"Alright boys and girls!" Director Shim Jaewon, from Beatsburger said with a clap, "gather over here in front of me right now!"

"Kim Yejin!" He called out to confirm our attendance for the weekly evaluation individually. They had converted one of the practice room into a temporary evaluation room.

"Yes, oppaaaaaaa. I am here!" She pouted. Ugh gross.

"Uhm, thank you Yejin-ssi. Lee Jieun?" He continued without giving much attention to Yejin as he placed a tick on the attendance list.

"Here!" "Park Junho?" "Here, sir!" "Lee Chaeyeon?"

My hands shoot towards the ceiling and exclaimed loudly, "yes, sir!" Causing everyone to turn towards me in shock.

"Very enthusiastic early in the morning, Miss Lee. I like it." He gave me a thumbs-up which brought me a few scrowls from the senior trainees. "What a stuck-up," I heard Yejin commenting.

"Don't worry about her," Stephanie said, "she is just jealous that the director gave you more attention that her."

"Yeah, her fake accent is disgusting." Ziying added as a matter of fact.

When Director Shim was done with the roll call, he then gave out the sequence for the evaluation. The seniors were given the priorities because in Korea, the seniors are always well-respected in the culture. It took nearly 3 hours for the evaluation committees to clear all the senior trainees before it was our turn. We sat outside, nervously waiting for our first evaluation as we watched each and everyone of the seniors leaving happily when their turn has ended.

KAKAOTALK

To: Elizabeth
All the best for your evaluation, Chaeyeon-ah! :) 
From: Oh Sehun

To: Oh Sehun
Stress. But thank you sunbae! :)
From: Elizabeth

"Lee Chaeyeon! You are the last one for today!" Said one of the Beatburger dancers, Jane who took up the administrative role today.

"Coming!"

"Good luck, Lizzy!" Ziying said.

"Don't get cut, break a leg!" Said Stephanie.

Both Stephanie and Ziying were done with their evaluations and I was the last to go since I was the newest of the trainees. I stood outside the door and hesitated for 5 seconds. I felt the butterflies fluttering anxiously in my stomach and my heart beating in my throat. It was the exact same feeling I had during my first audition with SM. Don't get cut, don't get cut, don't get cut.

All SM evaluations are the cause of life and death for every trainee's dream. There were times when some trainees made it to their debut after the first evaluation and there were times when some trainees were cut out from the company. Don't get cut. I told myself as I took a deep breath before knocking on the door.

"Please come in!" Someone shouted from behind the door.

"Good morning, I am freshman trainee, Lee Chaeyeon." I greeted to the panel of judges for the weekly evaluation. There were Director Shim Jaewon from Beatburger, Teacher Lee Soo Man the SM founder, Kangta sunbaenim from H.O.T and Kim Youngmin the CEO. Several SM artists also sat in for the evaluation, Kim Taeyeon from Girls' Generation, Kim Junmyeon (Suho) from EXO, Park Jeongsu (Lee Teuk) from Super Junior, Victoria Song from F(x) and Jung Yunho from TVXQ were present.

"Good luck," I saw Junmyeon mouthing in my direction.

"Please begin," said Director Shim.

It's now or never.

I performed the dance choreography that we have learnt for the past week, sang a song that my vocal instructor, Director Choi has picked for me and acted with an impromptu script on the spot.

"Good job, Miss Lee. We will pass this feedback to your instructor and they will bring you through it individually."

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