I didn’t know what to expect at all for my first training session. Maybe it'd be like one of those Zumba classes where there's an instructor dancing at the front, and everyone else just follows.

After arriving at the company building, we all split up to go to our different classes. I went up a few floors to the dance studios, and it was filled with distant sounds of fast paced music. I checked the large floor plan that was hanging on the wall since I lost my map, and then arrived at a smaller dance studio at the corner. This room was silent, making me wonder if I came to the right place at all, or maybe I was just early.

The door creaked when I pushed it open, and I could hear some whispered voices coming from inside. They silences as I entered, and I saw a row of people sitting on folding chairs on one side of the room, with a long table in front of them.

"Annyeonghaseyo," I greeted, bowing.

"Annyeonghaseyo." They stood up and also bowed back. I stood near the door, unsure of what we were going to be doing.

"Welcome, Yoonmi." The man sitting at the end closest to me said, in lightly accented English. He got up and walked to where I stood. "Here's an in-ear translator that will let you understand our Korean today." He handed me this small ear piece which I then put in my left ear. With the flick of a tiny switch, the translator , buzzing slightly as the volume adjusted automatically.

"Great, so since today is your first time with us, you will start by giving us a display of your skills so that we can critique you and know what aspects you need to work more on for your training." He said, switching to Korean, but my in-ear translator was automatically converting all of it to English for me. I was in a bit of a daze from how cool the technology was.

I nodded nervously, feeling like a teacher had just picked on me to answer a question that was beyond the realm of that grade. No one said that I had to perform in front of a panel of judges on the first day! Don't panic, don't panic, don't panic.

I mentally ran through a list of songs that I have sang, that could I could potentially perform without too much humiliation. I haven't practiced singing in years, not since I quit the choir back in middle school, and other than the occasional karaoke session, I haven't exercised my vocal cords at all.

"You can start with singing first, then we'll move on to dance. A capella is fine." The man said, going back to his seat among the judges. They looked at me expectantly, holding pens in their hands, ready to take notes. My eyes widened, freezing like a deer caught in headlights. He nodded again at me, prompting me to start any time now.

Then I just started singing. The melody for Christina Aguilera's song "Bound to You" popped into my head, being one of the recent songs that I've been listening to. The song seemed generally okay to sing, though the third verse would probably give me trouble. Somehow, I doubted that they would let me sing for that long.

I just followed the melody, getting into the music. I started off a little shaky since I was so nervous, but it gradually got better as I concentrated on remembering the lyrics instead. I avoided the judges' gazes, but the one time I snuck a glance, their looks of disapproval completely crushed any hopes I had had. Right before I got to the chorus, where the notes gradually got higher, my voice cracked clumsily, amplified by the acoustics of the room.

"You can stop now," said this woman, stopping me before I even got the chance to freak out about what I should do next. The woman was sitting in the middle of the group and had a very stern expression on her face. I dipped my head, feeling extremely humiliated. The judges each scribbled down some words on their sheets without looking up at me at all.

"For dance, do you have a particular song you want to dance to, or can you freestyle to any random song we play?" The man from earlier asked. He seemed to be the nicest one out of the bunch, his expression now neutral instead of showing dissatisfaction.

"Uh, maybe just freestyle?" I said quietly. I didn't really know any K-pop dances, so that was out of the question. Maybe I'll just use the choreography that I learned from one of the short dance workshops that my friend had dragged me to last year. At least that way I'd be able to dance it to any song.

The music started, playing Maroon 5's "Moves Like Jagger", and I moved along to it, trying to remember each move correctly as it has been a really long time since that dance workshop.

"Stop, stop, stop." A different woman said, with the same look of distaste as the rest of the group. The man from earlier almost looked like he pitied me.

"Sorry," I said, bowing deeply. "Sorry."

"That choreography looked pretty familiar but you got the moves completely wrong. That's not how it goes at all." She said, shaking her head. "For someone who had a weak vocal performance and picked to freestyle dance, I would've thought that you'd be very good at it. That was the weakest performance I've ever seen."

"S-sorry," I said again, dipping my head. "I'll try harder next time."

"Yoonmi, your basics are very lacking and they'll need a lot of work if you want to go anywhere in this industry."

I was actually very surprised that her words were so harsh and she had said them so bluntly. Maybe it was another cultural difference because back home, usually people would use constructive criticism, which consisted of a lot more euphemism.

"Anyway, let's get you to your physical check-up." The man said, standing up to me to another room. Physical check-up? Was that like the ones they do at the doctor's office?

We walked down the hall in silence, with only the sound of my running shoes squeaking against the floor. The judges' words bounced around in my head, bringing my mood down. But it's okay, this is just temporary, it'll be done in no time.

"Here we are," he said, entering this fitness room. It was then that I realized that physical check-up probably meant how fit I was. I only vaguely remembered taking gym class back in grade nine.

A man appeared from behind one of the fitness machines and came towards us. He was wearing a loose tank, showing off his big biceps and built figure. By the looks, he was probably the trainer.

"Hello, you must be Yoonmi?" He said, holding out a hand for me to shake.

"Yes," I shook his hand and bowed deeply.

"I'm Park Jisung, one of the trainers here at SM." He nodded at the man who brought me here, then led me further into the room. "So since you're new, today we'll just be doing some diagnostic tests to see where you're at and what you'll need to work on." I nodded slowly, my eyes going over each of the fitness machines, wondering what you do on all of them.

We stopped at the back of the room, where there was a scale and height measuring tape. I glanced at him nervously, wondering why this was necessary.

"So first let's take your height and weight. So take your shoes off and you can stand on top of there." I did as he asked and stepped onto the scale. I looked down, staring at the numbers. He glanced down as well, before recording down the readings.

"Not bad, you don't weigh very much. It's not surprising though, considering your petite height and small physique." Jisung went on to adjust the horizontal bar at the top of the height measuring tape, pulling it down closer to my height. I stood under it and he brought the bar down until it touched my head.

"Hmm a bit lacking in the height, but nothing that heels won't fix. Hey you're around the same height as Sunny." I just nodded, unsure if he would understand English if I responded to him, and unsure of who this Sunny person was. I put my shoes back on and followed him.

"Okay, now for the next part of your physical check-up, I just need you to do a bunch of exercises." He led me to the space in the center of the room and brought a thick mat out. "I recommend that you start with stretching and loosening your muscles first; you wouldn't want to accidently pull something." He put down the clipboard he was holding and showed me a bunch of stretches, which I copied.

"Okay, now let's start with push-ups. You can do them on your knees if you want. We'll go for a one-minute interval and see how many you can do." I nodded then lowered myself to the mat, going into the push-up position. "Ready? Go!" He started his stop watch and I started the push-ups. It wasn't difficult at first, but after about the first five, I started to feel the burn.

"You're tired already? Come on, Yoonmi, try harder!" He urged, probably noticing my unintentional slowing. I gritted my teeth, focusing on a spot in front of me. As soon as he said the time was up, I collapsed to the mat, just lying still and breathing heavily for a while, feeling my heart pounding rapidly.

"Hmm, that score wasn't too great." He frowned, furrowing his eyebrows. "Well let's move on to the next exercise- crunches."

It went on for what seemed like forever. The list of exercises were endless, and I was left panting after each one.

"Yoonmi, your fitness really needs some working on. Come on, look at the score for this. It was a bit disappointing." He said, shaking his head. I bowed my head, my sweat dripping down the sides of my face. "Okay well that's all for today, go rest up, and be sure to work harder next time, okay?" I nodded, grabbing my stuff and walking out of the room, feeling disheartened.

This was nowhere close to what I thought it would be like. 

Thanks for the love guise ^^ haha I can't wait for the next chapter either~ ;)