Minju's release schedule was packed as full as it could get. Not long after her debut, she was already practicing for a comeback single. Then as soon as her promotions ended, she was already learning the choreography for the title track for a mini-album, and she didn't get even a break for a day before she was already preparing for a full album. For the entirety of that year, it felt as if she spent it all preparing for a comeback after comeback without break.
All of the releases were big successes for the company, gaining many streams, sales, and thousands of new fans. However, things at SM quickly turned into a panic as two scandals broke out at the same time. Dispatch managed to get pictures of Minju and Yoongi together, and the article blew up. Both of their companies were quick to confirm the news, but that didn't stop Minju from getting most of the hate. Articles about her were quickly filled with nasty comments that Minju couldn't help to avoid.
Then, not long after, it was announced that Sulli would be going on a hiatus, and that brought a lot of attention to SM as a whole. So, the reasonable thing that the company decided to do was move the debut of their new group Red Velvet forward, rushing the entire process of their debut. The group was originally supposed to be a four-group member, but due to f(X) now being four members, SM made the hasty decision of adding Minju to the lineup last minute.
She was happy to be reunited with Joohyun again, but that was overpowered by the constant stress thrown upon Minju to learn the lyrics to Happiness and the choreography in such a short amount of time. Her hair was dyed brown fading into a red to match the others with her representative color.
Positions within the group were a big discussion. All the positions were established, Minju being the main rapper, lead dancer, and sub vocalist. The only position left to discuss was a leader. The debate came down to Minju and Joohyun for Minju had already debuted once and was experienced, but Joohyun was the oldest amongst the five girls. The two agreed that neither of them cared who got it for each pushed that the other deserved it more. It ultimately came down to Lee Sooman who ended up choosing Minju as the group's leader.
Minju didn't know how to feel about the group as a whole. She loved the members, but the debut concept felt so out of place to her for she was used to doing more dark, girl crush concepts. Now, she was suddenly pushed into a bright summer concept wearing an ill-fitting, awkward cheerleader outfit that didn't even match.
Minju resumed her long nights in the practice room for the group was scheduled to debut next month and she had only been informed of her addition maybe a week ago. She used practicing as a way to ignore the hurtful and disgusting comments made about her online, not wanting to see the huge influx of comments calling her a variety of names or calling her fat for she had been doing good for the last year and she was doing everything in her power not to relapse.
She wasn't able to see Yoongi as much since that article about them came out, their contact being resorted to phone calls every so often. BTS was releasing their first full album that month anyway so all of Yoongi's attention was focused on his group, and all of Minju's attention was focused on hers. Minju never had the time to do anything she remotely liked for she would go to bed well past midnight and wake up early in the morning to repeat the vicious cycle over again.
Minju was so exhausted to the point she was surprised her body didn't completely give out in the middle of her practice with the choreographer. She was so busy genuinely forgot to eat, but she couldn't tell her brother or Yoongi for they wouldn't hesitate to have someone check on her again. She tried to remember, but she had so much going on in her mind that her stomach growling was one of the least of her worries.
Minju moved dorms again, this time she would be living with the rest of the girls, which she was grateful for so at least she would have some company instead of a stuffed bear or the tv on in the background. She shared a room with Sooyoung which she loved for they knew each other and were already friends from their trainee days.
All the girls got close to one another fast, and each of them revealed their fears about their debut to one another. Everything was happening so fast, and a large number of fans were yelling at SM to give f(X) a comeback the moment the news about a new girl group was announced. The hate towards the girls came at them all in waves without them even releasing their first single yet, which made all of them nervous.
One more girl was supposed to debut with them -- Yerim. However, she was only fifteen at the time and it had been passed into law not long ago that you can't debut an idol until they're a certain age, but they already planned to add her in later next year. So, Red Velvet was to make their debut as a five-member group that was already labeled as SM's Failures.
