A van pulled up to the MBC building entrance in the covered parking lot. Five tired girls emerged from the van complete with hair and makeup. Their tired expressions became bright smiles as they turned to wave at their fans who were screaming from behind a roped barrier outside the parking lot. They began to make their way into the building as a second van pulled up. The side door opened and three girls emerged. A tall girl with long wavy hair ran ahead and grabbed one of the previous girls’ arm.

“Tiffany unnie…” Sooyoung said. “Could you wake up Sica unnie? Manager and I tried to tickle her like you said, but she didn’t even budge.” She rolled her eyes to show she was fed up.

“Sure,” Tiffany sighed. “I’m the only one who can find her ticklish spot anyways,” she muttered.

Tiffany went back to the second van and climbed in. She found Jessica asleep with her head cocked to one side. She unbuckled Jessica’s seatbelt and felt for her ribs. Once she found the right spot, she began to tickle her mercilessly. Jessica’s eyes flared at her.

“Yah!” she yelled angrily.

Tiffany quickly covered Jessica’s mouth and pointed to the open door. Jessica’s eyes glanced towards the door from which she could hear the fans cheering. She immediately quieted down and got a hold of her surroundings. Sure that Jessica was now awake, Tiffany removed her hand.

“We’re at MBC now and we’re running late as it is. Our schedule rehearsal is in 30 minutes and we haven’t changed or touched up our makeup yet,” whispered Tiffany.

She helped Jessica fix her hair and pulled her out of the van. They both turned to wave at the fans before running into the building. As they entered the hallway to the backstage rooms, they found 7 guys nervously standing in line ready to greet them. Jessica hid her confusion with a small smile. She remembered hearing about a group that just debuted from JYPE, but was too groggy to remember their group name.

“Annyeong Haseyo! 2PM-imnida!” they yelled and bowed a full 90 degrees. Jessica was taken aback and made an irritated face. She had just woken up and didn’t appreciate them yelling at her. Tiffany, however, was her usual bubbly self and greeted them warmly.

“Annyeong haseyo,” she said with her trademark eye-smile.

“Congratulations on your debut,” added Tiffany. The tall one winked at her. She let go of Jessica’s hand and made her way to their backstage room. Jessica was uncomfortable around strangers and gave them a nod before running after Tiffany.

She opened the door to their room to find four of her members already in their stage costumes getting touched up in front of a row of mirrors by their makeup artists. She could hear Yoona and Yuri giggling behind the curtains that hid the changing area while Tiffany and Seohyun were standing by the outfit rack. Tiffany disappeared behind a curtain while Seohyun approached her. She was already in costume with makeup done and not a hair out of place. She handed Jessica a costume and a pair of tall, white boots.

“Here are your things unnie. Please change quickly. The staff said we only have 20 minutes until our rehearsal time,” she said in her quiet but firm tone.

Jessica thanked her and went behind the screen to change. Seohyun was always on top of things and made sure to have things ready for Jessica. She never criticized Jessica for always making them run late like the other members, but she knew Seohyun’s habit of getting things ready for her was Seohyun’s own way handling Jessica’s tardiness. She went behind the curtain where she could now clearly hear Yoona and Yuri’s conversation.

“Did you see Jaebum-sshi?” Yuri giggled to Yoona.

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