December 4, 2011

Jaemi, Soojin, Haera, Myunhong and Angela were in the vocal practice room just like any other morning, practising together. Myunhong, Haera and Soojin were practising their singing, while Jaemi and Angela were practising rapping. Haeri had been dropped from the team since three showcases back, and had chosen to sign on to another company instead of waiting for another opportunity.

"Who knows when that time would come," she had said. "Now that I've got an immediate offer, I might as well take it."

Naturally, the girls were upset about the situation, but it wasn't the first time they had experienced it, and they knew they couldn't dwell on it for too long. They learnt to move on pretty fast, each of them working harder than before. After all, it was a very competitive industry they were training to be in.

Suddenly, the door was opened and their minders stepped in with two girls, interrupting their practice.

"Annyeonghasaeyo," the girls bowed in surprise. Their minders beckoned them over, and still clutching their scores, they trudged towards them. With every appearance of a new trainee, every trainee would be bound to feel threatened. This time, there were two. Were two of them about to get dropped?

"Girls, meet Ji Eun and Lee Xian," one of their minders announced, and the new girls smiled slightly. "They'll be joining your team from today onwards. Girls, introduce yourself," he said to the new girls. One of them, wearing a grey long-sleeved hoodie with matching track pants, made a tentative step forward and bowed.

"Annyeonghasaeyo, my name is Ji Eun, and I'm 19 this year. I hope we will get along well."

None of the girls gave any reaction, and only Soojin managed a grunt as an acknowledgement. Seeing their lack of reaction to Ji Eun's introduction, the other girl gave the minder next to her a worrying look but he lightly pushed her in front.

"Annyeonghasaeyo, I'm Lee Xian and I'm 16 this year. I'm from Singapore, so please take care of me." She was wearing a thin, oversized pink hoodie with a white tank top underneath and black tights. Taking a quick bow, she retreated, clearly intimidated by the five senior trainees. At the sound of 'Singapore', Angela's eyes lit up.

"I'm from Singapore too!" She blurted, and Jaemi shot her a strange look. Right, she wasn't supposed to be happy.

The five original members of the team looked at one another, worried about who would be getting dropped this time. After working with one another for more than two years, they had already gotten so close that it already felt like the bond idol groups shared. They didn't want anyone to be dropped, or to be denied their dreams.

The same minder who announced the new additions chuckled a little at the five girls' bewilderment.

"Relax, none of you are getting dropped," he assured them quite bluntly, but the girls still gave a noticeable sigh of relief. "In fact, there's a plan to debut you girls in about a year." There was a pause, and Angela and Myunhong cheered, while the other three were too shocked for words. Especially Jaemi, who had been a trainee for six long years.

"The company just thought that having two more members would be the best for the team. This would be your permanent team until your debut," The girls nodded in understanding, but Jaemi just gave the new girls an icy stare. "We'll leave you now to do your introductions, so training is canceled until the afternoon. You have dance practice at 3pm, don't forget. And of course, talent filming. The slot for your team today is at 2pm, just before your dance practice."

"Neh~" The girls replied to their minder's reminder.

Their minder looked at his watch. "We'll be back in an hour's time, and we'll go for an early lunch, since you all are dancing for talent filming today and you need to get their food digested well before starting. Quickly wrap up your training and get to know one another." He patted the backs of the two new girls, and the minders headed towards the door.

"Kamsahamnida!" The girls, excluding the new ones, bowed and thanked them out of habit.

As soon as their minders were out of the door, Angela and Myunhong hugged each other.

"We're going to debut!" They exclaimed in unison, jumping up and down while hugging. Jaemi and Haera shook their heads, both of them going back to practise their song together, singing and rapping. Only Soojin remained, and Ji Eun and Lee Xian were starting to feel a little out of place.

"Girls, let's sit in a circle," Soojin directed, tugging Myunhong's arm and pulling her down, also not directly looking into Ji Eun and Lee Xian's eyes. "Um, Ji Eun, Lee..... Xian?" She had some trouble pronouncing the latter's name because it was Chinese, even if she had studied the language before, but the two new girls followed Soojin's lead and sat down anyway. "Jaemi, Haera?" Haera immediately put her score down and headed towards the circle, but Jaemi seemed uncomfortable.

"I need to go to the toilet, you guys can start first," she said, running out of the room before any of the other girls could say anything.

"There's something wrong with Jae unnie," Myunhong pointed out. "All of a sudden, her attitude changed."

Angela nodded. "She went to the toilet not too long ago," she added.

"I'll go and get her," Haera said, scrambling up. Soojin nodded., glancing at the two new members who were looking very nervous.

"Hurry."

Jaemi stood in the toilet in front of the sinks. She stared at herself hard in the mirror, took a deep breath and splashed her face with water, trying to calm herself down. She was finally going to debut, after six long years of training, and yes, she was ecstatic. Yet, she felt indignant, and she herself couldn't quite understand why. She had recognized the two new faces among the one-year-old trainees who never dared to talk to the trainee teams much because they were scared, always just keeping among themselves. Jaemi had trained hard and waited for six years for a debut opportunity, and these new girls had only trained for one. She felt like they didn't deserve it.

She didn't know why she was behaving this way either. She was one who was always cheerful unless she fell into a slump, and never really disliked or hated anyone. She knew there was no point feeling like this, but she couldn't help herself.

"Jae?" Jaemi heard Haera's voice outside the toilet. She took a piece of paper towel and quickly dried her face.

"Yeah?"

"Hurry, they're all waiting for you." Haera said. "What's wrong with you?"

"I just...." Jaemi trailed off, not sure if Haera would understand how she was feeling.

"Feel indignant?" Haera completed her sentence helpfully. Jaemi nodded.

"I've trained five years longer than they did. Who are they to debut at the same time as me? Or us, even. We've been a team for two years!" Without knowing, Jaemi had started whining to her same-age friend, and the both of them had stopped walking to the room. "Even if Angela joined the team after only training for six months, it was easy to understand since her cousin is an idol of this company, but this... Ugh."

"Believe it or not, I felt the same way too," Haera said quietly, and Jaemi looked at her in surprise. "But maybe i don't have the right too, since I haven't trained for very long, only three years."

"Three years is a long time too," Jaemi insisted. Haera sighed, taking Jaemi's arm and slightly pulling her towards the practice room.

"Still, be nice, okay?"

"I can't promise that."

Lee Xian sat next to Ji Eun in the semi-cricle including three other girls. They were the girls that the two of them had noticed on their first day, one of the being the motherly figure, the other two the unfriendly-looking girl and her seemingly closed friend. They sat there just looking at the ground in awkward silence, while the girl with the motherly image impression watched the door worriedly, expecting the other two to come back anytime soon.

They did, and Lee Xian noticed that one of the girls had to tug the other towards the team circle, and she looked rather reluctant to mingle with the new team additions.

"Alright, let's start our introductions," the motherly figure said, sitting up straight. "How should we introduce ourselves?"

"Name, age, and what we auditioned with," the unfriendly-looking girl immediately suggested, counting her fingers. "Just three things, it isn't that hard, is it? We usually introduce ourselves with those three things around here," She told Lee Xian and Ji Eun with a small smile. Lee Xian realised that her cold appearance was just a first impression after all. Now that she was talking to them, she seemed much friendlier.

"Okay," the motherly figure agreed, and gestured to Lee Xian. "You first."

Me first? Lee Xian tensed up, not wanting to ruin her own introduction.

"Um, I'm Siow Lee Xian, and I'm currently 16 years old," she said carefully in Korean with a slight accent. "I like to go by the name Hope. I auditioned with dancing."

"Yes!" The girl who once looked unfriendly to Lee Xian and Ji Eun clapped her hands in glee. "There's someone younger than me! I don't have to do all the chores anymore!" She exclaimed in delight. The other girls all looked at her and laughed, shaking their heads.

"Alright alright, fellow member from Singapore goes next," the girl next to her said.

"Hi! I'm Angela Park, and I'm 17 this year." Her Korean was very strong, and there wasn't any sign of accent. "My friends all call me Gel."

"Wow, how long have you been speaking Korean?" Lee Xian asked, impressed. "There's no accent at all."

"All my life," Angela laughed. "I'm a Korean-Singaporean, and my family all speak Korean, so I only speak English when I'm out with other people," she replied.

Lee Xian nodded. "Wait, what did you audition with?"

Angela paused and thought for a moment. "Modeling? Singing? Dancing? I don't actually know for sure which one got me in," she said. "But i think the company's training be to be the triple threat." She eagerly pointed to Ji Eun. "New girl next."

"My name is Shin Ji Eun, I'm 20, and I auditioned with singing."

"Hey! We're same-age friends!" The motherly figure of the team exclaimed, and Ji Eun burst into a smile. "Which means we're both the oldest of the team. Let's speak comfortably, okay? We should be comfortable if we're going to be handling these girls together."

"Unnie!' The girl who ran out earlier whined. "I'm still the leader, remember? Now just introduced yourself," she said. Touche, Lee Xian thought, but the girl with the motherly figure just continued smiling, like she was used to it.

"My name is Song Soo Jin, and I'm 20. I auditioned with singing as well," she said with a warm smile. "Jaemi," she nudged the girl who ran out earlier, "your turn."

Jaemi slumped.

"I'm Ahn Jaemi, currently 19 years old. I auditioned with rapping, and I've been a trainee for six years," she said smugly, sub-conciously eyeing Lee Xian and Ji Eun. Lee Xian found herself slightly bowing to Jaemi even as she was sitting down, mumbling an incoherent "nice to meet you". Jaemi was three years older than her, and the oldest trainee after all.

"Here, your seniority as a trainee matters more than your age, so sunbae~" The girl next to Angela freely teased Jaemi, and for once Lee Xian saw Jaemi smile.

"Stop it, Myunhong. Your turn now."

Myunhong cleared . "I'm Choi Myunhong, and I'm 18 this year. I auditioned with singing." She looked at the last girl who had yet to introduced herself. "Haera unnie, go!"

"My name is Choi Haera, and I'm 19 years old. I'm a vocalist too."

"So we have four vocalists," Angela looked around, trying to remember everyone's talents. "One dancer, one rapper, and one triple threat? That's a lot of singing." She said.

Haera nudged Angela. "Yah! We can dance too, okay!"

"Well, I guess we have to wait for the official allocation of positions in our group," Angela shrugged, making a face to Haera, and Haera made one back.

Lee Xian looked at all the members, and her sight landed on Jaemi. She didn't look very interested about what the team was discussing, just staring into space and occasionally rolling her eyes. Lee Xian wondered how they were going to get along in the future.

"How should we address you?" Lee Xian carefully asked, referring to Ji Eun and herself. She knew that manners was a very important part of Korean culture, and she didn't want to offend anyone without knowing so. Myunhong was about to say something when Jaemi interrupted.

"Sunbaes, of course," Jaemi said. "After all, we're your seniors." Ji Eun nodded, despite the fact that she had to call someone younger her sunbae. Lee Xian too, just agreed.

Soojin looked at her watch. "Our minders are probably coming back in 15 minutes' time, so I guess we can continue with our practice first?" Jaemi was the first to spring up.

"Come on Gel, let's do our rap again."

Angela jumped up too. "Okay!" She immediately agreed, and the two of them hurried to a corner, leaving the other girls behind.

A/N: Hello hello! Okay we need your help now! Please help us in thinking of the debut album tracklist and the official fanclub name~ anything will do! Just throw out something random as long as it sounds good and practical~ Thank you!! We'll need this in the next chapter, and our brain juices are running dry /claws face/ so if we don't get any suggestions we can't update D: You don't have to be a member of Ayise, anyone reading this can suggest, so please help and thank you in advance!! :)

Oh, and when you suggest the offical fanclub name, please provide a (believable) reason on how it got it's name. Thanks! ^~^