“An SMtown special, this is so exciting!”

“Hey, you kids had better watch what you say, everyone knows everyone’s secrets, and yours will be revealed if you expose anyone else’s!”

“Yeah, yeah, we heard you the first time, Jungsoo oppa, why the constant nagging anyway? Do you have some secret we don’t know about?”

It was chaos in the waiting room which housed the 17 idols. A few members from each hit group managed by SM were present, getting their hair and make-up fixed before they appeared on the popular weekly variety show, Strong Heart. It was the first time in a long, long time that they had a chance to meet each other, no thanks to crazy conflicting schedules, and the idols were all eager to catch up with each other.

Everyone, but Hyoyeon, that is.

The girl sat in the corner of the room, with both earphones plugged in, staring into space. It was especially unusual - We are, after all, talking about Kim Hyoyeon, the most childish, noisiest and most fun-loving member of Girls’ Generation.

Many people noticed her change in behavior, but they all dismissed it quickly. It could be stress, or maybe fatigue. It wasn’t strange that their peers slip into occasional mild depression anyway, it was the unmentioned clause in their job description. It was probably just a phase that she was going through, one that she would be able to climb out of as quickly as she fell into it.

But this wasn’t just another phase. Hyoyeon had been carrying the burden, whether she knew it or not, for the past 16 years, and recent discoveries have reopened the wounds that she thought had healed just fine. Maybe it was time to clear the air. Make some changes. She had always believed that the people who proposed on camera were stupid, gutless fools, lacking in sincerity.

But maybe, just maybe, she was a coward. Maybe, under that solid, fearless cover, she was actually afraid of losing someone precious.

Today, she's going to tell the world about how she became a dancer.