CHAPTER FOUR

JULY 11TH, 2021
It's way too early in the morning for this.

6 in the morning was Girls Zone's call time for a recording of Weekly Idol, a famous idol variety interview show in Korea.

They barely had any amount of sleep after performing both 'FUN!' and '22 Century Girl' a few hours before, so the girls had to use all of their power to keep their eyes open while in the waiting room while filming their vlog, GiZo LOG.

The girls had to prepare themselves to be in "idol mode" for the filming of the show, but luckily the catering had just what they needed— for the people who weren't on diets. Seoljung had a look at all the snacks set out, pitifully going to the salad and taking some for herself due to a random diet that the company had her do since the past May. Like a rabbit, Seoljung munched on the salad as she sat back down on the couches.

"We're in the waiting room for— drumroll, please—" Angel announced.

"Dudududu~" Bonnie drummed her hands on her lap for dramatic effect.

"Weekly Idol!" Angel exclaimed to the vlog camera, something that her and Bonnie decided to do to pass time.

Seoljung looked up at the two and pressed her lips together into a tight smile. She wanted to join in with Angel and Bonnie, but was just too tired for it. Afterall, the teenage girl desperately needed her beauty sleep.

While spacing out for a couple of minutes, Seoljung once again picked up a piece of a carrot from her plate, which she then realized was not in fact a carrot but instead a pretzel. The girl looked around the room for the suspect, settling her eyes on Suryang, who was seemingly the only person who had pretzels.

Suryang, who was on a less strict diet, observed the younger girl's actions and how she only took the salad. And without bringing too much attention towards herself, Suryang sneakily gave Seoljung some extra food so she wouldn't just stick to the salad. Before Seoljung could thank her, the group got called to film Weekly Idol.

After the hosts, Z:EA's Kwanghee and Super Junior's Eunhyuk did the intro as well as introducing the girls as a guest, they wanted to see if they could remember the names of the Girls Zone members. It was all going smoothly until one member.

"Wait, I got this!" Kwanghee claimed. "Chae...?"

"Ryeong! Chaeryeong?" Eunhyuk finished his co-host's thought. The members shook their heads no.

"Chaeyeon! Lee Chaeyeon!" Kwanghee exclaimed. The girl in question, Chaerin, nervously laughed.

Oh my god, what idiots. Mandy thought, getting annoyed by the minute. "It's Chaerin." She spoke up and raised her voice. "Lee. Chae. Rin. Get it right!"

Mandy didn't care at first if it was for comedic purposes of the hosts commenting on Chaerin's sisters, but she was just getting irritated and impatient with the bit. In retaliation, Riel gave Mandy a light smack on her arm to show the younger one that she was being disrespectful to their seniors.

"Alright, sorry! Jeez." Eunhyuk replied, causing some laughs around the room. "Lee Chaerin, please introduce yourself to the viewers."

But much to both Chaerin and Mandy's dismay, it wouldn't be the last time the two hosts would do that again. Or anyone, for that matter.

The next segment after member introductions was the classic random dance play, in which the members are given a random K-POP song to dance to. It wouldn't be that hard to some idols, but when you trained for a few months and only knowing some of your labelmate's songs, it was difficult for the girls.

It was a mixture of both popular songs that everyone and their mom knew and some songs that were still relatively popular but not as popular to dance to. In return, only a couple of the girls who were well versed in dance had actually been dancing, and the hosts made sure to comment on Girls Zone's rookie performances.

"Hold on, you guys don't know 'Sorry Sorry'?!" Eunhyuk complained when only a couple of the girls danced to Super Junior's viral song while the rest awkwardly stood in the back.

"Our company didn't allow us to have enough time to practice..." Maya defended the group, hoping that her senior would understand as Super Junior is also under SM. And thankfully, he did.

"We will make sure we can do this properly next time on Weekly Idol." Riel complied.

The rest of the filming was the same as any other rookie on the program; introducing their debut album and going through each member's online profile. Nothing really more to note to say the least.

But the girls didn't leave the shoot empty handed. During the shoot, the girls participated in a competition based on their hidden talents and skills, in which they won a couple of prizes such as self care goodies, meat, and some traditional Korean snacks.

Suryang was helping the staff with the goodies that the members won, even though she fully knew that the staff would be taking all of it away due to the members' individual diets. "Hey, unnie..." A voice whispered behind Suryang, followed by a light tap on her shoulder. The older girl turned around to see Seoljung.

"Yeah?" Suryang responded in the same volume as Seoljung.

"Do you think you could give me a snack? I'm still hungry." Seoljung requested. Suryang looked around to make sure no one was looking at them. Then, she took out a cookie packet from the Korean snacks and gave it to Seoljung.

"Don't tell a soul, okay?"

JULY 17TH, 2021
Ever since their debut, the members found themselves doing the same routine every day and night for the promotions. Barely wake up, go to hair and makeup, pre-record, interviews, barely go to sleep. Repeat.

It was not uncommon for companies to overwork their idols, and SM was no exception. Even for newbies like Girls Zone, the company made sure that the members work extra hard due to their infamous amateur status. Not only that, but also to ensure that 'FUN!' would get at least one win during the month long promotion.

With great reasons, SM has been on edge, waiting for Girls Zone to grab their first couple of wins on the music shows. It has only been a little over a week, and the best the group has gotten is second place, as more well known artists have been promoting at the same time as the girls. There wasn't really a "punishment" if they didn't secure a win, it was more so of an assurance that Girls Zone would have some success over the course of the next three years.

Probably out of all the girls, Maya was in the same headspace as her company was. In her worldview, success and wealth is the only thing that matters, it makes Maya comfortable with herself and her loved ones. But unfortunately, she wasn't born into wealth, so her family had to find many ways to find success, and being an idol was Maya's way when nothing else wasn't working in her favor.

That's one of the many reasons as to why she couldn't understand how her members were actually resting when the company gave them the night off in their dorms. While the girls were, well, resting, Maya was busy looking over her latest fancams, analyzing what she was doing wrong and what she was doing right, jotting it down in her notebook.

From the living room, the members could hear Maya's fancam on full volume as well as Maya herself practicing her lines along with the video. "How much longer is unnie going to do this for?" Crystal groaned.

"Knowing Maya, probably until the end of time." Saya sarcastically responded. Maya perked up at the sound of her name, pausing the video and headed into the living room.

"Hey, I heard that! Am I the only one concerned about a music show win?" Maya interrogated, folding her arms.

"Bold of you to just assume that." Daon defended on behalf of the rest of the girls. "Just because we're actually taking a break, doesn't mean we don't care. That's how I feel, at least."

"I agree with you, unnie." Chaerin chimed in. "I care too but... now you're just making me feel bad."

Maya sighed in retaliation. "Come on, you know I didn't mean it like that. But if it makes you guys feel any better, I've actually written down some notes on index cards." The female quickly ran back into her room to get said cards. When she came back, she started going through the cards. "Now, for example, I've noticed that Suryang unn-"

"Okay! I think that's enough for tonight." Daon interrupted, not letting Maya say what she wanted to say to her fellow members. "We have to get up in a couple of hours, so it's best to get some rest now."

Maya begrudgingly agreed and handed out the cards to the respective members, as well as putting the notes on their pillows for the girls who were not present at the dorm.

Mirai was one of those said members. She was not far off from the dorms, just taking a little stroll and talking with her folks from home.

"_JYou still haven't listened to the song yet? Then what about mom– or even Mikuni?_J" The Japanese girl asked. When Mirai was accepted into SM, her family was not the most comfortable with her path after graduation. So from when she moved to Korea, it was on her to tell her family what was going on, even letting them know that Girls Zone's debut teasers and even music video had come out, since her family couldn't care less to do that research on their own. They just wanted her back in Japan to not ruin the Hirano name.

"_JSorry, Mirai._J" Hirano Kohaku, Mirai's father, stiffly responded. "_JYour mother and I are very busy these days, so we haven't been able to listen to it. And besides, do you really want to know how your brother thinks of it?_J" The father defended.

Mirai mentally rolled her eyes. Of course she doesn't care what her annoying brother thinks, but it would be nice to see how someone thinks of her accomplishments, especially from her parents. "_JI know, but it wo-_J"

The girl cut herself off when she heard a familiar ringtone from her father's work phone. She had trained herself to become quiet whenever a work phone was ringing, as her parents cared more about their work than their own children. "_JMirai, I have to take this._J" Kohaku ended the call abruptly without even a goodbye. Whatever. Mirai thought to herself, quickly heading to the dorms as it was getting late.

Mirai came back to the dorms, not expecting that the rest of the girls went to bed. She didn't mind as she was also getting ready to bed, After freshening up for bed, Mirai went to her shared room where she found a note on her pillow that said her name.

Oh great. Mirai thought to herself, skimming over what Maya wanted her to do better in her performances. She didn't pay much attention to what the older one actually wrote, because it was already getting to the point where Mirai wasn't really concerned about her performing, either way Girls Zone was still getting popular, so who cares?

Certainly not the Hirano clan.

JAC SAYS So… long time no see. I had a major writer’s block when it came to this story, and I could only muster up these two days, so if this chapter seems empty, I take full blame. But at least I finished, right? I’ll try to see if I can write the fifth chapter within the last couple months this year, if not, see you in 2023!
Also, I finally have some reasons to the member’s emoji reasons, they are not very good, but they are reasons nonetheless.

Emoji Meanings:

🌈: In Korean, jarang means 'pride' which is often associated with rainbows. The representative colors for the members are also in rainbow order.

🦄: Bonnie has a very imaginative personality, so is an unicorn. Also, one of her most well known roles was Anges in Despicable Me, in which the iconic line "IT’S SO FLUFFY I’M GONNA DIE!" was said by Anges to a stuffed unicorn.

🌼: One of Chaerin's many nicknames is Daisy because both the flower and Chaerin herself represents purity.

🐝: Maya is known to have a very busy life, so many people around her have said that she reminds them of a bee.

💫: Angel's birth name literally means angel, and honestly the emoji it's the closest thing that reminded me of a halo and I didn't want a face in the emojis.

👾: Seoljung loves all things anime, cosplay, and gaming, hence the retro game inspired monster emoji.

🐰: Similar to Chaerin's, one of Riel's nickname is bunny, so pretty self explanatory.

🪐: Mandy has a Saturn tattoo. Honestly that's all I could think of when it came to looking for an emoji for her.

🎀: Mia is a wealthy person thanks to her parents, and bows are often associated with high-profile people.

☁️: Suryang's English name is PomPom, which looks similar to clouds. Also, her stage name has to due something with rain, which comes from clouds.