| Minji |

"Monthly Evaluation group 4, go ahead and start whenever you're ready." Super Junior's Shindong spoke, sitting menacingly behind a folding table. 

Adjacent to him were SM's top choreographers, one, a well-known face among the Kpop scene. The fact that someone so high-key was involved meant one thing, there would be a debut evaluation soon. 

With NCT's recent debut, most figured there would be at least a 2 year gap between them and the next potential group. However, the gathering of SM's creative team, clearly meant something and every trainee knew it. 

She could just sense the nerves in the eyes of the last group, one girl completely melting down seconds after exiting the practicing room. 

Once the five of them entered the room, Minji noticed Jiwoo start to tremble in fear upon noticing the intimidating presence of the judges. 

She knew it was an 'eat or be eaten' environment here; however, as a trainee who would be unable to debut regardless most likely. It was tough to see those she knew practiced hard struggle under the pressure. 

Seulgi unnie had always told her, anxiety was the biggest opponent of an idol/trainee. Perhaps that was why someone who had battled anxiety her entire childhood as an athlete, she was able to find success. But even then, it was still perturbing to be evaluated at such a high level. 

"Alright, it says here your group practiced 'Electric Shock' by f(x)." Shindong read off the evaluation paper in front of him.

The other evaluators all began to scan over pages of their trainee profiles and past ranks. 

"That's correct, we'll be performing 'Electric Shock' by f(x) sunbae-nims." Kanghee, the self appointed leader of their group spoke first. 

There was the other thing, Oh Kanghee had been assigned in their evaluation group. undeniably her least favorite trainee in all of SM. 

Because of her older age among this trainee batch, she had for some reason developed some sort of inferiority complex, which made her dislike any talented younger trainees. 

Leveraging her seniority, she bullied anyone she felt like was a threat to her, and manipulated other trainees against each other. Practically forcing away the center position in every evaluation group she participated in.

Unfortunately because of her immense vocal talent, SM overlooked the bullying reports filed by current and former trainees. 

"Please introduce yourselves individually, before you begin, starting with trainee Oh Kanghee." 

"Thank you for this opportunity, I'm trainee Oh Kanghee and I've been a trainee for 3 years now." 

"I'm... I'm trainee... trainee Kim Jiwoo, and this is my first year, with SM Entertainment." The second she began to stutter, Minji couldn't help but notice a sly smirk befall the devious Kanghee. 

During the next introduction, Minji could just see the apprehension in Jiwoo's eyes grow and grow. Which shouldn't be too concerning, except just the night before, Minji overheard Jiwoo crying in the bathroom after being berated over and over again by Kanghee over the course of their practices.

Even if it was clear that she didn't have the mental stability at the moment to handle being a trainee, it wasn't fair to her that someone could completely crush your chances. 

Worse, a meltdown in front of such big names could develop long lasting trauma. 

So as her introduction inched closer, Minji decided to do something completely out-of-character. 

"Ya jeongsin cha-lyeo (Get a grip)! We practiced this so much!" She shouted aloud to everyone's astonishment, hoping her message would get through to her new found friend. 

The entire evaluation table froze in shock, as the room's eyes all befell at her. 

"Sorry, I really needed to get that off my chest." Minji apologized sheepishly, aware that she had just humiliated herself in front of so many key figures of the agency. 

At that moment, from the corner of the room, behind the recording camera, came a slow clap. A long and arduous clap, the kind a villain would do as he applauded the hero/heroine on pointless her efforts. 

Emerging from the side was a very well-known face of SM, Min Heejin. 

Everyone in the agency knew her, a key member of the board of directors, involved with handling the branding of many of her sunbae-nims. Whether it was deriving genius comeback concepts for Red Velvet, Exo, f(x), or even Shinee, everything she touched turned to gold, literal gold. 

But Min Heejin was not one known to be involved with trainees, the type of person who idols would work with pre and post debut to develop their branding. 

"I love it. Mentality is the most important trait of an idol, and the ability to shamelessly mind-control yourself is key to keeping nerves down." The middle aged woman paced towards the evaluation table. 

"I know I told them I'd stay away from the evaluations for now, but please repeat your name for me trainee?"

This was not her intention at all, she hadn't said this to draw this much attention to herself. 

"Um... Song Minji ma'am." She spoke. 

"Song Minji. Song Minji. Song Minji. Song... ahhh, the pretty gymnast." Min Heejin repeated her name as if running through a list of all the trainee names in her head. 

A feat that was rather impressive given her position, did she really have a database of all of the trainees profiles? 

"That's right ma'am." Minji acknowledged. 

"Then, I am looking forward greatly to your performance Song Minji." 

She noticed a series of smiles across the faces of the evaluators, and quickly realized she had unintentionally only made herself more the target of her fellow trainees jealousy. 

Thankfully, the second the melody began, Minji felt her world grow into her stage. 

Even while immersed into the performance, she sensed that Jiwoo's stress had decreased significantly, and seemed to be much more relaxed throughout the entire choreography. 

As the final note played, and the evaluators began to critique them in their notes; the five of them stood motionless awaiting the looming criticism. 

"Trainee Oh Kanghee. Goodness you've been here quite a while haven't you?" Famed choreographer Choi Youngjoon spoke first, looking through his notes. 

"That's correct sir." 

"Well, it's quite clear from your evaluations that your vocal talent is immeasurable. Unfortunately... and I'll be frank, despite taking the center for this dance, I didn't notice you at all." 

Kanghee lowered her head, forced to quietly accept the harsh words. 

"I don't know what to say, you clearly know the dance, and you didn't make any mistakes, but I think you need to start finding some way to get the audience to notice you." Lia Kim, another choreographer added. 

"I understand." 

"Kang Chanmi, this is your second year right? I'll be frank. I don't see it."  It was once again Choi Youngjoon speaking, the famously intense evaluator, whose mere words could bring tears to those who listened. 

"Your dancing is poor, your vocal evaluations are poor. I'm sure up until now we've kept wishing for potential improvement, but when are we going to see it? Let's work a little harder, ok?" 

Just like that another trainee was crushed. 

"Next, Lee Jiwoo, you were extremely nervous at first during your introduction. But it didn't show at all in your performance, keep up the improvement." Shindong commented towards her roommate.

"Not bad Jiwoo-ah, not bad. Keep up the good work" Somehow even a not bad felt uplifting given the previous crushing evaluations. 

"Thank you." Jiwoo smiled at the encouragement she received from one of SM's most famous dancers. 

"Next Song Minji." Choi Youngjoon took the lead in her critique. 

"Oh dear, I won't lie I'm personally extremely frustrated with you." He began, his eyes towards his paper. 

How badly would he crush her?

Despite knowing his words were likely pointless given Minji's inability to debut. Given how much influence the choreographer had in SM, it would still be very constructive. 

Suddenly, he broke out into a hearty chuckle, revealing his earlier statement were a joke. "Why aren't you already debuted huh?"

"You're clearly being wasted here, so if you don't debut soon, I'll take you myself to some other agency and force them to debut you." This time Youngjoon turned back to Min Heejin and winked at her. 

"I have nothing to add, except to not be satisfied with your current standing. Even the best performers are always learning new things." Lia Kim chimed in. 

A bright smile formed on Minji's lips at the overwhelming praise she received. 

"Great work trainee Song Minji, and I look forward to watching more of your performances." Min Heejin gave her a thumbs up. 

A few minutes later, the evaluations ended, and Minji couldn't help but notice Min Heejin and the other evaluators gather together, intently discussing something. 

She felt like she was walking on Cloud Nine after such immense praise, that she didn't even bother to read her fellow trainees expressions.

This was the Choi Youngjoon, the same trainer who had handpicked SM legends like Kai and Taemin to personally teach. 

Minji rejoined her friends at the agency cafeteria, quickly detecting the somewhat solemn expressions on a few of their faces. 

"Stiff." Haerin repeated as she picked at her food. 

"Unnie how'd you do?" Hanni inquired with curiosity. 

Minji who couldn't hold back her smile, simply shrugged her shoulders. "Not bad I guess." 

"Ayyy, unnie always says that, but ends up topping rankings anyway. I don't think I've ever seen unnie lower than 3." Hanni whined as she poked her pointer finger into her shoulder.

"I heard that unnie also tops grade rankings at school. Are you even a real person?" Jihan questioned, widening her adorable eyes even larger than usual. 

"I think I'm in love." 

"How about you Haerin, you ok?" Minji changed the subject, overwhelmed by the heap of praises. 

"Stiff." She murmured before letting out a defeated purr. 

"Ayyy, you're new. Of course you'd be stiff at first. It's only your second monthly evaluation."

"Yah, Kang Goyang-i (cat). Don't even fret, no one ever ranks high in the beginning." Hanni giggled, referencing the nickname they had come up with for Haerin given her shy but quirky personality.

"I hope I placed at least kind of high this time." Jihan mumbled. "By the way, where's Jiwoo?" 

Minji glanced to her side, they had both left the room at the same time, but in her blissful moment she hadn't noticed she was gone. 

"Maybe she went to the break room to text her parents?" 

When they finished eating, and were given a break before night classes, Minji headed with Jihan to go refresh herself. 

This restroom, which connected was connected to the changing/locker room, was surprisingly empty. 

Minji headed straight to the sinks, when she overheard several voices shamelessly gossiping from inside the locker area. 

"God I ing hate monthly evaluations." The voice belonged to Chanmi. "Should I just quit?"

An understandable statement after receiving such harsh criticism. 

Jihan almost gasped, when Minji forced her hand over her friend's mouth.

"I hate my life, they said I looked like I gained weight." Another grumbled. 

"I swear those old erts never say anything good about anyone and just talk out of their asses." 

"How about you Kanghee unnie?" 

Of course, that single question gave away who had gathered them all together. 

"Oh my god, you should've seen the stunt Song Minji pulled during evaluations. Such an attention seeking ." Of course, Kanghee somehow never held back her tongue when it came to her. 

Minji wasn't unused to hearing these types of comments from Kanghee and her clique. However, listening to them... an idea popped in her head. 

She placed her finger over her lips to silence Jihan, before unveiling her phone and pressing the record button. For someone so cunning, perhaps an anonymous threat with an attached recording could keep her on better behavior.

"I heard from Chanmi unnie, she said Choi Youngjoon was practically worshiping her feet. Oh my god, now that I think about it... what if she's sleeping with him?" 

Her friend looked enraged to the point, Minji had to yank her arm to keep her from exposing their location.

"Think about it, SM's little princess is allowed to prance around like she owns the place and even skip weekday practices. Doesn't it make more sense?"

"Holy , didn't she used to stay behind for extra night classes from some of the trainers to catch up?" 

Immediately the other girls began to giggle in unison, as they suddenly heard a loud shush from Kanghee. 

"Ya! Cut it out." She ordered in a surprisingly stoic voice. "That's not it at all. The question...the question is, how many evaluators is she working overtime for her ranking?" 

"Daebak, its so annoying how she acts so above everything when she's the one on her hands and knees bending over like a—"

Minji gritted her teeth, her hands slowly forming fists at their obscene comments. Nothing good came with confronting them, but... she was human after all. 

Rule 3: Keep away from trouble. 

Even behind a carefully constructed facade of ignorance, Minji felt the web of insults hurled over and over again at her that she had bottled up start to slam against the outer walls. 

"What do you think Jiwoo-ie, you live with her in the dorm?" Kanghee turned the conversation over to someone Minji wasn't expecting... no it wasn't her. Was it?

Sure she wasn't outcasted and isolated by Kanghee's clique the way the others were, but... the way Jihan turned pale at the mention of their roommate's name. She hadn't misheard. 

"Come on, I know you think she's being nice to you, but you know she looks down on you. Think about it, she only hangs out with those losers because she doesn't feel threatened by them at all." As usual the older trainee began to manipulate and knit pick at every action of hers.

"Not bad. I heard not bad for 2 years and look where that got me." Chanmi egged her on. "You think it's because I'm lazy? It's because some of us aren't shameless enough to leverage our assets like her." 

"I... don't know." Jiwoo mumbled.

"In your heart of hearts, you know that her outburst like that, when Min Heejin just happened to be there couldn't be coincidence. She's basically manipulating you and all of the directors with her innocent act." 

"It's ok, I guess it'll be fun to watch as she debuts unfairly and the rest of us are dropped." Kanghee finished, in a tone that signified an end to the conversation.

If gaslighting was a sport, Oh Kanghee would've been an olympic gold medalist. 

"Wait." 

One word, and Minji felt her heart plummet in horror. 

"I remember unnie saying that she doesn't have a father... maybe that's why—"

"Oh my god! You're a ing genius. It's one hundred pe