Big Hit's New Girl Group: I'm a K-Pop Star

Truth be told, Rinah was a fan of Iris like Ahreum, although less avidly and boisterously so than the younger girl, but she was too bashful to express it verbally.

Now that she had been convinced by Iris and the rest of the girls, all willing to accept and welcome her into the group upon recognition of her abilities, Rinah discussed her firm to decision with her parents to give the idol gig one wholehearted, last attempt instead of her previous half-baked one.

Financially, her parents were a little bummed that Rinah had decided this so late after paying tuition. But seeing how adorably serious their daughter was for the first time about something, they couldn't help but wave her away to follow her dreams.

Thus, with the blessings of her parents, Rinah had restarted her training with great vigor and renewed purpose. Jiyeon, in particular, was impressed with her speed of picking up new choreography and sometimes teased Cindy that Rinah was better at including small details to her dance.

At this, Cindy would just scoff without protesting because she knew it to be true. However, it made her more driven to improve and hone her personal flourishes to her dance. And in this way, everyone pushed one another to excel.

Luckily, or unluckily for Iris, she had no time to individually practice. Like many other idols busy with promotions and other activities, Iris's schedule was too packed to set aside time to refine her skills and style. Instead, they were merely polished by default of her rehearsing and performing.

"So, d-day soon, eh?" Cindy remarked with a mouth half full of food, totally incongruent to her sparkling, bare skinned face.

"Yeah, it felt so far away, but now it's right around the corner," replied Iris while wrapping a lettuce leaf of barbecue-sauced beef and rice.

"Uh, I bet! And I'll be streaming all day when you drop the MVs!" Ahreum cheered, almost lifting herself entirely off her seat in excitement.

Jiyeon nudged the youngest girl with her elbow. "Hey, 'all day'? You better not, you loaf!"

"Uwuwu~" Ahrie murmured, dejected.

"I'm kidding, we can have one day of rest instead of practicing." Jiyeon winked. "We'll just say it's our educational, brainstorming session learning from Iris Huang-sunbaenim of IZ*ONE, haha."

While Iris was aware of this underlying, unspoken reason, she took the pressure to do well in stride with her own high standards for herself. Such was the personal, inner strength that an aspiring top idol needed to be.

"You're not going to give us hints, are you? Besides the information that we know which is connected to our group debut."

Iris shook her head at Jiyeon's question and closed one eye teasingly. "Nope! No spoilers! You'll just have to wait and be amazed like everyone else!"

"Amazed, huh?" Jiyeon chuckled, lowering her fork from her mouth. "You're awfully confident that we'll be amazed."

"Well of course," giggled Iris, "who do you think I am? I've got to make y'all proud while also surprising you too!"

"I know, haha! We've gotten many surprises from you, and we're looking forward to more Miss Iris Huang~"

"Haha, thanks Jiji~" That was the nickname that Jiyeon was called. Iris had given it to her based on Jiyeon's cat like looks and from the sassy black cat named Jiji in the animated movie, Kiki's Delivery Service. Studio Ghibli, who made that film, was part of Iris's childhood.

Thus, after getting to know Jiyeon for awhile, Iris bestowed that name to her by accident one day. She had slipped and confessed where she got inspiration for the nickname. Jiyeon truly reminded Iris of a sleek black cat with spunk, charm, and a surprisingly good sense of humor despite her cool as a cat outward demeanor.

Also, Iris had a thing for cute nicknames that repeated one syllable twice, such as Riri for Rinah. However, none of the nicknamed girls minded.

Although, they still couldn't figure out a nickname for Iris which was already short. And yet with Cindy, they sometimes called her Cinds when they were lazy.

Cindy quite disliked that name since it reminded her of ashes, of cinders. But it was usually said in fun, and the other members couldn't help teasing her once in a while. Usually, it was the mischievous Ahrie that did this.

On the passing thought of nicknames, Iris suddenly recalled a seemingly minor but important topic about their group debut.

"Hey, that reminds me. We need to decide on stage names? I'm just going to stick with Iris since the public is already used to that, and it's a unique enough name already for a k-pop idol. But what about you girls? You're starting fresh, so you could do anything."

Iris rested her elbows on the table, holding her lettuce-beef-rice wrap in her left hand and propping up her chin and left cheek with her other. She glanced at the four of them as they paused and seriously considered her question.

Out of all their preparations, that small but important detail somehow missed their radar. Perhaps it was due to many idols just going with their first name as their stage name.

"Well..." Iris began a few seconds later. "I do have some ideas for you all, if you'll like to hear?"

Interested, they urged her to continue.

"So... you know how I like sounds of words and symbolic meanings. For Rinah, what about Reina? She reminded me of a princess the first time I saw her.

"And you all told me that you had the same exact impression. And since Rinah sounds similar to Reina which essentially means 'queen' in Spanish, a 'reigning' queen, then I feel it's pretty perfect.

"And after all, we're going with multiple dimensions, one of which is two kingdoms of good and bad, so it totally fits our concept and story. Well, as long as you like the name, Riri."

When Iris finished, they all slowly nodded with pensively enlightened expressions on their faces.

"Yes... I like it very much!" Rinah widened her eyes. "I'm amazed you thought of that name with such meaning! And it sounds really elegant and pretty too!"

Iris beamed. "Of course! My special quirky talent is naming things after all, hahaha!"

"I like it lots too!" Ahrie blurted and raised her hand in excitement. "What about me? What ideas did you have?" Her eyes twinkled in anticipation.

"Hmm~ I once thought of Rey for king, or like Rei in Japanese, but I don't think it fits you well, and it sounds too similar to Reina. I like Ara, and Amirah with the 'h' optimal which means princess in Arabic, but you're a knight, so I also found Alessia, meaning 'defending warrior' in Italian...

"And then there's also Ari from Ariel or Arianna, which have symbolic meanings that sorta work too. Although, I would prefer them only for being very similar to Ahri and still Korean-sounding.

"Also, let's not do Ahri, the character from League." Iris finished with a pithy chuckle. It was a reoccurring joke that Ahrie became Ahreum's nickname after they all belatedly realized its similarity to the fox character on a computer game that didn't match Ahreum at all.

The youngest girl laughed heartily. "Yeah, let's not. Our fans would be so confused by the divergence from our theme and what I like, haha!"

"Whoa! You used such a big word! I'm proud of you."

"Puu! Cut it out Jiji! I'm 20 already, okay?!"

"Born in the 21st century tsk tsk..."

"At least I have a song by BTS made just for me!" Ahreum was referring to their song, '21st Century Girls.'

"Hey now, I count too in that song, don't steal it for only yourself! That's precious to all ARMY!"

Ahreum stuck her tongue out at Jiyeon before turning back to Iris.

"Anyway, those are all great ideas! I like being called Ahrie, so I was thinking of Ari too! It's a cute but pretty name that fits me, hehe!"

Everyone smiled. "Okay, so that settles that..." Iris bobbed her head in satisfaction. "Oh! That also reminds me. I thought of a revised group name since we can't use LUCIE now."

The girls glanced at one another before giving Iris a sheepish smile. It was true. Now they were five, no longer four. So IE couldn't be stylized as '13' and turned into 'K' anymore.

"Not a big deal to alter! Here's the new name..."

Iris bent down to retrieve her mini-notebook from her bag. She always carried paper and pencil for whenever inspiration struck.

"These are the new designs I sketched." She flipped through the book and pressed down the spine at the page of interest.

"LUXIA. Pronounced Lu-Shaw as in the 'Xia' Dynasty of Ancient China. It also sounds like the name Lucia which is derived from Lux which means light in latin. And IA can be stylized as 14, 1+4 that equals 5."

"Whew, you really got our bases covered," remarked Cindy. "Sounds like you have too much fun with this, my cousin dear."

"Heheh, I suppose yes." Iris grinned lopsidedly. "Is it okay? Or should we adopt an American English pronunciation with LUX-EE-AH to make it simpler and less people saying our name wrong?"

"Yeah, us Americans will definitely try to pronounce it that way first.... But I personally like the sound of Lu-shaw better. It's more succinct and edgy. Luxia sounds too much like luxury and therefore snobbish, ahaha."

"Good point, Cindy. I agree. It'll also be easier to say that name when rapping." Jiyeon added.

"Oh, that's true," murmured Rinah. "Black Pink?!"

"Haha! Yes, that's it!" laughed Jiyeon.

"Or Ev-er-glow?" Rinah inserted with a playful tone.

"Gosh, three syllables work too, I nearly forgot they do that group name whisper-shout thing too." Jiyeon shook her head with a wry smile.

"Maybe we shouldn't do what they do." Ahreum suggested. "BTS and TXT don't do it after all. And I don't want to be called copy cats." She gave a firm little pout.

Ahrie hated the double standards and closer scrutiny that girl idols had to go through with every little thing they did and similarity they had with another group.

"Okay, well we can settle on the pronunciation later, but is LUXIA decided?"

Cindy gave a thumbs up. "You make the best names. I've got no imagination for that, haha! It's good for me."

The rest expressed their agreement. Previously, they had liked LUCIE. So they still had some attachment to it which LUXIA somewhat fulfilled for them.

"Awesome! Now let's move on with stage names for Jiji and Cinds..."

"Hey!"

The girls laughed at Cindy's protest as their cheery meal turned into another productive debut prep session. They scoffed down the food while scribbling in turns on Iris's notepad.