sooyoung was born into a very traditional household in ilsan. her dad was a preacher, her mom a devote housewife. her brother was the pride of the family, always getting top marks and later enrolling into a bachelor in biblical studies. prim was the black sheep. always too curious for her own good, too opinionate. Asking the wrong questions and getting into trouble. sooyoung felt stiffled in her house and grew to resent her parents who always heaped praise on her brother but put her down.

dance was her outlet. she was originally put on ballet classes, a proper art. prim didn't like those very much at all, it was all so stiff and structured. when she was 8 she found out about contemporary dance, a dance form more about expression than proper form, and she used to sneak into contemporary classes. it was a small school and the teacher knew her (and some sympathised with her, they knew her parents and how they were never satisfied with her skills even if she was one of the best dancers in her class) and let her join. sooyoung absolutely loved contemporary and she thrived in those classes, much more than she did in ballet, the point where her practice of balley suffered for it.

she was 12 when her parents found out about the secret contemporary lessons and they were furious. she was forbidden from taking them and it became all ballet all the time again and sooyoung was miserable. a year later she found out about hip hop from some kids dancing outside of the dance school and she was mesmerized. it was so different from anything she'd danced before. she forged her parents' signature and switched from ballet to hip hop classes, thinking she could get away with it. of course when the showcase rolled around and her parents got ready to attend the ruse dropped and furious didn't cut it this time. There was a spectacular fight as sooyoung actually fought back which ended up in her parents pulling the plug on any kind of dance lessons at all.

Sooyoung was 16 when she ran away from home, a few months after her parents stopped her from taking any more dance lessons. one of her dancing friends who was 18 was moving to seoul and she offered to let sooyoung stay with her as long as sooyoung could pitch in on the rent. they stayed at a tiny studio flat, both of them working multiple jobs to afford the rent and eating mostly cheap noodles.prim worked as a waitress and also danced on the street for money, and on the weekends she and her friend, sunji, would take part in the korean dance scene. around this time sooyoung decided she was sooyoung no more, for a fresh start she started going by prim, an english name she thought sounded cool. they went to to competitions, followed lessons when they had some money to spare. prim both loved and hated this time. then sunji got a choreography offer abroad when prim was 18 and she had to support the flat on her own. she started working 2 jobs to cover the rent and still managed to dance. she was permanently exhausted but it was worth it.

then, about a year ago, sunji got in contact with her. she was no an in-house choreographer for jyp and she thought she could get prim an audition there if prim wanted to. if she was a trainee they'd cover her cost of living and an idol was a legit career option if she managed to make it. prim accepted the offer and that's how she came to be here now.