1. Bite Me

Colder than usual is this particular winter night.

Though the only indications are sheets of frost along the windows. It’s rather cosy in her dorm room, even in the late night—technically early morning—hours, curled up on the tattered couch.

Her thoughts run at a million miles a second, some of which touch along the lines of: ‘thank Jellyfish for underfloor heating’ and ‘I really need to get some sleep’. While the rest are tangled threads of ‘tomorrow filming starts’, ‘I’m going to make a fool of myself’, ‘Ha, yeah right. I’m going to be entirely forgettable like the last time I was on a survival program’, all wrapped up in generous servings of dread, anticipation, fear and anxiety.

Kpop Star had been a great learning curve, but this time that isn’t enough. She isn’t going on the show to learn – well technically she is—but mostly she’s going on Produce 101 to get her name out. She’s there to shine, to draw attention so that her debut will be successful and not brushed off and left on the shelf to collect dust like the hundreds of girl groups coming out each year. Coasting along with barely any broadcast time isn’t an option on this show.

She isn’t just some unknown high school student with big dreams anymore. She’s Kim Sejeong of Jellyfish Entertainment, one of the company’s first female trainees, and that needs to mean something if she wants to get anywhere in this brutal industry.

There’s a bang, a clatter of metal against glass, a half muffled curse, and then a shadow approaches. Sejeong’s eyes flicker over in the darkness furtively. She feels a slight dip of pressure as someone settles on the couch beside her. An arm drapes around her shoulder, head rests against her chest.

Nayoung then.

The elder girl doesn’t really speak a lot, preferring her actions to talk for her, and at times like this, Sejeong is grateful for the supportive silence. She’s lost track of the number of times when she would be exhausted, drained in both body and mind after a gruelling dance session or a particularly cruel vocal evaluation – and Nayoung would simply walk over and plop down beside her. On the couch, on the timber floor of their training room, next to the piano, and just sit there without a word. It’s comfortable, familiar, comforting without being overly long-winded.

Sejeong closes her eyes and inhales deeply—calming herself, though inadvertently taking in a scent full of earthy musk and cedar wood. “You have got to stop using this shampoo,” Sejeong mumbles into Nayoung’s hair, “You smell like a timber yard.”

Nayoung shifts, and Sejeong can feel her lips curl upwards, “Better than your Ryeo crap. The bathroom smells like a herbal medicine store exploded,” Nayoung shoots back, index finger twirling around a strand of Sejeong’s hair.

“Would you rather it smell like a sawdust?”

“It does not smell like sawdust. It’s soft amber,” Nayoung insists, “You smell like my grandma.”

“Oh bite me.”

Sejeong shifts her arm – the same arm that Nayoung is leaning on—lightly brushing her in the face with it, so she does the reasonable thing and sinks her teeth into the offending limb.

“Ow! Did you just bite me?” Sejeong asks incredulously.

Before Nayoung can reply, the kitchen light flares to life and blinds her sensitive eyes, while a mildly disturbed voice calls out uncertainly.

“Do I need an adult for this?” the maknae has one hand on the light switch and the other over her eyes.

“Mina-yah what are you doing up?” Sejeong calls, idly rubbing her left arm and ignoring Nayoung’s mutterings of roosters and blockades.

“Couldn’t sleep,” Mina says quietly, hands fidgeting as she shuffles towards the couch.

Sejeong grins and pulls the youngest member down, smiling as she yelps, tangling the three of them into a mess of flailing limbs and giggles, “Don’t worry about it. We’re going to be fine.”

The arm around her shoulder tightens its grip and she can already tell that Nayoung’s wearing her ‘unnie’ face. The one that seems to be almost permanently directed at Sejeong, the one that basically spells ‘take your own advice Sejeong’.

“We’re going to be fine,” Mina affirms, almost as if reassuring herself aloud.

“We’re going to be great,” Nayoung corrects.

Sejeong decides to jump onto the positivity train with, “We’re going to be the best.”

A surprised silence greets her words, and Sejeong wonders if she pushed it a little far when something’s squirming, and then Nayoung breaks the silence with an annoyed, “Hey ow! Mina-ah, your foot is in my ribs.”

“Deal with it,” Mina giggles.

“I’ll bite you,” Nayoung threatens.

“I need an adult,” Mina says immediately.

“I am an adult.”

“Pft, yeah right Nayoung.”

“That’s Nayoung-unnie to you!”

Sejeong feels the grin stretch out from ear to ear. It’s a cruel industry, a difficult program, on a network notorious for screwing participants of their survival programs for drama, and yet, Sejeong’s beginning to believe that they would be fine. She’s got these two idiots by her side, and that’s all she really needs.

Just a short and sweet start. Is there any moment on the show in particular that people would like me to write about?

On another note I tried very hard imagining winter while writing this, when in reality I'm melting. It's literally 40 degrees C and the tap water is coming out basically boiled >.<