Music is blasting through the small dance studio, the four dancers in the room have been at it since 11am and it was now 5pm. With only a few days until the monthly evaluation, taking breaks wasn’t apart of their agenda. Especially not for Choi Sooji. She’s already been training for 4 years, which is fairly average, but it felt like an eternity to the 20 year old girl who wasn’t getting any younger. Since the company was debuting a new girl group soon, she had to stand out somehow in order to make it. But for some reason it seemed as if no matter how hard she danced, she didn’t get the attention she feel she deserved.

Being the only girl in a group full of male trainees already made her stand out but she had to keep up with their energy and powerful moves as well. It wasn’t an easy task but she’s been focused on dancing for most of the time she’s been a trainee so she did get significantly better; she had a feeling that this performance was going to be the one that impresses Bang PD, especially since it wasn’t common for male and female trainees to perform for monthly evaluations together so she would definitely stand out and shine. Maybe even be put in the new group.

As the music came to an end the four friends decided to take a water break. They each got their water bottles and sat on the floor in a circle as they started to casually talk about trainee life. One of the guys, who’s been there longer than Sooji, expressed his disappointment in himself for not making it in TXT and said this was his last chance. Sooji felt bad for him, it’s common that most trainees don’t make it but she hoped she had a different fate. As the group of friends continued talking, the door suddenly opened and one of the staff members in charge of the trainees peaked their head through the door. They all stood up and bowed politely at him then he told Sooji to meet him outside before leaving closing the door. All the boys let out a teasing “oooooo” as if she was being sent to the principals office in school. Sooji rolled her eyes then got her stuff and met him outside not really sure what to expect. “As you know we’re still unsure with who we want to pick for the new group. With such a hectic schedule its important that the girls chosen can keep up with anything that gets thrown at them, and we want to make sure they also get along.”

Sooji blinked cluelessly and nodded even though she didn’t fully understand why he was telling her this. The staff member led the trainee down the hall to a different practice room and Sooji stopped at the door as she saw her sister, Yoonji, sitting on the bench in the far end of the room with headphones on. Sooji turned to the staff member to plead her case, “but the monthly evaluation is only a week away and I already memorized the dance with my other group,” she said in a whiny tone starting to get annoyed at the whole situation.

“Well then memorize whatever they’re doing instead, you’ll do fine. Now go,” the staff member said before pushing the girl slightly into the room and quickly closing the door. Sooji stood there for a second frowning at the closed door then crossed her arms and turned to her sister who was still oblivious to the fact that anyone else was in the room. She let out a scoff just looking at her; the two sisters have quite a history. Coming from a good wholesome family they were pretty close, but certain events left Sooji furious at Yoonji and she hasn’t talked to her since; and she wasn’t planning on talking to her any time soon, not even for a monthly evaluation. But of course most people don’t know this, they have no idea that the two girls are even related.

Yoonji finally looked up from her phone and blinked when she saw her angry looking sister standing by the door. “What are you doing here? Are you in our group now?” she asked after taking out her headphones. Sooji didn’t answer, instead she took out her phone, looking at absolutely nothing interesting but she had to seem occupied. Yoonji sighed, she didn’t know why she even bothered asking when she knew she wasn’t going to get a response. But Yoonji was still hopeful that she would get through to her sister someday. Since the two were alone it would be a good time to try and talk about what had happened at least, however, before she could even get a word out a loud laugh was heard down the hall. “Oh Miwon’s here,” Yoonji said as she put her phone away still getting ignored by the other. The door swung open and Miwon quickly back hugged Sooji, “Yoonji-ah did you miss me?”

Sooji tried to wiggle away from the tight hug as Miwon closed her eyes embracing the girl in her arms. “Unnie, I’m here.” Miwon’s eyes shot open once she heard the familiar voice in a distance and she saw Yoonji waving at her from the other side of the room. Miwon quickly let go of Sooji who was clearly annoyed at the whole situation. “Oh I’m sorry,” Miwon started in english then corrected herself in Korean after realizing she was no longer in Chicago, “I mean uh, I’m sorry.” She bowed politely at the unknown frustrated girl then waddled over and hugged Yoonji. Even though the two met recently since they got paired together, they’ve been getting along pretty well. Yoonji is a naturally reserved person so she really enjoys Miwon's outgoing personality. The language barrier does make it hard to communicate sometimes but it’s kind of like a game of charades, and who doesn’t love that?

Once the girls started rehearsing it went pretty well, except for the fact that Sooji and Yoonji still wouldn’t talk and Miwon still couldn’t speak Korean well enough, but they got through it; practicing and practicing until their song was memorized and they were all satisfied.

With only two days left until the monthly evaluation, they decided to run their song by their voice teacher who would be sitting right along Bang PD nim while they performed. The three girls stood in a line with Miwon in the middle and sang the song exactly how they practiced. The voice teachers face was completely blank giving no emotion, not even a head nod to the music; he just kept writing in his little notepad. Once they finished singing, he sighed and stayed silent for a second as if he was trying to articulate what he wanted to say. Miwon and Yoonji glanced at each other worried for his review.

“Vocally it was good, but performance wise it wasn’t. Sooji, you need to focus, you seem lost the whole time like you’re somewhere else. You want to be in the new group right?” he asked as he tapped his pen against his notepad, Sooji nodded in response, “well it doesn’t seem like it, you’re not in your living room. Miwon you were a little pitchy on the high note but other than that you did good, I could see that you put a lot of effort.” Miwon smiled and bowed slightly at him thanking him, getting a compliment from him wasn’t an easy task so she was pretty satisfied with what he said. “And Yoonji, you know it’s an emotional song right? I feel no emotion from you, it was kind of boring. The part where you and Sooji look at each other as no emotion, even if you guys are strangers you should be able to act out the song. Theres only two days left, try harder,” he commented before standing up. The three girls all bowed at him as he left the room.

“We can do this, we still have two days,” Miwon spoke up as she felt a gloominess in the air once the voice teacher left. The sisters nodded and they all just stood there in silence. Everyone was so determined to make it, and they knew competition was fierce among female trainees now so they had to step their game up. But can they pull it together in two days?