Eun Mi sat on the floor of the practice room reading the news on her phone. There had been a bombing somewhere in the Middle East; she wanted to find out more about it, but it had happened several months ago and she couldn’t find the articles in chronological order on the mobile app.

She tried to keep up with the world. She was subscribed to several online newspapers from several different parts of the world or browsed their apps. It was a habit she’d picked up from her father and had never tried to shake off.

Someone dropped their bag beside her, making her jump. She looked up and found Su Jong smiling down at her, his bright pink and purple hair spiked up in a tousled mess. A smile spread itself across Eun Mi’s face as she smacked him on his exposed shin.

“You scared me!”

“Ah!” he hopped on one foot, rubbing the stinging skin. “Why are you always so violent? I was just going to say hi!”

Rolling her eyes, Eun Mi scooted over until there was enough room for him to sit beside her without having to move his outrageously heavy bag.

“Reading the news again?”

“Yeah…well, I’m trying to. I wasn’t able to check for a couple of days and the story I was following got lost.”

“Seriously? Just what goes on in the world?” He leaned in closer to her, hunching his back so that he could get a look at the screen of her phone.

“Too much, Su Jong, too much.”

Su Jong looked at her with furrowed brows. He raised his hand and gave her forehead a mildly hard poke. Yelping, Eun Mi pressed her hand against it.

“You don’t have time to be worrying about all that stuff. You have enough stress in your life to wonder about the state of the world and everyone else in it. Now, c’mon, we’d better start stretching before Tae Jun hyung gets here.”

Eun Mi frowned as she followed Su Jong’s lead. He was a sweet boy, a little rowdy and a whole lot talented and fun; he was also her best friend. Eun Mi had met him while working part-time one summer. The company had agreed to allow her some outside, real world experience under the belief that she’d manage to assimilate to the culture and improve her social skills.

With her fluent, yet admittedly slightly accented, Korean, Eun Mi had managed to perform well in any job given to her. She’d finally settled in a small café shop run by a single mother and her son. Su Jong happened to be the son of that kind woman.

Back then he’d been rebellious. He’d cut class, work, cram school and disappear for days at a time, spending all his allowance on karaoke or PC rooms. Eun Mi had felt awful about it, felt compelled to help Ms. Kang as much as possible. One day, she’d cornered Su Jong behind the trash cans in the alley and given him a great, big piece of her mind.

He’d disregarded her, of course, until she’d landed a perfect roundhouse kick on his side. If that had startled him, he’d become truly frightened when her hair slipped out of its elastic band and poofed up with the humidity. Eun Mi’s rampage had gone from Korean, to English, to Spanish in the process. Su Jong had looked at her with fearful eyes from his position on the ground.

“You better go to cram school! And you better help your mom with the shop! I swear if you don’t, I’ll beat the living crap out of you!”

He hadn’t understood a single word, but Eun Mi’s upraised fist had made him flinch. Things were a little tense between the both of them for a while after that, but when he’d discovered that she was a trainee, he’d begged for her to help him get an audition.

“Alright,” Eun Mi had finally relented after a week of his pleading. “I’ll help you get an audition. But! I will only do it if you stop skipping school and help your mom. Straighten up. You only have one life and you can’t be wasting it like this.”

Su Jong had sworn he would keep his promise and from that summer onwards he’d turned over a new leaf. He’d stuck to Eun Mi like glue during that time and never once left her side after he passed his audition.

Like DAEE, Su Jong was a rapper and dancer. In many ways, he’d helped heal Eun Mi’s two-left-feet illness during trainee years. He’d helped her learn useless talents, and taught her different accents until she perfected them for the sake of variety shows. Eun Mi had argued that it could come off as offensive to the public, and after a while of debating, he’d concurred and told her that she at least could fake being a native Korean if someone questioned her nationality.

“For the sake of a good laugh!” he’d claimed.

Eun Mi deeply loved and adored Su Jong for that and many other reasons. Those in the company knew that there was nothing but friendship between the two of them, but Eun Mi was still cautious after his debut and hers to keep anyone from getting the wrong impression.

Both of them believed that friendship could exist between a man and a woman without any other feelings taking root, but the vast majority didn’t. If they were hanging out together outside of the company’s protective walls, in places they were both sure to be recognized, they both made sure to take a selfie and post it on SNS.

Some fans had been suspicious at first, but when the rest of L6 and CELESTIAL began doing the same in various different combinations or with all eleven of them nothing had managed to formulate. The company had also stated before and after CELESTIAL’s debut that both groups were close to one another, especially as they were the first two to debut under the same label.

It wasn’t a lie. Everyone in L6 and CELESTIAL shared a deep bond. They were composed of the trainees that had remained with the company for a long time and proved that they could get along with the rest of their peers.

During their trainee days, Tae Jun and Eun Mi had set up joint practices in which they could all learn and help one another. No one had even considered the idea that they would cease to exist after L6 debuted and they didn’t.

Every two weeks, both groups gathered in the practice room from five o’clock until eight thirty and practiced, practiced, practiced. The company would order pizza for all of them and they would all head to their dorms for an early bedtime. If they hadn’t been too busy joking and goofing around that is.

Tonight was one of such joint practices. The members slowly trickled in. Ryouta, L6’s youngest and first foreign member, followed by Dae Hyun and Dae Jung, the company’s identical twins. DAEE and Ienna were right behind them, listening attentively to Ryouta’s every word. He seemed to be carrying a lesson in Japanese. Kain, L6’s second foreign member, entered the practice room a few minutes later with Chae dangling from his back.

Kain’s father had been half-Korean, half-German and his mother was a tall, beautiful German woman. The young man took after his mother’s side of the family, the only tattle-tale aspect of his biracialism was in the beautiful shape of his eyes. They had somehow managed to reflect both Germany and Korea in their shape. Their deep, deep, emerald color contrasting his dark, dark hair and sun kissed skin made him all the more alluring. No girl could look at him without blushing. He was L6’s pride, their outstanding visual and main vocalist. His voice possessed this rustic, alluring intonation to it. Whether it was because he’d learned it from his Korean grandparents or simply because he’d been born with such a voice no one really knew.

“Kain,” Eun Mi said, pushing Su Jong’s leg up until it was near his face and he was whimpering in pain. “Drop that sack of potatoes and get them all stretched.”

“What are we doing today?” Chae asked, landing softly on her feet as she slid off Kain’s back. “Dance practice?”

“Yup.” Eun Mi lowered Su Jong’s leg carefully. “We’ll start as soon as Tae Jun oppa gets here.”

L6 and CELESTIAL got moving. They stretched well; the girls dropped into their splits with ease after slightly loosening up their muscles. Ryouta and Dae Jung followed suit.

A few years ago, out of sheer boredom, L6 had asked the girls to help them split. The girls had laughed, obliging them with mirth. Out of the six members, only Ryouta and Dae Jung had been brave enough to actually learn properly.

After stretching, DAEE and Su Jong began warming up with a light dance battle. The vocal-line began a lighthearted cheer that included screeching high notes and peals of laughter. The atmosphere was merry, but Eun Mi could not shake off the sudden, creeping feeling that traveled up her arms, through her heart, and settled at the pit of her stomach.

“Eun Mi-ah.”

Tae Jun’s arrival paused the fun. It wasn’t his usual greeting; signaling her out like that meant that something important had to be addressed.

Eun Mi smiled at L6 and CELESTIAL. “You guys keep warming up. We’ll be right back.”

They nodded and proceeded to act as if nothing was wrong. Eun Mi could feel Su Jong and Chae’s eyes on her as she made her way to Tae Jun who was waiting just outside the practice room.

“Oppa, what’s up?”

Tae Jun was the only one among both groups that was older than her. Eun Mi shared the same birth year with two others, Su Jong and Kain, both of whom had been born later than her. Tae Jun had insisted that she call him oppa; he’d taken good care of her over the years, so Eun Mi had agreed, even if the term still felt very strange for her to use.

“Did you get a call from S broadcasting?”

“No, I haven’t been called at all. The last time they called me was the morning of filming. Why? What happened?”

“They won’t air the episode.”

Eun Mi’s heart stopped. “Was it because of—”

Tae Jun nodded. “They said that there was just not enough footage to salvage the broadcast. Since it was a pilot episode to begin with they decided it was best not to air it. The producers weren’t pleased with the results, it seems.”

“T-they could have called me. I would have filmed everything again.”

The handsome leader of L6 shook his head, placing a hand on Eun Mi’s shoulder to comfort her. “Don’t worry about it. You weren’t the one at fault. The PD told hyungnim—I mean, Mr. Choi, that you’d done an excellent job.”

Discouraged, Eun Mi hung her head. She’d worked so hard filming that that she felt as if a rock had hit her square on the chest, knocking the air out of her. It hadn’t been an easy filming, true, but she’d done what she could.

Obviously, it had not been enough. She’d counted on being able to promote both L6 and CELESTIAL through this program, to have a steady appearance and maybe get a few of the guys and girls to participate in episodes. Eun Mi had gotten her hopes up, seen a great opportunity and seized it.

But the show had fallen through. They wouldn’t broadcast it even though it was already filmed. They weren’t even going to edit it. And all because of that person…

Tae Jun continued to pat her shoulder. “Don’t worry, Eun Mi-ah, a better opportunity will come up. Trust me.”

Eun Mi looked up at him, giving him the best smile she could muster while feeling heartbroken, discouraged, and disillusioned all at once. “Mm! I’ll keep trying. Definitely!”

Tae Jun smiled at her, ruffling her hair before heading into the practice room. He grabbed the basket that was on the floor next to the door and held it out towards the members.

“Phones up!”

Eun Mi heard the kids rush to deposit their cellphones in the small basket. She’d left hers by her bag, so she hurried in to follow Tae Jun’s lead.

Joint practice was usually a time to unwind and get rid of pent up stress. Eun Mi threw herself into practice harder than before, hoping that another opportunity better than the one just ruined would arise.