PROLOGUE

DECEMBER 1ST, 2019 ✧ SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA
Kim Milyeon heard a rapid knock on the door to her office at MIK Entertainment. She knew what this was about, and she didn’t want to explain herself further in regards to it, but it was going to happen anyways.

"Come in." Milyeon stated offhandedly, looking at the door to see who entered. It was Yang Bohyung, one of MIK's rookie creative directors. "What is the purpose of this visit?" The CEO asked.

"Well, uh..." Bohyung hastily said, looking down at the papers she had on her. The rookie knew that her boss wouldn't like the question, but Bohyung was just too curious not to ask. "I'm looking back at the trainees you provided me, and I'm not so sure about them... are you sure? Don't you want to double check?"

Milyeon glared at the employee. "Double check?" The CEO scoffed. "You want me to double check the trainees I selected?" Bohyung's face fell flat, silently apologizing for offending Milyeon. "I'm not going to double check, I already have my eyes on these eight trainees."

Bohyung looked down at the floor avoiding eye contact. "May I ask why? I mean, I don't think this would bode well with the public. They are already harsh on idols as it is, but this lineup? It won't look good for the company."

Milyeon's jaw tightened when she heard Bohyung's last words. "Won't look good for the company?" Milyeon said, her voice now raised with rage. Bohyung's eyes widened. "If anything, it would look good on the company because of the lineup. Do you not know anything about my company? If you don't like the way I run things, you are more than welcome to leave."

The room turned quiet for a moment, Bohyung feeling extremely guilty to the point where she felt tears forming in her eyes. She just kept quietly apologizing. Milyeon did feel bad for yelling at her, but didn't want to show it as an authority figure, so for now she just pretended to ignore the employee's concerns and emotions.

"You are now dismissed. Go." Milyeon said, shooing the distraught employee away.

"I apologize for offending you, and I promise it won't happen again." Bohyung replied with a huge bow, letting herself out.

Milyeon truthfully didn't know what she was doing half the time as a CEO. She had been in the K-Pop industry since she was seventeen years old and was doing pretty well for herself as a soloist. But as always, not everything was all glitz and glamor as people make it out to seem.

At the age of nineteen and at the height of her career, Milyeon found herself pregnant from a one night stand she had with a politician's son. Of course, this wasn't something that she would expect to happen for a long time, but Milyeon decided to keep the baby and raise it on her own, with support from her closest family and friends.

Milyeon kept her pregnancy hidden from the public until her baby bump couldn't be covered without a reasonable explanation. After she announced her pregnancy and eventual birth to a healthy baby girl, Kim Dalrae, Milyeon still continued on with her career as an idol and a mother. And much to her surprise, the public reaction was positive and praised her for being a working mother.

In spite of all this, Milyeon's reputation as a working mother took a turn when Dalrae's father found out about her. Immediately, he went to court and began a very lengthy custody battle with Milyeon. Not only did this affect Milyeon's personal life, but also her career as an artist because of all the rumors and lies surrounding her. As of result of this, Milyeon lost many significant business opportunities and her company had no choice but to terminate her contract in 2014.

So, in retaliation for Milyeon's termination, she decided to create her own company, MIK Entertainment. Milyeon wanted to create a company that would actually help and protect their artists, not just throw them away when they're not valuable anymore.

And although MIK Entertainment was established in 2016, almost four years ago, the company only has had some unknown artists, compared to the rest of the industry. But for the past year, she and a couple of other employees have been scouting out trainees for a new girl group, named MIK Girlz. Like the goal of MIK, Milyeon wanted to create a "unconventional" girl group and debut them within the next year, hoping to inspire more women to embrace their flaws and insecurities, believing that they can achieve their dreams.

So when Bohyung questioned her potential trainees for MGz, Milyeon was rightfully pissed that she would question her, even though that was the whole point of the group.

"God ing damnit." The CEO said to herself minutes after dismissing Bohyung. Now second guessing herself, Milyeon looked back at a copy of her own files. Is this really how she wanted to debut her first group?

Lee Bieun, a former idol of LoveyDovey turned comedian, turned back to an idol, hopefully. She is much older than the other trainees but still has lots of experience with the idol industry, even though her former company pushed her to be a comedian rather than a musician despite training to be one. After suddenly leaving the company and all of her projects, MIK quickly signed her on to be in the upcoming girl group because they believe that Bieun could still become a successful musician and idol.

Do Yeonhui, a girl who has a wonderful voice, and who Milyeon believes she could have debuted earlier if it weren't for her lack of dance skills. Yeonhui had her right leg amputated when she was 9 due to a bicycling accident, wearing a prosthetic ever since. She started to audition for companies, only to be turned down because of her leg. Many people didn't want to accommodate for Yeonhui, but Milyeon was willing to help her out and achieve her dream.

Yang Ai had been known as a well seasoned trainee from her previous company. Even though the industry has had a lot of androgynous females, Ai's previous company couldn't find a suitable concept for her and ultimately had to let her go. Thankfully, one of the choreographers at the other company got in touch with MIK and she started to train here right away. Milyeon hopes that Ai will be a great fit in the group, even if she doesn't look like the other females.

Chu Yuji is actually someone Milyeon knows quite well, mostly because Yuji was an employee at MIK as a vocal coach a little less than a year ago. However, Milyeon had confidence that she could make a great idol, even though Yuji gave up on the idea when she fell pregnant with a baby girl, just like Milyeon. But if Milyeon could still be an idol and a mother, what's stopping Yuji from doing that as well?

Park Hayan is one of the longest trainees of MIK, starting training the same year the company was established. Like the others, Milyeon had been working hard to accommodate Hayan's deafness, as she lost her hearing in a car accident when she was 8 years old. Hayan is a great dancer, but no one wanted to take a chance on her, especially since she was mute up until she started training for MIK, as she received a hearing aid to hopefully help her get her up to speed with the other trainees.

Chieko is a trainee that Milyeon had to tiptoe around throughout her training period, because no one outside of MIK could know that Chieko was training to become an idol. Why? Chieko is also known as Princess Chieko of Setsuna in Japan, being the niece of recently appointed Emperor Naruhito. Because of her high status, the MIK employees were on high alert as to not disappoint her family, because apparently Chieko was already doing so by deciding to become an idol.

Ahn Sohee is someone Milyeon knew of, but had not properly met before. Her father, Tony Ahn of H.O.T, was also in the same situation as Milyeon, but unlike her, he chose to keep Sohee a secret from the public until it benefited him when he was charged in 2013, when he revealed that he was a father to lessen his sentence. Anyways, Sohee was scouted by MIK recently, believing that she could exceed the legacy of her father.

Savannah Nguyen was someone that MIK personally scouted, as the girl had a hilariously bad audition video that went viral for a survival show just last year. Apparently her previous company put her in the survival show to make her and the company stand out more since Savannah is Vietnamese, but it went the opposite direction, having been eliminated from the show and kicked out of her company. MIK, like always, wanted Savannah to have a second chance at being an idol.

Milyeon was confident in her choices of trainees for the new girl group, she was sure of it. It was now just a matter of having everyone else on board with this lineup. She understood that the public would have questions about the trainees, wondering whether or not they should even debut and that there's thousands of other girls who had their chance taken away by someone who fits the "unconventional" criteria by Milyeon. But in the end, it's all going to be worth it... right?

JAC SAYS FINALLY I'm done with... whatever this is. It was originally supposed to be a teaser from before the members were announced, but I couldn't find a way to wrap it up. Also, I usually write a drabble for all the members, but again, I lost motivation and time, so here is what I got for you instead; just a little introduction to them and what their deal is.
I'll make sure to slowly but surely update this story frequently, as well as a miscellaneous story that I'll have up by the end of the month. Also, a relationship blog post between the members and another story within MIK Entertainment. So yeah, a lot of stuff...
Anyways, I hope you guys like this little prologue, please let me know what you think of it!