𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐃 𝐓𝐎 𝐊𝐄𝐄𝐏 | 𝐍𝐂𝐓 | 𝐍𝐀 𝐉𝐀𝐄𝐌𝐈𝐍

🜚|01

"Unnie, quickly come to the practice room, they will choose the final debut line up" Yumin, a trainee with Sujin, called her panicking. "Really?! I'll be there soon" Sujin hurriedly told the cafeteria lady that she will be back to take her food later and ran to the elevator.

She stood in front of the elevator waiting while shaking her leg frantically in nervousness as negative thoughts started to swarm her head. She was so deep in thought that she didn't even notice the people that stood next to her.

Once she heard the elevator's ding, she walked in quickly and pressed on the 16th floor button. "Excuse me can you press on the 20th floor button too?" Sujin heard a male voice say from behind her. "Huh? Oh, ah yeah sure".

Once the door opened, she ran out and to her practice room immediately. "I'm sorry I'm late" she walked in and saw all the other trainees standing in a line with the coaches, CEO and managers there too.

"Jaemin hyung, a new girl group will debut soon right?" The tall boy asked. "I think so Jisung" Jaemin said tilting his head to the side a little. "Yo, do you think she is one of the trainees?" Another one asked again. "Looks like it, based on the trainee batch she was wearing".

The elevator door opened to the floor they wanted and they all got out, heading to their practice room since they have a gathering there now. "But doesn't she look familiar? I feel like I saw her somewhere" said Mark making the other two boys nod their heads in agreement.

They went into the room and saw the rest of the NCT members there, already sitting in a circle and waiting for them. "Okay now, I have a thing to announce today, which is that you will be sharing your practice room and recording room with the new group that will debut soon, Aespa" NCT's manager started.

"But hyung, aren't we already enough? I mean we are 4 groups in one, already a lot"

"Yes Doyoung-ah, but don't worry about that, since you are working on the NCT 2020 project you will spend most of your time together and not as separate groups, so we can now shuffle in your practice time"

After discussing how things will work and their practice time, their manager left them to continue practicing. "Hyung, we met one of the trainees in the elevator and she looks awfully familiar, I feel like I saw her a lot before" Mark said to Jaehyun as he took off his jacket.

"Maybe you saw her in the cafeteria or elevator" he replied, not giving the subject much mind. "No, like on social media and TV and stuff, I just can't remember where, I didn't get the best look on her face"

"Don't give it much thought, maybe she just looks like someone you know" Mark shrugged his shoulders but dismissed the subject and started practicing with the others.

Meanwhile...

"Alright now that all of you are here, we will be announcing the final debut line up for our new girl group that will debut in 2 months, step forward when you hear your name". The head manager said and stood up from his chair.

The room was dead silent for a second until he started talking again, all the girls are holding into each other and praying in secret.

"Yu Jimin" he announced the first girl, everyone clapped as she walked forward with her friends cheering for her. A huge smile on her face.

"Kim Minjeong" the second girl stepped forward with tears of shock and happiness in her eyes.

"Ning Yizhou"

"Uchinaga Aeri"

Everyone clapped for them and congratulated them before the room fell silent again.

"And finally, the last one for this line up will be... Shin Sujin" this time, the cheers and claps were louder since she had a lot of friends there, Yumin and Yua, her other friend, hugged her while jumping.

As all of this happened, Sujin just stood frozen in her place and with her hands covering her mouth that is wide open in shock, as well as her eyes which had tears building up in them.

"Unnie, Unnie you made it!" Yumin cheered before pushing her forward, making Sujin snap back into reality.
"Congratulations for you girls, and for the other that didn't make it, keep on going and you will make it one day" he said before all the other higher-ups started congratulating the girls too.

"We'll call you tomorrow for a meeting so we discuss everything about your debut, you can all have the rest of the day off to celebrate if you want" said the head manager before leaving, all the other higher-ups following after.

"We have to celebrate this!" Said Yumin happily and all of them agreed, everyone congratulating the girls who will debut now. Except one.

"How did she make it while I didn't? How dare she take my place in the debut team? I'll ruin her carrer before it even starts" thought Hyerin to herself before faking a smile to the others.

All of them left and went to a resturant nearby to celebrate all together, going to a karaoke place next and having fun for the rest of the night.

🜚

The next day, the five girls went together to the meeting room they were told and waited for someone to come. After some time, the head manager came in with a man behind him and greeted the girls.

"All of you are here right? So we can start the meeting immediately" he asked. Minjeong looked around and saw everyone there before saying "yes".

"Good, now girls, this will be your new manager, Seo Wonsan, he will tell you about your daily life details. I will only talk about the group's concept and future".

"The group name will be Aespa, and we choose this concept and storyline because we think you fit it very much, and it also goes with the SM storyline"

"The concept will be Cuberpunk and Sci-fi. We will give you counterparts know as Æs, like æ-jimin, æ-aeri,
æ-minjeong, æ-sujin and æ-yizhou"
With every name he mentioned, he would change the presentation slide and show a different æ of each girl.

They spent the next hour discussing the concept and storyline and of the group until the meeting ended, but only the head manager left and Wonsan stayed to also talk to them.

"So about your everyday activities, we will talk about you pre-debut activities only until you debut to see how things will turn out" he said in a nice and calm tone, he seemed like a good guy so the girls got comfortable with him.

"You practice and recording room will be on the 20th floor now, you will also share them with another artist, NCT" he continued, the girls were unsure of how this will turn out but didn't give it much mind.

Wonsan handed them a paper and told the to write whatever stage name they liked. "Alright we got, Karina, Winter, Giselle, Ningning, and Jane" with each name, each girl would raise her hand to show that it's her name.

"I thought we will talk about these for a long time, but these are pretty good" he said in an amused tone "I will submit them later, so are you all sure about these?" The girls nodded their heads in assurance.

"Fine then, so today you will start practicing your debut, and also, you will meet the NCT members since you will see each other a lot" after some time, the meeting ended and the girls went to get their stuff before leaving with their manager to the 20th floor. Where they finally meet their sunbaes for the first time.

And where two love sparks will finally fire...