Watched: Gotham

      August 20th, 2009

August 20th, 2009

"Why can't my life ever be simple?" Echo groaned, aloud to herself, staring at the contents of a manila folder atop her thin legs. The members just finished recording Hello Baby and were going to be dropped off at their individual schedules, or the office.

"What's wrong?" Tiffany questioned, leaning her head on the taller girls shoulders.

"It's Arianna's contract, the one a guardian has to sign," she softly said, her shoulders drooped in her distress.

"Oh," was all her best friend said. Tiffany didn’t know how to respond, she never imagined either of them being in such a position before, especially at this moment (in other words they could have a child who might want to go into the industry).

"I'm not even allowed to disclose any of the information with anyone, so I can't even get anyone else's opinions on it," she sighed, shutting her dark brown eyes and resting her heavy head on the headrest.

"When's the deadline?"

"Tonight," she groaned. "I'm going after filming."

"I'm sure you'll make the right decision," Tiffany affectionately patted the taller girls leg in support.

I'm not so sure about that.

"Hello we are Girls' Generations Jessica and Echo!" the two foreigners proudly greeted themselves to the Taehee Hyekyo Jihyun staff and actors. Echo's heart beat was obvious in her chest, twisting in her anxiousness to get in front of the camera.

She would never say acting was her passion, but she definitely had a deep love for it. She only ever had two small parts before this, this one even smaller, for her to be able to call it love. It was a simple role with only a handful of lines, but it was a role nonetheless. And she was sure as hell going to rock it.

"Taeminnie!" Echo widely smiled at the lanky boy, affectionately patting his cheek when she walked up to him.

"Noona," the SHINee member happily grinned at the shorter woman. "I was really happy when I saw you were going to be one of the SNSD members to come on the show today, Jonghyun was really excited too, he wanted to come today."

"That would have been sweet of him," she simply replied.

"Noona can I," Taemin's brown eyes roamed their surroundings, making sure no one was close enough to hear them, "can I ask you a question?"

She wrinkled her brows in confusion, "Of course."

"Do you still love my hyung?"

Echo would have spit out her drink if she was drinking. "E-excuse me?" She wouldn’t have expected Taemin of all people to ask such a blatant question. "What is bringing this up?"

"Well, you never see each other anymore for one," the maknae pointed out. "And you don't answer his texts that often either."

The brunette sighed, flicking a lock of hair behind her shoulder in growing irritation. "Taemin-ah, if he wants to talk about our relationship please let him do it himself, instead of him going through somebody else."

She turned to walk away, but the younger boy grasped her elbow to stop her. "He didn't tell me to, I'm just worried. You mean a lot to him, noona."

"He means a lot to me too," she ended, swiftly walking back towards her member minutes before the shooting was to begin.

"What was that about?" Jessica questioned, with a raised eyebrow.

"Boy problems," she sighed, shaking her head, not wanting to talk about it.

"You and Jonghyun finally breaking up?" she guessed, aloof in her gaze.

"No!" Echo gaped at the elder member. Why would she even ask that? "How can you ask me that?"

The blonde shrugged. Before Echo could question her further they were called to set, sighing, she gave up.

"You did really well," multiple actors and actresses praised the two Girls' Generation members at the final scene, as they just finished filming everyone dancing to "Tell Me Your Wish Genie". The girls graciously accepted the praise, thanking all of the staff members before leaving with their manager.

"You have to go to the office, right?" Jiwook asked, the youngest girl, after they situated themselves into the familiar van.

"Yeah," she responded, the previous pressure laying heavy in her heart once more.

"What's with the look?" Jessica asked, briefly looking away from the phone in her thin fingers to give the girl a questioning look.

"I have a huge decision to make today," she responded.

"What is it?" the blonde turned back to her phone, fingers furiously texting.

"I have to decide if Arianna can debut or not."

"Her and Crystal are in the same group, right? Why are you questioning if if it's her dream?"

"Because this life is difficult. I don't know if I want my sister to have to go through the things I have. Just look at our debut and how many anti's we had. I don't know if she could handle a black ocean."

Her fingers momentarily paused, hovering above the darkened screen at the memory. Jessica slowly placed the phone in her lap. "You can't protect her from everything. She knows there will be anti's, she's prepared for the backlash. She's been a trainee for almost as long as you have been an idol, it's her time. You're forgetting one major factor that she has and you haven't."

"What's that?"

"She has you," she softly smiled. "If anything gets too hard she knows that she has her big sister to relay on, to question and to make her feel better when times get tough. Idol life is far from easy, she knows that. Especially from seeing you half asleep all the time. She knows what she's getting into but it's still her dream, just like yours."

Their brown eyes connected. Echo had no more words, she didn't need any more. Just the look in her members eyes was enough at this point. She knew what she had to do, and she was more than positive it was the right choice.

"Unnie!" Ari smiled, jumping up from the waiting room chair, once she saw her elder sister exit the elevator.

"Hey," Echo grinned, accepting the younger girls hug. "Where are your teammates?"

"Their parents already came to sign their papers," she explained, awkwardly shifting from foot to foot. "I was afraid you wouldn't come."

"I wouldn't stand in the way of your dream," the elder reassured, affectingly linking arms and walking towards the founder's office. The secretary nasally yelled out he would see them now.

"Thanks, Allison," her sister brightly smiled, pure joy and happiness in her dark eyes.

"Here are two roles," Hajoon tossed a thin stack of papers onto the idols lap, replacing both hands onto the steering wheel.

"Roles?" Echo repeated, curiously picking up the packet, swiftly examining its contents.

"For dramas," Hajoon scoffed, eyes firmly on the road, barely suppressing an eye roll.

"Oh!" with newfound energy the idol looked at the contents closer, eagerly reading over the two parts. "It doesn't say anything about auditions."

"Welcome to being a part of the latest Nations Girl Group," the manager smirked. "These parts were actually offered to the company, they asked for Yoona but, obviously, she's too busy at the moment. After a few conference calls they agreed on a different member, as long as it's a Girls' Generation member."

"So, that's why I'm actually getting a choice?"

Hajoon bit the inside of his lip, relieved at the fact that he legally couldn’t take his eyes off the road. "Yeah, I need a choice by the morning."

The idol nodded, eyes scanning both titles.

"Enjoy Life or You're Beautiful."

Is Echo ever going to go to college? She's a bad role model if she doesn’t.

I wonder whose closest to who behind the scenes, they can't all be besties.

I heard a rumor that Jessica's sister was going to debut. Isn't Echo's sister a trainee too? Hopefully she has more talent than her sister claims she does.

There's going to be an important author's note uploaded over the weekend, please read it.