“Yuntue, Hyehyun and Sumin all handed their songs to their manager who promised them that he would redirect them to the SM management which would ultimately chose whether one of them would be suited as a title track. The next three weeks passed in a blur, the Solibaljeon members went on a few radio and variety appearances and Hotaru finished shooting another drama.

"I bet a hundred won that Yuntue-unnie will win the song contest," Aimee said one day when Solibaljeon was on their day to another schedule, "After all she studied music in London."

"Well, I'm betting against it." Tiao Ning retorted, "Suminnie really improved. 150 won that she's going to win."

"You do know that gambling is illegal in the Republic of South Korea?" Hotaru meddled in and frowned at them accusingly. "I don't want you two to get into trouble and cause a scandal."

"Don't be such a joy-kill," Tiao Ning pouted and Seulyong added something like 'I also put ten bucks on Sumin-ah'. Hotaru shook her head in defeat. She didn't like to spoil the fun but she was very concerned about their actions and didn't want to do anything foolish when they were constantly watched by the media. But even their leader didn't view everything as potentially threatening as Hotaru so she started thinking that maybe it was about time for her to also become a bit more easy-going. She decided that she wanted to try being a bit more positive.

The result of the meeting of the head directors were nothing like what the girls were expecting. The money was safely stored by Bara, who along with Hotaru, had decided to not participate in the betting. When the manager announced to come over with one of the higher ups at SM and tell which song had been chosen, everyone had been in a frenzy, trying frantically to clean the mess in the apartment living room and make it at least slightly more presentable. Dirty dishes were thrown into the sink, dirty laundry was hastily thrown into the nearest closet and crumbs from snacking were haphazardly brushed under the sofa. Seulyong caused a mess by accidentally knocking a vase and spilling it's content of water and flowers on the carpet.

By the time the manager and staff member arrived, the flat looked almost clean, though no one was oblivious to the judgmental look the SM staffer had while looking at the wet spot on the carpet where the vase full with flowers and water had landed.

"Well, I came here to tell you about our next course of action with Solibaljeon," he said after the greetings and introductions were over. "There have been plans since months to advance into foreign markets. You might have guessed it already since your group consists of three half-Japanese, half-Koreans and one Chinese member. Anyways, we took a look at the songs and reckoned that they were decent enough to be title tracks. So we decided to go through with our plans and debut sub-units of Solibaljeon: Soli-K for Korean promotions, Soli-M for promotions in the Chinese Mainland and Soli-J for Japanese promotions. Each sub-unit will consist of three members who speak the language of the country they are promoting in at least on an intermediate level."

The representative paused and looked at the girls in an appraising manner. The members were silent at the unforeseen revelation. After all, splitting up and promoting in different sub-groups at the same time was something rather unheard of in South Korea. And the prospect to perhaps having to pack their bags and move overseas for the next few months was an exciting prospect for some and a unpleasent one for others.

"Can you tell us already who will be part of which sub-group?" Tiao Ning broke the silence after a while with an unmistakable amount of hope laced into her words. Everyone in the group knew that she kept in contact with her parents who were still living in China and it was evident that she hoped to become part of Soli-M in order to finally see them again after months.

"Yes, everything has been decided already. You should know that since you will be promoting as a trio, your positions in the sub-groups might differ a bit from your position in the group. We expect you to polish your skills since everyone will be getting more lines and we don't want any of you to stand out in a negative way by your inability to sing or perform."

He threw a pointed look to Hotaru and the Visual felt like curling into a ball. She knew that she lacked singing talent but she really tried her best so she felt very embarrassed to be reprimanded like this.

"How will leadership be passed on?" Seulyong asked,  rather concerned about how the units would promote in other countries.

"Seulyong, you're still leader of the group regardless. I will go further in detail in a few." The representative said as he gave Seulyong an acknowledging nod. "Now I will announce the sub-groups; First off, Soli-J. The group will consist of Hyoyoung, Wish and Bara. Wish is already the main vocal of Solibaljeon so she will be main vocal of Soli-J too, as well as position of leader. Bara will be upgraded to the main rapper, lead vocal of the sub-unit and Hyoyoung will be the main dancer and maknae. Since you three were born in Japan we wanted to ask you whether you want to keep your stage names for the Japanese promotions or whether you want to use your Japanese names. We think the latter would be an efficient marketing tactic to gain more fans in Japan since they would view you less like foreigners."

"Well, I never had another name but Bara which means Rose in Japanese so I think it fits Japan and I can't switch it." Bara mused.

"I wouldn't mind going going by Hotaru instead of Hyoyoung for once." Hotaru muttered.

All eyes were directed on Hyehyun. She gulped nervously. She didn't even knew what to think about moving to Japan for the next few months. Of course she was happy to visit her the country she was born in but all the people she cared about lived in South Korea, so she saw it more as a home at the moment. And if she was honest she preferred her stage name Wish to Michiyo since her Japanese birth name brought back unpleasant memories of her strict parents. "Is it okay to keep my current one?"

"Of course, no pressure," the representative said and gave her a curt smile, "Furthermore, as you probably already guessed, your song Move It, will be used as the Japanese title track. We thought the cheerful atmosphere and poppy sound will work well as a Japanese release. We can keep the name but it's your task now to write new Japanese lyrics for it. We also have a team working on your follow-up track."

He shifted and cleared his throat. "Next up is the ballad Minnie wrote. Tears but Still Beautiful, or something similar to this. The song will be used as the title track for Soli-M, the Chinese sub-unit. Minnie, you'll be in a group together with Seul and Hyemin. All of you can speak already a bit of Mandarin and I hope Hyemin is kind enough to help you hone your language proficiency."

"Of course, sir," Tiao Ning answered with a smile. Although she got along well enough with all of the eight girls, she was still glad that her two roommates would be part of the same line-up as her since these two were actually her closest friends among the members. She winked at them and Seulyong winked back. Sumin just starred into space while biting her lip, she seemed a bit concerned about promoting in China.

"Minnie will be the main vocal, Seulyong lead vocal, lead dancer and leader, and Hyemin, you'll be the maknae, visual, main dancer and vocalist of the group. The dancing routine isn't going to be too demanding though, my main concern is the singing since a ballad like this one isn't particularly easy. I expect that Minnie and Seul will help you out with that. Furthermore you'll also have to write fitting Mandarin lyrics to the song. We have a team working on your follow-up as well. And Hyemin, do you want to be called Hyemin or Tiao Ning for your Chinese promotions?"

"Tiao Ning is fine."

"Okay, I'll remember. The rest of you is going to be part of the Korean sub-unit: Soli-K. Yun, you'll be the main vocalist for this, Aimee is the lead vocal and main dancer and Sori is the main rapper and leader. Honestly, we were very impressed with you, Yun, since the song Lipstick is something very different from everything you composed before. It made us think that you are very versatile."

Yuntue smiled happily and made a mental note to thank Zico later. His instructions and criticism had helped her a lot while writing the track. Lipstick... Was it bad that Zico's bright pink lips were her inspiration to write the song at all? She blushed a bit and hoped that nobody would notice.

"The concept will be very quirky and unique - Aimee and Sori are two of the more rambunctious members and Yuntue's persona is '4D introvert' so we thought that a weird and crazy concept would suit you three well. You will also be promoting a follow-up as well."

"And who is the visual?" Sori piped out.

The representative deadpanned. "Everyone but you."

Aimee looked a bit sad that she wasn't one of the girls who had the opportunity to travel abroad and Sumin looked at her with a hint of envy, like she was jealous to not be one of the members that could stay at home. The representative and the manager left after giving out a few more information about the concepts and the places Soli-J and Soli-M were going to stay at and saying their goodbyes.

"When you all are away, I'll move into SeulMinTiao's room so I can finally sleep without Sori's sleepwalking antic." Yuntue announced and Seul threatened to lock the door when she was leaving. The J-members talked animatedly about all the things they want to do and visit once they'll be in Japan and Tiao Ning called her family to talk with them about the good news.

"Hey guys," Sumin called out suddenly, "I don't want to disrupt you but what are we doing with the betted money?"

Everyone looked at her.

"Divide it equally."

"Everyone should get her input back!"

"I should keep it since everybody lost!"

"How about we'll use it to order chicken?"

The girls voted and the chicken option, offered by Hotaru, won by a large margin. The girls ordered the food which came about fifteen minutes later and spend the rest of the evening in the living room, talking about Beijing, Tokyo, Seoul and other metropolises.