[December 9, 1:17pm]

It was a familiar, but odd feeling when they walked through the doors of the place they had spent most of their time for the last few years. It was familiar in the sense they knew almost everything that they could possibly know about the building, which way to go and where to not go; but this time it held a new feeling, the sense of utter purpose.

They’d finally been selected for a project, and so this was the first time, as a group, that they were walking through the halls and guided to the allotted practice room.

“As you may know, each idol group will get their own practice room, unless of course you debuted as soloist then you get your own private one down another hall, usually near the composing rooms. This will be where you will learn and practice all choreographies that you are given.” Jehun rambled, making sure they were clear that this was to be their room, they should be comfortable here.

“Is it close to our original trainee practice rooms?” Suri asked from the back of the group, herding along everyone keeping the group tightly together as they made their way through the building.

“Not quite. Idols are the closest to the offices at the top, then it’s the trainees, receptions and the underground parking lot.” Jehun listed, looking back at the group momentarily. “Though as you’ll know the original practice rooms were in the other building, so when it is completed the trainees will most likely be moved there instead.”

“Oh. Kamsahamnida.”

“We’re almost there. It’s just further down this hall.” Jehun directed them, slowing down as the approached a uniform blurred glass door. It matched with all the rest, but it had a different number, 208.

“Number eight?” Geummi asked suddenly, looking at the small number. “Could we have 201 instead?” She complained, it was closest to the elevator and stairs and number one was very important.

“The numbers given to idol group training rooms are specific and done for a reason. 201 TVXQ’s; 202 Super Junior’s; 203 SNSD’s; 204 SHINee’s; 205 f(x)’s; 206 is EXO’s; and 207 is Red Velvet’s. So naturally you’d be given the next number, 208.” Jehun shook her head, cutting off any further words of changing practice rooms.

“So they’re in order of debuting?” Daelin confirmed. “Number eight…” She continued under her breath.

“Of the current working groups, yes. So don’t worry about it.” Jehun nodded, turning and gesturing to another two doors that wasn’t one of the practice rooms. “That’s the male and female bathroom and changing rooms. Inside it’ll have lockers for bags and clothing with your name and training room number on it, as well as basic amenities for your use.”

The group looked towards the bathrooms; noticing the male and female signs on the doors and how it was the only pair of doors to not have clear glass on them, instead black glass panels.

“Now time to meet your fitness coach and instructor.” The words pulled back the attention of the group and the glass door was opened swiftly, and the older woman stepped aside to allow them all to enter first.

The room was cooler than what they would’ve liked, but if you were supposed to practice until you were sweating buckets the air cool would be rather nice. It had white walls, a black leather couch, a stand-alone closet set close to the door, a stereo system, a dance bar and finally a wall of mirrors. But that’s not what peaked their attention.

It was the taller, strict looking Chinese woman sitting on the couch not looking at them.

“This is Lu Xiao.” Jehun introduced, closing the door behind the group and moving to stand near the trainer. “Your fitness, health, dance, and singing coach. She’ll be the one to make sure you’re up to standards.”

The group didn’t hesitate as the bowed deeply to the older woman, whom had finally turned her attention to them.

“Annyeong, please take care of us.” They said in unison, though not the perfect timing that so many idols had.

“You don’t have to bow, we’ll be seeing each other everyday. You can call me Xiao or Xiao-unnie.” Xiao told them, standing up slowly and moving next to Jehun.

“How about introducing yourselves to Xiao?” Jehun prompted in the silence, nodding towards Inhyo first.

“Of course unnie.” Inhyo paused, posture straightening a little more, finally turning her full attention to Xiao. “I am Inhyo-imnida, the leader of V.O.X.” Bowing one last time, and then moving aside.

The rest of the girls briefly looked at one another and then turned back to Xiao; Geummi easily stepping forward, confidence oozing from the girl. “My turn. I am Geummi-imnida, please take care of me unnie.” She said brightly, bowing again and moving to the side to stand with Inhyo while Haru took her place.

“I am Haru-imnida, it’s nice to meet you unnie.” Haru bowed formally, pleasantly smiling at the elder while stepping to the side.

“Hello Xiao-unnie. I am Suri-imnida, please take care of us.” She said confidently, bowing and then moving back for Daelin to step forward.

“Hello unnie.” Daelin paused bowing her head, “I am Daelin-imnida, the maknae of V.O.X.” She finished, bowing and then moving to stand with the rest of her group.

“Lovely to meet you girls, now that introductions are over we’ll continue onto business.” Xiao said, gesturing to the couch next to her, her voice was pleasant but yet her face held no visible sign of happiness or satisfaction.

“You may sit down, it’s better than sitting on the cold floor.” The group migrated quickly, sitting down on the cool leather of the couch and looking up to the two older women who were standing over them.

“You’ll be debuting early next year, so it’ll give us a little window of time to work with so I expect you to be working hard everyday and show up for absolutely every training session.” Xiao started quickly, her voice becoming sterner.

“There are a few rules to abide by here and while they are basic they are for your own benefit. One; don’t bring back outsiders into the building. Two; all routines and such are to remain private knowledge until they are debuted. Three; this room is open at all time to practice in, however if you abuse this privilege there will be consequences. Four; all stage performances are to go through me and stage fashion is to go through your stylist. But these are your current base rules, more may be added, changed or removed on basis of circumstances and events.”

Xiao paused for a second, glancing at all the girls, gauging their expressions.

“In a few minutes you’ll be meeting your stylist and nutritionist to get your measurements individually. While you’ll all be taken one by one to get that done by her, the rest of you will begin to learn your choreography and lyrics for your debut.” Xiao stretched, hands high above her head. “I have every faith you’ll be able to debut successfully despite such a small preparation time.”

“We’ll try our best Xiao-unnie.” Suri nodded, stretching her hands out in front of her. The glint in her eyes burning with a fiery determination at the prospect of this challenge. If anything could excite her, it was a challenge and particularly a dancing challenge. Xiao looked deeply at the dancer, observing ever aspect of her tone and expression.

The room was silent as she looked at Suri, so silent you could hear a pin drop before the older woman let out a blinding smile.

“That’s the kind of determination I look for Suri.” Xiao nodded, standing back. “I believe we have enough time to stretch together before you get picked off one by one.” She sighed, glancing at the door.

“It’s a necessary evil though… such a shame. Jehun why don’t you just relax and we’ll work on doing the rest.” A loud laugh escaped the older woman, already making her way to the abandoned leather couch.

“I am already there, just continue on. I’m sure you have plenty of work to do.” Jehun wavered her off, pulling out her phone, Samsung smart PC and a wad of papers from her handbag.

The group stood around for a moment, rearranging themselves, pushing into a free space away from the touch of the nearest person.

“Good, good. I’m sure you all can warm up to your own preferences while I’ll inform you of your debut songs.” Xiao nodded, leaning against the cool reflective surface of the mirror behind her. They heard her, but focused solely on their individual activities.

Haru, Inhyo and Geummi had stretched down to touch their toes, twisting to one side before pushing to the next; whereas both Daelin and Suri had done the splits fully, and had their chest to the cool wooden floor reaching forward.

“Your concept is unlike and like that of your sunbaes. It’s not bubblegum pop, but not entirely dark and mature yet. You’ll be having a sort of fun hip-hop concept to begin with, however there are plans to slowly change it to a much more y concept that hasn’t really been tried at SM yet.”

“How so?” Haru questioned, pulling a leg back and stretching. “Hasn’t Red Velvet sunbaes done a y concept?” Haru looked at the elder, one eye peeking through eyelashes as she remained with her leg pulled back and her eyes closed.

“Not quite. It was a mature concept and had little to no iness intended.” Xiao shook her head. “Geummi you should lean forwards more. But you’ll be the flagship for y girl groups in SM, so don’t worry.” Xiao instructed, still looking at Haru who nodded and switched position.

“Of course unnie.” Haru nodded slightly, switching into another position. Her voice was almost monotonous, focused completely on stretching.

“Back onto topic. You’ll be debuting with We Are A Bit Different and I Feel Good, both have fair amounts of dancing, but are still mild dancing wise.” She announced, her voice echoing off the wood of the room, make the words seem louder than what they were. “I’ll give out the lyric sheets out later.”

“Wait so we have two debut songs? Why not one?” Daelin questioned sitting up and staring at the elder, nose scrunched up slightly and eyebrow raised.

“Double EP.” She replied swiftly, not looking at the tiny girl and instead moving to stretch herself. “It will double the chances to hook fans, before you go on hiatus for a few months and then have another comeback. Easy.”

They fell into silence, eyes on Xiao stretching leisurely. Particularly that of the tiny maknae whom was studying her intently, eyes narrowing slightly.

“Not quite. There is more to it, isn’t there.” Daelin shook her head, lips moving on her own accord. She could read people easy, her parents were like closed books around other people so she grew up learning to read body language and could now do so easily.

“Your perceptiveness is rather impressive for someone so young.” The instructor clapped, grinning widely at her. “There is more to the story of course.” Xiao continued, moving to sit on the floor comfortably.

The group glanced between the pair, intrigued at the sudden burst sharpness of their member who was staring down the teacher intently. Daelin, what they knew and seen of her, was playful and didn’t bother much really on details unless business related, but she had narrowly picked out this sliver of information out of a haystack. Xiao was by no means easy to read even for the smartest of the group.

“Your group concept was chosen months ago, just like your songs and group formation. The members didn’t matter at the time, Youngmin wanted the best and so they decided that would happen later. They were meticulous this time.” She started, leaning back on her hands and staring up to the roof, occasionally looking back down with an almost mocking grin.

“After the last year; Red Velvet’s debut if you’ll remember. Now while they are fairly good, they still weren’t good enough for SM stans. They were somewhat rejected, and while normally Youngmin wouldn’t bother and continue on like normal, it was after all the scandals that he made a decision.” She her lips, rolling her head to stretch the muscles.

The pause in her words only served to pull them in more, all taking their time to run of her features, eyes locked onto her petite form. All seeming to be like a group of hungry animals after their prey, only this ‘prey’ was the information they seeked.

“He wouldn’t just pull out members that seemed to fit well together, get along or fit all with the same image. No he said that they were to be the best, of course they had to look pretty as well, young but not childish.” She paused, looking at each of their faces individually, black eyes blinking once, twice, a few times more.

“He sent out the instructors to look for you while he sat back with story writers. Every good group needs interest, time and planning. EXO, they were just chosen randomly, but they had a story that got the man thinking. If SM was sinking because of scandals, he’d create another group to distract the attention away from them. So that’s why he choose you, a few highly talented individuals, but with a story unlike Red Velvet, but like EXO.” She lowered her voice, words becoming whispery and delicate as she told back the story she’d heard from some higher executives she had befriended.

“They created your concept. It wasn’t far-fetched like EXO’s, but still held its own mystery. All I know was you have a mystery/phase type concept. It’ll start fairly normal, you’ll have hints hidden occasionally and eventually as you build up as artists it’ll start getting bigger and will link everything together. Or at least that is the plan.” Xiao bit back biting words, in her cheeks for a second and breathing out in the next instance; she just relaxed into her spot, zoning out to stop anything else from coming out.

“Essentially shiny new toys?” Inhyo looked up, her eyes darkening as her voice strained with accusation, slowly moving to stand up as she just ran a hand through her hair. She hadn’t spent days and nights in the training rooms to just be passing fancies.

“Won’t the netizens see through this? See we are merely a distraction for them to throw away the minute we’ve finished enough smoke screening?” Suri whispered in desperation, looking at the woman for some sort of answer, the passion in her eyes turning into worry, disappointment and frustration as she listened on.

“Yes and no. You are originally intended to be a smoke screen yes, but if you do well enough he’ll keep you in the artist line up. Youngmin isn’t one to pass an opportunity to gain profit, one thing you should know well here.” Xiao shrugged looking at them blankly, lazily shifting in her spot. “Though I can tell you want to prove him wrong. Youths are good at that, so get to work and do it well so that you can prove a point.”

“We’ll practice harder if you’ll teach us.” Haru hesitated, looking around at the younger girls slowly getting up from the floor. They nodded at the determined sparks that lit their eyes, and even if they couldn’t continue as artists after this, then they’d better make an impression; Geummi clapping her hands and opening to say the words they were all thinking.

“I always loved proving someone wrong.”

Oh~ they've met the cool instructor Xiao. She gives me mixed feelings, at one point she is so chill and brutally honest, but at others she doesn't seem to care about them and acts like this is a job. (Which it is, but you know not a job she loves)

So character building will have to happen later until you fully understand the woman. Next chapter will be a sort of time skip, because you can only write so much practising before it become boring.