7 Days (1)

The Newpark Newcomer Idol Competition was founded in 2016 by B City's largest company in show business, Golden Stars. Golden Stars spread itself over idols, actors, artists, pianists, directors, and had even recently pushed into social media.

They founded the competition in order to help them weed through all the potential candidates who were applying to the company. In order to offer incentives so as many people as possible would participate, they made the rewards incredibly desired. Whoever got first place in the competition was offered the choice between a 2 year contract with Golden Stars or $1,000,000. Second and third place were offered either 1 year contracts with other companies or $100,000.

The exact date it was held on each year was never the same as it was based on when they believed it would bring the best results. This year, it was scheduled for June 12th.

When they had first hosted the competition, it had been open to all who wanted to compete but the prestigious host and generous rewards had led to there being far too many contestants. It had taken nearly 3 months to finish and the following year they had announced that entrance would be based on an initial test.

If the individual or group didn't pass the basic test, they were immediately sent away and unable to try again, no matter how many years they waited.

The single change saw the contestants reduced to only 10% of the previous year.

At the moment it was June 4th, and Aria and Aika had just finished moving into their new apartment. They had a mere 7 days to be fully prepared for an event that would completely decide the course of their lives.

Aria herself was extremely relaxed, as all she had to do was watch Aika practice and give her opinion.

On the other hand, Aika was using every ounce of her energy. She had to dance and sing at the same time all the while acting like it was effortless and she was happy.

At the end of the song, she took several deep breaths and drank a lot of water before looking up at Aria for a response.

"Better than last time, you need better endurance though..." Although all she had to do was sit there and comment, Aria had actually done a lot of research on popular idols and was also practicing acting. She knew that in order to be successful running their future company, taking her short stature and age into account, she would have to appear cold and ruthless in public or people wouldn't take her seriously.

Even though she knew Aria was right, Aika whined and pouted for several seconds before she accepted her fate and tried again.

As Aika began moving and singing, Aria found herself absorbed in every little action and sound. Everything about her seemed so perfect, her short blonde hair, brown eyes, angelic voice, even her ears were perfect.

After nearly 3 hours of practice, Aika ran over to Aria and lay on the couch with her head on her thighs. The hours of practice had drained every last drop of energy in her body and she felt like even thinking about moving would kill her.

"That was the best one yet! You made so much progress..." Aria shifted out from under Aika's head as she spoke and made her way to the kitchen.

Part of the lessons back in Korea had been learning how to cook as they focused on being a fully self sufficient individual. Once she had begun learning to cook, it became something of an escape for herself.

As a young girl in a lonely and foreign environment, she put all of her focus into cooking whenever she did it and viewed it as a connection to other people.

She expertly prepared salmon, rice, and broccoli before plating it for two. The smell drifted into the kitchen and Aika followed it to the kitchen and stared in shock.

After several moments of shock she hesitated before calling out, "Aria? You can cook?"

"Yes?" Aria tilted her head and blinked her eyes in confusion. ...why wouldn't she be able to cook?

She turned back to the stove and turned it off, having forgotten to while plating the food. "I'll bring them out, you can just go wait at the table."

"Oh." Aika turned and left the kitchen and sat at the table. In all her life, she had never had someone important to her cook for her and a foreign feeling bubbled up inside her.

Soon, Aria walked out of the kitchen with two plates of food and placed the one with far more on it in front of Aika.

She watched as Aika took the first bite and smiled happily once she saw that she liked it and quickly went in for a second bite.