Under the scrutinizing gaze of the Young Min and Soo Man, the trainees stood obediently in a row.

Youngmin’s eyes glanced at all the stage 5 trainees, shaking his head. All of them were pretty, yes, but what Young Min needed was someone who would stand out even among the brightest stars and it was going to be a challenge to pick from the bunch of trainees.

“Soo Man, what do you think?”

“I think that we should do the usual. Auditioning them one by one, so we can fully access their---”

“Stop,” Young Min raised one hand to stop Soo Man’s fluent flow of speech. “SM entertainment has always been known for good-looking idols. So now, pick those you think has the potential to be the prettiest among the prettiest before auditioning them for the final three girls.”

Letting out his breath slowly, Soo Man stood up from his seat and walked in front of the long row of trainees, “Does anyone think they are suitable to be the face of a group?”

Five of the trainees raised their hands. Some had confidently shot their hands up in the air, while some had hesitantly put it up. Either way, none of them were prepared for the next words that came out from Soo Man’s mouth.

“What we don’t need in idols, is the useless confidence in your looks. Never ever raise your hands up when someone ask you whether you think you are the prettiest. It would only show your arrogance. Jokingly doing so on variety shows are fine, but not in a situation like this. So, I’m not sorry to say, that five of you, are not qualified,” Soo Man knew his words were harsh, but trainees with enough arrogance to raise their hand on that question deserved to learn it the hard way. “Leave us now.”

Among the five, one had burst into ugly sobs and fled out of the room, while the others teared up slightly as they slowly filed out of the room.

“Congratulations on passing the first round. Now, those who pitied them, please take a step forward.”

There was a long silence before two girls stepped out, their hands interlocked. One of them had a stubborn but scared look on her face, while the other gave out the aura of someone who was going to take things as it is, not afraid of what was going to happen. A few seconds later, two more trainees stood forward, their trembling hands betrayed their inner feelings. After a few minutes, eight out of the fifteen trainees stood forward while seven remained at the back.

“Why did you pity them?” Soo Man directed the question at the first two.

“I think that I would understand the feeling of being rejected and although they do deserve it, it does not make my pity any less. It could be me in that position and since I stood forward, I think it would be me now.” the girl who had a scared yet stubborn look spoke up.

“What about you, Jing?”

“You know me?” The girl with that “I’m not afraid” aura appeared a little surprise.

“Of course. I receive reports on trainees from mentors often and I always asked them to rank the top ten among all the stage 5 trainees. Guess who appeared in most of the mentor’s top ten?”

“It helps that I requested to participate in lessons that are not for me.”

“And there’s nothing to stop the other from doing the same. But anyway, we are not here to talk about this. Why did you pity them?”

“I accompanied Xin although I do pity them to a certain extent. Rejection is never pleasant and even though I know I am going to receive one after I finish speaking, I bet I won’t find it any less horrible when you break the news and ask the eight of us to get lost through that door.”

Soo Man smiled and the sincerity in it made Jing a little puzzled, “Good, but I think you have mistaken. The ones that I will ask to get lost are those seven people who either had no guts to stand up in what they think is right or cared too much about their own profits to stand out. When I sent the five of them out, I bet even the most calculating person would feel something and that is empathy, if not sympathy. In this entertainment industry, despite what all of your might believe, we need idols to be brave enough and cares only about how hard they practice, not idols who don’t dare to do anything or cares more about their own benefits. So, again, I’m not sorry to say, that the seven of you can leave.”

After the seven of them left, Soo Man turned to Young Min, “These are the eight that will be auditioned and among them, we will pick the three to represent SM in Carmeline.”

“You do have a special way of picking.”

“I’m just trying to tell you that personality matters more than looks ever do.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Eight girls. Three winners.