I jumped out the door as fast as I can, trying to hold in my laughter.

"Yah! Jang Baekji-ah!" he chased me and I began to run faster. He chased me left to right and up and down the stairs for a while until I lost my breath. I ran faster to the corner, out of his sight into another hall finding the closest door to hide behind. I slid into the janitor's closet before the trainee caught me. I rested my back against the door  catching my breath. My heart pumped, staring into the darkness infront of me. I waited for a minute before I cracked the door a centimeter to see him run across the hall, soaked and dripping in egg yolk. I sighed in relief.

Finally, he's gone.

I first opened the door, looking both ways before leaving the closet. My heart continued beating nervously. Slowly walking out of the dark room, I tiptoed a few steps back to the practice room. One step, looking both ways. Second step. Clear. Third step...

"Yah." the low voice behind me echoed. My heart sunk as I cringed.

"You're caught." I turned my head to see Manager Woojin with her arms crossed. The whole building seemed silent for a moment. Manager's serious expression brought a negative feeling to the atmosphere. The trainee stood behind her, dripping anger and yolk all over the floors. "Go clean yourself up, Donghyuk." she shooed the trainee away before speaking to me.

I took a few steps backwards. It was my chance to escape. Slowly, one step. Another.. She turned her head back to me, "Hey, Baekji! Get your back over here." she yelled. I walked to Manager Woojin and sighed. I knew she was going to give me the usual talk, "I know, I know.  Say sorry to Donghyuk, then mop the studio after practice.." I mumbled.

"Aniya. Not this time" she told me. She handed me a paper. "Umm. What do you mean?" I took the paper in my hands nervously. I waited for her to answer before opening it.

"Baekji-ah, this was your fourth time this month. Haven't you learned your lesson after your all your punishments?"

"Ne, I know. Unnie, I won't do it again!" I sighed under my frown. "No. We've heard that many times already." She gestured me to take a look at the paper. "I think it's time for you to take a break from training."

It was a suspension slip.

"Wa-what the heck, Unnie?! You can't suspend me from training!"

"This is from Sungsoo-ssi. The CEO of Pledis." she began.

"After this week, you will be suspended from training for two weeks." I caught her eyes and they looked down on me, dissappointed. She walked passed me. I followed her, "Two weeks?! I have to rehearse for debut in a few months!" I wanted to rip this suspension slip into shreds. "We've decided to cancel your debut. We'll have to reschedule it to a much later time." I froze as she continued on and left out the door.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I gripped my backpack tightly and walked into the dance studio to see a few of the trainees practicing before class. "Bye, everyone. I'm heading back to Mokpo today.." I waved at some of my friends who sat against the wall, expecting many of them to come up to me and beg for me to stay. They seemed to have ignored me, not even giving a look back at me. Well...I didn't really have any friends. I wasn't close to any of the trainees and nobody really liked me. Actually, I'm pretty sure some of them hated me and found me annoying as h. "Um..E-everyone practice well without me, okay? I-I'm leaving now." I waved once again, holding the backpack to my side. Nobody moved, as if I were a ghost. Like I was never even here, I left the Pledis building just like that.

The trainee smirked, "Practice well without Baekji? I can definitely do that without that frickin' twerp." the other trainees laughed and nodded, agreeing. A female trainee gasped, "Oh my gosh. Baekji is finally gone!! This is like a holiday for us!" all of them cheered. They celebrated the two weeks without the prankster, Baekji to bother them.

I shivered, looking at the gray skies above me that seemed to match my crappy mood today. It was freezing outside and rain trickled one by one until it grew to drop bucket loads. I swung my bag behind me and threw  my hood on. The bus stop was only about two blocks away from here. I stood by the door and stared at the sky pour down.  Hana, dul.....set!  I ran through the rain quickly without an umbrella to cover me. Exposed to the rain for only about two minutes, I was already soaked. I tried to endure the bite of the cold and managed to run quicker and quicker until I finally reached the bus stop. I sat under the little roof with a sigh of relief, and then my stomach growled. I dropped my bag infront of me to search for some snacks inside. I dug under my dirty towels and clothes and immdediately grabbed the cookies as I spotted them next to...what was this? I took the cookies out of my bag before pulling out what looked like an

...umbrella.

"Aishhh...Baekji, you're so stupid." I mumbled. I opened the umbrella infront of me. The wind blew harshly and it flipped inside out. "Oh no-" I tried to fix it but the wind blew even harder as the umbrella slipped out of my hands. "Yahh!" I jumped out of my seat and tried my best to catch  it, but it flew in the air like a feather as it dropped feet away. I still had a view of it as it sat of  the road. I walked across the street and I bent down to retreive it. A honk of a car blasted in my ears. Why did it seem to be getting louder and louder?

I turned my head to see headlights of a truck coming towards me. I shut my eyes, thinking at that moment that I was going to die.

"Ahh!!"

  I was pushed back to the side walk in their arms. Bikes and cars drove by quickly, but that didn't stop me from getting my umbrella back. "Ahh! Let go of me!!" I struggled out of his hold. The umbrella was still in my sight, perfectly fine. "My umbrella! I need to get it before someone runs over it!"

He attempted to see my face to check if I was serious, he didn't let go.  "A-Are you crazy?! What's wrong with you?! You were about to die out there!! I'm not letting you go!" he yelled. His voice was shaking, trying to keep me in his grasp as I tried to shake away. "Ah! NO! Stop!!" another van zoomed pass by and I watched the umbrella get crushed into pieces.

He released me when I calmed down. The rain had already stopped.  I just stared at the broken umbrella infront of me.

"Aigoo, I never seen anybody risking their life for an umbrella before. Wah..You must really be crazy." He straightened up his clothes. I was able to see him in front of me now. It was a boy around my age in his school uniform. He probably just came from school. "I'm leaving now so be careful from now on, okay?!" His clothes and hair was soaked from the rain like mine. Before he walked off, he looked at me in the eye, "-And don't be stupid..." I made a face. His eyes were very small and I noticed that he his teeth whenever he spoke because of his braces.

I watched him leave. I didn't know him, but I didn't like him. He seemed cold, like one of those bullies that you would find at school.

I walked back into the street when it was clear. I picked up the pieces on the ground, one by one. I flinched, startled of the sound of a bus arriving behind me at the bus stop.  I raised my head to see people getting off. Before I could even stand up, the bus already disappeared.. I could've ran, or yelled for the bus to wait up, but I didn't waste a breath. I was tired and had enough karma for one day. I continued to pick up the pieces of my umbrella and didn't even want to mind the annoying strands of hair that kept getting in my face.

"Eeyah!" the sharp metal opened my finger. I wiped at the dot of blood that ran down the cut onto my sleeve. So I guess my bad luck is never ending.

There were people walking around me now who came out from the bus. I hid my face quickly when I saw some familiar trainees walk pass me to the Pledis building. The last thing that I wanted them to see was me picking up soggy garbage from the ground. I dropped my head lower and held my breath when felt someone walk toward me. 

"Gaegujaengi,"  I felt alarmed and froze for moment but I knew only one person who called me 'Troublemaker', I recongnized that voice from somewhere...

For some reason, I expected it to be the school-boy again, but I looked up to see a handsome young man looking above from me instead.

"Oh- Doyoon Oppa!  What are you doing here?"  It's Doyoon, my older cousin. He held one strap of his backpack behind him coolly and smiled, pointing, "I'm walking to Pledis for practice,"  Doyoon and I usually practiced in different rooms from day to night so despite both of us being trainees, we barely got to see each other. Doyoon gave me a look, "Hey," he nodded his head at the broken umbrella I held. "What are you doing?"

"Oh- umm..Nothing!" I got up an threw the pieces of my umbrella away in the garbage next to me. "Shall we walk to the Pledis Building together then?" he asked. "When does practice start for you?"

"Oh, umm. Yeah, about that." I paused and just looked down, holding my arms behind me. I hoped that at that moment, he would take a hint, I didn't really want to tell him. He gave me a blank stare and I figured he was clueless. I sighed, handing him my suspension slip instead.

He read the paper, "Wah...Unbelievable, Baekji." he smirked and shook his head. "So I guess you're heading back to Mokpo today then?"  I looked down sheepishly and nodded. Doyoon sighed and looked around for a while. He then looked at me with a face, "Why are you all wet?" I noticed that the rain stopped already, but  water still dropped from my face. "I-It was raining for a while..You didn't see it?" He looked up and nodded.

"Here, use this."  Doyoon pulled out a small towel from his bag and dabbed parts of my face. "Ah, gomawoyo." I giggled at my motherly oppa and took the towel from his hand.

"It's getting cold outside, isn't it? Come on, let's go get some coffee across the street." he came over to stand next to me."The next bus won't come for about another hour. You'll get sick waiting here like this." he took my arm and begun to walk. I took a few small steps before I stopped. "...But you'll be late for practice."

 "Oh, no. It's fine! I need to spend time with my little dongsaeng anyway." he gestured to walk with him.

"Yah, Baekji ah! You're such a troublemaker aren't you?" he put an arm around my shoulder and shagged the bangs of my hair. We both laughed, happy to see each other again.

Doyoon and I warmed up at Coffee Chu Coffeeshop and had some coffee and churros. We stayed at a table near the fireplace and talked for a while. He gave me advice about training, since he was my sunbae for many months.

"Baekji-ah. From now on, stop causing trouble for your manager and the other trainees, understand?" he took a seat in front of me and handed me a drink and churro. "Yes, Oppa. I know.." Since it was only my manager who usually rebuked me, I felt more ashamed hearing it from Doyoon. "That means no more of those pranks. Since your debut is soon, you need to act more professional and treat the trainees below you like a real sunbae. Plus, it will give you a bad image." At 'bad image', Doyoon gave a slight disgusted look.

"As soon as you get famous, the trainees will most likely spread stories, bad stories about you, even some that are just lies because of how you treated them. The whole world will find out about these stories, which will ruin your image and maybe even ruin your career.." he kept silent for a moment as we just stared at each other. I pursed my lips and he continued, "So, yeah. Baekji, just..stay out of trouble from now on." I looked down, "Ne, I understand."

"-And the sooner you behave yourself, I think the sooner the trainees will forget the things you've done in the past." He sipped his coffee. "Trust me about this. Everyday when I walk outside of Pledis, or stop at Coffee Chu, there are always a few girls who come up to me, knowing that I'm a trainee and ask me about Nu'est sunbaes."

Doyoon has trained for a long time and was going to debut with Nu'est. We were both disapointed finding out that Pledis decided to debut only five boys, leaving the three other members like Doyoon to debut later on with another group. I felt a little guilty about debuting before him since Doyoon has more experience in training than me. They still don't know who the other members of his group is yet.

As our conversation continued on, Doyoon went about his modeling and acting lessons and how he finds a lot of interest in them. "If you like acting and modeling so much, then why are you still focusing to be a singer?" He looked off into space for a moment before replying, "I originally auditioned to be a dancer and I still enjoy doing it. I think it's just because my modeling and acting is at a higher level." he paused and took a sip of his coffee and sighed, "Also, the teacher noonas always compliment how handsome I am." he grinned.

Pledis has a training system that all trainees followed. After one passed their auditions, they will be handed another application about what types of positions they would like to fufill, may it be singing, dancing, modeling, acting, MC, instrumental, and more. All of the international trainees are required to take Korean, plus Chinese and Japanese, which was a requirement for all of us. On the first day of each of your classes, the teacher will give you a test, which was basically like another audition to observe how skilled you are in that certain class. This will determine your level in every position; the highest being six, and the lowest being one. You can think of  your levels in each class like grades in school and your trainee level is like your GPA. The better you are, the higher your level. Usually those who reached up to five or six, are considered ready for debut. Average trainees begin at level one and two for all their classes, but some of us came to practice more and quickly rised higher than the others.

"Hey, Baekji. What classes are training in? Do you have your schedule on you? I wanna see it. " I sighed as he made me dig into my cluttered bag that was filled with clothes and trash. I haven't used my schedule since they last updated it about four months ago. I threw the paper at him, still crumpled in a ball. He caught it and opened it up:

Jang, Baekji Rebecca

Lvl.6

Vocal-6 Guitar-6 BassGuitar-5 Piano-6 Oboe-4 Violin-4

Acting-3

KOR-6 CH-3 JPN-5

He laughed as he read it, "You at Chinese and acting." The next thing he said was in Mandarin and I couldn't tell if he was asking a question or just insulting me.

"Shut up.." I tried to grab the paper out of his hands but he dodged. "You can cross out being an actress in China off your list," he joked, but I just rolled my eyes as he continued to read my paper for a while.

Doyoon took a bite of his churro, "Each level just gets more challenging, but once you reach level six, I heard it's not that bad. I think I'd already have debuted by then though, don't you think?" sometimes Doyoon can space off and talk for hours without a need of a reply. Even if he asked me something, Doyoon would continue talking.

"Aw, nevermind. You're already a level six trainee. That's why you're already debuting soon. Geez, Baekji-ah, you're lucky. You don't have to go through the pain of dancing for more than ten hours each day. Only training for seven months, and you're just skipping to the top." he nudged my arm as if he were impressed.

"But then again, you wouldn't understand what real training is. After all, you're only some guitar player."

"Hey, just because I don't dance, it doesn't mean that I don't train as hard as anyone else!"

Doyoon gave a little laugh, "Well, tell how dancing is as hard as doing this all day," he joked, pretending to strum a guitar.

"Yah...stop." I slightly pushed his arm. "It's more than just strumming a piece of wood with strings. Plus, I'm learning four other instruments including singing, and on top of that, I have to go to the gym twice a day. Manager-nim says I have to burn off all the fats on my face before I debut." and that reminded me of my diet. I placed my churro on the table guiltily, swallowing my last bite.

"Awww..yeah. That reminds me! When you were younger.. " Another thing that Doyoon did when he talked was stare off to space while reminiscing. "When you and your parents visited us in Busan. My mom used to come up to you and say-" he put his coffee and churro down and stood to reach mefrom across the table. "Aigoo~! Jinjja ddoong-ddoonghae (Goodness, you're so chubby)!" he squeeled liked his mother in Busan dialect and pinched both side of my face.

"Ah- What the- don't do thaat!" I whined and pushed him back with a pink face. I wiped the sugar and cinnamon from his fingers disgustedly off my face.  "Sorry, I couldn't help it," he laughed. "Your face is still kind of fat like when you were a kid."

I my cheek, "You could have just said 'round'.."

We talked for a while more until one of Doyoon's friends called him. "Hello? Oh, Seungcheol-hyung.....I'm with my cousin. We're at Coffee Chu right now....Well, practice doesn't start for another thirty- ....Why? What's wrong?" I tried to be nosy on their conversation, but I could only hear gibberish on the other end of the call.

Doyoon's expression changed all of a sudden "That's today?!" He already stood up and got out of his seat before he hung up. I stood up too and got my bag. "Is everything okay?"

"Oh, yeah. Everything is fine. We just have to leave a bit early because, you know Seungcheol and Jihoon, right?" We were already walking out of the door. "Umm..yeah," I lied. I'm just guessing that they were members of TEMPEST, Doyoon's group that is going to debut someday. "We're just going to have a meeting before practice begins with our manager."

I nodded, "That's fine. My bus should arrive pretty soon. Go to your meeting. I can wait at the bus stop." Doyoon didn't seem to like the idea. "Are you sure? It's not really safe waiting on the streets. I still have time to wait with you." 

"Oppa, no. I've been walking down the streets of Seoul alone for so many months now. I'll be okay! You'll miss your meeting. Go." 

"Mmm, okay." Doyoon still had a second thought about it. "-But wait. There are strange people walking around Seoul, you know?"

"Doyoon Oppa," I whined. He just continued, "What if someone steals your bag? What if..someone kidnapped you? Aigoo, and you're only 15. I'm walking you to the bus stop. Come on." It annoyed me sometimes how Doyoon was so over protective. Although, he is the one responsible of me ever since I came to Seoul. 

We walked together to the bus stop without either of us talking. When we got there, I sat on the bench as he did too. There was an awkward silence for the rest of the wait. I just played around with my phone until I heard the bus finally coming our way. I jumped up, "Ah, my bus is here. It came sooner than expected." I faced Doyoon for one last goodbye. "I'll see you again in a few weeks, Oppa."

Doyoon pulled me to a tight hug, "Baekji, stay safe travelling back to Mokpo," I nodded, "Ne, don't worry. I'll be leaving now." I turned, heading into the bus.

"-And remember to say hi to your brother and parents for me!" he added. I gave him a thumbs up, "Yeah."

I sat next to a window where I was able to see Doyoon still. "Yah, Gaegujaengi. Also remember why you're going back to Mokpo. Promise that you'll come back as a new and better trainee! Behave yourself and stay out of trouble, okay?!" his voice increased in volume as the bus drove further and further away. I pulled the window down to stick my head out. "No promises!!" I begun to wave, "Annyeong, Doyoon Oppa!"

"Annyeong," he replied.

As soon as the bus was out of view, he begun to walk to Pledis for his meeting with TEMPEST. Doyoon smirked, "Ah..seriously...What am I going to do with her. That little prankster." he shook his head with a slight grin to the ground.

I wasn't always known as "the prankster", I really prefered that nobody thought of me like this.. It begun a few years ago. I lived in the states before I moved to Korea. I was a 6th grader in elementary school.

"The Quiet One" and even worse, I had no friends. The other kids picked on me and called me names like, Zipmouth or even, Ugly and made fun of my face and messy hair. Because of this, my parents moved my brother and I took a new school.  So the next year, I decided that I would be a new person, one that nobody could pick on. A funny one.

I begun to crack jokes here and there to get a few laughs and a few months after, I was known as the "class clown".  I found that nickname dumb, but I sticked with it because I had more friends that way. My jokes that year after begun to grow old, I decided to go even farther. In the 8th grade, I pulled the first prank of the year and immediately had my first trip to the principal's office. I would do pretty much anything for that laugh. Getting smiles and laugh made me feel appreciated, welcomed, and for once, I didn't feel alone.

The "new me" seriously changed my life. I thought to myself, how far would I go just to have friends...? I wasn't the same person at home. I was kind and respectful to my older brother and parents. I was also quiet and usually stayed in my room after I came back from school. Though, my parents knew of my behavior at school because of calls and letters from my teachers and almost weekly meetings with my principal. My parents understood my reason for this kind of behavior, but found it quite immature. If you don't have any friends, why don't you just make them? They simpily just said this to me as if they can make anyone at my school a friend without a problem. For me it wasn't that easy. It's like a cycle. I feel anti-social around people who don't come up to me first and of course, nobody will come up to me first because..I'm anti-social.

Even now after my family moved to Korea, people stil wonder why I still act like this. Now that I was a Pledis trainee, not having friends was fine for me. I guess it was just for the attention now. The amount of trainees were like a school of fish.The ones with talent and experience blended in with the others. Even if we were organized at our own level, it is still a competition to get the attention of the teachers. My manager says that I'm lucky that I caught the CEO Sungsoo-ssi's attention out of the hundreds of talented trainees in Pledis, but I think I was just discovered with the help of all the trouble I've caused.

A/N:

Yesss..I know. It took FOREVER for the story to be updated, but what do you think? Was it boring??  It was hard to choose whether this would be the first chapter or the prologue, but it is only the beginning so I'll try to get to the 'meat' of the story soon. Thank you to all the subscribers and all who have waited ^^<3 I'm so sorry when I say that I'll update soon and don't T.T But here it is! The first chapter featuring TEMPEST (sorry not all of 17 yet) .

Just wait ;)

I'm also sorry for the grammar and spelling errors if there are any. I already have the second chapter typed. I just have to edit it a bit and it will be up! Please comment~!^^

-taegyoelf