CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
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You didn’t think it was the end of the story, did you? Of course it is not. We haven’t completed the entire story yet. I’ll begin when we first stepped out of I-LAND. The ENHYPEN boys got to ride in a big black car. I sulked and frowned.
I thought we were getting a big fancy black car!
But then, I looked to my right. And there was a big tour bus in a semi hot-purple color.
“Is that our ride?” Holly asked.
On the license plate, it said 2020G-LNDNRS. I recognized what it said.
“This is our ride, all right!” I declared.
All of us exclaimed and squealed. Our very own tour bus! And I thought this was a dream come true! It really was!
“Who’s driving!” I asked, playfully.
“I am, of course!” Leila said, elated.
When we got inside, it was fully furnished with everything we needed. A few converting beds. A kitchenette. Luggage storage! It was perfect! We had everything we needed for the road to our dorm room. That is…if we even have one.
“I wonder what our dorm room will look like!” Lara said.
“It must be comfy!” said Maeve.
“And especially after all of that dancing and singing,” said Jax, “I’m pretty tired!”
We stopped by a Starbucks. I remembered that we would get a drink every time we would take a break from training. Especially in I-LAND. But we weren’t I-LANDers anymore. We were idols now. And we were going to put our new lives right!
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We got to our dorm. At the same time, ENHYPEN arrived as well. But they saw our tour bus…I assumed that they were jealous again! However, none of us noticed them and went to our apartment room.
“They get a tour bus?” Jay said in envy, crossing his arms.
“And we thought we were the lucky ones!” said Jungwon.
Coincidentally, our dorm room was right next door to ENHYPEN’s. When we first walked in, the word “wow” was one way to have us enchanted by our brand new dorm.
“I can’t believe we are here!” said Lara, “Our very own dorm!”
“And to think we weren’t the lucky ones!” Maeve added.
The dorm was warm and roomy. There was a huge living room with a flatscreen TV, a kitchen big enough for the twelve of us (including my sub-unit), four bedrooms with bunk-beds, two bathrooms, and a laundry room. But none of us knew how to do the laundry yet.
“So this is love!” I said to myself, walking further into the room.
I settled down on a top bunk near a window, where I could watch the sky go by. Of course, it helped me to sleep every time I woke up every few hours or so. I wondered how Jake was getting on. Not that he was jealous of our room either, I would hope (I strongly believed he was).
We sat down and watched, you guessed it, “I-LAND”, even after only a day of passing. We all remembered the stories that happened, and the girls teasing me whenever the parts me and Jake were on, and, the best part, our dances.
“Whenever we were dancing, the boys would be all grumpy, as if we were better than them.” said Jax.
“I know.” said Livia.
“Thankfully,” I said, “They gave us this opportunity. If they hadn’t, then we would be lurking around like lost puppies, trying to find an agency.”
The girls laughed at my joke. I wasn’t a joker, however. It was ironic.
After each episode, I didn’t realize it was already twenty minutes after eleven…in the night! When the final episode ended, it was after midnight. We all went to bed straight away. We had to meet with the HYBE CEO Bang Si-hyuk to discuss our future plans as idols. And we had to get enough rest in order to discuss with the big man himself.
But I couldn’t get any sleep. I was so nervous, I couldn’t even close my eyes. I don’t know if it was anxiety or worse, fear. Yet I’ve always thought of fear as a good thing, since it keeps us safe from danger. But either way, I still didn’t sleep.
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At about 1:15 I went to sleep. I didn’t feel so tired when I woke up. Leila seemed as though she slept well. But not the rest of the girls. Even my sub-unit didn’t want to wake up either. But we had to. I didn’t think that Bang Si-hyuk would want us girls sleeping in on the job as idols.
I got out of bed and went to the bathroom, where I began to wash my face, and applied a little bit of makeup on. Of course we were doing something important, so us girls had to look our best. Eventually, the other girls began to wake up and get out of bed.
But the strange part was, everyone basically stayed in their pajamas, while I was the only one who dressed up properly, and even Leila looked wide away too.
On the way over, we had to stop by for a coffee. And trust me, it didn’t feel good having to buy 12 cups of a Starbucks for everyone. Eventually, after ordering everyone a cup of coffee…and an additional breakfast…we began the drive to HYBE Entertainment, where we were going to meet Bang Si-hyuk for our first day of work.
We are going to meet with the CEO of BigHit and HYBE Entertainment, I thought, I should have known that he might be the one who set us up to go to I-LAND. It’s got to be!
We then drove to the dark parking lot. We arrived at the building. And the girls were still snoozing like little cats under their owners legs.
Eventually, after many attempts to wake them up, we headed down the entrance to the building.
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Our first stop was the BTS lounge room. And the girls were wide awake for this one. The room was comfortable. There was the telly, a couch, a coffee table, a white board, and a collection of BTS and TXT’s released albums. It was actually pretty cool for me.
I let the girls rest some more as we sat down. Since we stayed up rewatching I-LAND, none of us got proper sleep. And honestly, I should have just had every one of us go straight to bed.
“Y/N?” said a sleepy Holly, “Tell me why we have to meet with Mr. Bang?”
“We are going to be idols and debut like the boys.” I replied, motherly.
I explained the reasons detail by detail. And I became tired too.
After the break, we then made our way to the space where BTS usually posts their dance practise videos. It felt as though BTS was there (even though at that time, they were busy making their next album BE). The one thing I noticed were white blinds covering the mirrors. I asked the cameramen about that and they said that if we were filming in the room, we can’t have a mirror, otherwise it would expose “identity” or something like that.
They should have these back in Ireland, I thought.
There was more meaning behind these particular spaces in HYBE than we thought there was going to be, because it’s used by our favorite artists and we thought of it as an honor to be bestowed with these favorite spots. One day, if one of us gets to meet BTS again in the future, then we would strike up a date to get together and then go on from there.
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And so, we were met with our new manager named Kim Yeo-rin. She reminded me of our first dance teacher before Tae-woo. She was in charge of our official social media and Weverse.
We sat down in our very own meeting office and she introduced us to Weverse.
“Each of you will get your own Weverse account and will participate in events such as fan video calls, online fan signs, and release new merch. And since you will be cover artists, tomorrow, you may choose your very first song to sing. But right now, I want you all to stand outside and we will create your very first post as Galway Londoners and the sub-unit AO3!”
All twelve of us stood outside of the office and took a big group picture of Galway Londoners and then AO3. We did have a few laughs and a tiny bit of silliness…however, we eventually succeeded in the photo.
We then had an anticipated wait for the photo to be posted. After posting it…a whole heap of fans from all over the country and around the world commented on it. I never thought we would be this popular already!
“Oh, my god,” said Hinata, “Are you serious?!”
“This is unbelievable!” said Lara.
“I hope Namjoon commented!” said Maeve.
It was one of the many things that I wanted to try in my life. So…it was really amazing that I got to try it out right now. And I felt this pride inside when fans commented on our accounts on Instagram too. I’m surprised that we even became famous when we haven’t even made our first cover yet.
A little bit later, we were going to do our first live as one big group. Both Galway Londoners and AO3. We were told to say hello after a few minutes, so that fans could come and watch the live. So that gave us enough time to sit back and practice what we were going to say once after we did our group greeting.
Once we started the live…a million fans joined in the live. And we couldn’t believe it. Our first live began so successfully. And I couldn’t believe that we were taking it to the top. I thought we were going to beat BlackPink, since we were gaining so much popularity. By the minute, there were a million more. Our popularity was rising quickly. We had so much fun telling our story and how we joined I-LAND and how we formed officially by HYBE and everyone. I had a feeling our new lives were already set straight. I could even see our whole future ahead of us, especially since they all made me the leader.
A little later, there were banners and posters and our old photos of us when we were in I-LAND. And there was a cake and everything!
“Is this a party?” I asked myself.
“This is definitely something for us!” said Leila.
There were balloon letters for our group names. For a good reason, ENHYPEN was right next to us! The boys walked in and stood there…as if they were jealous of us! But I didn’t think about it much. Certainly, I didn’t think that Jake, my best friend, would be so jealous of me or the other girls. But one thing I know for sure is the popularity we were getting. Should that be something we should all be cautious about?
We all sat down and Bang Si-hyuk, the famous CEO and manager of BTS stood in front of us like Heaven intended!
And then, there were video messages from our parents and we couldn’t help but scream and squeal as if we were in a BTS concert. And that made the boys annoyed as hell. And Mr. Bang…and the managers…were okay with it.
As I looked at my mum’s face, I wanted to tell her that I was debuting. And she knew it. And now that I was working in a real pop band, I wanted to thank everyone who were in my life in both Ireland and in Korea for raising me to become the best person in life. And I had hopes for the best for what is yet to come.
After our families’ video messages, Mr. Bang then delivered us his welcome into HYBE.
“The idol you dreamt of being is difficult…sometimes. But with all of the hard we had seen you do in I-LAND and the bonding you made with everyone, whatever you imagine, you wouldn’t have imagined K-Pop bands without fans. And that would have been a heart wrenching thing to see, let alone hear.” he said, “And because of your dedication, the K-Pop culture was able to present itself in the global music industry and idols could roam the entire world. But it does not mean that you are naturally worth such devotion. They aren’t dumb, your fans, but they are ready to give you their affection more than anyone. At the same time, they quickly find out who you really are. I congratulate all of you that have achieved this dream and hope for the best from everybody.”
Hearing his words may have thrown me. But it is the life of an idol. I had never thought that fans could find some affection to give us, let alone give us so much devotion that even us don’t deserve. However, it is important to know what fans are sometimes like once we get out into the world and perform for those that show us so much support than others.
I laid wide awake in bed that night. As I closed my eyes, I saw a long pathway that I was slowly walking on. It was a hike. But it meant that this was how it was going to be for us. We were going to become K-Pop idols.