Ten years ago.

Seulgi was out of breath as she leaned on her back against the wall. She scanned the practice room and saw she was on the same boat with her fellow trainees. She spotted Kai and Sehun across the room, sprawled on the floor. She wanted to go near them but her body slid down and she sat on the cold wooden floor.

Their dance trainer just said something about practice tomorrow on the same time which made everyone in the room grunt in disapproval. He ignored them and left. Some of the trainees still had energy left to stand up and go home. 

Seulgi was still panting as she wiped off the sweat on her forehead with the back of her hand. She was dead tired but the night wasn’t over for her. She still had homework to finish and needed to study for History. Apparently, her History teacher had a habit of giving exams on Monday. She sighed at the dreadful thought as she rested her head and closed her eyes.

“Here.”

Seulgi heard a cold but soft voice. She looked at the person who was holding a water bottle which was raised in front of her face.

“Drink before you get dehydrated.” The girl pushed the water bottle closer to Seulgi’s face.

“Thanks.” Seulgi took the water bottle and uncapped it. She took a swig, closing her eyes while enjoying the cold liquid that was draining down on to her exhausted throat. “You’re the new girl, right?” Seulgi asked after putting the cap back on the bottle. She saw the girl nod.

“I’m Seulgi.” She extended her hand and glad the other girl took it.

“Soojung.”

Seulgi noticed the accent and furrowed her eyebrows in curiosity. “American?”

“Yes.”

Seulgi also noticed the short responses. She shrugged her shoulders as she pulled back her hand. “I never knew this could be so tiring.” She said as she shifted her gaze back to the center of the practice room. There weren’t much trainees left but her friends were still on the floor. She heard them laughing, they were probably talking about something stupid again.

“You should eat more. I think you need more strength to last another 5 hours of practice tomorrow night.” Soojung said.

Seulgi winced, she didn’t want to think about tomorrow.

“Thanks. I’ll manage.” Came out a weak reply.

“Hey.” Soojung touched her shoulder, making her look at the girl. “Hang in there.”

Seulgi thought there were no muscles alive in her system anymore but her lips started to form a smile.

---

Nine years ago.

The bell rang and the students excitedly filed up to get out of the classroom to enjoy their Friday. Although, there was one student who was left in dreamland on her desk. Her friend sighed as she approached the sleeping figure.

“Wake up.” Soojung tried shaking Seulgi gently. It wasn’t effective so she shook with a little more force. “Wake up now!”

Seulgi just groaned and shifted her head to get a better position.

“Yah! Seulgi! We’ll be late for vocal practice!”

Soojung only got an incoherent mumble from her friend.

“You always want it the hard way.” Soojung huffed and took a book from her bag. She let out a heavy breath before smacking her book on Seulgi’s head.

“Ow! What the fck!”

“Good morning to you too!” Soojung placed her book back in her bag. “Now time to go before we miss the bus again. I’m not getting scolded by the trainer because of you for the nth time.”

Seulgi rubbed the aching part on her head and followed her friend outside the classroom.

“Thanks for waking me up.” She said as they walked to the bus stop. “You didn’t have to kill my brain cells though.”

“Like I said, you always wanted the hard way.” Soojung smiled at her, she apologized for hitting her friend’s head through her eyes. She saw Seulgi nod, understanding the look.

Over a year of friendship, Seulgi already knew Soojung wasn’t expressive but after spending everyday with the girl, she learned that she could read through what Soojung couldn’t say in her eyes.

“I wouldn’t know what I would do without you Jung Soojung.”

“You’d probably not survive this world.”

“True.” Seulgi had Soojung on a headlock. The younger girl tried to push her away but Seulgi ruffled her hair and laughed. Soojung finally managed to get out from Seulgi’s hold by tickling her stomach. They end up laughing as they reached the bus stop. When the laughter died down, Seulgi tried catching her breath. She looked at the sky while breathing heavily. Soojung took in the sight before her. She didn’t know why but she felt contented looking at a happy Seulgi.

---

Eight years ago.

“I heard Soojung got casted as the female lead in Superb Junior’s new music video?” Three set of eyes were on her as she ate her lunch. She took a spoonful of rice so she just nodded her head in confirmation.

“That’s so cool. She haven’t debuted yet but she’s going to be in a music video. Wow! Daebak!” One of them exclaimed.

“I wasn’t surprised though considering Soojung is really pretty.”

“I heard she was scouted at a very young age but only joined two years ago because her parents thought she was too young to enter the agency.”

Seulgi kept on eating but her attention was on the discussion on Soojung. Although she was close with the girl, there were still some things they haven’t told each other. One example would be how they got in the agency.

“Yeah, something like that.” One of her fellow trainee said after sipping her drink. “But good thing it happened that way or her older sister wouldn’t also be scouted. I heard their mother only approved of her older sister to be trained first.”

“Are we talking about THE Jessica Jung?” The only boy in the group widened his eyes in excitement. “The hottest senior trainee alive?”

“Yes.”

“Those Jung genes.” He whistled. “No wonder the agency got both of them. Jessica’s going to debut with the rest of the beautiful trainees in no time. Rumor has it that they’re going to debut a girl group next year.”

One of the girls on the table sighed. “If the senior trainees are going to debut next year then that means the company would debut another girl group in the next three or four years?”

Seulgi knew what her fellow trainee was saying. She was worried about not going to debut soon. It made her stop eating. She only had been training for 2 years and those senior trainees had been in the company for probably 5 to 7 years. She had to put up more or less 5 years of training. She put her chopsticks down and stood up to return her tray. Her fellow trainees were busy talking about the rumor that they didn’t care Seulgi left the table.

She went inside the practice room and was thankful it was empty. She stood in front of the huge mirror and stared at her reflection. Did she have the patience to wait five years to debut? Did she have that much time left? Would she be there the moment Seulgi stepped up on that stage?

Seulgi clenched her fist out of frustration. She wished she didn’t have to go through her way of achieving their dream since he owned the company. He could easily get her famous but it was her who always reminded both of them that there was no shortcut to success. Thus, Seulgi had to start from scratch and being a nobody in the eyes and ears of the company, even dropping the family name Hwang. She was known as Kang Seulgi to everyone, using her mother’s maiden name.

“Found you.”

A voice startled her but she soon relaxed upon seeing her friend’s reflection in the mirror.

“How did the meeting go? Are you going to die in the music video?” Seulgi teased, not breaking eye contact through the mirror.

“Why do you want me dead?” Soojung leaned on the closed door, also looking at her friend from the mirror.

“It would be cool though.”

Seulgi saw Soojung shrugged. “They said they just want me to cry in the middle of a field. Sigh. I still don’t understand why they picked me. There are a lot of talented girls in this building.”

“You are talented Soojung.”

“They’re asking me to act Seul. I was trained to sing and dance. I don’t even know if I could pull off a good crying scene.”

It was Seulgi’s turn to shrug. “At least you’ll be on tv, everyone can see you and will know you.”

Before Seulgi could break the eye contact and divert her gaze to the wooden floor, Soojung had already caught the sadness in her eyes. 

---

Seven years ago.

“Hurry up Seulgi!” A tall and lanky boy was half-dragging an uninterested Seulgi to the practice room.

“Stop pulling me, will you?” She was ignored and was pushed in the middle of a huddle. She saw a laptop and quirked her eyebrow. “You guys do know gadgets are not allowed in the practice room right?”

“Shh! Stop being a party pooper and be quiet!” One of the trainees said.

Seulgi saw Soojung on the other end of the huddle and motioned for her to sit beside her instead. Soojung only shook her head but smiled.

“I miss you.” She mouthed to her. The other trainees were busy chatting with each other while waiting for Kai to load up the laptop that they didn’t seem to notice the two interacting.

Seulgi tilted her head, still asking Soojung to crawl towards her. Soojung laughed when she saw Seulgi’s contorted face. She decided she already had fun teasing the girl and made her way to sit beside her friend.

Like a magnet, Seulgi’s head dropped directly on Soojung’s shoulder. “Did you miss me?” Soojung whispered.

“I already said I did.”

“I didn’t hear it.”

Seulgi knew Soojung was still teasing her so it was only fair for her to back also. “Not my problem.”

“Then get off my shoulder.”

“No!” Seulgi s her arms around Soojung’s waist, making sure the girl wouldn’t get up. “You left me for three days.” She mumbled.

Soojung had to film a commercial. The filming was done in Jeju Island, hence, the whining Seulgi.

Soojung patted the older girl’s head awkwardly, her own head was already spinning from how Seulgi was hugging her sideways. She cursed in her head and listed a lot of reasons why she shouldn’t feel that way to her friend.

“Here it is!” Kai suddenly exclaimed.

The trainees moved closer to the laptop. They started watching the music video of the newly debuted girl group which consisted of Jessica Jung, Tiffany Hwang, Sunny Lee, Kim Taeyeon, and Seo Juhyun. Some of the girls screamed in excitement while the boys changed praises of the girls in the video.

Seulgi, however, remained calm. She sat straight and watched the video in immense jealousy. At least she could see one of them on tv now. She must be so happy. 

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