It was twenty minutes past ten when a tired and grumpy Jessica ambled her way to the table.  With the day being warm and the sun shining bright in the summer morning sky, the rest of the group had gathered some tables together and were enjoying the benefits of the beginning of summer.  An equally bright and shining Sunny was sitting, drinking her iced coffee, and smirking at her late bandmate.  "Don't you dare say a word," Jessica pointed, quite annoyed.

Sunny gave her signature aegyo look and pointed to herself.  "Me?  I wouldn't!  I'd never say anything about you reminding me to be on time, while you turned up late yourself.”  She maintained her look amidst giggles from the other six members.  Jessica simply scowled and sat down.

"My alarm clock is broken, ok?”  Jessica explained.  "It needs new batteries.  I think it stopped last night."

"You should get one like mine!”  Sunny beamed, still teasing her friend.  "It runs on electricity!  No batteries to change!"

Another scowl.  "Anyway," Jessica asked, turning on her cheery bandmate, "aren't you supposed to be moody like you normally are after a night of binge drinking?"

"No hangover!”  Sunny shrugged.

"Sunny, come on, you really went drinking?”  Tiffany asked, exasperated.

"Unnie, what happened?  Why did you drink so much?”  Seohyun asked, concerned for her bandmate.

"Because," Sunny explained, in her own way that both reduced the argument to something ridiculous and meaningless, and was fast enough to stop anyone from butting in, but slow enough for people to understand, "I told Tiffany that I wanted to leave the band and become a video game developer, hoping that my best friend would support me, but she didn't.  Instead she told me that I would be wasting my time and I would soon become broke, and would spend the rest of my life begging on the streets, while spending nights under a railway bridge drinking cheap cider and huffing paint thinner."

“I did not say that!”  Tiffany argued, “Why would you tell them I said that?”

“Ok, so I lied about the cider and the paint thinner,” Sunny confessed.  “My point is, I wanted your support in something I really wanted to do and you went bat crap crazy!”

“I did not go bat crap crazy!”  Tiffany defended herself.

“You came to my house and flew at me because you blamed me for her leaving!”  Jessica interrupted.  “I almost had bruises!”

“Oh, come on!” exclaimed Tiffany.  “Stop being a drama queen.”

“No, Jess, she’s right, that wouldn’t have happened,” Hyoyeon defended, sarcastically.  “You would have been in a wheelchair.”

“What?  Is today ‘Pick on Tiffany’ day or something?”  Tiffany was clearly hurt at all of the things that were being said.  Even if they were slightly, mildly, a little bit, pretty much completely accurate.

“Girls, calm your , ok?!”  Taeyeon shouted, bringing order to the group.  As everyone quietened down, the leader looked to Sunny.  “Is this what you want?  You want to leave?”

Sunny shrugged.  “Maybe, but I don’t want to end up losing my closest friends over this.  I mean … this would be like my dream come true!  Imagine if I made the next ‘Assassin’s Creed’?  Or the next ‘Mario Kart’?  How cool would that be?”

“You could also be a part of the ‘Nation’s Girl Group’ and be on the cover of magazines!”  Tiffany cried.

“Hey, zip it, psycho,” Taeyeon scolded, glaring at her bandmate.  Tiffany caught her glare and remained quiet, as Taeyeon returned her attention to Sunny.  “Are you sure this is what you want?” she asked, softly.

Sunny shrugged again.  “Maybe, I don’t know.”

Taeyeon took a deep breath.  “Seohyun,” she announced to the maknae sitting opposite, “as our resident diplomat and future politician, what would you suggest?”

Seohyun looked at her leader, exasperated.  One thing she hated being called was a “politician”.  Sure, she was diplomatic and tried to make everyone happy.  She was honest, thorough, mature, well-read, always up-to-date on current affairs and international dealings in the news, and she was politically minded, but she didn’t want to enter into that area as a career.  But she said nothing.  “Well,” she thought, “if Sunny isn’t sure, maybe we should help her to decide?”

“How?”  Sunny asked.  “If I’m not sure, how can you help?”

Seohyun thought for a moment.  “How about we give you some time?  We let you research your dream, see what it involves, help you if we can, and don’t put pressure on you to decide today.  We can give you, maybe, two months to research everything, and if you still want to be a video game developer, we will all support you and help you get there.”

Sunny blinked.  “You-you’d do that?  For me?”

Seohyun nodded.  “I believe that your dreams are important, and you have to live them.  But if you don’t know if it is your dream, we have to help you to build it.  We can’t put obstacles in your way.  And we won’t.  We won’t organise extra meetings or events to sabotage your research time.  We will send you articles or journals that we see, if we think it’s beneficial.  We will find University prospectuses and job descriptions and even internships, if that’s what you want.  We all will.”

Taeyeon nodded.  “Sounds like a plan,” she agreed.

“Are you seriously going to do this?”  Tiffany asked.  “You’re going to waste two months to see if this stupid idea can come true?”

Taeyeon glared at Tiffany, her eyes giving its deadliest glower.  Tiffany shrunk back into her seat.

“Let’s put it to a vote then,” Seohyun compromised.  “All those in favour of letting Sunny research and decide her dream, raise your hand.”

Sunny looked around the table.  Six hands were raised.  The only hands that weren’t raised were hers and Tiffany’s, and her own hand wasn’t raised solely because her vote wouldn’t have counted.  Tiffany rolled her eyes at the outcome.

“That’s settled,” Taeyeon announced.  “We’ll all help you, Sunny.  In two months, if you want to leave, we won’t stop you.”

“But, Sunny unnie,” Seohyun cautioned, “you need to decide within the next two months.  Afterwards, you know we have record labels to audition for.  By then, it will be too late to back out.”

Sunny nodded, understanding the position she was in.  She smiled in gratitude at their maknae and her mind.

“Ok.  So, until then, we all get along,” Taeyeon ordered, before shooting a steely glance at Tiffany.  “Understand?”

Everyone muttered in agreement, except for Tiffany who silently nodded.

“Right, that’s settled,” Taeyeon smiled.  “Now, Yoona,” she turned her attention to her bandmate, “when is your friend coming here?”

“I said to come at about 11, so she should be here in …” Yoona glanced at her watch, “twenty-five minutes.”

“Good,” Taeyeon mused, “so that gives us time to relax and help this Kwon Yuri think we’re actually good friends and not a bunch of savage pack animals, out to tear each other’s throats out.”

The group fell silent for a few minutes, only moving or making sounds when they drank.  Taeyeon was a reasonable leader, very empathetic and fair.  She treated everyone as her equal and earned the most respect because of that.  But everyone knew to obey her when she was annoyed.  After what felt like an eternity but was more like two minutes, Sooyoung broke the silence:

"So, did anyone catch Big Brother last night?"

A collective groan from her seven fellow members swiftly put the bad atmosphere behind them.

Sunny returned to the table, after excusing herself to the bathroom and refilling her iced coffee.  This Yuri was running late, so Sunny took advantage of the opportunity.  When she returned, a new member was sitting in the empty seat, her back to the entrance.

"Ah, Sunny, there you are!”  Yoona smiled.  "I'd like you to meet Yuri.  Yuri, this is Sunny."

The stranger turned around and smiled.  In that instant, Sunny was taken aback.  She was very beautiful, and she had an enchanting smile.  Her eyes were deep and dark and oozed mystery.  She was the picture of perfection.  And, possibly, her new bandmate.

"Hi," Yuri stood, turned to face her new acquaintance and extended her hand.  "It's very nice to meet you."

"It's nice to meet you, too," Sunny smiled nervously, taking Yuri's hand in hers and shaking it demurely.  "Yoona's ... told us so much about you."

"Likewise," Yuri let go of her hand and returned to her seat.  Wow, she was tall.  Not as tall as Sooyoung, but definitely tall.  Although anyone was tall, compared to Sunny.  At 5ft 1, she was the shortest in the group, but she was also the most endowed.  Her body exuded femininity, her eyes shined with a mixture of playfulness, maturity, innocence and knowing, and her s and were very well rounded.  Being so short and voluptuous would ordinarily cause problems, especially with taller guys "accidentally" staring at her cleavage.  Sunny, on the other hand, found it quite amusing to watch them struggle to maintain eye contact.  It didn't help their efforts that she favoured outfits that helped to conservatively enhance the view of her assets, but it amused her endlessly.  And that arsehole strayed to other women.  Was he mental?  Maybe, maybe not, Sunny reminded herself.  For all of her bodacious qualities, she wasn't exactly flawless.  Sunny followed Yuri's lead and sat in her seat.

"So have you written any lately?”  Taeyeon asked, continuing the conversation.

Yuri nodded.  "I've written one, not too long ago.  It's probably not the best song for a band."

Sunny furrowed her brow for a moment, before realizing where the conversation had led to.  In selling Yuri to the rest of the group, Yoona said the new addition was a songwriter, as well as a gymnast, dancer, guitarist, and highly organized.  "She's a little OCD," Yoona had mentioned, "but definitely in the good way."

"Can we hear it?”  Sooyoung asked, sitting next to Yuri.

"Sure," Yuri answered, leaning to her side to pick up her guitar.  "It's more a solo song, but it's one of my favourites."

Yuri settled in to position, resting her instrument on her lap, slid the plectrum from between the strings on its neck and started to play.

naegen niga gijeogiya

ttaseuhan haetsal cheoreom

nunbushin boseog gateun sarangiya

dalkomhan keurim cheoreom

eonjena nae mam gadeug

naegen niga gijeogiya

naega himdeureo hal ttae

naega oerowo hal ttae

nal hansang jikyeo judeon

neo eoduun bam ilsurog

nal wihae banjjagineun

geudaeneun naui beulling seuta

oneuldo nan kkumeul kkunda

naui gireul georeo ganda

jeo byeol cheoreom bichi nalgeoya

neoneun naui beulling seuta

naneun neoui beulling seuta

uri deurui kkumeul wihayeo

"Yuri, that was amazing!”  Seohyun cheered.

Everyone else agreed, nodding and congratulating her on her impromptu performance.  Sunny said nothing, she merely nodded in agreement.  That wasn't a song for a solo artist, she thought.  That was a song made for Yuri.  Her voice wasn't as powerful as Tiffany's or as polished as Jessica's.  It didn't have the range that Taeyeon's had, but it also wasn't as subtle and quiet as the other girls.  In the band, Yuri probably wouldn't be lead singer material, but the girl could sing, and she could sing like an angel.  Sunny sat, mesmerised at the potential member sat with them.  As she had played the guitar, she played at Sunny’s heart.  The words were ones she longed to say to the one she loved.  If she ever found him.

Yuri bowed her head modestly.  "Kamsahamnida," she smiled.  "It was a song I wrote for my jerk of an ex-boyfriend.  When we broke up, I still loved the song so much that I wanted it to live on, but in someone else's heart.  It would be too painful for it to live in mine."

'Well that explained a lot', Sunny thought, making a silent vow to let it live on in her.

"Well, it's obvious that you're a good songwriter and a good singer," Taeyeon mused aloud.  "Yoona said you were a good dancer too?"

"She is!”  Yoona exclaimed.  "She was the best in her class in school!"

"And the slowest to pick up routines," Yuri added.

"But you can dance, right?”  Hyoyeon asked, covering her inner battle between her joy at a fellow dancer and her fear at being dethroned as the band's dancing queen.

Yuri nodded.  "Once I know the routine, I am ready to go," she assured the group.

"Great!”  Hyoyeon declared.  "We'll test you.  Tomorrow, 3pm, University gym."

"Test her?”  Yoona asked.  "But she's proven herself as a singer and songwriter, right?  Just like I said she would!"

"Yoona, it's fine," Yuri silenced her friend.  "She just wants to be sure, and I'm ok with it.  In fact, if they didn't test me, I'd be worried."

"Right, so it's settled," Hyoyeon announced, seemingly taking command from their leader.  "We'll see you tomorrow then."

"Huh?”  Yoona screwed her face towards Hyoyeon, as did a few other members.  "That's it?"

Hyoyeon shrugged.  "Before we make a decision, we need to see her dance.  We can't see her dance until tomorrow, so we'll have to wait until then."

"Well, we don't have anything planned," Yoona suggested, "maybe we could all hang out?  Yuri-ah, you don't need to go anywhere, do you?"

"Hang out?”  Hyoyeon almost spat.  She already felt threatened at being replaced as a dancer, now she risked being replaced as a friend.

“Actually, I think that’s a great idea!”  Sunny exclaimed, a little more eager than she intended to be.  “I mean, if she is good enough tomorrow, it’d be nice to get to know her.  And if she’s not, then I don’t want for her impression of us to be that we just dismissed her without giving her a chance.  I know we want to be professional, but we’re still all human.”  There were a few mutterings from around the table.  Hyoyeon still felt a little put out, but she couldn’t argue with Sunny’s logic.

“I wouldn’t want to intrude,” Yuri replied.  “If you’re busy or if I would be in the way, I can go back to Yoona’s and prepare for tomorrow.”

“No, no, you wouldn’t be intruding,” Sunny reassured her.

“Actually,” Seohyun agreed, “it would be nice to get to know you, even if you don’t impress us tomorrow.  I mean, Yoona is our friend and you are one of Yoona’s friends, so we should at the very least be polite and kind to you for Yoona’s sake.”

Yoona smiled.  “Thank you, maknae!”  Seohyun bowed her head in respect.

“I agree,” Taeyeon nodded.  “And I’m not even putting it up for a vote.  Yuri, if you are not busy, I would be honoured if you would hang out with us this afternoon.”

Yuri blushed and nodded, accepting the invitation.