2010

Mark was roaming in his campus when he got call from his teacher. When he went to meet him, he said "Mark! Tomorrow, JYPE, one of the biggest company that makes KPOP idols and songs is doing auditions in our school, you also get there to the auditorium for the audition."

"But sir, how can I? I don't sing.", Mark tried to protest. Ofcourse he will, all he did through out his life was playing in the beach and studying Maths.

"I know you don't and I also know that you can't. But with the face of yours you can get there and you are a good student and athlete, so its not that tough for you to learn singing and dancing. So, without talking a word leave now and attend the audition tomorrow", teacher said as that is the final.

Mark just listened to his teacher, and he got scouted by the representatives to Korea.

-0-

JYPE Building. The place he never thought he would end up ever in his life. Mark has never thought he would become anyone but a good student living in USA, is now in Korea, entering a building which will make him, if he deserves it, a world famous singer and dancer. That's strange right. Most toughest part of all is, he doesn't know the language. He just heard the name Korea and Korean from the restaurants around in LA. Now he is here, leaving his family back in USA, and to live with complete strangers and strange culture. Will he be able to survive here? Will he be able to adapt to the culture here?  Will anyone befriend me ? Will I be able to Debut with this situation? While he was thinking all these things, the person who scouted him from LA came to him to go inside. He already finished the formalities so now he is up for practice. 

Mark was already introduced to a Thai kid, whose name is BamBam. Mark was 17 and BamBam was 13 years old.

BamBam acted in few commercials in Thailand, and he dreamt to be part of KPOP after his Mom became a super fan of the Internationally famous Korean singer "Rain". He was part of dance group where he learned dancing.

Today they will be meeting the other kids who are going through the training like them. They entered the room which was said as practice room. He doesn't know what practice he is going to do. The room consists of around quite a good number of students male and female of all ages from 1 digit to teenage. He hesitated to go near them but he eventually has to. Students seem to be busy in their own world of dancing and singing talking continuously in which probably Mark thinks is Korean. Teacher came in no time and introduced Mark and BamBam to the students and asked them to take good care of them. After the class, students went and spoke to Mark and BamBam but only briefly. They cannot spend much time talking as they need to practice when in building. Its tough to pick up their names in first meet. Since they are unfamiliar Korean names for Mark.

That night at dorm, all kids came and spoke to these foreigners very warmly welcoming them. They have this guy called Brian, who is a Canadian who knows both Korean and English who helped Mark and BamBam with translation. When every one were speaking in a group, there came this guy from shower and introduced himself to Mark as, "Hi brother! This is JYP." Mark got shocked by this. I know this is JYP, but why is he telling me again? He thought. When he looked at Brian confused, he clarified that this guy shares the same name as the company's chairman and the company. His name is also Park Jinyoung.

Among the others there are few intellectual kids who can say at least few words in English for these guys, among whom Park Jinyoung is one who is the foreigner's favorite. Jinyoung along with JB joined JYPE in 2009, after winning first place in the audition that happened an year back. He was a good student when he was in academic school. He even was the class people representative. He started getting interest towards music and dancing when he came to teenage and that he learned dancing travelling for 1 hour from his house every day alone. Mark could see the passion in this kid, that he put on for

every class he takes.

JB, another kid who won the audition along with Jinyoung, was a single kid to his parents, sorry to say who are not together now. His step father takes care of JB as his own father and he was encouraged to pursue his dreams with full confidence on him. JB learnt B-Boy dance every day along with some street dancers for 4 hours. His dancing skills are the one which kept him at point 1.

There are other kids who has the same kind of history and background. The moment Mark heard of these stories he got scared. He doesn’t even know how to move his leg and hand together for a dance move and what is called tempo or notes in the first place to sing. "We are screwed", Mark told BamBam.

"May be you not me. I want to do this and I will work hard to do this.", BamBam told being childish.

The process of academics in this company is quite simple. They will teach singing, dancing, stunts, posing and making impression in shows to the students during the month. At the end of the month, the students will be evaluated with their progress in every aspect and overall. If the progress is negative for few months consecutively and if it is under performance compared to the other kids, that person will be sent home.

Oh so, I just need to make sure that I am not performing below the given bar and I should be improving every day to be on the stage which I now think I belong. Lets get it. Mark thought and from then, he started working dual the others so he can cross the bar quickly and to get to the level of all these profession

Jinyoung was quite impressed by the way Mark observing, studying the language, dance everything. He impressive for a person with no background of stage is now going to be a competition for many kids here. Mark got help from all Korean kids, Jinyoung was always there to help him being already impressed by Mark. Mark is also equally impressed by Jinyoung for his looks and knowledge.

Another kid, Yugyeom joined JYPE after being selected at his dance school. He dances really well.

2011 -

A new guy joined the trainees team. Jackson, he was a gold medal winner in fencing in 2 championships before joining JYPE. He is from Hong Kong, so he can speak Mandarin which Mark also knew because his parents are from Taiwan. That made Mark's life a bit easier in JYPE, since now he can speak in a language he knows more to few more people. Mark shared his room with Jackson since it is easy to communicate.

-0-

One day after the dinner with all students, Mark asked,  "Ice-cream anyone? "

"I will go" Jinyoung raised his hand like a kid. No one else wanted to have ice cream, strange, so Mark and Jinyoung went to have their ice creams from the shop next to their building.

After they took their ice creams, Mark walked to JYPE building, but Jinyoung called him back. "Hyung! sanchaeg?", Jinyoung asked Mark, who got confused on what he was hearing.

"Sanchaeg, now!!"

"Ye", Jinyoung smiled with all teeth and confirmed. Mark agreed as he was bored of sitting in their practice room all day long and they have another 20 minutes to kill. 

They reached a park while walking towards left and right. Jinyoung ran to a bench in the park and gestured Mark to sit saying, "Anjo". Mark sat saying "Sit". "Yeee Sit"

They spoke about clear sky, benches in the park, how tasty their ice creams are sharing them with each other, basically every damn topic other than what they are learning in the JYPE. Their conversation went on like this until they realized that they are up for their next class now. Mark and Jinyoung ran to their classroom as if they had competition but still, Jinyoung won the match.

The ice-cream outings between Jinyoung and Mark went from few days a week to everyday. Jinyoung helped Mark in learning Korean and dance and Mark taught little English to Jinyoung. Being good student from his childhood, Jinyoung was able to learn faster than Mark expected and Mark since he is also learning in classes, picking up new language good. Jinyoung and Mark became acquaintances to friends to close friends. Their closeness is so much that now they are even concerned about each other's progress and classes.

Mark joined Martial classes as per JYP's request. He is interested in adventures after going to Disney world around his place frequently. Jinyoung is not comfortable with Mark doing this, but he realized that it is for the good of Mark to debut and also for the group he will debut with which probably be his.

Around the same time that Jackson joined JYPE, Mark and Jinyoung were talking about each of their act for the monthly evaluations. They became close to an extent now, that they discuss about their act for the evaluations and results openly with each other. Other will even help about the improvements in the act. They have evaluation on their acting this month. So, Mark and Jinyoung are discussing about their story and dialogues for the act.

"Hyung! Change this line to … that will make more impact to the scene and use a bit of tears in the eyes then you will never get eliminated from JYPE without doing debut.", Jinyoung corrected Mark and gave suggestions.

"You are exaggerating it. But I will take it if that is going to help me in top. But how can I overtake you in these evaluations. I always wanted to cross you guys but never could able to", Mark said while making notes of what Jinyoung suggested him just now.

"Hyung! I know that you never compare your self with others here or at least me. You are best as you. And to cross me in something, you have this martial arts tricks that you are learning which I cannot do, your looks and language are something that I can never overtake. So, stop saying all those and show me your performance again.", Jinyoung said again.

Monthly evaluations, one by one each student went on to the mini sized stage that was prepared for monthly evaluations. They performed their act what they think is apt for them to do. Mark got good applause, with people appreciating him for the tears and the dialogues he used for the act.

"Did any one helped you or you wrote the dialogues by your self?", one of the evaluators asked.

"Jinyoung helped me with one line and the emotions for the act.", Mark was being truthful, like he was always. He doesn’t want to lie especially when it involves Jinyoung.

"Appreciate you for your frankness. Since, the evaluation is on the performance you bring up here to the stage, you will be awarded with good marks… Next. Park Jinyoung", the evaluator said asking for the next in line to perform.

With in the evaluations, Jinyoung and JB stood at top again, Mark being one of the top 5.

Mark was more than happy for him to be in that position. He hugged Jinyoung for the help he got from the other. That’s the first that he hugged Jinyoung or any guy other than his family for the first time. Mark did not feel awkward at all, it felt like the same as how it feels whe