“Maybe I have to sing a bit louder here...?” Yang Liqin stares at the piece of music in front of her, pointing at the bar in question. She peeks over at the music stand to her left and glances over the rest of the line. “Or maybe I should start this part a little quieter?” she asks herself, peeking over the papers to compare the two parts of the song. Shifting in her chair, Liqin brings the pages together and sighs. Looking over at the clock to see that it was nearing 3 AM, Liqin hits the play button on speakers before getting ready to go over the song once again.

            “Meoributeo ballgeutkkaji seukaenhae jingjingwingwing,” Liqin sings softly, tapping her hand to the beat of the song. After the song finishes, Liqin runs it through another three times before bending down to pick up her water bottle. Taking slow sips, Liqin closes her eyes and listens as the song continues replaying. It was an audio track – Liqin had specifically asked Jinhyuk if he could arrange a special version of the song for her. She always did this whenever she had to sing with other trainees – the audio played the backing track and voices of the other singers but was merely instrumental when it got to her part. This way, Liqin would be forced to sing her part and could pick out all of her mistakes.

            “I wonder why we’re singing in groups this time though,” Liqin thinks out loud, shaking her water bottle to see how much liquid she had left. It was odd, the way monthly assessments were set up this time around. Hyeri usually had the vocal tests separate, preferring to pick and judge trainees individually while the dance examinations were usually done in a group as to test one’s synchronization. Every so often Henry would ask for a solo dance choreography to observe the most skilled dancers of Yunrae but that hadn’t happened in a while. Draining the last of her lemon water – it was good for the throat and with Liqin’s softer voice; she really needed it – Liqin glances around the individual practice room tiredly.

            Getting up with a quiet groan, Liqin exits the room she had been in for a good two or three hours and locks the door behind her. Slipping the key into her pocket, Liqin walks towards the cafeteria, water bottle in hand, intent on filling up the object and maybe even grabbing something to eat. Walking through the halls of Yunrae, Liqin notices that there were still a number of trainees practicing despite the time. Attributing it to the fact that monthly assessments were fast approaching (they took place at the start of every month), Liqin paid them no heed. Not like they’d really stop to talk to her either. Liqin was somewhat of a passive character, while some trainees were loud and friendly and others were standoffish, they all managed to gain some kind of friend circle. Liqin however, in the year she had been at Yunrae, hadn’t really talked to any of the other trainees. She regarded them as friendly competition, knowing that getting friendly with them would only hinder her own training. It was a cold way of thinking but Liqin had experiences in the past, back at Yuehua, that made her think this way. She couldn’t count the almost endless times she had watched as another trainee, another friend, walked out of the front doors due to a mixture of pain, stress, and hopelessness.

            “Hey, watch it,” a voice cuts into Liqin’s thoughts sharply, causing the quiet girl to look up. In front of her stood another female trainee, obviously stressed and tired – they all were. Liqin hadn’t been watching her step and had accidentally run into the other girl. “Stay out of my way, gosh.” The girl glared at Liqin – despite being significantly shorter – and stepped closer when Liqin didn’t respond. “What? Are you mute or something?”

            “Sorry,” Liqin says softly. She didn’t blame the other girl for lashing out at her, everyone was stressed and temperamental at this hour, but Liqin couldn’t help but feel herself get smaller under the glare of the trainee. “I wasn’t watching whe–”

            “There are so many ing weird people here,” the girl cuts Liqin off. Liqin sighs silently; the other girl probably hadn’t even heard her apology. “I should’ve auditioned for a better company, maybe I would’ve debuted by now. I doubt this ty company even has money to debut anyone.” Scoffing, the trainee stalks away, off to whatever she had been doing before and leaving Liqin alone. Watching the girl walk away, Liqin merely turns around and continues on her path to the cafeteria.

            A lot of trainees felt the same way as that girl, annoyed because they were under small company yet hopeful that they would be the one to blast said company into fame.           Liqin just thought that they weren’t talented enough to pass the auditions of the big companies like SM or YG. Of course, you could say that Liqin was in that same boat – seeing as she was a trainee at Yunrae as well, but Liqin was better than them. She would be better than them. She had trained at Yuehua before after all, and would give training her all in order to improve herself. In any case, Liqin smiles inwardly at that thought, at least Liqin technically had made it into one of the Big Three. Even though Yuehua was just in a partnership with YG, it still counted in her head.

            “Liqin ah!” a voice calls as Liqin finishes filling her water bottle up. Looking up to see Hyeri bouncing towards her, Liqin puts a polite smile on her face and nods at the CEO in greeting. “I was looking for you! No one knew where you were, which isn’t surprising since you never leave the practice room – no that that’s bad thing! It’s good to practice – but Jinhyuk and I couldn’t find you in any of the studios so–”

            “I get it Yoo-nim, you couldn’t find me and now you’ve found me,” Liqin speaks up as Hyeri goes off on another one of her many rambles. “Is there any reason in particular why you wanted to talk to me?”

            “Aigoo, look at you! Speaking up louder now, those vocal lessons with Jinhyuk must be paying off. I remember when you first came here you barely spoke louder than a whisper and but now you’re confident enough to cut your CEO off hm?” Hyeri says jokingly, causing Liqin to smile authentically. “Anyways, come with me to my office okay! Everyone else is waiting for us!” Nodding as Hyeri starts walking towards the elevator, Liqin follows behind the energetic CEO meekly (not like she could really refuse). It was a mystery how Hyeri could always maintain such a cheerful demeanour. While it was something Liqin admired about the older woman, at times it was just baffling. Like now.

            “I’m really excited, but I will hold my tongue until we get to my office. Ooh, I just know you’re going to be happy. The other two were. Oh darn, I should’ve found the last one while I was down in the practice rooms. Although I think she’s hanging out with Henry so maybe she won’t be as hard to find as you were,” Hyeri continues babbling on the whole way to her office, only stopping momentarily to open the door. Liqin nods at her, before walking into the office and seeing three other staff members. Jinhyuk – as mentioned before – was standing next to Xiuxin, the creative director. Across from them however, was a woman Liqin had only seen walking through the halls. She had never really learned her name but she knew that the woman had been hired recently.

            “Hello,” Liqin greets the adults, bowing respectfully as they echoed her salutation.

            “Alrighty, let’s get down to business shall we?” Hyeri bounds back over to her spot between Jinhyuk and the woman. “Liqin, you’ve probably heard about Yunrae Entertainment’s upcoming girl group right? Well, after looking through your training records and all that jazz the staff and I have decided that you’ll be debuting as part of Cosmos!”

            Eyes widening, Liqin looks up at Hyeri’s smiling face. Feeling a bit like a deer in the headlights, Liqin feels drop open. “R-really?” Liqin says in shock. Debut? No way, she didn’t feel ready. Her vocals were only sub-par, her dancing had a lot to be improved, in no way was she prepared to debut. To stand on the stage and show that man that she could live her life the way she wanted to.

            “Yup,” Hyeri cheers, popping the ‘p’. “You’ll be the main vocalist, lead dancer, and taking part in making the choreography along with another member – I won’t spoil that though. You’ll find out who’s in Cosmos tomorrow, at 7 AM. Be here on time and Xiuxin over here will go over the group and individual images with you all. Also, this lady over here is Han Sanghee; she’ll be Cosmos’ manager from now on.”

            “Nice to meet you Liqin,” Sanghee greets the Chinese girl, beaming at her reassuringly. Liqin offers a tight smile in return before turning towards Hyeri.

            “You can go now, sorry for dragging you all the way up here for such a short meeting,” Hyeri apologizes. “But I have to go and inform the last member of her upcoming debut so if you’ll excuse us?” Hyeri gives Liqin a pointed look, causing the other girl to break out of her trance and quickly leave the room. As Liqin walks slowly back to her practice room, a variety of emotions fly through her head. Happiness. Anxiety. Nervousness. Impatience. Fear. Joy. Liqin couldn’t decide how she felt about her debut.

            Unlocking the practice room and walking inside, Liqin locks the door again from the inside and settles her water bottle on the ground before plopping down beside it – ignoring the chair she had been sitting on before. Main vocal and lead dancer huh? Those positions didn’t usually pair together. Liqin leans her head against the wall in thought, relishing in the cool temperature. Usually dancers focused on dance and were in charge of hitting the harder moves – that didn’t leave them with much breath to sing stably. On the other hand, main vocals weren’t bad per say at dancing, but in Liqin’s experience and observations, most vocalists of the group weren’t the best at dancing. Those were usually the rappers or sub-vocals.

            “What was she thinking? Giving me these kinds of positions?” Liqin whines lowly, bringing her legs closer to her chest and curling into a ball. “I’m not prepared for this at all. There’s no way I can sing like a main vocal and dance strongly at the same time.” Dropping her head into her arms, Liqin feels a sharp object jab her in the side. Stretching her leg so she could reach her hand into her pocket, Liqin pulls out her phone and stares at the notification light. She examines the screen of the phone momentarily before turning it on to check the message.
 
MESSAGE FROM: Tweedle Dee
[3:21 AM]
Heyy. Your monthly assessments are coming up right?? I’ve been super busy lately so sorry for the lack of communication. Good luck on them though! You rock and you’ll slay ‘em no problem. Don’t forget that okay? Fighting!!
 
            Smiling at the short message, Liqin sniffles, not even noticing that she had been about to cry. She wasn’t sure if she would be able to live up to Hyeri’s expectations, if she would be able to handle the stress of being in a group or if she would be able to succeed at all, but she would try. After all, isn’t that why she left Australia, why she had left Yuehua? To take a gamble, to take a dive, to do anything she could to move forward from the shell of a person she had been before? And if this, if this was the step she needed to take, Liqin clutches the phone tightly, typing out a response, then no one – not even Liqin herself – would be able to stop her from giving it her all.
 
MESSAGE TO: Tweedle Dee
[3:47 AM]
Don’t worry about it. I know you’re busy. Thanks for the cheers – they really help. After all, I won’t need to worry about this month’s assessment. I’m debuting.

Bonus points if you can tell me what song Liqin is singing (I was listening to it while writing this chapter lol). But there you have it, Liqin’s here to slay us all. ^_^ I took a bit more sensitive/angst-y side with her about debut but I’m sure that’s still kinda realistic? Like, doubting yourself before you debut?? Idk.

Also these chapters are starting to sound like the beginning of Pokémon games. "Hey come to my office I’ll give you a really cool Pokémon so you can go off and do my job of collecting data for me!" Jokes, jokes. I love Pokémon.

Hope you're smiling!

~ Yun