"I want to congratulate you again on making the final line-up, ladies. Let's begin our image training before your debut, and by image training, we mean your body language and behavior during non stage performances. You guys can be as commanding or as cute as you want to be while performing, just ask your choreographer, not me. Remember, we have 4 months until your first stage, so we want a perfect debut all the way down to the interviews to your airport walking."

The staff member took a glance at the four youngsters, how haggard yet determined they all look. They were scattered across the practice room when she entered, but are now lining themselves up to greet her. She glanced at the clipboard to match the girls with the descriptions.

"Giselle, you're going to be the mysterious, cold, intellectual beauty like our infamous alumnus who shall not be named. We'll put you in scripted and non scripted environments to better--"

Jimin could hear her biracial friend sputter and tried to loudly yet silently communicate with her eyes, "Yo, are they for real?" to anyone that could catch her plea among the four of them.

Aeri is anything but mysterious. She flaunts her three languages, she knows all the memes and references as soon as they manifest, and is chronically online. What could possibly be mysterious of someone that knows every pop culture reference?

Minjeong glanced at Aeri and smirked.  Yizhuo tried her best to suppress her booming laughter with a cough as to not disrespect the staff member while Jimin gave her friend a comforting yet bittersweet smile.

"Winter, you've done well using the Seoul dialect but the team wants you to be the girl next door, a girl who every boy believes they have a chance to go on a date with, so you'll have to get used to doing aegyo and skinship with your members. This includes times when --"

Minjeong closed her eyes and whispered to herself, Lord Jesus kill me now; separate my consciousness so that I have no memory of performing such despicable acts. Because between the four girls and everyone who meanders on the fourth floor, Minjeong is cool. Minjeong minds her own business. Minjeong shows up and Minjeong produces results. The girl next door? Please, she's meant to be a superstar. What boy could possibly ever be able to keep up?

Then, as if getting a mental splash of water thrown to her face, Minjeong opened her eyes and glanced at Jimin, remembering that the girl is Catholic and praying that she's not cursing Minjeong to hell for using His name.

But what surprised her is her unnie's flushed face, gnawing on her bottom lip, and eyes downcast to the floor. Meanwhile, Yizhuo and Aeri had mischief adorned their faces and made abhorrent gestures that emulated what was supposed to be cuteness and acting demure, ignoring the quietness of the oldest.

The staff member continued reading, not sparing a glance at the girls.

"Ningning, as expected, you are the youngest so we want to see you really play the part. You're going to be the cutest maknae of all the girl group maknaes, even beating Sohee. We'll make sure of that."

Jimin, Aeri, and Minjeong nodded. They'll be sure to dote on her for the cameras.

"And as for Karina, the management team thinks your general personality is very idol-like already, so you're fine. Keep being yourself,"

"Heol," Minjeong whispered, "lucky girl."

Jimin remained still and nodded.

"And lastly ladies, no matter what happens, never get angry or depressed while on the job, unless you're asked to do it while filming."

The girls nodded, and the staff member left the practice room. Their image training starts tomorrow. They were going to alternate between individual and group image training until they debut.

Suddenly, the choreographer reentered the room to inform them they'll restart dance practice in 30 minutes and then left.

"When they said we're going to be manufactured, they really said top to bottom inside and out huh," said Aeri.

Minjeong groaned. "Can we switch? Let me be Krystal and you can be Jessica."

Yizhuo gasps. "Unnie, lower your voice. The walls can hear and the cameras can read our lips. You know we can't mention those names."

"And what? Discredit their efforts to SM's legacy? Discredit their walk so we can run?" Jimin retorted, always a defender of past kpop.

"Easy for you to say," Minjeong imitated a caricature of the staff member's voice, "'Your general personality is already so idol-like, keep being yourself' Try doing a complete 180 degrees of who you are and not letting your real quirks come to light."

"Hey! It's not that easy for us, you know!" Yizhuo spoke up, "Do you think I want to be infantalized as a 20 year old? This is just part of