========== debut day.

[07 June 2015]

They nervously waited for their turn in the darkness, watching the group dancing their hearts out on stage. It was the Kings of kpop, Big Bang. Emma and Yue, for once, were not in the audience watching their seniors, or not helping out the staff. For once, for the first time, they were standing, watching, more worried for their own performance that would follow shortly after.

Would they be able to make a big bang in the industry as well?

"We can do this." Lueni whispered and for once, Jing did not feel like rolling her eyes at the leader. They trooped onto the stage, waiting for the cue of the PDs. Yue looked around for Emma, only to find her preoccupied with something. The girl had become an important pillar of strength through their times together, and they had been in a same company anyway, so it was quite natural.

"Emma?"

The girl whipped around, and Yue beckoned. "Quick! Twenty seconds!"

"Okay guys, we'll wow the audience and make sure they'll remember both us and the music." Emma rushed up and got them into a group huddle, piling their hands in the middle. "Fighting!" 

The group did a little group cheer as the song of the previous group ended. Carmeline walked confidently onto stage, their hearts thumping wildly against their ribcages. Every single one of them were nervous, as they all knew that a single mistake on their debut stage could cost the whole group their careers.

Hyerim shot a slight smile to the first row of the audience as Lueni took her position in the middle of the formation the moment the music started. They shot an encouraging smile to each other, much to the surprise of the members (Hyerim especially) as Lueni stepped up to sing her line.

Lueni started off well, her voice strong and confident, contrary to her feelings. Xin was up next, her voice pure and sweet, earning cheers from audiences. The song went pretty smoothly, just liked they practiced. There were unnoticeable mistakes here and there, but being trained as they were, the mistakes looked like part of the performance. There were cheers and applause from the audience when Bo$$ ended, but that was not the end, they still had two more songs to go.

No More Dream started playing and this was time for Yue's choreography skills to shine. The song started with Jing. She rapped her part comfortably with a swag that only Jing can pull off, earning screams from the audience. After Jing was the tiny Hyerim and she started the first rap verse with her high voice, more to the cute side. Angel had the second verse rap and she managed to pull it off perfectly, the struggles taken to learn it finally paid off. Yoonmi had a rap part before the final chorus and she, who had trouble with it at the start, managed to rap with strong emotions, feeling the lyrics that Jing changed in the core of her heart.

Beautiful killer was their last and final performance. Yue and Emma stood in front half of the time, leading the dance, executing it with a precision hardly seen in YG’s artistes. As beautiful killer slowly came to an end, they were finally done.

The cheers, screams and applause from the audience caused a bright smile to climb up their face. This was the perfect debut stage that they had always hoped for. They did it. Carmeline had officially debuted.

（๑❤д❤）൬

[same day; backstage]

"Good job."

"Well done."

"You'll shine! Golden Carméline forever!"

Seniors, fellow trainees were all backstage. Hugs followed all round, as the girls automatically reverted back to their own individual circles within their own companies, or their own circle of friends. Jing practically jumped onto Henry, who welcomed her with open arms, understanding her excitement, drawing a large 'awwww' from the crowd, and Xin graciously accepted hugs from Eunhyuk from Super Junior as well as Lay from EXO. They were in the SM waiting rooms, and Yoonmi entered a second later, immediately greeted by Byun Baekhyun with a fist bump.

Family and friends were calling, and Xin answered a call from her parents, grinning from ear to ear, and Jing greeted her family through a FaceTime call, happily waving with the idols that she had once observed from TV and from afar. Yoonmi's parents were actually present, and warm hugs were dished out all round.

Let's fast forward to the JYP rooms. 2PM were having a boisterous celebration with their juniors, dancing dorky versions of No More Dream and Taecyeon did a bad impression of Bo$$, making Hyerim fall to the floor with laughter. Lueni conversed with Suzy softly in a corner, but she let out a joyous squeal when the door opened again to reveal one of her best friends Hyuna, from 4Minute. Hyuna had MCed their debut as a special guest, and the few minutes before each stage had been spent frantically checking through choreography and vocals, so they hadn't much time to even interact. Angel, on the other hand, was calling her family, tears streaming down her face. No one asked, they gave her privacy. After all, debut could be a little emotional.

And, moving on.

"WASSUP GOLDEN PEOPLE!!" A voice boomed as the two staggered into the loudest room. Party poppers were whipped out and popped, people had strange cone hats usually reserved for kids' birthday parties on, and a huge, huge cake was right in the centre of the room, candles flickering and the obscene amount of cream making both girls drool. Minho and Seunghoon appeared on either side of them, blowing. Lee Seunghyun, better known as Seungri, rose to his feet, clapping loudly, deafeningly, causing Emma to cover her ears and laugh while Yue had her typical 'I'm judging you' expression on. He still had an obscene amount of hairspray in his hair, so his hair was sticking up in random directions, making Yue think of a madman, but she slapped a hi-five with him anyway. "Thanks for the support." She grinned, and bowed, Emma followed suit.

"Hey, good job girls." Another voice, softer, and a lot more conservative, murmured, and Yue could almost hear the smile in his voice.

"Aren't you just a proud mama." She teased, before pulling him into a hug. "Thanks Youngbae."

"Top's your mom. Go find the real proud mama." He pulled at her red hair extensions playfully, before turning around to congratulate the other girl. His words reminded Yue of her own parents, and she shot off to a corner to call them, ending up in a mess of emotions, laughing, crying, and Seunghyun walked over to her, to offer a bit of emotional support.

Emma smiled.

It had been so long since they actually last had a conversation.

"What's up, hey, you're looking well." He smiled, and the smile was genuine, as always. "And really pretty."

Emma blushed.

It wasn't as if she was trying to fake it or whatever, but his words really did have this huge, huge impact on her. Youngbae was an unknowing sweet-talker, the kind who has an uncanny ability to make every single word sound sincere without even trying to. And she never doubted that his words were not sincere.

"Thanks, you look well too." She pushed her hair back. It had been curled magnificently, and colored a light brown, tumbling down her back for dramatic effect. "Congratulations on making a comeback, I didn't get to tell you guys earlier." When I saw you backstage. She added mentally, the knowing look flickering in his eyes as he got her hidden meaning.

"Ah, yes, GD was very pre-occupied with his daughter." Youngbae nodded to Yue, who was currently being smothered by Choi Seunghyun with affectionate, fatherly cheek kisses and Kwon Jiyong trying desperately to stop him before she got choked to death. "Thanks, it means a lot to us."

Emma played with her hair again, twisting the ends. The rest of the YG family were either preparing for their own performances or eating the cake that was supposedly meant for the two of them. I mean, families share, right?

Youngbae wandered off to join the rest of his group, GD finally managed to have pulled Top off Yue, and started a hushed conversation together. Speaking of which, Emma sent a text to her mother, only to have a reply in seconds: We love you darling, you're always our golden star!

"Who's that girl in your group?" Kim Jiwon, better known as the talented and charismatic main rapper of iKon, bounded up to Yue the moment her ‘mother’ and ‘father’ finally let her off, after giving her tons of advice how to take care of herself and her appearance as well as the typical YG fashion briefing by the two biggest fashionistas that she had to sit through with a smile on her face.

"Who?" Yue prodded the boy beside her. Their relationship, she was glad, had never changed. They had trained together, rapped together, sang together, danced together. He had been there the first day she came into the agency wide-eyed, fresh-faced, with an inherent fear of all the other female trainees as well as instructors. He had been the first person to actually talk to her in a language other than Korean. She had been there when he had been put into Team B. He had been there for her when she struggled through the basics of Korean, little by little, They had both been there during sleepless nights, teasing each other, fighting each other, writing songs together, brainstorming lyrics, basically, everything. He was more than just a senior, he was one of her dearest and closest friends.

Suddenly, she felt a rush of affection towards him. Had it really been three years already?

He grinned, showing her his bunny teeth, not showing any sign that he knew what she was actually thinking about. "Yoonmi."

"What?"

"We’ve met a few times, you can say we’re friends. She's hot, don't you think?"

"Yeah." Yue gave him a questioning look as she replied, affirmative. After all, which girl in Carméline wasn't hot? (She