The following Monday the girls were up early, ready to start their day of schedules to prepare for their debut. Their manager was coming to pick them up to take them to the recording studio where they were going to record their first ever single.

“Ah, I hate singing in the morning,” Jaeyeon whined slightly, taking a sip of her orange juice. “My voice feels so bad…”

“Don’t worry about it, you’ll sound fine!” Eunmi shook her head. “And besides, they can always tweak it a bit right? Make you sound all robot-y and stuff. Imagine how could that would be! You’ll be like a singing Transformer!”

“Yah! I don’t want to sound like a singing car robot!” she pouted.

Eunmi laughed, “But it would be so awesome! And imagine you wearing like a ruby colored track suit sitting in a ruby colored race car! That would be awesome right?”

Jaeyeon stared at her older sister for a moment as she tried to picture herself in that situation before shaking her head, “That would never work with our song! It’s too bubbly!”

“Yeah, why don’t we leave the concept planning to the experts, alright?” Sooyeon smiled as she joined the two of them by the breakfast table. “As a matter of fact, let’s focus on our recording first. Drink some tea, it might help smoothen your voice a bit in the morning.”

“Ah, as expected from the leader, always giving advice to the younger ones!” A voice suddenly filled the dorm and in a blink of an eye their manager Yura appeared with a bright smile on her face. The girls jumped up immediately to make a formal bow but she quickly waved them off, shaking her head. “Don’t worry about it. Basically I work for you so you don’t have to be so formal with me!”

“Did you have breakfast already, unnie?” Yoon Hee asked, looking up at the tall woman who was dressed casually in a white shirt, black jacket and skinny jeans.

She nodded, “I have, right before I came here, but you girls better hurry with yours or else we are going to be late for your first recording!”

Quickly they finished their breakfast and changed into their clothes, following their manager outside and to the car, off to the recording studio to record their first debut single.

Since this was the first time recording for most of the girls, they all felt a little nervous. This was going to be their debut single, a song that could either make or break them in the industry and their chance to make a great first impression on the fans and non-fans. Coming from a company like SM you had a lot to live up to with successful groups as Super Junior, Girls Generation and TVXQ as well as idol artists like Kangta and BoA as your seniors. The company has a recipe for success but ultimately it’s up to the young aspiring idols if they are able to work with that recipe and create a popular dish.

And this was no different, after the success of EXO, the company hoped to succeed at least the same amount of popularity with their new group Dazzling Girlz. It was up to the girls to work their hardest to make sure their concept seemed interesting and impressive for curious KPOP lovers and try to gain more popularity than the other groups out there.

“Make sure to listen to the music director and spend your time in the booth wisely,” Yura adviced them as they pulled up in the parking lot in front of the studio, “Sing as if it’s your first and last performance, sing with passion and emotion as if you were singing on the stage.”

Yura’s advice was very valuable, she had been in the idol business for quite some years now as manager of a lot of different groups within the company. She knew exactly what was best and what was easy and served as a great source of information and support to the girls who were feeling slightly lost in their nerves already.

The girls hopped out of the car, in their hands the files with the lyrics as they were given during their meeting with Soo Man, nervous yet ready to start their first ever schedule as rookie group, if you could call it that.

The music director was already waiting for their arrival, joined by the composer who wrote their debut song Girlz Talk. With him being present, it pressured the girls slightly. He was the one who wrote the song and knew exactly how he wanted and expected it to sound. Now they had to live up to that.

After a short explanation as to what they were going to do today and what they wanted the girls to do, they finally started their first recording session, Sooyeon offering to go first.

She got into the booth, taking her place in front of the microphone with her lyrics placed in front of her and the headphones on so she could hear the music and the music producer clearly.

“Let’s do some sound checks first,” the director decided. “Sooyeon-sshi, can you please do a quick Do Re Mi?”

“Neh~” she nodded, clearing before reciting the scales clearly and pitched-perfect.

The music director nodded happily, adjusting some of the levels accordingly before giving a thumbs up towards the vocalist in the booth. “Perfect, alright we’re going to playback the instrumentals once so you get the rhythm and then we’ll start recording.”

“Neh!” she nodded once again, completely focused on her task. Sooyeon was the person with one of the most experience, she did a lot of ensemble jobs for other idols so she had a slight feel as to what was needed to be done. Naturally she never really recorded a song before, but she had an idea of what was expected of her nonetheless.

She listened to the instrumentals intently, in her head already singing along to get the timing right. The song was happy and bubbly and definitely up-beat in a way it would make you want to dance along and smile. She liked the way it sounded which gave her a boost of confidence with this single.

As soon as her part ended, she prepared herself, her eyes on the lyrics and nodding as the director asked if she was ready before hearing the song start again and singing along.

She sang through her first part, feeling slightly nervous but maintained a clear voice. She waited as her part ended as the director leaned forward to his own mic that was connected to her headset as well, “We’re going to play it back so you can hear how this first recording sounds.”

“Ah, cool!” she nodded with an anxious smile, waiting for the song to start again and hearing her voice sing along with the lyrics.

The other girls listened closely as well, impressed and slightly intimidated by the way their leader’s voice sounded with just this first recording. It was a sudden realization that they were actually recording their own song that made them even more excited about this.

“That wasn’t bad for your first try,” the director chuckled pleased.

Sooyeon smiled, “Thank you, I liked the way it sounded.”

“That third line…” the composer spoke up, staring down at his sheet of lyrics and swaying the pen in his hand as if he was conducting an orchestra before looking up at you, “Could you please try that again, with a bit more energy? And maybe raise the pitch by half?”

“The third line?” She looked down at her lyrics sheet before nodding, “Of course! I’ll do my best!”

“As expected, the composer knows exactly how he wants it to sound…” Yoon Hee whispered softly, hugging one of the pillows on the couch.

“He strives for perfection and expects it…” Ae Jung nodded slowly, “It’s kind of intimidating though.”

“But if we listen to his instructions we might end up with a killer debut single, just like our Girls Generation unnies!” Eunmi added softly, listening as Sooyeon started her second recording with the changes the composer asked for.

The girls each took turns in the booth recording their lines a couple of times, changing pitch and emphasize accordingly as the composer of the song wanted to perfect every line the way he had written it in the first place. After a couple of hours the girls finally finished their first recording session.

“I am going to mix the song for you girls and we’ll meet again next time to listen, re-record some more and work on your B-track,” the director explained, leaning back in his chair and staring at the girls one by one, “But for your very first recording I must say I’m impressed. You girls worked hard today so you can be proud of yourselves!”

“I think this deserves an applause,” Yura grinned, clapping her hands as the others followed and the girls applauded along with smiles on their faces.

They were happy that this day was over and that it went relatively well for their first try. It was only the start of a long list of things that had to be done, most of which were all new to them, all of which meant to make their dreams come true. They were nervous and anxious but at the same time very excited. The first step towards their official debut had just been made.

HEY EVERYONE!

I'm terribly sorry that it took me almost three months to update this story. I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years and any other festivity that you celebrated in those months.

I'm back now and determined to commit. Yes, I said it before but that was before I realized I was choking because I bit off more than I could chew. But now that everything is out the way I want to finish this story.

I hope you are still around and interested to keep on reading and give me feedback!

xx Dazzle