“What in the world am I even doing here?” Wonwoo quietly said to himself, looking at the white two-story building, decorated with columns and some sort of fences, giving it a modern Mediterranean look. It wasn’t very big, neither fancy, compared to company buildings like those of JYP or YG, but he probably wouldn’t even have had the courage to enter those.

This was good, this was grounded, very nice and their artists were pretty good. And after all, one of their scouts had invited him personally and politely, the day they were allowed in his school to look for new talents. A planet, the logo of the company, was stuck onto the glass entrance. It looked like Saturn. Symbol for the Earth in Wu Xing; steady and balanced. Star of the sun, of order, moderation and hard work. Wonwoo had done a bit of research and decided to ignore the bad factors connected to this planet, he hoped he would be under from now.

He took a deep breath before ringing the doorbell at the side, giving out the needed information to be let into the halls of Pledis. Wonwoo entered a bright room, white like the outside with windows reaching up to the ceiling, from which huge black lamps were hanging. Numerous other boys, more or less, his age had made them as comfortable as possible before an audition on the wooden chairs around a table behind somewhat of a cage made of cubes, some of those filled with screens, showing music videos and dramas. 

A staff member was standing at the head of the table, a clipboard in hand, checking who arrived. The short woman gave an empty name tag to Wonwoo, “Please write your name on it and stick it onto your clothes.”

Wonwoo accepted it with a quick bow and went to one of the empty chairs. He bowed again, greeting the other auditionees, sat down and reached for a marker on the table, neatly writing his name and attaching the tag above his heart. Nervously, he played with his fingers, going through the dance steps and words of the song he was going to sing and rap in his mind. Once he was done with that, he suddenly felt the need to pee.

He carefully approached the staff member, asking whether he could still go and where. She smiled and gave him the directions, telling him, he was lucky to have arrived early enough. Wonwoo thanked her again and went off into the direction she had shown him, but after getting around a corner, he heard vague beats coming from somewhere. The toilets were right in front of him, but next to them, there was a staircase, protected by a glass door, announcing its destination in black English letters: “Practice Rooms”.

Wonwoo just stood there for a moment, weighing the options in his mind. He could just ignore it, like the good boy he was, or he could go down the stairs and maybe get a glimpse at an idol or trainee practicing. There would be the possibility to be found out and not being allowed to audition anymore. But that beat…

He reached for the handle of the glass door, quickly and quietly closing it behind him and tip-toeing down the stairs, the beat gradually getting louder. Numerous doors were at the end of the staircase, most of them closed, but one, going to the right, was wide open. Wonwoo took a glimpse around the corner, seeing something move behind another opened door. Quickly he hid again behind the wall.

He took a deep breath and looked at his watch; five minutes left. If he wanted to see something, he would have to now. After all, he didn’t have all the time in the world. Carefully Wonwoo snook his head around the corner again.

A tall person, around Wonwoo’s age was moving his long thin limbs to the music. The boy was definitely still a trainee. He wasn’t perfect at dancing, but somehow Wonwoo felt mesmerized. He was not able to move his eyes off of the other. There was just something about the way he moved, that attracted him.

The trainee stopped dancing and looked ahead, like he was watching his own reflection in a mirror. Wonwoo was still not able to focus on anything other than the lanky boy, who stood entirely still for a moment. In a split second he turned around to look at his spectator.

Wonwoo froze and his eyes widened. Not only was he surprised by the sudden movement, but also the incredibly handsome face of the dancer.

The boy looked at him in curiosity, “Are you one of the auditionees?”

Wonwoo nodded and gulped to get rid of the lump in his throat, “Please don’t tell anyone, I was here.”

“Of course, uh…Wonwoo,” the other assured, after having taken a look at the tag on Wonwoo’s chest.

He smiled back shyly, “Thank you.”

For a moment he just stood there, admiring the other’s face. It wasn’t flawless, but he had a rather sharp jawline and pretty plump lips. Over all, his face was very well proportioned, even though hidden from the trainee’s lashes upwards by the standardized haircut, which boys their age had.

I've just seen a face I can't forget, the time or place where we just met.

 “Uh...I…I have to leave again…you know, because of the audition,” Wonwoo stammered.

The trainee’s face light up with the most beautiful smile. His looks definitely belonged to those of a celebrity. “Good luck, Wonwoo. I really hope you’ll make it.”

“Thank you…hyung,” Wonwoo just assumed, the other was older. He had to be.

His smile widened and before Wonwoo’s chest could explode from his heart violently beating against his ribcage, he quickly disappeared back up the stairs. He was completely out of breath, once he closed the glass door behind him again.

He tapped his hands against his face, “Come to your senses.”

After another deep breath, he made his way back to the entrance hall. A few other auditionees had arrived while he was gone, making his seat the only empty one left. He let himself fall onto the chair and took another look at this watch. Ten seconds.

He barely listened to what the staff member said; he tried desperately to remember his words and steps again. It was like they had disappeared. When he had to get up and follow the small woman along with the other auditionees, his heart was beating like mad again.

They were heading right for the practice room, the trainee had been in, but once Wonwoo entered the green room with the two mirrored walls, he couldn’t see him anywhere. The auditionees were told to start stretching and warming up their vocals and once the staff member disappeared shortly into the next room, everyone started  doing what they’ve been told.

After maybe fifteen minutes a table with small stacks of papers and a chair behind each of them was build up at the back of the practice room and four adults entered. The auditionees stopped and greeted them, before they were told to wait in the next room and would be called up individually. He sat down with his back to the grey wall, staring at the ceiling. Boys started to be invited into the room, but they didn’t come back, so no one could ask how it was or whether they passed. More than half of them had left, when finally Wonwoo’s name was called.

He tried not to look to nervous when he entered the green room again, putting on a friendly smile, while introducing himself with the sentences he had prepared, which would hopefully free him of further questions. Wonwoo was then asked to perform his song and then dance, which all worked out pretty well, he thought. He bowed, once he was done, expectantly looking at the judges. They quietly exchanged a few words and gestures until the person in the middle sat up straight again and looked at Wonwoo.

“You passed, congratulations,” the man, wearing glasses said with a smile, “You may go back up to where you arrived earlier and wait until we are done here.”

“Thank you,” Wonwoo bowed again and had trouble not to skip out of the room and up the stairs. With a wide smile on his face, he went back to the large table, at which two other boys were sitting. They just sat there, quietly.

“Hello again,” he said and still smiled, as he sat down across from the skinnier one, “I’m Jeon Wonwoo, seventeen years old, from Seoul. I hope we’ll be good friends.”

The boy had a kind of long-ish thin face and a wide eyesmile spread across it, when Wonwoo introduced himself, “I’m Lee Seokmin and sixteen years old. I came here from Gyeonggi-do. Nice to meet you, hyung.”

The other had quite a distinct face. Wonwoo didn’t know how else to put it. It was charming in some way, but he didn’t know why. In broken Korean the other explained, that he was Junhui, who had just arrived from China.

Wonwoo smiled at him. He barely knew any Mandarin, having taken Japanese at school, so he thought it might get complicated to have a conversation with Junhui, since his English wasn’t the best either.

But he didn’t even have the chance to say anything, since Seokmin started babbling away in a cheerful tone. Wonwoo just nodded every once in a while, making sounds of approval or laughing whenever the younger said something funny. Apparently he had been at a place called the YP Music Academy before and specialized in singing. After ten minutes Wonwoo knew far too much about him already and when he was starting to get into his favourite rock bands a tiny little boy headed towards their table instead of the exit and sat down next to Wonwoo.

“Hello, I’m Samuel. Please take care of me well,” he said with a smile. He was missing a tooth.

“How old are you?” Wonwoo asked.

“I’m eleven.”

“Wow. I bet you’re really talented. What do you do?” Seokmin asked him.

“I’m best at dancing,” Samuel replied, shaking his small feet, which were dangling in the air.

It didn’t take long until the staff member came back and the organisational and bureaucratic matters had to be taken care of.

“Oh and Wonwoo, we want you as an extra in a music video for one of our new artists. Do you think, you could do it?” the woman asked when everything else had been done.

“I’d love to,” Wonwoo smiled.

“Okay, so we’ll get rid of your other schedules that day. Everyone, please come by here after school tomorrow, so I can give  you your individual schedulesand maybe you’ll even have your first lessons already,” she smiled and left.

Wonwoo just sat in his chair for a little longer, get hold of it all. He had just gotten a huge step closer to fulfilling his dream of becoming an idol and soon, his face would be on the screens all over the country. And he would also meet the dancer from earlier again. The thought of him made the wide smile re-appear on Wonwoo’s face. Would the dancer still know his name?

Please remember me. ...my love, don't forget me.

What? Why would he think so strangely? No, no it couldn’t…it wasn’t special to be amazed by beautiful people, nor skill. Admiration. That’s what Wonwoo was feeling.

AN: So yeah, I don't really have much to say for once.Uh...now you kind of see what the chapters will be like, 'though the quotes may be more incorporated into the dialogue. Until now I wrote at least 250 words a day (usually more), so I hope that this story will be updated more frequently. I have a lot of fun writing again and hope, that this is also something you enjoy reading. Thank you~