chinsun's bootcamp

it's heaven and hell on earth

A single room, lights flashing and music blaring, still remained in the wee hours of the morning even after all the hardest working of all the trainees had left.

“YAH? Who said you had the right to stop singing?” A voice demanded after the music had been turned off with a swift click, a harsh gutteral sound following. “Another five laps will be added for breaking formation! Hurry!” The voice continued to shout, the music resuming once again.

Six sweaty, tired looking girls kept dancing at the resuming motion made by their ruthless instructor after yelling at the seventh for the slightest pause in song.

She was known infamously for being the harshest of all, though the results always ended up perfect (well the nearest to perfect). The slightest stumble would have anyone running laps while belting out lyrics to the song of her choice, in this instant SHINee’s ‘Dream Girl’. Another was the infamous crunches, push-ups and star-jumps while singing. All to build vocal power, endurance and stamina. Nothing less for the company that strives to be all areas, or so she said.

“Stop. You are hopeless. Go home, I cannot deal with your clumsiness tonight. You’ll be doing water breath exercises tomorrow. Leave, now.” She shooed them off, minutes after restarting their performance with a hand pinching her nose.

“Yes Chinsun unnie.” The group bowed hurriedly, limping and stumbling in their rush to collect their few belongings before running out of the door.
 

The thick smog of chlorine smothered the room, as seven exhausted and still yawning girls faced the pool in despair, already knowing what was to come of this day.

Dressed in matching swim shorts and rash vest, the only distinction between each member being the single band of colour unique to each one on their arms. They couldn’t help but feel the lingering tension in the air as they stood in a single row, waiting for Chinsun to arrive.

And as the door slid open, scraping lightly along the tiles, all noise ceased to exist in that single second. Even breathing seemed illegal in her presence.

“Good morning girls!” The trainer cried out sharply, shutting the door firmly and striding over to stand in front of the girls with a resolved unmatched by anyone they’d ever encountered.

“Good morning Chinsun seongsang-nim!” The words were barked out, not a single difference heard as they said their greeting, bowing deeply and then looking staight ahead unblinking.

“You are all still out of sync. I don’t believe you’ll ever debut at this rate... Nonetheless, we are not here to practise greetings. We are here today to train your breathing.” Chinsun chided, scowling in distaste as she reflected on what she considered to be a poor syncronised greeting.

The tension almost suffocated the girls, if Chinsun’s stare had not already, all hoping she would choose today to scold them for something. Even if it was the slightest of things.

“Everyone step into the pool! We haven’t a minute to waste!” She shooed them towards the pool, watching as they clambered in with such haste it was as if a ferocious animal was chasing them. Though Chinsun could be said to be a vicious animal at times.

“When I’m done with you, you’ll be perfect beyong belief. Looks will not get you everywhere girls! Talent does.” She preached, turning to face the back of the girls wading farther into the water.

“Now let’s begin our exercises.”

“Four laps of the pool in running whilst singing Catch Me by TVXQ, you have 3 minutes to complete your laps. If they aren’t then you will be doing an additional six. Am I clear?” Chinsun dictated, staring the girls down unblinkingly holding out her phone, waiting to press the start button on the timer app.

“Yes seongsang-nim...” They recited lifelessly, turning without a single complaint or question to complete the orders they had been given.

They sloshed through the pool at a reasonable pace, arms aiding them to move through the water as they belted out the lyrics of their sunbaes song going for every high and low note. Chinsun staring down to her phone that she had previously a timer for, looking at their progress.

“Girls! This is not the time for being slow, you are here to become strong. This is not your vaction and this is not a joke. If you think it is, feel free to leave and not return. I will not have you embarrass this company because whatever measily talent you think you have is good enough.” Chinsun yelled over the sounds of their voices, watching them slowly move faster pushing through the water faster than it could resist them.

“There are hundreds of groups that debut every year. Half of which are girls! And I can guarantee they will have worked hard everyday, and I will be laughing at you when they are better than you! So keep moving!” Chinsun taunted them, any tempers that the girls wished to release kept painfully shut in understand that they would recieve punishment otherwise.

The room feel silent from the trainers words again, the trainer slowly eying each girl once again as she took down mental notes. All you could here was the splash of water against the side of the pool, the sound of singing, and the sound of the filter whirling on. By the time they had completed half of the laps, in well under half the time, Chinsun finally spoke again.

“Hands in the air, it’s not like you need them to float girls. You cannot use them to aid you in your final two laps, am I clear?” Chinsun yelled over them again, moving closer to the edge of the pool to observe them closer uncaring of the water soaking her shoes.

“Yes seongsang-nim!” They chanted out again in unison pausing their singing for a moment, all their arms rising from the water as they started to work harder to get through the water, slowing down considerably. Chinsun couldn’t say she didn’t enough their struggle, and was surprised when they finished within the time limit despite already knowing they could do it.

“Yet again, you’ve surprised me girls! Now line up so I can see everyone.” The older woman called, crouching down so she was closer to being eye level with them. “Next exercise.” Not a single one needed to be told what was next, all starting to jump continuously in water without fail.

“Pink band!” And with that, one girl adorned with said yellow band disappeared under the water. “Gold!” The next girl disappeared. “Red and white!” Two more girls disappeared under the water within the second that she had called their bands. “Blue and orange!”

This left one girl remaining, still jumping without fail. She stared straight ahead, not sparing a single look towards her teammates.

“As the leader you are the pillar of the group. When I call your colour you will go under the water and hold your breath until every last member has come up before you. If you come up before anyone then you will fail, and there will be a punishment awaiting you.” Chinsun stated to her, voice cool and unfeeling for the breathless girls who were still under the water. “Yellow!”

And then there was no one but Chinsun still breathing air above the water. All she could do was occasionally glimpse at the time, recording when each of them had gone under and then back at the top of the pool where bubbles occasionally appeared.

One by one they slowly resurfaced, almost in order though there was variation due to lung capacity created by their different activities. Each girl panted as she gasped in her first breath of air, calming themselves down as they waited.

True to Chinsun’s word, after the last of the other coloured bands broke the surface, the single bright yellow band made an appearance tossing her head back and dragging in a long breath of the chlorine permeated air.

“Good, you’ve successfully completed your second task.” Chinsun clapped slowly. Once, twice, a third time did the solo clap of the trainer make an appearance before it stopped just as fast as it came. “Start singing your debut album now, no need to dance just yet.”

Not a single second would be wasting in training to their every limit. Nothing was too much. 

 

“Get on the ground! We will be doing more ground exercises today girls.” Chinsun commanded clapping her hands louding, the single sound echoing around the room.

Her presence commanded silence, and the girls willing obeyed her command in fear of something much worse. Today was not a good day to be pushing her nerves, as the girls had realised after a series of harsh punishments incurred by the slightest mistiming of their greeting.

“Crunches whilst singing your title song girls! If you slow down slightly then I will forced you to run from top to bottom of this building, by stairs, in under five minutes. Are we clear?” She stated, rubbing her long, bony fingers in circles on her temples.

“Yes seongsang-nim!” The room burst into song, belted out in practised notes that harmonised the diversity of voices in the group.

The lingering remainates of a hangover recieved last night did not help as she moved to sit on the black leather couch, scowling down at the girls as they worked. She’d been talked into going out drinking, and now had spent the enitre day paying out on the girls despite their lack of involvement in the throbbing head pain.

Nothing had been spared from the girls, crunches whilst singing, laps around the room while screaming out the lyrics to any song she could think of in that moment. She was all but nearly ready to move them all to the pools and do the hardest set of exercises she could. Or perhaps send them to the gym, put them on the treadmills and have them run for an hour and then do breathing exercises.

Chinsun loved them, she knew they had the potential to do well. The were beautiful, and all she knew about SM was that ‘everything could be taught’ except natural beauty. But she loved to see them work so hard to get to debut, their tears fuelled her to make them better.

“You’re off key! Get up, we are going to the gym and you will be running until you can’t anymore. You will get this right! I want you to be perfect!” Chinsun yelled, snapping out of her thoughts with a newly returned drive.

“We will keep going until you make this company proud.” 
 

With limbs feeling like they need to fall off, and bodies wanting to shut down and collapse to the ground, all seven girls could only wish that something would come and save them from the wrath of Chinsun. And when the music abruptly cut off, an infuriated Chinsun turned to the source of music and the source of her current problem, and the girls saviour to boot.

“Yah Minhyuk-ah! What do you think you are doing? I want these girls in top shape, there is only a few weeks until they are shown to the world and I will not have them embarrass us or themselves!” Chinsun ranted, hands waving in the air as she emphasised her words through the movement of her hands.

Standing meekly by the now silent stereo system, Minhyuk looked towards the trainer with his hands clutching his folders close to his chest and eyes wavering ever so slightly as he faced a temper most feared in the company.

“Chinsun-sshi, the girls have their final measurements to be taken today. I will have to borrow them for an hour or so.” Minhyuk stated, voice confident despite how his eyes could never lingered on the clearly infuriated trainer, seething in the middle of the room.

“Take them! They aren’t much use to me if they are not willing to STAY. IN. SYNC! Leave and get out of my sight now!” Chinsun shooed them off, moving out of their way and folding her hands across her chest as she glowered to anything and anyone in the room.

With the quick dismissal by Chinsun, they scattered quickly with Minhyuk on their heels and all but slamming the door behind him as he rescued them.

“Are you ladies alright? Do you need a drink? Medicine? A nap? Food? Have you broken any bones? Fractured anything?” The manager asked, continuing even as they tried to calm his worried nerves.

Despite being long standing collegues, Minhyuk never quite approved of Chinsun’s training methods as much as Chinsun thought of Minhyuk as a pushover. And thus they had spent much of their time working as far away from each other as they could.

“We are fine Minhyukkie. Nothing a bit of rest can’t fix...” A single voice confirmed, allowing them man to breath a long sigh of relief. “

Good. I can’t have my princesses hurt!” Minhyuk sung, a bright smile adorning his face as he looked at them before turning on his heel down the hallway. “This way! A new collection of clothing has come in, and we need you to do fittings for them!”

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