-- Geum Min

I stare at the sharp black letters imprinted onto the white background. Actually, the paper is a little crumpled, and not pinned properly to the board – the paper flaps about whenever people so much as breathe onto it. Everyone wants to look at the paper now, and there’s a huge crowd of girls around me, all of them squeezing, pushing and pulling to get to the front so they can see. A few of the taller girls stand behind me, making use of their height advantage to peer at the all-important paper over everyone else’s heads.

My eyes slide over to my sisters’, and we exchange glances of surprise. It’s not long before I’m elbowed roughly out of the way and I find myself outside the gaggle of girls. Mechanically, I move over to a bench at the side of the hallway and sit myself down.

A cool arm brushes my shoulder, and I look up into warm brown eyes. “Congratulations!”

I feel the corners of my lips turn up into a smile. “Minwoo. Hi.”

He grins at me, the tips of his hair ever-so-slightly damp from all the training he’s been doing. “You’re still dazed, aren’t you?”

Looking at my feet, I nod slightly. He pushes my chin up with his forefinger, and raises my face until I’m looking him straight in the eyes.

“You got in,” he tells me. “You got in.”

“You made it, Jo Geummin. You did it.”

The words are like bursts of fire that shoot from my stomach to the rest of my body. My heart starts beating faster, but with it, everything around me slows down. Minwoo’s smile hangs in my vision, assuring me that I’m not dreaming.

It’s true.

I made it.

“I got in!” I finally cheer, throwing my arms around his neck and giving him a firm hug.

I can feel his chest rumble as he laughs. Breaking away, I grin at him. Over his shoulder, I catch a glimpse of my brothers as they snake their way through the crowd of girls I just left. They spot me and run over, grinning from ear to ear. Yoomin follows them, looking just as dazed as I felt a few minutes ago.

The twins stop just in front of me, and Yoomin blindly stumbles into them. “Ow,” she mutters, still looking lost.

The younger of the two brothers turns and promptly gives her a hug as well. “Congratulations, Yoomin-ah!”

Funnily enough, he looks more excited about the news than Yoomin. Youngmin slaps my shoulder, wishing me well too.

“Has it sunk in yet, Yoominnie?” another voice breaks in, and I spot Jeongmin winding an arm around my sister’s waist.

As I watch, he takes a furtive look around, before landing a small peck on her cheek and moving a little away. I don’t think anyone else noticed – which is good, because they’ve got to keep their relationship secret or the pair of them will get into trouble. Minwoo and I have got to be careful too, but we’re still not at the stage where we show much affection to each other in public. I don’t know if we’ll ever get to be as cheesy as my sister and her boyfriend – I hope not, because that’s just… nevermind.

Kwangmin attacks me, pulling me abruptly off the bench and spinning me around. I let him, and my hairs sprays out beside me as we twirl. It’s grown a lot longer, almost to my waist – if it grows any longer I’m sure Eomma will ask me to cut it. She says it’s not good for anyone to have hair beyond their . It makes sense, in a way – I mean, imagine, you’d be sitting on your own hair!

“Whoa, there!” someone exclaims in warning, but it’s too late because my brother and I barrel straight into her.

We end up on the floor, all three of us apologizing at the same time. The person we knocked down is a girl. A lock of her hair falls between her eyes, and she’s looking awkwardly at my brother, who unfortunately fell straight into her lap. Turning red, he gathers himself up and stands, murmuring another apology to her. He bows and turns his back to us, walking back towards our small group, all of who are howling with mirth. I grimace at his back.

Turning back to the girl, I roll my eyes. “Sorry about that.”

Her dark eyes twinkle at me. “Are you two related?”

Frowning, I ponder the question. “Not now,” I eventually reply.

She sighs with understanding. “I know the feeling.”

Extending my hand to her, I offer to pull her up. She grabs it and we stand up together.

“So, Geummin,” she says, “You’re in the group too?”

“Yep. I can’t believe my luck!”

“I know right? Me neither! You and your sister are the faces of the group!”

Chuckling, I wave my hand. “Nothing’s set in stone yet, it could always change at the last minute. Look at what happened to Boyfriend!”

A haze seems to come over her eyes. “But imagine, this time next year we could be performing on stage to our own songs! We could be idols!”

I silently agree with her. This is my dream – the one thing I have wanted all my life, and it looks like it’s about to come true! It would be horrible if this were taken away from me.

The paper still hangs on the wall, reminding me of my achievement. Warmth ripples through my body as I think about it again: I’m in the trainee group! What this means is that we’ll be separated from the rest of the trainees and coached for debut. Of course, this isn’t final yet – if Starship decides to, it can change around the group members, or even scrap the whole group in favour of another. The idea is scary.

By now a lot of the girls who gathered around the notice have spotted me, and my friend, and they’re making their way over to us now. Over the next few minutes we’re drowned by the well wishes of almost all of Starship’s trainees. I can see in some of their eyes that they’re struggling to hold it together – I mean this is the chance of a lifetime, and they haven’t been lucky enough as I to get it. Their pain is understandable, and I know that if I were in their place it would be just as hard to contain my disappointment. Some of the people I see are close friends of mine, and I’m genuinely upset that they can’t share in my good fortune.

Soyoung, the girl I bumped into earlier, is another of my good friends here in Starship. She also goes to the same school as I do. It’s great to know that we’ll be debuting together – if at all – because she’s trustworthy, extremely nice, and funny. I’m surely going to have fun with her around.

The crowd shifts over to Yoomin, who’s standing a few feet away, and I have some breathing space. “Did you manage to see who the leader is going to be? I was too shocked to notice,” I ask Soyoung.

“Well,” she pauses to consider. “I think it was Sumi? You know, she’s in a batch slightly ahead of ours?”

“Oh, with the bangs?”

“Yup, that’s her over there!” Soyoung tells me.

She nods her head in the direction of a girl slightly shorter than me, standing with a group of other girls and chatting animatedly. The girl looks pretty, all right. I feel a sense nagging at me just then, a thought that’s floating just out of reach. Furrowing my brows, I try to grab at it, but I’m distracted by my sister.

“Oh my gosh,” she whispers, slipping into place next to me. “I can’t believe we’re in the new trainee group!”

Grinning, I grasp her hands and let out a squeal, bouncing lightly on my tired toes.

“Yikes,” Soyoung jumps suddenly, digging into her bag. “I need to go drop this off – see you both later!”

We bid her goodbye. Just then, the door to the dance studio opens and two of our trainers come out – one of them my choreographer and the other a teacher with a sullen look on his face. The one who told me a long time ago that I couldn’t make it.

Straightening my back, I put on a smile as his eyes meet mine. I have been given this chance to prove myself, and I will show him what I’m capable of. He frowns upon meeting my gaze, and turns away. Next to him, my choreographer grins and waves over at me. I lift my hand and return the greeting, my smile widening also.

“Congratulations, the pair of you!” he exclaims, weaving through the thinning crowd to get to us. “I always knew you could do it!”

“Thank you, seonsaeng,” my twin and I say in unison.

Spotting Boyfriend behind us, he claps a hand on both of our shoulders and makes his way over to them – probably to talk to them about the dance routine for their next comeback.

Comeback. My heart flutters as I think that next year, with luck, fingers crossed, and all the pixie dust in the world – I will be learning my comeback dance too.

“Skye!” I yell, crashing a hand on her room door.

Yoomin rattles the knob for better effect, but the door unexpectedly opens. Shocked, we stand there dumbly, staring in at an equally disconcerted Skye, who looks back at us from her work table. It’s clattered with an array of paper, stationery and books.

Skye recovers first. “Hey!” she says, brushing away a mountain of work so that she can stand up. “It’s rude to barge in on someone like that!”

“Well, the door was open,” Yoomin replies.

“And we knocked,” I add.

Rolling her eyes, Skye flops down on her bed, patting the empty space next to her to indicate that we should sit also. As I cross the room, a light breeze coming in from the open window in her room caresses my face. This place has changed a lot since I first came here – six months ago? Back then, it was nearly bare, with boxes stacked high in every corner. Right now it looks more homely. The windows are framed with maroon curtains made of a thin, floaty material – they match the wooden table she was just sitting at. Her room is spacious but simply decorated, and many of Skye’s favourite pictures are framed on the pale amber walls. The sheets of her bed are ochre, and they feel cool to the touch.

“We have some bad news, and some good news,” I say in a very serious tone.

My friend’s eyes widen in alarm. “Bad news?!”

I nod solemnly, training my gaze on my fingernails and trying to look serious. Yoomin does the same.

“What kind of bad news? What happened?” Skye asks in a soft voice, looking worried.

Clearing my throat, I tell her, “We won’t be able to see you much more in school.”

drops open. “Why not? Are you guys moving?”

Shaking her head, Yoomin says, “We’re not moving. Well, we -”

“WE GOT INTO THE TRAINEE GROUP!” I shout at the top of my voice, grabbing my friend and shaking her in excitement.

She screams as I grab her, well and truly shocked. Yoomin starts laughing at the pair of us.

“It’s embarrassing to know the pair of you,” she announces, scooting over to the far corner of the bed.

“You scared me,” Skye whispers to me, crossing her arms and shuddering. “I thought you were moving out of the country or something!”

“Nopes, but we really will start to get busy soon, especially if we are going to debut. We’ll have schedules and everything!”

The corners of her lips stretch downwards slightly. It’s not very obvious, but having known her for a while now, I catch that expression as a sign that she’s not very happy about this.

But then her eyes light up. “Wait, debut?!”

Yoomin starts applauding her. “I was wondering how long you’d take to get it!”

Skye grins and playfully punches her. “This is amazing, you guys! Congratulations!”

“I know, right?” I trill, bouncing around yet again. “I can’t wait to debut!”

Now it’s Skye’s turn to act solemn and serious. Grabbing our hands, she waits until we look at her before she starts speaking.

“Please promise me you’ll never lose touch with me! No matter how busy you are!”

“Of course not!” my sister and I reply almost instantaneously.

“We’d never,” Yoomin says. “You’re one of our best friends!”

I nod in agreement. Skye smiles now, and squeezes our hands.

“I know you guys will do well! And save me a spot at your debut stage!”

As Yoomin’s mouth widens in a smile, I feel my eyes prick with tears. I don’t even know why I feel like crying right now, but for some reason hearing Skye say that makes me feel emotional. It’s nice to know that someone’s there who has our backs, who’ll support us no matter what. And it just hits me all over again that I have a chance – an actual chance – to debut, that I could be standing on a stage and performing for fans…

I realize that the other two are looking at me, smiling as if they’d just been teasing me. Sniffling, I grin back at them, slapping at their hands at the same time. Then burst out giggling in response.

Outside, the first sign of green pokes through the layer of snow on the ground.