To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift.

ミ★~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~★彡

Jieun’s POV

            It’s been a day since my debut, and I should’ve seen more concerts coming one after another robbing me of rest. Thankfully, my manager cleared up this morning for me to sleep in since I still wasn’t used to the lack of sleep idols had to endure, but rather than sleeping I had a different idea in mind. My manager wasn’t the type to stick around and babysit me, making sure I obeyed every mediocre request she gave me even though she was a mother figure, so instead of making sure I actually was sleep, she went to pick up her nephew coming back from his abroad studies in Canada. He wasn’t actually her nephew since she didn’t have siblings and wasn’t married; he was just the son of a close friend of hers.

            I tied my hair up in a sloppy ponytail, ignoring the little strands that stuck out of place and slapped on some diva-like sunglasses. I searched my closet frantically for some baggy clothing, breezing past Wooyoung’s sweater and grabbing an ugly magenta cardigan that I recalled belonging to my mom. After I was done my mission in disguise I planned to return it to her. Taking one last glance in the mirror, it would be ridiculous for anyone to recognize me as IU if I went out, especially since my fan base couldn’t have grown too big overnight. After wrapping a wooly white scarf around my neck to complete my sloppy attire, I headed out the door with a handful of change for the bus. By now, JYP Entertainment was a familiar building for me to bus to.

            During the several bus rides, I could hear the loud ‘whispers’ of ajummas wondering if they’d seen me on TV. I had a feeling they didn’t know exactly who I was, but guessed that I was probably an idol because of the ridiculous way I dressed in public. Shrugging, I got off the bus that stopped by the noodle house and walked to the JYP building. What brought me here was curiosity more than anything. The thought of Wooyoung dating Suzy stung my mind and I couldn’t help but wonder, what could it be about her that attracted Wooyoung so much? From what I recall in high school, Wooyoung never paid any attention to girls with a bad attitude. The receptionist never noticed me passing by which surprised me since I looked like a misfit compared to all the well-dressed staff in suits and ties. When I ascended up the stairs from the lobby I realized my plan was extremely flawed. To get to the building was one thing, but how would I find Suzy in this gigantic maze? Like any logical and sane person would do to find someone in a large building, I simply wandered. She was a JYP trainee so I should be able to find her no problem, right? Not only did I need to find her, but I needed to avoid two people at all costs—Wooyoung and Seulong. After minutes of wandering, my neck felt warm and sweaty so I unwrapped my scarf and fanned myself briefly with my hand. In addition to my sunglasses I could only guess how much of a diva I looked doing this in the middle of a random hallway. Looking at the signs above each room I saw the girl’s washroom symbol. Before I could reach the door, someone stopped me. My shoulder’s stiffened and I gulped silently. Even with my disguise, if it were the two people I was avoiding there was no way they would be fooled.

            “Hey, I haven’t seen you around here before. Are you a trainee?” An unfamiliar voice asked. I let out a sigh of relief and turned around, seeing a tall, well dressed man holding a half peeled banana. I nodded my head, rushing into the girl’s washroom leaving him dumbfounded standing outside. I hoped that whoever he was, he would leave soon. I hated lying, but that was what I just did. If I wasn’t a trainee, I would’ve been kicked out immediately. At this point, I could already be considered a rebel so I might as well go with the flow of it. I pulled my sunglasses off and splashed some cold water onto my face. Thankfully, this washroom was empty.

            “Changsung, let’s get to practice. Put that stupid banana away, you’ll get diabetes from so much natural sugars.” Wooyoung’s undeniable voice scolded the man from earlier outside the washroom.

            “But they’re so high in potassium,” Changsung whined, followed by a loud thump of something falling into the trash can. Their footsteps were getting further away, allowing me to release another sigh of relief. I poked my head out the door and saw their backs walking away from me, but they were still in hearing distance.

            “By the way hyung, did you know we have a new trainee that looks exactly like IU?” Changsung mused. I mention of my stage disrupted Wooyoung’s once steady walking pace. I assumed that he knew IU was me.

            “The bananas are probably messing with your eyes. You have no chance with IU, got it?” Wooyoung said half serious, half jokingly, thumping Changsung’s forehead. I couldn’t help but laugh a little as I scurried out the washroom in the opposite direction, entering the only hallway in JYP Entertainment that I was familiar with. This was where the dance studio was. I took my time to pass by, hearing a catchy tune coming from the room. Like the curious snoop I was, I peeked through the small crack of the door and saw the same girl I stumbled upon at the noodle house; the same girl that was laughing with Wooyoung—Suzy. She was with three other girls, one with bright, light pink hair and they were all dressed in black, probably practicing their debut song. Their dance was powerful and so were their vocals. Though I saw Suzy as some sort of opponent I was excited for their debut.

            “You don’t know me; you don’t know me,” They sang, dancing in a flawless formation. None of them were off-beat. Though the girl with pink hair was distracting, my eyes were strongly locked on Suzy. She was easy to spot with her brown hair, and on top of that she was the only one in a dress. I couldn’t help but be jealous of her, because even though she was sweating from so much practice she still looked stunning; her skin literally glowed when sunlight from the window touched her. Their song had a type of fierce vibe that I probably would never be able to pull off, and one important thing set us apart; Suzy could dance and I couldn’t. Perhaps that was why Wooyoung liked her?

Wooyoung’s POV

            Practice ended early today and Taecyeon wanted us to go eat at the noodle house together since it’d been so long. Our choreographer was extremely pleased with our debut and became much more lenient with us for the time being. I knew he was working hard on some dances for our first album already, so I didn’t expect this leniency to last too long. Taecyeon had to make a trip to the washroom and gave me the responsibility of pulling Suzy from practice. As I walked casually towards the dance studio that played “Bad Girl Good Girl” from the loud thousand dollar stereos, I thought about what Changsung told me earlier. From what I knew, JYP wasn’t expecting any new trainees this month and we already met all of them before. Plus, what were the chances of someone looking just like Jieun? He was probably hallucinating.

            As I approached the studio, I saw a girl around Jieun’s height hunched over, peeking through the crack. She was wearing dull colors with a wooly scarf, her hair sloppily done. The way she was hunched over made her look like one of those ajummas that sold groceries on the streets. With a friendly smile, I approached her from behind and informed,

            “They’re aiming for a debut next summer under the name Miss A.” She jumped the moment I spoke and straightened up, but she still didn’t turn around. When her back straightened, I could tell she wasn’t an ajumma. In fact, the brown hue of her hair was dyed quite similarly to mine.

            “Do you need help finding anyone?” I offered, watching her every movement carefully. She takes a few steps away from me and coughed,

            “No.” Immediately after, she made a run for it. My mind connected the dots right away. She was the trainee Changsung was talking about—she was Jieun. I glanced through the crack of the studio door, seeing Suzy practicing hard with Jia, Fei and Min and decided Taecyeon could go look for her himself when we was done his business. Running after Jieun who was being slowed down by the wooly scarf that muffled her breathing, I managed to catch her at the lobby. My hand grabbed tight onto her wrist, stopping her from getting away and she turned back to stare at me. My breathing slowed and I pulled the childish sunglasses off her face, revealing her innocent brown eyes that locked on mine.

            “Jieun…” I mumbled, unsure of what to do. I never planned for our meeting to be like this. She seemed just as shocked as I was, but why did she look sad? Her eyes were more moist than usual, like she was fighting back tears but her wrist made no effort to escape my grasp. Neither of us smiled, we just stared back at each other, lost in a strange trance where things didn’t seem to fall into place. First of all, if she hadn’t come to find me, then what was she doing at JYP Entertainment? 

A/N: I think the story will be a lot more exciting from here on out. They've finally met so you can expect more WooU now ^^! Sorry for the 345745624224 chapters of no WooU. This fanfic probably won;t make to to chapter 50 but I'm so thankful for everyone who's been suppporting me since the beginning. I hope this adventure was fun for you all because I definitely had fun with it. ^^ But it's not quite over yet, so keep looking forward to it. :D