Eliza woke up at about 5:30am and got ready to head to the practice room. She wanted to show her fans that A1 was not just any other girl group, but a group that contributed a lot to their debut and album. She convinced Woolim staff to allow her to choreograph their debut single and they agreed as long as she had it ready and done by Friday. It was Wednesday and she couldn’t even figure out what “the point” dance would be. She threw on a pair of black Adidas athletic pants and a plain white t-shirt and packed her duffle bag. She checked on the girls to make sure everyone was okay before quietly tip toeing out of the dorm.

            She got to Woolim by about 6am. She saw Minnie’s white car parked in the parking lot and she headed inside towards the practice room. Minnie’s solo debut showcase was quickly approaching, like in a few days so she was practicing almost non stop. Eliza saw Minnie rehearsing on her own. Her back up dancers weren’t scheduled for practice until 7am but it was just like Minnie to come in early to review all the choreography on her own. She knocked on the door to make her presence known before walking in. Minnie’s eyes lit up and she hopped over towards her friend and gave her a hug. She went behind Eliza and then jumped onto Eliza’s back practically begging for a piggyback ride.

“Carry me unnie!” Minnie said.

“No your heavy Minyoung-ah!” Eliza exclaimed trying to shake Minnie off safely.

“Please, my feet hurt,” Minnie gave Eliza a little pout and Eliza softened. Minnie came into practice at 5am and her choreography had a lot of foot work so it was natural that her feet hurt.

“I’m going to carry you to the couch and that’s it,” Eliza said walking towards the couch in the corner of the room and Minnie smiled excitedly wrapping her arms around Eliza’s neck. Eliza set the girl down onto the couch and Minnie climbed off of Eliza’s back.

“So I’ve been thinking. A1 is a really big part of my life. We could have all debuted together you know,” Minnie started and Eliza nodded.

“I was talking to the staff and they said that if you guys agreed to it, I would love it if you girls were the special guest at my showcase,” Minnie said. Eliza’s eyes widened in shock.

“Are you serious right now?” Eliza asked and Minnie nodded excitedly.

“Taewon is going to join me on stage for Return and Iseul is going to perform Blacklist with me. A1 could do this huge dance performance and it’ll be like a great predebut thing for you girls,” Minnie said with anticipation.

            It wasn’t that Eliza didn’t want to perform. She would love for A1 to be a part of Minnie’s debut showcase but their debut showcase wasn’t that far away either. Eliza barely had their choreography done and they would have to start learning it if they wanted to have it perfect by their MV shooting date which was about less than a month away. All the girls were good dancers but she wanted them focused.

“It’s okay if you guys are too busy too unnie,” Minnie said a bit discontent. Eliza had a soft spot for Minnie and she wanted to show her support for her best friend’s debut.

“You know, let me talk to the girls about it. Maybe we can do like an old dance or something,” Minnie’s eye lit up and she pounced onto her former leader.

“Thank you thank you thank you!!! Saranghae,” Minnie said clinging onto Eliza.

“Okay okay, that’s enough. How about I see you perform your whole song?” Eliza asked.

“Okay, and give me your honest opinion,” Minnie said standing up from the couch.

“Don’t I always Minnie-ah?” Eliza said. Minnie went through the entire song and tried her best to stay in character. She wanted to perform her best for Eliza because if Eliza liked it, it was sure to be a hit.

“Your dance break is a bit ,” Eliza commented.

“What does that mean?” Minnie asked out of breath.

“Cheap,” Eliza said bluntly.

Eliza went over the dance break with Minnie and gave her some pointers on how to make the dance powerful and y rather than provocative and cheap. She was in the middle of a part where Minnie would have to twerk and when the door opened abruptly.

“Omg! Our leader is twerking. Show me too unnie!!” Echo said excitedly running into the practice.

“That’s our maknae. A little ball of energy,” Hyeya said slightly chuckling.

“Even when it is 7 in the morning,” Jui said.

The girls watched Echo twerk along with Minnie and Eliza and J.Na skipped over to join in too. She obviously did not have the dancing skills that Minnie, Eliza and Echo had so her twerking was more of an awkward attempt to her hips up and down.

“Well, good thing you can sing better than you can dance,” Eliza said and J.Na gavee her leader a smile before abruptly jumping onto her back and clinging for dear life.

“Get off,” Eliza tried to shrug.

“Say I’m a good dancer,” J.Na said tightening her grip around Eliza’s neck and wrapping her legs around her slim waist.

“Jinah you little brat. Get off,” Eliza said again.

“Say I’m a good dancer! Or buy me a milkshake later!” J.Na said.

“Fine fine, I’ll buy you a milkshake,” Eliza said and J.Na jumped off happily.

“Kamasamnida unnie,” J.Na said with a sweet smile and skipped over to join Echo who was now stretching out her limbs.

“Always getting played by Jinah,” Jui said with a smile.

“I’m going to move to the bigger dance room and meet up with everyone. Goodluck with dance practice,” Minnie said as she grabbed her duffle bag and blew a kiss to the girls before heading out the door.

            All the girls started stretching and gossiping among one another. J.Na was talking about her latest prank where she told Wonwoo that she has been dating Vernon for the past 6 months and he freaked out going on a crazy rampage against to find out that J.Na was only joking about dating one of s. He was definitely not pleased.

“Wonwoo should have known. I would never date anyone prettier than me,” J.Na said.

            Jui was also telling the girls about her embarrassing encounter with an attractive jogger at the park yesterday. She picked up her two dogs Jude and Jade from her brother juwook’s house and while she was taking them for a walk, she was also texting their groupchat. She allowed the dogs to lead the way which probably wasn’t a good idea now that she thinks back at it, but at the moment it didn’t seem like a bad idea. She spotted a tall guy with an athletic build jogging her direction. She flipped her hair and sent the guy a sweet smile one which he returned sweetly. Her phone vibrated showing that someone had texts her. She quickly looked at the message and before she knew it, her forehead made contact with a metal pole causing her to spring back and lose balance for a short second. Her dogs are now running around at the park loose playing with each other and Jui was rubbing her forehead. The jogger stopped and sent her a sympathetic smile.

“Don’t walk and text,” Jui said and he nodded slightly before continuing on with his job.

“Don’t walk and text? Smooth,” Jinah commented with a chuckle.

“At least you didn’t fall on your or something. It could have been worst,” Hyeya optimistically said.

“Like what? Stepping on dog poop when I jumped back from the impact? Yeah that happened too,” Jui said and Echo snickered just imagining her pretty unnie in such an embarrassing situation.

            Eliza enjoyed listening to her group members talk. Eliza was the oldest and she trained the longest, but she has been under Woolim for the shortest amount of time. Only 1 year so she liked knowing that everyone was close and got along well together despite how different everyone seemed to be. She let the girls stretch out for another 5 minutes before having the girls stand up and get ready to learn the few counts she made for their debut song.

“So I only have about the first verse leading to the chorus and the bridge done but maybe we can figure out the point for the dance together,”  Eliza said and the girls nodded. The song started with Eliza in the center with Jui and J.Na to the sides of her and then Hyeya and Echo at the end of both sides. Jui eventually takes center as the visual and the one who takes the very first verse in the song.

            The girls got through the first part pretty quickly. The choreography wasn’t too difficult. Their concept was y and powerful. The song was catchy and had a fun beat to it so Eliza didn’t want to cloud the song and their style with over complicated and intricate choreography. She wanted it to be easy to follow and a dance that people could easily learn and mimick. They practiced the part they learned with the vocal and rap and after going over about 30 times, they took a short break. The maknae line, Echo and J.Na, were playing around as Hyeya and Jui were sitting on the couch with Eliza to catch their breath.

“The youngster always have so much energy,” Eliza added.
“I’m young too!” Jui said accidentally spilling some of the water from her canteen.

            Eliza watched the maknae line messing around and dancing freely to their debut song. Echo had a good sense of the beat but of course J.Na as their vocalist was just hopping around and wailing her arms around. Eliza’s eyes soon perked up a bit. The chorus started and J.Na started moving her legs in and out similarly to the tootsee roll dance. It looked a bit awkward but Eliza wondered if she polished it up and added a bit of iness, would it work? Eliza stood up and replayed the song marking the choreography and once the chorus hit, it was as if the moves just came to her.

“I got it!” Eliza exclaimed which took the girls by surprise. Eliza embraced J.Na from behind in excitement.

“Who said you can’t dance our amazing dancing machine,” Eliza said pincking J.Na's cheeks.

“You do, all the time,” J.Na answers and Eliza ruffles her member’s head before urging the girls back to their position to learn the point for their song.