March 08, 2020

“Hey! Unnie, wait up!” A breathless voice called, hurrying to grab a light flannel shirt before the other hand moved too fast. Jinah stopped and turned around, watching as Chaejung tied the flannel shirt around her waist “Since we’re in the same group, do you mind if we eat together?”

“Ah, I suppose not.” Jinah flashed a brief smile, waiting for the other trainee to pull on her sneakers before they both left the dorm.

Silence hovered over them in a strange balance of comfort and awkwardness. Chaejung took it upon herself to dispel the awkward feeling by chatting up her groupmate.

“What do you think we’ll be doing today? I mean, it’s our first day in groups, so I expect they’ll be giving us a mission to complete or something,” She hummed thoughtfully, waiting for the elevator to come patiently. Jinah was stoic, tapping her toes as she listened. “I wonder if they’ll be training us like SM does, because when I was there, they thrived on the competition atmosphere.”

A soft ding broke her train of thought, and the two girl’s boarded the elevator only to be surrounded by silence again. Once the short ride had ended, Jinah decided to share her opinion.

“Although they are technically a subsidiary of SM, I feel like they’re pretty different. Although it’s been a casual atmosphere so far, they deliberately kept the amount of trainees in the program small. I’m sure one of the reasons behind that was to keep harsh competition on a minimum.”

Chaejung let out a small ‘oh’, nodding along in agreement. That sounded like a really logical reason. Having been through the gambit at both Starship and SM, it was instinct to feel the pressure.

The elevator ride was short, and it wasn’t long until the two girls were stepping out and heading down the hall where the cafeteria was. They could hear a few voices floating down the hall from the opposite end, where the practice rooms were. It sounded like Nam Jiyae, who Jinah knew to be an insanely talented dancer, but needed a little work on her vocals. She was definitely putting in the hours to get that improvement.

From the left, the door leading to the stairs popped open and a handful of girls strolled out. Apparently not everyone felt like using the elevator that morning.

Nodding a polite hello, Jinah flashed a smile at Haru and Hanui. Although she didn’t know the two that well, one of the twins was in her group now. Might as well use this time to get to know them.

“Haru, would you like to come sit with us?” Chaejung spoke up, understanding Jinah’s look. “We’re hoping to get a good bond with all of group B-” “Most of them-” Jinah interrupted, glancing over her shoulder to make sure Heju wasn’t around. “Right, most of group B. Who knows how long we’ll be in these groups for, we might as well start figuring out teamwork.”

It was easy enough to convince a few other girls, too. Yeseul decided to skip breakfast to go for a run, Heju sat with her little clique, but the other five members of group B huddled together at one of the dining tables.

Jinah let Chaejung do the talking, since most of this was her idea anyway.

“I know that we all get along well enough, with one exception, but I think we should use time like this to become more friendly.” The girl said, a simple smile on her face.

Aerin didn’t speak, but she understood easily. Having been so close to debuting while she was under Woollim, she had learned firsthand the mistakes that nearly cost her her dream. It had been a bit of a struggle for her to make friends, honestly, but after the experience of Woollim, she knew making friends while at Label SJ could make or break her.

“I think that’s a good idea.” She said after a moment, sharing a tight-lipped smile with the others at the table.

Despite her fear of being the oldest trainee, she was lucky to have three other girls born the same year as her. Even more lucky was the fact that the one of the girls her age, Jinah, was in her same group. This time, she’d definitely make it into the final group.

At the table beside them, Kang Heju pursed her lips in annoyance. Besides the one girl who loved to exercise, Yemin or Yesoul or something, all of her so-called ‘group mates’ were together at one table. Not a single one of them passed on the invitation to her. How stupid were they to not include the best singer at this dumb label?

A few of her… friends sat with her, copying her face in a far less threatening manner. Nam Yumi and Lee Yeonhee fully agreed with Heju’s self-praise, and hated the fact that no one else saw and recognized her true talent. Song Sori wasn’t quite on the same page, yet she followed the group of girls anyway.

“It’s just awful of those boys to put us all in different groups.” Yumi complained, huffing and glancing at the few Super Junior members eating in the cafeteria with them. Surely they understood that this group of four could surpass the rest of the trainees if they were put together.

“That’s why they separated us,” Yeonhee had said the night before, a scowl on her lips. “Just look at the way that Kyuhyun judges our Heju. He knows he could never be as talented as she is.”

With a look akin to determination, Heju straightened up and brushed her hair off her shoulder. “Don’t worry, girls. We’ll just prove ourselves to the point that they have to put us together. Now, I’m going to go down the road to that tea house. This cafeteria serves dreadful tea.” And with that, her and her little posse stood up and left the dining hall, not bothering to connect with their own groups at all.

Thirty minutes later, as trainees slowly started piling into their assigned studio, three of the four girls still had not appeared. Sori showed up just before the clock hit eight.

Hiroko was standing at the back of her small group, eyes watching the Super Junior member in the front of the room. Being slightly separated from her team mates made it easier to focus on Eunhyuk, and the instructions he was giving. Although she was proficient in Korean, sometimes it was seriously difficult to keep track of it all.

“We’re going to start off easy. Each group will be assigned a well known song, and you will have to do a cover. That includes singing, dancing, and if it applies, rapping,” Eunhyuk told them, leaning casually against the mirrored wall. “You girls will be doing the Wonder Girl’s song, Nobody. Now, let’s give it a listen before we start on the choreography…”

Hiroko closed her eyes as she listened to the music. It was an older song, she didn’t know it very well, but it didn’t strike her as a difficult number. Surely the choreography was going to be difficult, and that’s where the challenge came into play, right?

“Don’t get complacent,” Leeteuk clapped his hands together in the room next door. The girls of group B looked at him expectantly, wondering what would be so difficult about doing Girl’s Generation’s Into The New World. “You’ll be performing this on Wednesday!”

At that, the room was filled with whispers and gasps- today was Monday! They’d have to learn the lyrics, split up their parts, learn the choreography, and make it all work together seamlessly in less than two days. That was why the songs were so well known! Jinheo felt a rush of excitement- the pressure was on, and it was going to be fun! The start of a real trainee experience, now she’d be able to hone her skills and prove herself.

Across the hall, group D had been assigned Wonder Girl’s Be My Baby, and were currently listening to the song for the second time. Donghae wanted to make sure they had the basic song down to help them with the dance they were about to learn. They were lucky they had two rappers in their group, compared to group C, who had no rappers, but were lucky enough to get Girl’s Generation’s Gee for their song.

“Let’s get moving!” Shindong motioned group C to spread across the room, ready to teach them the choreography. “Most of you probably already know the basics of this dance, but you’re going to have to do well on Wednesday no matter how many people know the key dance move.”

Despite the fact that a few of the girls were missing, all four groups pushed forward without hesitation. Some started with learning the dance, some started with separating the lyrics to fit their handful of members the best.

Minsun and Jiyae were working together, Jiyae helping her partner with the steps, and Minsun helping the other with the key to sing in. It was a surprisingly good bond, but it was bound to happen. Hei Chu was a perfectionist, which usually meant she practiced alone. Younghee was nice, but impatient, often learning on her own first to get things just right before offering help to those around her. Minhee wasn’t much help either, focusing on her own skill set rather than teamwork. Yumi still hadn’t shown up.

Despite the distant feeling in group C, group D had a whole different tone.

Jiae gladly helped newcomer Jieun, Hanui and Seungyu were balancing the lyrics for their seven member set, all while Emmy, Jimae, and Yeonhee worked on the choreography. Clearly, even though there was a bit of discomfort around Yeonhee’s lateness, the girl’s wanted their little performance to be top notch.

All the while, a handful of Super Junior members watched the teams from security cameras two floors up. Four tv screens in one conference room showed each studio, monitoring silently, taking notes, and starting on that point system.

 

Sorry for the delay with this chapter, I had a busy week being a bridesmaid for my friend.

My goal is to post a chapter every friday, but I might be late this upcoming week too. With the holiday (Thanksgiving) and another wedding to go to, I might not get the chance to write too much. I'll get back on track after that, though!

Note: until things get cleared up, I will not be including Kangin in this story for a while.
 

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