"Seeing is believing"

~

A well build man, with his buzz-cut raven hair walks into the coffee shop, his hands inside his jacket’s pockets. The man looks attractive for Korean people’s standard, he looks young yet mature enough to attract the noonas’ attention.

The man walks over to the table in the corner of the shop, a pretty secluded place, since it’s quite far from the cashier’s table. He bows a little to a woman-who looks like she’s in her late 20s- before he takes a seat in front of her.

“Park Insu” he introduces himself with a warm smile, shaking the woman’s hand politely.

“Kwon Eunhee” The woman nods with a smile. “It’s very nice to see you, and thanks for coming”

“No problem” Insu says as he takes off his black leather jacket. “It’s just happens that my home is two blocks away from here, and I might as well grab some lunch after this. Besides, it’s an honor to talk to you, Noona”

“The pleasure is all mine” Eunhee replies as a waitress puts two coffee on their table. “I ordered machiatto for you” she lifts her glass carefully and hands it to him “I hope you don’t mind, my husband is a big fan of this, so I thought you might like it too”

“Oh god” Insu laughs lightly, “You don’t have to do this, Noona. But thank you so much.” The man brings his lips to the rim of the cup and takes a careful sip of his coffee. “Ah” he says with a smile, “Your husband has a nice taste, this is really good”

“I know” The woman nods, she’s taking out a small journal from her bag, and an expensive looking pen on her right hand. “So, are you okay if we start now?”

“Sure” Insu shrugs, and shifts his body a little to be more comfortable. “What do you want to ask, Noona?”

“Well” Eunhee starts, she’s writing down something on her note. “You used to be a trainee at SM Entertainment, is that correct?”

“Yes” he nods. “I was a trainee there, until I realized that they didn’t really explore my talent and I was accomplishing nothing while in there. My mom taught me to never waste any time, so once I realize that I’ve thrown 4 years of training for nothing, I waited for another two months until my current contract ended and went out from there”

“Can I ask how well the company has treated you?”

“To be honest” Insu says thoughtfully. “SM is not as sadistic as we all think it is. But I do admit that they have a very busy schedule and tons of activities, but I don’t think those are harsh enough to violate any human rights. They’ve got a marvelous marketing skill, we were trained to Idols, from how to sing, dance to act in public, attracting fans, the  trainees are taught to be a good entertainer from the moment we step a foot into the building, and I’d like to praise them for that”

“Okay”, the journalist hums as she writes down what he’s just said, she looks up at him with curious all over her face. “Can you tell me the precise the details of why you left the company?”

“They trained us how to be a good idol, not to be an excellent musician.” He says. “And I want to be a musician, I want to be an artist, not an idol. They didn’t explore what I have, I’m good at writing lyrics, at composing, I can play as many instruments as that Park kid can. But with me? All they did was trying to make me look ‘appealing’ for teens so that I could ‘help’ sell my future-but-not-yet-exist band”

Eunhee nods and scribbles more words, her face looks as serious as ever. “Go on” she orders him to continue.

“Um” Insu furrows his eyebrows, he’s thinking of what more should he tell her. “So I waited until my current contract died, and I did not sign any papers to lengthen the term. I told the staffs that I’d prefer to work at another field, I told them that I was so young when I signed my first deal, so I didn’t really know what I was doing.” He frowns a little at the memory flashing inside of his head. “They were pretty pissed, but since legally I did nothing wrong, they had no choice but to let me out”

“So there was nothing scandalous?” She asks, her pen is down and she takes a sip of her white coffee.

“No” He says and shakes his head, feeling as if he’s telling a bad story because it doesn’t have any drama to spice things up. “They’re pretty decent, but I must admit that they at making arts”

“Okay” Eeunhee says as she stares at him like a hawk, feeling a little be awkward, Insu coughs a little and drinks his (not so hot) coffee. “What about the other trainee?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, did anything interesting happen to them?”

“Honestly, I couldn’t keep any records, since there are so many of them. Some of them, like me, get tired of SM’s attempt to focus on several things that quite actually don’t have anything to do with music, we got frustrated and decided to leave. Some left, because they didn’t able to catch up with this industry, there were some bullying happened by the sunbaes to their juniors, but nothing too big or scandalous. Those who are not so lucky stay there for almost a decade for their debut, but those who are in favor, got their luck and start preparing for their debut”

“Do you know the artists who made it to debut?” Eunhee raises an eyebrow, her hand is now back at writing notes on her journal, he’s quite amazed at how fast she writes.

“Of course” Insu says confidently. “I wasn’t close to all of them but I knew some long enough”

“What about SNSD? Can you tell me something about them?”

“Taeyeon noona is pretty kind, she’s like a mother hen or something, though I must admit that she is pretty boring. Yoona is hot, but personality wise, I do not like her so much. Um, Jessica is okay, I guess, doesn’t really talk much. Sunny is cool, I like her.” He bites his lower lips as he tries to remember the moments he’s interacting with them. “That’s all I guess, the rest of them are all quite similar”

“Why do you not like Im Yoona?”

“I don’t know, I just cannot stand her? She’s not bad or such, but I just think that our personality doesn’t match.” Insu is filtering every word that comes out from his mouth, he doesn’t want to reveal anything astonishing or offensive that could get him in trouble later.

“Super Junior? Do you know them well?” Eunhee looks up at him once she’s done writing more sentences. She flips to another blank page.

“Shindong hyung is quite funny and talkative, and Eunhyuk talks to a lot of girls, I’m not quite whether he was flirting at that moment or not though” Insu states as he remember that Shindong is quite the favor amongst the older staffs. “I don’t know about the rest of them, they barely talk to any of us”

 “Continue”, Eunhee says softly, she’s staring at him intently.

“With Shinee, I can’t say much, they come frequently, but they always look so focused and serious, they never talk to any of us, as far as I can recall. The other girl group, f(x), they are pretty decent. I really like Luna, she’s very polite and friendly, she doesn’t treat us like we’re inferior to her. Krystal is okay, I think, not as much as a snob as the media portrays her to be, but she’s not as kind as Luna or Sulli. Amber is cool, she’s a real tomboy, with this one; SM plays no part of her image, she’s a natural anti-feminine things. We talked a bit actually, I think she’s really concern for some trainees who are being left out by the others, I don’t know, if I were to choose one between the five of them, I must say, I’d pick Amber or Luna.”

“What about the other one? Victoria is it? The Chinese one?”

“Um” Insu mutters, “I don’t really know her”

“Okay” The journalist nods, she scribbles some more before asks “What do you know about the new boy group EXO?

Insu grins for the first time today, he knows a of tons about them. Knows what’s actually happening behind the closed doors. “Oh, I know them”

“You do?” Eunhee glances up, and furrows her brows. “Really?”

“Of course” Insu nods, “I left just several months before their debut, yet I was in SM long enough to know each one of them”

The woman in front of him smiles, her eyes glints with smugness. “Now we have finally arrived at the best part. Tell me everything”

“I was roommate with Baekhyun for three months, so I know the guy a little bit. Out of the twelve of them, Yixing, Kyungsoo, Minseok and him are the most decent. You’d think that Baek is arrogant and all, but he’s not. The kid is very caring and friendly, he