chapter two

‹ episode two — we are shining so brightly ›

Cheers from the audience made the entire performance hall deafening to listen to. Kim Sohye smiled as she walked out on to the stage, MC script cards in her hands.

"Ladies and Gentlemen," She began with a smile. "Welcome to I'm A Star!"

The immense cheering continued as Sohye signaled with her hands for the audience to calm themselves down.

"For our first mission, Are You A Star?, we had our eighteen contestants split up into teams of nine." The camera panned to the screens behind Sohye, showing the So Hot team and Me Gustas Tu team.

"We have Team So Hot, taking on the iconic Wonder Girls hit," Sohye smiled as the audience appeared to be intrigued. "And we have Team Me Gustas Tu, taking on the trendy GFRIEND hit."

"For about a week, each team worked hard to produce a stage that should surely impress the audience," Sohye paused. "But, only you can tell us if they succeeded with their attempts or not."

"Our first team to start is Team So Hot," Sohye announced as nine girls shuffled their way on stage, some smiling while others appeared to be nervous.

"Who here is our leader?" Upon hearing the question, Hyeya stepped forward with a confident smile. "As leader, what was the biggest challenge you faced?"

Hyeya thought for a second but answered honestly, "Probably trying to get everyone to be sync with one another. None of us knew of one another until about a week ago, so it took some adjustments to get us to be together as one."

"Nice answer," Sohye commented, smiling herself. "Who's the center?"

Belle smiled brightly and stepped forward, "I am!"

"Well, I'm excited to see your performance, good luck." Sohye smiled and walked off stage as the nine girls got into formation.

Before their performance began however, the camera rewinded back to the start of the week. Back to the beginning of their practices and everything else that followed.

It was day two of their preparation and Team So Hot was currently seated on the floor in a circle formation. "Okay, who wants to be leader?"

Everyone looked at Hyeya, who had asked the question to begin with.

"I think you should since you asked." Mari joked causing a couple of the girls to chuckle.

Hyeya looked at the others, "Is everyone okay with that then?" Everyone nodded in agreement, with Mari sticking the yellow "L" sticker on to Hyeya's shirt.

"Alright, who all want to be center?" Hyeya asked, receiving two hands raised in the air. They belonged to Belle and Elsa, both girls sat with smiles.

Hyeya sighed and tried thinking of a way to choose the center, before finally getting an idea, "Okay, you two close your eyes and we will vote anonymously for the center."

Belle and Elsa agreed and covered their eyes. "Who thinks Belle should be center? Raise your hand to vote for her." Hyeya asked, telling the girls not to verbally choose their pick.

Gyuri, Jihu, Iva, and Sun rose their hands. "Who thinks Elsa should be center?" Only Hyeya, Mari, and Bee rose their hands, showing a clear winner.

"Alright you two open your eyes." Hyeya said holding the yellow "C" sticker.

The two girls uncovered their eyes and looked at Hyeya, a little anxious to see who was selected.

"It was pretty close but Belle was chosen to be center in the end." Belle smiled and said a couple "thank you's" to the other girls before sticking the sticker on to her shirt.

The girls who voted for Belle merely smiled and nodded their heads in response. "Alright, who wants to help me take charge in teaching the dance and formation?" Gyuri spoke up, confident that she could teach the dance to the others.

Shyly, Jihu raised her hand up causing Gyuri to hug her excitedly. "I knew you'd be the one to help!" The red head chuckled loudly while Jihu merely nodded her head in response.

The footage fast forwarded, showing the bumps along the way that were made until they were able to finally get everything together.

Finally the footage went back to the present with the girls in their formations, the music beginning to play for them.

All nine girls panted heavily with the end of their song, the audience cheering loudly. Breaking their formation, the girls lined up as the four judges sat, ready to comment on their own individual performances.

"Starting with Hyeya, the team leader," Bada, the industry mentor, spoke looking quite serious. "You did a wonderful job. You had great stage presence, you did the dance, well and sang beautifully."

"Thank you." Hyeya spoke with a huge smile, bowing. The other smiled, hoping they would be told the same.

"I can't say the same for a couple of you though," Bada deadpanned. Instantly, the girls' smiles disappeared and they all became visibly frigid.

"Belle," Bada said looking serious. "You sang well and danced well, but for being the center, you sure didn't stand out that much. I was a bit disappointed to be honest."

"I'm going to disagree," Eunji, the vocal mentor, spoke up. "I think you did a good job, not amazing, but good nonetheless."

Belle bowed and said, "Thank you very much."

"However," Eunji said, looking serious as well. "I have an issue with Sun's singing."

Sun gulped, looking incredibly nervous as Eunji continued. "I'm not sure why you made your voice sounded whiney when you sang your lines, but it was off-putting to say the least."

Seeing Sun begin to look more and more distressed, Chungha spoke up. "Don't get us wrong, you danced beautifully. You were the best dancer out of the entire group. But your singing was sub-par at best. Work on it."

"However," Chungha said as she looked at Gyuri. "I'm disappointed with your dancing. You appeared to be struggling a majority of the performance, even making a mistake in the middle of it. I don't know if you were nervous, but it was a little sloppy. Try and be more aware."

Gyuri nodded with a visibly sad expression, feeling as if she had let not just Chungha down, but also herself.

"Iva and Bee," Heize, the rap mentor, said as she looked at the two girls. "Amazing job with the rapping. I was very impressed. I do have a question for Mari though."

Mari looked surprised and waited for the question, "Why were you singing when you're a rapper?"

"I was given those lines when we were splitting up the parts because I was the only rapper on our team that could properly sing them." Mari answered bluntly, trying to explain herself.

"Next time, fight for the rap lines. You were barely noticable the whole song." Heize spoke back, bluntly as well.

"As for Elsa and Jihu," Bada spoke with a smile, making the two girls feel relaxed. "You both did a wonderful job. Els