“Are you ready for the recordings?” Bara asked excitedly while she and her fellow group members followed a company staff member to the recording rooms. She has been practicing in them before, small cubicles with just a high-tech microphone and a music stand but this didn't make the situation less exciting. After all they were now going to record their songs in there.

Yuntue, Hyehyun and Sumin really did their best with this album. They worked for weeks on the songs, scribbling down notes before frowning or shaking their heads, crumpling the music sheets and throwing their compositions into the bin which almost overflowed from all the paper. But their efforts would be worth it – Bara listened to their songs and all of them were great. There weren't any fillers and it was hard choosing even the promotional track. She herself disagreed with their final decision but well, if the three composers thought that it would be the best choice they probably knew better.

Finally the company staff member stopped and opened the door to one of the recording rooms. The girls went inside and bowed to the recording team and their vocal coach there.

“Anhyeonghaesaeyo, Solibaljeon imnida!" They said in unison.

When Yuntue straightened and looked up she was relieved to see that the recording and the mixing engineer as well as the producer were people she already knew. Before SM Entertainment allowed them to use their compositions for their first album, they had to present their songs in front of a music expert team consisting of the three of them who would judge their songs.

Fortunately most of their compositions got a pass and just one of them had minor things to be fixed. Seeing that the audio engineering team already knew them they probably had more freedom to sing like they wanted. Yuntue read somewhere that the recording staff usually tells idols how to sing and pronounce each note, raps included. She hoped that the recording team would see that they were already capable of reading the notes themselves. Yuntue didn't like it if someone tried to mess up her compositions.

“Hello, I'm Jenny Lee, a mixing engineer, and we are your recording team for today. Let's start with the title track, shall we? Baek Sumin, your parts are first." The producer said, a lively woman in her mid-thirties with a bright smile. Yuntue's wishes were coming true since the team didn't give too many explanations and only five minutes later Sumin was shuffled into the small recording booth. The other eight members leaned against a wall of the recording room.

“If you want you can go into the room next to this one on the right and sit on the couches. You  girls don't have to stand here the entire time." Lee-sshi suggested since the space was getting cramped. But the girls shook their heads and answered that it was fine. It was the recording for their first album after all and no one wanted to miss it.

“Kim-ah? You have to put on your headset on." An audio engineer exclaimed. Sumin was looking a little confused in the recording booth. On the other side of the large window she saw the audio team but she didn't hear their voices and couldn't read their lips. One of the audio engineers motioned putting something on his head and Sumin muttered a small 'oh' while a blush crept onto her face. Flustered she immediately put on the headphones.

“Can you hear us now?” The voice coming out of the headphones was really loud so she flinched a bit. “Should I turn the volume up?”

Sumin ferveciously shook her head until she remembered the microphone in front of her. She leaned a bit closer and said a soft 'no'. Hearing her own voice through the speakers was kind of surprising for her since it sounded different. She couldn't really pinpoint it, but it was indeed clearer then her usual singing. It sounded really pretty even though it was a bit weird.

“Okay, do you remember the instructions?”

Sumin nodded again and suddenly the instrumental version of 'What should I do?” started playing. She closed her eyes and listened with attention. A few seconds later the music stopped.

“This was only one of your parts, we'll do each one seperately. Would you rather sing your parts a few more times without the instrumental or are you already ready to record it with the music?”

“I'm fine with recording." Sumin answered and showed a small smile.

“Great. So, three, two, one -” The engineer pressed the play button and the music shot through Sumin's headphones. She waited two bars until her part began.

“geunikka uriga
daeche manna mwol haenneunde”

“Her voice is really great. After they worked with her we probably all sound like tone-deafs to the recording team," Aimee mumbled to Seulyong.

“In Sori's case it's probably true, though.” Seulyong chuckled. She looked at the white-blonde rapper but luckily the girl didn't hear her or else she would've probably started a fight in the recording room.

"That's definition true." Aimee muttered, stifling her laughter lest the rapper heard.

“But I agree, though. I hope they don't have too high standards after they hear her," Seulyong added while the audio engineer kept praising Sumin.

“Perfect, this was really good. Let's do it once again!”

Sumin smiled happily. “Kamsahamnida.”

They recorded her parts for a few more times and Sumin got many more compliments from the coach and the recording team.

“This wasn't actually as hard as I thought," she said happily when she left the booth. “But now I'm really thirsty. I need some water before the recording of the next song.”

“The room on the right has some beverages for you. Seriously girls, I don't want to shush you out but having eight idols in this tiny recording room that always whisper something in the back while another one of their group members is recording, isn't that nice for us, either." Lee-sshi nagged.

“I understand. Come on, girls. We're going into the waiting room." Seulyong directed as the dutiful leader. Tiao Ning, Hyehyun and Hotaru instantly followed her while Yuntue seemed to me a bit hesitant of leaving her compositions in the hands of the crew and Bara seemed too curious to go now.

When Lee-sshi saw their faces she rolled her eyes. “Okay, if you really want to stay, I don't mind having one or two idols around. But not all eight!”

Bara smiled triumphally and Hyehyun sent her a jealous look.

“We are going to change after a few recordings." she huffed before following Tiao Ning outside.

“Lee Hotaru!”

Hotaru who was about to get out of the recording room, turned around.

“It's your turn next.”

With wobbly legs she went to the engineering team. Being the second one right after Sumin wasn't really that awesome, in her opinion. At least it would be over soon.

“This is one of your parts. Can you read sheet paper?” he asked and she nodded. Every SM Trainee learned how to read sheet notes and even though she just transferred from the acting department to the idol department she was fully capable of that. The engineer showed her how to sing and pronunce everything and the vocal coach sang her part.

“Now, try to sing it, too." he said.

Hotaru gulped and cleared .

“cheom mannasseo nae ape inneun neon
amuri saenggakhae bwado gieogi annayo”

Even in her own ears it sounded bad.

“You lack power." The producer exclaimed, “You sound like you are about to fall asleep right now.”

Hotaru lowered her head and apologized. She could feel the judging gazes in her neck.

“Try again."  The producer ordered.

Now Hotaru put more effort into showing emotions and making it more powerful. Her voice had always been soft but she could at least try to do her best, like she always did.

“Gosh, this was even worse.” The producer said rather dryly. “Your voice sounds really fake. The way you try to make it more powerful makes it sounds even worse and kind of snobbish.”

Hotaru looked to the ground. This was really insulting, were they making fun of her? She did try her best and that comment wasn't helpful at all.

“I'll try again..." She hesitantly said, exhaling and started singing the line again. Her voice cracked.

Were Yuntue and Bara upset because of her incompetence? She would totally understand them, her part wasn't even very high or difficult and she still had problems. She was really a bad singer and she dragged the group down.

The producer sighed and ran one of his hands through his balding hair. “You know what? Just go into the recording booth and sing your part, we'll do the rest for you.”

“Don't worry, you weren't that bad. They can fix it with their mixer and make you sound awesome!" Bara said with a reassuring smile when Hotaru left the recording booth. Hotaru wasn't too outgoing to any of them but somehow Bara never seemed to mind. She treated all of her band members nicely and it seemed like she genuinely cared about her well-being.

“That's not the point. I have to sing well in lives and right now I'm not able to do that." She answered. She felt like she couldn't contribute anything to the group. Well, she was the Visual and therefore she was pretty, but so were the other members. Bara and Tiao Ning were beautiful and could have been Visuals, too.

“But on the other hand, you are one of the better dancers of the team. Not on Tiao's or Aimee's level but you are still decent." Bara tried to liften up the mood. She patted Hotaru's back who just sighed before she went to the waiting room, leaving her alone. She looked to Yuntue who was talking to the producer.

Bara truly tried to befriend everyone of her band mates and make them feel comfortable within the group but some of them were persistently distantiating themselves. Well, Bara would ask Onew for help when they were finished with their recording.

Bara turned to the audio engineering team and asked, “Who's next?”

“Could you bring Hyemin in?” One of the men asked and Bara nodded before turning to the waiting room.

“Tiao Ning, you are next," She motioned at the Chinese member who swiftly sat up and went into the recording room. Then she plopped down on the couch on which Tiao Ning just sat and tucked a black, shoulder-length strand of hair behind her ear.

“Do we have anything to drink here?” She asked when she saw the many small coke and water bottles on a small glass table in front of her.

“Yup. Do you want some Coke, Sprite or plain water?” Hyehyun asked, who was closest to the tiny refrigerator. She was surprised upon seeing it since it was commonly known that drinking something cold wasn't a good idea if you had to record your singing afterwards but the temperature of the refrigerator wasn't that low. But it was definitely nice to have something to drink during a recording.

“Do they have orange juice?”

Hyehyun rummaged through the refrigerator. “No, I don't see any. But they actually have apple juice."

“Then I rather take a water.”

Hyehyun took a bottle and closed the refrigerator afterwards. She then opened the bottle and put one of the straws that were in a glass on the table in the bottle.

“Here you go.” She gave Bara the waterbottle before leaning back into her seat. She sighed before suddenly shifting in her seat. “This is so boring."

“Aren't you a bit nervous? When I went in, my hands were shaking." Sumin admitted.

“No, why should we? We're just going to sing some verses into the microphone. There isn't much we could do wrong." Hyehyun answered. “Besides, I practiced my parts hundreds of times already.”

"Just because you practiced a hundred times doesn't mean the producer won't like it. Trust me, I know from experience." Seulyong voiced out, the older girl texting her Cube friends with the time she had. Seulyong wasn't really the mysterious one in the group, in fact she was the most outgoing. But there were things that even the other eight members didn't know. Like her Cube training days. She gave Hyehyun a quick glance before replying to a text that Beast's leader sent her. "Even if you're one of the main vocalists of the group, shouldn't mean you should be too confident. Sometimes they recording team will knock you down flat on your toes."

"How do you know this unnie?" Sumin asked.

Seulyong leaned back against the couch and eyed her members. "You all know I was a Cube trainee before. I was supposed to debut in a girl group in 2010 before G.Na-unnie's debut and before BTOB was even formed. We already recorded for our mini album and rehearsed the dancing but we were put off and our debut was delayed because of G.Na-unnie's debut was forwarded. Ah well... I can debut at least. Not with Cube like I intended but oh well."

"Then go back to Cube." Hyehyun scoffed, rolling her eyes at Seulyong. If it's one person in the group she didnt get along with, it was their leader. Hyehyun still held a grudge for Seulyong being made the leader instead of her. She trained for eight years under SM and technically Seulyong trained only 3 years at SM. Why was she leader? It was so unfair!

"Be nice, Hyehyun." Sori called out from the corner of the room. The rapper sat next to Seulyong, trying to steal her phone as the leader pushed her hand away. "If you don't like it, you could always leave. But then you'll have to wait another couple years before debuting. Again."

Hyehyun rolled her eyes before muttering an apology to the unnie line. She wanted to debut so she had better cool herself before Sori really lashed out. She huffed before looking at the door, waiting for her turn. "I'm positive I'll do great."

“In the end they could still fall back on auto-tune. There's nothing to be afraid of. A little overconfidence is kinda good unnie. I actually rather find this all interesting." Aimee jumped in her seat, rather excitingly. “I think I'm going back to the recording studio.”

“I'm coming with you." Hyehyun called out, who was also curious about the recording process. She also wanted to escape the menacing glare that Sori was giving her. 

Seulyong frowned, Sori and Bara patting the older girl's shoulder, letting her know not to let the dongsaengs get to her emotions. “Well, you better not make any noises. I don't want to be scolded by the producer.”

Being yelled was the last thing Seulyong wanted to happened.

Yuntue nodded at them when Aimee and Hyehyun entered. Tiao Ning was currently singing. While Hyehyun counted Tiao Ning as one of the weakest singers of the group she couldn't deny that Tiao Ning hit all of her notes quite well now. She wasn't a good singer by any means but her voice could carry the verses and there were undoubtly worse vocalists in Kpop.

“It's still a bit unreal that we are going to debut, isn't it? SM Entertainment is currently spending so much money for our album preparations and while I was always dreaming about it, actually debuting after only a year of preparations seems like a dream.” Aimee whispered after a while of only listening to their band mate's singing.

“Who are you telling that? After eight years of training and all the hardships I faced with my family I wasn't sure if I would debut at all." Hyehyun said back, a slightly melancholic look in her eyes.

"Don't let Seulyong-unnie hear you say that. She'll start a tantrum." Aimee softly chuckled.

“But we are going to debut. We finally made it." Yuntue said, giving them almost a heart attack. They both didn't even know when she was actually standing next to them instead of being with the producers on the other side of the room.

“Yuntue, stop creeping on us like this. I was so scared for a moment." Aimee begged.

“Good work, Hyemin, I think we have enough material. Next is Wish." The producer okayed the idol. Tiao Ning put off her headphones and opened the door to the recording booth.

“Good luck." She said while passing Hyehyun who was about to get her instructions. Yuntue smiled, something she rarely did.

Aimee was right, it was indeed unbelievable. Half a year ago she wasn't even part of SM Entertainment and now her group was preparing for their debut. She was curious what would come next.

Sori wrote chapter one!  How do you all like it? 

T-ara's What Should I Do was my song choice haha. Hope its fine! I actually color coded the lyrics for the debut album (just because I was mainly bored and I thought it works be cool) so I'll link that next chapter! 

Linda just edited this chapter hahaha. And I did add a little bit of stuff too. Like Hyehyun's rivalry with Seulyong. I hope it was ok to do that. I just thought that with Hyehyun's trainee years and Seul's double trainee years it'll be interesting :)

Anyways~ Hope you all like it! Fighting!

~Linda

Hey, Sori here~

We finally reached the 100 comments mark :D You guys are awesome, like seriously, this makes me so happy ^_^

About the rivality - well, we think that in every group there are members that are close to each other and members that are less close Just take the Taeyeon-Tiffany-Jessica trio as example. This is still their beginning and so it's normal that not everybody gets along with all of the other group members.