part 1
"as you all know, we've been evaluating your performances for a long time now, and now that we've gotten the green light, it's time to choose which of you are going to debut."
this announcement from the head coach, who was standing next to the ceo and his assistant sent a wave of anticipation through the 40 or so girls sitting in front of them.
"when we say your name, it means that you have been selected to join motif, and will be expected to sign your contract as soon as possible. your debut will be before the end of february, so we have no time to waste."
again, another flutter of excitement ran through the girls, all of whom wanted to hear their name be announced.
"min aecha, ahn heesu, ju liling."
the first three names were announced and all eyes turned to look upon the girls.
"kim soeun, park yeonrin, chwe yiseul."
at this a murmur went through the girls. an 05 liner and a 97 liner in the same group. were they mad?
"lee somi, jo haneul, son yooyeon."
at this, the halfway point, some of the girls started losing hope. some of them had never managed to measure up to the girls who'd been chosen, maybe this would be their last time in the mt entertainment building.
"moon taeri, jeon jieun, hwang yebin."
a sob could be heard in the intervening silence. another girl's dreams closer to being ruined.
"yoo haebyul, shim jihyun, kwon hyewon."
an 06 liner was picked before they were? silent tears joined the sweat on some of the ex-hopefuls' faces.
"yoo mari, yang mirae, lee soojin."
and with those three names left hanging in the air, the rose-tinted glass shattered in the eyes of those to whom the names did not belong.
—
liling snuck glances at soeun and yebin, her friends with whom she'd now become an idol. yebin was smiling a little, her eyes twinkling with joy, whilst soeun was practically vibrating with happiness.
the selected members had since left the practice room and were sitting in what seemed to be the meeting room for the ceo and other staff members. the atmosphere was intense, some of the girls had had strong dislikes for one another since their first days at the company.
"so," taeri spoke up, looking at everyone, "i think they might put us into new dorms, so if we consider a few people now before the managers come back, then we might have a higher chance of rooming with someone who we want to."
at this everyone nodded, a bit taken aback by taeri's astute observations and the ease at which she gave suggestions.
they sat in silence after that, until the managers with the ceo's assistant came in.
"so girls, once you've signed your contracts we'll need to discuss living arrangements."
—
haneul sat atop her new bed in her new dorm. it was very nice of the company to have decided to give the girls three different dorms and to allow them to have to share a room with only one other person. she knew that some groups ended up having dorm rooms with 6 or 8 members to a room, so this was a luxury.
"hey haneul, do you think you could help me put up these fairy lights in my room?" mari's voice dragged the girl out of her thoughts.
"sure. you don't think vicky's going to mind?" she replied, sliding off the top bunk and down to face her fellow 03 liner.
"nope. she's been super nice so far which is amazing, but she said she likes crime dramas."
"what's wrong with crime dramas?"
by this point the girls had started blu-tacking the fairylights to the bottom of hyewon's bunk. they'd all decided to do rock-paper scissors for top and bottom bunks to make it fair, and mari had won.
"well, they're kind of scary and i really can't deal with scary stuff."
"maybe you could just tell her that and ask her not to watch them when you're in the room?"
mari hummed at this, smiling as she finished hanging the lights.
"that's true. hey, do you want to bake some cookies before tomorrow?"
haneul nodded excitedly. like the rest of the group, rest days were few and far between, but since their selection yesterday, they had not had a group practice as the company needed to sort out administrative things and so had decided to give the girls two days off before they began debut preparations.
"yes!! and then we can see if anyone wants to watch a movie!"
—
yeonrin eyed her room-mate wearily. she knew that quite a few people in the group seemed disliked her, but she had yet to figure out why. they'd only been put together because it seemed that everyone else already had someone else in mind- she just had to convince herself that it wasn't personal.
"are these your books?" soojin asked as she looked at yeonrin's shelves, filled with korean translations of english books and a few textbooks about english.
"yup. i haven't managed to learn as much english as i wanted to."
at this she looks at soojin, trying to gauge her reaction.
"i could help you learn if you wanted to. i grew up speaking english all the time."
the younger perked up at this. maybe her room-mate wasn't so bad.
"you would?"
"of course! and maybe could you help me with my korean?"
"sure. but your korean's already really good."
"i guess, but i keep forgetting to be polite and how to make things polite. at home we never used honorifics..."
yeonrin looked slightly surprised at this but didn't push it.
"okay. and i won't tell anyone if you don't want me to."
—
mirae groaned as the alarm went off, rolling over as she woke up.
"come on guys, we don't want to be late for our first group practice."
yooyeon's voice echoed down the dorm's hallway, and mirae found herself begrudgingly climbing out of her bed.
"give us 15 minutes!" replied yiseul from the bathroom, and mirae nodded, unseen, as she started pulling on her clothes. she'd showered last night after having watched too many red velvet videos, and now she would pay the price of having stayed up later than normal.
she went to the bathroom, and opened the door to find yiseul halfway through washing her face.
"i need to brush my teeth."
"okay. go ahead." came the reply from the older girl, who was bent over the sink.
this was not something mirae was totally used to, but she guessed the sooner she got over the new stuff the sooner it wouldn't be as odd.
"come on guys." the voice of their manager now called the two and yiseul rolled her eyes as she dried her face.
"i'm coming!" replied the older, looking at mirae who was hurriedly brushing her teeth and trying to tie her hair at the same time.
"actually, give me a minute!" at this she turned and nudged mirae's hand out of the way.
"i'll do that. brush you teeth quickly."
mirae nodded, accidentally tugging her hair out of yiseul's hand, but the other girl didn't seem to mind as she quickly brushed it into a low ponytail.
"thank you." she said, having finished brushing her teeth, wiping her face with a wet cloth quickly.
"no problem. now come on before they leave without us."
—
"alright, so we've decided to show you girls the two songs with which you'll debut and tell you which of the two you will each perform. then, in three days we would like to see how much you've all practiced so that we can discuss lines and start on the choreography."
the girls looked at each other in acknowledgment. they knew that their debut would be the best way to make an impact on potential fans, and depending on how strong their impact was they would either end up in the first top group, or be left behind with the others.
"what if we decide that we prefer the other song?" asked yooyeon, who was known for being very musically talented and was said to have already written songs of her own.
"well, i doubt it's going to happen. and the company has already made their decision, so we're not at liberty to change the groups around."
"oh, okay." yooyeon replied, taken aback at the forcefulness of the coach's voice.
at this, jihyun felt somi huff next to her, and she silently agreed. some people suited different concepts, definitely, but sometimes people still preferred to stick to one concept or another.
"firstly, let's listen to the songs."
the girls nodded, and somi started playing with her hair as they listened to the songs. they were nice, refreshing even, and soon the girls were very excited to hear who would be performing which song.
"so, for song one, it's going to be; taeri, haebyul, soojin, jieun, liling, mirae, haneul, mari, and yeonrin."
at this haebyul tried to hide her disappointment. she often disliked how taeri went about leading groups when they were trainees, but now that it had been made official that taeri would be one of the group's leaders, haebyul felt even more trepidation, dreading the moment when the bossy side of the older would come out.
meanwhile, jieun silently cheered. she got to be on a team with mirae and taeri. this was going to be so much fun!
"and, for the second song, the rest of you; yiseul, yooyeon, aeja, heesu, yebin, soeun, vicky, somi, and jihyun."
vicky didn't know how to feel about this. the song was pleasant, but it just wasn't her style. and the lack of raps had made her worried about her lines.
she cast looks at the others, trying to see if anyone else was worried, and noticed that soeun seemed reasonably pleased at having been chosen for the second song.
—
"i can't seem to hit this note at all." said heesu, reaching for her water bottle as she sat on the floor of a practice room.
"i think it's because we're not vocalists that this is hard." replied aeja, nodding as she too drank from her water bottle.
"the company really didn't think about giving us these songs when there are so many rappers."
"they really didn't. but also, musically they sound consistent but different so it makes some sense."
"i guess you're right aeja, but it's still irritating."
further down the hallway, some other girls were having a very similar conversation.
"i know that i should be happy about this concept, but it almost feels too summery for february."
"i get exactly what you mean, jieun."
haebyul looked down at the lyrics sheet, printed out for them by the managers.
"at least we can sing it well enough, right?"
jieun said, smiling a little. the song was definitely summery, but at least it had good vibes, so the company wasn't completely going out on a limb by making the girls perform this.
"definitely. but i'm not too sure who's going to do the high notes."
"you definitely can! you're an amazing vocalist."
"really? i thought maybe taeri would end up doing them..."
"maybe, but we don't know yet and we've got three days to practice these to perfection."
"you're right ji-ji!"
—
taeri woke up to a gentle stream of music coming from one of the other bedrooms. surely it was too late to be practicing now, but, as she padded down the hallway, she saw jihyun and somi practising their lines on the floor of the room, looking up at the ceiling. the fairy lights gave the two a soft glow as they kept singing.
she was just going to head back to the room when the jihyun caught sight of her.
"taeri-unnie!" she cried out before slapping a hand over her mouth, realising that she might have just woken up the entire apartment.
"shhh, jihyun." she said, fondly- the girl was an 06 liner after all.
"are you two still practising?" she asked the younger gently.
"yeah." replied somi.
"the coach bet us 2,000 won each that we wouldn't be able to sing it all the way through and still attempt the high notes. so here we are."
"aah." taeri said in realisation.
"i'm sure you two can do it. but it is nearly 4 am and i'm sure you'lll want some sleep before tomorrow's meeting."
the younger two both nod, begrudgingly going along with taeri's mother-henning.
"right, well get to bed and you'll be fine tomorrow."
"yes unnie." they both replied and taeri smiled before going back to her room, careful not to wake the other three in the dorm.
—
liling and yebin both woke up early that morning, both of the girls too nervous to sleep anymore.
"do you think they'll be nice with the lines?" yebin asked the other, her leg shaking with nerves.
"i hope so. i really don't want to end up with only a few lines. especially because it'll probably influence my ranking next season."
"i hadn't even thought of that."
"binnie, don't worry. everyone's going to love you."
"i hope so."
the blonde sat there, worried as liling started getting ready for the day.
"hey guys!" said soeun, as she entered their room, already prepared for whatever the day might throw at her.
"how are you already so bubbly??"
"i'm just naturally fabulous." came the reply, causing both liling and yebin to laugh.
"also, manager wants us to leave in half an hour."
"thank you so-so, but i'm sure it won't take yebin that long to get ready." said liling jokingly.
"hey!"
—
"after having listened to all your performances, we have come up with the line distributions." said the coach.
it always seemed to be him giving them news, thought yooyeon.
"the producers and vocal trainers also influenced this, so if they think you can sing a part, you can."
his voice left no room for questions and all the girls nodded.
"here's the new lyric sheets with the parts divided. and no, before anyone asks, you can't change them now."
liling shot yebin a worried look, what if she'd messed up during the performance.
the other grabbed the sheet immediately, smiling as they saw which lines they got.
all apart from heesu and yeonrin.
"i can't belive it." heesu said, disappointed, whilst yeonrin acknowledged the blow silently.
they would both have to work even harder now to gain fans' attention.
—
"hey, heesu." taeri said as she walked into their shared bedroom.
"hi." she responded, not like her normal self.
"are you okay? what happened?"
after the announcement that morning the two teams had gone off seperately to practice singing together. the choreography would be ready by the end of next week, but recording would happen before then.
"i don't know. i just thought that maybe the company would value my performance more and give me more lines."
at this taeri nodded and came to sit by her.
"i know how that feels. they always pick and choose without thinking that they might be hurting someone. i've seen it happen so many times, but at least we're here now."
"i guess you're right..."
"and, if you're worried about having a low ranking, i can always help you practice your facial expressions so you definitely stand out on camera and on stage."
"you would?"
to heesu that seemed like the nicest thing in the world that anyone could have said in that moment.
"of course. you're my friend. i'll help you with anything."
a/n:
how was that guys?? i hope everyone was okay with the about of screen time everyone got.
also, it's my first time properly writing an af like this for a few years so feedback on my writing style would be appreciated. i also do have more in store for this season, but i thought i'd drop this before the debut preperations really ramp up and they start promotions.
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