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  "CG Institute is an elite institute where anyone who's planning to be anyone in the show business, goes. It is said to be the one place where trainees who aren't signed by any of the big companies go to reach their dreams of actually being a star. It has even proven itself of producing some of the best idols known on stage even now. Their last success was a young girl by the name of Kim Yerim, now known as Yeri, who became the fifth member of girl group of Red Velvet. Before that it was Kim Taehyung aka V the lovable guy with a 4D personality from BTS, and the list goes on. Due to its success, CG Institute has went further by working with CJ E&M to produce a new girl group handpicked by the audience through a reality show."

  "About a month ago, CG Institute released a notice on a new intake of fresh trainees. The date and time for the auditions has been released a week ago, and here we are now, just an hour before the place even open for auditions. Look at the line," Soobin said, taking a step to let the camera view the length of the line from the entrance to the back farther than their eyes can see.

  The girls and guys in view waved at the cameras with excited looks and bright smiles. Though some took to pulling up their hood and looking away. The camera shifts back to Soobin who managed to convince a few girls to take a quick interview. The girls did a quick check on each other before turning to the camera.

  "With me here, I have two girls who have been non-signed trainees waiting in line for SS Institute audition. Why don't you tell the viewers your names?"

  "Actually we prefer the term freelance trainees," said the one with the lighter hair, before quickly smiling to the camera. "Hello, my name is Lee Jinsook."

  "And I'm Im Dayoung," the other added.

  "How long have you two been trainees?" Soobin asked.

  "We've been doing this together for two three years now," Dayoung said. "We started back when we're in high school, and we've been doing it together ever since."

  "Is it hard being a trainee?" Soobin asked. "How do you find time to balance between your studies and trainee life?"

  "Well, you learn to prioritize and adjust your schedule," Jinsook said. "Plus, as a freelance trainee, our schedule is a lot more flexible than most."

  "And you're not worried about the changes you'll have to make if you do get in?"

  "Actually, by the time the program starts, we'll be out of school, and we'll be able to focus on life as a trainee fully," Dayoung told her.

  After ten to twenty more quick interviews with various excited girls and guys, a guy with broad features got out with a clipboard and told them they could come in.

  "And so the line of exciting prospects are on the move to the road of fame," Soobin said, concluding the segment. With that the camera was cut, and Sungjun carefully balanced it on his shoulders, saying, "I still think the last bit's a little pretentious."

  "We can edit it later," Soobin said, quickly leading her to a back way entrance her inside had mentioned. "Come on, let's see if we can get a good spot where to overhear the judges when they evaluate."

  "I still can't believe they're letting us record this," Sungjun said, as he followed her in. “How’d you pull this off again?”

  “Changkyun is close to one of the trainers, and he managed to get us an in,” Soobin told him.  “I still don’t know why you don’t like him. He’s very nice once you get to know him.”

  “Yeah, it has nothing to do with the way he looks at you,” Sungjun muttered.

  Soobin didn’t hear him, too focused on opening every door they come across, even those that were clearly marked as a fire escape. Finally, they found one that lead to the auditorium where the auditions will be held. Chatters filled the room, and they could see that the first five front row seats were still empty, probably reserved for the judges. Though how many will be judging them is still not known. The contestants had begun to fill up the rest of the seats, with more still waiting in line to come in.

  A man went on stage, and bowed to the girls, before reminding them all to hand in their instrumentals and accompanying music if they were planning to use any. For those who has none, he will be at the side of the stage, ready to play the piano live for them.

  “Wow,” Soobin muttered, in awe. Even Sungjun was impressed at the service provided.

  “Come on,” Sungjun said, leading her to a spacing by the side. He sat on one of the seats and carefully balanced the camera on top of the front seat to adjust the settings. At times like this, he wished he had his tripod with him.

  “Someone’s coming,” Soobin whispered excitedly, just as he pressed the record button. Her eyes watching the tall figures coming in, hushing the whole room with every step they take. “Oh my god, isn’t that JeA from Brown Eyed Girls?”

  Sungjun had to hit her to remind her to shut up. The camera was rolling, that meant none of her fangirling if they don’t want to spend hours trying to edit it out.

  A man went on stage, and beamed at the crowd, “Good afternoon and welcome everyone to CG Recruit Auditions 2016. Here at CG we provide you only the best of trainings from experts and experienced idols themselves.”

  As the emcee began to introduce the judges, Sungjun took to filming the crowd. All of them had their eyes trained on the man up front. Sungjun himself can’t say he hadn’t fancy himself being on stage. Unfortunately he lacked the talent majority of those in the room has, plus he has serious stage fright. He wasn’t like Soobin who had no problems being in front of the camera. In fact she had even offered to film him instead a few times. But he could never figure out what to say, even if there was a script prepared. So he took to staying behind the camera instead

  “For now, let me introduce you to some of our talented students,” the emcee said. With that the lights dim, and the curtains part revealing nine girls posed with smiles and bright shining eyes ready to showcase their talent. The music starts with some beat building up to the catchiest line of the song repeatedly.

  “I’m gonna be a star!”

  “That’s TWICE,” Soobin told Sungjun. “I heard JYP paid a fortune to have them trained here.”

  “I hope you have a recording of this song, because now we have our whisperings in the background,” Sungjun told her.

   Soobin could only shoot him a sheepish smile. The performance ended with a round of applause and loud cheers. Soobin could see some of the trainees had taken out their mobile during the performance, while others took to whispering to each other their thoughts on the performance.

  The emcee returned to stage, “Did you all enjoy the performance? Would you like to perform on stage with them? Well, today you all are given the chance to do so. Today you all are given a chance to showcase your talent to some of our best trainers. Today we have no limits, no themes and no specific rules on what you should perform. Just come up here on stage and show us what you’ve got!”

  With one last round of applause, they started calling out the names of the contestants. The first being a young girl with straight brown hair went up to the stage smiling nervously, “Hello, my name is Oh Seunghee.”

  “What will you be performing today?” the judge, JeA, asked gently.

  “I will be singing Rolling in the Deep,” she told them.

  For the next hour Soobin and Sungjun watched as one contestant after another goes up on stage performing what each of them believed highlighted their skills best. While there are those who went up there and practically blew the audience away, most of them made Soobin cringe especially when one of them attempted a very awkward rap that didn’t even follow the beat given. She couldn’t even raise her head when a girl attempted IU’s three high notes only for her voice to crack on the first one.

  “That’s just embarrassing,” she frowned, a wave of pity washing over her. “But you can tell her voice wasn’t made for the high notes. She should have sing songs that had a lower octave to suit her voice. High notes are not made for everybody.”

  “What song would you have sang?” Sungjun asked her.

  Soobin shrugged, just as the music started playing a familiar tune, “Oh I love this song!”

  “You are about one span of a hand taller than me,” she found herself singing along. Sungjun glanced at her, fondly, and shook his head. The girl up front was impressive and even managed to do the rap by herself, but he was more distracted by the one singing next to him.

  Neither of them noticed the shadow coming up behind them. That was until the person coughed causing the two to jump. The two turned to see a bespectacled young woman with her light brown hair tied in a ponytail, going through the papers on her clipboard.

  “Why are you two back here?” she demanded. “You should be lining up front for your turn. What’s your name?”

  “Oh we’re not,” Soobin began.

  “I’m just here to film the whole thing,” Sungjun told her.

  “Fair enough, you go now!” she said, snapping her towards Soobin. Despite Soobin trying to explain to her that no, she was not part of the auditions, the words fell on deaf ears. She pulled Soobin by the hand, leading her to the side of the stage where the rest of the contestants were waiting in line.

  That was how, a while later, Soobin found herself on stage with a microphone practically shoved in her hand. Being on stage was different to watching it from the audience. For one thing, when she was sitting back there with Sungjun, the crowd didn’t look as huge as it did from the stage. They also didn’t look as scary with their focused on her.

  Soobin pressed her lips together searching the crowd for her best friend. Maybe if she found him, things would be slightly better. For a moment she thought she found him, when she saw someone holding a camera at the back, but to her disappointment, it wasn’t.

  “It’s okay, breathe,” JeA said, breaking her out of her reverie. “Ignore the crowd and just look at me.”

  Soobin breathed in deeply, maintaining eye contact with the older woman. For a moment, her nerves calmed down enough for her to bring the microphone to her lips, “Hello, my name is Soobin.”

  “Alright, Soobin, what will you be singing for us today?”

  “Um, Say Something?” she said, questioningly. She glanced to the pianist who nodded to her in return, fingers poised at the ready.

  “Alright, whenever you’re ready.”

  Soobin nodded, and took a deep breath, as the music began. She opened and sang. She immersed herself in the song. The whole room melted around her with every note she sang. She didn’t see anyone, too lost in the song. There was no crowd watching her, there was just her and the music. Every word she sang touched her heart. She knew the meaning, could relate to it.

  When the song ended, the crowd applauded and Soobin was brought back to the stage. She smiled, bashfully bowing to the crowd.

  “That was really good,” JeA told her. “I could tell the song was personal to you.”

  Soobin could only nod, unable to hold back her smile. With one last bow, she walked off the stage, and rushed behind it. She recognized the two girls she interviewed earlier, who were smiling at her.

  “We didn’t know you were auditioning,” one of them – Dayoung? – said.

  “Neither did I,” she replied, beaming.

…

  “Sungjun!”

  The two friends united outside the auditorium, back in the hallway. Sungjun still carrying the camera on his shoulder. Soobin ran to him, “Where were you?”

  “Where were you?” he shot back. “I managed to follow you and that woman backstage, before I lost you both. I tried to follow you when you got off stage, but you just ran off.”

  Soobin laughed, “I went trying to look for you.”

  “Anyways, hey, I got a few interviews with some of the contestants waiting,” he told her, before aiming the camera at her. “And now I’m going to get an interview for a contestant after the audition.”

  Soobin laughed, “Are you serious?”

  “Well, you did say you wanted an interview with the contestants before and after they went on stage,” he said. “Go on, tell us how did you think your audition went? Did it turn out like how you wanted it to?”

  Soobin waved at the camera, smiling brightly, before clearing , “Well, it was nerve wrecking. Especially since I wasn’t even planning to audition in the first place. On stage, everything was bigger and scarier, but the judges was friendly and helped in calming my nerves. I tried my best, and I hoped they liked it.”

  “Do you think you’ll make it in?” he asked.

  “I don’t know. I don’t think so?”

  “Do you want to?” Sungjun asked. “Seeing that this is all unexpected, what if you actually got in?”

  “I guess I’d have to go,” Soobin said, cupping her face. “Oh god, I can’t stop smiling!”