.two. transformation

She had been in Seoul for about two hours and she was already being dragged off to some unknown location with two strangers from SM Entertainment. She hadn't even gotten the chance to say goodbye to her brother or her parents, who she wouldn't be seeing again for several months to about a year away from home. She thought about her studies at the University of Nanjing and how she would need to contact them in order to put her classes on hold, either that or ask for the opportunity to do everything online.

After being practically dragged from the hospital and shoved into a waiting car, she was taken into the city where she saw various skyscrapers and business buildings. But there was one that immediately caught her attention in the row of buildings. It was tall, black, but glittering, and the big white letters at the top read in english: SMTOWN STUDIO. 

Yena was quite surprised that it didn't look one bit as much as she pictured it in her head. She thought it would be a sterile white building with executives walking about everywhere, everything and everyone serious. But as they exited the vehicle in the parking lot and entered the building, she was surprised that the first thing she saw in the lobby were pictures of their most popular idols. Her brother Tao and the rest of his band mates stood in framed photographs near frames of other popular kpop groups like Girls Generation, and Super Junior. Yena almost squealed when she saw them, Super Junior was her favorite group, but contained herself when she remembered she was doing this for her brother and that she really didn't want to be there.

Without saying a word to her or anyone as they passed the lobby and down a semi-lit hallway that led to the elevators, the SM people took her to one of the upper floors which looked more like a shopping mall to her than anything else. The only thing it was missing to complete the shopping mall aesthetic were the people. The place was nearly empty.

To her right were rows upon rows of shop like places, all with glass doors and smiling stylists inside, waiting for an idol to come by. One station was labeled hair, while the next one was labeled make-up, then clothes, and lastly shoes. Everything she needed to be transformed into her brother Tao was right there and it was more real than anything. It was going to happen, and she couldn't back out now.

The woman executive gripped her upper arm with some force, taking Yena by surprise and took her to the first station which was for hair styling. She ordered the hair stylist something in Korean, which Yena was barely able to make out. She had studied it in her classes, and she could grasp the language pretty well. "Listen carefully, I want you to cut this girl's hair really short. Give her a boy's cut, like Tao from EXO, and dye it blonde too." But it was another thing to communicate with twenty other students who were learning with her in a classroom, and another to communicate with a native speaker.

Yena's eyes widened and she shook her head, refusing. "Wait." She said to the executive in Mandarin. "No one told me I would need to cut and bleach my hair. I don't want that."

The woman executive rolled her eyes and gave in rather easily, considering how cold and demanding she was being. "Fine. Style a wig for her, and please make it look convincing." She ordered with a bored sigh. "When you finish putting the wig on her head and styling it for her, take her to make up. I'll give them instructions right now and then I have to go and make some last minute arrangements." With that, she left Chuyen in the room with a hairstylist who hadn't talked the entire time until the executive left with her partner.

"Lets get started then." She smiled bright at Yena. At least someone at SM Entertainment was being nice to her, she thought to herself.

It took the hair stylist, whose name was Kyra, about an hour to find a good wig to fit Yena and then to style it into the same type of hairstyle and color Tao was wearing currently. Yena knew that her brother's hair wasn't blonde at the moment, but the executive wanted her hair to be blonde. Perhaps it was the same color Tao was going to dye it before his accident--she thought.

Yena was led out of the hair station and led by Kyra to make up. The people in that room were a bit colder when they regarded her. They were just there to follow the orders they had been given and then sent her on her way to the next place, which was clothes. 

That was the biggest challenge yet because the stylists needed to find a way to hide her girly curves. The first thing they did was to take her behind a curtain, and the group of four stylists--three women and one man--had her strip down to her undergarments and then proceeded to wrap bandaging around her chest tightly to flatten her out in that area. Then they picked out clothes for her that would make her shoulders look broader, and finally came the shoes which surprised Yena how quickly SM had been able to attain them on such short notice from such a prestigious company like Adidas. 

The moment she saw the shoes, they looked like any regular sneakers to her, but when she put them on, she definitely felt the new height difference. First of all, it was difficult to walk in them--even worse than wearing heels. And then there was the fact that she felt like a sky scraper walking in them--or like the leaning tower of Pisa to be more precise. 

By the time her makeover was done--a bit over three hours later, she was allowed to look in the mirror and she gasped at what she saw before her very eyes. She knew it was her because she knew she was looking into a mirror, but what she saw was entirely different than what she expected. The reflection wasn't her own, but of her brother Tao. They had done such a convincing job, and had gone to amazing heights just to make it happen. Now it would be up to her to keep everyone from finding out.

As she stumbled clumsily out of the clothes booth, she ran into the woman executive and her partner who had been at the hospital for her. Both smiled, satisfied with the finished product of Yena's transformation. 

"You look great, Tao." The woman said, already calling her by her brother's name.

Yena pinched at the sleeves of her blazer, the coarse material making her skin itch, and looked down at her feet awkwardly. "I didn't know kpop idols had to go through all of that." Now she had so much more admiration for her brother, as well as his band mates. 

The woman only nodded her head and went in another direction, expecting Yena to follow. Yena did, but hesitantly, as she felt like she would trip and fall with her five inch platform sneakers. Even with them she was still about two inches shorter than Tao and she hoped that the other boys wouldn't notice the height difference.

She was led down the hallways and back to the elevator that took them to one of the top floors. "The bottom floors are for dance and vocal rehearsal rooms. The middle floors are for hair, makeup, and fashion. The top floors are the SM dorms for the trainees who have either just debuted or are very close to doing so. You'll be placed in one of the newer floors, where no one is living there yet. We can't risk the other idols seeing you until next week." The elevator stopped at one of the top floors and they all stepped out. As they walked to one of the empty rooms near the back, she continued to explain. "Do not--under any circumstances--leave your room until you have been instructed to do so. Food will be brought to you. Vocal and dance instructors will come to you as well. We understand that you're studying music at the University of Nanjing."

Yena nodded, but remained silent.

"Then teaching you how to sing won't be a problem." The woman informed. "We will have someone teach you how to speak and act like a boy. Finally, you will have dance classes for six hours a day split into two sessions with a one hour break in between. Vocal lessons will be four hours a day." Yena wondered why she needed so many dance classes, but it seemed the woman had read her mind, because her next words answered Yena's question. "The rest of the group has learned the dance moves for the new music video Growl. Tao already knew the steps, but since he's not here...you know what you have to do."

Yena nodded her haid again, and again stayed silent. It was almost too much information for her that she was feeling overwhelmed by it all. As they reached the last room in the hall, the woman got a key out and unlocked it, she then turned and handed Yena the key.

"Welcome to SM Entertainment." The man told her, and Yena felt like it had been the first time she ever heard him speak.

"We'll have our people bring you a new cellphone as well as new clothes for you to wear." The woman finished and they quickly left her in the empty hall by herself, with only her new room for company, which wasn't very comforting and inviting for the twenty year old.

She hadn't even gotten their names, but it didn't matter because it was the first and last time she would interact with them. Everything else pertaining to Yena and the other band members would be taken care of by specially designated managers appointed to EXO.

-

a/n: here's the second chapter for you all.

thank you all for the 60+ reads. i hope you're liking the story so far, and again please bear with me. im a new fan, but i'm still learning more and more about the boys with each passing day ^.^

i'll post another chapter on here tomorrow.

-clary (baekshands)