“Oh my god I’m so sorry,” I exclaimed once Sunggyu dodged the door by a few inches.

            “Aish,” he sighed, clutching his chest with eyes squeezed shut. “I thought I was far enough to the side this time.” He paused and opened his eyes suddenly at the sound of a different voice. “Oh you’re the new trainee?”

            “Ah, yes. I’m Kim Hyejin.” My face was dying to freeze in disbelief once again, but I managed to force my face to keep it cool.

            “Nice to meet you. I’m Kim Sunggyu from Infinite. I’m assuming Woohyun has already moved into his new room?”

            “Yes. He’s down the hall that way,” I said, pointing in the direction he went earlier.

            “Thank you,” he said. “And Hyejin, I heard you’re going to debut in the duo group right? Here’s something interesting that you didn’t hear from me.” He leaned in and dropped his volume. “Word is you’re the best trainee we have right now. I’ll be looking forward to working with you in the future.” He winked and walked off.

            I stood in the doorway as my face let go of its cool and had changed into an expression of bewilderment. Did this mean I was guaranteed to become an idol? Not only that but the famous Kim Sunggyu knew who I was!? He even complemented me!

            “I told you I didn’t lose it. I was in a rush!”

            “It doesn’t matter, I’ll believe you when I see it…Hyejin. You’re still there.”

            I shook myself out of my dream-like trance. It was Woohyun and Sunggyu and they were coming back from Woohyun’s room down the hall.

            “Yeah I am,” I said, failing to laugh my embarrassment off. I felt my face turn a slight shade of pink as I thought of how bad it would have been if someone else had seen me stand out there for that long with the weird expression I wore.

            “I know I just handed the room over to you but could we come in?” Woohyun asked. “I left his phone in here by accident.”      

            “Eyy, don’t be so sure of yourself,” Sunggyu said as they entered my room.

            I watched from behind in the doorway as Woohyun rustled through the desk drawers.

            “Aha!” Woohyun said, before anyone could say anything else. He handed the smartphone to Sunggyu who took it without a word.

            “I don’t even know why I let you hold onto it overnight,” Sunggyu muttered, walking out of the room. He caught the door frame and stuck his face back in for a second, and with a smile he said, “Hyejin, don’t trust this guy too much alright?”

            “Don’t mind him,” Woohyun said, making a face at Sunggyu who finally left the room. He shook his head and turned to close the open desk drawers but he paused to pick up my music I had left on top of my workspace.

            “This,” He said, looking through my papers. “You wrote this yourself?”

            “Yeah,” I said slightly embarrassed. “But it’s not completed yet.”

            “Really?” With the papers in hand, he walked out the room humming parts of the tune I wrote. Not knowing what I was supposed to do, I followed him down the hall and into the empty music room. He slid onto the piano bench and began to find the chords from the sheet music. I closed the door behind me and went to stand behind Woohyun to see what he was up to.

            He brought the notes written on my paper to life. Although he was only sight reading, he played slowly and sweetly with only just a few mistakes. He improvised as he added a few moving lines which spurred several ideas to burst into new melodies in my previously empty mind.

            “Nice,” Woohyun said once he finished playing. “You have great ideas so far and it sounds like you could add this song in your next album- well, only if you have lyrics for it.”

            “Thanks, but I don’t have any idea for lyrics yet,” I said. I was happy that he said my work was going in the right direction.

            “Hey,” Woohyun said, playing some of the chords again. “We just finished our comeback schedule and the other members have their own individual activities for the time being. I could help you write the rest of this. I’ve got some songwriting experience.”

            My eyes widened as the dreams I’ve always had since I fell in love with Infinite unfolded right in front of me. “Yes, that would be great!”

            The door swung open. Woohyun and I turned our heads to see who had interrupted our little music session.

            “Oh,” said a girl standing in the doorway. “I thought no one was in here.”

            “Sorry,” I said surprised to see her. “We were just finishing up right?” I hurriedly began to grab all my music off the piano.

            As I reached for the last sheet, Woohyun grabbed my extended wrist. I looked up to see his eyes which silently told me to calm down.

           He let go and stood up saying, “I’ll leave first. I need to set up my new room anyways. I’ll see you guys later. It was nice to meet you.” He walked past the girl and waved back with a smile.

            I was slightly relieved once the sound of his footsteps faded away, but the door closed leaving me and the other girl alone.

            “Min,” I said, acknowledging her.

            She was a very pretty girl compared to myself. Her wavy and silky dark brown hair would flow around her shoulders, surrounding the face which made her the face of our group. She would look perfect even without makeup. Aside from her natural beauty, her sense of style was enough to match the work of a stylist.

            Compared to her, I was a head shorter than her and I made her look like a model by just standing next to her.

            “Hyejin,” she said smugly as she took her time walking towards me. “It’s your first day but you’re already trying to up to our sunbae? I can’t say I expected any less from you. I mean, that’s how you got here in the first place anyways.”

            Did I mention that I hated her?

            “No, I just ran into him and he wanted to-“

            “Whatever,” she said. “I was going to do my vocal warm-ups. I know you’d probably distract me from doing my best but our manager told me we should really start to get close since we’ll be debuting together soon. Ok?”

            I sighed. She was as cruel as ever.

            I piled up my music nicely and said, “I’ll be in my recording room if you need me. I don’t want to keep you from singing at your best.”

            “So you don’t want to do any group bonding with me?” Min asked innocently, pouting. “I don’t think our manager will be too happy about that.”

            “Just tell him I was busy,” I said as I walked out of the room.

            When we were auditioning and having our first training sessions, she was a menace to me and the other girls. She would always get away with anything she did just because she had a high social standing and she passed as the innocent one to the staff when she was accused of doing something bad. Somehow, she used her sweet voice and her acting to end up as the person I would be debuting with.

            It was a good four months without her attitude when I trained back in LA without her, finishing my year in college there. I didn’t think much of it then, but now I realized I’ll be stuck trying to act friendly with her fake image for another six years.