2016 had been a busy year for Sarang, she not only released her album, made her acting debut, produced an OST album but had also made her Japanese debut. Following the release of Home her second album in January of 2016, Bighit decided it was time for her to make her Japanese debut and she released her debut Japanese album called "Sakura" in April of 2016.
Along with the title tracks and couple of bsides of her two korean albums she released three original Japanese songs too. The album recieved great response and was in the top 10 at the year end charts of Japan.
It had been some time since she last released a korean album, almost a year since she got busy with her acting career. Technically though despite the long break she had released several song including the Japanese album and the OSTs.
So in February of 2017 Sarang made her second comeback with "Drunken Haze." This was her first full album and had 12 tracks in it. The title track was also called as Drunken Haze and it was a R&B track.
This was the turning point of her life. Her song debuted on #1 at melon and spent thirteen weeks on top. She got her first ever perfect all kill with Drunken Haze and by the end of the year it had 367 PAKS.
A song receives a Perfect All-Kill (PAK) when it has charted at number one on the daily and real-time charts of all major Korean music streaming platforms like Melon, Genie, Bugs, FLO, VIBE, and YouTube music, as well as number one on Instiz's real-time and weekly iCharts.
The song took Korea by a storm and it instantly became a hit. Multiple songs from her album went viral especially the pop ballad song 'My Mistake' and charted exceptionally well. She debuted at #20 on Billboard Bubbling Hot100.
For a long time the charts looked like they were dominated by the Bighit artists as Spring Day, Drunken Haze, Blood Sweat and Tears and My Mistake kept fighting for the number 1 spot on charts.
Sarang was invited to several variety shows and she attended all of them, her bubbly personality charming everyone.
Following the immense success of her album Sarang went on to her first ever concert tour. She held her first ever concert in Seoul and then in Japan. She then travelled to Phillipines and Thailand and to winded the mini tour in America. She wanted to travel even more but her schedule for the year was already jam packed.
The Seoul concert was her first ever concert and she was nervous as hell. She had practiced for this for months and was excited to show Sarangdan her best performances. But she was also afraid of messing up and making a joke out of her.
Luckily her friends had been there for her. They always were and she was eternally grateful to them for it. Since BTS had done this before they were able to guide her and encouraged her to not think too much but just give her best.
They had all attended her first concert including her family, Youngmi, Yeonjun and Soobin who much to her surprise was the same tall guy in her fansign who had told her that Sarang was his inspiration and he wanted to become an idol just like her.
She had been pretty surprised the first time she had seen him in the practice room. As she saw Soobin and Yeonjun mingling she couldn't help but think that they were destined to meet. She had been right.
Her concerts went by smoothly. She realized that she was a natural when it came to performing and entertaining the crowd. All of her concerts were sold out and people were asking Bighit to extend the dates and this time choose a bigger venue. Bighit did extend the dates as they added three new dates to Seoul, two dates to America and one to Thailand and Phillipines each.
It was super hectic as she was also preparing for her next album and she got another acting role in the new installment of hit School series; School 2017. So she was juggling between the shoot and the concerts while spending every free minute cooped up in the studio.
Sarang played the role of Hong Nam-joo, (Dae-hwi's girlfriend.) Namjoo pretends to be from a rich family because she is ashamed of her father's actual profession as a taxi driver. She is frustrated and stressed because of her family's financial struggles.
This role though minor catapulted her into the limelight as people finally saw her potential and kept praising her. She was the talk of the town for weeks even after the drama ended and there were hundreds of messages on her social media everyday asking when she'll do another drama.
Sarang wasn't expecting such an explosive reaction from the public but she was thankful to it all. During the show she had grown close to the rest of the cast especially Sejong. They had quickly become close friends and would often hangout together.
But what stunned everyone wasn't her vocal or acting abilities as everyone was already somewhat aware of her talent. It was her athletic abilities that had everyone stunned. During ISAC 2017, Sarang participated in several competitions.
She looked to her side where Jungkook, Jimin and Namjoon were stretching along with her while the other members were sitting on the ground having fun. She kept sighing and finally Jimin had enough of her.
"You're going to blow a hole in the ground at this rate." Jimin said to which Sarang just responded with another sigh making him shake his head as if he had given up on her.
"I don't like running at all. I don't want to run and they're making me run for 400m." As Sarang lamented the rest of members just nodded their heads while Jungkook and Jimin snickered.
"Ya the worst thing that can happen is you ranking last but that's a given in any game. One person will come in last, don't think too much about it." Jungkook tried his best to comfort her though his words had completely opposite effect.
He went back to worship the prayer circle he had made. Sometimes these boys confused her a lot. And she wondered if they were sane or not.
Not even an hour ago Jin had fallen asleep and maknae line had placed their paper fans and army bombs around him as if he they were trying to summon a demon and Jin was their sacrifice.
As Sarang stood on the track she looked at all the other participants and then at her friends standing on one side who were loudly cheering for her right now. Well it was Jin and Hobi while Namjoon tried to calm them down only to sigh when the maknae line joined them too.
Jin even had somehow managed to find army bombs and was waving it around to cheer her.
Once the race started Sarang stunned everyone when she started sprinting. Everyone's jaw dropped at how fast she was.
"Didn't she say she didn't like running?" Jungkook said shocked, his jaw practically hanging open the entire time, the other nodding their agreement in equal state of shock.
"But she never said she was bad at it." Yoongi replied smirking a bit, though he too was surprised.
"Damn how fast is she?" Jimin asked to no one in particular.
"She's already done with the second lap?" Namjoon said with a voice full of amazement.
As Sarang place first it was revealed that she had finished the course fastest in the history of ISAC. Not male, not female, not group, not soloist but she was the FASTEST of them all to finish it.
As Sarang stood on a side looking perfectly normal as if she hadn't just finished a marathon in such a short time the audience and other idols went crazy.
Later that day Sarang stunned them all once more when she won the fencing match, archery and the swimming competition.
The boys kept cheering on her on, at one point Jimin had taken the army bombs from Jin and was waving it around, cheering for her while Jhope and Taehyung did their cheer up dances.
At everyone's surprised looks she just smiled a bit. She loved when people who underestimated her ate their own words. She hadn't participated in the previous years and this was her first time at ISAC. She was glad she made it memorable.
It was at ISAC when Jungkook introduced her to Mingyu and the rest of the seventeen. They were chaotic and funny and it didn't take much time for everyone to become friends, especially the 97liners.
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A/N:- I hope you guys liked this chapter, I'm trying to squeeze a year in a chapter, please let me know if you'd prefer it to be more detailed/lengthy.
Thank you for always reading, voting and commenting, you guys are amazing and I love you all 💗
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