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SM Entertainment's main building in Cheongdam-dong was ginormous and so different than the tiny studio Blue Soda Entertainment owned. As Blue Soda Entertainment was a daughter company of JYP Entertainment, someone would expect something similar to BigHit Entertainment, but Blue Soda was even smaller.
They had one debuted artist, that was Mari and currently two female Trainees. Their CEO Ok Taecyeon wasn't in the building most of the time, especially when he had schedules with 2PM so his assistant Go Juyeon would manage everyone in the company.
Because Blue Soda was so tiny, they only had two practice rooms, one studio, and three offices; one of those being Taecyeon's office.
But Mari never minded how small her company was. The Blue Soda staff was always looking after her and treated her really well. They let her decide a lot of things in her career as well. For example, Go Juyeon thought it would be better for Mari to debut with a cute song, while Mari wanted to debut with her own song.
So Taecyeon allowed her.
And the audience loved <X> from the first second they heard it, so there was nothing Blue Soda Entertainment had to worry about. But Mari was now worrying why she had to meet someone important from SM Entertainment. The building alone was making her knees wobble.
Taecyeon and Kim Sora, her manager, were standing in front of the building. All three unsure as for if they should ring the bell or wait for someone to open the door to them.
"They probably have millions of cameras around here," Taecyeon said and eyed be building unsure of what to do. Even if he was an Idol that was in the industry for ten years now, being in front of SM still confused the rapper. "When we worked with SNSD back in the days this didn't seem so scary," Taecyeon mumbled and rubbed his neck.
"Oppa, we should head to the door, otherwise they think we're Sasaengs or something," Sora spoke and confidently walked up to the main door. Taecyeon chuckled and smiled at Mari who had been quiet the whole drive from Blue Soda to SM.
Her mind was racing. She was imagining scenarios and what she would do if she would bump into Mark. She didn't even think about what SM Entertainment wanted from her. She only could remember that Juyeon had said something about dancing and a special stage.
Mari didn't know a lot of dancers in SM except the ones in NCT, so she didn't know who or what was exactly was in front of her; hence she couldn't be nervous.
Once they finally entered the lobby of SM Entertainment, Sora spoke to the woman at the reception, telling her that they had a meeting. While Sora was getting them guest passes, Mari looked around the lobby. Her eyes trailed from the Idols pictures on the wall to two bickering teenagers that came out of a corridor.
Mari recognized one of them as NCT's Haechan, but she didn't recognize the girl that was holding tightly on to Haechan's jacket and hitting his head with what seemed like to be a slogan. Mari cocked an eyebrow at the weird duo but continued to concentrate on her manager and her CEO that was leading her past the teenagers to the elevator.
Once in the elevator, Mari became really nervous. If it was this easy seeing Haechan, maybe it was as easy to see Mark as well?
A smile spread on the singer's faces at the thought of meeting her first love after all this time. She would love to tell him how life was without him and how much she had missed his company. She also would tell him that visiting the Dollar Tree wasn't twice as fun without him so she stopped going there.
Mari also had a lot of questions for Mark. Why did he stop contacting her? Why didn't he simply write a letter all the way to Vancouver, explaining that SM took his cell phone away as long as he would be a Trainee Mari would have understood all these things. She just wanted to know why.
Mari bit her lip when the elevator pinged and Sora walked in front of her, leading her down the corridor as if she knew where they had to go.
The three of them stopped in front of a room that seemed to be a practice room. Music was blasting from the inside and Mari felt her body slightly move to the beats. But she flinched when Sora knocked on the door with her usual force.
The music stopped and someone shuffled over to the door, opening it.
Mari's mouth fell open when she stared in Park Jisung's sweaty face. The teenager seemed surprised by Sora's face and bowed politely before calling for his manager. Mari tilted her head. Why would they visit NCT's maknae? Mari bit her lip and watched a man come towards the door.
He had dark rings under his eyes but nevertheless a friendly face. He bowed towards Sora. "Hello, I am Kim Sora and this is our CEO Ok Taecyeon and Ahn Mari." Sora introduced all of them and the man laughed. "Please just call me MC Ari. I am one of NCT's managers and the one who invited you. Please come in."
The man invited them into the practice room with a movement of his arm and smiled warmly.
Mari entered the room after Taecyeon and was surprised by its size. But what surprised her, even more, was Park Jisung, that tried to hide behind the screen in the corner. "Jisung-ah, please come outside and greet Ahn Mari." MC Ari spoke and Jisung waddled towards Mari.
As Jisung was a Sunbae, Mari bowed before saying her greeting. Jisung blinked twice, amazed by how cute her voice sounded in real life. "H-Hello, I am NCT's Park Jisung." The sixteen-year-old stuttered and awkwardly bowed to the older girl.
"The reason we wanted to speak to you" MC Ari started, "was because our Jisungie is a big fan of Mari and wanted to dance with her. And as we got an invitation by Mnet, to prepare a special stage, we thought why not ask Mari if she wants to participate in a Special Stage with Jisung."
MC Ari and Jisung both smiled towards Mari that seemed to be completely confused. A special stage with NCT's Jisung? How was she going to fit that into her schedule?
