.002

A week later…

“Hey Jessica!” Sooyoung and Yuri were very excited to see their buddy. “I can’t believe it! You two too?! Why didn’t you two tell me?” Jessica was disappointed. “Have you forgotten? It’s supposed to be confidential! No one is supposed to go around telling everybody!” Sooyoung spat. “Ah right!” Jessica came back to her senses. “Did you tell anyone that you were selected?” Yuri asked, noticing Jessica’s expression.
 
“Uh…I told my parents and Krystal. B-but they are not people who spread words.” Jessica said guiltily. “I guess its okay for the family to know right?” Jessica continued. Before Jessica could get answers out of her buddies, their conversation was interrupted by a commotion.
 
“YOU!!!” Stephanie who was wearing pink clothes with pink pants and pink shoes yelled. “What? Who are you?” Taeyeon who was opposite of her asked innocently. “Don’t you remember? You shortie, knocked me off the ground last week! It hurt, a lot!” Stephanie raised her voice. “I did apologize, twice! It was just a small fall anyways. Did you get a scar?” Taeyeon tried to defend herself.
 
“Luckily, I was able to heal myself from the injury! It will cause a scar if it wasn’t treated properly. Would you like to try that?” Stephanie said furiously as she stepped forward, intimidating the shorter girl. “No, why would I? Since you were able to treat it yourself, it won’t be a big deal anymore, would it?” Taeyeon asked naively. "Yah!!" Before the now fuming Stephanie could say anything more, a cough interrupted the girls.
 
"Mr Lee Soo Man." All the girls in the room stood up and greeted the man who just walked in and coughed. "Please sit down girls." Mr Lee Soo Man himself sat down as he said that on a couch placed on one side of the table facing all the other girls. Sooyoung, Jessica and Yuri sat in a row on the left side of Mr Lee Soo Man immediately. Juhyun who was unsure of where to sit, sat next to Yuri.
 
Hyoyeon took the initiative and sat on the right side of Mr Lee Soo Man facing Sooyoung. Sunny and Yoona sat next to Hyoyeon at the same time after Hyoyeon sat down. Taeyeon took a seat beside Seohyun while Stephanie took a seat beside Yoona.
 
"Alright, shall we start now?" Mr Lee Soo Man asked as all the girls are now seated. All the girls nodded. "You are all selected to be members of the upcoming girl group of our company. The name of your group shall be So Nyuh Shi Dae." All the girls gaped; they never thought that they will have a Korean girl group name as all the other girl groups' names are in English. However, they respected Mr Lee Soo Man's choice and let him continue.
 
"As you all know, besides being one of the idol girl groups, when you are offstage, you girls will be our national secret agents. So being national, I chose a Korean name instead of an English name of your girl group. As a mask, SNSD also meant Secret National Service (of) Dae Han Min Guk." After he said that, he looked at the girls, expecting some reaction but all of them stayed silent.
 
“Next, I want to say something about your names. Sunkyu, you will be debuting as Sunny, as one that brings light and hope to all our people and the fans. Stephanie, you will be debuting as Tiffany as you hoped for as we don’t want you to be confused with CSJH Stephanie. Next, is Juhyun, you will be debuting as Seohyun. The rest of you girls can keep to your birth name.” Mr Lee Soo Man stated quickly, not wanting to waste their time.
 
“You girls will debut next year on August 5^th, this will give you girls a lot of time to practice the dance until perfection. Once you debut, it also officially means that you are recognised by the government and will be doing your jobs when off stage. Any questions?” Mr Lee Soo Man asked the girls, worrying for them in his heart.
“What about our positions in the group?” Hyoyeon excitedly asked. “For that, please look at your profiles in the folder later that I prepared for you girls. You should be able to know what are the other members’ likes and dislikes, strengths and weaknesses. Also, the positions of you girls are in it too. It is essential that you know all these as these may help out in the interviews from the media and also when carrying out missions.” Explained Mr Lee Soo Man.
 
All the girls nodded and flipped open the folder as they receive the folders from Mr. Lee Soo Man. Each of the folders excluded their own profiles as Mr. Lee Soo Man did not want to start a ruckus about their own weaknesses. Their strengths and weaknesses are analysed by their trainers and did not went through the girls’ approval. As so, little argument would be made.

The room was quite silent but sometimes, there will be a chuckle, a giggle or laughter held in silence. The girls were pretty much amused by the other girls’ profiles.

When they were finished looking through the profiles, Mr. Lee Soo Man spoke. “You will be moving in to your dorms next week. So get everything ready and be prepared for training. The address will be sent to you by SMS. That’s it. Have a nice day.” He got up from his couch and exited the room, leaving the girls behind to get along with each other.
 
“Jessica! Have you seen what is written here? Haha!!” Sooyoung said while trying to hold in her tears from laughter. “Dislikes cucumber. What kind of person dislikes cucumber? Oh wait, you’re allergic to it too? Puhahaha!” Yuri joined the laughter with Sooyoung. “Yah!” Jessica screamed at them, shooting an icy glare at them. “Choi Sooyoung, your weakness is loud voice, you know that? And Kwon Yuri, yours is playfulness!”
 
The three of the girls continued to argue about their profiles that were written. The others just enjoyed the entertainment except Seohyun who was still intensely reading and memorising the profiles. Just then, Sunny spoke. “I think I need to tell you girls something so that we won’t have a misunderstanding in the future.” All of them looked at Sunny as Taeyeon asked, “What’s that?” Sunny hesitated for a moment before stating, “Mr. Lee Soo Man is my uncle.” She stopped, waiting for some reactions from the girls.
All the other girls chorused at the same time. “Oh…” An awkward silence filled the room after this statement. Sooyoung then asked Sunny, “So you came in without any auditions?” Sunny replied honestly, “I went through the auditions like the rest of you.” The other girls once again chorused another “Oh…” The reaction wasn’t what Sunny expected but she let it pass.
 
Mr Lee Soo Man strongly supported Mr Ban Ki Moon’s views of taking music to unite the people from all over the world. As so, her uncle had established this company to start the Hallyu wave so that people from all over the world can understand more of the Korean culture. Besides that, its goal was to keep the world safe. Nobody knew that Mr Lee Soo Man was actually helping Mr Ban Ki Moon, the Secretary-General of United Nations to keep the world united and peaceful by wiping out the organisations and associations who were blinded by greed or nobility to gain control of the world. So, he developed SM entertainment, known to the public as Star Museum when it actually meant Servicing Ministry- Ministry of South Korea that provides service to South Korea and the world.
 
She herself has joined SM entertainment to help her uncle and also because the company she was in before had closed down because of financial issues. The department which accepted her in knew she was Mr Lee Soo Man’s niece but they chose to pretend not realising it and letting her pass the auditions.
 
Taeyeon who was enjoying the entertainment from Sooyoung, Jessica and Yuri’s childish arguments thought to herself. “Now that I am the leader of the girl group, it’s going to be hard. Mr Lee Soo Man said that among the 9 of us, I am the most suitable to be the leader. But why? It doesn’t make sense to me!”

Tiffany, on the other hand, laid her eyes on Taeyeon. As her eyes were capturing Taeyeon’s image, her rage increased as she has not yet forgotten about the accident before. “Kim Taeyeon!” She suddenly shouted across the table. Taeyeon who was still in her own thoughts jumped as her name was heard. She looked to the source of the sound and found Tiffany glaring at her.
 
“Tiffany, I was really sorry! Please forgive me, please?” Taeyeon tried to act cute so that Tiffany could cool down. Tiffany’s eyes softened and Taeyeon took the chance to explain herself. “I was rushing to my brother’s graduation that day! If I missed it, my father would be so mad at me and he might not let me sing anymore!” Tiffany still couldn’t forgive Taeyeon as if it weren’t for her healing techniques, the wound would leave a scar and she won’t be able to be in her career she worked hard for.
 
Hyoyeon who was enjoying all the arguments between the girls, laughed her heart out uncontrollably at this time. As she did so, what she did not realise was that all eyes were now on her. She immediately put on a poker face after taking a peek between her laughs. Seohyun, at this time was a bit disappointed at the other members of the group. She expected her friend of her life, YeonHee to be in the same group as her. They both have the same dreams and they worked hard together. Why couldn’t they be in the same group then?
 
As she thought about that, her tears were starting to fill up her eyes. Hyoyeon and Yoona took note of that and approached her. Yoona immediately asked the crying girl what was wrong. Seohyun wanted to pour all her heart out but she couldn’t. It was because was stuck of all the sniffs she had earlier. Moreover, it was because she didn’t want to hurt the other members of the group because they might be angry at her and she did not want to start another argument because a harmonious group is supposed to lead them to success.
 
All the other girls in the room stopped their arguments and eyed the now crying girl. “Seohyun, don’t cry.” Yoona embraced the girl and patted her back. Taeyeon approached the girl and as a leader, she said, “Tell me what is wrong, Seohyun-ah.” Seohyun shook her head and continued to sob.

-END-