chapter three

‹ EPISODE THREE — FORMING CONSTELLATIONS ›

All eighteen girls sat in a large room, all of them sitting with the friends they had made so far.

None of the girls knew why they were in the room nor what was awaiting them; This would most likely be their biggest challenge yet.

The door to the room slowly turned open, revealing Kim Sohye, the show's host. All of the girls smiled and clapped as she entered, excited to see her.

"Hello ladies, welcome to your second mission, Are We Shining?" Sohye announced, all of the girls looked intrigued and clapped at hearing the mission title.

"Before I tell you about the mission, will Eve, Hari, and Elsa please join me at the front." All three girls looked confused yet excited as they hurried to the front of the room.

Sohye smiled at their excited nature, "As I mentioned before, the top three winners of the previously mission would receive an advantage. This advantage is them being able to choose their team members and select the leaders and centers for their own teams. Since Eve is in first, she can choose which song she'd like to be in."

The screens behind the four ladies lit up revealing the songs: "Like-Ooh Ahh" By. Twice, "H.E.R." By. Block B, and "Luv" By. Apink. All of them being very different from each other.

Eve sighed and looked at the three screens, initially unsure of what to choose. In her personal interview, "It was very hard because whatever I chose would determine my fate in the next mission."

"I'm picking Like-Ooh Ahh." Eve said calmly as she went and stood in front of the screen, Hari chose right after her, picking "H.E.R." while Elsa was stuck with "LUV."

"Alright, each of these girls will be getting a turn in picking who they want on their team. Remember ladies, choose wisely. You may pick first Eve." Sohye spoke with a serious aura, making some of the girls begin to feel nervous.

Eve looked at the girls standing in front of her before smiling, "Em."

Upon hearing her name, Em stood up with a confident, yet cocky smile and stood next to Eve. In her personal interview: "I knew she'd pick me."

Hari sighed, looking overwhelmed by having to choose her own team members. "Uh, Yoojin!" Yoojin smiled and walked up to Hari, giving her a reassuring pat on the back. In Hari's personal interview: "I wasn't sure who to pick honestly... so I chose Yoojin because she's always nice to everyone..."

Elsa smiled and without hesitation, "Jihu." The blonde girl looked surprised to hear her name but got up and walked over to Elsa regardless. In Elsa's personal interview: "I have a plan of sorts."

The selection continued on with Eve picking Kana, Sun, Ying-Ying, and Yoo-E. Hari picked Seolhee, Gyuri, Hyeya, and Iva. With Elsa picking Jihyun, Bee, Belle, and ending up with Mari at the end as no one had picked her, meaning she was stuck on the LUV team.

"Alright, I will now leave you guys to prepare for the upcoming battle and elimination, good luck!" Sohye smiled, exiting the room and leaving the girls behind to begin their preparation for the new mission.

Eve looked at her team members, worried about just how she was going to decide who got what position for the song, "Like-Ooh Ahh."

"Okay, before we decide who the leader and center are, let's decide a group name; anyone have any suggestions?" Eve asked with a small smile, aware that she had a lot of silent people on her team.

Despite the first couple minutes of silence, group names began being thrown around. There was "Cheerleaders," "Girlfriend," and "Like Me." The girls all agreed on "Girlfriend" in the end.

"Okay, so I was thinking that Kana should be leader..." Eve spoke up, nervous about how her fellow members would react.

Em took a deep breath, obviously having a hard time keeping shut. "That's fine."

Kana smiled and stuck the yellow "L" sticker to her shirt as the girls were then enveloped in silence again.

"Who do you want to be center Eve?" Kana asked Eve, who avoided eye contact with Em.

It shifted to Eve's personal interview, who looked visibly distressed. "I know Em wants to be center but I think there's someone better suited. Someone who didn't get to perform last week with the winning team..."

"I want the center to be Ying-Ying." The whole room was silent. Ying-Ying stared at Eve in shock as Em looked like she was about to erupt.

In her personal interview, Em sighed loudly. "I probably look like a brat, right? I'm not trying to be. Everyone wants to be center, everyone wants their chance to shine, it that wrong?"

Em, not saying anything, got up and stormed out of the room, slamming the door shut behind her. The remaining five girls flinched at the sound, with Kana sighing in response. "I'll go talk to her."

A camera man followed Kana out of the room and down a hallway, where Em sat on the ground, crying. Kana cautiously approached the seventeen year old before sitting down next to her.

"Em, can we talk about this?" Kana asked gently, with Em looking up at her with teary eyes and a runny nose.

"I-I just w-wanted a chance! E-Eve was c-center last week! S-She knows h-how bad I-I wanted it!" Em wailed, crying into Kana's shoulder. The other teams' members peaked their head out into the hallway, checking out the commotion.

Seeing the conflict, Belle stepped out of the LUV practice room and kneeled in front of Em. "Take a deep breath... Do you want some water?"

Em took in steady breaths and nodded, being handed a water bottle from Belle. "You need to calm down, okay? I know that you didn't get your chance last week and things might seem unfair right now, but think about this from Ying-Ying's perspective. She's in a foreign land, can't communicate well with the others, and didn't get to perform even though her team won."

Em looked at Belle and frowned, knowing that she was indeed overracting. She never thought to think of it from Ying-Ying perspective, not even once. "I understand."

Belle smiled, "Good. Wipe your tears and go practice with your team members." Em nodded and wiped her tears, still holding on to Kana's arm as they walked back to their practice room.

The two girls reentered the room and Em immediately apologized to the other girls, with them all forgiving the young girl of course.

"Okay, well let's get practicing, shall we?" Kana suggested and began helping the other girls distribute lines and create the formation, while Sun and Ying-Ying taught the dance.

Time fast forwarded to show the girls getting the hang of the dance routine. They were finally ready.

The day of the mission had come and Sohye walked out on to the stage, hearing the immense cheers coming from the audience.

"Welcome to I'm A Star," Sohye smiled. "I'm Kim Sohye and today we will be watching three teams compete in their respective teams; will Team Girlfriend please join me on stage?"

Girlfriend walked out on stage, wearing customized cheerleading outfits. The audience cheered loudly, many of them yelling Eve's name. The girls lined up and smiled at Sohye.

"Who is the team leader?" Kana smiled and stepped forward. "How hard was it leading a team of five other girls?"

Kana sighed and the audience chuckled, "It was difficult but a good learning experience."

"I heard that you had a hard time due to some disagreements, could you tell me about that?" Sohye asked with a smile.

"Well, Everyone on our team weren't sure who center would be and one of us was decided as the center, one of us was sad about not being chosen." Kana spoke gracefully, holding Em's hand tightly.

Sohye smiled at the new friendship, "Who was the center then?"
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