling : Pause at 2:59 ; Left- Right : Bian - Nora - Jieun - Seungyeon )


( Hyeyeon - The one in full white dress with gold frills : Bian | Dahye - The one in full white dress : Nora | Haeryung - The one with black and white diamond-shaped patterns blouse : Seungyeon | U-Ji - The one in black and white lines dress : Jieun )  


( Beginning Left - Right : Bian - Nora - Jieun - Seungyeon )

The girls stepped out for this performance and interacted with their fans as they sang. Jieun smiled at her fans as she sat down near them, mouthing words to them with a smile on her face. She took in a deep breath as soon as she felt tears again.


( Bian : 0:48 | Jieun : 1:04 | Seungyeon : 1:31 | Nora : 2:08 )

When Jieun was singing her high notes, she was already crying from the mere emotions the song brought and so, her notes were brought out with infinite amount of emotions. That was also another reason why the camera did not film her as she did her high note.


( U-Ji - Jieun |  Hyeyeon - Bian | Dahye - Nora | Haeryung - Seungyeon )


(Pause at 0:40) Left-Right Jieun - Seungyeon - Nora - Bian )


( Hyorin : Jieun | Bora : Nora )


( Pause at 0:31 Left - Right : Nora - Jieun - Seungyeon - Bian )


( Haeri - Jieun | Minkyung - Seungyeon )

( Suzy - Seungyeon |  Fei - Nora | Jia - Bian | Min - Jieun )