Winter had never felt time pass so slowly before. After the first meeting with the other contestants and the mentors, they have had several days of alone time to think about ideas and start creating the choreography for their own performances. Not that it was doing Winter any good— since she was a complete rookie, she had near to zero experience at creating choreography and did not know where to start. She had spent most of her time watching dance practice videos, documentaries about the nature and movement of tigers, so that she could better capture the essence of ‘Tiger’ in her performance. But she had only come up with a few flimsy movements that involved the slight swaying of the hips and bobbing of the knees. It was nothing to get her started on her performance at all.

            She lay completely flat on her belly on the polished wooden floor, her head tilting up to glance at the clock on the wall. The clock showed ‘1:29’ in the afternoon.

            “Urrrrrrrrrrrgggghhhhh,” Winter moaned. She was absolutely sure the minute hand had been at that position for the entire hour, not hastening to move forwards. She wished time would pass quicker so that she could relieve herself from the practice.

            She watched as the thinner hand ticked laboriously slowly towards the number ’12’.   When it did, Winter took a deep breath just when the door to her room banged open.

            Yu Ri stood in the doorway, a smile spreading widely across her face.

            “Winter! Let’s go for lunch!” she said bubbly before pausing. “Wait, what are you doing?”

            Winter hurried into a standing position, embarrassment tinging her cheeks. “Nothing!” she said, “absolutely nothing till you got here.”

            “Really?” Yu Ri eyed her with suspicion. “You looked like you were suntanning or something.”

            “Ha ha, if only the sun could do me some good,” Winter replied sarcastically.

            “Don’t be so down, you have me!” she hooked her arms around Winter’s. “Let’s go for lunch! I heard they are giving out hamburgers today. Can you believe it? Hamburgers!”

            When they reached the canteen, the crowd had already thinned considerably. Winter smiled. She was the one who had suggested to eat a later lunch so that they could avoid the lunch crowd and spend less time queueing for the food. Furthermore, she liked that there would be lesser eyes on her this way. Not that people were still staring at her like she was part of an exhibition anymore; but the quietness was an added bonus. The downside of her strategy, however, was that the more appetizing foods of the day would be wiped out before they could even have a taste of it.

            “I can’t believe there’s no more burger patties,” Yu Ri pouted as they sat down at the nearest table. “I mean, who takes the patties only and not the entire burger?”

            Winter sniggered into her kimchi. “Let me remind you, this is an entertainment company. People here are really concerned about their weight if you haven’t noticed.”

            “This is a complete crime,” Yu Ri grumbled. “If they mind the intake of a few more carbohydrates, they ought to not touch any part of the burger at all!” She shoved a few spoonfuls of brown rice into in an angry manner, reminding Winter a lot of a furious beast.

            Winter broke into a fit of laughter just as her mobile phone pinged. It was a text message sent by Moon Bin.

            “Who’s that?” Yu Ri asked. Her voice was slightly muffled as her cheeks were full, once again reminding Winter of a greedy hamster.

            “Just a message from Moon Bin saying that my consultation session with him would be after lunch.”

            “Right, I haven’t heard anything about your mentor from you. What’s he like? Is he really nice like mine?”

            Winter shook her head mildly. “No, I actually think he hates me.”

            Yu Ri’s mouth opened into a gasp. As she did so, a few grains of rice fell out of from the corners of her lips. Winter was greatly amused at how both of them were only one year apart, and yet behaved so differently.

            Yu Ri wiped at her lips clumsily with a tissue. “What happened?”

            “Nothing, really.” Winter focused her gaze on her food. “I think