Nine girls across the globe were destined to meet and come to know each other. While getting trained to become world class stars, these girls encountered countless challenges that brought down tears and sweat in their lives. With all their effort, together as one, they became a part of history, Girls’ Generation, the national representative girl group of South Korea.

August 5^th, 2007: The Journey Began

There was great tension in the air. All nine girls were shaking in both happiness and fear. They were happy because their years of hard training had come to an end. Their tears and sweat paid off as they were on their final way to reach their shared dream, whereas their fears were all about the worries of something that may go wrong.

However, all fears were gone as they stepped onto the stage. Fan chant echoed inside the enormous studio. The name “So Nyeo Shi Dae” that the fans were shouting, was never really fascinating until today. Anxiously, they began to dance and sing to their song; "Into The New World’’ perfectly.The song ended, and as they stepped out of the stage, tears of joy started to overwhelm their emotions. They were jumping all around no different from 5 year old kids.It was indeed a dream come true.

October 11^th, 2007: The First Win

This was a day that these 9 girls had hope and motivation to continue their journeyas Girls’ Generation. To the public, it was not a special award, but to them, it was a miracle, hope, and everything you can say. The moment when the MCs announced their name, their hearts almost came out, beating so fast. Tears kept flowing down on their face. People say, “Crying makes you ugly”, but this moment implied how beautiful their sobs were because their eyes were shining with sparkles of joy.With this trophy, it was not their end. It was just the beginning to their legend.

June 7^th, 2008: The Black Ocean

Performing on the "Dream Concert’’for the first time was an honour for the girls. Overtaken with their happiness, they couldn’t believe that they were going to perform on the same stage with their seniors. The moment they stepped on the stage, they expected to hear loud applauses from the audience.

The colourful view in front of them turned black. The supposed-to-be loud applauses became a dead silence. They were not given any chance to react because the music began to play. They tried their best to perform as hard as possible, however, the audience started to yell for them to leave, shouting in the name of other artists. Tears started to flow down the girls’ faces. The moment the world was against them, it seemed that there was no hope.

On the opposite side of the big venue, there was a bright pink ocean of people who loved them. It was hope. This one single hope gave them big encouragement to continue what they were doing.There is no light without darkness.

March 13^th, 2009: First Place for 9 Consecutive Weeks

On 1^st of January, their first mini album was released and out of all the tracks,  the song ‘’Gee’’ stood out the most. In a short period of time, this song became a national phenomenon. The name “Girls’ Generation” was spread across the entire nation and possibly all of Asia like wildfire. Everyone loved their song. It held a significantly enormous popularity within the country and soon became an internet hit on YouTube. ‘’Gee’’ broke records and their popularity rose, making them into trend setters.

The music charts showed them as winners and the girls could not help but scream in shock. It was them again. For the ninth time, they won the award for best song. The girls hugged each other in delight. Some were trying to hold back their tears while the others were smiling happily. It was a very touching moment that the other artists were happy for them.

“We made a comeback within 9 months and for 9 weeks, the 9 members received 9 trophies.” –Sooyoung Choi.

December 10^th, 2009: The DaesangAward on 25^th Golden Disk Award

“Congratulations, So Nyeo Shi Dae.”

It was surreal for the girls. Amazing as it was, the girls could not just believe what just happened. Winning awards were huge motivations; however,winning the most prestigious award was simply unbelievable.

Present: The Legend Continues

No matter how hard they try to be perfect, no celebrity can escape the haters. Even if you do nothing wrong, they will always find your flaws and use it as a knife to stab your heart. But, how are some celebrities able to overcome these hateful and hurtful criticisms? It is simply because they learn to ignore.

Some people are unable to ignore all of these criticisms which can lead them to give up their dreams. The ones who are able to overcome this, find themselves indifferent to all of the comments on the internet.

Taeyeon found herself unable to escape the hurtful comments. Instead of ignoring everything, she opened her phone and read what the haters had to say about her as tears flowed down fromher beautiful dark brown eyes.

Her hands shook as she clenched the phone tightly. She hadn’t slept at all for days and the overwhelming stress did not help because her body was not able to control it. She was there, sitting on the cold, hard floor inside her bedroom with her arms hugging her knees; her right hand clenching the phone, and her left hand clamped to to muffle the sobbing.

Taeyeon tried to stand up but her strength was weaker than an injured person. After trying several times, she eventually got up. However, a sudden headache hit her, causing her to fall down to the floor again. Her vision was getting more blurred. Soon, she found herself seeing nothing but darkness.

#

She opened her eyes slowly but the bright light hurt her eyes and the headache did not help her feel any better.

“Taeng, are you okay?” Tiffany’s loud voice surprised her. Taeyeon tried to sit up but failed due to the pain which throbbed inside her body. She opened her eyes wide, trying to adjust to the brightness of the light. She looked around and realized that she was in the hospital. That explains why she was greeted by the worried faces of her members when she woke up. She couldn’t help but feel touched that her girls were always there for her. Always.

“I’m fine.” Her beautiful voice was unexpectedly hoarse. Seohyun, who was nearby and she took the cup of water and headed to Taeyeon. Taeyeon mouthed a “Thank you.” and drank the water.

“Taeng, I told you. Don’t read those comments. They are just from people who have nothing better to do with their lives so they spend caring about other peoples’ones.’’.‘’Pathetic, I must say.” commented Sunny, crossing her arms, frowning.Taeyeon chuckled silently as Sunny acted like an ajumma. A cuter and ier ajumma.

“I am really sorry, guys.” Taeyeon used her puppy eyes at Sunny. She smiled immediately after seeing the frown on Sunny’s face had vanished.

The door opened, and their manager came in. He walked in and announced, “Girls, prepare your things and get a good sleep. We are going to Japan tomorrow. And, Taeyeon, you can go home now.”

“But she’s still weak.” complained Yuri. Sunny and Sooyoung raised their eyebrows and looked at their manager. Well, more like glare.

“We have no choice. The concert is tomorrow. You won’t like it if we cancel the concert, right?” Manager smiled apologetically and walked out of the room. After he was gone, a sigh was heard inside the room. All eyes were on Tiffany.

“What? We have no choice. You sure you’re okay, Tae?” Her eyes turned to the leader who seemed very pale. Taeyeon smiled and shrugged. However, deep inside her heart, there was fear. Fear that no one would come to the concert.

#

After one more hour, the concert would start. Taeyeon’s nerve was about to break because she was so nervous. Her mind was blocked. She couldn’t think of anything. Fear haunted her. The question “What if….?” kept bugging her. Negative thoughts dominated her brain. She started to sweat. Sunny, who was beside her, noticed the strange behavior of her usually confident leader. She took a glance at Taeyeonand held her hand.

“Everything’s going to be alright. Don’t worry.” Taeyeon smiled back, secretly hoping that it would be really alright. She sighed again for the nth time of the day.

#

It was time. Taeyeon, along with her members, stepped on the stage lift. As it lifted up to the main stage, Taeyeon’s knees became weak. Finally, she was on the stage. The view in front of her was beyond expectation.

They were there, her fans. They were all there as they promised. “Always here.”,they said. There still was a monumentally beautiful pink ocean in front of her. She was wrong, really wrong about her fans. Tears dropped slowly. This time, it was not from the pain inside her heart, but from the happiness she received from her fans.

She cried because her fans were always there to protect, embrace, and love her no matter what happened. She was also thankful to her members for protecting her from the hate she had received, forgiving her for all the mistakes she had made, and being with her forever.

#

“It’s party time!!!” Tiffany shouted excitedly, jumping on the couch like a 5 year old child. Sunny joined in and soon, Yuri and Yoona entered the fun time. In 5 minutes, the jumping battle turned into a pillow fight. Out of the blue, the pillow flew a different direction hitting the sleeping ‘’Ice Princess’’.

Silence greeted. “You guys are so dead!” Jessica shouted as she collected all the pillows and threw it across the big living room. The battle ended when Sooyoung brought food from the kitchen.

The girls set up the table with food and wine. A beautiful cake was in the middle of the table forSeohyun whose birthday was today. The girls sat and started to celebrate. Seohyunwished and blew the candle on the cake.

“I know it has been a tough year for all of us. To Taeyeon unnie who suffered the most, please stop crying alone because we are here for you. Lean on us when you are feeling weak, you can’t be strong all the time. We are a family. We are always welcome to comfort you. We will cry with you and we will be there for you no matter what happens. Don’t blame yourself because it is not your fault. No one’s fault. Stop crying because of those people. They don’t deserve any of your tears. We are here. I love you, unni.” Seohyun read her letter toTaeyeon while sobbing. Not just her but all the members including Taeyeon were crying.

The girls hugged each other so tightly that nobody could ever possibly break their embrace. Their bond was indestructible. Unbreakable. 2014 has not been a good year, but their bond brought miracles to them. The warmth of their bond spread across the world as all SONEs felt it.

Walking the many and unknowable paths, I follow a dim light. It’s something we’ll do together to the end, into the new world.

Don’t ever think this is the end because right now, tomorrow, in the future, there will always be Girls’ Generation.

THE END