Whispers of a new group debuting in the next few months had been circling the company for a few weeks now. Minjeong should have been excited but she took the news with a grain of salt.

Debut? Surely not when there’s a pandemic going on.

She had been a trainee for about four years now - one of the selected few who had been scouted. Everyone thinks she’s had it easy but it was truly a different world inside the company. The days were long but the nights were longer. There were so many other trainees (a lot of them extremely talented) it was hard to tell who would make the cut. Maybe they all will. Maybe the only question was when.

But, again, surely not now when that pesky (deadly) virus was still around.

Minjeong never really doubted herself or her talents; she was aware of what she can and could not do (which wasn’t a lot.) But, lately, she had been thinking if the idol life was really meant for her.

She missed home. And now that the world was going through something as uncertain as a pandemic, she missed it even more.

“Hey!” a girl whispered in her ear, circling an arm around her; she almost choked on the noodles she was eating. She just glared at the girl. She had a mask on but Minjeong could tell she was smiling.

“I heard something a while ago…” the girl started.

“Yeah?”

“Guess?”

Minjeong rolled her eyes. “They’re letting us off early today?”

“No…” the girl said, taken aback. “That would be nice though,” she added after a beat.

“Then what is it?”

“You heard about the rumors going around?”

Minjeong nodded.

“It’s us!” the girls whispered, excitedly.

“I’ll believe it when it happens, Jimin,” Minjeong scoffed.

“No, really! It’s us!”

“Really? You and me?”

“And two other girls.”

Minjeong sighed.

Great. Juuust great!

“Aren’t you the least bit excited?” Jimin asked, clearly disappointed with Minjeong’s less-than-enthusiastic response.

“Like I said, I’ll believe it when it happens,” Minjeong said, returning to her noodles.

“It will. Trust me.”

Minjeong shrugged. “I don’t really care anymore, Jimin. I was actually thinking of quitting.”

“WHAT?!”

Minjeong just stared at Jimin as silence surrounded them. She did not expect her to have such a violent reaction. She looked around and bowed to the other people in apology. “Will you keep it down!”

“We’ve come this far, Minjeong-ah!”

Yeah, but at what cost? she wanted to say but she just shrugged again.

 

 

Minjeong could feel the soft, sheer fabric of her blue dress sticking to the cold sweat on her skin.

“Are you feeling all right?” Aeri asked, placing a hand on Minjeong’s forehead.

Minjeong had been feeling queasy since waking up this morning (at 3am - an ungodly hour!) and she was growing paler by the hour.

“Are you sure you can still finish training for today?” Aeri added, sounding concerned. She had on a dress with the same color and fabric that Minjeong was wearing - the company insisted on some sort of “dress rehearsal” for today, causing even more rumors to float around.

Minjeong only nodded but winced at the slight movement of her head. She also felt herself burning up. She’d rejoice if only she wasn’t feeling so awful: getting sick could only mean one thing - getting sent home.

Aeri shook her head. “Nah, go lay down for a bit,” she said, pointing at the couch at the end of the practice room.

Minjeong obliged: she was really feeling off today and she didn’t want her Aeri-unnie to cause a scene.

She slowly walked over to the couch; slight shivering. She rubbed her arms with her hands before lying down.

The last thing she saw before her eyes closed were the worried eyes of another trainee in a blue dress. Jimin.

 

 

Minjeong woke up but she did not open her eyes immediately. She stretched in place then stopped - realizing how silent the room was. No music; no chatter. Just eerie silence.

She opened her eyes. The room was bright but she saw nothing else but her reflection in the huge mirror on one side of the practice room.

“Unnie?” Her voice came out raspy. She cleared and tried again, louder. “Aeri-unnie?Jimin?”

When she received no response, she stood up slowly and headed to the door, which was slightly ajar.

She stuck her head out and yelped when something (or someone) dashed past her.

“HEY!”

“I’m sorry, miss. But I’m running very late,” a girl, clad in all white from head to toe, replied.

Irene-unnie?

“Why are you dressed like that? Where are you going?” Minjeong asked, looking very confused. “And where is everyone?”

“Sorry. Can’t talk! Running late!” the girl replied, still scurrying across the hallway to the stairs, holding down her hat lest it flew away from all her scurrying.

Minjeong rolled her eyes and followed her instead.

“What could she possibly be so late for at this hour?” she mumbled under her breath as she ran after her, trying not to lose sight of her.

She caught her rushing out of the main doors of the building. She was tired but she couldn’t stop now lest she loses her. She rushed out the doors and almost tripped when she suddenly stopped running; dumbfounded at what she saw: a vast field of green grass and the clearest, bluest sky she had ever seen - a stark contrast from the roads, cars and buildings they usually saw when they left the company after practice hours.

She saw Irene still sprinting like her life depended on it.

Could I be dreaming?

Minjeong took a deep breath before running after her again. She had to if she wanted answers.

 

 

Minjeong's legs were sore. She felt like she had been running for hours. She wondered how Irenewas still at it; not even stopping once.

She heaved a sigh of relief when she saw her crouch at something on the ground.

“Finally caught up to you!" she exclaimed, between breaths.

“Still can’t talk. Running late. Sorry!” Irene said before jumping into the abyss that Minjeong had not noticed until Irene disappeared from plain sight.

“Hey!”

What the f…

Minjeong hesitated for a bit. She looked around and realized she had no other choice.

She jumped in.

 

 

She’s falling, falling, falling…

Down, down, down…

She screamed as she watched the light above her disappear until she was surrounded by total darkness.

Was this a sinkhole? An underground tunnel? Perhaps a rabbit hole? Surely this was too big to become a grave for her.

She screamed louder and flailed her arms and legs, trying to make sense of everything.

Then her breath hitched and she felt starting to tire so she took a break from her screaming.

She realized she’s still falling.

Down, down, down…

“This is a really long fall,” she muttered, absentmindedly, her tone bordering on boredom. This had been going on for a few minutes already and she was more concerned how much longer (or further) she’d fall rather than how hard the end would be.

Suddenly, something caught her eye: shelves upon shelves pressed against the walls. Vinyl records, posters and lights blurred into vision as she fell. A floating microphone was falling next to her on her right and as she glanced to her left, scattered pieces of concert tickets danced by her side. Leaning forward, Minjeong balanced herself and grabbed what appeared to be a light stick of a group she wasn’t familiar with. “Like an aurora borealis,” she noted impressively, looking at the light emanating from the light stick, as she carefully placed it back on one of the shelves.

“It’s been awhile,” Minjeong said out loud to no one in particular (she was not even sure if there was anyone to hear her.) “I wonder if anyone’s noticed I’ve gone. Aeri-unnie is probably hysterical and the whole company would surely be trying to contact the police by now. How embarrassing!” she thought. “I haven’t even debuted yet and I’ll already be known as the trainee who has the whole SWAT team searching for her!” she huffed.

“But no one’s ever going to find me! Who would think to look in this hole?!”

Minjeong’s monologue was shattered as her feet hit the floor. Surprisingly, she found herself not in the least bit hurt.

Squinting, she makes out a dark tunnel before her, and there, shimmering distinctively against the blackness was the girl in the white ensemble rushing through the hall.

“Wait!” she yelled after her. She found herself stumbling carelessly with her hands outstretched, trying to avoid causing any accidents.

“It’s getting so late!” the girl squeaked, paying no mind to Minjeong’s calls as she ran even faster.

“Wait! Please stop!” she begged. But as she turned the corner, the girl disappeared.

She found herself in a very different hallway with a row of colorful lamps hanging from the ceiling. She was surrounded by doors in every imaginable shape, size and color, tilted at all sorts of angles.

Biting her lip, she approached the nearest door, reaching out to turn the knob. It didn’t budge. She tried again with the other lower doors, figuring that Irene could have not reached the higher ones but none of them were so kind to open to her.

Just as she was about to start her second round, she noticed a red velvet curtain that she was sure she had not seen earlier. She gingerly lifted it up and saw that there was a wooden door behind it. Minjeong stood once more and as she rose, her heel struck against the leg of a table which had also certainly not been there before.

She let out a little gasp as she took a few steps back, but a sparkling trinket caught her eye: a key! She hastily snatched it then returned to the door behind the velvet curtain.

“Yes!” she exclaimed triumphantly as the door opened with ease. However, as