D-7

“No, no, more!” Jay snaps, slapping the speaker system to make it stop playing music. “Sharper, faster transitions, in sync!”

“That’s enough,” Simon cuts in smoothly, guiding his friend away. “Keep practicing. We’re going to get lunch for everyone.”

“No lunch!” Jay continues yelling, struggling against Simon D. “Everyone needs to sharpen up! Look neat! Happy! You’re debuting!”

Jiae sighs, slamming the door in his face. “He’s just stressed,” she tells the terrified faces in front of her. “Come on, keep practicing. You’re not doing anything wrong.”

Sooyoung scrunches up her nose and tosses her damp hair. “I can’t help thinking that he’s right, though,” she confesses, unpeeling hair from the back of her neck. “We’re still… not used to the choreo.”

An awkward silence ensues. Finally, Anhee clears . “Let’s practice the other songs,” she suggests, gaze darting from Jiae to Seah to Minhee. “Um, because we need to dance for each of them, right?”

“Right!” Taemi agrees enthusiastically, jumping on the idea. “I’m still confused about some of them!”

Minhee exhales a sigh of relief, and Jiae lets them alone, leaning against the wall as the girls arrange themselves in position. It seems that they’ve managed to work out of the sticky situation and agreed to work their way down the album tracklist.

The group encounters no difficulties until they reach Minhee’s song. Unfortunately, Taemi loves this song and happens to be a bit too enthusiastic about it, causing her to always be half a beat early.

“Even if you’re only a backup dancer at this part,” Seah admonishes gently, “you can’t be too early or too late.”

“Yeah, it kinda ruins the entire effect,” Sooyoung throws out casually. Seah’s eyebrows twitch, but she doesn’t say anything. Taemi’s face has fallen significantly, and Anhee pats her shoulder.

“Don’t worry!” she encourages. “We still have a week!”

In the farthest corner, Jiae sighs. A week. They have a week to perfect all seven dances, to prepare an hour-long showcase, to face an entire nation of critics. Who the hell wanted a song inspired by each member, and a dance to go with it? Oh wait, that would be Jay and Simon. them.

At that moment, the door to the practice room opens, and Jiae nearly jumps out of her skin. Jay and Simon whirl into the room, holding bags of food.

“Chicken for the girls!” Jay sings, passing out chopsticks. “Jjajangmyeon for the rest of us!”

“Is he okay?” Jiae whispers to Simon, watching the girls groan in agony because ‘I hate chicken !’. Simon chuckles, opening his takeout box.

“Of course not.” He takes a large bite of his noodles. “He’s Jay ing Park.”

D-6

Taemi watches as Sooyoung and Seah fight for the nth time that day. They’re arguing over which dance the group has the most trouble with and so should practice next.

“I’m telling you, it’s Secret!” Seah insists, even dancing out the part. “This is where our feet go all out of sync, and that’s going to look really bad on stage.”

Sooyoung shakes her head with a scornful face. “Yeah, okay,” she admits, “maybe we do need to work on that part, but I seriously don’t think we have Do As I Say down. It’s honestly probably our worst dance right now.”

Taemi takes a sip out of her water bottle, discreetly glancing at her other unnies. Aerin’s falling asleep, Anhee looks like she wants to hide in a hole, and Minhee seems to have other things on her mind.

Meanwhile, Jiae-unnie, their manager, is nowhere in sight.

“How long do you think they’ll last this time?” Taemi whispers to Minhee, nudging her slightly. Minhee starts, blinking rapidly.

“What?” she asks, confused. Taemi repeats her question, and Minhee smiles slightly. “That’s hard to say. Last time, they swore to never talk to each other again but made up an hour later.”

“Then there was the time they actually stuck through for a week,” Aerin breaks in, reaching for her own water. “It was pretty scary, especially since I had to be the messenger.” Taemi makes a sympathetic face, feeling sorry for her unnie who has to room with the Tom and Jerry couple.

Suddenly, Seah storms over to the four sitting girls, who hurriedly scramble to their feet. “We’re doing Remember,” the normally-easygoing leader barks. “Get into position.”

Do you remember, the sun that shone down on us that day?

D-5

“Why is everyone lazing off?” Jiae manually drags each girl off of the floor. “Come on, come on, there’s so much to do! Practice singing, if you don’t want to dance!”

“Unnieee,” Minhee whines, desperately stuck to the floor, “I thought you were on our side…”

“I am, but debut is in five days, and you can’t not practice.” Jiae sits down in the corner. “Come on, let’s go through Remember.”

Unfortunately, it seems like no one’s in the mood to practice, and soon, after Simon calls Jiae away to confirm scheduling, everyone just gives up.

“There’s no point,” Aerin mutters, sprawling on the floor. “We know the dances front to back…”

Seah sighs, sitting down next to her. “There’s no harm in knowing them just a bit better.” She beckons everyone over. “Guys, let’s talk for a bit.” She waits until the members are gathered. “We’ve all been losing motivation recently. Is there any particular thing troubling you? I want everyone to be happy, so please tell me if anything’s wrong.”

Silence, and then Sooyoung says, “I’m sorry for pushing everyone so hard.” She bites her lip nervously. “I’m just really terrified that we’ll somehow mess up our debut.”

“It’s okay,” Taemi chirps. “I’m sure we’ll have the hottest debut of the year! Can I go next?” She shifts her position a bit, stretching her legs out. “I know I haven’t been the most patient person, and I feel really bad about that. I really appreciate everything you do for me, and I hope that everyone can forgive my temper. That’s all.”

Taemi’s words seem to have a lasting impression on the unnies because no one makes a noise. Then, Minhee speaks up. “It’s okay, we all have bad days. Can I go next?” A few heads nod, but most of the girls are in deep thought. “I’m actually really afraid of debut. I’ve been getting help with my body issues, but I’m scared that I’ll slack off after we debut, whether because we don’t have enough time or because… something, and I’m afraid I’ll disappoint my fans.” Without even meaning to, Minhee begins to cry, and the talk session quickly ends.

“We’ll make sure nothing happens,” Seah promises. “You have to try your best, okay? We’ll make sure you go to treatment, but it’s your job to keep your mood up!”

Jiae finds them huddled in a mass and turns right back out the door. She’s not even going to ask.

D-4

I’m serious about this.

The song ends, and the group barely pauses long enough to strike the ending pose before scrambling to the food that Jiae’s just brought in.

“Not again!” Anhee wails, seeing the dreadful chicken in the plastic lunch boxes. “It’s so dry and chunky and just ew!”

“Hey, hey.” Seah nudges her with an elbow, mouth already stuffed. “Put up with it for a few more weeks, okay? You know it’s for your health.”

At that moment, Jay Park and Simon Dominic enter the room. “Everyone,” Jay says, clapping his hands. “Continue eating, but I have big news.” He looks everyone in the eye. “Aerin, look at me.”

Simon cuts in smoothly with a cough. “You’re going to have a variety show. They’re going to start with your photoshoot tomorrow.”

“WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?” Screams echo around the room, and Simon winces. He barely gets a chance to speak before Minhee leaps up and out of the room. Immediately, Jiae goes after her.

“The show will start from tomorrow,” Simon continues calmly, “and how long it lasts will depend on the viewer ratings. It may last only for this album, or it may be ongoing. Everything depends on how much you impress the viewers, so I want everyone to do their best.”

Everyone agrees readily, but Aerin glances around, and all her friends seem to be hyperventilating, especially Anhee.

“I can’t do this,” she whispers desperately, wringing her hands together. “Oh my god, I am going to die, I can’t do this. We haven’t even debuted!”

“Yes, you can, unnie!” Taemi encourages, worming her own hand in between Anhee’s. “We’re all here with you, and we’ve done photoshoots before!”

“Yeah,” Sooyoung adds in, “it’s just a few more cameras. You’ll be fine.”

Anhee shakes her head, looking down at the floor. “I don’t want to up in front of the entire nation,” she chokes out, tears slipping out of her eyes. “I don’t want to embarrass the group in front of the entire country…”

Thankfully, the members manage to calm Anhee down before the photoshoot starts so that she doesn’t take pictures with puffy eyes.

author's note

Annie: Hey, so I didn't write in this chapter, but I'm posting this one bc Maggie cannot at the moment... It's been hard to write and have our styles actually match. Wait until the next chapter to see the conflict in our writing styles (lol)

Maggie: Yo yo yo so much going on!!! We tried to focus each day on a member but that didn’t turn out quite as obvious as I thought it would have.