Hwang Eunbi tried to keep the frown off her face as she watched the others in the mirror. She could easily spot the small mistakes each member made during the dance. But she also noticed the vast amount of improvement they had made since they started practicing. Her members were doing a good job, they were working hard. Even Yewon was working tirelessly to erase any imperfection. No matter what her personal opinion was about this girl, she could respect someone with a strong work ethic.

But now a quitter was about to join her group? She still couldn’t believe that their CEO had been so desperate to ask someone like that to audition – let alone accepting them. She had already questioned his decisions once when he had dragged in Yewon like a stray dog. She had spent years and years of training as hard as she could and he had chosen a random girl on the street and put her on the same level as herself. It had felt like a slap to her face. It had felt as if all these years of work had meant nothing at all. How could she not be better than someone who had never danced in her whole life? How could she get compared to someone like that when she had spent her entire life perfecting her dancing skills when in the end it had never mattered?

Although, she had to admit that Yewon had surprised her. Yewon was a fighter and had been doing better and better with each passing day. And she seemed nice. Like an innocent little puppy. And she liked puppies.

A quitter, however? That was something entirely different. Wasn’t it well-known that people like that weren’t cut out for being an idol? That was why they trained so hard anyway! If anyone could not keep up with this lifestyle, they did not belong here. She had not sacrificed her entire childhood just for some girl to drag them all down with her incompetence. This group had real potential, she was not going to let some random girl waltz in and destroy it. That was if this girl even made it until their debut date and did not leave before. Because that was what quitters did.

“I did it again, didn’t I?” Yuna groaned as the music stopped. “I ruined the formation. I’m so sorry, everyone!”

Eunbi shook her head. “You’re getting there, Unnie. You’re continuously improving.”

And she was. Yuna had come to the company as a singer – not a dancer. She always had the most problems with learning a new choreography, but she was not someone who gave up easily. From everyone in the group, she admired Yuna’s work ethic the most. She couldn’t count how many times Yuna had joined her after training hours in the practice room to learn the steps and to make up for the extra time she needed. It wasn’t unusual that Yuna was the last of their group to go home. She did everything and more to improve.

“It doesn’t seem like it,” Yuna mumbled, frowning at her reflection as she tried the move again that had screwed up the choreo. “Are my feet too wide apart? The spacing seems… off.”

Eunbi watched closely as Yuna repeated the dance move before she nodded. “Your steps need to be smaller, Yuna-unnie, but we can work on that later. Should we take a small break, Yerin-unnie?”

Yerin only shrugged. “You’re the teacher, Eunbi-ya. Your decision.”

“Eunbi seonsaeng-nim,“ Yuna tested out and a smile slowly formed on her lips. “Ooh, I like the sound of that. It suits you!”

“We should totally start calling you this from now on!”

“Yeah, you earned this respect, seonsaeng-nim!”

Eunbi grimaced as Yuna and Yerin laughed. “Unnies, I’m not a teacher –”

“But you are!” Yerin pointed out. “You’re our very own dance teacher. Without you we would not be where we are now.”

She winced at the reminder. Helping her members with the choreography wasn’t bothering her. But having the responsibility to make sure the choreography was learned and executed in the right way along with their leader was sometimes getting to her. What if the group failed because she was doing a poor job in teaching them? What if she missed a mistake they made? What if she couldn’t teach them a certain move? They only had this one opportunity to make a good impression on the public. They didn’t have the backing of a big company, whether it was financial or popularity-wise. They would have to fight for every performance, for every fan, for every listener, they could somehow reach. And for that they needed to be as perfect as possible.

Her stomach twisted as the anxiety spread through her body again. She didn’t know what she would do, if this group failed. If her chance to debut was again destroyed. This was the closest she had ever gotten to become a member of a real girl group, she didn’t want to go back to the uncertainty and the doubts that had accompanied her for more than half of her life.

She had always been lacking somewhere. Whether it was her personality that didn’t fit the concept or whether it was the fact that she was prone to injuries and therefore a risk. Something was always not right. But then this little company reached out to her like a spark of hope. The bigger companies had disappointed her again and again, but even though they told her that she was probably one of their best female dancers, it had never gone any further than that. And so she had accepted the offer of Source Music.

She liked her group – even Yewon – and she would do everything in her power to make them ready to blow the public’s minds. She just hoped it would be enough.

Sighing, she shook her head. “Let’s not… let’s not get all weird over this. Okay, Unnie? I may help you with your dance, but I’m not a teacher.”

“Aw, is our maknae embarrassed?” Yerin cooed. “Are you blushing?”

Recognizing Yerin’s smile, she quickly took a few steps back and pointed at Yewon who looked as if she struggled to keep a straight face. “I’m not the maknae, she is.”

“You might not be the official maknae, but you’re still our maknae,” Yuna disagreed. “You always will be.”

“The other Eunbi could be even younger than us and, if she makes it into our group, none of us two would be the maknae anyway! It’s not –”

But a voice from behind stopped her.

“I can ease your worries. She’s a year older than you, Maknae-ya,” Sojung said, causing everyone to turn towards the open door. Eunbi’s eyes immediately went straight to the small girl next to their leader. The girl looked incredible tiny standing next to the ridiculously tall Sojung. That was the quitter? “Everyone, this is the newest trainee of our company. She will join us during our practices. Eunbi-ssi, these are Jung Yerin, Choi Yuna, Hwang Eunbi and Kim Yewon. Yuna is the same age as you and only Yerin is a year older. Yewon is the youngest, but she’s only a few months younger than our Eunbi here.”

The girl gave a 90-degree-bow and her eyes flickered over the group in front of her. It was obvious that she was nervous. “Hello, my name is Jung Eunbi and I promise that I will work hard. It’s nice to meet you.”

Eunbi’s eyes widened and her heart skipped a beat as she heard the name. There was no way… no, it was impossible. Or was it? Jung Eunbi? And a year older than her? She looked more closely at the small girl with the soft voice. The girl shyly met her eyes only to immediately glance back down to the floor as a slight blush crept into her cheeks. Was her mind messing with her or was there actually a resemblance? It had been years since she had last seen her...

“Eun-… Eunbi-unnie?”

The other Eunbi smiled timidly and gave her a tiny nod. “Eunbi-ya, it’s been a while.”

So it really was her. Eunbi’s jaw dropped as she stared in complete shock at the small girl who looked more uncomfortable with each passing second. Millions of thoughts rushed through her head, memories from their childhood days washed over her like a warm summer rain.

She remembered their first meeting at the dance team, two kids with two completely different personalities – and yet they had immediately taken a liking to each other. She had been the shy one back then, at least towards other girls, but the older Eunbi had immediately taken her under her wing. They had laughed together, cried together, dreamed about their future together. Their parents had often joked that they might be real sisters as close as they had been… and now she was here. As the new trainee. As their possible future member.

Suddenly Eunbi couldn’t stop herself anymore. A loud squeal escaped her and out of the corner of her eye she noticed how the others jumped in surprise while she ran towards the older Eunbi. The small girl barely managed to open her arms in time to catch her and Eunbi immediately pulled her into a tight hug.

“Daebak, I can’t believe it’s really you! What the heck! I haven’t seen you in years, Unnie! Where have you been?!”

The hug was incredibly familiar yet different. It felt like coming home after being away for a long time. This was her close childhood friend, her honorary big sister, her Eunbi-unnie. She had been devastated after they had slowly drifted apart thanks to their different training schedules. Until one day the older Eunbi had disappeared completely from her life.

She blinked a few times, embarrassed about the tears that were suddenly clouding her vision. She was not one who cried easily, but, thankfully, she stood with her back towards the other members and no one was able to witness her brief sign of weakness.

As if her unnie knew that Eunbi was choking up, she soothingly rubbed her back and laughed awkwardly. The all too familiar sound brought another wave of emotions. How could they have lost contact like this? Why had they let it happen?

“I see you’ve grown a bit taller, Eunbi-ya.”

Eunbi pulled away from the hug and gave her unnie a once-over. She had changed a lot over the years. The height, however, was the most noticeable difference. “It’s so weird, I thought you would be as tall as our Sojung-unnie here. And now I’m actually taller?”

The older yet smaller girl pouted and Eunbi couldn’t contain the wide smile. Yes, this was indeed her unnie. Smaller than her and a couple of years older than before, but still the same person. It was a relief that some things never changed.

“Wait, so… this is really your Eunbi-unnie you were telling us about?” Yewon asked confused, reminding both Eunbis that they were not alone.

She had almost forgotten about the others. Her mind was still reeling that Eunbi-unnie was back. After all this time she was back in the most random way possible. And maybe she was even their chance to debut, if she passed her training period. Which she would. She would personally make sure that her unnie would pass with flying colors.

The chances to debut together in the same group had been slim to nothing ever since they had been pulled apart by their past company. She remembered how badly her unnie wanted to become a singer. It was all she ever talked about as a child. Her unnie was as passionate about singing as she herself was with dancing – maybe even a little more than her at that time.

But then why had she quit? It just didn’t make sense. This was her dream. How could she have just given up like that? It didn’t seem like her at all.

Seeing the others still waiting for a response, she shook herself out of her thoughts and put an arm around her unnie’s shoulders. She could ask her later what that was all about when they were alone. “Yes, this is my Eunbi-unnie. We met when we were in the same dance team growing up!”

Yerin looked at the small girl with a hint of curiosity. “Can you dance as well as… uh, our Eunbi? We need to come up with a way to tell you apart. This is going to become confusing.”

Her unnie quickly shook her head and glanced at the floor, causing her to frown. Since when had she become so shy? The Eunbi she remembered had been loud and straightforward. She had often gotten into trouble for not keeping shut or for not listening to her elders.

“I can’t really – I mean, I don’t think anyone is as good as Eunbi-ya.”

She couldn’t help but scoff. “I see that Eunbi-unnie is still not confident with her skills? Your basics are great, Unnie. You can dance just fine.”

But her unnie shook her head. “I’m really not that great, but I promise I’ll work as hard as I can.”

“Didn’t you say that your unnie was called Big Eunbi?” Sojung asked, glancing between the two of them with obvious amusement. “We could use that until we get a stage name for you.”

“Ooh! Or we could call our Eunbi Chloe!” Yerin called out and she glared at her.

“Chloe is not and will not become my stage name.”

“If Big Eunbi joins our group, you definitely won’t keep your real name. You know that, right?”

“How long are you training for anyway, Eunbi-ssi?” Yuna asked.

“Um, two months.”

Her eyebrows shot up. A quick glance towards the others told her that they were equally shocked, except for Sojung-unnie. “Wait, two months? You have to pass the final evaluation in two months, Unnie?”

“CEO-nim did not want to postpone our debut date any longer than necessary,” Sojung answered. “He says if she passes the evaluation, we might be able to debut in November.”

“And you took a break from training for how long again, Unnie?” Eunbi asked, having a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. She hoped the two years they had heard about were not true. How could her unnie possibly catch up, if she had taken a break for two –

“Around three years,” her unnie mumbled, pulling a strand of her hair behind her ear.

Eunbi’s mouth opened before she snapped it shut again. She had no words. She was speechless. Three years?!

Yuna cleared . “Have you kept up with singing or dancing during this hiatus?”

“I… um, not really. No. But I’ll give my best and work hard. I hope I will be able to catch up in time.”

She looked at her unnie from the side as numbness spread through her body. She didn’t want to lose her again. Not when she was this close to be in the same group as her childhood friend. Not when their chance to debut was finally in reach.

They needed an additional member for their group or they would not be able to debut. They all knew that. However, they also knew that the chemistry had to work in order to be successful after debut too. There were groups who had failed because they simply had not fit together. The five of them got along well, they had similar goals and personalities. And if Eunbi-unnie was anything like the girl she had known from the past, she would suit their group well.

“I’ll help you with your vocal training, if you want to,” Yuna offered. “I’m sure you will catch up in no time. CEO-nim wouldn’t have given you the opportunity to train at his company, if he didn’t think the same.”

Eunbi nodded. “Yes, and I can help you with dancing too, Eunbi-unnie. I know you’re not bad at it, no matter what you’re saying.”

“You… you really don’t have to,” Eunbi-unnie stuttered and a faint blush appeared on her cheeks. “You’re probably busy with preparing for your debut and –”

“Nonsense,” Yuna interrupted her before anyone else could. “I love helping others. A little overtime won’t hurt me. It’s going to be fun!”

“If you remember, you know that a no from you won’t stop me,” she whispered into her unnie’s ear and saw how she started to smile a little. “Like old times, okay? We’ll get through this.”

“Alright, everyone!” Sojung clapped her hands. “Let’s show Eunbi-ssi the choreo. CEO-nim wants her to learn it as soon as possible. Eunbi-ssi, you can find some water bottles in the corner over there and you can sit in the front, okay? You need some rest after the endurance test.”

“Oh God, the endurance test,” Yewon groaned. “I remember mine all too well, I felt like dying afterwards. How are you even still standing, Eunbi-ssi? I think I collapsed on the ground right after I was done. Yerin-unnie had to carry me to the car.”

“Unnie had her very own endurance test that day with carrying the little maknae,” Yerin joked and tried to ruffle Yewon’s hair, but Yewon ducked out of the way.

“I don’t weigh that much!”

“Are you on diet?” Yerin raised her eyebrows, already knowing the answer. Yewon pouted and crossed her arms. “There you go.”

“You’re on diet too!”

“Everyone except Sojung-unnie is. Your point?”

Yewon opened , ready to argue back, but nothing came out. Before she could come up with something, Sojung intervened.

“Get into position, everyone. We can play around after practice is over, but right now we have a new trainee here. Let’s start!”