~ D-6 ~
Today was the first day of practice. It was also Ji Won's day to pick what time we would be practicing. We decided to do it by age. So today was Ji Won's day, tomorrow would be NaNa, then Somi, then Natty, and finally me. Ji Won decided that practice would start a 10 am. Which was actually a reasonable time, from what the girls told me sometimes they would have to practice early in the morning.
It was 9, right now so I had time. Chris said he was picking me up at 9:30 because it only took fifteen minutes to get to the studio. I quickly got out of my bed and walked to my closet to get dressed. I picked out a pair of teal shorts, a white shirt, a pair of white knee high socks, my black vans, and my red under armor jacket. Once I picked out what I was going to wear I went into my bathroom so I could take a shower. After my shower I got dressed and so that I had time before Chris would be here to pick me up. So I grabbed everything I would need for today and went downstairs.
"And sleeping beauty has awaken." Jessie joked as I walked into the kitchen.
"Ha, ha, very funny." I commented. I gave Luke a kiss before I walked over to the fridge so I could get something to eat.
"So where are you going?" Emma asked me, looking at my choice in wardrobe.
"I have practice today." I answered. "Is there something wrong with what I'm wearing?"
"No, it's just I'm not used to seeing you dressed like this." Emma answered, honestly.
"That's because you've never seen me go to one of my practices where I know I am going to be dancing." I told her.
"You know Sarah, you seem very excited." Jessie commented.
"That's because I am." I replied. "I mean if I debut in South Korea that means I am one step closer to meeting Got7 especially since they are under the same entertainment company."
"Luke, I think you might have some competition." Zuri told Luke.
"Yeah right, I'm better looking than all of them. Right Sarah?" Luke said.
"Well..." I trailed off. "I would agree if it wasn't for the fact that Jr. looks really cute wearing glasses."
"But you're not going to leave me for him right?" Luke asked.
"Of course not. I love you." I told him. I walked over to him and sat on his lap while hugging him.
"I love you, Sarah." he replied.
"It also has to do with the fact that he is twenty one and I am only sixteen." I added.
"Of course it does." Luke said. I felt my phone vibrate and saw the it was Chris. He sent me a text saying that he was here.
"I have to go. I will see you all later." I told them. I grabbed my bag and made my way to the elevator. The ride was over before I knew it and I walked out of the building and to Chris' car. I got in and he handed me something. "Do you know how much I love you?"
"No, but you can tell me on the way to practice." he told me.
"Nah, then it would ruin what we have going." I told him.
"Loser." he said to me.
"Meanie." I replied. "Now come on I don't want to be late."
"Fine." he said. He pulled away from the curb and drove to the studio. Once we finally got there, I got out of the car and ran to where we were practicing. When I got to the room, I saw that they were already there.
"I have arrived." I announced walking into the room.
"Sarah." they all exclaimed. They came over and they each gave me a hug. After we greeted each we settled down and got ready to work.
"Okay first things first I think we should say a little about ourselves." Ji Won said.
"My name is Sarah and I was born on August 8th, 1999. I love singing, dancing, I can play multiple instruments, I am told I am a good actress. People also say that sometimes when I am excited, angry, or some other emotions I look cuter than I am supposed to be." I said.
"My name is Natty and I was born on January 13th, 1999. I love to dance and I am told often that my personality makes being around me enjoyable." Natty said. So we continued to talk about ourselves. Once we finished it was time for us to actually get to work.
"So I took it upon myself to print out the lyrics for us." Somi said, handing us each our own copy and we had an extra.
"Okay we need to decide who is singing what." I said.
"I think that Sarah should sing Irene's part." NaNa said and everyone agreed with her. They decided we would start with the youngest members first then moving up.
"I think that Natty should sing Yeri's part. Natty's voice kind of matches Yeri's." I pointed out.
"That's a good point. Natty, you're singing Yeri's part." Ji Won said.
"I think that Somi should have Joy's part." Natty suggested.
"And Ji Won, I think you would be good for Wendy's part." I added.
"Which means that NaNa would get Seulgi's part." Somi said.
"I think that is a good idea." NaNa said.
"I agree." Ji Won and Somi both said.
"Alright, so today we will just try singing our parts and tomorrow we can start to learn the dance." Ji Won explained to us.
"Sierra said that we can come in to try our costumes, makeup, and hair in like three days." I told them.
"Perfect. Today, we can practice our voice parts. Tomorrow, we can start to learn the dance. On the third day, we continue to work on the dance while singing. The fourth day, we go to try our costumes, makeup, and hair and work more on the dance and song. On the fifth and sixth day, we can do as many run throughs as we deem necessary." Ji Won explained to us.
"Ji Won if you do not become the leader when we debut I am going to complain about it." Somi said.
"Me too." I chimed in.
"Awe, thanks guys." she said. "Now let's practice."
********************************************************************************************
So we spent most of the practicing the song and by the end of practice we sounded pretty good together, but we knew just sounding good together wasn't going to be enough. Especially since we haven't learned the dance yet. We decided that tomorrow we will watch Red Velvet perform and remember what they did and learn the parts. Everyone was responsible for their own parts when we weren't in unison.
Today was fun because even though we had to practice we got to hang out with each other and learn things about each other. I am lucky that I get to work with these four and I hope that we do get to debut together. Right now I was waiting for Chris to come and pick me up.
"Who are you waiting for?" someone asked me.
"My dumb manager." I answered.
"I don't think I am dumb." the person told me. I turned around to see Chris standing there and I started to hit him. "Why are you hitting me?"
"Do you know how long I was waiting for you?" I questioned him.
"No." he answered.
"Next time just be quicker." I told him as I walk out of the building.
"Sorry Sarah, I was talking to Mr. Parks about you." he said and that caught my attention.
"What were you talking about?" I asked as I got into the car once it was unlock.
"Nothing that important." he answered. "Just that we have to change your name."
"What?!" I exclaimed.
"What I meant is that he thinks all we have to do is remove the h from the end of your name." he explained to me.
"Oh I thought you meant change my name completely." I said.
"No that wouldn't be necessary." Chris told me as he pulled up the curb in front of building.
"Okay. I'll see you tomorrow." I told him. I got out of the car and made my way into the building. All I wanted to do was to sleep and not do anything else.
(I decided that I am going to skip a few of the days because not all of them are important. Mainly because I don't want to do everyday because it might be boring.)
~ D-3 ~
There are now only three days left till the night of our performance, yesterday and the day before we worked on our dance and we've got it down, but of course we are going to continue to work on it. Today we are going in so we can try on our costumes, hair, and makeup. We decided to meet at 10, like we've been doing for the past three days.
As of right now I am in the car with Chris and we are almost at the company. I can't wait to see what we are wearing. I'm kind of hoping they are like the outfits with the colored tights from the music video.
"Sara, we're here." Chris told me. Oh, yeah that reminds me. Since we had to advertise our performance J. Y. Park and Mr. Parks decided that we were going to take the H off of my name. Now my name is Sarah without the h.
"Okay." I replied. I got out of the car and walked into the building.
"Sara." I heard four voices scream. I turned around only to be tackled into a hug. I looked up to see Ji Won, Natty, Somi, and NaNa.
"Nice to see you guys, too." I laughed.
"Why is that when something like this happens I am always late." someone said. I looked past Ji Won, Natty, Somi, and NaNa to see Sierra.
"Hey." I greeted.
"As much as I love that you guys were able to tackle Sara to the floor we have to go because don't you guys want to see what you're wearing for you performance?" Sierra asked. All four of them got off of me and then they helped me up.
"Show us the way." all five of us told Sierra.
"Follow me." she said. We followed Sierra as she lead us to her department. I mean being the niece of Chris Parks and the daughter of Jonathan Parks had it's advantages. Most girls would want clothes and jewelry, but Sierra asked her father if she could have her own department in his entertainment company. "Oh and Sara, I know you are going to love the outfits."
"Are they what I think they are?" I asked her.
"Maybe." she answered.
"For once I wish she would just give me a straight answer instead of being so mysterious." I muttered in Korean. Somi, Ji Won, Natty and NaNa must have heard because they were giggling.
"You know it's not fair when you speak in Korean because I can't understand you." Sierra whined.
"Sorry." I apologized. We continued to walk until we finally got to her department.
"Welcome to my sanctuary." Sierra told us. She led us to where we were going to get our hair and makeup done. While we were getting it done she went to go get our outfits.
"I can't wait to see them." I said.
"We know Sara, that's all you've been talking about." Natty giggled.
"I'm back and I brought the outfits." Sierra announced as she walked over to us. The ladies that were doing my hair and makeup told me that they were done. I quickly turned to Sierra. "Did you know that you could pass for half Korean." she told me.
"Yeah, my mom's part Korean." I told her.
"Oh yeah I forgot." She said.
"Besides the point, now show me the outfits." I demanded.
"Gesh, no need to be so demanding." Sierra commented. She handed each of us a bag and then took the boxes from her assistant and hand one to each of us. I opened the bag and saw that they looked like the outfits that Red Velvet wore in the music video. "I also took the liberty of putting the first letter of your names on the back of your shirts." she told us.
"Thank you so much Sierra." I thanked her.
"You're welcome. Now go get changed so I can see how you all look and see if I need to make some changes." she told us. We all went and got changed. When I walked back into the room and I saw everyone.
"You guys look great." I commented.
"Thank you." they all thanked me.
"And you look so cute." NaNa told me.
"Of course I do." I replied and I made a cute little pose. Sierra walked around us to see if there was anything she needed to fix. We waited for her to finish.
"They're perfect." she told us. "Now go get changed because I know you guys want to get some practice in." We quickly changed back into our clothes, thanked her, and quickly left so that we could go get in some practice.
~ D-1 ~
It was the night before our performance and the girls decided that we should all be together. So I am spending the night in their hotel room. We haven't done anything today, but rehearse. Though can you blame us. Tomorrow determines if we are worthy enough to debut or not. Though I know that if we do then I won't get to see Emma, Ravi, Zuri, Jessie, and Luke. I know I am going to miss them, but this is my dream and I want to do this.
"Sara, someone is calling you." Somi informed me. (Italics means Korean).
"Thank you." I thanked her. I got up and grabbed my phone. "Hello." I answered.
"Sara." the person said and I recognized that voice.
"Hi Luke." I greeted him.
"Hey." he replied.
"Not to be rude, but is there a reason why you called?" I asked.
"Not really. I was bored and I wanted to see what you were doing." he told me.
"Well I'm not doing anything, but the girls and I are getting ready to go to bed because tomorrow is a big day for us." I explained to him.
"Oh right, your big performance." he said. "Well even though I am going to do this tomorrow I will do it right now. I love you, Sara and I know that you are going to do amazing tomorrow."
"Thank you." I thanked him. "And I love you, Luke."
"So I'm taking it you have to go?" he questioned. I looked up to see all the girls looking at me with a look that said, 'Hurry up so we can sleep'.
"Yeah, I have to go." I told him.
"Well, I'll see you tomorrow." he told me.
"Okay, bye." I replied before hanging up.
"Come on, Sara. We have to go to sleep." Natty told me. I followed Natty because we were sharing a room for the night. I got ready for bed and I got into the bed with Natty.
"Good night." I told her.
"Good night." she replied and we both fell asleep.
~ D-Day ~
"Sara, wake up!" someone screamed. I fell out of the bed and landed on the floor.
"What was that for?" I asked. I looked up to see Ji Won staring down at me.
"We've been trying to wake you up and it was my turn because everyone else couldn't wake you up." she explained to me.
"Sorry." I apologized.
"It doesn't matter now. So get up and get ready because we have to leave so we can get to the studio on time." She told me.
"Alright." I replied. I got up and walked over to my suitcase so I could get something to wear. We had to look good today because we were having an interview before our performance. So that meant that we can't wear our practice clothes. I decided to wear a red skater dress, a black and white plaid shirt, black knee high socks, and white Vans. Then I made my hair straight and put a black, red, and white headband in my hair.
"Sara, are you ready yet?" Natty asked, walking into the room.
"Yes." I answered.
"Good. Now come on they're waiting for us." she told me. I grabbed my bag and phone and followed Natty out to the main room.
"Finally we can go." NaNa commented.
"Sorry if I actually wanted to look good." I retorted.
"No, if you woke up the first time we tried to wake you up then we wouldn't have had to wait so long." Somi told me.
"Well sorry that I'm a deep sleeper sometimes." I pouted.
"Aw, you look so cute." Ji Won commented, messing up my hair.
"Yah, don't mess up the hair," I told her.
"Guys, we have to go." Natty reminded us.
"Right, let's go," I said. We left the hotel room and made our way down to the lobby. Our van was already waiting for us because we were late coming down because of me.
"What are we going to do with you, Sara?" Chris asked when he found out I was the reason for us coming down late.
"Keep me and love me forever?" I suggested.
"Whatever," he said. "Hurry up and get into the van. We can't be late for the interview." We all got into the van. The ride wasn't anything special and I couldn't wait till we arrived at the studio so we could do this interview.
"What do you think they are going to ask us?" Somi questioned.
"Probably how it feels working together or why you think I was put in the group." I told them. "They may also want us to tell embarrassing stories about each other."
"How do you know that?" Natty asked.
"Well I was in this one movie and we had an interview the day before the premiere and they asked us to explain how it felt working with our co-stars. They also wanted to know some embarrassing and funny stories that we had on each other." I explained to them.
"We are so lucky to have you." Ji Won commented.
"Ah, I'm nothing special." I said.
"Girls, we're here." Chris told us.
"Wow, that was a short ride." I commented. We quickly got out of the van and walked towards the studio. We were supposed to be interviewed by Eva Elliott. Once we walked in I was attacked by someone. "Nice to see you too, Sierra."
"I missed you so much." she sobbed.
"Really?" I questioned.
"Of course, it was boring without you here." she told me.
"You are so strange." I commented.
"Well thank you." she thanked me. "Now, we have to get you to your interview." she told us. She led us to the studio where we would be getting interviewed. "You know I was surprised with how many people came to see your interview."
"Really?" Natty asked.
"Yeah, they are really interested in you guys and they can't wait to see you performance." Sierra comformed. "Now let's go." When we got to the studio members of the stage crew handed each of us a microphone.
"Hello everyone. My name is Eva Elliott and today is a special day." Eva told her audience. "I am lucky enough to get to have an exclusive interview with five amazing girls who might become the next big girl group. Now I would like to introduce you to Ji Won, NaNa, Somi, Natty, and Sara." We took this as our cue to walk out on the stage and when we did we were greeted by a lot of screaming. We walked over to the couch and sat down, youngest to oldest. "Hello girls."
"Hello." we greeted back.
"So I understand that you are in the process of maybe debuting in Korea, but can you explain why you are here in America?" Eva asked.
"Well NaNa, Somi. Natty, and I are trainees for JYP Entertainment and we were supposed to debut as a girl group, but we didn't because PD-nim thought that something was missing. He said that when he saw Sara, he thought that she could bring what was missing to the group." Ji Won explained.
"And Sara, how does it feel?" Eva asked me.
"Well to be honest I have always wanted to debut as an idol in Korea." I told her.
"Mainly because she wanted to meet Got7." Natty commented and everyone laughed.
"But I thought that it would take a while before I could even do it. So to have this opportunity is amazing." I added.
"So girls, how is Sara's Korean? I mean her first language is English and yours is Korean. Does it cause any difficulties between you guys?" Eva asked.
"Actually Sara's Korean is pretty good. You would think that she grew up because of how perfect it is." Somi told her.
"Okay, well at least we know that Sara won't make a fool of herself when she actually goes to Korea." Eva commented and the girls started to laugh.
"That's not funny." I pouted.
"Aw she looks so cute." Somi said. She reached over Natty and pinched my cheek.
"So by the looks of it you girls look pretty comfortable with each other." Eva said.
"Of course when we first met Sara we just clicked. She's like the little sister I've never had. Because I mean my actual little sister can be a piece of work sometimes." NaNa said.
"Sara, how does it feel to be the youngest?" Eva asked me.
"I don't like it sometimes because they tease me about it. Then when I ever pout because they make fun of me they just talk about how cute I am." I explained to Eva.
"It's not that bad. You love us and you love we treat you like a little sister." Somi said to me.
"Yeah, but I rather not get reminded of it every time I do something cute." I told her.
"But it's hard not to comment about how cute you are." NaNa butted in.
"Okay, let me save Sara for a moment but there is a question that's been unanswered." Eva said. "People want to know what the name of your group is." The five of us shared a look PD-nim said that we could tell them the name because even though we might not debut soon he is going to keep us around. All five of us stood up.
"Annyeonghaseyo, J2NS ibnida." we said together, doing a little bow before we sat back down.
"So the name of your group is J2NS. Would you like to explain how you got that name?" Eva asked.
"Well, at first we had a hard time at picking our name, but then Sara told us that we were overthinking it and we need to think about it simply." Ji Won started to explain.
"So while they continued to freak out about the name of the group I already figured out an idea." I continued to explain. "I told them why don't we just take the first letter of each of our names."
"We thought we were crazy. We asked her, 'Why would someone name a girl group JNSNS?'. But she said that's not what she meant." Somi added.
"I then explained to them that we take our first name initial and to represent that there are two N's and two S's, we put a two in front of the N and S. So that's how we came up with J2NS." I finished.
"Well you heard it here first." Eva said. The rest of the interview were simple questions. We told stories even though we've only been around each other for a week. "So that is all for today. I'm Eva Elliot and I will see you next week." The audience applauded and we walked off the set.
"That was amazing." Natty commented.
"I loved doing that." Somi added.
"Just wait, if we actually debut we will be doing way more than just that." I told them.
"You girls were amazing out there." Eva told us as she walked by.
"Thank you." we all thanked.
"Girls, we have to go or else you won't have to get ready for your concert." Chris told us. Once he said that we realized that we did have to hurry up and get to the stadium. This was going to be out first concert and we can't be late to it. We ran to the van and got in it waiting for Chris.
"Chris, you are so slow." I told him.
"Oh yeah, but when you just standing around I wasn't allowed to say anything." He said.
"Pretty much." Natty, NaNa, Somi, Ji Won, and I all said.
"Whatever." He said. He go into the van and starting to drive to the stadium.
************
When we finally arrived at the stadium, Chris rushed us out of the van because we were a little behind schedule. By behind schedule I mean that Natty and Somi begged Chris to stop at Starbucks and then they took forever because the line was so long.
"Remind me why we had to go to Starbucks?" Ji Won asked Somi and Natty.
"Because I needed some coffee." Somi answered.
"Yeah and Starbucks is the best." Natty chimed in.
"Okay, but know we need to hurry up and get you girls ready." Chris said. He pushed us towards the entrance.
"There you guys are." Sierra said when she saw us. "Why are you guys late?"
"Because Somi and Natty wanted to stop for some Starbucks." I answered.
"Next time do that earlier so it doesn't clash with your very important schedule." Sierra told Somi and Natty.
"Okay." they replied.
"Now let's go. I have to get you ready." Sierra told us. She grabbed my arm and pulled me towards our dressing room.
********
After Sierra finally finished getting us ready, we looked like this:
"Wow." Natty said looking in the mirror.
"Sierra, you did an amazing job." I told her.
"Well it's my job. They wouldn't have given me the job if I couldn't do this." Sierra said. "Now all you have to do it wait for your cue."
"Okay." We answered. She goodbye to us and then left the room.
"So basically we have to sit here and wait until it is time for us to go perform?" Natty asked.
"Yeah, pretty much." I answered.
"Great." NaNa commented.
********
I don't how long it was until someone finally came and got us. We followed the guy to the stage and we were given headsets. I could hear someone introducing us and I was getting excited. I turned to look at the girls.
"Okay, this is it." I started. "It doesn't matter if we debut or not, this is our show. This is our time to show them what we are made of. No matter what, we are going to go out there and do our best."
"Yeah this is our time. We have worked so hard for this and even if we don't debut, this will still be worth it." Ji Won added.
"Let's do this." Somi said.
"1, 2. 3. J2NS!" We shouted in unison.
"And now let's welcome them to the stage. Make some noise for J2NS." the announcer said. He walked off the stage and the lights went off. We walked on to the stage and waited for the music to start and the lights to turn on.
"Here we go." I whispered to them. (A/N: Sara is wearing red, Natty is wearing blue, Somi is wearing purple, Ji Won is wearing orange, and NaNa is wearing yellow)
Once the song was over we bowed before running off of the stage.
"That's was amazing!" I shouted, as I jumped on NaNa's back.
"I know you're excited Sara, but do you think you can get off of my back?" NaNa asked me.
"Mianhae." I apologized, before getting off her back.
"You did amazing, Sara." Chris told me as he walked over to me with Sierra.
"Thank you." I thanked him.
"Sara!" someone shouted from behind. I turned around to see Luke, Jessie, Emma, Ravi, and Zuri.
"Luke!" I shouted, before I ran towards him and jumped into his arms. I pulled back from his arms and he pulled me in for a kiss.
"You were amazing." he told me.
"Thank you." I said. This was the best night of my life. Even if we don't become an official group, I'm glad that we got to do this. I wonder where this is going to take me next.