FLASHBACK

Shy, tall, and lanky.

That’s what Jennie immediately notices when the new trainee is brought to the dorms.

“My name is Lalisa, I’m fourteen and I come from Thailand, thank you for having me,” the short-haired girl bows.

She’s adorable, Jennie’s mind supplies when she sees Lisa struggle to introduce herself to the gathered girls with her broken Korean and a shy smile.

The girls all smile and introduce themselves to the new trainee, welcoming her and saying their hellos.

When it’s Jennie’s turn, she gives the tall girl her most sincere gummy smile. The girl, Lalisa, easily returns it with twinkling eyes and a large grin.

Soon thereafter, a member of management instructs the Thai girl to get settled in her new room, one which will be shared with another one of the trainees. The young girl nods in understanding and takes her things into the shared bedroom, only to stop at the threshold and look around in confusion, wondering who her roommate will be. It’s only seconds after that she feels a hand brush over her forearm and a smaller girl appear at her side.

“Hi again, Lalisa, right?” the shorter girl gazes at her with cat-like eyes and Lisa swears she feels her own heart skip a beat.

The younger girl nods, “You can call me Lisa.”

“Lisa,” Jennie tests, the name easily slipping through her lips, and a small smile appears again, “okay.”

“And you,” Lisa motions, “Jennie…unnie?”

Jennie’s smile widens at the younger girl’s adorably confused expression and she nods, “Yes, because I’m older,” she pauses for a second before adding, “but you can just call me Jennie, if you want.”

She receives a megawatt smile from the younger girl as they proceed into the room.

“That’s your bed,” Jennie points to the opposite side of the room from hers, “I made sure everything was clean beforehand so…”

Lisa turns to her with a small crease between brows, unsure of the words the smaller girl is using. She had already started studying Korean but there is only so much she could learn in the little time she had before having to move over form Thailand.

Jennie quickly catches herself, “Oh, um, Thai, right,” she thinks for a moment, rummaging through her brain for any Thai words or phrases.

Lisa merely stares at her, even more confused.

“Um…Sawadee…ka?” She looks at Lisa curiously, hoping that she didn’t just insult the girl.

Lisa bursts out into laughter and Jennie immediately feels relived.

“It means Hello,” Lisa gently smiles at her after she calms down, thankful that the older girl is even trying to communicate with her.

Jennie nods to herself and repeats it more confidently, “Sawadee ka.”

The younger girl chuckles and continues to unpack her things, trying not to mind the way Jennie curiously gazes at her as if she’s trying to figure out some complicated math equation. A couple of minutes go by like this, with Lisa unpacking and Jennie nervously fidgeting on her side of the room, unsure of what else to say.

“Do you-,” the older girl starts, “do you need help with that?” Jennie motions at Lisa’s large suitcase and all the items scattered about.

Lisa only understands half of the things the smaller girl says but that is more than enough to catch on, she gives her a small nod and a smile, “Thank you.”

Jennie waves her off and starts helping with what she can, putting Lisa’s personal items where the younger girl points her to and smiling at a couple of picture frames she sees safely tucked into a corner of the suitcase. One of them contains a large group of kids all huddled together in some type of performance outfits. Jennie lifts it up and curiously turns it to Lisa.

The younger girl looks up from the items she’s refolding and smiles, “My friends.”

Jennie gently sets the picture frame aside and picks up the next one; this one containing a younger Lisa standing between a middle-aged lady and a towering man who wears glasses, all three of them holding hands with a beaming grin on their faces. Jennie turns this one to Lisa again, the same questioning look adorning her face.

Lisa looks at this one longer than the last one, her eyes quickly glazing over with unshed tears, but a smile pulls on her lips nonetheless, “Mom and dad.”

Jennie sets down the picture frame and reaches out for the younger girl’s hand, “You miss them already, huh?”

Lisa silently nods and ducks her head to hide the tears that manage to escape. Jennie softly cups the younger girls face and wipes away the tears, “It’s okay to miss them,” she pulls the taller girl into a gentle hug, “it’s okay to cry.”

**

It takes Lisa a couple of days to actually settle in and start getting used to her schedule. All trainees spend most of the day, and even the night, training and practicing for the monthly evaluations. However, Lisa, being the first foreign trainee in the company has to take several language, culture, and etiquette classes aside from the usual ones that the other trainees take. It makes Jennie feel horrible for her, especially considering the girl barely has time to eat well, and the hours of sleep she gets are certainly not a healthy amount.

Jennie starts to make changes to her own daily routine, making sure to walk with Lisa to and from her extra classes so she won’t feel alone. Waking up earlier to prepare her a snack, so the girl won’t pass out from exhaustion halfway through the day, just in case she forgets or doesn’t have time to eat a proper breakfast.

She watches as Lisa struggles to learn and pronounce words in Korean to properly integrate them into her raps.

She watches, day in and day out, as Lisa gives her all during every single practice session, leaving her heart and soul on the dance floor and anything she does.

She also watches as several of the other girls, ones that plastered a fake smile on their faces when Lisa first introduced herself, start talking behind the younger girl’s back once they start to realize just how much competition Lisa truly is.

She catches them, numerous times, huddled up in corners and whispering when they think no one else will hear.

She hears voices as she nears the corner and slows down.

“The instructors praise her like she is some sort of dance god or something, but the girl can barely introduce herself without messing up a word,” one of them huffs.

“I know, it’s not like she’s even that good, acting like she can come in here and immediately be the best,” another one cuts in.

“She’s making the rest of us look like newbies who can barely dance, yet she can’t rap to save her life, she should just go back to Thailand and save everyone the trouble.”

Jennie stops dead in her tracks at the last one, she rounds the corner and faces the three girls with the most intense glare she can muster. The girls having triggered her overprotective side.

The girls all turn to her with wide eyes and immediately regret having spoken ill of the Thai girl.

“J- Jennie unnie-,” one of them speaks up and earns herself an even more intense glare that makes her shut up and wish she could momentarily disappear from the face of the Earth.

“We- we’re all just stressed because of the upcoming evaluation, you know how it is,” another one tries to wave it off.

“That doesn’t give you an excuse to badmouth someone that works just as hard as you do, especially considering she puts more effort into one practice session than you do into an entire week of practice, Yerin,” she gives the last girl a hard look.

“That’s not-,”

“It is true, don’t even try to deny it, do you really think the instructors don’t notice the same thing? They would be praising you too, if you put even half as much e