part 1 ✿ pages 12-22

“class! Youre lacking class! Come on ladies, this part of the choreo should be elegant! You want the audience to swoon, not run away in terror! Yeri I’m looking at you..” the choreographer advised sternly causing Yeri to pout.

Joy shared a sympathetic look towards the maknae and then focused back towards the mirror when she heard the choreographer clap his hands three times and then restart the track.

“Now on my count. 1-2-3 and arms 4-5-6 Irene moves to the center 7-8... 1-2-3-4...” the choreographer continued through each set of counts and somehow the girls were able to pull themselves together enough to finish the routine without any mistakes.

After they’d practiced for a few more minutes, they were allowed a break to rest and rehydrate and the choreographer left them to talk amongst each other.

Letting her hair down from its tightly wound ponytail, Irene sighed, and sat criss cross on the floor next to Seulgi who was spread out and chugging a bottle of water as if she’d never tasted water before in her life.

Irene smiled, “Well that wasn’t too bad right!” 

As the leader of their girl group she always tried to remain positive in every situation for the sake of her girls. 

Seulgi, now sitting up from the ground, glared at her leader before whining, “I feel like my legs are gonna fall off, unnie.” 

Joy and Yeri, who had made their way onto the floor next to them simultaneously nodded their heads in agreement.

“We just have to get this routine down pat and the rest is smooth sailing!” Irene encourage with a smile, “Though i agree it can be a lot of work, we have to give our parents the best performance that we can.”

They were scheduled to perform a special Hometown performance for their parents and a large audience of people, as an extension of their current tour, in a few days. Though Irene would never admit it out loud, she was feeling a little nervous that she might not live up to her parents expectations once they finally saw her perform live for the first time. Being an idol meant that her and her group would always be traveling around and working on a bunch of different stuff for the fans, so they rarely got time to see their families. That’s why this performance meant so much to Irene and the other girls. They had to do their best to show their parents how much they’ve accomplished already. 

“Come on let’s stretch.” Irene patted the spot behind her back and Seulgi huffed before scooting over to the leader so their backs were touching.

“Yeerriiimm~” Joy sang, “stretch with me too!” her exhaustion from the harsh routine now replaced with her usual cheerfulness. 

Joy loved messing around with the maknae whenever she could which is how Seulgi and Irene started to compare their relationship with that of Tom and Jerry.

Joy would always try to partner up with Yeri whenever they did anything, whether it be picking roommates, choosing spots in the choreos, or stretching. Joy couldn’t help that she’d developed a little crush on the maknae over the years as well.

“Fine fine.” Yeri said, begrudgingly, and scooted behind an excited Joy to do some stretching.

Similar to Joy, though equally different, Yeri acted liked Joy annoyed her, but deep down, she had a soft spot for her unnie and secretly loved it whenever she would call her name even if it was to just look at a picture on her phone that she thought was funny. The difference between the two girls was that Joy openly expressed her love for Yeri while Yeri kept her true feelings for Joy a secret. Those same feelings kept her up at night for hours where she’d contemplate whether or not Joy truly felt the same way about her.

As the girls continued stretching their backs, their legs, their arms, basically everything, they heard their manager yelling to someone in the hallway outside the practice room.

“What the hell was that?” Yeri asked first.

“Shhhh lets go listen!” Joy shushed before hopping to the door, the girls right behind her.

The four girls looked comical having each of their ears pressed to the wooden door to try and listen to the argument taking place in the hallway. 

“No Taeyeon its too late to add another member into the group, you know this!” shouted one of the co-CEOs of the SM staff.

“Just hear me out Han Se-min sunbaenim!” Taeyeon argued back fiercely, clearly overstepping her boundaries. “Sir, if you could just look at my proposal, i-it’s something I’ve been thinking about for a long time and I really think that adding a fifth member would boost ticket sales and increase overa-“

“That’s enough Taeyeon, I don’t want to hear anymore of this from you!” Han Se-min yelled and stomped off, now out of reach of the ears still pressed to the door.

Taeyeon clicked her tongue in disbelief and said under her breath, “So, he wants to do it the hard way huh. Fine. I’ll show him.” She was yelling again, now, “I’ll show you! I’ll find someone perfect and you’ll wish you’d listened to me sooner!!” Taeyeon huffed and Irene could see her cross her arms stubbornly through the tiny window on the door. She proceeded to walk the opposite way the CEO had taken, down the hall, clearly still fuming about that confrontation.

The four girls, who were still stacked on top of one another with their faces pressed against the door, had their eyes wide with shock. No one moved for a while, they were still processing what their manager had said.

Seulgi, being the first one to speak up, squealed, “Di-did Taeyeon unnie just say what I think she said!” 

“A-another member?!” Irene gasped, covering with her hand. She was surprised and couldn’t suppress the growing smile that appeared on her face at the thought of another member. Internally, she was thinking about how cute a new member would be. They also hadn’t been debuting for that long so a new member would be perfect.

“OH MY !!!!” Yeri yelled still staring wide eyed at everyone. She too was excited about the idea of another member, and it give her high hopes that, maybe, she wouldn’t be the maknae of the group anymore.

“Wait I’m so excited and I don’t even know if it’s going to happen but knowing Taeyeon unnie its gonna happen and omg i CAN’T HANDLE THIS!!!!” Joy rambled and grabbed the closest person next to her, which happened to be Seulgi, and they jumped up and down. 

During their little dance of excitement, the door to the practice room opened and their choreographer was standing in the doorway. “It’s time to practice again! You better have stretched already!” He shouted, with feigned anger, and then noticed the girls all smiling and hugging one another. This was strange to him because they always groaned when they had to start practicing again.

“Yes sir!” The four girls said in unison as they hurried to their spots in the routine. 

Shaking his head, the choreographer decided to ignore their strange behavior and just start practicing again.

“Alright we’re starting with Happiness so get ready.” he said and was kind of creeped out at

how happy the girls we acting. Maybe they were just getting into character for the song, he thought.

“Alright now 1-2-3-4-5 and Seulgi-“ the choreographer clapped to the counts.

“Sometimes, you gotta be bold. Just rock the world!” Seulgi danced and winked to the mirror in front of them.

“BOOYAH!! La la la la la la la la la la! HAPPINESS!!” the girls sang, nailing every part of their choreo. 

During Seulgi’s solo, Yeri leaned over to Irene as they were dancing and whispered, “U-unie if we really do end up getting another member, we need to leave space for her in the choreos a-and we should give her some of our lines in the songs too.” 

Irene smiled at the maknae. Though it always seemed like Yeri put up a front like she didn’t “care” or she didn’t really take anything seriously in front of the cameras, she was still a cute kid deep down and was really thoughtful in regards to others. Irene loved this the most about her. It made her seem so much cuter to Irene that she almost wanted to stop dancing and just squeeze her puffy little cheeks! 

“Of course Yeri, we will.” Irene smiled before winking and moving up to where Seulgi had been to do her part of the rap.

The song ended and the choreographer was pleased with the amount of energy they’d put into their practice. They hadn’t missed any of their queues and their facial expressions were good throughout the whole song.

Since he seemed to be in a good mood, he decided to call it a night and send them back home to their dorms. The girls sighed with relief at the thought of changing out of their sweaty clothes and into fluffy pajamas. They made sure to grab their bags before leaving and Irene led the way down the hall and out towards the car that was waiting for them.

Irene slid into the car and chose a seat next to the window, the other girls following in after her. With a sigh, Irene took her headphones out of her bag and thumbed through the music on her iPod until she got to one of her favorite songs, ‘Gee’ by Girls Generation. 

Looking out the window, Irene couldn’t help but think about what Taeyeon had said earlier in the hallway. Of course all the girls had been excited about the talk of a fifth member, but Irene was the most intrigued by it. Even though it hadn’t sounded like the CEO was on board with the idea, Irene was determined to do whatever she could to help Taeyeon in convincing him otherwise. 

Outside the sky was clear and the sun was shining. Irene smiled at the sky and the car started up with a ding-“