The Long Fall

five

It was a painful four months as I tried to make this decision. Tao told me about the positives alongside the negatives. Aunty made me promise to call the moment anything happens since she didn't want a repeat of my childhood. Uncle begged me to not go, disliking the fact that his children were going to be hurt the moment we landed. But with everything against me, I still wanted to try.

"Hello, I'm July. It's nice to meet you all." I announced, bowing to the other girls who would be my future group mates.

"Nice to finally meet you! You're so pretty." One of them spoke up, smiling as she hugged me. "I'm Mirae, and I'll be the leader."

"And I'm Kiki! I'll be the youngest right before you, and I'll be in charge of vocals." A second added, waving excitedly.

The third one smiled softly and greeted me respectfully. I could tell she was also a foreigner lost in translation, so I felt we'd find a way to be close.

"I'm Fuji." She gently said, smiling a bit as I greeted her. "I'm from Osaka, so the language is a bit confusing still. I apologize in advance for any mistakes."

"It's alright, I understand. I'm from Qingdao, so Korean is hard for me as well." I told her, earning a smile. "We can stick together, okay?"

"Okay." She replied, happy to earn a friend with me.

I learned that Mirae was from Daegu and that Kiki was from Seoul. Mirae would be our leader and in charge of us all. Kiki was our main vocalist, so she'd most likely get the most lines. Fuji and I were in charge of dancing, but I also held the position of rapper.

The training was just as harsh as Tao had described it to be, but I persisted with it. I wanted to do the best I could and prove I had worth to the company, the future fans, and myself. Even if I eventually backed out, I wanted to do so with a clean conscience.

"Wait, you're born on July seventh as well?" Fuji asked, giggling as she spoke. The other girls looked at me with excited expressions as I nodded. "We were meant to be sisters!"

"That's such a crazy coincidence, it must be fate that we met," I replied, chuckling while I sipped from my water bottle.

The day before debut. The big one, that would make or break us. Fans were already forming, seeing our intro videos hyping them up for our official arrival.

But alongside the joy, there were hints of disappointment. Fuji and I both received threats almost daily from anti-fans, those who believed foreigners should not be in Korea. They warned us that, if we did not return to our countries, they would do terrible things to us. It was almost too much to bear, but the company was already looking into it and preparing a court case. We just had to hold it in for a little longer.

"Yeah, I received those as well. They aren't making you fearful or anything, are they?" Tao asked, making me sigh a bit.

"Not really, but I've heard that they're getting more violent these days. Someone even got paint thrown all over them." I answered, taking the phone off of speaker and laying down on my bed. "I miss home, I miss it a lot."

"It's not too late to come home. Dad is making a company for me to work at. You can always join me." He replied, hope in his voice.

"Not, not yet. I want to try to make it work first." I answered, earning a sigh from him. "I'm not alone in this, there's a couple of others in the dorm that are getting them as well. The company is aware and working on it."

"Fine, but promise me you'll be alright. If anything happens, I'm going to beat you when you get home." He warned, making me laugh a bit.

"I promise," I replied. After a few more minutes, I hung up and got ready for bed.

"Who do you talk to like that? Is it a boyfriend?" Fuji asked, smirking a bit while I smiled. "What's his name? How long have you been dating?"

"We aren't dating yet, but we've grown up together. He's four years my senior, but he's my soulmate for sure." I answered, making her squeal with excitement.

"Sounds like a good love!" She replied, giggling as I turned off the light.

The two of us were excited to learn that we'd be roommates, and even happier when we both discovered that English was our middle ground. We'd chat all day in English since we both excelled in the subject at school. The other girls were a bit jealous, but they knew it was bringing us joy and helping us work harder, so they let it be.

The next day, I was beginning to panic. I was ready to debut, but it was such a scary thing to go through. The judging eyes of the press, waiting for us to fail. Those screams of joy as the crowd prayed for us to succeed.

"One, two, three," Mirae said into her mic, cueing us to begin our introductions.

"Hello! We are Beloved!" The four of us shouted out, bowing and smiling with nervous excitement as the crowd cheered.

"Thank you for joining us tonight! We hope to give you a satisfying performance tonight!" Mirae said, waving at the audience and then looking to us to begin.

And so our debut began. We sang and danced, answered questions, and thanked the crowd for their kind words. So many of them were happy to have a girl group debut, it made us happy to feel accepted so quickly.

I cried happily when I called Aunty and Uncle, telling them how kind everyone was so far and how excited I was for the future. I called Tao as well, relaying to him how much the fans here supported him, even though he'd left his group and returned home. It made him happy, and I was even happier to hear his smile in his voice.