{alice}

author's corner

teaser 1: all in a golden afternoon

— "thus grew the tale of wonderland: // thus slowly, one by one, // its quaint events were hammered out // and now our tale is done."

The lights never really go out at night in the SM trainee building. 

Night or day, rain or shine, with permission or without, there will always be one last soul left behind in the empty dance or music rooms. Practicing, singing, dancing, training so damn hard. Til their muscles ache and their bodies quiver with exhaustion, til it feels like they've swallow an entire cup of nails, their voices ragged and breaking at the edges.

They take a breath. In, out. Straighten their spines, adjust their technique, start again.

A one, two, three, four. Start the music.

Someday, they think, I will be a star.

"A vampire concept."

"Are you crazy, they wouldn't last a week with that. Too cliche."

"We could market them as an EXO sister group, with similar superpowers."

"Gangjeon-ssi, please close your mouth when you speak."

"Why must we come up with a concept at this very moment? Aren't there more important things to discuss? Like exactly who this group is going to be comprised of?"

Jung Jaesuk sighs and lifts his coffee mug to his lips, only to be unpleasantly surprised by its relative emptiness. Damn. It's his third cup in as many hours. It's one thing to be this tired at five in the morning, the time he usually wakes up to conduct business as one of SM's newest rising managers. It's another thing to be this tired in the middle of the afternoon, feeling like he's about to drop dead from exhaustion. Or drop his head down on this meeting table and begin to snore.

Needless to say, Friday afternoon production meetings aren't quite as bad as Monday morning production meetings, but they're still a bit of a pain in the , especially when all Jaesuk wants is to go home to his girlfriend and the next episode of My Mother is a Daughter-in-Law (it's Yeojin's show, okay, he only watches it to make her happy, its not like he's secretly dying to know what happens next to poor Jungsoo and her terrible mother-in-law). The last thing he wants to do is sit in a stuffy room with twenty other people and poor air-conditioning.

You know what, scratch that, at least the Monday morning meetings sometimes include a coffee pot in the actual meeting room and not all the way back down the hall in the staff lounge. 

The woman next to him sighs and lays her hand palm down on the stack of files before them. "We've narrowed down the current group of age and talent eligible trainees to twelve. At this current moment, SR16A is comprised of -"

"Six." The man at the head of the table cuts her off, leaning casually on the arm of his chair and twirling a pen nonchalantly through his fingers. "We want six members."

As he gazed expectantly down the length of the room, everyone else seemed to look elsewhere, unwilling to make eye contact with SM CEO Kang Youngmin. He, in turn, only tapped his pen against his lips and smiled a bit uncertainly.

"No more, no less, yes?"

A general murmur of assent. Some of the newer interns, fresh faces in these types of meetings and the world of idol entertainment, jot down this new piece of info in their notes.

Jaesuk shifts in his leather seat, craning his neck to get a glimpse at the files on the table. Some names jump out at him, the edges of headshots. Twelve girls, half of whom will find themselves with the chance of a lifetime, to be cast into the spotlight to perform for the world. The other half will be returned to the shadows, to work harder for another chance that might never come.

How do you decide? You hold someone's fate in your hands, the path their life might take...

It feels like way too much power for one person to hold, Jaesuk thinks, sitting back and tapping his fingers against the arms of his chair. Definitely glad it wasn't on him alone, a kid barely out of graduate school, just barely beginning his career at SM. He feels almsot as incompetent as the poor intern Kyungwoo, over there in the corner, whose pen broke ten minutes ago and has been too embarrassed since to ask for a new one.

CEO Youngmin, however, pays no attention to these small trivialities. He has bigger fish to fry.

"We want to get these girls out in the public's eye as soon as possible," he says, gesturing towards the files. "That means they need to be chosen as soon as possible, a concept created as soon as possible. Time is of the essence if we want SM's string of success to continue. Does this really sound so impossible?"

No answer. Not even whispered murmuring. CEO Youngmin is not a terribly large man in stature, but he is rather terrifying, nonetheless.

"I said," he repeats, voice carrying and resounding throughout the room. "Does this really sound so impossible?"

Then.

Jaesuk fights the sudden urge to laugh. Loudly.

So instead, he speaks. The words seem to come out of nowhere.

"Sometimes, sir, I've believed in as many as six impossible things before breakfast."

There is another period of silence. The women who spoke before, right next to Jaesuk, glances over at him distastefully. He, himself, sort of wants to disappear. He's not entirely sure where that incredibly sporadic show of bravery or stupidity came from, but he'd be willing to do anything to take it back.

CEO Youngmin stares at him with eyes that could cut steel, when he asks, "What did you just say?"

"I..." He wets his lips. Swallows nervously. "It's a quote, from Alice in Wonderland, I - sorry, I don't know what got into me."

"...what's your name?"

"What?"

"I have a very busy schedule, please don't make me repeat myself."

"Ah...Jang Jaesuk."

"All right." CEO Youngmin nods at this, lips pressed together thoughtfully. There is something in his smile that hasn't been seen all day. Jaesuk wonders if this is what he looks like when he fires someones, if that brings the executive such joy. "All right, Jang Jaesuk-ssi, congratulations."

...what?

The chief executive officer of SM Entertainment stands, all eyes on him. Gestures to Jaesuk down the table, announcing in a grandiose voice, "Jang Jaesuk, you are now the manager of girl group SR16A. You will be in charge of the concept and execution of the concept, as well as collaborating with the various board members on choosing which girls will get to debut."

...what?!

There's a loud murmur that rushes through the boardroom at these words. Jaesuk's neighbor sits up straighter in her seat, face flushed with indignation.

"Sir," she asks. "I have to ask, what exactly prompted this decision? Jang Jaesuk-ssi hasn't said a word this entire meeting save for that unecessary interruption a few seconds ago."

She only receives a small chuckle in response. "My apologies, boardmember Lee Yunghee-ssi, but that interruption was completely necessary. Jang Jaesuk-ssi just named the group for us all."

"He did?" 

"I did?"

"That's right." The moment before his final words to bring this meeting to a close, there is a pause. Like something waiting in the wings, a breath before a fall. "SM's newest girl group shall be named..."

{alice}