××× jiwon

          2 years ago, March 2010

I took the bus from my dorm, which I had shared with other girls from Busan,
to the address I was given. It was a tall building with a lot of floors, so what I
guessed when I saw the number “329”, I immediately knew that the dorm was located on the 32^nd floor.

Packed with my suitcases and bags I made my way to the elevator. I waited inside there,
together with another girl. She was about my age and her long, light brown hair
catched my attention. My eyes moved slowly moved towards her, but I stopped myself.

“Concentrate, Ji, concentrate,” I thought and put the little paper inside my bag again.

When the elevator arrived, I slowly stepped through the hallway. My steps were silent,
because the carpet was damping them. It was completely quiet, which made me a little bit cringe.

329. 329. 329.

I arrived at the door and tried to hear something from inside. Nothing.

Slowly, I lifted my hand to the door bell and pressed it lightly.

“Coming!” I heard from the inside and a girl with long, black hair opened the door.
She gave me a bright smile, bowed slightly and wanted to help me with my luggage.

Even if I knew that she was younger than me, I felt a little nervous, when I shyly handed
her my suitcase. She took it and brought it to a little room to the right.

“So and you must be...?” she asked and her eyes sparkled.

“Uhm, I am Jiwon. Shim Jiwon, “ I said quietly and followed her to the living room,
which was a bright room with two couches and a big TV screen.

There were already four girls sitting there. All of them were very pretty, one looked very
intelligent, another really young and the last one looked like she was acting cute, judging from the pout she made.

“Everybody, this is Jiwon-unnie,” the girl next to me said and smiled at the others.

Unnie? It sounded a little bit strange to my ears, because I used to be the youngest in our dorm,
but I would get used to it. Of course, this girl had to be younger than me.

I bowed in front of the others. “Hello, I am Jiwon.”

“Jiwon? Like Ha Jiwon-unnie?” the cute girl asked and began jumping up and down.

“Minah, calm down. Let's introduce us to her first,” the intelligent one said. “Hi, I am Hyeyoung.”

“I am Chaeri,” the girl who lead me to the room said.

The cute girl clapped her hands. “I am Minah.”

Hyeyoung gave the young girl next to her a little poke. “I am Dami,” she said quietly.

“Take a seat!” Hyeyoung said and pointed to the seat next to her. “So, how old are you?”

“I turned 18 this year,” I answered shyly and tried to look more confident.

“Oh, so you are really my unnie,” Chaeri said from the other side of the couch. “I am 16.
Where are you from, Jiwon-unnie?”

“I am from Busan,” I said.

“Busan? I am from Busan too!” Hyeyoung said in the Busan-dialect.

I chuckled and immediately felt a bit better. “And you are from?”

“I lived in Detroit the most time of my life,” Chaeri said and smiled. “But I lived some years in China too.”

That explained her accent while speaking Korean.

“I lived in the Philippines,” Minah said from the right and grinned.

“Oh really?” Hyeyoung asked and raised her eyebrows.

Minah nodded enthusiastically and said, “I lived there since I was nine years old.”

“So you can speak some Tagalog too?” Hyeyoung asked again.

“Uh, yeah.”

I was surprised, because now already two people have lived outside Korea.
To be honest, I felt a bit lost between those languages.

“Our Dami is from America,” Chaeri said and put her arm around Dami,
who was most of the time silent. Dami cringed a bit under the touch and looked at me shyly.

“Your from the USA?” I asked her and she nodded quickly.

“I am from New Orleans and moved to Seoul when I was 15 years old.”

Dami seemed very shy and also very quiet. She couldn't look straight in my eyes and always wanted to escape mine.

“How did you guys get into SM?” Minah asked us. “I just want to know.”

Hyeyoung started, “I auditioned. Just the simple way, I guess.”

“I auditioned too, when I was about 16 years old. My dancing skills brought me into SM,”
I said and turned my head to Chaeri. “And what about you?”

“So, I am still a new trainee here at SM. I just got in a month ago.”

I lifted my eyebrows in surprise. “Seriously? Just a month?”

She nodded and laughed. “I got here due trainee exchange, you know?”

“Trainee exchange? You mean, when the companies exchange there trainees?” Minah asked.

Chaeri nodded. “Yeah, just that way. I was a JYP trainee in Beijing.”

“I got into SM through my cousin,” Minah said.

“Your cousin?” Hyeyoung asked. “Who's your cousin?”

“My cousin is,” Minah let us wait a little, “Choi Sooyoung.”

Chaeri suddenly jumped up. “You mean SNSD's Sooyoung-unnie?”

Minah nodded quickly and jumped towards Chaeri. “Yeah! Isn't that cool?”

They both made a little dance as celebration. I just sat there while watching the two of them silently,
which was quite amusing. Hyeyoung looked a little bit sceptical, but enjoyed watching them too.
Dami just sat at the corner of the couch while looking at the floor.

Suddenly, the door bell ringed and Minah and Chaeri stopped immediately.

“I'll open this time!” Minah insisted and ran towards the door.

I heard how some suitcases were dragged into the apartment and how someone put off their shoes.
I didn't hear only one voice, but I heard several voices, like about three, including Minah's.

We were waiting impatiently on the couches, when two girls, following Minah, stepped inside the room.
One girl had quite long, dark brown hair while the other kept her hair at an average length.
The second looked very nice, while the first one had a slightly cold expression on her face.

“Hello!” Chaeri said from her side of the couch. “Nice to meet you. I am Chaeri.”

“I am Aemi,” the nice-looking girl answered and smiled at us. “Nice to meet you all.”

“I'm Isabel.” Her name sounded really foreign to me and some memories shot into my mind.
Of course, Isabel. When I spent one year in Texas, my best friend's name was also Isabel.

“Isabel?” Hyeyoung looked at her, slightly confused. “Where are you from?”

Both of them took a seat, next to Dami, who felt a little bit uncomfortable,
judging from the look in her eyes. Maybe she was a bit scared?

“I am from Denmark and my mother is also Danish. I lived there until I was 15,
because then I moved to Korea to live with my father. I just wanted to experience something new.”
Isabel's expression began to soften and she smiled.

“And what about you Aemi?” Hyeyoung asked curiously. “Where are you from?”

“I am from New York.”

The last two words let us look surprised, so she chuckled a bit. “It's not a bit thing though.”

“I am Hyeyoung, by the way.”

We all introduced ourselves quickly and soon talked without any hesitation.

“Oh and Dami is from the States too,” Hyeyoung added, “just like Chaeri, who lived there too.”

Now I really began to feel lost between the countries. Soon, Chaeri and Aemi changed some words in English,
which made both of them including Minah and Bella laugh. Also Dami smiled a bit. I looked at Hyeyoung,
who looked in the same moment at me. She laughed at my shocked expression and made some Busan jokes.
So we all had fun in quite different ways, in English and Korean.

After some time, we felt quite comfortable around each other, which made me really happy.

So this are the girls I'm going to debut with?

I will spent the rest of my life with them.

And they will become my best friends.

Suddenly, the door bell rang and Minah jumped up. She ran towards the door, again, and opened it.

“Oh! Hello,” I heard from the hallway and I saw how Minah came back, her hand covering .

A young man, maybe at the end of his 40s, followed her, dressed in black. He was handsome and
very good-looking, while he came closer.

“Girls?” he said, his voice was low and quite nice to listen to. “Did you already get to know each other? I hope so, though.”

We all nodded simultaneously. “Yes.”

“So, who do you want to share a room with? I have got two rooms, each of them has two beds,
but I also have a room for three, maybe up to four people.”

Hyeyoung's and my eyes met and we smiled at each other. I looked to my right and I that Isabel and
Minah wanted to share a room, while the “Americans” Aemi, Dami and Chaeri wanted to share a room.

“Oh, I forgot to introduce myself. I am your manager Jiho-oppa.”

I looked at him, at his handsome, young face. How could he possibly be our manager? Seemed all like a dream.
And oppa? Shouldn't it be more like a appa-like relationship? Manager? Ugh, I was confused.

“Okay, oppa, just let us see our rooms,” Minah said and gave him a smile.

Jiho-oppa nodded and took out his keys.

The first room was a window-less room, which had a warm orange color. It had two large beds and two big cabinets.
I was surprised about the actual size of the room.

“We are going to take it,” Hyeyoung said and stepped inside.

I followed her and wowed. This was amazing. It was just a whole different world compared to the dorm before,
which had very small and dark rooms. I saw how Aemi, Chaeri and Dami moved into their room as
I dragged my luggage to Hyeyoung's and my room.

Hyeyoung stood in front of her cabinet and put in her clothes, while I took out my little collection of “useless” things,
which consisted of umbrellas, clocks and ornaments.

After some time had passed, we all met again in the kitchen.

“So, who will cook?” Minah asked curiously.

I made a little step backwards, because I knew, that I couldn't cool at all. I was a whole loser,
compared to other average girls at my age.

Suddenly Isabel raised her hand. “I'll do it!”

Hyeyoung decided to help her, just like Minah. Manager Jiho-oppa sat at the table and was looking at
some documents while the rest of our group spent the time watching some TV shows.

“Oh, Music Bank!” I said, letting Chaeri and Aemi jumping happily.

The next artists to perform was Super Junior.

“Omo, there are the SuJu-oppas!” Aemi said while jumping up and down.

Dami suddenly ran towards the TV screen too. “SuJu? Where?”

I watched while the maknaes where busy fangirling for our sunbaes, Super Junior.

“Someday we will stand on that stage too,” Aemi said in a dreamy voice.

Dami and Chaeri danced and sang to 'Bonamana', while Aemi sat in front of the screen looking at them in amazement.
“Jiwon-unnie, why don't you say something?”

I returned the the real world. “I was just thinking, Aemi.”

She nodded and smiled.

“Let's eat,” Minah called us from the kitchen.

Since we all showered and Jiho-oppa left our dorm, we sat in a little round, while in the background some music was played.

“Oh, I'm so tired,” Chaeri said and yawned loudly. “I'll go to bed then.”

We looked at her. Was she already tired?

“Don't you have to go to school tomorrow?” she asked some of us.

“Oh right,” Dami said and stood up too. “I'll go to bed too.”

Aemi followed them and I slowly made my way back to the bedroom too.

Did you already know, that the dream you have in the first night in a new bed will come true?

______________________________________

hey guise~

this chapter is from our lovely enigmatic princess jiwon's view!
hope you enjoy reading ^^
please dn't forget to comment