You have dreams right? I mean everyone has a dream as a kid, but have you ever had a goal that you worked towards even though it was a slim chance just because deep inside you knew that you would accomplish one day? I think every little girl at one point or another in her life has dreamed about being a star. Hell, a lot of teenage girls and adult women dream about being stars. Actors, singer, dancers, it’s all the same. People work hard their entire lives and don’t hit the big time, it’s a tough market out there, but there are still people who will risk everything to reach their dream of stardom.

Let me introduce myself. My name is Minami Sakura Kim. As you’ve probably guessed, I’m Asian. My mother is Japanese and my father is Korean. We live on a small island south of Japan called Okinawa. If you don’t know, it’s a part of Japan, just not attached to it. Yes, I want to be a star. To most it sounds naïve to want to be a star or any sort. It’s a tough road and most aren’t strong enough for it, and there are those who are strong enough, but don’t make it anyway. Through everything, I’ve never given up my dream of being a singer. I have been training my entire life. “What kind of training?” You may ask. Well, I try to keep myself well-rounded; I do a bit of everything. Doing musicals, acting in plays, cheerleading, dancing are some of the things that I call ‘training’. Because I live so far away from the mainland, I’ve never been able to formally audition for any big record labels. However, this time is different.

About three months ago, my favorite record label was taking resumes of aspiring pop stars, so of course, I sent one in. Now, three months later, I’m in Seoul after receiving a reply telling me to head up to there for a formal audition against around 1000 other people. I’ve been to Seoul before, many times, but it never seemed to sparkle as much as it did now. Even the polluted air of the crowded city smelled sweet.

I waited for hours inside the building with the other contestants. Like you would expect, we had numbers. My number was 327; it sounds like a big number, but I was grateful for not even being past 500 of the 1000 other contestants. It was unlike me to sit there quietly, so I attempted to talk to some the other contestants, which were mostly girls. After getting ignored and rejected by different people, I started talking to a small girl. She was sitting by herself. I sat down next to her.

“Hi, my name is Minami.” I said to her.

She bowed her head and replied. “Hello, my name is Tanaka Shuri, but I don’t speak very much Korean.” She said to me in Korean.

Oops, I forgot I was in Japan. I grew up speaking both Japanese and Korean, so I am fluent. Sometimes when I’m not paying attention, I slip up. Also, I learned English in primary school, but I only know a little bit.

“Oh, sorry” I said to her in Japanese.

“You speak Japanese?” She asked.

“Yes, I speak Japanese, Korean, and a little bit of English, what about you?”

“I am only fluent in Japanese, but I know a little bit of English and Korean.”

            We continued our conversation in Japanese until it was time for her to go. She was number 294, which meant that I was going to be going within the next half hour. I waited patiently, talking to other people. Although the entire time I was telling myself that I was ready, when my number was called, I felt the urge to hide or run away, but I’d been through too much to run now. I followed the woman to a room. It had mirror walls and a wooden floor, so it must be a dance room. The judges sat behind a black table; there were four of them, all male and one female.

“State your name.” The oldest looking male said.

“私のお名前はキム美波です。” (My name is Minami Kim) I said in Japanese.

He nodded his head. “It says here that you speak both Korean and Japanese.” He said in Korean, reading from his clipboard. It surprised me when he replied in Korean.

“예” (Yes) I replied.

“연세가 어떻게 되시죠?” (How old are you?) He asked in Korean.

“18” I replied.

“あなたの誕生日はいつですか？”(When is your birthday?)

 

“私の二月二十六日です。” (My birthday is February 11^th.)

 

Don’t they have all this information on my resume? I thought.

 

“Sorry, we were just testing to make sure that you weren’t lying about speaking both languages. It’s happened before.” The other male judge said.

 

“What song will you be singing for us today, dear?” The female judge asked.

 

“I thought it would be a good idea to sing an excerpt of three songs. Since Diamond Entertainment prides itself on producing music in Japanese, Korean, and English, which are all languages that I speak, I would like to sing three parts of different songs if that’s okay.”

 

They all nodded their heads.

 

            The first song was Korean, ‘Virus’ by BEAST. Next, I sang a Japanese song by BIGBANG, 声をきかせて (Koe wo Kikasete). Lastly, I sang a part of ‘Don’t Wanna Try’ by Frankie J.

 

            When I was finished, I stood there with my hands at both sides and waited for one of them to speak. Finally, the other male judge spoke.

 

“Just to confirm what’s on your resume, we’re going to ask you some questions.”

 

I nodded my head.

“What are your nicknames?”

 

“Cherry, Nami, and Mimi” I replied.

 

“You write songs and also dance?”

 

“Yes, sir.”

 

“You also do gymnastics, correct?” The woman asked.

 

“Yes.”

 

            They continued to ask me questions, which I didn’t know why. They let me go after telling me that if I made it, they’d call the phone number I had provided on the paper by tomorrow at 9am. I bowed and left.

 

***

 

            I couldn’t sleep that night. I stayed up in my hotel room doing what I always did I was nervous. I took my iPod from my backpack and my iPod player from my suitcase and put my ‘Happy’ playlist song.

 

“Now put your hands up! Put your hands up! Put-put-put-put-put, Put your hands up! Put your hands up and get your drinks up!” I yelled until I heard a knock on my door. I turned off my music and went to answer the door. It was just the housekeeper who had come to tell me to be quiet.

 

After that, I put my ‘Sleep’ playlist on and fell asleep to SHINee’s song, ‘Replay’.

 

            I woke up to the sound of my ringtone, ‘Forever Together’ by Diamond Entertainment’s G2Y and Ri-bon. I quickly got up and pounced for my phone.

 

“Hello!” I yelled into the phone. Noticing my excitement, I cleared my throat and lowered my voice. “This is Minami Kim.”

 

“Hi, honey, its mommy! Did you make it?”

 

“Mom, I thought you were the call I was supposed to receive. I’ll call you if they call me, okay mom? Bye, I love you.” I said, slamming the phone shut. It was almost 9am, I was starting to get nervous. I hope they don’t call right at 9.

 

            As if on cue, I heard my ringtone again. I checked the caller ID this time, it was an unknown number. Before I answered, I steadied my voice.

 

“Yes, hello, this is Minami Kim.”

 

“We are sorry for the late call, Ms. Kim, but we are pleased to inform you that you are invited to the next audition.” said the voice of a woman. “For more information, please go to our website and click on the Diamond at the bottom of the page. When you are there, it will ask you for a password, the password is hkyn4n. Thank you, and see you tomorrow.”

 

            Before I could ask what she meant, I heard the dial tone.  Immediately I did what she said. On the website, there was a passage about the second audition.

 

Congratulations first round winners. Diamond Entertainment’s search for stars has just begun. We held auditions with thousands of participants in four cities: Seoul, Tokyo, New York, and Los Angeles. We are looking for multi-talented, young girls to form a new group under Diamond Entertainment. There are 80 of you left out of the thousands who auditioned. Each second round will be held today at 6pm in your respective country. To find out where your second round is taking place, please look at the chart below. During this round, all of your performances will be filmed and reviewed by all the judges from the four cities and ten of you will be picked to go onto the third and final round. For this round, you will have to have four songs prepared: one Japanese, one English, and one Korean, the last will be of your choice. You will not have to be fluent in all three languages, but you will have to learn a song or at least part of a song in all three categories. You can choose any song of that language that you like, except you many not choose a song sung by any of Diamond’s artists. Your auditions will be filmed live and also aired in all three countries, so make sure your performance is spectacular. You will be able to add dancing to your performance if you would like, but it is not required. Good luck to all of you! Good luck! Fighting*! がんばって*！

            I had already planned which songs I was going to sing, but knowing that we could dance too changes the game. I’ve always thought that I was a better dancer than singer, so I decided to sing songs that I had already choreographed or knew the official dance of before today. I decided to sing ‘Heartbreaker’ by G-Dragon for my Korean song and ‘Hello’ by Yui. The English song I chose was ‘Diva’ by Beyonce and as for my choice song, I chose ‘Goodbye Baby’ by Miss A. Choosing such different songs made it possible to show more than one side of me. With ‘Heartbreaker’ I can show the strong side of me along with sharp and fast dancing, while with ‘Hello’ it shows the softer, girly side because of the softer, higher song to sing. It will also let me show off my lyrical/ ballet type of dancing. ‘Diva’ gives me the chance to show my strong confident side while letting me show my hip hop dance skills. My last song was Korean and it would help me show my y side.

            I followed the directions from the website to a dance studio. When I was inside, I saw the girl from the other day again sitting alone. I sat down beside her. When she saw me, a big smile ran across her face.

“Yay! I was hoping that you’d make it!” She squealed.

Another girl came and sat next to her.

“Meet my friend, Miu, she’s one of the 10 contestants too.” Shuri smiled.

We shook hands and exchanged names. The three of us started talking and soon enough, we were almost like best friends. The same woman from yesterday came to tell all of the contestants waiting in the lobby that we needed to head to makeup. The three of us followed her to the makeup room excitedly.

We sat side by side looking into mirrors in front of us while the makeup artists did us up.

“We all three are going to make it, right?” Shuri said.

“Right.” Miu and I replied.

            When we were all out of the makeup room, the show was just about ready to start. Shuri was to go third, me and Miu were 16^th and 17^th. The room fell silent as one of the cameramen started counting down. The show had started. A man stood in front of the camera on the stage with a cheesy smile.

“Hello, and welcome to Diamond Entertainment’s Idol Search Special. Today we will see 20 young women perform to be picked to go on to the third and final round of Diamond’s Idol Search. The Idol Search Special is a two day program where you will see who the next people are to train under one of Korea’s biggest record labels, Diamond Entertainment! Later on this evening, see the other 20 girls competing live from Tokyo, New York, and Los Angeles and tomorrow, tune in to find out who won and to watch the third round live in Seoul where the last ten contestants will compete. First up is…”

A woman interrupted us to ask if we were ready, we all nodded nervously.

“Okay girls, do your best out there because remember, we are all three going on to the finals.” I said to them.

“I will.” They both replied.

            We quickly prayed for success, but were too soon interrupted by the same woman who had come to find Shuri. When it was time for her to go up, Miu and I gave her one last hug.

“Fighting*” I whispered to her.

“Ganbatte*” Miu whispered after me.

            The both us held the other’s arm as we watched her in anticipation. She sang her Japanese song first; she sang an acoustic version of ‘I Love You’ by Utada Hikaru, followed by her Korean song, Stay by MBLAQ. When she did her English song, she surprised me when she chose to dance. Looking at her, you wouldn’t think that she would be a good hip hop dancer, but she’s actually a b-girl. She danced and sang to ‘I Can Transform You’ by Chris Brown and Lil’ Wayne. Her last song surprised me too. I thought that she’d sing a Japanese song, but she snag one in Korean, probably to prove that she could do both languages. She did cute, girly dance to ‘Black & White’ by G.NA, which caught the audience by surprise. What she had done before was nothing like this song. Right after she walked off stage, she came running to us.

“How did it feel?” Miu asked her.

“It felt amazing! I can’t wait to see you two go.”

            The three of us watched the competition. Some of the other danced along with their song, but most didn’t. A couple of girls forgot their lyrics or messed up the words. Now I understood why they made us sing in all three languages, to see if we could do it. One of the girls sang a song in Thai for her choice song. It seemed to impress the judges, but she messed up a lot on her Korean song. One by one, each girl went on stage and soon enough it was my turn. The girls did the same to me as we did to Shuri. When I watched the other girls sing, I was more nervous than when I was actually on stage myself.

            After finishing my last song, the sound of the audience cheering made me smile. I bowed to the crowed and walked off stage. Miu’s face was priceless. When she saw me walk off stage she looked like she had seen a ghost.

“Miu, don’t worry, it’s nothing. Relax. Good luck, Miu.” I said to her, trying to calm her down.

“Yes, good luck. Now go, go!” We both hugged her and sent to off.

Miu started with her Japanese song; she chose to sing ‘Voice’ by Perfume. The song fit her perfectly. Miu’s voice suited that song perfectly and although she didn’t dance, she did do some movements to supplement the song. She was a lot better than I had expected. She chose to do her Korean song next. Her Korean song choice was ‘Mirror Mirror’ by 4Minute, another girl group song. She didn’t dance in that song either, but her stage presence was amazing, she looked extremely comfortable on stage. She utilized the whole stage, which was bound to give her some points. She chose a Rihanna song for her English song, but I forgot the name of it. If she didn’t dance in her choice song then she would lose some points. When she was done with her third song, my stomach knotted with anxiety. Which song did she choose? I remember she had talked about doing ‘RunDevilRun’, but if she did that song, it wouldn’t really impress the judge. When she started singing, my stomach unknotted. I was so nervous that I covered my eyes, so when she started singing I took my hands down from my face. She was dancing! Like Shuri, her dance skills surprised me. She was just about as good as Shuri, but you could tell that Miu wasn’t as comfortable with dancing as she was singing. Her combined dance and song was terrific.

When Miu came backstage after her performance, she couldn’t stop smiling.

“How was I?” She asked, still smiling.

“You were great! No, you were awesome! It was fantastic! Spectacular!” Shuri squealed.

“I agree. You really surprised me with your dancing skills. Now after seeing the other girls perform, I think that we three are a shoe in for the Top 10.”

***

            That night after the performance and were allowed to leave, we walked to a coffee shop. We sat inside drinking our cappuccinos.

“Do you guys want to come stay at my apartment?” Miu asked us.

“I don’t want to impose.” I replied.

“Well, it’s the least I can do. You two have helped me through this.”

“Yeah, I am so glad that I had you two. If it weren’t for you, I don’t think that I could have been so comfortable on stage. I’m so glad that we all met.” Shuri smiled.

“So instead of a hotel room, why don’t you come stay at my place? When we get there we can watch the other girls perform in L.A, New York, and Seoul. The program will probably be on later tonight.”

“Oh yeah, and in the morning, we can walk back to the studio together.” Shuri added.

We agreed, and when we were done with our coffee, we started walking.

            We arrived at a cute apartment complex. Although we were tired, we took the stairs to the third floor where Miu lived. As soon as she walked in, she dropped her bags and turn on the TV. She scanned through the channels until she found the one that she wanted.

“Just make yourselves at home, girls. I have a blow up mattress and one of you can sleep with me; I have a queen sized bed, so it can fit both of us.”

I volunteered to sleep on the mattress.

            Our heads simultaneously turned to the TV when we hear the announcer say, “And next up on JPC is Diamond Entertainment’s Idol Search Special live in Seoul. We watched all three specials and ended up going to sleep at 9:00pm.

            We woke up to the alarm on my phone. I looked around, not knowing where I was. The last thing I remember was laughing with… oh now I remember. I looked at the time on my phone.

“Oh my goodness! Girls, get up! We only have one hour to get ready and get to the studio!” I yelled.

            The two came out from Miu’s bedroom. Both of them were fully dressed and ready to go, they had even made breakfast.

“You’re the only one who’s not ready.” They laughed.

“Why didn’t you wake me up?” I asked.

“You looked so tired and we woke up before your alarm, so we decided to just let you sleep.” Miu replied.

            Miu let me and Shuri borrow her clothes since we left ours at the hotel. I got dressed and ate breakfast, then we were on our way to the studio. When we arrived, another woman briefed us on what was going to happen today.

“Okay, girls, here’s what’s going to happen: we are going to live chat with the other studios to announce the last 10 contestants. After the winners are announced, each will perform one of their songs from the previous night. Go ahead and get into makeup and meet backstage when you’re ready.” She explained to us.

“Oh, that’s why we’re broadcasting so early in the morning, so that we’ll be on the same schedule as the people in the other cities.” Miu stated.

            Before we knew it, we were in and out of makeup and on stage. The cameras were rolling and all ten of us sat on small chairs on the stage with the audience staring at us with anticipation. We all tried not to show our nervousness, but it was obvious. Some of us were tapping our feet or fidgeting. The announcer had just been rambling with some banter to get the audience excited and now he was finally getting ready to announce the winners. Each announcer spoke to the crowd of their studio, which made the atmosphere in the room even more awkward than it already was.

“So, shall I read the results now?” The announcer rhetorically asked the crowd.

“Yes!” They all cheered in reply.

“The two winners of the Seoul branch of Diamond Entertainment’s Idol Search are…”

            Miu, Shuri, and I all looked at each other. Two? Doesn’t he mean the three winners? This made us all tense.

“Shuri Tanaka and Minami Kim”

A loud cheer came from the crowd.

“Congratulations, girls, how do you feel?” The announcer asked us in a cheesy voice.

Shuri was too stunned to talk, so I answered for the both of us.

“We are both honored that we were picked and we will try our best to move on to the next round.”

I bowed, followed by Shuri. We were rushed off the stage after that so that the other winners could be announced. Shuri and I ran off to find Miu. When we found her, she was sitting in the lobby alone. We ran to her.

“Miu-chan!” Shuri called.

We rushed to her side.

“I can’t believe that you weren’t picked.” I said to her.

“Yeah, I was sure that if it was going to be only two, it would have been you and not me.” Shuri said.

          She didn’t want to hear it though. Miu just shook her head and pushed us away. “Go away!” She yelled. “Why would I want to talk to you after this?”

I was surprised at this, it was definitely not how the Miu I know would act.

“Weren’t we all in this together?” Shuri asked.

“Oh yeah, right.” Miu replied sarcastically. “Haven’t you ever heard the phrase “Keep your friends close and your enemies closer?” You two were the only competition for me, of course I acted like we were friends. I just can’t believe that they didn’t pick me. Now get away, I hope I never see your faces again.”

“Well, you’re not going to get that wish. Just watch, me and Shuri are gonna make it big. I promise you that.” I yelled in reply to Miu. I took Shuri’s wrist and dragged her away.

            After watching the other winners get picked, we went back to my hotel room. We walked there in silence, unable to believe that Miu betrayed us. Of course we were happy, but it just didn’t feel right smiling after that. When we got home, Shuri sat on the floor frowning.

“Shuri! Let’s forget her.” I yelled, jumping onto the bed. “We don’t need her! We’re going to get past the next round and we’ll be superstars!”

            Her frown turned into a grin and then into a big smile. “Yeah!” She yelled. “We don’t need her!”

            The happiness of getting picked finally hit us. We screamed and jumped around the room.

“Wait? We never got the information for the next round. The only thing we know is that it’s tomorrow.” Shuri said, breaking the happy atmosphere.

            I ran to my phone to see if I had missed any calls. Instead, I found that I had a message.

            Congratulations final round contestant. The next round will take place tomorrow at 9:00pm. If you’re from another country, you will be flown there courtesy of Diamond Entertainment. For the Seoul winners, please return to the studio where the last round took place by 3:00pm. You will not need to prepare anything for tomorrow’s round. We look forward to seeing you tomorrow. Good luck! Fighting*! がんばって*！

            The both of us squealed in response to the message, but it made us wonder about what the third round is going to be like. We brushed it off and went to sleep. It had been a tiring day.

***

           Again we were at the studio waiting in the lobby. Shuri and I were uncanny with excitement. What did they have in store for us? We really wanted to meet the others too. It was nearing 6:00 and the same woman from the previous nights hadn’t come to find us. We waited for what seemed like an hour, but in reality had only been ten minutes when a different woman than before came to greet us.

“Hello, are you Minami-chan and Shuri-chan?” The woman asked.

The both of us nodded.

“Please follow me.” She said

            We did as she said and followed her. She brought us to the second floor of the studio where one of the dance rooms had been turned into a photo shoot. The other girls were either in makeup and taking pictures of getting their makeup done. The woman led us to two empty seats and we began getting our makeup done. Shuri and I checked out the other girls.

            As soon as the makeup artists finished, we were rushed to change clothes. A stylist chose our clothes for us and we were lead to a changing area. The whole time we were just being rushed by people to “do this” or “do that”. It was starting to get aggravating, until it was our turn to take pictures.

“Just be yourselves, girls. Don’t mind me.” The photographer said from behind the camera.

            The photographer didn’t pay that much attention to us, so soon enough, we were done with photos. We stopped to ask one of the women a question.

“Excuse me miss, but why are we taking pictures? When is the third round going to start?” I asked.

“Well of course the public is going to want to see photographs of the ten picks of Diamond Entertainment. As for your second question, I won’t be able to help you there… sorry.”

            We asked around, but no one seemed to know when the third round was going to start. The two of us weren’t given time to breathe because rushed to another room.

“Where are we going?” Shuri asked.

“Each of the ten contestants are to be individually interviewed.” The woman said bluntly while trying to rush us. Shuri and I were separated into different rooms. When I entered my room, there was a huge camera on a tripod facing towards two small chairs which I guessed was where I was going to be sitting.

“Please sit down. Are you…” The photographer looked at her clipboard, it was a woman this time. “Minami Kim?” She asked.

“Yes, ma’am.” I said as I bowed. She bowed in return.

“Okay, we’re ready then.” She said, giving the clipboard to a man beside her. She stood up, letting the man sit, then she came to sit beside me with a microphone in her hand. So she was the interviewer, not the camera woman. The real director began counting down from ten. I readied myself.

“Hello, this is Maia Teruya here with one of Diamond Entertainment’s Idol Search finalists.” She said, handing the microphone to me.

I gave a little bow. “Hello, I am Minami Kim.”

“So how do you feel being one of the final ten in the run for a role in Diamond Entertainment’s new girl group?”

“I am much honored to be chosen as one of the finalists.” I began. “I know that there are many very talented girls who also auditioned to be here, so I am glad that I got the chance to be here.”

“So tell us about yourself. Why do you want to be a singer?”

“Well, I just turned 18 two months ago. I live in Okinawa, Japan. My mother is Japanese and my father is Korean and I have a younger sister. The reason I want to become a singer is because I want to be able to make music that touches music people of all age’s hearts. I believe that music can change and influence people’s lives, so I hope that I can make music that reaches people’s hearts.”

“Wow, a good answer.” She smiled. “Tell us how you began singing.”

“As a child, I always enjoyed acting in plays. I became close with the people of the play house in my neighborhood. I acted in all the plays that they put on, however, I never acted in any of the musicals, except as a background character. One day, my friend encouraged me to actually audition for a role. I ended up getting the lead role in that musical and I’ve loved singing ever since.”

“Oh, so you act too?” She asked.

I nodded in reply.

“You also dance, right? We could tell from your performance in the second round.”

“Yes. Originally, I was in musicals as a dancer even before I acted in the plays and musicals. Back at home, I was in a dance company with other kids, teenagers, and adults and attended Okinawa Actor’s School. Dancing was originally my passion, but after dancing for so long, I realized that what I truly loved was just being on stage, no matter what it was.”

“Ah, a very cool story. Do you mind if we hear you sing a little bit right now?”

Her question caught me off guard. She turned to the camera.

“Oh, it seems as if I have flustered her.”

“No, I’m good. What do you want to hear?” I asked.

“Well, since we’re broadcasting to Japan, why don’t you sing part of the Japanese song you sand last night?”

I nodded.

“How many? Koieru no? I can see sugu niwakaru wa makka na jerashii kakaete. Chigau jibun ni kidzuiteiru kiken na yume, furetaku naru douka eru. Ah rakuen, no saki ni akogaeteiru. Demo ne chotto tobikomenai wa konna atashi no koto. Anata kitto  warau desho madowaseru yasashii akuma. Hello, hello…”

“Wow!” She said into the microphone. “That was great. What song was that?” She asked.

“Um, it was ‘Hello’ by Yui.” I answered.

“Oh yes, that song was quite popular before the summer started, wasn’t it?”

“Yeah, I was so obsessed with that song when it came out.” I laughed.

“Well, that’s all the time we have for Minami-chan. Next you’ll get to meet some of the other finalists in Diamond’s Idol Search.” She said. “It was nice having you.” She said to me.

“Thanks for having me.” I replied as I bowed.

            Finally, I was out of that room. It was starting to get hot in there. When I got out of the room, Shuri was there waiting for me.

“What took you so long?” She whined. “I’ve been fighting off these crazy women trying to get me to leave so that I could wait for you.”

“Sorry, she asked me to sing.” I explained.

“Well, whatever, let’s go. We have to get to the next station.” She said as she pulled me away.

“There’s another one?” I whined.

“Yes, but you’ll like this one.” She said, smirking.

            She had brought me to a dance room where there were already girls dressed in workout clothes stretching. A woman pushed clothes at us and told us to go change in the bathroom. We did as we were told. When we were done, we took this opportunity to speak to the other girls. None of the girls looked especially friendly. While trying to decide which one of them to talk to, I overheard two of the others speaking Korean.

“Ah, Shuri. Do you hear that?” I whispered to her. “They’re speaking Korean. Let’s go talk to them.” I said.

            We walked over to the two girls. One of them had short black hair, she looked tough. The other was tall and had long, straight, brown hair.

“Annyeong” I smiled.

They said the same in return.

“Are you two Korean?” The short-haired one asked.

“I’m half, but she isn’t.” I answered. “Oh, by the way, my name is Minami Kim.”

“I’m Sohee Dong,” The long-haired one said. “and this is Minyoung Kang.” She said, gesturing towards the short-haired one. She nodded her head as if to say “What’s up?”

            We continued the conversation in Korean, which gained us some weird looks from other contestants who mostly seemed Japanese. Half way into the conversation, we were again interrupted by a woman.

“Okay, girls your dance instructor is here.” She announced, followed by a tall Korean man. A couple of the other girls screamed when he entered, including Sohee behind me.

“Hello, girls.” He smiled.

The woman spoke again. “As you may know, this is Green; he a member of Diamond’s group 29Bass, and your dance instructor for the day.”

“29 Bass is leaving Japan to begin our international tour starting in Thailand tomorrow, President Diamond asked me if I could do him a favor and teach you girls a dance routine that you’ll need for today. The main dancers of SML4 & Cologne, Kwangho & Taeyoung were supposed to teach you all today, but they got caught up in CF shootings with 2PM & BIGBANG for Lotte Duty Free. So I guess you’ll all have to deal with the main dancer of 29 Bass.” He laughed. “Since it’s almost 5:00pm and you girls need to be ready by 9, it’ll be a quick dance routine. You have two hours to learn it. So let’s get started.” Green said with a smile.

            The woman left the room when he finished talking. He told us to stagger and make room to dance. He taught us the dance little by little. We danced to 29Bass’s song ‘Up & Down’; it’s a fast paced song that’s pretty easy to dance to. You could tell that some of the other girls were having trouble, but most of us we’re getting it down for the most part. The song was a good choice for dancing; it’s a fast paced song with a good beat. We didn’t learn the whole dance, just until after the second chorus. We had finally learned the basics after one hour, so Green decided to make us all get up in front of the others individually to be critiqued.

“Does anyone want to volunteer?” Green asked.

Everyone looked down at their feet. It didn’t seem like anyone was going to volunteer.

“I’ll go!” I announced.

He applauded. “Ah, we have a taker. May I ask your name, dear?”

            I heard some of the girls sigh and snarl. Some of them were jealous that Green had just called me “dear” and some of them were shocked that I actually volunteered. “My name is Minami Kim.” I replied. “Oh, you’re one of the Seoul winners, correct?” I nodded. “To be honest, I was rooting for you the whole time.” He smiled, awkwardly putting his hands behind his head. I blushed at the fact that I caught the eye of a celebrity. He played the song and I did the dance. It definitely was not flawless, but I thought I did pretty well.

Green and the others politely applauded.  I bowed and returned to me spot and he told me what I needed to fix.

“Anyone else want to go? If not, we’ll pick numbers.”

           

            Finally everyone had gone and been critiqued. We had ten more minutes to practice and then we were off to vocal practice. The ten of us followed the woman to another room. As we followed her, another contestant approached me.

“Hi, Minami-san, my name is Kristen. I just wanted to tell you that I think you’re great dancer.” She said. I thanked her. Kristen was extremely pretty; she wasn’t tall, but she was taller than me. Her hair was light brown and wavy, it was styled perfectly to fit her face. From her features, I guessed that she was half-Japanese and half-American. I knew that she was from the L.A. auditions. “I’ve talked to everyone else except you two.” She told me and Shuri.

“I’m Shuri Tanaka. It’s very nice to meet you.” Shuri said as she bowed.

“The same to you” Kristen replied.

“So you know everyone else?” I asked.

She nodded.

“Do you mind telling us more about everyone?” I asked. It was smart to get to know you’re competition. “We haven’t really had a good chance to get to know them all.”

She agreed. “Although people other than Japanese and Koreans tried out and made it past the first round, the last of us are all either Japanese or Korean.” She explained. “You two are the only ones from the Seoul branch. I’m from the L.A branch, along with Emi and Misun. Hanami and Chitose are the only ones from the New York branch and the other three are from the Korea branch, Kyung-mi, Minyoung, and Chung-ae.”

“Are any other them both Korean and Japanese?” I asked.

“No, it’s just the two of us.” She answered. Wow, she really did know a lot about us all.

“Minyoung, Chitose and Emi are rappers, so one of them is most likely to make it since most K-Pop groups have a rapper. From the dancing point of view, I’m scared of you two and Chung-ae, but from the singing point of view, I’m scared of you, Kyung-min and Misun.”

“What about Hanami?” Shuri asked.

“She’s not especially good at either. She is good, but mostly, I’m scared of her looks, along with you and Misun.”

So she’s scared of me and Shuri in dancing and me in singing and Shuri in looks, but what is she confident in? I asked myself.

“What’s your strong point?” I asked her.

“Me? You guys should be scared of me when it comes to singing.” She smirked.

            I wanted to know more about the other girls, but we had reached the singing room already. I was watching the other girls dance to check out the competition, now I was about to do the same now.

“As your vocal practice instructor, Diamond has brought in…” She purposely stopped to give us a heart attack. You could the girls saying who they wanted it to be. Shuri whispered into my ear. “I hope it’s Seung-young Teruya from G2Y.” I replied. “I hope it’s Shinji Park from G2Y.” That was another reason why me and Shuri were friends, we have the same music taste.

            The woman started again. “Introducing, Miss…” Shuri and I sighed. “Seo-young Choi.” All the girls smiled and whispered to each other as she entered. Seo-young Choi is one of Diamond’s most successful solo artists.

“Hello, girls.” She said.

            We all bowed. I was surprised that she could speak in Japanese. Can all Koreans in Diamond speak Japanese? Can all Japanese people in Diamond speak Korean?”

“We have an hour and a half to practice, so this is how it’s going to go: we’ll have two groups, those of you who speak Japanese, and those of you who speak Korean. When you get into your groups, find a song that you all know the words to, I’ll guide you from there. Those of you who know both languages stand on the side and go to the group that has less.”

            I stood on the side, expecting Kristen to join me, but she ended up going to the Japanese group. I guess that since she grew up in the U.S., she can only speak Japanese, which probably means that she speaks English as well. Chung-ae and Emi stood on the side with me, which made me feel a bit self-conscious. I thought that I was the only one who could speak both besides Kristen.  It made me realize that these girls would lie to the others to put themselves ahead.  After the grouping, there were 4 Japanese versus 3 Korean, so I let Emi have Japanese since she’s best at it, which left me and Chun-ae in the Korean group. It turned out that we all knew a lot of the same songs, while the other group was having trouble deciding one. After careful consideration, we picked ‘Don’t Cry’ by Park Bom. The other group picked a song that was from an anime that they all used to watch when they were younger, ‘Fruits Candy’ by Kojima Megumi from ‘Card Captor Sakura’. The song wasn’t the best to sing, but it was one of the only songs that they all knew by heart.

            After five minutes, the instructor spoke again. “Okay, now that you’re all done, we’re going to practice harmonizing. Take turns switching positions, two altos, two sopranos, and one tenor. When you get comfortable, assign your positions and start practicing. In 30 minutes, I’ll listen to each of your groups and critique, then again 20 minutes after that. You will sing in front of the other group 30 minutes after that. Now start.” Seo-young Choi explained.

We wasted no time, after a little bit of arguing, we decided the positions. Emi was the tenor, Minyoung & Chung-ae got the alto position, and me & Misun were the sopranos, much to Kristen’s dismay. After Chung-ae calmed down from her anger of not being a soprano, we practiced smoothly. After what seemed like an hour, Seo-young-sensei listened to us.

            “Sopranos, when you sing the chorus, you need to be livelier. It’s the chorus of the song, the most important part. And altos, when you sing the bridge, chop up your words. Tenor, dear, I know that there’s just one of you, but you need to be louder. When it’s your turn to sing, most of the time, I only heard parts.” She preached. “Other than that, you girls were good.”

            Again, we started practicing again. After what felt like another hour, it was time for our critique again.

It’s okay, baby, please don’t cry.

Ginagin yeohang-I kkeutnatjiman tto eonjengan majuchigetji

 daeum sesangeseo kkog dasi manna.

            Misun and I sang the chorus with a lot of energy after hearing her critique. The others also fixed their problems.

“Wow,” She began. “That was a lot better than last time, but I still have some notes. Tenor, you did sing louder than before, but you could be louder. Also, I think that the sopranos need another part in the song. Usually, in a song, sopranos get most of the parts, but you have it split up evenly. The other group did the same thing.”

            When we had to cut one of Chung-ae’s parts in the song for me and Misun, she was even more angry that before. This time as we practiced, she refused to give her 100%. Minyoung, the tenor, was now singing louder than the rest of us. I liked Kyung-min because she was quiet and she did what she was told. Kyung-min is very talented, so she didn’t even get critiqued. I’m beginning to be more afraid of her than Misun, but Misun is extremely talented too. This time, our practice ended way too soon. It was now time for our groups to perform for each other.

“Which group wants to go first?” Seo-young-sensei asked.

            Before Misun had the chance, Kristen raised her hand. I knew that she’d be the first to volunteer. She and Chitose ended up being the sopranos, which I thought was obvious since Shuri is more of an alto. Emi was the tenor and Shuri and Hanami were the altos.

Tip tap koi wa itsudatte candy. Furutsu no youni no tasty. Good bye, lucky sou ne mainichi ga Sunday. Awatenaide my heart.

            The song fit Shuri perfectly, it was adorable. When they were finished, we all applauded. After hearing them, I was now more afraid of Kristen and Hanami more so than Kyung-min. We had to step up to the plate.

            Chung-ae swallowed her pride and managed a smile as she sang, we ended up doing better than I thought we would. The others politely clapped.

“So... who won?” Kristen slyly asked.

“No one. We weren’t playing against each other.” Seo-young laughed.

“But you…” She started, only to be interrupted by Seo-young.

“I never said anything about a contest, you all just assumed that it was.” She said, continuing to laugh. We heard a knock on the door before the same woman entered. “Oh, look at the time, we were right on schedule. She you girls later… well those of you who pass.” She shrugged.

            All of us followed the woman again, this time we were silent; we had learned not to ask where we were going, just to go.

            We ended up back at the makeshift makeup room for touch ups. It was already nearing 9:00. Because of all the chaos, I forgot the reason I was here. The sudden realization that I was soon going to find out if my dreams were going to come true or be crushed made my stomach flip. After makeup, we were rushed to the same place we were for the past two nights. Just from listening to us you could tell that we were nervous. All ten of us were in a circle just freaking out and talking like we were friends, as if we weren’t in a contest to fulfill our dreams. It was a nice feeling. Again we heard the same music we’d been listening for since we began our journey. It quickly became silent. We heard the same fake man spouting his cheesy banter. I was only able to catch the end of it.”

“… and when we come back from the commercial break, we have a big surprise for our contestants.”

            Shuri and some of the other girls gasped, but before they could take another breath, we were rushed onto the stage before the commercial break ended. The theme music blasted again.

“Hello and welcome back to Diamond Entertaiment’s Idol Search Special!” He yelled. “As I promised, you are about to see what big surprise we have for the ten finalists.”

            Suddenly, from the big screen behind us, I heard my voice.