It is here, guys. Thanks for waiting <3 It may not be what you guys have expected, but I still hope you guys like it!

For the umpteenth time, as Arin pressed "repeat" on her MP3 player to EXO's Overdose, she wondered desolately what she was doing with her life.

She was one of the hundreds of trainees in SM's "dungeon" as many called it- it wasn't as tragic as described by netizens but it was worse- it was day after day of the same, structured, sterile routine. As coveted her place may be, she was feeling far from grateful. She had been training for just over a month and she failed the last evaluation. She was heavily criticised on her dancing skills, or lack thereof. The only reason why she wasn't kicked out was because of her voice.

I like to sing, Arin thought glumly as she watched her stiff movements in front of the mirror, I didn't sign up to flail around like a dying whale. And a dying whale was the best way to describe her. She was the trainee who couldn't get the steps even after five run-throughs while everyone around her was moving onto the next sequence by the first demonstration. She was the trainee who everyone held their breath when she was sent up for a demonstration and there would be that painful, tension-filled silence as pitiful eyes watched her failed. Even her angelic voice couldn't save her from that humiliation. Because of this, she kept to herself and was determined to not let anyone get to her. She tried to ignore the looks of sympathy, or even derision from the other trainees. She knew what they thought about her. She knew the rumours. She was definitely not competition.

And the public's impression that the SM trainees were like a family, with the sunbaes coaching them? Fake. The competition was so stiff, that everyone was too busy practising and refining their skills to even make acquaintances with the other trainees, other than those who they bunked with in the dorm. The sunbaes only bothered to visit those who were recommended to have "debut potential" by the instructors. Her voice may be good, but there were dozens of others who could sing and dance well. 

Hence, here she was, at 2am in the wee hours of the night, trying to get the complicated steps of these annoyingly talented sunbaes' choreography down. The evaluation was once every 2 weeks and the next one was round the corner. 

Maybe this isn't the life for me. Arin sighed, wiping perspiration off her brow as she missed the step in the chorus again. Why am I so hopeles