I double checked the number on the door and the number on my paper that the CEO had given me. The numbers matched perfectly, but I couldn't help but want to stall for a bit. After hearing some Korean coming from inside the apartment, I was filled with nervous energy, mostly worried about the language barrier between me and the other girls. How would everything work out? 

I took a deep breath as I inserted the key in the lock and turned it. The door opened with a click and suddenly, everything went quiet. Three girls were sitting on the couch and chairs in the living room. 

"Annyeonghaseyo," I greeted, dipping my head respectfully, like how all the Koreans I've met so far did. They exchanged a confused expression with each other. 

One of them said something to me in Korean that sounded like a question. 

"I-I'm sorry, I don't speak Korean...yet." I responded awkwardly. 

The three girls stood up and walked over to me, their tall heights already amazing me. 

"Come," One of them said in English.

I followed her across the living room with the other two girls trailing behind us, then came to the closed door on the right, at the start of the hallway. There was another closed door on the left, and then one door ajar at the end of the hall, which I could see was a bathroom. The girl in front of me opened the door in front of us and entered the cozy bedroom. I followed her in, with my eyes travelling over all the details in the room. There was a bunk bed on one side and a single bed on the other side, and on the walls there were a few photos of their photo shoots as a four member group, a poster of a group of guys, and some stickers of cute animals.

"This is your new room. You can use the bed on the top bunk there. We can leave you to unpack for now then discuss the house rules later." The girl I was following said in English with a heavy Korean accent. She had long medium-brown coloured hair and a perfect complexion even without makeup on. She looked fairly mature and was probably the oldest within this group of girls.

"Thanks." I said, smiling warmly. The other two girls stood by the door. One was tall and as thin as a model. Her long black hair was loosely curled at the ends and she had wide, innocent looking eyes and a cute mouth. The third girl was a bit shorter than the previous two, but was also thin and she had long spiky bangs that nearly covered her eyes, giving her a slightly edgy look. Where did I fit into this? I couldn't see any reason why the CEO had picked me at all.

They nodded a greeting then left the room as I started unpacking my suitcase.

I put the rest of my bags at the foot of the bunk bed, and just took out a few things that I would need. The bed on the top bunk already had a bunch of things scattered on it, but looked like no one's slept in it. There wasn't too much space in the small room, but it was nice and cozy.

Then I went to find the others. Two of them were in the living room cleaning, while the third girl was in the kitchen cooking up something that smelled delicious. She saw me coming to the kitchen and waved me over to the living room, signalling me to just wait there. I sat down on the couch in confusion, wondering how this will go. The language barrier was probably the biggest problem.

The girl that was cooking came into the living room a few minutes later, bringing in a couple of appetizing dishes with her. She placed them on the small coffee table in the room and then the two other girls came in with the bowls of rice and chopsticks. They sat down on the floor around the table so I followed suit, sitting beside the girl who had been cooking. Did they not eat at a dining table?

A bowl of rice and a pair of chopsticks were passed my way and I mumbled a word of thanks before we all started eating. I picked up a piece of what looked like a cylindrical rice cake, covered in a red sauce. They reminded me a bit of the rice cakes that my family would eat with hotpot when we had it.

"My name is Hyojin, and I'm the oldest, or leader here." She said, smiling warmly. "Welcome to Korea! I don't speak much English but I try to help you."

I smiled back at her. "Thanks. Oh and the food tastes really good by the way!" The rice cake was a bit spicy, but it was manageable.

"I'm happy to hear," she replied, taking some more of the rice cakes herself.

"So do you all speak some English?" I asked, looking around at each of them.

"They cannot speak much but they can understand some of it," Hyojin said. "This is Miyoung," she gestured at the girl with the long bangs, "and this is Jiwoo." She then gestured at the model-like girl.

"I'm Rachel," I said, then remembered my Korean name, "or Choi Yoonmi, if that's easier."

"You're from America right?" Hyojin asked. I could see the other two girls perk up at the mention of America.

"Yeah, San Francisco, in California."

"Wow, that sounds so cool. What's it like?"

"Um, it's very multicultural? There's a Korea town there too." I said, making Hyojin laugh.

"How did you get into SM Entertainment?" She asked, probably curious of my talents.

"Uh...well you see, the CEO was in San Francisco at the time, and then just scouted me?" She nodded slowly, a mixed expression on her face while I caught Miyoung nudging Jiwoo. Was it weird to enter the company this way? I wondered how everyone else got in.

"Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you but-" She started saying, but was cut off by the sound of the door opening.

A girl stumbled in, giggling as she said goodbye to someone behind her. Seeing us, or maybe more specifically, me, she immediately stopped herself and looked around the room. All of the girls here were very pretty, but she was so amazingly gorgeous that I couldn't help but stare a little. Her nice skin seemed to glow under her black, pin straight bangs. Her large eyes were framed with thick lashes and her rosy cheeks spoke of the slightly chilly weather outside.

"Annyeonghaseyo," she said, bowing. She nodded at us after stepping out of her heels and then went down the hallway, probably to her room.

"So that's Minnie, another member of our group. There are also others that might be in the group when we debut, but they live in another place."

"Yah!" Minnie shouted something from the bedroom, then she quickly ran back to the living room, an expression of disbelief on her face. Hyojin quickly stood up and went to her.

Hyojin spoke to Minnie privately, and it sounded like she was trying to calm her down, tone low and serious. But when Minnie responded, she still sounded quite upset. She peaked around Hyojin's shoulder to look at me. Hyojin then said something else to her before Minnie stomped off towards the bedrooms, clearly unsettled. Hyojin sat back down and I shot a worried look her way. Did she hate me already?

"Don't worry about her, Yoonmi. Minnie didn't mean anything. She'll be clearing her stuff from the top bed so you can take that one tonight."

"Ah I feel like such a burden..." I said, dipping my head.

"Just work hard, okay? There's a lot of competition for this group." She said, clearing away the dishes from the low table. I helped her carry the smaller dishes and cups to the kitchen as she started washing them. I stood there awkwardly, wanting to help but not knowing how.

"Don't worry, Yoonmi, I've got this." She said, flashing a smile at me.

"Okay...yeah uh thanks for the meal today, it was really good." I said, before slowly walking towards the bedrooms where the other girls headed.

I saw Minnie clearing her stuff away reluctantly, a pout still making her look pretty. She carried her laptop and walked right past me, to the other room, as if I wasn't there at all. I stood by my giant suitcase and waited as she came back to pick up the couple of plushies on the bed.

"I'm sorry..." I said as she came into the room, dipping my head. She waved a hand nonchalantly at me, brushing me off.

My eyes were already closing by the time I climbed up onto the bed after she cleared everything, the jetlag hitting me hard. Before sleeping though, I had to get started on reading the stack of papers that the CEO had given me. I looked over my schedule again, trying to imagine what the long days would be like. Korean lessons, dance, singing, music theory, variety shows- what were those?- acting, and fitness. Those classes were spread across the week, averaging three classes per day. Boy, I would have to do a lot of running around through the company building.

I dug through the pile of papers, looking for the one of the floor plan of the building, but couldn't find it anywhere. I had been holding it in my hands earlier today when I was in the company building...

I turned around suddenly as I realized that I was heading in the wrong direction, and then bumped into someone and managed to drop all the papers I was carrying. The people I bumped into turned out to be this guy and girl who were talking animatedly and seem to have noticed me at all beforehand. They looked like the picture-perfect couple, maybe slightly older than me.
"Oh sorry," I said, quickly picking up my papers, and bowing my head slightly. The guy bent down to help me pick up my papers and our hands accidently brushed as we both reached for my schedule. I looked up to see his round eyes and the faintest curl on one end of his lip like a half smile in amusement. I mumbled a word of thanks then quickly ran to the elevators.

Ah, I must have not picked it up after I dropped my folder. I made a mental note to go look for it the next day. 

Oh yeah, shoutout to my commenters <3 you guys really made my day (no srsly, I fell out of my chair from happiness when I saw them) ~~

Enjoy~ <3