His legs were shaking by now. His hands; trembling and his mind glued in a fuzzy daze of panic. There were around ten or more young boys around him in the room, all which he supposed had the same goal as himself. All which had the same dream, same reason to be here.

"Lee Jaehwan."

"Yes!" He stood up with the ungrateful whining sound from his chair rasp against the floor in the process, "That's me!"

The one who had called him out, one of the judges for the audition raised an eyebrow at the sight of the nervous, rather tall and seemingly clumsy boy in front of her. And Jaehwan could sense already that the expectations she and the other judges had for him were low; maybe they even wondered how he had managed to pass the first round to begin with? It wasn't like he was a beauty either. With curly brown hair, glasses and a bit too big (in his own opinion) nose; Jaehwan sure could have looked better. He knew that and that's why he hoped for them to judge his burning ambition instead.

So he bowed.
And he smiled.

"Hello! I'm Lee Jaehwan! I'll do my best."

An unsettling silence mixed with a few humming noises from the judges filled the room and Jaehwan took a careful peek from behind thick glass.

Ah, their faces still look a bit stern.

Jaehwan's gaze slid past the judges'' expressions with the wish to find at least a glint of expectation in someone's, anyone's eyes – but it was all in vain. He drew a quick nervous hand through his un-organized hair, feeling on the way; the sweat from his forehead brush against his palm.

Alright.
It's alright.
Don't be nervous.
Everything's fine.

"You may begin."

Jaehwan nodded and took a deep breath. He thought calmly about what he'd lose if he couldn't pass this audition. He thought about everything he had given up to get here in the first place. He thought about his mother and about Hakyeon-hyung, he thought about his dream... And there, his mind stopped in determination. It narrowed, like an archer trying to adjust his arrow.

He had only one goal in mind now. The rest of the world had calmed down, turned quiet. But it was still watching him, or at least – that's what he imagined.

All eyes on me.

His shyness shuddered, he was about to let his voice out. He wanted to let it out.

However, right at that moment, the door to the room opened. Creaked slowly at first, making everyone's gazes waver and shift. And in came him. Someone who's mere presence seemed to be enough for the useless lump of nervousness to return to Jaehwan's throat. His confidence shattered from uneasiness, because although he didn't know the man personally; Jaehwan knew that his chances to pass this audition just had shrunk significantly.

What is he doing here?
He's a judge?!

He glanced up and met the man, Kim Wonshik's edgy gaze for a second. It looked confident, calm and dangerous. Enough so for a familiar voice, recalling words from before Jaehwan even came to Seoul to appear as a mumble in his mind. It was Hakyeon's and it harshly spoke,

"Naive, naive."

✭

"Jaehwan-ah... Think about it one more time, okay?"

The mentioned one met his best friend's gaze in a sulky but yet determined matter, "I don't want to."

"Jaehwan-ah."

"Hakyeon-hyung." Jaehwan countered, causing the elder to raise an eyebrow, "This is my dream. I have to go to Seoul!"

"I understand that but..." Hakyeon moved a bit closer, rustling the sheets in Jaehwan's bed, "Honestly, I don't think you're gonna be okay by yourself."

"Why not?"

"You're too naive and trustful, someone would definitely take advantage of you."

Jaehwan gave Hakyeon a tired look, looked away and then rubbed his eyes underneath his glasses, "You're always saying that..."

The elder let out a short light felt laugh and took the freedom to lean his head onto Jaehwan's shoulder. He searched with his hand after the youngers' to tangle their fingers close together, connecting them. Hakyeon knew that Jaehwan liked physical contact and he probably also thought that the negotiation would have a higher chance of going his way if Jaehwan was happy.

Hakyeon didn't want him to go to Seoul. He didn't want to let the younger out of his sight at all and for a good reason. See, Jaehwan had always been the type to, despite his clear innocence, get in trouble. It had begun with bullies convincing the younger's pure mind that they were friends and that he should pay for all the fun they had. All the internet café, snacks and arcade expenses had ended poor Jaehwan's pocket money in no time.

Then there had been the incident with the clearly suspicious man on the street that "kindly" had offered to hold Jaehwan's bag while Jaehwan was tying his shoe laces to then run away with all of the belongings. Actually, this kind of thing in peculiar seemed to occur rather regularly... His phone also got stolen in a similar incident for example.

But the worst one by far, the one that still caused Hakyeon's chest to burn in anger by only thinking about it; was definitely when a guy from school who was one year older than Jaehwan had been trying to trick him into giving his first kiss. The guy had said something like that it was normal and that everyone did it, so, of course, Jaehwan had bought it without suspicion. Luckily, Hakyeon had been able to find them and stop the action before it happened.

It had been too close though and Hakyeon, as mentioned, didn't even want to think about what could happen to Jaehwan if he moved into the big city by himself.

He'd get eaten instantly.
Like a lamb in a field full of wolves.

And maybe... Hakyeon also didn't want to give Jaehwan any opportunity to fall in love with anyone that wasn't himself...

Hakyeon rubbed his head affectionately against Jaehwan's shoulder, "Promise me that you'll think about it, okay?"

Jaehwan sighed and nodded to confirm the elder's wish. If it made Hakyeon happy, he'd think about it. Although, he probably already knew what the final answer would be already,

I want to become a singer.

...

Two months later, there he was – in Seoul. It had been a real hustle for Jaehwan to go against both Hakyeon's and eventually his mother's words to go to Seoul and audition but they eventually (kind of) allowed it. Of course though, it was with the condition that Jaehwan would keep in tight contact and always at least try to keep his guard up against strangers.

Jaehwan raised his gaze and met the sight of the proud wooden building in front of him. On the corner of it, the company's name and logo were put up in form of a big sign that read "Pufferfish entertainment" and right below, a big picture of the company's hottest artist Jung Taekwoon seemed to almost glimmer in the daylight. Jaehwan liked his music a lot, he did, but it was nothing compared to Hakyeon who really wasn't anything but straight up trash for the star.

Jaehwan smiled at the memory, he missed Hakyeon a lot. Although the elder called to see how he was doing every single evening, it wasn't quite the same thing as hanging out as normal. Also of course, Jaehwan couldn't help but feel a bit lonely being in the big city by himself. He felt–

"Yah." A sudden husky voice somewhere near caught Jaehwan's attention and it took him a moment to realize that it in fact was coming from right behind him.

He bent his neck backwards, enough to see, although upside-down; a tall stranger with raven black hair look down at him. Jaehwan snapped his head back and turned around to happily greet the stranger, thinking that maybe he had come here for the audition as well. Although... His clothing did look a bit odd for that kind of activity...

Jaehwan gulped.

Looking closer, the young man in front of him had not only raven black hair, edgy eyes with a raw gaze and a perfectly sharpened jaw-line in his possession. But he was also wearing an expensive-looking matte black suit over a clean white shirt and around his neck, he wore a black tie that Jaehwan could see was a bit loosened. You know, in a rebelling kinda way. In his ears, the man had several, not too obvious piercings and on his hands; there was a small collection of silver rings. He looked classy mixed with a slight feeling of being a bodyguard...

"Done staring?"

Jaehwan gulped again, feeling himself for some reason shrink significantly in the presence of the man.

"I-I think so..." He stuttered, squeezing out a small polite smile that was not to be picked up the stranger.

"Then move, you're in my way."

Jaehwan hesitated before he curiously asked, "Who are you?"

The stranger's right eye seemed to twitch in annoyance for a second before he leaned his weight back a bit and raised his chin in a confident matter. His hand went in his pocket and his gaze seemed to turn even sharper. Like he was studying every detail of Jaehwan.

"I'm Kim Wonshik." He stated, putting a bit more pressure on the name than necessary and then gave a light nod towards the building, "You're here for the audition I suppose."

"Ah, yes." Jaehwan confessed and the corners of Wonshik's mouth finally seemed to lift a bit. However, that unfortunately didn't mean that he was about to say something pretty.

"Go home, you're not going to make it."

... What?

"..."

There was something about that moment, about that shamelessly softly spoken sentence. Something odd that etched into one's mind. Because although Jaehwan didn't know Wonshik or even about him, it felt like words spoken by someone who mattered. They had a meaning, they took a presence in reality. No matter how harsh and cold they may seemed, they succeeded in changing the mood for the worse.

So, Jaehwan froze and Wonshik's expression changed back to serious again. After a few seconds of silence, the latter took a step forwards; causing the other to automatically step out of the way.

Jaehwan soon heard how Wonshik disappeared into the building behind him and then, finally – his shoulders dared unstiffen, his body finally lightened up. Jaehwan turned around and eyed the building once more. The feeling was different from earlier, more serious and... bigger in a way.

"The city sure is scary..." He mumbled and then felt after for himself.

There was no doubt that Jaehwan had become more nervous than earlier but he still felt like he'd manage. As long as he wouldn't have to see or meet the man called "Kim Wonshik" again.

Yeah, I'll manage.

And so, he managed to find his way in, managed to watch the other applicants show of themselves, managed to properly introduce himself to the judges and even managed to gather enough confidence to be able to sing in the center of attention.

Jaehwan managed everything up till then. All, up until he entered. Sitting there now, watching, smirking; Kim Wonshik looked like he was ready to go against Jaehwan with all of his might. Although still unknown to why really – he wasn't going to let Jaehwan pass without a fight, that was one thing that was for sure.

And now,
Jaehwan had to start singing.