It was the year of 2016. The cold winter had gradually been replaced by the gentle caress of the spring winds. Today, the Cube Entertainment welcomed a new batch of trainees officially into their company. In the early morning, the group of freshies gathered for the first time in the big group practice room of Cube’s. Among the group of people, some were already familiar with the trainee scene as they had previously trained in another company while some were totally in a new environment. Even if they had not been in another company’s trainee system, most of them had taken substantial lessons on singing and/ or dancing before. Although the majority of them had started training in a way or another, there were still a handful of them that had never thought of becoming an idol until they had passed the audition. Meaning, they were totally new and raw to the scene, and one of them was Yeh Shuhua, a newly recruited trainee from Taiwan. It was not uncommon for an entertainment company to recruit and debut foreigners. In some batches, there were even more foreigners recruited than their own local Koreans. However, unfortunately for Shuhua, in her large batch of 20 something new trainees, there was no other foreigner except for her. While the other trainees were chatting away and getting acquainted with one another excitedly, Shuhua, not knowing how to speak Korean at all and having very limited vocabulary with English, ended up sitting alone while waiting for the traineeship in-charge personnel to arrive. Luckily, within the next 15-20minutes, the trainees’ head mentor arrived, with the senior trainees trailing behind. After a brief introductory speech about the trainee system and facilities available, it was time for the new batch of trainees to introduce themselves. 

As expected of an entertainment company, all of the trainees were good looking. They all had small faces with beautiful features, and were very good at presenting themselves. Even the quieter ones introduced themselves in a very outgoing manner, almost like a personality switch when they were given the spotlight. Shuhua, not understanding the Korean language at all, could only clap along with the others and be in utter confusion as the room roared with laughter at the witty words of the trainees. Although Shuhua was very excited about today, she could not help but feel a little bored and left out as she was unable to immerse herself in an environment where she did not know what people were talking and laughing about. As the introduction session went on, one loud personality after another, what caught Shuhua’s attention was this next presenter. 

As this next presenter’s name was called, the room erupted with unprecedented cheers, the senior trainees were unexpectedly the loudest when they barely cheered for anyone before that. In contrast with the noisy environment, the girl walked up to the front with a bashful smile and laughed gently before introducing herself. Her introduction was nothing special or uncommon, but her whole demeanour, and soft voice, stood out after the constant barrages of extroverted personalities before her. Although she seemed very shy and talked in a volume that was barely audible, her eyes were full of vigor and her smile betrayed no lack of confidence. She ended her speech with a soft ‘thank you’ in English and the whole room erupted into another round of cheer. Shuhua could not help but look at her, even after she sat back down among the sea of trainees. The people before her seem black and white, but she seems neither black nor white, she is grey, and Shuhua is intrigued by her entire presence. However, Shuhua did not catch her name during the introduction, or maybe she could not understand, but anyways, Shuhua was determined to talk to this girl. 

With the help of a translator teacher, Shuhua barely managed to introduce herself to the room of people and the seemingly long introductory session had finally came to an end. Everyone left the practice room except for the dance teacher and the new trainees and their first practice session began immediately. They did nothing rigorous, just some basic  stretches and dance steps that Shuhua could easily follow along. Overall, it was an overwhelming yet underwhelming day for Shuhua as she had the rest of the day off after the dance practice but no one to hang with. Seeing the rest of the trainees forming groups and going off for early lunch, Shuhua was reminded of the girl who left an impression on her during the introductions. She looked around the practice room and there she was, packing her belongings. Shuhua wanted to talk to her, but she didn’t know how. As Shuhua was brainstorming on how to approach that girl, she could only stare blankly as that said girl left the room. Left with nothing on the schedule, Shuhua called her aunt, who flew from Taiwan to Korea together with Shuhua to take care of her, to meet up for lunch. 

Normally, Shuhua would have returned home after lunch to rest, but she felt a sense of motivation to practise that day. Now, that sense of motivation was rather unusual, because Shuhua was completely new to being a trainee, and she would not know what to practise on the first day too, but she was eager to go back to the company after the lunch with her aunt. Shuhua went back to the big group practice room that she was in previously, hoping to see a certain someone, but the lights were off. She then proceeded to check the other big group practice rooms. The other rooms were indeed occupied, and Shuhua did not want to barge in without knowing how to explain herself. So, she peeked into the room through the various glass windows but the girl was nowhere in sight. Not giving up, Shuhua checked all the big practice rooms of that level and went to another level to check the smaller individual vocal practice rooms. Cube’s building consists of 8 levels, with the top floor being the management floor and levels 4-7 being practice rooms of various sizes and uses. If Shuhua wanted to check all the practice rooms, there would be 4 levels to check, and a total of 50+ practice rooms to check.  But Shuhua was free, and Shuhua was determined. 

Each individual vocal room conveniently has a window panel on the door, allowing Shuhua to peek into the room to check without opening the door and disturbing the occupant, but most rooms were empty anyway. After checking half of the rooms in that level, Shuhua finally hit the jackpot when she spotted that familiar looking girl in one of the rooms. Each individual vocal room was rather small, just enough space for an upright piano or a keyboard, a table, and some chairs. The girl was on the piano bench, pressing different keys on the piano and vocalising after each note. The girl did not seem to notice Shuhua staring intently at her. Shuhua on the other hand, was just taking in the view of that the girl she had been looking for all afternoon. Due to the room’s design, Shuhua could only see the side view of the girl from outside the room and she could barely hear the girl’s voice due to the soundproof walls. Since the girl did not seem to notice Shuhua’s presence, the impatient Shuhua decided to just tap her card to enter the practice room. 

With a little tune from the door unlocking, the two girls were in total view of each other. Shuhua was standing at the entrance, with her hand still holding onto the door handle, saying nothing but just looking at the girl at the piano. Having her room door opened suddenly, the girl turned her attention to the intruder, confused as Shuhua was saying nothing despite opening her door. In the same soft tone, the girl spoke a word, but Shuhua had no idea what she was saying, so Shuhua furrowed her brows and kept her silence. Perhaps the girl remembered Shuhua was a foreigner during the introductory session earlier, so she spoke again, in English this time.

“Why?”

Shuhua could understand this level of English, but she said nothing in reply. Firstly, Shuhua couldn’t speak Korean at all and her English ability is limited. Secondly, she did not know why she was looking for the girl and why did she even open her room door. There was a few seconds of awkwardness in the air as the girl’s question went unanswered and both of them were just looking at each other. The girl said nothing else and just looked back at Shuhua. After a few more moments of stare-down, Shuhua invited herself into the room and naturally sat down on the chair beside the girl. Shuhua said nothing throughout, and after she sat down, she just continued to stare at the girl’s face. The girl was taken aback by the brazen behaviour of Shuhua, but somehow their staring contest led the girl to think that Shuhua had no ill intentions and perhaps was just trying to make friends with her. Before the girl could say anything else, Shuhua finally broke her silence. 

“Hi, I am Shuhua.” Shuhua managed to squeeze out a sentence and communicate in English. Upon hearing Shuhua speak, the girl smiled and extended her hand, replying in the language they can both understand. 

“Hi, Shuhua. I am Soojin.”