CHAPTER FIVE

JULY 19TH, 2021
Despite Maya's best efforts, Girls Zone still haven't gotten their first win. The promotions were nearing the halfway point with a trophy just an arms reach away. Their popularity hadn't changed that much since debut, but they were only known to the public because of the company that they were under. If it was a less popular company, nobody would have made a peep about them.

But, they still have about a week left before the promotions end. Thus, a week left to secure a win. Hopefully.

As always, the nine girls were scrambling to get to schedules upon schedules. And this time it was a radio show called Young Street hosted by non other than Red Velvet's Wendy, yet another one of Girls Zone's labemates.

Speaking of Maya, not only was she nervous about the halfway point of promotions, but also meeting the one and only Wendy Son. Even when Girls Zone stepped out of the car and set foot into the building, Maya had been going over in her head how to appropriately act around her senior.

While navigating through the building and into the radio room, the girl saw the top of Wendy's head and was already mentally and most likely physically freaking out. Wow, she's so pretty in person. Maya thought to herself.

"Unnie, do you know Wendy-sunbae?" The curious Bonnie asked Riel, who made a habit of asking the leader if she knew any famous person that the girls had met.

"Kind of..." Riel responded. "Just a few talks here and there." Maya lit up when Riel and Bonnie were talking about Wendy, and she wanted to get in the conversation as well.

"Really?" Maya chimed in. "What's she like in person?" While the three were talking about the Red Velvet member, Mia stood quietly to the side, listening in on the conversation.

Mia was happy for Maya finally meeting her idol, but not that happy. As much as anything, Mia almost resented the older girl for it, because she never got to meet her idol: TXT's Soobin. It's a fair bet that she had met Soobin, but not in the proper way that she was hoping for. Angel, Mandy, and Bonnie already did that for her on the day of their debut. It was another thing that Mia stacked on the "Why I Don't Like Angel" list Mia made in her head.

On a slightly lighter note, the girls were called to the recording studio to do the radio show. It was nerve wracking for not only Maya, but Wendy too as it would be the second and first proper episode of her radio show. After Wendy had done her usual intro of the show, it was time for her to introduce Girls Zone.

"Our next guest is already taking the K-POP industry by storm, just under a month after their debut!" Wendy announced. "Please give a huge and warm welcome to Girls Zone!"

"In the zone! Hello, we are Girls Zone!" The aforementioned girls introduced themselves. Directly after introducing themselves individually, Riel wanted to mention about Maya's idol.

When Wendy asked how they feel after their debut, Riel was the first to answer. "For me, at least, it's like a weight has been lifted off my chest." Riel replied. "But I know for a fact that the rest of the girls have been excited about meeting the idols they look up to. For example, Maya really looks up to you."

Maya's pale skin turned to a shade of her favorite fruit at the mention of her name. "Oh, is that so?" Wendy curiously asked, looking at the girl in question.

Seeing how she didn't want to embarrass herself in front of her senior quite yet, Maya quietly cleared and pushed all of her emotions aside for now. "Yes, that is right!" Maya proclaimed. "As Riel-unnie said, I do look up to you."

"Well, I'm very flattered!" Wendy responded.

Fast forward to thirty minutes or so, the topic of the first win on a music show came up.

"I have to ask..." Wendy began. "Have you guys made any plans if you get your first win of this round of promotions?"

The room fell silent with the older girl's question. In truth, none of the members have thought of the "first win promises" to their fans if the win ever came. They just wanted see how things goes — which is apparently Girls Zone's motto as of late.

"Uh, well..." An unsure Angel began. "We haven't talked about our plans if we get a first win yet. I guess it wasn't really at the front of our minds until now."

"Ok, no worries! Why don't we think of some now?" Wendy suggested. "Maybe write it down on some sticky notes?" The girls agreed to Wendy's idea and started to write some first win plans.

The girls took some time to write their plans down, but the oldest of the group was just starting at the blank sticky note. Suryang couldn't think of anything as a first win promise. Not to be too corny, but what else would Suryang want from a win?

She tried to write down some things, but instead crossed ideas out. In the end, Suryang just wrote some random promises. She knew it wasn't going to be pick anyways, let alone a first win.

"Alright, let's see what we have here..." Wendy announced, going through the notes. "First of these is Suryang's, and it says 'Bungee jumping' followed by 'dot dot dot' and a 'question mark'?"

JULY 24TH, 2021
For the past couple of months since all the members got together, Daon has been trying ways to get to know her members better. And with nearly half of the members not being that fluent in Korean, it has been hard for her to communicate with them. So, Daon is trying to come up with creative ways to communicate with both the native and foreign members of the group, whether it be verbally or socially. And luckily, she does have some help from a friend of hers.

"You can't just expect everyone to get along right off the bat, Daon." A male voice spoke through the phone. "It has to take time."

"I know..." Daon responded with a sigh. "But I barely know them and I can't really fluently communicate with most of them, either." She continued. "It's just feels like I'm constantly around strangers and I can't do anything about it without looking like a jerk."

Meanwhile, the oldest four girls had been livestreaming for the night, until realizing they had been missing their leader. They sent the youngest out of the mini group, Chaerin, to fetch Daon.

"Riel-unnie, you're needed!" Chaerin exclaimed, knocking on the older one's room.

"Just one second!" Daon shouted. "I have to go, talk later?" Daon said into the phone, closing up her conversation with Jung Sungchan, the male who was on the other end of the line.

Chaerin tried not to be as nosy as she is, but was curious as to why Daon was not available in the first place. As a result, Chaerin had caught on to who Daon was talking with through the thin door. Chaerin could tell that Daon was talking to a male friend, which honestly worried her a little bit. Chaerin knew that dating was forbidden for now, especially this early on in their careers. Yet, she couldn't help wondering if Daon was dating, but it's none of her business at the end of the day, and decided not to pry in her love life.

Finally, Daon exited from her room and met up with Chaerin to join the other girls in the livestream. And while Chaerin didn't put much thought into Daon and this mystery boy, she did think about dating and how convoluted it would be if she would to start dating, and even more so if Chaerin would date a girl.

Chaerin brushed aside that last thought, coming to the conclusion that she shouldn't be so hard on herself being in the closet as a biual woman. She knows that she is proud of that part of her but acknowledges that most people aren't.

The older girls finished up the livestream swiftly with Daon and were getting ready for bed. Chaerin's mind is still on the topic of biuality. She honestly wanted to talk to someone about it, and the only person who came to mind was Miranda. However, there's one small reason why Chaerin is against that idea: she is highly intimidated by the younger girl.

But she found herself hovering outside of Miranda's room, wanting to speak with Miranda, but at the same time hide away forever. Just as she was about to knock, Miranda had already opened the door to finish the rest of her night routine, only to find a somewhat anxious Chaerin.

"…Can I help you?" Miranda cautiously asked, surprised to see Chaerin. "Um, hello?"

Chaerin, who was also surprised by the sudden appearance of Miranda, just stood there for a few moments before barely speaking. "I, uh… nevermind." Chaerin stuttered and quickly went into her room, leaving Miranda alone in the hallway, confused by what just took place.

JULY 30TH, 2021
Girls Zone was about to finish what felt like a year of their debut promotions, despite it only being a month. In fact, today was their official last day of promotions.

What to do after today? That's a question to go unanswered. But for now, the members are at their last music show program, and as per usual, way too early in the morning. The girls were waiting in, well, the waiting room for their final performance of this promotion run.

Seoljung stared blankly at her computer screen. She was trying to finish up her online class homework, something that was set up between her parents and the company because they still wanted her to receive an education. Seoljung was just finishing up her second year of secondary school, but it was hard to do, on top of training and all. She and Bonnie were the only members still in school, with Bonnie attending a performing arts high school, in which Seoljung was also expected to attend in the near future. But for now, Seoljung is just taking classes online through her school back in Singapore.

Thankfully, however, the two youngest had the support of their members to help them through school, even through the broken language barriers. Maya was one of the main members who helped them since she was considered one of the smartest in the group.

"Crystal. Homework." Maya commanded, noticing that Seoljung's mind was wandering off elsewhere. Seoljung snapped out of her head, quickly apologizing and returning to her work. However, Seoljung couldn't focus on her school work for the life of her. She wanted to do anything else that didn't involve studying for random exams that she would most likely not remember or apply to in her personal life.

And just as she was about to actually finish her homework, Girls Zone was called for a last performance of FUN! She let out a small sigh, getting up to join the rest of the members to do just that.

The rest of the girls were just as tense as Seoljung was, just for massively different reasons. Angel, for instance, was thinking about her estranged family and how they would feel if they saw how much more comfortable she was in Girls Zone.

This has been something that has been weighing on her in the back of her mind ever since she left Tongyeong just over six months ago. Through the course of her idol career so far, Angel observed the backseat support from her member's families. They were happy that their daughters were pursuing their dreams, even if it was a last minute change for many of them. Angel, however, was left in the dark. It was even more difficult for her today, as she watched her members get calls from their loved ones, congratulating them for completing their debut promotions.

The girls had finally finished their last stage with little to no issues. The staff had surprised them with flowers and cookies waiting for them back in their green room.

"Finally, we are done!" Bonnie exclaimed with a sigh of relief, running over to the cookies with Seoljung.

"With this round of promotions, at least." Maya reminded her. "I wouldn't be surprised if they throw us into another schedule really soon." Bonnie pouted in retaliation.

Riel glanced over at the staff, seeing if they would say anything about Maya's last statement. Suryang noticed the leader's body language, wondering if the staff had something planned for them, and if Riel was in on the plan. She shook if off for now, wanting to celebrate the debut promotions to be over.

Riel looked back at the Girls Zone members celebrating. She smiled at them, just happy that she had finally made it.

JAC SAYS Please ignore the fact that this took a year to write. I've been working on it on and off for the past months, but it's been random bursts of motivation and frustration. I at least wanted to wrap up the debut promotions in this chapter, and I know the timeline seems sporadic with the blocks being a week or so in between, I'm still trying to figure out how I want to go about it, so please enjoy these random dates in the meantime.
I still don't know if anyone is still actually interested in the story of Girls Zone, I know that majority of the creators of the members have either left the website or just haven't gotten around to log back in, so the hope of getting to finishing the story is slowly dying down. Following this, I would still like to continue the story and perhaps even write it till the end of their contract, so if I ever do get to it, the time frames will most likely span within a month or so.