"Stop, stop it!" Sera complained in pain, "Just stop it!"

"I'm sorry, miss Kim, but we were instructed to do this," the man to her right said through his mask. He lowered the scalpel to her elbow and began to scrape the skin there away. Though she didn't feel it due to the amnesia, she felt the pain inside. This procedure was being done against her will to make her 'look better'. But she didn't understand it. If they picked her not only for her talent, but her looks as well, then why were they making her do this surgery?

"We're almost done, we just need to put the new skin over it," the same doctor said. "Sing a song or something to pass time."

"Are you crazy?" She demanded. "I am not singing a song-"

"Sing a song, kid. Right now."

Sera turned her head to the left and looked over the shoulder of another doctor only to see the eyes of Song Chanseung. She glared at him, though she admits to have momentarily forgotten about him. "Go yourself, Song."

Chanseung didn't seem to be affected by her comment, not after six year of seeing each other's face everyday. In fact, it was something he expected from her - the mood swings, the cursing, the immediate smile, everything."Sera, delight the lovely doctors with your heavenly voice, why don't you?"

"I should stick something down your throat," Sera growled. But she still began to sing. She couldn't resist the spotlight all for herself.

"친구라도 될 걸 그랬어 모두 다 잊고서
다른 사람 만나는 널 보아도 슬프지 않게
그저 바라보고 있었어 한참동안 니 옆에 그 사람까지도
잠시라도 더 보려고
다시 혹시라도 널 보게되면 그 땐 모르는 척 해볼게
웃어도 볼게 지금의 너처럼 우-"

"Put a sock in it, Kim," Song Mirae said inattentively. She stood up from her chair and turned  to face Chanseung. "Why are we here anyways? I hate seeing this place."

"Be patient and sit back down, kid," Chanseung replied. "Just because you've been chosen doesn't mean I can report back a little lie about you to YG hyung that will cause an end to your career. I hope you know that."

Mirae shrugged. "I know. And don't call me 'kid'. I'm no kid, Chanseung. I hope you know that." Despite her words, Mirae did sit back down. 'Perhaps she is scared of him.'

"Stop talking," Sera interrupted. "Just stop. Mirae, would you just have some respect for me and shut your mouth for the rest of my surgery time? This once, Song Mirae."

"I have manners, Kim," Mirae growled. "I just choose not to use them on you."

"I can hardly believe that," Sera responded with a chuckle. "You give off the 'I was raised by wolves in a cave' vibe."

A shrill chuckle was let out by the girl on the other side of Chanseung. "See Kim, these are the moments I actually genuinely like you."

Sera lifted her eyes to Charlie Jung. "That doesn't seem to mean much to me. Sorry."

The girl leaning on the wall by the door sighed heavily. "Once I wish we could all get along. Just once."

"Sorry, Aerin, not going to happen anytime soon. You'd have to pay me an infinite amount of money if you want me to get along with that." Mirae shot a disgusted look towards Charlie. 

Charlie, on the other hand, shrugged. "At least I wasn't the one who forever damaged my body and is now getting plastic surgery in order to correct it."

Sera chose to ignore her statement and closed her eyes. It wasn't her fault she was pushed by the other girl - Hyunwol, was that her name? - the time the group was hiking up the mountain side. It wasn't her fault that the girl had absolutely no manners at all. It wasn't her fault that the girl was no where near civilized. The money craving freak. 

Her eyes stayed closed for such a long time that it almost felt like she was in a coma; the sound of their little group arguing was already like a lullaby to her. Chanseung would say something that would irritate either Charlie or Mirae, the two then would take it out on each other, Aerin would try to intervene and act all brave, Sera would say something that she would think would make the situation better but really didn't, while all Hyunwol would do was glare at a wall or something.

Though Chanseung would kill her if he heard this, Sera would pay as much as needed in order to go back in time, to rewind everything and go back to when it was just her, her father, and her sister in France. When everything was normal, when there were no pains in her life. How she wished she could take that one day back.

---

---

 

The lanky girl, only 12, climbed up the stairs and stood tall in front of her audience of five. As soon as her eyes locked with the man with the navy blue cap on, she immediately bowed in respect. 'Yang Hyun Suk.' "Annyeonghaseyo."

"Name?"

"Kim Sanghee, sajang-nim, or Sera. It's my French name," the young girl answered automatically.

"Alright, Ms. Kim," the female to the right nodded, "Tell us a little bit about yourself." She admits it; an answer almost didn't come out because of the shock of the effects of having too much makeup on. 

'Don't say anything about it,' she begged herself. Thankfully nothing rude or snarky did come out. "My name is Kim Sanghee or Sera, and I'm half Korean half French, born in Marseille, France and raised in Bordeaux, France. I grew up speaking French outdoors and Hangul inside the house. I'm here on vacation and I thought, for fun, that it would be cool to audition-"

"So you aren't serious?" The female asked.

Seraa shook her head. "No ma'am."

"If you aren't serious about this, why bother?"  Sera shifted her eyes to the man who said this and immediately looked away. She couldn't seem to find it in herself to look at him straight in the eyes. Not while he was looking at her like that. Sensing her uneasiness, the man leered. He motioned towards the door."Did you see those people out there? They're serious and committed to this. They're all ready to give up  their lives just to get their opportunity to shine. We know they all worked hard and mastered their routines. So how do we know you can be as good as them if you're here just for fun? How do we know if you're not just here to waste our time?"

Sera saw something in his intense-from-the-beginning eyes. Was it pity? Disgust? Whatever it was, it surely did not feel good. She knew whatever she said could be used against her, especially with the way he talked to her. But she couldn't help it. "What's you're name, sir?" she demanded.

He smirked. "Are you just wasting our time or not?" he asked again.

"Your name," Sera commanded. Of course she knew that what she was doing could seriously affect her score, but she didn't care right at the moment. The man needed to learn a lesson: Never mess with Sera Kim.

He was silent for a few moments as he looked down at his notebook and wrote some things down. When he finally looked up, a satisfied grin replaced the sickening smirk."I like you, kid; but don't you dare talk to me that way. I do have the power to reject you right at this moment."

But Sera didn't budge. "That's not the answer to the question I asked."

"Chanseung. Song Chanseung, kid."

Another woman, this time a woman with pink cat-eyed glasses that seemed to be chipping off and on their way to being broken completely, slammed her hand on the table. "Stop this nonsense this instance, Chanseung. Or else I'll stop that mouth of yours for you." She then gave Sera a nod. "Continue on, dear."

This wasn't how Sera imagined this audition would go. She thought the judges would be all smiles, encouraging everyone here and there. But she was wrong. These judges seemed to do the opposite; they seemed like they wanted to scare candidates off through hard stares and rare - if any - compliments. The five were definitely the definition of intimidating, if not menacing.

'They're good,' she remembered thinking. 'Now I understand why the idols they produce are essentially indestructible.' She acknowledge their strategies and admired them until, that is, she completely blanked out. "Uh." was all she uttered, her eyes wide in fear. The girl she was a few moments ago had come and gone without any warning at the time she needed her most.

After what seemed like an eternity, Yang Hyun Suk heavily sighed. "Kim Sanghee, if you aren't going to speak properly in the next five seconds, you are dismissed."

Perhaps it was his warning that scared her, but when he reached the number 3 in his countdown, words Sera practiced came pouring out. "I'm no one special, just a plain old 12 year old on vacation. Despite that, I am a talented singer; I've never attended a single vocal lesson in my life. I don't believe in preparation and instead have confidence in doing everything at the moment." With that said, a subtle smirk made it's way to the surface, towards Song Chanseung. He nodded in acknowledgement and reciprocated. Sera faced forward, right at Yang Hyun Suk and stared him down. "Turn the music on now. I'm ready to sing." Her persona was back and ready to kick .

From what she could see, the man wearing the cap let a small smile escape him. "Alright," he announced, "Cue the music."

Sera nodded and put her contemporary face on. Music - a soft ballad - blasted from the gigantic speakers as she closed her eyes. Despite being in an isolated, soundproof room, Sera felt a gentle breeze encouraging her. Pretty soon the intro passed and everything else after came so naturally.

"If I should stay

I would only be in your way.

So I'll go, but I know

I'll think of you every step of the way."

 

Through her closed lids, Sera didn't hear the five judged exchange their thoughts and opinions among themselves. She just kept singing, and when the first chorus finally rolled around - "Okay, we've heard enough," was what the woman with pink glasses said in a tone only slightly louder than the music.

Sera stopped immediately. That's it? She barely showed off!

"I could only hope you are able to dance as well?" was what the woman's next statement was.

With a shrug, Sera replied, "Depends. I don't do too well with tango." True. She did have two left feet when it came to that type of dancing.

"Don't worry," the man with the cap assured. He raised his left arm and snapped twice. "Cue!" he exclaimed. At his command, a lively Korean song blasted through the speakers.

It came so unexpectedly that Sera had to wait another 8-count to get into the beat. 

To say that it came to her naturally next would be lying. The truth is, she's never heard of this song and apparently the composer thought it would be fun to combine the genres pop and trot. But guess what? It wasn't fun for her at all. All seven 8-counts she danced to were cautioned and observed not only by the judges, but by herself as well.

And when Yang Hyun Suk raised his arm, turned his palm so that it faced downwards, and sliced through the air to cue the end of the song, Sera could feel nothing but delight. The dancing was finally over.

The judges huddled together again, and with a few jotting down notes, the "big man" of the business nodded at her. "You're free to go. Thank you for auditioning."

And that was that.

---

 

After a whole hour of trainee-wannabes pacing back and forth nervously outside the audition room, the doors finally opened. A woman - the very same woman who called her inside the audition room - came out with a little brown clipboard. She pushed the square glasses higher on her nose bridge and cleared ; that was all it took to get everyone's attention. 

"I suppose you all are here to find out whether you failed or not, am I right?" she asked. 

Sera, who sat all the way in the right corner of the back, rolled her eyes. They were all nervous, yes, but stupid and foolish? No. 

When little response was reciprocated, she continued, "Well my name is Han Sunyoung. I'm going to be calling out names now. If your name is called, please do us a favor and stand until I'm done." She cleared once again and fumbled slightly with the clipboard. Her cat-like eyes scanned the page and nodded. "Kang Minjung," she called out first. 

A small girl with a hideous amount of makeup on jumped and squealed in delight. 

Sunyoung let her eyes drop to the girl for a few seconds until they went back to the clipboard. "Jun Jihye." Her eyes traveled to the girl beside Clara who stood up wordlessly. "Heo Chihoon."

One of the only boys inside the room stood up chewing the hanging ties on his hoodie. 

"You kids," Sunyoung finally said, "are excused. You are free to leave now."

And that's exactly what those three kids did.

This went on until there were only about twenty or so would-be trainees inside the once full and b to the limit with people. Sunyoung finally lowered her clipboard and tossed it aside. "Out of the seventeen of you, I want Kurosawa Aerin, Jung Hyeju, Kim Sanghee, Nam Eunyoung, Lee Jihoon, Park Jae, and Song Mirae to step forward." They did. Suyoung pointed towards a dimly lit hallway. "Go through that hallway over there and turn left. You'll find a door there. The rest of you are dismissed." With that said, she opened the door behind her and went in.

The kids followed her directions without another word.

When they got inside the room, a man ushered for them to sit down on the couches and left right after. 

Without waiting another moment, the girl with the long black hair stood up and crossed her arms. She stared at all the other girls and guys in the room and sighed. "You all can go now. I'm sure YG oppa loved me and only me."

The girl sitting next to Sera shook her head and pushed sunglasses over her eyes. She looked up at the other girl and smirked. "Definitely. Don't get your hope up though dear."

"Who are you to call me 'dear', ? DId you not hear about me before? I'm Nam Eunyoung. I'm very famous around here." The girl said with pride.

"Well have you heard about me? My name is Song Mirae, ready to kick your dear. So I suggest you watch out and keep your little out of my way."

"Just stop it you guys," Sera interfered, "Stop. Now is not the time to argue about this useless stuff."

Mirae nodded at Sera and crossed her arms. "Who're you? The Japanese chick?" 

"No, the French chick," Sera answered smugly without missing a single beat in her game. "Now all of you just shut your mouths and keep quiet."

---

---

 

Ever since that moment when she got off on the wrong start with Mirae, her life's been more than hell. No, it isn't entirely because Sera finds herself intimidated by her, but because hate piles up. After she's been introduced to Mirae, they met Charlie. Because Sera and Mirae ruefully hated each other, it was time for Charlie to join in the hate. Now the only friend Sera looks forward to is Aerin. The only reason for this is because they both hate a lot in common. Not only that, but they seem to be the only ones responsible in the unofficial group. 

 

But Sera would never tell the older girl that. She might just jinx everything that way. 

 

It's not like the people in the company made anything better. Yang Hyunsuk was the King of Criticism. He lets everyone know of their mistakes with a passive face. Song Chanseung was no more help than the president was. Especially since he has a pager with him every time, threatening them that he'd call Yang Hyunsuk if they did anything wrong. Admittedly, Sera did have a small crush on their trainer Shin Wanyoung. Until he layed upon them a partner dance with complex kicks, spins, and jumps. From then on Sera loathed him and detested having to see him. The least irritating by far was their trainer Josh Hwang. He's young and some what hip. He knows how to listen to the girls' problems with others and with each other, but he can also be quite a pest.

 

So there really was no way to look forward to another day of doing who knows what that will practically kill their muscles. But hopefully it will be worth it in the future. Hopefully. 

 

A/N: Hopefully I'm not too late?