Do you ever have that feeling that makes you think something worthwhile's gonna happen? Maybe your long-lost cousin is actually famous and he/she wants to meet you, you get an A on your math test and you haven't gotten one since forever or maybe you just feel lucky because you actually feel refreshed when you woke up this morning. Today was such a day for Zhang Jinghua who was hoping for something interesting to happen during her training times.

"Is Zhang Jinghua in this room?" An opened the door a crack, peeking his head in. "Yes, she's... right there," the instructor scanned the trainees and his eyes landed on Zhang Jinghua, standing in a corner.

"Will you please come with me?" the opened the door wider and Jinghua made her way across the room, muttering an occasional "pardon" and "sorry."

"We have selected you as one of the potential candidates for the new solo artist," the explained as they exited the room. "You will now enter an... audition, let's sa, to see if you are able to be that solo artist." The two reached a door at the end of the hallway and the opened the door, motioning her in.

"Greetings, Zhang Jinghua. Please take a seat." A smiling Lee Soo Man was sitting in a swivel chair behind a desk, facing a mic set.

"Hello, Lee Soo Man," she bowed deeply and took her seat behind the mic set. 

"Now, I will hand you the sheet music we have prepared for the upcoming solo artist. It is a renedition of... ah, Jessie J's 'Price Tag.' Do you happen to be familiar with that song?" Lee Soo Man shuffled through the pile of papers on the desk and selected two which was handed over to Jinghua.

She nodded in agreement, having heard the song many times on the radio while driving in downtown LA. As she placed the headphones on, Jinghua did a quick scan of the music which seemed pretty easy, by the looks of it.

"All you have to sing is the first verse and the chorus," Soo Man instructed. "It is all we need."

(meh. insert music here.

because I don't know how you write this part.)

After she finished, she placed the headphones back into it's original position and took a bow, smiling on the inside as Soo Man clapped. "That was wonderful, Zhang Jinghua! Certainly far much better then your friend Leah."

--------back at the trainee room.

"Woohoo! Who's going to be a solo artist? ME!" SM's most sough-after girl entered the room, shaking her hips...

"O.M.G, LEAH! Of COURSE you'd be the solo artist, I KNOW IT! Could I be your makeup artist?" One of her friends squealed in delight, looking like she would DIE of excitement.

"Wait-who's this I spot? An enemy in the distance? Zhang Jinghua, I know I am better then you," she hissed, sashaying over to Jinghua, sitting in her corner. "And I know that my rich daddy will make ME a star because I have POTENTIAL," she flipped her hair and her friends nodded.

Zhang Jinghua did not know how to respond when the world's plastic-ated girl just insulted her so she kept shut. "Your little boyfriend Kris is nowhere to be seen and he can't back you up now, can he?" She cackled with an intense glint in her eyes. 

"He's not my boyfriend," she muttered uncomfortably. "Leave me alone, will you?"

Before she could respond with a jeering remark, the door flung open and in came 4 boys, looking wild and jubilant.

The hot boys of SM. They had "serious potential," the trainers had said.

Potential to have fangirls bow down to them.

Jinghua knew all of them-she met them each individually with a little story behind it, the one that stood out the most was Junmyeon.

When Jinghua first arrived at SM for her first day of training, she was not expecting a guy to lean out of his car window and start singing a random Korean ballad. She was certainly not expecting the guy to look at her and definitely unprepared for the fact that he was also a trainee at SM.

So when she did see him, he was all "YOU'RE MY SOULMATE" and Jinghua felt pretty creeped out by this. Nobody in their sane mind would go like that to some random stranger een if you sang to them in a taxicab.

"Hey Zhang Jinghua!" Junmyeon called out. "What's up?" He stood in front of Jinghua, beaming. "Guess who just auditioned for SM's new band?"

"...you?" The answer was blatantly obvious, Jinghua thought.

"Yep! I can tell you, the judges LOVED me! Haha!" Junmyeon sang that word with pride.

"That's wonderful, Junmyeon," said Jinghua, trying to mean it.

"Hello, Jinghua," Kris, the "hot guy number one" of SM casually walked to their spot, greeting them." 

"Hey, Kris," Jinghua responded, barely smiling.

"So, I'm in a band, did you know?" He broke out into a grin and high-fived Junmyeon. 

"Yeah, I know," said Jinghua. "Junmyeon told me all about it."

"Oh look, Yixing's back!" Junmyeon strode over to Yixing who was standing at the doorway looking quite excited. Kris looked at Junmyeon for a split second, watching him go. He then turned his attention back to me.

"Jinghua, you used to be so bubbly and kind, now you're... well, who are you? You're a bit of a loner, downer, unfriendly and Severus Snape type of person. You used to put up fights if someone argued or insulted you but now if Leah insults you, you just brush it off like it's nothing. It's like you don't care what they say."

[Flashback-sort of maybe not]

"Jinghua, let me-"

"No, I'm not having it!"

"Aw, come on, why does it always have to go your way?"

"Because it's obviously the more interesting way? Come on, we can't just 'perform covers' without mixing it up, there's no point in doing something that's already done!"

"Yeah, but we've always been having it your way since forever! Can't you just let one of us take the lead and follow us? You ALWAYS have the same idea every time and I'm sick of it! We like how the original song sounds and we want to play it like that!"

I stopped to turn at Yifan's expression of outrage and saw a shadow of fear cross his face.

"You know what? Fine. If you want to perform the song your boring way, I'm calling quits. I don't understand why you don't want to do mashups of songs instead of your lame one song cover." I walked away from the garage, fuming on the inside.

That was it. I wasn't a part of the band anymore. I felt like I made a right decision but it still felt wrong.

"My gosh, what did we do?" Gege asked.

"It's OK, Xingtuo," Yifan replied. He banged the drums and the two started to play whatever song they so desired.

I became less and less attached to gege after that. Yifan moved away so I didn't have to deal with him, but I was always thinking about him. There would be days where I just sat in the woods, listening to my music.

The day I moved away was... Interesting. My friends threw a big going away party and that was a bit heartbreaking, in a sense.

However, the thing that really bugged me was my brother never said goodbye.

[End of flashback]

It was 12 P.M.  when the group wrapped up their training. "Good job, you guys!" Their instructors called out half-heartedly, feeling very exhausted and frustrated themselves. 

Even though Jinghua slipped into this routine of waking up at five and going to sleep at one, she was pretty much knocked out each day from sleep depriviation. Maybe that's why I act like Severus Snape, she thought.

Outside, breathing in the cool night air, she quickly shoved her pink wig into her purse and strolled to her bus stop like nothing happened. There, a man was sitting, staring at the roads. His prominent cheekbones shone in the artificial light, Jinghua noted. 

Her bus came and she went on it, leaving in silence.

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