What's your full name?

Julia Kang…

How old are you?

16…

Why do you want to join Q-Emerald Entertainment?

Because I think I am worth the training, I think that I have the skill, and I think I have the attitude. I know that it's going to be hard working at this company, but I think I can endure it, because I want to show the world that I'm strong.

-- Chapter 1 - A New Beginning In Q-E

As I look over this application form, I can't help but sigh. I'm so nervous. I'm not even what I say in this form. I was shaking as my black boots clicked on the sidewalk in the large city of Seoul, South Korea. I entered the entertainment company I've always wanted to join: Q-Emerald.

Before I entered, I took a long and deep breath, and then I pushed the door open. It was loud, people walking around, and talking. I bet all these people were here to audition, or to watch the auditions, because it was going to be LIVE. The hall was long and big, and there was a lady was sitting at a desk, talking on the phone and writing things down. I slowly walked over, and waited until she was done.

"Can I help you?" She said with her best smile, and most cheery tone.

"Uh, yes. I'm Julia Kang, and I'm here to audition for Q-E." I slid the application on the desk. She looked at me, then at the application, and read it.

"Ah, of course. Down that hall, on the second last door on the left, sweetie." She said, slipping me an audition number card and pointing down the hall. "Good luck."

I bowed and smiled, scurrying down the hall and opening a large door into an even larger auditorium filled with hundreds of people and camera's flashing. I stuck the card onto my chest. Number 13. I sighed, what a lucky number…

A worker came towards me. "Hey, you're participant. Follow me backstage." I nodded and did as I was told. I stood behind a girl with the number 14 and in front of girl with the number 12. The girl in front of me was tall. She had long dirty blonde hair and a slender body. She looked like a model. The girl behind me was small. She had large eyes and v-layered hair up to her shoulders. She smiled at me as I looked at her. I bowed my head.

"What's your name?" She asked with a joyful grin.

"Um… Julia. Julia Kang." I said quietly.

"Oh! Nice to meet you, I'm Kim Seo Yi." From the looks of her, she was already really nice. She liked to smile, definitely.

"Oh… how old are you?" I asked.

"I'm 16-ish. You?" Seo Yi responded.

"I'm technically 16." I shrugged. I looked away from her and at the tall blonde girl. She looked at me and waved a little. Lots of these people where enthusiastic and hyper. I waved back and looked back at Seo Yi, who was kicking her feet around.

"So… what are you going to Q-E for?" I wondered.

"Mmm. Basically singing and modeling." She nodded, and looked around the backstage.

"Oh… same… except I'm planning on a group career." I said with a big smile on my face.

"Really? Usually, people would hit for the lone stage, you know?" She looked eager.

"Naw. I wanted to be with other people. I think it's easier, because you have people to depend on." I stated.

She nodded and smiled. "I agree. Maybe I should aim for a group career?"

I shrugged, "Who knows?"

"OKAY! EVERYONE LINE UP STRAIGHT AND GET READY TO AUDITION. THERE'S A LOT OF PEOPLE OUT THERE, BUT YOU CAN DO IT!" Say a man with a microphone. "GOOD LUCK!"

Everyone stood in a straight line immediately. I heard the audience go quiet and I heard the MC begin to talk.

"Okay! So we're beginning our auditions now… first we introduce… Go Ri Ma!"

It seemed like forever until I was about to go. I shouldn't have jinxed it. I'm next, after the blonde girl that goes by the name of Lee Soo Young. I watched her sing and dance, and man… her voice was gentle and her moves were slick. I watched in awe. The judge said she was very sexy, but she could work on her vocals a bit more. Then it was my turn.

"Julia Kang!!" The MC called out. I scurried out and bowed respectfully.

"Now, Julia, what will you be singing for us today?" Asked the MC.

"I'm going to be singing a song I wrote myself." I stated. "It's called 'Like a flower'"

From the looks of the judges, the MC, and the audience. It was good. Or, better than good. I don't know. But it was surely enough better than bad.

"Julia, did you take singing lessons?" a judge asked.

"No, but I did practice a lot since I was a little kid." I answered.

"You're really pretty, and your voice is fantastic." A woman judge nodded as she wrote things down on a paper. "Thank you."

--

Seo Yi ran up to me and patted my back. "Good job today." She smiled brightly. Her smile never gets old.

"Thanks!" I grinned. "You too, I liked your song. It was really cute."

She giggled and bowed. "I bet your parents were watching you."

"Oh, I don't have parents, but my unnie and oppa were watching."

"OH! sorry! I didn't realize it…" Seo Yi smiled uneasily, scratching her head.

"It's okay. People don't know everything about me, so I can't blame them." I nodded understandingly.

"Thanks, unnie!" Seo Yi bowed again and ran off. Did she just call me unnie?

Stephanie and Henry, my unnie and oppa, came up to me with smiley faces. Well, at least Stephanie was smiley.

"Oh my gosh! AWESOME job out there! You are so amazing!" She hugged me tightly, as Henry smirked and continued to listen to his mp3.

"Let's go home. I bet you're tired, I'll make you some tea to rest your throat, and then we'll go and watch some movies and then…"

I really loved how unnie cared so much about me.

--

"JULIA!" Stephanie called from downstairs. "COME LOOK JULIA!"

I sighed and quickly paced my feet down the steps. "Yes, Steph?"

Right when I reached the floor, she smacked a piece of paper in my face.

"I'm so happy for you!!!" She squealed, and ran off.

I looked at the paper. I couldn't believe what I was reading. I got into Q-E!

I squealed and jumped for joy. I can't believe it! I actually made it into Q-E!

Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!

Henry gave me a small smile, which was only on rare occasions. "Congrats, little sis."

I smiled back and stuck the paper onto the wall with a thumbtack.

Dear Kang Family,

We are proud to say that Ms. Julia Kang, 16 years old, has been proudly submitted into Quest Emerald Entertainment. At Q-E, we will be teacher her how to broaden her vocals, choreograph her dance moves and best of all, become famous. Staffs have all decided for her first practice on December 8th. We hope to see you at Q-E Entertainment building on that day! Thank you for your cooperation.

Best regards, Q-Entertainment Staff

I felt like I memorized the whole letter, because all day, all I can rewind was that! December 8th was only next week; I'll be practicing a lot, and working hard. I shouldn't expect things to be easy! School, practice, and a lot of other things are going to get me worked up. I hope I can endure it. I can do it!

~ Time skip : Dec. 8th

"BYE!" I called out to my older sister as I ran into the building.

"AH! Julia!" A tall man with a beard and hair coming down to his shoulder smiled.

I quickly bowed as a sign of respect. "H-Hi. I'm here for my first practice day."

"I know you are, and it's going to be good." He pulled out his hand for me to shake. "I'm Rock. Rock Jim. Cool to meet you, Julia. You have a real nice voice."

I shook his hand and smiled, "Thanks."

"Now then, I'll lead you to the studio, and I'll show you around a bit." He explained. "Q-E is really an expensive place. But it's worth the great singers, like R.I.N.G. (Rising In New Growth)." He paused because he saw the stunned look on my face.

"Anything wrong?" He asked.

"Ah, no. I like Ring. They are an amazing group." I nodded and smiled.

"Oh. Good, because you'll debut with them." Rock Jim laughed and opened a door.

I was too stunned, but he didn't notice.

"This is the studio you'll be working in. Nice huh?"

My jaw dropped. It was like, all abstract. Nothing was the same colour or shape.

"It's… nice… no… amazing… no… I'm speechless!" I cried in obvious awe.

Rock Jim laughed and closed the door. "We'll be practicing together and maybe with other trainees. We'll see how it's best for you to debut. Either in a group, or solo. It depends."

~ A year later. (No POV)

"Her name is Julia Kang. She's 17 now. Long brown hair with side bangs. Natural cuteness. Practicing in Q-E for a year and a half already, what do you say?" Jun smiled as she pointed the pointer at the slide. "I like her a lot. She has a lot of features many girls don't have."

"I agree!" one man called out, "It's best if we put her in a group. If she went solo, it wouldn't be right. Besides, in her application she said she wanted to be in a group."

"Yes, and we can slap in Ms. Kim Seo Yi and Ms. Lee Soo Young. Sexy and cute, makes the perfect combination. As well as Hwang Mi Cho. She's an excellent dancer and she's 14. It would be good to have a maknae dancer in the group, right?" Suggested President Yom.

Jun nodded and grinned, "You're right. It's the perfect girl group. Oh, we need a rapper too." She paused and skimmed through the slideshow. She stopped at a girl with a long layer of hair covering her right eye. She had big hazel eyes. "She's perfect! She looks like a rebel. And she's also a dancer… she's 17… and has a big career in dancing… wow. Perfect, we'll throw in this … Ms. Choi Jie Jun."

"Excellent, so this concludes our meeting? A 5 member girl group… it's good, I like it." President Yom smiled. "We'll have them debut with R.I.N.G. right?"

Jun nodded and clapped her hands together. "We've decided to put these 5 lovely ladies together to form one of the best female groups in Q-E history!"

~ (Julia's POV)

I took a deep breath. I had a good breakfast, good night's sleep… but will I have good members? Rock Jim told me that they have decided to slip me into a group, which I'm all happy about, but I wonder about my members… I finally opened the door after a long while, revealing Seo Yi, Soo Young, and 2 other girls I don't know.

"Hello." I bowed as I entered. Seo Yi grinned brightly and ran over to hug me. "Oh! Unnie! You got to be in this group too!!" I pat her back.

Soo Young was really tall, but she was kind. She had such a pretty face, personality… body as well. She was the perfect kind of girl. "Hi, I'm glad I could see you again." She smiled and bowed.

A shorter girl walked up to me and grinned. Which I really didn't expect, because she looked like the one to cause trouble. "Hi!! I'm Choi Jie Jun… I'm 17, so I'm your unnie haha!" So, I thought too soon. She was the mischievous kind.

I smiled uneasily and bowed. "I'm Julia Kang."

"Oh! Ju-li-a… that's not a name you'd hear in Korea, so you're…?" Jie Jun asked curiously.

"I'm Korean-American… I was born in America." I responded. I glanced over at the couch. A girl who was playing her Nintendo DS was sitting there quietly. I walked over, eager to meet the last of my members.

"Hi, I'm Julia Kang." I greeted. She pushed her head closer into the screen. She was pretty shy, and from the looks of her already, you could tell she was shy.

"H--- Hi… I'm M----Mi Cho…" She hesitated a lot. She only slightly looked from her DS.

"She doesn't talk, nor does anything unless we're on stage… she's never shy in front of an audience. She's so weird! But it's good like that. She has slick moves too!" Jie Jun blurted out.

"Oh… you're, how old?" I asked as I leaned on the couch.

"Four----Fourteen…" She said quietly.

"Oh! You're pretty young…" I glanced over at Soo Young unnie.

"How old are you?" I asked her.

"Oh Me? I'm 19. I'm the unnie of this group haha." She grinned brightly.

"Perfect! You can be our leader!" I nodded. Seo Yi agreed with me.

"I don't know! I mean, I should be the leader!" Jie Jun chuckled jokingly.

We all laughed, "Okay, so we decided on Soo Young unnie to be the leader. What should we name our group?" I said, slumped on the couch.

"O---Oh! I know… we c--can call it 'Q-E Party'" Mi Cho suggested. She was quite the game addict.

"Sounds good… but we'll try something else." I said, trying not to sound offensive.

Mi Cho shrugged and looked at her DS.

I looked over at Soo Young, "What should we call it, leader?"

She tapped her chin a bit, and looked around like she was thinking a lot.

"How about we call it, Dreamers to Believers?" She suggested.

"OH! Sounds really good!" I nodded and looked at Seo Yi, she grinned and nodded as well.

"How about you, Mi Cho? Jie Jun?" I asked.

"It's actually pretty good. As in, we're not dreamers, but believers??" Jie Jun smirked enthusiastically.

Soo Young nodded, "Right."

"Okay, so we decided on our name of our group?" I confirmed.

Everyone nodded. I clapped my hands together.

"Get ready to debut!"

--

"Step, step, kick, and spin!"

These dance moves where hard to memorize. I glanced over at the other side of the room, where R.I.N.G was practicing. We got straight to practicing, no introductions. When I got time for a break, I decided I would meet some of them.

"Julia!" Soo Young snapped. "Pay attention, we're not going over this again."

I quickly looked back at our leader. She was very strict ever since we started practicing for our new MV called 'How Can I say I Love You'.

"… And, one, two step, snap…"