A cab pulled up to a large, white, sky scraping building. A tall, Asian girl of Taiwanese descent poked her head out of the car. She groaned up at the building. Moving in was such a pain in the ...

Li Xue-Mei lugged two giant suitcases out of the trunk of a taxi. She sighed, she has been living perfectly fine in her own apartment near the training building but a company representative insisted she move into the trainee dorms.

“Mei!” Henry Lau came running out of the building to help her with her bags.

“Hey Henry,” Mei greeted her cousin. The two were related through their mothers. Mei was originally from Taiwan before an SM agent found her and she was required to relocate to Seoul. Mei’s been training and living in Korea for three years now and it’s taken a toll on her sleep. Dark bags were forever present under her eyes.

“You don’t sound so happy,” he remarked.

“I’m not,” she frowned. “I saw no reason for me to leave my apartment. Now I’m even farther from school. I’ve been fine for three years now! I don’t see why I have to move into the dorms now.”

Henry gave her a skeptical look, “you really don’t know why?”

“Don’t know why what?” she stared at him with tired eyes.

“There are so many female trainees moving in this week because all the girls are under intense scrutiny,” Henry informed. Mei continued to stare at him, waiting for him to go on.

He didn’t say anything. Mei took initiative, “yes, and?”

“Oh yeah, and that means there’s going to be a new girl group,” he whispered in a hushed tone.

“What?” Never in Mei’s life would she be able to guess that.

“S.M. wants to see how the trainees click together, you know, chemistry and stuff,” he said.

Mei just stood there, thinking. The girls were under scrutiny. Every move would be watched. Every move would be judged. The tensions will be high in the dorms, but everybody will pretend to be friends to prove that they can work as a team.

Two girls came out of the trainee dorms. Mei remembered them, they were always joking around in the games room during break. They were friends. But now, she wasn’t so sure. The way the girls looked at each other appeared friendly, but underneath the laughter, Mei could see the tension.

“Seems like everybody knows,” Mei remarked. Henry looked at the girls as well.

“That’s for sure,” Henry whipped out his phone. “I’ll show you why.” He his mobile internet and searched up and English site, one Mei knew all too well.

Allkpop was monitoring SM’s activities and everything the company representatives said. It is to be a 6-member girl group. Mei frowned, six wasn’t a whole lot, it was about the average amount of members a group has. She cringed as she read the comments.

“I don’t see why we need another group.”

“It’ll probably be another flop. They’re never going to be like SNSD, or f(x) for that matter.”

“I’m excited! SM has never failed to please me before!”

“Seems interesting. I’d give them a chance.”

The netizens were pretty divided on the topic. Mei however, took it as a warning.

Things were going to get competitive. 

LADIES! Why so many subscribers but no applicants?

This is a teaser of my writing style. Mei is also my character. She's a fixed member.

Hey !! Why aren't you applying?! GO GO GO! I need LOTS of characters!