//2011, FEBRUARY//

YG ENTERTAINMENT HQ, MAPO-GU, SEOUL. 

01 : 00 AM

Teddy was checking his work when Mr. Yang came into the studio.

“Have some rest, Hongjun.”, Mr. Yang patted Teddy’s shoulder to claim his presence in the studio.

“Oh, Hyung, I thought you’re home already.”

“still working on the song  uh? let me hear it.”, Mr. Yang took a seat next to him.

Teddy nodded as he prepared the song for him.

The song started and they began to listen silently. Teddy carefully examined Mr. Yang’s expression but he just found nothing, like he always did. Mr. Yang finally nodded right before the song ended.

“How is it Hyung?”, Teddy asked eagerly, anxiously.

“Umm, it’s ready. We’re ready. Well done, Hongjun.”, he said plainly.

“do you think so, Hyung?”

“you doubt me then?”

“no, no, it’s just, I have things going in my mind, I’m afraid-“

“we’re ready. I mean it.”, Mr. Yang cut him off shortly. “now it’s time for you to go home, have a proper rest, don’t rot yourself here, you’ve done enough.”

Mr. Yang was about to leave when Teddy stopped him,

“Hyung, why do you give her to me?”

Mr. Yang stopped shortly, “Why are you asking this now? Is she a burden to you?”

“I think I can’t do this anymore, sorry Hyung, but I need to focus on my works, it’s not that she’s a burden, she comes at the wrong timing.”

“how long have you been with her? One, two, three days? I didn’t expect you to give up this quick when I thought of your name back then.”

“Hyung.”

“All you need to do is showing her how we work here.”

“But I can’t right now, not now,”, he exhaled, “please Hyung, just tell me, what makes you believe that she belongs here?”

Mr. Yang smiled, “The first time I saw her, I felt like I looked into the same determined eyes of yours, of Chaerin’s. As simple as that.”

Teddy fell silent as Mr. Yang walked out of the studio.

//

Sooyun was examining her own mix when a light tap landed on her shoulder, she opened her eyes to find her mom was staring at the monitor in front of her.

“It’s late already, you’d better go to sleep.”, her mom said shortly.

Sooyun nodded.

“Is that what you’ve been doing there?”, her mom referred to her monitor.

“Umm, quite yes, but, you know, I should watch more than do and listen more than to be listened, I’m still a trainee mom.”, she bitterly laughed.

“It would be easier if you were trained to sing or dance or maybe act, just think about it.”, her mom patted her shoulder again before she left.

She’s still the same. I should have known it.

She returned to her mix, replaced some plug-ins, added more layers, changed this and that before she threw her mouse away, she couldn’t get her mix right. She threw herself on the bed, starred at the empty space. Is this really what she wants, all this time. She began to feel her heart shrunk.

I thought this wouldn’t be this hard. What he had been through, wasn’t I as strong as him? All this time I thought I were stronger than him, all the burdens had been on my shoulder, not him. Why should I still fall far behind him when I didn’t even take the same route as him, couldn’t they just leave me alone then.

//

//

Sooyun got into the lift right before it closed. She was about to press the button when another hand reached it first, she gasped to find the hand led her to look at CL and Park Bom, they were busy talking to each other, hardly realized that a pair of eyes were looking at them. Sooyun turned her head to realize that no one in the lift seemed to be surprised by their presences, like it was a normal thing to be in the same lift as them, until the light above her blinked and the door swung open, she was still processing the situation before a voice startled her,

“excuse me.”

Sooyun turned and found it was CL who had just spoken, to her? CL smiled shortly before Sooyun moved so they could pass her by. People started buzzing as they disappeared from the view and the door closed.

“Oh My God!”, Sooyun exclaimed as she brutally pressed the button to make the door opened again. She could hear people complaining when the door swung open and she were out of the lift with people starring at her accusingly.

Sooyun turned left when she found out that CL and Bom was heading to Teddy’s studio. She paused as they disappeared inside the studio. Oh My, are they going to discuss a song with him? What should I do? This is my first time seeing artists discussing a song in real life.

She peeked into the studio and knocked on the door, Teddy nodded at her before she opened it.

“ah, I forget to tell you that today is the grouping day, your first project in a team, you’d better go upstairs now, it will begin in less than a minute.” Teddy said plainly. CL and Park Bom was looking at Sooyun who was stunned on her feet, grouping day?

Sooyun nodded, and bowed at them before she turned.

“Good luck on your first project, Sooyun.”, Teddy finally said.

Sooyun was stunned even more to hear him wished her good luck, she bitterly smiled at him, “thank you, Teddy sunbaenim.”, she bowed once again to them before she really left the studio.

“you’re a mentor now?”, CL asked Teddy not long after Sooyun left.

Teddy ignored her question.

“Wo, she must have had hard times sticking with you.”, CL mumbled.

“isn’t she the girl from the lift?”, Park Bom recalled.

//

“Wo, I thought she wouldn’t come for the grouping day tho.”, Hanbin plainly talked when Sooyun entered the room, drew the attention to her.

She felt uneasy as she sat next to Jinhwan.

“Hi, how you’ve been doing so far?”, Jinhwan greeted her.

“Hi, good I think, how about you?”

“Good then, I’m also doing good.”, Jinhwan hardly smiled.

Sooyun sensed something just wasn’t right in the room. “you guys don’t seem to be okay tho, is this by any chance because of the grouping day ?”

The boys suddenly turned at her as she finished her sentence, she was stunned.

“noona, don’t you get what this means? A grouping day? didn’t he tell you anything about the grouping day somehow?”, Hanbin exploded.

“My first project in a team, that’s what he had told me-“

“and do you think we’re just going to do a project together, like a group of kids?”

“hey, hold yourself, she might really don’t know what grouping day is.”

Things began to settle in Sooyun’s head, a group project.

“are we going to battle each other?”, Sooyun carefully asked, hoping that she wouldn’t hear the answer in her head.

“you realize it at last,”, Hanbin paused, “oh, yes, your mentor is Teddy sunbaenim, you should have nothing to be worried of, you must have learned a lot from him, all by yourself.”, Hanbin sighed.

“Is that what you’ve guys been thinking of me all this time?”, Sooyun asked, “that I got more things and eases you didn’t?”

“it’s not like that.”, Jinhwan tried to interfere.

“It’s okay, because all this time, what I’ve been doing is watching him doing his stuffs without even questioning a thing, all this time, I’m not more than an additional piece in the studio, if there’s a thing that makes him a mentor to me, it will be his ‘good luck’ minutes ago after he told me that today is the grouping day.”

The boys were stunned.

“I’ve been holding it to myself, now that I can finally let it out, thanks to you.”, she said shortly as the staffs from the training program entered the room.

“Hi kids, how you’ve been doing? It seems like we’ve just missed something here.”, the head of the training program bitterly smiled as she sensed the heat in the room.

No one spoke nor smiled.

“Okay, let’s go straight to the point, this grouping day-“, she paused to find the paper she was about to read to them. “as you know, you guys will be divided in groups, because you will work in groups anyway, so we want to  see how well you guys can work as groups for now. And to examine your ability to work in groups, at the end of this period, you need to perform in front of us as your monthly evaluation. Am I clear here?”

Everyone nodded.

“and for the groups, Mr. Yang himself had decided for you, I’ll read it out now,”, she paused and examined the kid’s faces tensed. “Hanbin, Seungyoon, and Jinwoo, you guys are in team A.”, she paused and looked at the kids who were now moving to their group, “so, the rest will be n team B, Bobby, Jinhwan, Taehyun and Sooyun.”

She could hear a low hiss and huss from the kids as they gathered with their team.

“I hope you can do well with your team, Mr. Yang had decided himself, so don’t let him down with your own  judgment, give us your best performance at the monthly evaluation.”

“number or experience doesn’t really matter here, we want you guys to perform as a team, we want to see two great teams, not an individual, understand?”

They nodded.

“oh, as you guys know, our company is currently having things to do, so we hope that you guys can do well by yourself, none of your mentor will join you this time, but you have your team already, and your studio will be announced shortly today, but meanwhile, you guys can think about your project here.”, she paused and asked the other staffs if they had something to tell the kids. None.

“Okay, good luck then, see you guys at the monthly evaluation.”, the staffs left the room one by one.

“now what, they’re leaving us on our own, without even a proper training program, we should face the monthly evaluation.”, Taehyun mumbled.

“what do you mean?”, Sooyun asked.

“Do you think it only happens to you, an additional piece in the studio you said? Do you think why Hanbin and Jinwoo hyung often skipped lunch? Why Hanbin was mad at you earlier?”

Sooyun stayed still.

“We come at the wrong time, everyone is too busy preparing for the comeback and all.”

“but now is our time, our chance to make them look at us, the monthly evaluation.”, Bobby cheered the others up.

“Yes, this is our chance, let’s make this worth it.”, Seungyoon talked to himself.

“But we battle each other, I can’t even sing, I’m a  deadweight.”, Sooyun mumbled to herself.

The room fell silence at once.

“okay, let’s go to noraebang after this, let’s see what you’ve got Noona.”, Bobby paused and looked at the other team, “will you come with us? Let’s make this our first outing, how that sounds to you?”

“I’m pretty good at noraebang, count us in.”, Jinwoo smiled, followed by Hanbin and Seungyoon.

“wait, we can’t go to noraebang with Seungyoon hyung, you’re a star Hyung, those girls won’t leave you alone.”

“ah, right, so we can’t go out with you guys? How about leaving him alone here? Can we go with you then?”, Jinwoo pledged.

“What? You’re thinking about leaving me alone just because of that? Aishhh.”, Seungyoon complained.

Soon they burst into laughter, together.

//