♥ Vain

Forget/Vain i

                 Jung Yunho was born as the first son from a well off family of legal workers in Gwangju. When Yunho was in elementary school there was an economy crisis in Korea better known as the IMF crisis. Yunho’s dad, Jung Chang Hyun, held a position in a bank and was forced by the upper management to dismiss some of his employees because of this crisis. In the end, feeling responsible for his actions, he decided he should experience the same hardship as what his employees went through; he voluntarily resign from the bank. Due to this, his family was greatly affected by the economy crisis.

                One day, he noticed his father went out at 4 in the morning. He thought his dad had something to do and brush the whole thing off but his dad kept on going out exactly at 4 a.m. every day. This raise suspicions for Yunho and the naïve him thought his dad was having an affair. He can’t accept the fact that his dad would cheat on his mom as he looked up to him so much. He couldn’t take it anymore and decided to follow his dad one morning. His dad went into a suspicious building and Yunho kept on thinking if he entered the building, he would ruin his family. He waited for his father to come out and suddenly his father came out with a bunch of newspapers. It turns out Yunho’s dad was delivering newspapers in the morning to make extra money.

                Yunho was shocked and extremely touched by his father’s sacrifices. As a son, he promised himself to be successful and help his dad, mom and sister. After this incident, Yunho was determined to help his family in any way that he can. Around that time, Yunho had an obsession with Michael Jackson and started to fall in love with dancing. He and his friends formed a dancing team; A+ in middle school and have since been performing for loose change but Yunho make sure that his grades weren’t affected by his passion.

                One day Yunho and his friends saw an advertisement for an auditioned held in Gwangju and decided to participate in it. Before his turn, he saw other kids danced and sang for a few seconds before being cut off by the judges. How can you know if these kids have talent or not just from those few seconds of tryouts. When it was his turn, Yunho only sang for a couple of seconds and the judges asked, “Why did you stop?” Yunho replied “I was going to be cut off anyways like the other kids so instead please allow me to dance my whole choreography without being cut off.” The judges were taken aback by Yunho’s words but still allow him to dance his full choreo.

As Yunho was giving out his all in front of the judges, their eyes were sharp and expressions were serious while evaluating Yunho. A few seconds after Yunho have stopped dancing, the judges whispered among themselves and one of the judges announced “Jung Yunho-ssi, congratulations you got accepted for the Seoul audition.”

                Yunho was on cloud nine; one more step towards his dream and finally he can return the deeds his family have done for him. Two of his friends were also accepted for the Seoul audition and they planned to go there together. The audition was held in Seoul at SM Building in 2001 or better known as 1st SM Annual Best competition.

                “Ya, Yunho! The audition called ‘1st SM Annual Best competition’. Isn’t SM that big company in Seoul?” One of Yunho’s friends speak out in Gwangju dialect.

                “That’s right! They produced... Let me think... H.O.T and Shinhwa… Also S.E.S!” Another one of his friends responded.

SM Entertainment was established in 1995 by Lee Sooman and have raised many successful artists under his wings including H.O.T, S.E.S, and Shinhwa. Sooman doesn’t want to stop there. He organized a competition nationwide in search for more talent and organized the company’s 1st Annual SM Best Competition that includes the category for Best Dancer, Best Face, Best Singer, and etc.

The audition was held in November at Seoul and it’s a good thing it was held during the weekend because winter school break haven’t started yet at that time and it would be hard for Yunho and his friends to travel from Gwangju all the way to Seoul.

Yunho didn’t tell his parents about his trip to Seoul as he knew his parents wouldn’t allow him. He told them he will be sleeping at a friend’s house over the weekend to go over school work. This trip required money and Yunho was forever thankful that he saved some in his piggy bank. The trip to Seoul from Gwangju is 2 hours by bus. Yunho and his friends boarded the first bus to Seoul, not wanting to be late for the audition.

                They all set foot on Seoul Bus Station together and took in a deep breathe. “It’s Seoul’s air!” “Seoul’s road!” “Seoul’s girls” Their laughter were extremely loud and passersby kept on staring them, giving them the side glance, Country bumpkins, but they didn’t care. They were going to be an idol, screw you normal Seoul people.

                Yunho and his friends stepped out of the bus station and walked a few meters before they saw someone was getting mugged by a group of thugs. Yunho stopped on his tracks, scanning the situation as he was ready to help. Yunho’s friends tried to pull him away and told him to ignore the guy but how can he? Yunho is not that type of person. The person getting mugged was so skinny and his figure was so small compared to the other guys. He was clutching on his bag so hard and it looked like as if he was shaking. Oh man, he’s scared. I really want to help him but how?

                Suddenly, the thugs turned their h