The silence is intermittently interrupted by a heavy breathing heard in the empty SM Entertaiment's practice room.

Nobody was in sight except for  a girl named Kang Seulgi who is busy practicing her dance choreo diligently even as other trainees left a few minutes ago. She didn’t stopped her pace and kept on moving till she started to feel the exhaustion wear her down and sent her head spinning, in an attempt to perfectly master her dance choreo steps, she hastened her movements to bring an outstanding on point sharpness.

 As one crafts and strives for perfection, mistakes are truly inevitable, Seulgi’s was close enough in completing her final step but her left foot skidded causing her to lose her calculated footwork and eventually losing her balance.

Hands on her head, she took the liberty of the mistake to evenly catch her breath. Succumbing to defeat that’s the least thing that she wanted to happen and yet at that moment she felt like she’s slowly crumbling from exhaustion.

Seulgi laid on the floor as hot tears began to fall from her eyes, aside from the tormenting body exhaustion; her mental state is knocking her down further down the pit of depression as flash of thoughts swarmed inside her head. Overcoming one pressure after another is a constant struggle, debuting is just one, longevity is another. She struggled in jumbling her weary mind and body to be intact every single time, she can’t afford to lose both. Everyday opens the chance of her improving and she knows deep in her heart she did just that. She didn’t want to deal with these emotions today, they are best to deal with at night. Her pillow as her confidant, she thought of just sleeping another night in tears.

No…not here…not now. The battle of stopping her tears from shamelessly falling is getting harder, she clenched her fists in frustration.

It’s too early to admit defeat, it is too early to admit that she’s a loser….an hour and a half more till the sun will bid its shiny rays goodbye. The night will fall and so is her defenses.

But today is different....

Her thoughts were cut short when she heard a familiar voice called her name.

"Seulgi~~"

Seulgi immediately stood up and wiped her eyes, turning her back a bit from the other person's view, then she faced and greeted her friend and co-member Wendy.

"Wendy~~ah" What brings you here? 

"I just finished practicing with vocal coach unnie." Wendy flashed a heart warming smile and coughed a bit.

"Are you okay...you must be tired from the practice?" Seulgi said worriedly her eyebrows furrowed.

Wendy motioned her hand gesturing an "I'm okay" yet her hand messaging her neck tells otherwise.

Wendy’s throat hurt so bad, she wanted to tell Seulgi casually but when  she noticed the relatively exhausted Seulgi  sweaty and distressed, she chose to feign that she is feeling fine . Now it's Wendy’s turn to feel worried.

Wendy rummaged thru her small bag and took out a towel.

"Come here Seulgi". She noticed Seulgi frozen in her stance, spacing out a bit.

"Seulgi~~" She called once more.

This time around Seulgi flashed an indiscernible smile, a smile that could possibly be labeled as fake yet the sweetness of Seulgi's youthful glow and innocence lingers.

Seulgi felt that her body weight and feet became heavy out of sheer exhaustion. It took all of her might to convince herself that walking towards your friend is not an unwanted chore. Finally she reached as to where Wendy was standing. She immediately closed her eyes as she felt Wendy's towel cover her face. Now even her eyelids felt heavy and her heartbeat violently pounded sending an alarming signal to her brain to feel afraid that at any moment she will cry as tears were already b in the moment she felt Wendy’s comforting gesture.

"Aissh, look at you all sweaty, didn't you bring any towel along?" Wendy carefully rubbed Seulgi's face.

Seulgi couldn't help it much longer as she burst into tears and sobbed softly.

Wendy expected that reaction from Seulgi, as she noticed Seulgi's smile earlier,  a smile that gave an impression that there was something more than Seulgi was happy to have seen Wendy, that customary friendly smile greeting failed to deliver genuinely as she noticed Seulgi’s mask cracked and it openly showed a preview of something: a hidden pain.

"Stop crying Seulgi~yah...there there." Wendy took Seulgi in her arms and she felt Seulgi's tears drenched her shoulders.

Wendy recognized Seulgi's pain, even if words fail to convey her feelings. Wendy understands Everything.  She understands Seulgi so well because they are still trainees sharing the same soon-to-be rookie mindset and burden. She gathered all her strength, breathed heavily and whispered to herself not to cry along with her. She should be strong. Strong enough to face the mirror in front of her….that is Seulgi. Crying, that is what she wanted to openly do, that is the exact same mirror of herself hidden deep inside of her, except that Wendy’s mirror is have yet to break.

"Unnie....it gets so tough you know" Seulgi spoke those her words ever so slowly, each syllable shattered Wendy's heart bit by bit.

"I know, I know, it will be better, it will get better"

Wendy absentmindedly touched Seulgi’s hair and it drawing uncharacterized patterns. Wendy’s thoughts is giving her a blur as if doubting her words that “indeed that it gets better” only time could tell what could better mean and what is in store for them, but she never doubted her fervent dream of aspiring of being a singer, a performer. She felt lucky and grateful to have given her dream a room in the four walls of SMent, there is no stopping now as her dream is finally about to come true, she is feeling even more ambitious to make more rooms for her future dreams. A strong sense of nostalgia came as she was reminded of her much younger self back in Canada, thinking of the ways on “how to live the dream”  now that she is back in her homeland South Korea, miles away from her the second home that she grew in, she can’t help but to feel a bit of resentful that she’s away from her family. A price that she has to pay and she’s making sure it is worth paying for.

Wendy knows she’s brave to weather each and every storm by smiling. Smile Wendy, smile and that’s her mantra, she smiled albeit weakly and told Seulgi to stop crying once agaim.

“Uljima, uljima”

She didn’t expect to eat her words as soon as it left her tongue. Wendy’s tears came crashing down. Feeling betrayed, she bit her trembling lips and whimpered the words...

“Sorry for not being strong enough….”

Seulgi held on Wendy tighter. The embrace so suffocating as if she's holding on her dear life. She is holding onto her present pillar, the refuge that she found in...Wendy's arms.

"Yah..." Seulgi  hesitantly broke from the embrace. She could have stayed longer as it was comforting and soothing to cry her heart out to someone after so long.

"Unnie.." Seulgi said simply even they're technically born in the same year and even days older than Wendy, somehow it only felt natural to her to utter that honorrific, at that moment she felt she's so weak, so vulnerable, she wanted to call onto someone superior to her. Having no one but Wendy at the moment make it seem absurd and laughable even, as to why she addressed her as "unnie"

As if reading Seulgi's mind. Wendy replied "Yah, Seulgi you silly you! you're older than me! don't make me the older one here!"

Both Wendy and Seulgi laughed softly.

"Wendy~ah, but really you are the stronger one, to be honest, whenever I see you, you seem so happy always. You seem to be good in hiding your pain but today I'm glad you broke that strong wall that you have and just let it loose, you cried with me. I am glad that we shared each other's pain by crying together."

Wendy simply smiled and surprised Seulgi by encircling her arm around her neck and jokingly strangled her softly, finishing it with a pat on Seulgi's head.

"You're Welcome" Wendy said.

Seulgi touched her neck and showed an exaggerated expression of being in pain.

"Ow...ow...ow, now that you did that, I think it’s best you’d treat me out to dinner!”

“Sure.” Wendy replied without hesitation thinking it is a good idea to cheer their spirits up to a nice delicious dinner.

“What do you want to---“ before Wendy could finish her sentence, Seulgi happily in screaming “Meat!” like an excited child.

Seulgi’s demeanor changed in an instant and Wendy felt a lot better to have comforted Seulgi and herself.  

Before leaving, Seulgi and Wendy both stared at the clouds plastered on the practice rooms’ wall and vowed  that they will fulfill their dreams together. Time is ticking; only a few months were left before the nation could get a first glimpse on the debut stage they’ve been dedicatedly worked hard for.

“Yaksokhae, Hwaiting!”

They both sealed it with a pinky swear and chuckled softly at their child-like antic, yet deep inside that child-like antic of promising to fulfill a dream even made them more courageous and determined to make their dreams substantial enough to finally make it into reality.

Their night ended with their tummies full, walking side by side with arms locked, happily chatting of the future’s possibilities, hearts  full of hope, anticipating for the day, that the group’s name: Red Velvet will officially be conceived.

Red Velvet will be well known and loved not just by Korea but the world.

Waiting for the day…..

Gidarhae…

The day will come…..

That day will come…..