a) Seul Tae

A fourteen year old Seul Tae Han walks through the doors of the Korean FNC Auditions, accompanied by nothing but her knapsack. She’s tired, but doesn’t let it show. She’s pounded herself with an insane amount of makeup to achieve a naturally awakened look. She has only a thousand dollars left of her ten, most of which was spent on her flight to Korea, her rent, and her new outfit specifically bought for the audition. She had to make it in, she had to. She ran away from home and didn’t intend on going back, or even thinking about her parents. She was going to be a star. 

As she waited for her audition, a sixteen year old boy, Jong Hun Choi sat patiently next to her. His hair was perfectly coiffed and his makeup was done by his best girl friend, the one who usually prepared his face when unprofessional photographers took his pictures. A well-known ulzzang and a phenomenal guitar player, he knew he was a shoo-in. 

While they waited, they spoke. He bought her water. He offered to exchange numbers but Seultae denied. She only had a phone for one reason: to receive FNC’s phone call for acceptance. She only had enough minutes for that, and couldn’t waste it on some pretty boy.

Seultae was asked to audition first. Jonghun soon after. When he came back to the spot they first met, she was gone.

Jonghun got the callback. Seultae didn’t. 

b) Soo Young

She was too young to drive. Soo Young Lee laughed as the wind hair. She was a rebel in a rich family, one of the deadliest of combinations. Mix in the fact that she was in her teens, fifteen to be exact, and you have a disaster. A perfect V of birds in the Korean sky caught her attention, and that’s when she collided with the newly licensed Hong Ki Lee. An FNC trainee already at sixteen, he honestly believed he was too valuable to die in a car crash. 

He didn’t die, neither did Sooyoung. He went into a coma, Sooyoung didn’t. She attempted to awaken him, she even tried to pry open his eyes, but to no avail. She called the police then hurriedly drove her car away, fearing trouble if she stayed to see Hongki through.

c) Jae Rin

Jae Rin Kim, aged twelve, never saw the city in her life at that point, except on television. She had small bones, as little Asian girls usually did. Because of this, her family was overprotective. They told the boy across the street to guide her to school each day. His name was Jae Jin Lee, and he was four years Jaerin’s senior.

Jaejin and Jaerin liked to talk during these walks to school, sometimes about the children they had class with. Being so much younger, she made Jaejin laugh with her adorable tangents about the immature boys in her grade. She said one day she’d live in the city and leave everybody behind. Jaejin agreed, he also wanted to break away. When she was nine and he was thirteen, Jaejin pinky promised he’d be Jaerin’s guard to school until they were old enough to live in the city, then he’d continue guarding her until she got married. Two years later, Jaerin realized she loved the older boy. She swore to confess to him when she turned twelve

A year after that, Jaejin told his younger confidante that he was headed for Seoul that night, a growing music company wished to train him. He apologized for not telling her sooner. When he dropped her off to school for the final time, she crumpled up her love letter to him and threw it at his head. She refused to see him off at the airport that night, instead crying herself to sleep and vowing to never love again.

  d) Min Hee

Min Hee Moon’s twelfth birthday party was when she had her first kiss. It was with her older brother’s best friend, Seung Hyun Song. 

It was really simple. Seunghyun didn’t know it was her birthday. When Minhee’s brother invited Seunghyun over, he thought it was because they were going to hang out. Minhee almost began to cry, so Seunghyun kissed her right on the lips. And then again, and then the sixteen year old never returned to the Moon house out of sheer embarrassment. It was not only Minhee’s first kiss, but his as well.