Jisoo was inside an empty room. Was it even a room? If it was, it was so huge that she couldn’t make out the walls of it; where it started or where it ended. Everywhere she looked, all she could see was a sea of endless white. She was just standing there, alone, with no one and nothing around.

And she felt overwhelmingly lonely.

Deciding to find her way out of this ‘room,’ Jisoo started walking… but she didn’t have any sense of direction with everything and every direction looking the exactly same. She didn’t have anything to walk towards because there was just nothingness. When she called out for someone, there was no reply. Eventually, she grew tired and gave up, crouching down and burying her face into her hands.

The sound of distant footsteps getting louder and louder made Jisoo lift her head up. She looked around for the source, and from behind her she could see a familiar silhouette approaching. When that person was close enough, that person extended their hand towards Jisoo, smiling a smile that was so familiar– so comforting and warm.

“It’s been a while, Jisoo.”

Jisoo took the extended hand and held onto it tightly.

“Please stay this time.”

“Jisoo? Jisoo, wake up. It’s time to go.”

Jisoo opened her eyes, and used her elbows to groggily prop herself up while trying to orient herself at the same time. She was on the couch in one of the YG recording studios, and Blackpink’s manager was staring at her while she rubbed the sleepiness off her eyes. Waking up in the studios was one of those times when everyone in YG was thankful that the place was so dimly lit– it didn’t hurt their eyes when they woke up from their late naps in between working late in the evenings (which most of the artists did– YG was the home for workaholics and insomniacs, Jisoo unexpectedly one of them.)

“What time is it?”

“02:05 am. We finished early today.”

Jisoo had fallen asleep while waiting for the others to finish their turn recording their parts for their new songs. Blackpink was scheduled to release a mini-album in early April, and were busy at the studio with their preparations. The next title track had already been selected, but the final list of songs to be included in their mini was yet to be determined so the girls were recording multiple songs as potential tracks to be considered. Blackpink was also beginning to get involved in the production of their own music, trying to establish their own ‘color’ like how the other artists in YG did. Chaeyoung– as expected– was the best at creating new and fresh melodies, while Jisoo was the one gifted with words and lyricism. As for Jennie and Lisa, they were writing their own raps now, and were the two most interested in (and good at) the actual production and mixing of the tracks.

Aside from working on their songs, the girls were at the dance practice studios everyday this week learning the choreography for their title track ahead of their music video filming, scheduled for mid-March. The days were reserved for the dance practices, and the evenings for vocal recordings and processing.

It was learning the dance that really took a toll on Jisoo– she had to practice a lot longer than the others to master the choreography because it didn’t come as naturally to her like it did for Lisa or even Chaeyoung. But it was Jisoo who was almost always the first one to finish recording her vocal parts– partly because she did not get the most lines in terms of distribution, but mostly because she was very good at following instructions of whoever was producing their track.

Not like it mattered much anyway– they all still went back to the dorm at the same time, with Jisoo refusing to leave any of the girls in the studio and insisting on staying behind and waiting for everyone to finish recording before leaving.

The thing with being busy with comeback preparations at the YG studios was that they were preoccupied with so many things that they end up losing their orientation to time and date. It wasn’t until Sangwon-unnie bought up the script reading on the car ride back to the dorm that Jisoo remembered that it was happening sooner than she had realized.

“No way, it’s already February 5th?” Jisoo took her phone out of her pocket to check the date, only to be surprised at how quickly the days passed. Out of the Blackpink girls it was Jisoo who usually knew their scheduled activities the best, but even she gets overwhelmed sometimes.

“Yes,” the manager laughed dryly to herself, looking at her phone, probably trying to keep up with all their upcoming schedules, “Funny, I’d thought that you’d be counting down the days considering how excited you’ve been for the project.”

“I am excited for it. Really, I am. But I’m also very busy,” Jisoo leaned back in her seat and closed her eyes, “Too many things are going on right now with the comeback stuff and this drama and my sister’s wedding preparations.”

“You’ll get through it. Just take it one day at a time.” The manager gave Jisoo reassuring smile and a pat on the shoulder before turning to the back seats to wake up the other girls as they approached the Blackpink dorm. “Get plenty of rest today, you have the rest of day off.”

Blackpink’s day offs usually just consisted of one or a combination of the following activities: going home to see their families, shopping, having a food trip to look for hole-in-the-wall food places in