Hana had just arrived in Seoul in the morning. Running around already, she had to find her way alone from Incheon airport to Gangnam-gu. She had been summoned by Pledis Entertainment to come directly at their building to fill in formalities and prepare the practice room for her first training session.

When applying to the job, Hana had not been made aware of the name of her possibly next employer. They had only told her a few days ago, a long time after she was informed being taken for the position. Further to that information, they had notified her that due to planning issues, they could not find her an accommodation as promised in the contract. Eventually, they asked her if she would not mind sharing the kitchen and the living-room with roommates. Hana preferred that than being left on the road.

According to the pictures they had sent her, Hana found that the room was quite nice. It was already furnished and was offering direct access to the entrance of the apartment and had a private bathroom. The day before leaving from Tokyo to Seoul, she had a call from a manager who explained to her that her room was actually in a dorm. Furthermore, the space was usually at the disposal of the managers of the group Hana was going to train. Feeling bad to occupy a free spot, she thanked him and asked kindly if he could tell her for which group she had been contracted for. Hana could at first not believe when he told her. She had been thinking all along having been contracted for a girls group. Seventeen, she could not have imagined it ! After the call, she spent a long time researching on the group, that she already knew quite well, and the company. Hana wanted to feel ready in order to present herself as confident and professional.

During the flight, Hana had had a long thought about what kind of exercises she was going to do with thirteen men. In addition to that, she had googled how to behave with people older than her in Korea. However, as she was already considered as being rude in Japan, she gave up on that and thought of giving her western cultural background as an excuse. Following Google Maps, she tried to find her way to the building where Pledis Entertainment had their headquarters and practice rooms. Unfortunately, as she had missed the right metro stop, she had to walk a longer way than she had expected. She was actually really good at orienting herself but she always had had problems in big cities.

"You arrived at your destination," blurted the feminine GPS voice.

"Thanks," whispered Hana.

She was standing in front of a white and plain corner building. It did not have anything special to it, but Hana liked the simplicity of the design and the factory feel to it. At least, they did not want to show off like other entertainment companies in Korea. Hana could begin to feel her stress coming to . She just hoped that she would be able to act normally. After having moved to the USA and then to Japan, she kind of took confidence in her social skills. Still, today she was quite intimidated by the entire situation. She pressed a white button at the entrance and a feminine voice came out of the intercom.

"Good morning, you are at Pledis Entertainment. How can I help you?"

"Good morning, I am Hana. Hana Braun. I am the newly appointed choreographer for Seventeen."

"Oh !" said the voice surprised. "Welcome to Korea, Mrs. Braun. I am coming to open you the door. Please wait a moment."

The pronunciation of her surname made Hana smile. She was already used to the Japanese pronunciation, but the Korean one was something else. She could hear her German father say “These Asian people… Das ist Braun nicht bulaun !”. She laughed internally. A little Korean woman opened the door and hastened to say with a bow:

"Annyeonghaseyo!"

Hana politely bowed back. The lady seemed kind. She was not the youngest anymore, but she was really pretty. She kindly showed Hana the way to the reception and explained:

"For the front door, we mainly use a biometric system recognizing the fingerprints. Therefore, I will have to take your fingerprints and save them into our system along with your personal data."

Hana nodded in agreement. ‘Like secret agents,’ she thought. The lady gave her some papers to fill in. Hana had to show her her passport to confirm her identity.

"We registered you to get a work visa, and we will transmit it to you as soon as it arrives," she informed.

"Thank you so much, if you need further documents for the process, don’t hesitate to tell me."

"We will. Please put your index here."

She was showing a little machine that she pulled out of behind her counter. Hana placed her index on the screen thrilled. The entrance door opened on a large man with glasses.

"Good morning, Mr. Kim. How are you doing today?"

"Very well Mrs. Ahn. And you, do we have a guest?"

"Very well. Yes, this is Mrs. Braun."

"Oh !" he declared. "The well-expected choreographer Hana. I watched some of your videos on your youtube channel. It was awe-inspiring and quite various."

As he finished his sentence laughing, Hana could not tell if he was serious or not. Nevertheless, she bowed and thanked him out of respect. ‘That’s how we do it, here,’ she thought. He was not the manager she had had on the phone the day before. Despite that, he asked her:

"We are going to bring your belongings to the dorm as soon as they are delivered by the airport."

"That is kind of you."

"Oh, before I forget, I have to take your phone number to send you the address of the dorm. To get in we use the same system as here, however, if it does not work, do not hesitate to call me and I will give you the password."

He turned to Mrs. Ahn.

"Mrs. Ahn, could you please send her number to each personal manager of the group."

She nodded and directly typed something on her computer. After a few seconds, she looked back at us.

"It is done! When are the Seventeen members coming today," she asked politely.

He looked at his phone and muttered:

"Let me check the schedule."

Hana did not feel at the right place. She did not know what to do or what to tell.

"Their training is scheduled at one p.m."

It was already noon. Hana was happy she had eaten something quickly at the airport. This would allow her to have more time to prepare what she had planned in her head. The manager turned to her, smiling.

"Let me bring you to the practice room. I think you might want to prepare a bit before giving a class to 13 people."

‘Indeed, indeed,’ Hana thought to herself.

"I’d love to," she answered cheerfully.

Ten minutes later, she was alone in the practice room. This reminded her of her dance teacher job in Japan. She smiled widely thinking of her rock’n’roll class with seniors. Some of them had been sad to know about her leave. Others had told her to follow her dreams, meet love, and eventually get married. If only life could have been so easy as the elders described, youth would not be wasted on the young.

"Who are we? Just a speck of dust within the galaxy,” Hana started to sing quietly. “Turn the page; maybe we'll find a brand new ending where we're dancing in our tears. God, tell us the reason youth is wasted on the young. It's hunting season, and this lamb is on the run. We're searching for meaning, but are we all lost stars trying to light up the dark?"

With calm, she connected her phone to the speakers of the room and put on the playlist she had prepared. She elegantly went to the middle of the room and started to dance to the rhythm of the music.