In the last chapter of Iven's story...

We finally reached South Korea, the place where my dream could come true but also where my training starts…

Iven’s POV

Setting: South Korea

Wow, I couldn’t believe it… I was in South Korea and in the same place where all the kpop idols were.  And another thing was I was about to step inside the place where 2PM, GOT7, TWICE, and other groups are working.  I was so amazed by all these thoughts that would happen that I lost track of what was happening around me and who I was with.

My thoughts were interrupted when I felt someone lightly punch my shoulder and say, “Close your mouth, boy, or else a fly might fly in.”

I looked over and there was Abi and a whole bunch others looking at me and snickering.  They had also been amazed by this, but then Abi had made that remark which made everyone snap out of it and stare at me. Oh dear, this was embarrassing.  I had to think of a way to get her back because she had already gotten me twice(a/n got the reference? hehehe) Well, I knew her personality was very playful and loud, so I knew she was just joking around.  Besides, I don’t really take these remarks personally anyway, unlike some other people.  I guess I’m just one lucky person to be emotionally stable and strong.

Anyway, after that little embarrassing incident, we were finally led into the JYPE building and then into a room.  Inside the room, the big, tall man who had led us called for our attendance and gave us some kind of nametag and then he left us for a bit.  But when he came back, he wasn’t alone, but was followed by a group of people who looked scary and mean.  We all bowed at them and said, “Annyeonghaeseyo” just like that man had told us.  We watched as the judges walk in and take their spots and finally gesture for us to take a seat along the wall.  I noticed that there was also a translator too, but I didn’t need it since I knew Korean already.  There was an awkward silence after everyone had settled down and so I took this time to look at the faces of all the judges.  I was looking at all of them when my eyes stopped on this one person.  He looked familiar and OMG, it was Park Jin Young, JYP, the one, the original.  He had come to greet us.  I was surprised by this and inside I thought, “Wow, the original JYP came to greet all of us.  Man, I feel so special.”

It was finally interrupted when JYP stood up and talked in his loud voice, “Hello, welcome to JYP Entertainment! I want to congratulate all of you for making it through our Global JYP Auditions! I would like to also welcome you as all trainees and potential future kpop stars.  Now I will introduce you all to some important people. Manager Park, would you please come here.” The tall, big man who led us stepped up. “This will be your ‘manager’ for this group, if you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to ask him.  Also you need to listen to him carefully too because he will be reporting about you all to me from time to time.”

JYP talked on and on, introducing some more other important people and finally he ended with, “I wanna say congratulations to everyone and good luck on your training!” With that, he left the room to do his business, I guess.  But, the judges stayed behind a bit, watching our every move. We were left just there with Manager Park and the judges.  We kinda just stared at him and then at the judges for a while, until he motioned for us to stand up.

He then said in his low, deep voice, “Okay, everyone, we will start your pre-training today, for the rest of the day, actually.  First, everyone, follow me.”

We all were obedient and followed him because we were all intimidated by the stares of the judges who were just in there.  We all stood up and then shuffled together as group, lining up to go outside the door.  We all kinda just wanted to get the hell out of there as fast as we could, so we could escape the stares.  

As we were making our way through the door and into the hallway, I thought inside, “Are the judges all observing our behaviors already? That might explain the name tags, so that they can identify who is who to talk about.”  I also replayed what I had just witnessed in my head. As we walked out, they all just seemed to glare at us, intensely.  Then we left and I saw them group up and whisper about something.  But another thing I noticed was while they were talking, they would take a peek down the hallway for something, and still looking at us. I guess they were maybe trying to make sure that we didn’t hear what they were talking about or something.  After that I couldn’t see anymore of the judges because we were going somewhere.  I got a bit more nervous because I didn’t know where Manager Park was taking us.

It turns out we were just taking a tour of the JYPE building and as we were passing through the building, we were lucky enough to witness one of the groups, GOT7, practicing.  It was so cool, we all just stood there, amazed.  They were practicing to some choreography that looked familiar, but I just couldn’t recognize it because I needed to hear the music to know.  But, the room was soundproof and we couldn’t open the door because that would disturb them.  Sadly, we didn’t get to see the end of it because our manager thought it was enough of us still being a “fan”.  When we finished the tour, we were finally handed some forms to read and assigned some classes which began the next day.

That night, we were all guided to our dorms that we were staying in.  The building kinda looked abandoned and scratched up from the outside.  The painting was faded and the window screens looked like they were ready to fall out.  Also, it was a pretty small dorm on the outside, but on the inside, it was actually wayyy bigger and much newer than I expected.  Of course, it was split into gender by girls and boys.  We all took our luggage inside and then we were assigned rooms where I was alone, but that would only last for a short time.  It was kinda nice, being lonely and having the room all to myself, but at the same time, it was scary.  But, as I was settling my stuff down and trying to make myself comfortable, Manager Park came in.

He cleared his throat, which startled me a bit, but then he spoke up saying, “Oh, Iven, there will be more people in this room later, when the others come.”

I just nodded. Then, I went back to my business. Wait, others? Oh yeah, I totally forgot about it.  The JYPE auditions were worldwide so that means there’s gonna be more trainees.  I hope they aren’t so bad… Hopefully, they won’t be…

With that thought in my mind, it was interrupted when I heard it was time for dinner.  I immediately rushed down and then we all gathered around the table, which had takeout food and it smelled like noodles cooked with soy sauce and other delicious seasonings.  We ate our food and then Manager Park had us clean the whole entire place, even though it was like freaking clean already.  After it was all done, he checked the house and approved of it, he made a few announcements, like our curfew, our wake up time, some advice, etc.  And then he finally letting us have our own free time before the real training started the next day.

As the time passed, I was just laying in bed, just checking out all the social media stuff and basically, just chilling.  After a while, I decided to take the time to fully accept that I was in South Korea and eventually, I fell asleep…

The Next Day…

I was woken up in the worst way that I had ever experienced.  I don’t know what they were thinking, but did they want me to become deaf?  What they did was they decided to get an airhorn and then put in somewhat close to my ear and HONKKKK!

I woke up screaming, my hand on my ear, and now a headache.  Could the day get any worse from the first thing in the day? Apparently, yes, it got worse.  What happened next was tiring and I felt like I could die, in fact, one of the other trainees, they fainted.  Let me tell you what happened, so after our hella deafening wake up call, we were given some breakfast.  But it was, small and not large like our dinner.  I was disappointed at first, but when we had finished, I was kinda grateful that we were given a small breakfast or else I would have probably thrown up and have a stomachache.  After breakfast, we went straight to the JYPE building and that was when our “hell” started.  

The first thing we did there was we were all led to the same room where we were met with a buff, muscular guy.  We all bowed and greeted him and lined up in the middle room, just like he directed us to.  Then he began speaking, talking about how he was gonna check the status of our physical health. Wow, damn, was he buff and his voice was strong. He was pretty intimidating though because of his figure though.  It started right away and he made us stretch, not pleasurably, but forcibly.  If we didn’t reach as far as he wanted, he would come over and then make you, as in push you, to the spot that he wanted.  But it’s a good thing he did it slowly, and he wasn’t like careless and he seemed to understand when we voiced that it hurt.  The stretching wasn’t as bad as I thought, but that was only beginning.  Next he had us run in place to the beat of the music.  At the beginning, I was pretty much at ease because I had a lot of endurance and some energy.  But, as the time passed, I began to slow down and my eyes were starting to black out on me.  The others around me also seemed like they were dying too because they were slowing down a lot and were going 4X slower than they started.  I thought the guy trainer would notice that we were tired and take pity on us, but instead, he just yelled at us saying things like “Come on, let’s go!” or  “Faster!”.  

Finally after like what seemed like 5 minutes, but only like 1 minute, he stopped us.  We were all panting and then leaning our weight onto our knees.  We all needed water, but there was none in sight and that was torture.  He watched as we suffer with his straight face and let us rest for a few minutes.   Just then, one of the other trainees, a girl, she fainted.  I looked over and rushed over to her, just in time to catch her.  I was then surrounded by the other trainees and we were all looking at her and asking if she was okay.  The guy trainer then came over and then used his walkie talkie to call for the medical team.  He then told me to put her down over on the side and with that, he just continued the class like nothing had happened.