CHAPTER TWO

MAY 7TH, 2021
Seonye let herself have about a half an hour of peace and quiet before arriving at the destination and begrudgingly letting herself wake Girls Zone up once they arrived. And when they all did wake up, Seonye finally got to finish her sentence from thirty minutes ago.

"Alright," Seonye began to debrief the girls for their next schedule. "since this is Girls Zone's first official appearance, remember to be upbeat and engage with the interviewer. It's very important to make a good first impression, right?" The members nodded and they went into the building for their first photoshoot and interview as Girls Zone for SM's artist profile.

Immediately, they were rushed by staff to hair, makeup, and styling without a second thought. Quickly, it was made clear to the members that the staff wanted to get this done and over with fast.

One by one, the girls went into a solo photoshoot and interview. The first member to do so was Bonnie. Having done this before, Bonnie thought she wasn't going to be nervous, but she did.

While Bonnie was playing with her clothes as she anxiously waited for her name to be called, Chaerin noticed the younger one looking nervous. Having a younger sister nearly the same age as Bonnie, Chaerin felt a sense of urgency to care for her. Chaerin made her way to Bonnie to comfort her.

"Hey, Bonnie, are you doing alright?" Chaerin asked her carefully as she still wasn't sure how fluent Bonnie was in Korean. Bonnie took a few seconds to respond as she was mentally translating in her head.

"Yeah, a little... worry?" Bonnie shrugged, unsure of if her feelings translated into Korean. Chaerin understandably nodded, everyone was nervous, even herself. As the time was getting nearer to the first interview, Chaerin had to come up with a plan to help Bonnie.

"Well, would it feel better if I go first?" Chaerin suggested as she was supposed to go after Bonnie. Bonnie swiftly nodded, allowing Chaerin to go before her when Bonnie's name was originally called.

And surprisingly, after seeing Chaerin do her interview, it made Bonnie feel more comfortable and less nervous with hers when her name was called. After Chaerin and Bonnie's turn, next up was Maya.

Unlike Bonnie, Maya wasn't really nervous for her first interview— she was just frantic. Maya prepared for the interview the second the girls were informed about it, jotting down questions and answers about anything and everything she could think of. Maya reviewed the things in her notebook once again as Bonnie was finishing up her interview.

"Mirai, can you please pass me a water bottle? Mirai? Mia!" Angel called out to the younger girl, who was seemingly not paying attention to her. Mia had already decided for herself that she would give somewhat of a silent treatment to Angel for taking her line away. Was it petty? Yes. Did Mia care? Absolutely not.

Mandy watched whatever interaction that was from aside, mentally rolling her eyes as it just reminded her of the petty high school drama she used to cause. But still, Mandy wanted to show how rude Mia was being to Angel for something small like almost a five second part in a 3 minute song, so Mandy got up and reached over Mia to get a water bottle to give to Angel, something that Mia could have avoided if she listened to anyone but herself. Mandy went back to her seat and looked over at leader Riel, maybe she could do something about Angel and Mia.

Riel, however, did not pay much attention to Angel and Mia's quarrel; that was a problem for another day. She wasn't even paying attention to Bonnie and Seoljung being loud in the background with the help of Suryang and Chaerin. Instead, she wanted to focus on herself first and foremost.

For seven years, Riel has been working tirelessly to debut. And every time an opportunity presented itself, it either fell through or SM didn't want Riel. Until now, even if Girls Zone wouldn't last as long as she's been training, but she couldn't pass up this opportunity, and now that Riel is finally debuting, she doesn't want anyone or anything let her shy away from finally standing on stage.

About a half hour later, it was time for the interview and photoshoot of all nine members. Being the leader of the group, Riel had to mentally prepare herself on how to properly introduce and present Girls Zone as a whole.

As soon as the interviewer asked the group to introduce themselves as Girls Zone, Riel took a deep breath and started off the group introduction. "1, 2, 3..."

"In the Zone! Hello, we are Girls Zone!"

Girls Zone's Official Profile Pictures

 
        

MAY 14TH, 2021
The nine members of Girls Zone had been working tirelessly practicing not only their debut song, 'FUN!' but also ‘22 Century Girl'. Nearly every second of the day was taken up by the same routines: vocal practice, dance practice, some media training, and a little bit of Korean lessons for the foreign members. But for now, Girls Zone was hard at work practicing for their debut song at SM's dance studio.

Tubtim observed the three younger members' antics while the dance trainers observed Saya, Maya, and Miranda's dancing. Sure, the youngest ones had a little break, but wouldn't it be better if they spent the break practicing rather than just hanging out?

But Mirai couldn't care less, after all, the three girls were practicing what was supposed to be her part. And yes, Mirai was still salty about it to the point where she hasn't talked to Saya as much as she used to since recording the song, which wasn't that often in the first place. In other words, Mirai was giving Saya the silent treatment.

Still, Saya was fully aware that the younger one was playing some sort of game with her. And even though she knew that Mirai was overreacting, Saya wanted some of the fun for herself. She then remembered what life was like before Girls Zone got together, when they were individually training on their own. Saya recalled how Mirai had a posse of other trainees to protect her, and when the month of May came around, Mirai dropped them off the face of earth, acting like the trainees never even existed in the first place. Saya worked this chunk of information in her head, seeing how she could use this to her advantage.

"You know, you should probably practice as well, unless you want someone else to practice for you." Saya mentioned it to Mirai about an hour later, after the trainer let the girls have a break. "It would really help the group in the long run." Mirai just stared at the older one for a moment before scoffing and walking away, rejoining Bonnie and Crystal.

Daon noticed Saya's try at getting to know Mirai other than just out of friendliness, so the leader decided that it was best to step into whatever feud the two had with each other. She waited until the group was back at the dorm to say something, trying to avoid making too big of a scene at the company.

"Is this how you really want to debut?" Daon asked Saya, pulling her into her and Miranda's bedroom immediately when the group came back home.

Saya had been surprised by Daon's sudden confirmation. "I have no idea what are you even talking about." Saya replied in an innocent tone, albeit they both knew that Saya wasn't telling the truth; she knew exactly what Daon was talking about.

"Yes, you do. Don't play dumb." Daon responded. "You and Mia have to talk this 'line-stealing' thing out rather than playing dumb games for little to no reward." Daon had seen this sort of behavior before all too well with other trainees: being petty just because they didn't get what they wanted.

As the conversation got longer and slightly louder, Bonnie and Crystal caught wind of this through the main room. And soon enough, the rest of the girls joined in, excluding Maya who was taking extra time to practice back at the studio. But nonetheless, the girls were curious as what they were arguing about.

"_THTubtim-phi, what exactly are they talking about? Is one of us in trouble?_TH" Bonnie wondered out loud to Tubtim since she fully didn't understand the girls' muffling in between the walls.

"_THI don't really know.TH" Tubtim shrugged. "THAnd you shouldn't either._TH" She added, exiting out of the living room and into the kitchen since she deemed the conversation not worth her time nor does not concern her, so why bother in the first place?

Even with the ruckus that they heard from outside of the room, Daon and Saya carried on with their talk. "Hey, it's not my fault! Mia started it. And for what, just because she couldn't rap that verse?" Saya scoffed, sitting down on Miranda's bed. "The producer was in over her head to originally assigned the verse to Mia anyway."

"And you haven't talked to her about it, have you?" Daon asked. There was a moment of silence that Saya gave the older one, just enough time for Daon to be able to figure it out. "Oh, come on!" Daon groaned, leaning back against the wall in frustration. "You know what? We're going to settle this out. Right now." Daon walked into the main room, causing the rest of the girls to fumble around like they weren't hearing what was going on. But Daon didn't really mind, she was busy going to the second room to get Mirai.

Mirai was honestly the only person who didn't fully know what was going on because she was in her room for the majority of the time, tuning everything out, but she quickly figured it out when Daon brought her into the room to face Saya. When Daon and Mirai entered the room, it was like the atmosphere fell down a couple of thousand levels from the tension between the two rappers.

"You know," Daon started, trying to cut the tension. "whatever quarrel you guys have, it's going to be forgotten in, like, a month." Daon leaned against the door to make sure nobody chickened their way out of the situation. "So, we're going to talk this out like adults, okay?" Folding her arms, the leader waited for either of the younger two to speak up and apologize to the other.

Of course, it became quiet, even throughout the dorm as the other members were worried as to what was going on in the room, but still trying to continue on with their day as if normal. But after a few minutes of silence, it was Saya who decided to speak first. Although, both Saya and Mirai knew deep down that neither of them were completely innocent in this situation but none of them actually wanted to actually admit it, but Saya wanted to be the bigger and mature person.

"Alright, fine." Saya began, getting up from the bed to begrudgingly face Mirai. She took another moment to recollect her thoughts and map out in her head as to what she was going to say. She cleared and began. "Sorry for the petty comments that I made earlier, I guess we all have just been on edge these past couple of weeks." Except, Saya wasn't sorry, she wasn't even in a bad mood the past couple weeks, she just wanted to get this done and move on with the day. Mirai knew this about Saya, but she couldn't be outdone by her. Mirai wanted to get the last word.

"Don't worry, I understand." Mirai responded with a forced smile. "I've been worked up these days as well, so pretty much that the verse being given to you was just the thing that pushed me over the edge. Sorry." Mirai looked at Daon for some reassurance, and Daon gave them a quiet nod to indicate that she was satisfied with their apologies.

Of course, Daon wasn't a hundred percent satisfied, but she was satisfied enough to forget about it in a few weeks and something that wouldn't carry on well into their career as a group. And with this, Daon finally let the girls go.

"Is it done now?" Chaerin whispered loudly over to Miranda, who seemingly wasn't paying attention to the fullest in the first place.

"I dunno." Miranda just shrugged in response. "Hopefully it is over, otherwise I'll just have to sleep on the couch tonight."

"Is what over?" A voice questioned Chaerin and Miranda. The two girls looked up to see Maya, who had just come home from the studio. "What's going on?"

"Saya-unnie and Mia-unnie are fighting, that is what's going on!" Crystal exclaimed, sitting on the couch next to Miranda. "They've been locked up in Daon-unnie and Miranda-unnie's room for like, more than a hour."

"Not anymore!" Daon announced as she opened the bedroom door and let Saya and Mirai out. And while the girls were getting a little speech by the leader about upcoming quarrels before their debut, Saya and Mirai glanced over at each other.

It wasn't over.

MAY 31ST, 2021
Being an impressionable young girl, Seoljung has always found the idol life intriguing. Especially the process of creating music and music videos, so Seoljung was looking forward to filming a music video. However, she did not expect it to take hours filming only for a three minute song.

Not only that, but the group had to wake up extremely early in the morning as the shoot would be an all day affair, which Seoljung was not a fan of. But she would give up just about anything to be an idol, right?

"Why so many outfit changes?" Seoljung groaned out loud after the girls walked onto the set with their third outfit of the day to dance in. "Are they even going to use this shot?"

Suryang, who was just next to Seoljung, turned to the youngest and patted her head. "It's all going to be worth it in the end, alright?" Suryang encouraged Seoljung.

Of course, that's what Suryang had to remind others and herself to not lose motivation. After all, that's what kept Suryang going on as opposed to just running away from it all.

"Will it, though?" Seoljung questioned Suryang. Before Suryang could respond, the staff announced that the cameras would be rolling very shortly. Not only the cameras for the music video, but behind the scenes cameras as well. Due to this, the girls had to be on their best behavior.

As the day of filming was winding down, the day got less fun and energetic as there was little to no things to film. The only thing left to shoot was yet another group shot.

The members got into their final outfit and makeup for the day and got to the last set. However, only three out of the nine members managed to actually get onto set: Maya, Chaerin, and Mia.

While the staff tried their best to keep the three from looking for the rest of the members, the six other girls have been scrambling to actually get to them.

The members wanted to surprise Maya, Chaerin, and Mia with a cake as their birthdays are somewhat close together, so they asked the staff if they could do something for the three girls, and the staff said they could.

The final group shot was just a ruse to get the three girls away so the remaining members could get the cake and candles set up. The six members came onto set, with Riel carrying the cake with three lit candles. Everyone but the birthday girls started singing.

Maya, Chaerin, and Mia picked up what was going on and became ecstatic. Maya's birthday was a few days ago, but she unfortunately couldn't properly celebrate due to the demanding schedules. Chaerin's birthday is in just a couple of days, but after seeing Maya's, Chaerin expected the same outcome. And as for Mia's birthday which was a week or so away, she obviously expected a huge celebration for her special day as she will turn 18 years old, but this will do.

After the song finished, the girls blew out the candles. As the flames went out and the room filled with cheering, Maya removed the candles to inspect the cake: a simple vanilla cake with the words "Happy Birthday" written in English. Maya almost burst into tears, immediately recognizing her mother's handwriting on the cake.

"Is this... from the bakery? My family's bakery?" Maya uttered in disbelief.

"Yes, it is!" Angel assured Maya. "I remember you mentioning that your family owned a bakery, so I asked the staff if it would be possible to get a cake from Jeon's Bakery. They got it earlier today."

Angel gestured over to the staff who went to Sokcho, and Maya promptly went over and repeatedly thanked them. "Thank you for supporting my family!" Maya exclaimed, bowing over and over for their gratitude.

On the ride back to the dorm, Maya tightly held onto the leftover cake and wondered how the bakery was doing since she left for Seoul. She tried to think positive thoughts about it, how the bakery was doing fine to stay afloat, but she couldn't help herself and thought: what if it wasn't? What if this was the first sale in weeks?

Maya mentally shook those thoughts out of her head. She can't think this way, not here, not now, not ever. Otherwise, it will come true somehow, and that's her worst nightmare.

Arriving at the dorms, Maya ran into the kitchen to store the leftover cake. She doesn't know how long until she'll get to taste her family's baking again, so it would be best to savor every last bite of it.

JAC SAYS Ahh finally finished! Ever since the first chapter was posted, I've just had bursts of inspiration for Girls Zone, something that I never really had previously with writing fics if I'm being completely honest. So, I tried to put all my energy into Girls Zone for now, and hopefully it shows.
Speaking of which, not only am I putting my energy into this main story, but also the miscellaneous story as well. I have a few things planned for the other story, so please keep an eye out for that. And also, I'm still working on some sort of Google Forms so you can also contribute if you'd like to, but it's currently in the early stages but will hopefully be up this month.
But as always, please let me know what you think. I'm still trying to figure out the pacing of the story, especially for the first few chapters before the girls' debut, so that's probably why this chapter is so spaced out in particular. And again, it maybe like that for the next couple of chapters as I try to figure out some stuff pertaining to the writing style, so bear with me.
I really don't know how to close off tidbits well, so I'll just say bye. Bye!