“Oh! My! God!”  Heather panted as she collapsed onto the cold wood floor of the dance studio. Three hours in and she was utterly exhausted. They were practicing their current dance routine, but they were also learning other songs from different groups. The most current song was Girls Generation Mr. Taxi.

“I can’t. I can’t go on anymore Unnie! I’m going to die!” she exclaimed as she fell back, splayed on the floor. Jenny stopped and stared at her with a raised brow.

“You can’t give.” She said. “We have a program in a few days. WE need to be able to have this routine down.” Jenny said as she moved and kicked Heather gently in the side. “Come on.”

Heather groaned and rolled onto her side. “Unnie is so mean to mean.” She whined, covering her head. The other two girls stood off to the side, sipping water. They watched as their leader unsuccessfully go their maknae off the floor.

“Unnie, we need to give her motivation.” Seyeon said as she looked around. Spotting a magazine next to the stereo, she moved to it. Grabbing it, she flipped through for a moment, finally finding the picture she wanted. Carefully, she ripped it out and found some tape. Walking to the mirror, she tapped the picture and pointed to it.

“After meeting them, we’ve become good friends.” She said. ‘But don’t think we haven’t noticed the way you look at him Heather.” Seyeon spoke. Heather lowered her arms and looked up at her unnie, frowning.

“Look at who?” she asked.

“Ren!”

“I don’t look at him!” heather protested, sitting up.

“Yes you do!” Tiffany inputted. “Your eyes get hearts in them. You go gaga.”

“I do not!” Heather protested once more, pouting. “He’s handsome yes, but they all are. And they sing well. I’m a Nu’est fan.” She admitted.

“Fan…girl.” Seyeon added with a grin.

“Oh stop!” Heather whined.

“We will. Only if you get up and continue with practice. Just think, the harder you work, the better you perform. The better you perform the more attention you get from the handsome blond.” Tiffany reasoned.

Heather stared at them in thought. The first meeting with Nu’est had been awkward, but eventful. Ren said little at the time, but he had just been so attractive, she couldn’t help but notice him. But…that didn’t mean she liked him. Still, she could protest that until she was blue in the face, but they would continue to . So she just gave in.

“Alright.” Heather groaned. Getting to her feet, she fixed the workout clothes she was wearing. “Let’s finish.”

“See! Hot guys get her to work!” Seyeon said happily.

‘Oh shut up unnie.” Heather muttered, getting back into position as the music started once more.

~*~*~*~

Heather stood outside their studio building shivering. Winter was still rolling through, a fresh blanket of snow covering the ground. She glared at the back of their manager’s head as the older woman chatted with the manager of Nu’est. They were out there getting ready to shoot the commercial for their upcoming show It’s a Brand New Day. They the day was coming that they would have to start recording, but did it have to be in the dead of winter? And when they had been practicing? Thank god for make-up artists and hair stylists, or they would have looked horrible.

“Cold?” JR asked as he walked over to her. She turned and stared at him, head nodding slightly, teeth chattering.

“Is it possible to be turned into a frozen pop idol?” she asked and small smile spreading over her lips as JR laughed.

“Maybe.” He said and motioned to the other members of Nu’est who were huddled together for warmth. “Wanna bet who freezes first?” he asked and she laughed at that. If she had to guess, she would have said Ren. He was already pale and short, so he was closer to the ground and the cold air.

“Leader-shii!” Baekho whined as he came up behind JR, wrapping his arms around his waist. “I’m so cold. What’s taking so long?” he asked.

JR jerked at the arms and the voice, but sighed. “I don’t know. If I did, do you think we would be standing out here freezing to death?” he asked with a shake of his head. Baekho shrugged some and started rocking from side to side.

“Whose idea was this again?” Tiffany asked as she ran up to Heather and cuddled against her for body heat. She was wearing the same amount of clothes as Heather was. The practice room was heated, and when they danced, light clothes were the best to wear. It helped them move easier.  They only had to transfer from their dorm to the van and from the van to the studio. They hadn’t bothered to wear clothes accordingly accept for the large jackets they were wearing.

“The question is, whose idea was it to shoot the commercial in the middle of winter on a day we were practicing.” Heather corrected her and once more glared at the back of their manager’s head.  “They want us to be frozen pop idols, I just know it.” She muttered.

“Does that mean you’ll be tastier?” Baekho asked. He grunted when JR elbowed him in the stomach and he looked at him. “What?” he asked.

Tiffany and Heather laughed some and it helped to warm their insides and take their mind off the cold. But only for a moment. The Producer and the managers finally came over. Were they finally going to start? About time.

“Alright everyone. Gather around. Hurry, hurry.” The producer called. The scattered members joined into a large group, seeking body heat from the person next to them. At the moment, they didn’t see themselves as a boy group and a girl group. They saw themselves as people who were giving off heat, so close proximity was not an issue at the moment.

“What we’re going to do is split you into pre-arranged groups. You will all have different parts in the commercial that we’re going to be shooting.” The producer explained as he held up a clip board and read it over.

“Alright then, Jenny and JR you’re in one group.” The producer said and watched as the two moved over together. “Seyeon, you are with Ren in group two. Baekho, you are with Minhyun and Tiffany in group three and lastly Aron and Heather are in group four.” He said. He waited until the members split into their groups before taking a stack of papers from another staff member and passed them out. The group numbers were written on the top to make for easy distribution.

Heather took her script and glanced at Aron. Not a bad person to be paired up with. They already had a lot of things in common, but her goal had been to be paired with Ren. It didn’t work out that way, but she wouldn’t complain. Not after she realized why they were put together. They didn’t just have a single part in the commercial. As flipped through the pages, she realized that the whole commercial was also written in English for them. Horrible English really.

“I don’t think this is fair.” Aron chuckled and looked at her. “We have to remember the whole commercial in English, plus our own part.” He said.

“I see that.” Heather said and looked up at him then. “Instead of saying it’s going to be broadcasted on SBS, it says YouTube. So they’re going to also have our episodes available to a wide range of audiences.”

“Well, isn’t that how they did it before?” Aron asked. “I mean, how you watched shows?” he questioned and frowned when Heather shook her head.

“No. Normally it’s broadcasted on KBS or SBS and someone either recorded the show or streamed it live from some place. And then they subtitled it and then uploaded. It was a process. So a show that you recorded that was aired last week, would actually be put on YouTube with readable subs two or three weeks after it was first aired.” She explained. “Really a hassle to be honest.” She muttered.

“Sounds like it.” Aron said and sighed. “Well, let’s get to memorizing. We have a large fan base to reach out to.” He said with a grin. Heather raised a brow at him and snorted.

“You do maybe, but not us. Raven just debuted, we don’t have a large fan base yet.” She said.

“Well all the more to practice right? Get more publicity.” Aron said and Heather smiled.

“You’re right.” She said and moved off to the side. She started moving from side to side as she read over the lines, reading them with Aron. She was still so cold. This commercial, it was going to be the death of her.

They didn’t get a lot of time to rehearse their lines, but that was alright as cue cards were put in place. Though they were encouraged to try and do it from memory. They were lined up in order of their parts and waited their turns, watching those that went before hand and whispering to each other on how to make their performance better. Soon time came for the English speakers and by then Heather was just ready to get it over with so she could go in and warm up.

“Alright, action!”

“So come on and join us as we play.” Aron spoke, smiling into the camera.

“Discover facts that you never knew.” Heather added.

“You’ll laugh,”

“You’ll cry,”

“You’ll scream and shout.” Aron said.

“And you’ll go with us we make ever lasting memories.” Heather said and smiled happily. “Oppas!” she suddenly cried out as Aron lifted her up and spun her around. That hadn’t been planned and caught her off guard. It was fun though; she would admit that, to be in the strong arms of a pop idol. A very handsome, pop idol that made her heart race for some odd reason. She laughed as he finally put her down and the producer called cut.

“Great work everyone.” He said and nodded as they all came back together. “It was perfect. We’ll start the editing process and the commercial will air the first of November.” He spoke. “Ah, Aron and Heather, we still need you for the English version of the commercial. The rest of you can go back in and get warmed up. Lunch is on us today. Great work!”

The group cheered at the mention of warmth and free food. Well, almost everyone cheered. Aron and Heather gave mini cheers because they still had to stand in the cold to record the English version of the commercial.

“Good luck you two. See you inside.” Jenny said and waved her fist in silent encouragement before joining the others that were heading inside of the studio.

“What did I do to deserve this punishment?” Heather sobbed softly to herself.