January 05, 2019

“Okay, we seriously need to get some things cleared up,” Yesung huffed softly, scratching out an incorrect date in his notebook. “Let’s discuss our schedule for getting trainees.”

Siwon nodded fervently in agreement, tearing out a page from his own pad of paper. “Honestly, I’ve got half a dozen dates written here, and I’m not sure what’s correct and what’s not.”

There was a murmur of agreement as Shindong stood up and went to the whiteboard at the front of the room. From memory, he wrote each important date and labeled what exactly it meant.

“First, January twentieth. We’ve got private auditions from a few girls we have reached out to, and a few girls SM wants us to look at,” He made a small star on the board as he moved to the next date. “May first, round one of open auditions. Well, sort of. We’ll be looking at girls transferring from other companies.”

“So the May auditions are only semi-open? They’re meant for transfers only?” Donghae clarified, tapping his pen on the table in a quiet beat.

Shindong nodded, giving him a thumbs up before continuing. “Publically open auditions will begin August tenth. Depending on the amount of girls we have after that, there might be another round of auditions in the beginning of 2020.”

“And starting next month, we may sporadically get girls from SM auditioning, because they’re trying to thin down the amount of trainees they have.” Leeteuk was casually leaning back in his seat, already having all of these notes written correct in his own pages.

Eunhyuk frowned at that and tapped his pen against his lips. “Have they finally given up on creating a new “National Girl Group”?”

“I highly doubt that,” Shindong rolled his eyes, remembering all the talk SM had gone on and on about with their latest girl group project, just to have it fizzle out. “They’re sending us girls that they probably blame for their wannabe survival show not working out.”

It had been quite big news. So many companies the past couple years had been doing survival shows that SM wanted to give it a try, too. The problem boiled down to three factors- 1) They blatantly stole ideas from previous survival shows. 2) They were favoring looks over talent, which caused some backlash from critics. But the worst: 3) If a trainee didn’t make it into the final chosen group, they’d be completely removed from the company. That sent waves of anger through netizens, and they pulled the show off the air after only two episodes.

“We’ve already got a head start. Remember that one girl? Lee something…” Donghae murmured, flipping through his notebook to try and find the name of the girl. “Lee Chaejung! She has been a trainee with SM, but they’ve made her a part of our training group instead.”

“Why would they do that?” Heechul questioned, finding it odd that SM would hand them a trainee so easily.

Shindong answered that without the need to look at his own notes. He remembered the girl’s audition tape. “She was a trainee at Starship, and I assume she was up to be up Cosmic Girls and it just never happened. She’s definitely a worthwhile trainee to gain.”

This was good news, a good start to what might be a trying process.

-----

January 20, 2019

Yesung was rubbing at his tired eyes, groaning softly. Yesterday had been the first official audition day, and although they had only watched a handful of girls, the stress was building. This was a huge task they were taking on, and Yesung was starting to feel like they didn’t fully think it through.

The near-year of planning disagreed with him.

The other members were on the fence.

“God, I stayed up until two reviewing those videos.” Shindong said with a heavy sigh, settling himself at the meeting table.

“What did you think of Kwon Aeri? I heard she asked the general manager at SM if she could audition for us.”

Yesung brightened up at that name, immediately seeing her name in his notes. “She really proved herself. I can’t believe she hasn’t debuted already with her skill level and visuals.”

This continued on for a while, each member bringing up pros and cons of the six people who auditioned.

Kwon Aeri was accepted into their program. Jung Yeseul and Kim Minhee were accepted, too, but far more warily. The other three who auditioned were rejected- they weren’t interested in a twelve year old, a girl with a notably bad past, and someone who couldn’t carry a single note.

All in all, it was a better first day then they had expected. Four accepted girls into the Label SJ girl group project!

-----

The second audition wasn’t nearly as good as the first. Seeing that it was two dozen trainees instead of six, the exhaustion was maximized. Despite being more prepared this time, the options they had… Disappointing was an understatement.

At least half of them were cringe-worthy; either they couldn’t hold a note, their dancing was so bad it was nearly terrifying, or they clearly didn’t have the personality to join a group. How they managed to be in companies in the first place was honestly surprising.

But a handful of them… There were some definite bright stars in the pack.

“Thank you for coming, Byun Soobin, we’ll be in contact with you.” Shindong flashed a smile at the girl as she left, feeling like they were getting on the right track now. That girl hand the type of vocal skills they were looking for.

Next up was a pretty talented rapper by the name Xu Jinah. She had been an SM trainee, and to no one’s surprise, her talent wasn’t utilized. Following her was Park Hanui, who seemed to be in a similar situation as the other girl.

Two special cases joined them that day. Not really because they were incredible girls or anything, but because they had been requested by members of Super Junior themselves. Kwon Ji Eun had caught the eye of Heechul and Leeteuk one day, and they asked her to audition for them. It was worth it, seeing her dance skills. Almost the same thing happened with Wong Hei Chu, who had been discovered in a practice room by Eunhyuk.

Another three girls made it through the second audition; Song Sori, Lee Yeon Hye, and Nam Yumi.

-----

August 10, 2019

Without hesitation, the third audition was the craziest. Being that it was a fully open audition, which was actually promoted through social media, over fifty girls lined up to audition for Label SJ. But in a way, it was the best audition yet.

There was Kim Jiae, who blew them away with well rounded skills and stunning visuals to boot.
Choi Minyoung, with rap skills that definitely were better than quite a few girl’s they’ve seen.
Next, Moriuchi Hiroko, despite a few mistakes in her Korean, was impressive.
The lovely Byun Younghee, who knew well how to work her voice.
And, most surprisingly, Park Haru, who was the twin of Park Hanui, whom they’d already accepted into the program.

Before the day was over, they had also accepted Min Kyung Mi and Song Ji Mae, both impressive in their own ways.

-----

February 2, 2020

Starting the fourth and final audition was a curious feeling.

On one hand, they were happy to be getting this over with so they could move on and get to working with the trainees already. But on the other hand, it was a bit sad.

They had seen nearly one hundred girls, but had accepted only about twenty so far. It was painful to reject so many girls with talent, but they had agreed in the beginning that they wouldn’t give dozens of girls false hope. They’d be debuting a girl group of no more than ten girls, what was the use of having fifty in their company if they were just going to go to waste?

Seo Minsun was their first accepted girl of the day. Pretty and talented, for sure.
A cute little girl named Kim Jinheo, with a surprising aptitude for rap.
Nam Jiyae, who had such a smooth rap that Shindong got up and danced with her for a brief minute.
And lastly, Choi Aerin, who was a big benefit to them. She had already put out a single, even, so she was a girl they were really looking forward to.

Along with Kang Heju, Moon Emmy, and Kim Seung Yu. They had a total of twenty-six trainees under their company.

Now things were going to get exciting, for real.

Here's the final preview chapter! I introduced all of the accepted girls by name (along with some random girls for future things). Chapter length may vary depending on what I'm writing about and how busy I am, but I'm going to do my best to release one a week. I've got a lot planned for both the trainee days and the eventual debut group. Don't stop reading if your character doesn't make it into the final group, all characters have long-term plans here! And remember: comment!

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